Page 9 of Burn in Darkness

There were few things in this world made of magic.

Made ofsouls.

The Death Lotus was one of them. It was the object of the ultimate sacrifice.

As a Dark Mage, I could appreciate what this meant and what Dante’s mother had given up.

She’d given up the afterlife for him.

That gesture made me clench my jaw as Dante stared at the bloom.

“Why would she do that?” he asked. His voice came out strangled and broken.

I finally released him and ran my fingers down his arm. He didn’t pull away. “She wanted to save you.”

A mixture of emotions welled up inside of me at that statement.

I couldn’t say anyone felt like that about me.

Except Lily. I knew that she would sacrifice anything for any one of us.

Even if we didn’t deserve it.

Glancing at Dante’s eyes that glistened with hot tears, I knew he felt the same right now.

He didn’t feel like he deserved this.

And at the same time, he was angry.

Now, though, he had nowhere to place his rage. He glanced over the landscape, looked up at the clouds, and a shuddering breath found its way through his chest.

His jaw clenched, then he squeezed his fist, breaking the Death Lotus. “Shetookthem from me.”

I recognized the change in his suffering. He was hurting so badly that he couldn’t contain it.

He needed to destroy those witches.

He needed to make them pay for what they had made his mother do.

For what they had done to him.

But they were nothing but dust and ash all around us.

So Dante looked at me with raw hatred in his eyes.

There was no other logical place for it to go.

So I braced myself.

Because this was going to hurt.

DANTE

I knew that Hendrik did not deserve my rage.

But he sat there, right in front of me, and dared to look at me like that.

Tears glistened down his perfect face.