“Nick, I have to-” “NO YOU DON’T! I am risking everything for you and you are going to let him kill you, Keely! Please. Please don’t do this. I can protect you. We can go. We can get in the car and just drive away. We can hide.” He takes her hands in his, grips them firmly. “We can go anywhere you want. Just please stay with me.”

“And if you kill each other in the process, well, that will just work out perfectly.”“You don’t have a chance. Not even then,” Nick says wryly.“It does not mean I am not going to try.”

“I am sorry I was not there sooner. Please believe me. I will always do whatever it takes to protect you. I cannot live without you. Without you, there is no life for me.”

“It’s not that I don’t want to, Keel. Because I do. I really do. It’s just, I can’t do it like this. You have too much already going on. You just told me you can’t choose between Nick and the Demon. I don’t want to be another option for you to choose from. And I can’t just be a distraction. I could say screw it and enjoy this moment, but we would both regret it. Nick’s my friend, and the way I want to be with you, it’s sort of in a long term way. I’m smart enough to know that if I kissed you now, it would end up being a bitter memory for both of us. I can’t share you. And I can’t lose you.”

“When this is over, let’s just do it.”“Do what?” Lila gazes up at him. Adjusts his thick black frames as they slip down his nose.“Get married.”She smiles. “Married, huh. Are you proposing?”“Not officially. After, when this job is done, I am going to go buy you the biggest ring I can afford—which won’t be very big at all, but I will buy it with love. Then I will get down on one knee and that’s when I will propose.”“I might say yes.”“God willing.”

“Why would you do that? I was scared to death. Why wouldn’t you just answer her questions?”“I kept us together.”Keely stares at him in shock. “You really are an idiot. What if they would have sent you to one of the other Academies to imprison you there?”“A chance I had to take.”“Asmoday, you put yourself in jail just to be able to see me. I can’t believe you did that.”

“I want to forewarn you,” Bryon says seriously. “It’s very possible that I may start talking with a southern accent.”“That’s all right as long as I can do my British accent.”He squints and shakes his head. “No. That’s stupid. Those don’t even match. Can you do a country backwoods toothless mumble? Because that’ll work.”