“I see you are capable of rage,” he said cockily. “I will remember that.”

“How could you…?” I gasped in shock.

“Didn’t Press tell you how futile it would be to try to kill me?” he said with a smirk. He kept his eyes on me and shouted into the flume, “Quillan!”

The flume came to life. I didn’t have the strength, or the will, to stop him. Even if I had, I wouldn’t have known how.

“Zadaa has been such an amusing diversion,” the demon said. “In spite of what you may think, Pendragon, this isn’t over. I can lick my wounds and move on.” He glanced down at Loor’s lifeless body and added, “The question is, can you?”

The light from the flume enveloped the monster. He took a step back and was gone. As the light disappeared, I could hear his maniacal laugh fading away.

Have I told you how much I hate that guy?

When I turned to Loor, I saw that I was too late. She was dead. I’m no doctor, but it didn’t take one to know that she was gone. Blood was everywhere. She wasn’t breathing. She had no heartbeat. I stared down at her, not believing that it was true.

It was only the night before that I had told her I loved her by trying to give her a kiss. But she turned away. I was crushed. It had taken every bit of courage I had to admit I had such strong feelings for her, but with that one small gesture she let me know that it was not meant to be.

She told me, though, that she had deep feelings for me too. She said, “We are on a mission, Pendragon. No group of people have ever been given such a monumental responsibility. We must prevail. We must stop Saint Dane. That is our quest. We are warriors. We will fight together again. We cannot allow emotions to cloud our judgment in any way. That is why I cannot be with you.”

It hurt to hear that, but she was right. We would fight together again. Letting our emotions get in the way of that, even in a small way, would be a mistake.