Cassie raced right behind her.

She saw them. Cain. Dante. Striding right through the twisting fire. Coming out of the flames.

Eve rushed forward and grabbed tight to Cain. “You said you would never scare me like that again!”

He didn’t answer. His mouth just crashed down on hers.

Cassie stumbled toward Dante. “Dante!”

Wait. He knew her, right? He’d said her name inside and—

Hell, just to be sure, she was going to use her siren card from now on. “Remember me.”

He grabbed her, pulled her close. Held her in a grip of molten steel that didn’t burn at all. “I already do. Always will.” His mouth took hers. Hot. Hard. Consuming.

Her phoenix.

She held onto him as tightly as she could. Her body was shaking. She was covered in blood and grime and ash, and she didn’t care.

Her phoenix had just walked out of the fire.

And he loved her.

Dante’s mouth pulled from hers. “He won’t ever come after you again. Jon’s gone.”

She knew why Dante had stayed inside so long to face the fire. The rising. He’d waited to make sure Jon wouldn’t come after them again.

“You’re free.”

She had a cure for the primals. Though she could use her voice to keep Trace controlled and more man than beast, he wasn’t out of the woods yet. She’d keep working until he was completely back to normal again.

But she didn’t want to do that work alone.

What happened to a phoenix once the fire cooled?

“I don’t want to be free of you.” Her confession.

“And I will never be free of you. You’re in my heart, my Cassandra, in the soul that I’d thought burned so long ago.”

He was about to make her cry.

Her tears would do nothing but make her look like more of a wreck. Cassie was sure she appeared pretty nightmarish.

She sniffed, trying to hold the tears back. Failing. “I’ve loved you for so long,” she confessed.

“And I’ve loved you—only you.”

“Why didn’t you say something? Why—”

He smiled at her. Her na**d phoenix covered in ash smiled, and it was the sexiest thing she’d ever seen. “I don’t remember you mentioning love until a few hours ago.”

“I-I was scared.” Scared that he wouldn’t feel the same. That he’d . . . pity her.

“I’m a monster. I’ll always be.” His voice roughened. “I didn’t think you could ever truly—”

She pushed up onto her toes and kissed him again. “You’re no monster. You’re the man I love.” The man she’d gladly spend an eternity with.

Sirens wailed in the distance. Firefighters, probably. Even the humans out there wouldn’t be able to overlook this blaze.

It was time to leave. Explanations about a vengeful siren and a phoenix gone mad wouldn’t exactly go over well.

They’d slip away. Vanish. Rumors would cover the blaze. Rumors covered everything in that city.

She caught Dante’s hand and pulled him toward the SUVs that were waiting. Vaughn had flashed some fang to make sure they had two rides waiting for them. The humans hadn’t been in the mood to fight him.

Dante was strong and solid beside her. Trace wasn’t killing anyone.

And the flames were dying away.

It was time for a fresh start. With no one hunting them. No one looking to destroy a phoenix, a vampire, a werewolf, or even a siren.

They could start fresh.

And they could just live.

A life with love . . . and plenty of fire.

EPILOGUE

“Dad!” The bellow echoed through the house.

Cassie glanced up, her mind still on the sample beneath her microscope. Jamie came barreling into her lab.

Not a scared, shaken fourteen-year-old any longer. Her “son” was bigger, tougher, and at sixteen, he thought he was ready to take on the world.

“Where’s Dad?” Jamie asked. It had been a full year before he started to call Dante Dad. The first time he’d done it, Cassie wasn’t sure who’d been more shocked.

Probably Dante.

But he and Jamie had grown close, so close. The wall that Dante had used to keep everyone out was gone. Burned away. Heck, he even went out with Cain every now and then to, uh, literally light up the town.

“He said I could get my driver’s license today.” Jamie’s smile was huge. “He and Uncle Vaughn are supposed to take me.”

She used to be afraid of power-mad phoenixes. Now she trembled at the idea of Jamie behind the wheel. “Well . . .”