Her Soul for Revenge

Zane is puzzled that he’s reluctant to leave Juniper’s cabin; instead, he sits in his car, uneasily waiting. He puzzles over his motivations regarding fighting so hard to keep Juniper alive, as he gets to keep her soul even if she dies. Frustrated, he returns to the cabin and grows alarmed when he smells blood. He runs toward where the Eldbeasts are attacking Juniper, who is unconscious. He kills all the Eld and then rushes Juniper, who is severely injured, to his car. When she briefly regains consciousness, she begs him not to take her to a doctor. He agrees and takes her to his home.

Barely conscious, Juniper laments the foolishness of attacking the group of Eld. She finds Zane’s presence intensely comforting as he tends to her wounds. She’s touched by his concern. He expresses his dislike for her fear and pain, vowing to kill anything that harms her. Zane helps her get clean, and she doubts that she deserves such attention and comfort as she falls asleep.

The next day, Zane and Juniper return to the cabin, where Zane reburies Marcus’s body. While Juniper takes a private moment to mourn her brother, she hears the Deep One’s voice in her mind. This time, she urges it to come after her, promising destruction.

Juniper spends several days healing, relieved not to experience any nightmares. Even so, she returns to physical activity too soon, feeling an urgent need to rebuild her sense of self-sufficiency. Zane presses her to articulate why she feels that rest is a matter of being “deserved” or not. She discusses her time in the mine, which leads her to a flashback about the pain and fear she experienced as she tried to escape. She reached the top of the mine shaft only to find Heidi Laverne (Everly’s mother and Kent’s secretary/sexual partner) waiting for her. Juniper feared that Heidi would push her back down the mine shaft and attack, but Heidi used magic to stop Juniper’s blows and then urged her to run.

In the present, Juniper explains how she ran throughout the night, despite the pain and exhaustion that plagued her. She feels that the effort to escape Leon, whom Kent sent to pursue her, equates to “earning” survival and that accepting help is antithetical to continuing to earn or deserve this survival. Zane refutes this logic, seeing life as a matter of chance, not something earned. He points out that due to their bargain, Juniper will face an eternity in Hell even after her death, which she finds reassuring, not daunting.

Zane meets Leon outside while Juniper sleeps in the house. Leon is thrilled to report that he’s now free from Kent’s control. Kent lost the grimoire with the spell that can bind Leon again; Rae has it. He reports that Kent plans to sacrifice Rae, who is a descendant of one of the three mine disaster survivors. Leon refused to follow Kent’s order to kill her. Leon teases Zane about having a human in the house but doesn’t recognize Juniper.

Zane and Juniper use the information about Leon’s freedom to plan their attack against Kent. Zane explains that it will still be difficult, as Kent is protected by Everly and Heidi, who are witches. Heidi cast a spell on Juniper the night she escaped the mine to help Juniper hide from Leon. Zane is uncertain whether Everly and Heidi would side with or against Kent. In addition, he cautions that, if sufficiently powerful, a witch could discover his true, magically binding name and turn him against Juniper. Juniper plans to kill the witches before this can happen.

Zane follows Jeremiah, hoping for useful information on the witches, who have proven elusive. Jeremiah’s obliviousness makes pursuit easy, and Zane reflects on his increasing desire to spend time with Juniper, even when they don’t engage in sexual activities. He follows Jeremiah to an isolated beach, where he drinks with friends. Eventually, they produce a box of “mementos” that Jeremiah kept after murdering Marcus. When one of Jeremiah’s Libiri friends cautions him to bury the evidence, Jeremiah threatens him and brags about how he “made the first sacrifice” when his father and sister couldn’t (277). Either he or Victoria must be the final sacrifice, and Jeremiah vows to kill his sister. Jeremiah’s friends report that none of them know Everly’s whereabouts either. Jeremiah demands that all information about Everly come to him first, not his family.

Juniper rages over the news that Jeremiah killed Marcus. She and Zane hypothesize that Everly is hiding from the Hadleighs. Zane plans to track Everly’s magic to learn if she’s still in the area. They’ll encourage Leon to keep Rae away from the Hadleighs, as she’s planned as their second sacrifice. Zane eggs Juniper on as she graphically describes her plans to slowly kill Jeremiah; he enjoys her viciousness. They begin kissing. Juniper is unsettled that Zane doesn’t fear her anger. While everyone else has turned away from it, he embraces it, which she finds both frightening and validating. They have anal sex; Juniper enjoys Zane’s roughness and his use of degrading names for her. After their encounter, he calls her “beautiful,” which she struggles to believe but begins to trust.

Juniper anxiously moves through Abelaum, hiding her face and wishing that Zane were with her. She seethes with anger as she watches Victoria chat amiably with Rae, knowing that Victoria intends to kill Rae just as she tried to kill Juniper. Juniper sees Everly watching Victoria and Rae; when Everly spots Juniper, she runs, and Juniper follows. Everly turns down an alley and then mysteriously vanishes. Juniper searches for her, temporarily disturbing the witch’s invisibility spell, but Everly slips away again. Juniper sorts through Everly’s possessions, dropped in the fray, and Zane appears; he tracked Everly’s magic. They find a map that hints at Everly’s whereabouts.

Juniper and Zane drive to the location marked on Everly’s map, several hours away from Abelaum. They find an area overgrown with out-of-season plant life, suggesting the presence of magic. They walk down a narrow trail for hours before Juniper realizes that the terrain is repetitive. Zane urges her to stay close and avoid doing “anything threatening,” as he senses that they’re being watched. They see a strange creature only an instant before it attacks them, disarming Zane easily and knocking Juniper unconscious.

Juniper wakes to comforting sounds and smells that evoke pleasant memories. The music stops, and Juniper sees Everly, who explains that she prefers to be known as Everly Laverne, given her father’s history of cruelty and rejection. Everly explains that the creature who attacked them is her bound demon, Callum, but that Zane is fine. Juniper is incensed that Everly seems unfazed by the viciousness of Callum’s attack against Zane.

Juniper and Everly speak frankly about their shared history. Everly explains that her mother is dead but spent her time alive trying “to make things right” (253). This enrages Juniper, who tries to hit Everly but is stopped by a magical vine. Juniper accuses Everly of enjoying the attempted sacrifice, but Everly counters that she doesn’t serve the Deep One. She explains that she was terrified of Kent for years, cowed by fear and the promise that seeing a sacrifice to the Deep One would be glorious and divine. After seeing Juniper tortured, however, Everly realized that this was all lies.

Everly wants Juniper to destroy the Libiri so that Everly can work on her goal of killing the Deep One. Juniper is shocked since she considers a god immortal, but Everly is determined. Juniper insists that she isn’t a self-sacrificing hero, but Everly argues that she needn’t be. She just needs to continue her plan, which should include protecting Rae, as a second sacrifice will make the Hadleighs stronger. Juniper reluctantly agrees.

Everly says that the best chance to kill Kent will be at the Hadleighs’ annual Halloween party. Kent, however, has an artifact that protects him from supernatural harm; if Juniper wants Zane to help her kill Kent, she’ll need to get that amulet away from Kent.

Zane demands that Callum, a powerful Archdemon, reveal Juniper’s whereabouts, even though Callum is far stronger than he is. Zane is frightened because Everly’s magic means that he can’t feel Juniper through their bond. Callum calmly asserts that he’ll do whatever Everly wants, whether this means hurting Juniper or not. Callum baits Zane into trying to attack him and then pins Zane to the floor. Zane badgers Callum with questions, but Callum is only bothered by references to Everly.

Everly and Juniper arrive; Everly orders Callum to release Zane, which Callum does at once. Juniper fusses over Callum, which he enjoys. He holds her close, determined not to let anyone separate them again. Juniper explains their plan: She’ll kill the Libiri, and Everly will kill the Deep One. Callum cites past experiences as “a God-killer.” He tenderly embraces Everly, which shocks Zane. Zane and Juniper leave.

As they walk back through the woods, Juniper laments her foolishness for beginning to fall in love with a demon. She’s touched when Zane confesses to being happy that she wasn’t hurt, though she’s uncomfortable with this care, as well. As they kiss, she reflects that getting close to him will likely lead to heartbreak. She tries to insist that the relationship between them is just a bargain, but Zane rejects this. He claims that she has agreed to give him her “body and soul” but that he desires her heart, too (273).

Juniper is surprised to feel a sense of homecoming upon returning to Zane’s house. They banter, but their conversation quickly turns to the psychological relief they find in giving up sexual control to someone else, especially someone they trust. Juniper admits that she feels happy for the first time in a long time; Zane praises her bravery for this admission. He shows her various sex toys, most of which are too harsh for human use, and encourages her to command him and bind him. She teases him as she uses a flogger on him. Zane enjoys the pain, while Juniper enjoys the control. This reversal of their usual roles reminds Juniper of the ways they’re similar. She marks her name on him, a parallel to the mark he left to create their bond. They both enjoy the idea that they mutually own one another. After their encounter, Zane promises not to use his supernatural healing on her mark, as he wants to always wear it.