Aiden Lobo is a graduate student in a world where magic, gods, and demons are part of everyday life. After a terrible betrayal, he is cursed with a Crack in his heart, slowly turning him into a living doorway for an ancient war demon. If Aeshma breaks through to Earth, he will kill millions.<br><br>But before Aeshma can open the Crack, Aiden is rescued by his guardian angel, who uses his own Light to seal Aiden's heart. As a servant of the divine, the nameless angel was supposed to kill Aiden to avert the growing cataclysm inside him. But he loves Aiden too much to end his life, even to save the world.<br><br>It's impossible for Aiden not to love his warm, generous guardian in return. He names the angel Eskandar, but then learns to his horror that because Eskandar was created for him, when Aiden dies, Eskandar will too. The angel has long since accepted this fate, but Aiden refuses to. He will do anything to keep his beloved angel safe. But with no other recourse than to sacrifice himself to prevent the apocalypse, there's only one way for Aiden to save Eskandar: a terrible betrayal of his own.

A Crack in the Heart

It was a stupidly childish attack, but horribly effective when Aiden couldn’t move to escape it. He was desperate for air almost immediately, spots dotting his vision like shadows bleeding into the dark.


“Oh, hey, it’s your white cat, Aiden,” Tanner said. It sounded like he was speaking from the moon. And then there were no voices or sounds or anything anymore. Nothing but the dark.


Aiden didn’t know how he knew it was almost midnight, since he couldn’t see the moon like this, but he just knew. The same way he knew if Tanner finished the ritual, they both would die. Them, and the two hundred million people Tanner was sure should have been killed already. And Dark and Chaos would come through all the new Cracks the deaths would make, and destroy what was left of the world.


Chapter 11