Chapter 9

 

The voice started out garbled and distant as though tumbling down a long well. Then it increased in volume and ferocity that splintered through his brain. It buried its claws into his consciousness and followed it to the surface, abandoning him to rise gasping and choking on his own suffering.

“Magnus!” Hands grabbed him, hauled him upright. “Christ, say something!”

Rusted nails hooked onto his retinas and yanked his eyeballs from their sockets. Or at least, that was how it felt when his eyelids broke open a crack and the spearing fingers of sunlight stabbed him in the eyes.

Reggie loomed over him, face tight with concern and panic. Dante paced just behind him, pawing the ground with three of his claws. He barked once when Magnus shifted. He trotted forward a step, stopped, scooted back. He did that a few times, before Magnus had to look away.

“Fuck…” Wincing through the pain and disorientation, Magnus rolled onto his stomach, then onto all fours before heaving himself up the rest of the way to his knees. “What happened?” His voice rasped. He tried to clear it. “Where is she?”

He couldn’t even see properly, but something in him was already searching for her. The sensation was a balloon expanding in the pit of his stomach, growing until it had successfully claimed the place his lungs, intestines, ribs, and finally settling where his heart should have been. He had never felt anything more excruciating.

“You should sit.”

“I swear, if you faint again...” came another voice, hollow and close, definitely male.

For a moment, Magnus thought Nobu had found them. He knew he should check, but couldn’t bring himself to give a shit.

Sand streamed off him as Magnus pushed to his feet, ignoring his brother’s warning when he staggered. His heart drummed between his ears, but there was no ignoring the insistence behind it.

The distorted voices continued their chatter somewhere in the background, persistent, but barely audible. It reminded him of being at the mall during summer break. Only, as far as he could tell, it was just him and Reggie anywhere in sight.

“Who else is here?”

Reggie blinked. “What?”

“Who’s talking?” Magnus shouted over the din.

Bemused, his brother spared a glance over the rise and fall of sand hills before returning his attention to Magnus. “I don’t hear anything.”

“He should sit down,” said the voice. “As thick as his head is, he probably knocked something lose.”

“You don’t hear that?” Magnus snapped, attempting to turn, but feeling like his ankles had been tied together.

“There’s no one else here,” Reggie said calmly. “You fell out of the wagon. You should try and not move so much.”

“Get your damn hands off me!” He jerked out from under the hand Reggie settled lightly on his arm. “I’m not fucking crazy. I hear voices.”

“Oh, for fuck,” muttered the voice. “Mom’s going to kill me if he’s broken.”

Magnus peered at his brother, eyes narrowed. “What did you say?”

Big, brown eyes batted. “I didn’t say anything.”

“What has he done?” came another voice, female this time, shrill and panicked.

This one, Magnus recognized.

He found her still in the wagon, except no longer was she watching him with haughty disdain. Terror had bleached the color from her face, leaving her eyes glossy and luminous in the center of it all. She gaped at him with the horror of someone cornered by a rabid animal, but it wasn’t him she feared. He knew that with a frightening certainty that made him stagger back a step.

“What have you done!” she hissed at him, her mouth never moving, but her fury crashing into him like a tsunami.

“What’s happening?” Reggie interrupted before Magnus could pull his shit together.

The other male voice followed the question. “Maybe I should smack him.”

“Touch me and I’ll cut your fucking hands off!”

Reggie jolted. “Who are you talking to?”

Magnus couldn’t bring himself to focus long enough to answer. His head was a jumble of noise, disembodied, frantic, a blizzard of sound all overlapping in a dizzying shrill. He covered his ears, but the voices resounded in his head, piercing shrieks that made the world tremble.

“Stop it!”

The demon flinched and the voices exploded in a flurry of blades.

“Stop!” He hit the ground on his knees, hands clawing at his skull, fighting to keep it from shattering. “Zara!”

As though a switch had been flicked, it all shut off. The world plunged into crippling silence. Calm was restored. The jitter of terror remained, but the severity was no longer killing him.

“Jesus, Magnus, you’re bleeding!”

Reggie fished out a dirty rag from his pocket and stuffed it into Magnus’s palm. Magnus swiped it under his nose. It came away crimson.

“Who’s Zara?” the male voice in his head poked in.

She was.

He had no idea how he knew, but he did. And he knew what she was.

“You’re in my head. You’re in my head!” She shot to her feet, her inner voice puncturing his temples. “How are you in my head?”

“Stop yelling,” he snapped back, his head giving a vicious thrum.

“Magnus, what are you—?”

Ignoring Reggie, ignoring her and the multitude of questions she hurled at him through the bizarre link, he turned his head to the persistent sting on his upper, right arm, beneath the cuff of his filthy, sweat soaked shirt. There was a tremor in his hand he could not shake, a subtle weakness he’d never experienced before. It stiffened his fingers, stilling his progress as he tried to tug the material up over his arm.

There it was, burned into the taut skin of his arm, a complex knot of interlocking vines enclosed in a perfect circle of unity. In all his years of wandering the earth, he had seen that mark three times. Each time had always felt like the end of something, like a tragic death. His father and brothers would never agree, but they had lost a piece of themselves the moment they had imprinted. Their lives had become less. He had never wanted that degree of failure in his life, yet there he was, staring at his doom.

“Is that…?” Reggie’s awed murmur only further confirmed the thing Magnus had been dreading. Reggie grabbed him and spun him around to get a better view of Magnus’s shoulder. His gaze sprinted between Magnus and the girl, then back. “Did you just…?”

“The mark. Holy shit!” said the voice in his head.

It was at that moment that Magnus realized the voice was Reggie. Reggie’s inner voice. He was hearing the other man’s thoughts.

It wasn’t the time to focus on that.

Magnus shoved him aside to get a clear view of the demon. “Are you doing this?”

He knew she couldn’t be when she looked as horrified as he felt, when her disbelief was a raging roar between his ears. But what other explanation was there? The universe couldn’t possibly be so cruel as to mate him, never mind with a demon.

“Magnus, you need to tell me what the hell is going on.” Reggie planted himself between Magnus and the demon.

There was nothing to tell that wasn’t already painfully obvious; the demon had somehow tricked him into imprinting.

“Fix it,” he demanded, sounding irrational even to his own ears.

“Look, we don’t have time for this.” Reggie got in Magnus’s face. “The next heatwave will be on us and we’re wasting time.”

He was right. So much time had already been wasted. He would deal with everything once they’d arrived back to their own dimension.

“Let’s go.”

They piled back into the wagon.

The remainder of the journey was done in a blistering silence hotter than the desert they crossed, except in his head. It was no longer just his voice keeping him company. An entire civilization had bloomed there, overlapping and shouting. In all that mess was her voice and Reggie’s. Magnus knew he hadn’t inexplicably mastered the ability to read minds. He was getting it all from her.

They made the final leg of their journey without stopping. It was pushing the horse, but it was accustomed to the speed and never slowed. They traveled through the frigid night, going in a straight line until they reached their destination shortly before dawn.

“It’s just like last time,” he told Reggie. “We only have one opportunity and don’t fall behind.”

He turned to Zara. The demon scowled up at him. Her inner voice was a hiss of profanities in languages he didn’t understand, but he doubted she was saying a prayer for him.

Without a word, he undid her binds. The bit of rope was tossed aside as he reached for his bag. He tore his coat out of his duffle, shook it out, and tossed it around the bare curves of her shoulders. The heavy bulk of it enveloped her all the way to her knees and cocooned her like a child playing dress up. He couldn’t even be sure where her fingertips ended and the coat sleeve continued. But the thing that amused him most was the look of indignation twisting her delicate eyebrows together between her eyes.

“You’ll thank me, demon.”

His consideration was met with the tilt of her chin. “You are taking me from my home. I will never thank you.”

Opting to ignore that, he tugged the collar of the coat firmly around her. Once it was securely in place and the zipper was done up to her chin, he bent at the knees and tossed her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

“Put me down!”

She could do no more than flail. It was easily ignored as Magnus turned to face the space the portal would appear once the sun rose. Reggie stood beside him, rigid with tension. He had pulled his coat on and was already sweating, but he absently stroked Dante’s velvety head with the tips of his fingers. The dog leaned against his leg, seemingly waiting as well.

The sun rose from the south. It struck the dunes and shattered into a million shards of light. The gateway shimmered to life exactly five feet from where they stood.

“Now!”

They marched through as a single unit. The heat turned to frigid cold in the split second it took to pass over. Magnus never let up his grip on Zara, never set her down as she was shrieking in his head for him to do, mostly because there was snow everywhere and she had no shoes or pants, but also because he didn’t entirely trust her not try and run.

They trudged the length of the fields back to Reggie’s truck, stepping over the severed remains of the Chinyu warrior half buried in the snow.

“Should we clean that up?” Magnus heard Reggie wonder. “We probably should. Some human might find it...”

“Dante.”

Magnus snapped his fingers and pointed to the demon popsicle.

“Why didn’t I think of that?” Reggie marveled as the hellhound lunged on the remains.

“Because I’m clearly smarter than you,” Magnus teased over the snap and crunch of Dante having breakfast.

Reggie flipped him off, chuckling. “You know, as much as I’m freezing my balls right now, I’d rather be here than that hell.”

Magnus couldn’t agree more, but he never got the chance to say as much over the ruckus the demon was making inside his head. She kept muttering something vigorously and giving jerky little kicks of her legs.

“You keep that up and I’ll dump you in the snow,” he threatened.

She spat something at him in a language not English.

“I don’t speak crazy,” he told her evenly. “So, either speak normal, or keep quiet.”

She didn’t even pretend to consider his warning. Her rage only seemed to increase until he had to give her a shake.

“Knock it off!”

Reggie shook his head. “I can’t believe you can hear her.”

Magnus glanced at his brother. “You haven’t?”

“Nope.”

“Christ, you’re lucky,” he muttered under his breath.

“You are loathsome!” the demon sneered in English.

Magnus blinked. “That’s new.”

“What is?” Reggie peered over at him.

Magnus met his gaze with genuine interest. “Apparently, I’m loathsome.”

Reggie huh’d. “Only?”

“Apparently.” He bit back a grin as the demon kicked viciously. “I don’t think I’ve ever been called loathsome before.”

“I find that hard to believe.”

They reached the truck. Reggie opened the backdoor for him and Magnus dumped the demon onto the seat.

She immediately twisted over, arms swinging, legs kicking. She would have nailed him in the face if he hadn’t jerked back. Her thrashing bunched her skirts, braiding the long fabric around her legs and exposing nearly everything beneath.

Magnus caught her ankle, the one nearest him. He snatched at the other one, but with one leg captured, she refused to allow him the second. Only, the more she struggled to keep it away from him, the wider she had to part them and he stood directly between the two.

Her skirts continued to conceal her and mock him. He told himself he wasn’t really looking, but he was. Every flail had his attention slipping to the junction kept just out of sight. It would have been too simple to slip his hands up the soft flesh of her inner thighs and sweep the fabric aside, to climb in over her … on her. But he refrained.

Barely.

“You better knock that off before you get frostbite on your crotch,” he warned her.

“Release me!”

“You kicked me, Your Highness.”

She snarled low in her throat, but when she wrenched her captured foot out of his grasp, he released her. She scrambled upright and scooted to the far end of the bench. Somehow managing it without sitting, or stepping on her hair.

Beneath the bulk of his coat, her entire body seemed to move with her every pant. Her big eyes swung over him to the new world she’d been dumped into, taking in the confines of the truck cabin and the landscape of bitter cold with unsuppressed horror.

“Where have you brought me?”

“Welcome to hell,” he told her with just a hint of sarcasm.

“Don’t tell her that.” Reggie muttered from just behind him. To her, he said, “It’ll get warmer once I turn the heat on.”

“Turn the heat on?” she mimicked, only, it must not have only been in Magnus’s head, because Reggie’s entire face morphed into one of startled surprise. “You have such power?”

“Well … not exactly, but once I start the engine—”

“Explain it to her while you drive.” Magnus interrupted, feeling the cruel fingers of ice creeping up the hem of his shirt. “Dante!”

The hound raised his head from where he’d been licking the last of the warrior off the snow. His red eyes blinked and focused on them.

Magnus motioned for him to climb into the back. Dante did a running leap and landed on all paws inside the flatbed, making the entire frame rattle. Magnus gave him a quick pat on the head before jogging to the passenger seat.

“What is this?” the demon asked from the backseat as Reggie put the keys into the ignition. “Where are the horses?”

“It’s a truck,” he told her. “It doesn’t have horses. Only an engine.”

That didn’t seem to answer her, but she didn’t ask the questions Magnus could hear rotating through her mind, like where had the sands gone? What was an engine? Why did it smell so foul? Instead, she shifted back in her seat and stared up at the felt ceiling.

“Put your belt on,” Magnus said from over his shoulder.

Violet eyes lifted even as small hands went to her midsection. Most of it was covered by the cuffs of the coat, but four dainty fingers poked out.

“What is a belt?”

The question didn’t seem to be aimed at him. It was more to herself, but it made him realize she had no idea what he was talking about.

Without the patience to explain it to her, Magnus twisted his torso through the narrow gap between the two front seats. He braced one hand on the cushion next to her hip and reached for the harness just over her left shoulder. Her eyes flicked wide, but she made no move to escape him. Not even when his face came dangerously close to hers and she had to share her air with him.

She smelled like a garden. Not wildflowers, or some overly sweet, cheesy flower, but a meadow of rare blooms that only flourished at night. It was enchanting and seductive with just a hint of dark mystery that made a man want to inhale deeper to figure it out. Combined with the soft allure of her velvety eyes and her kewpie doll mouth … she was haunting.

He found the buckle and dragged it across her body. All the while, she pulled him deeper into the pale chasm of her eyes. Their clarity held such perfection, and up close, they weren’t just a single shade, but a starburst of different hues of purple, starting with a base of lilacs that bled into soft tones of lavender and amethyst with hidden strokes of white and contained by a slender band of ebony.

They reminded him of galaxies, of stars and an endless existence, of strength and beauty, and innocence. They were truly the most incredible things he’d ever seen in his life.

“What is he doing?” her quiet inner voice wondered.

Magnus considered telling her that he was mesmerized by the universes captured in her eyes, but he didn’t have the words, or at least, didn’t know how to put them in order. So, he said nothing. It was only when her thick lashes lowered, temporarily releasing him from her spell that he remembered she was in his head, listening to everything he was thinking and already knew what he wanted to say.

The sooty fans complimented the subtle pink that had risen beneath her fair skin. Her embarrassment needed no voice. He could feel the prickle of it laced with her feminine pleasure.

It felt odd that he preferred that shade on her.

He snapped the buckle into place, careful not to snag her dress or skin.

“Okay?” He kept the words solely in his head.

Her lashes lifted and he was once more caught in the constellations in her eyes. “Yes.”

Her voice was soft, slightly breathy even in his head. He couldn’t help wondering what that would sound like out loud. It lured his gaze down to her mouth, to the delicate pink already parted as if in welcome.

Would she stop him if he tried to kiss her? he pondered. Would she let him? Would she really taste as sweet as she looked? As tempting?

Her chest rose beneath his coat in a sharp intake.

Just one, he told himself, body already pushing to get closer. He tugged against the narrow gap wedging his hips. He only needed another inch.

“Dude, did you get lost back there?” Reggie’s voice broke through the tenuous moment, shattering it. It propelled Magnus back to his senses, serving as a slap, a vicious reminder of what she was and what he was about to do. A momentary lapse in judgement.

The horror of that realization had him jerking back, an involuntary recoil that sent the top of his head slamming into the roof with a dull thud. The demon flinched as if his rejection had physically struck her. The flush was gone from her cheeks. Her lips had pressed closed and her eyes swept downward, cutting him off from them and their magical pull.

He told himself he didn’t care as he dropped back into his seat, but he couldn’t ignore the knot that had formed in his gut.

“I was beginning to think you got stuck,” Reggie said, oblivious to the dense tension accumulating in the cabin like fog.

Absently, Magnus touched the puckered circle seared into his upper arm. His finger traced the clean, yet rough lines. His mother had once explained the importance of each knot and how they represented an intertwining link between love and hate, life and death, passion and discord. It bonded family and lover, eternity and devotion. The symbol was supposed to mean everything. It was supposed to make the world a better, brighter place. And maybe it had for his parents, but it had been nothing but a constant battle for the rest of them. There was no peace or joy in the pain each of his brothers had to face, sacrifices they had to make. But at least they hadn’t imprinted on a monster. A fucking demon.

Christ.

He pinched the bridge of his nose where his headache had collected. He mentally struggled to list the things that needed to be done before this shit storm could end, like break the telepathic connection between him and her. Then find someone to eliminate the imprint. Once that was all done, he would hand her over to Damier, get the baby, and return sanity and order to his family.

“You okay?” Reggie stole a quick sidelong glance at him from the corner of his eye.

Rather than answer him, Magnus shifted higher in his seat and squinted at the passing farms.

“I should ask,” Reggie’s inner voice decided with a conviction that would have raised Magnus’s eyebrow if his head wasn’t throbbing. “It’s not like he can hit me. I’m driving.”

Magnus rolled his eyes and winced at the sharp lance that spiked his brain. “What?” he muttered a bit sharply.

Reggie frowned at the windshield. “I didn’t say anything.”

“Bullshit. Spit it out.”

Long fingers drummed on the wheel. Each tap made Magnus want to snap his brother’s fingers off. But Reggie was already thinking over what he wanted to say, how he wanted to word his question to avoid Magnus’s wrath. By the time he opened his mouth to ask, Magnus already knew what he would say.

“Should we, I dunno, go back for Nobu?”

“For Christ sakes,” Magnus mumbled. “What is with you and that douchebag?”

Reggie jerked up one shoulder in a shrug. “Dad always taught us to never leave a man behind.”

“He’s not a man,” Magnus reminded him. “He’s a demon. What’s more, Dad was talking about each other, not assholes who would happily have sunk his blade into your damn back, okay?”

“I just don’t like that we don’t know what happened to him. What if he was injured or—?”

“Then we should count our blessings. Maybe he’s dead, which would be even better.”

“Jesus you’re fucking morbid.” Reggie pursed his lips and glowered at the road.

“He’s dead,” came the demon’s voice. “Those women killed him while he was sleeping.”

Reggie shot a quick glance up into the rearview mirror. “How do you know?”

The demon never glanced away from the window, her expression back to its usual haughty indifference. “I saw it. They got to him before they captured you. But he wanted to die. He’d failed and lost his men. Returning to his clan would have been a dishonor. Had you not been attacked, he would have angered one of you into killing him.”

“That sounds like Nobu all right,” Magnus said dryly. “Coward right to the end.”

“He’s dead,” Reggie blurted, indignant.

“Doesn’t make him any less of a coward.” Magnus glowered at the passing scenery. “A true warrior fights, even when there’s nothing worth fighting for. Failure is giving up.”

“You sound like a fortune cookie.”

Magnus ignored him. “Make a stop at the pet shop. I need to return Dante.”

Reggie peeked out the mirror again at the hellhound in the flatbed. “I’m actually going to miss him. He’s cute once you get past the red eyes and fangs.”

“Want to put in a good word with Mom?”

Reggie burst out laughing, which said everything without words.

Magnus left Reggie with the demon once they arrived at Eden. He led Dante into the pet shop, one hand absently stroking the dog’s head the entire way. Myrinin looked up when they entered.

He smiled. “Back so soon? I hope your … business was successful.”

Magnus didn’t attempt to explain they’d been gone an entire week. In Myrinin’s world, it had merely been a day, possibly two.

“It was fine.” He held out a hand. “I’ll pen him.”

Myrinin pressed the crate key into Magnus’s palm without question. Then he watched as Magnus led Dante into the back.

“You did real good this week,” Magnus told the hound.

He unlocked the door and let Dante through first.

The hound wined and raised big, pathetic eyes up at him. The plea and betrayal made Magnus crouch down and rub the dog’s fat head.

“I’m sorry, boy. You know the rules.”

One massive paw shoved against his chest, minus the claws. As it were, the affectionate gesture was like a punch.

“I’d take you home in a heartbeat,” Magnus told him, stroking the sleek fur along his neck. “You know I can’t, but I will come see you again really soon. I promise.”

Dante whimpered and butted Magnus under the chin with his giant head. The impact cracked his teeth together, but he loved on the beast for a few more minutes before leading him into the crate. It broke his heart as it always did when he sealed the lid back into place.

The demon looked up from the backseat when Magnus reclaimed his place in the passenger seat. Her expression was perfectly void of all emotions, as was their link. In fact, he was getting nothing from her and hadn’t for a while, he realized. Somehow, she’d found a way to completely block him out.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t blocked from her, judging from the slight smirk she offered him.

“Your hound is a beast, and yet you love him,” she stated.

Magnus debated simply ignoring her, but there was no point. “My hound doesn’t pretend to be anything else. He doesn’t lie.”

Reggie shot him a quick glance, but must have realized he was talking to her, because he put the truck into drive and pulled out of his parking spot without a word.

“And what about you, Caster? Tell me you don’t lie.”

Magnus shook his head. “I would never claim to be a saint, or decent.”

That shut her up. She made no more pithy remarks the rest of the way.

There was nothing like returning home. They’d only been gone a few days, but the way their mother gasped when they walked through the doors and launched herself at them, they could have been gone years.

“You’ve returned!” She squeezed Magnus, then Reggie. “Are you hungry? You must be. Get cleaned up and I’ll prepare something.”

“Mom.” Reggie stopped her before she could run to the kitchen. “Where’s Dad and the others?”

“Your father’s up in his study. The others are here somewhere.” She paused to consider a moment. “I think I saw Imogen in the library.”

“She’s always in the library,” Kyaerin’s inner voice continued in Magnus’s head. “Riley and Octavian are probably in their room doing things I don’t want to think about.”

Magnus shot Zara a glower. “Stop it,” he hissed.

She met his gaze unflinching. “If I had that ability, do you think I would not utilize it? I did not ask for you to be in my head.”

Kyaerin caught sight of the demon. “Who is this?”

“She’s the reason we need a family meeting,” Reggie said. “We have a problem.”

“Of course we do,” said her inner voice, a bit tiredly.

But their mother didn’t outwardly ask. She turned immediately and stalked from the room.

Magnus took the demon’s arm and forcibly marched her deeper into the house. She never protested, too fascinated by the appliances in the kitchen. Then the lights, the stairway, the paintings. Every object they passed had her slowing for a better look.

Ultimately, they reached the parlor. The others were already there and seated. The low hum of chatter carried through the room in a steady clip. But it wasn’t just the things they said out loud that stirred the air. It was all the things they didn’t say. The voices … there were too many for the number of bodies physically in the room.

They overlapped in a blur that rose through the room, a physical heat he could almost see. Each voice boomed between his ears, making his vision waver.

“Stop talking!” His voice thundered over the chaos, initiating immediate silence. Outer silence. All heads were turned to him, mouths closed, yet the chatter continued.

“Magnus?” His mother took a tentative step forward. “Are you all right, sweetie?”

“He looks so tired,” said her inner voice. “Maybe I should make him something warm to drink and—”

“I don’t need anything to drink!” he snapped, resisting the urge to gouge his fingertips into his temples. “I just need you all to sit down so we can get this over with.”

Kyaerin’s jaw slackened. Her wide, blue eyes darted from him to her husband and back.

“I … I didn’t say…”

“How did he know?” said her inner voice.

“Please!” He mashed the heel of his hands into the backs of his eyelids. “Just sit.”

She sat. As did everyone else.

Magnus stayed near the doorway, not trusting himself to get any closer and allow the voices to increase in volume. Part of him wanted to send the demon downstairs, away from the others until he could think straight, but there was no chance of that.

“Son, is everything—?”

He cut his father off. “Everything is fine.” He took a deep breath. “We got the package. I’ll be taking her to Damier within the hour.”

The madness erupted in a tangle of inner and outer voices all screaming questions.

“Stop talking!” Breathing hard, he glowered at his family. “Why is that so hard to grasp?”

His father rose, slowly, the way one would when confronted by a vicious animal. “Magnus…” said his outer voice in that soothing manner of his.

“Something’s wrong,” said his inner. “I need to get him to sit down.”

“I don’t need to sit down,” he shot back. “I just need you all to not talk.”

“Darling…”

“Mom!”

She fell silent.

Magnus waited until there were no further interruptions, then resumed talking. “Reggie will fill you in while I make the exchange.”

“Tell them the rest.” Reggie darted up, his inner voice screaming with indignation for what Magnus was about to do. “Tell them about her.”

It seemed the entire room took that moment to notice the pale, silent figure standing calmly just behind Magnus’s shoulder. Everything from, pretty to demon echoed in the thin web of thought floating through the room. It was enough to make him want to scream.

“This is the package,” he shouted to be heard. He no longer knew what was solely in his head and what wasn’t. He just pitched his voice higher than all of them. “She’s the thing Damier wants.”

“The thing?” his mother gasped. “Magnus, that is a person.”

“She’s a demon,” he corrected curtly. “As it stands, not a very good one.”

He ignored the prickling sensation along his shoulder blades where he could feel the demon glowering at him.

“Tell them the rest,” Reggie interrupted. “Tell them who she really is!” said his inner thoughts.

“There isn’t anything else to tell.” He shot his brother a warning frown.

“Bullshit!” raged Reggie’s inner voice just before his outer voice shouted, “She’s his mate. He’s marked her.”

Magnus nearly blacked out from the force of the assault conjured by a room full of disbelief and outrage. The dark wave crashed into him with a brutality that sent him to his knees, clutching at his skull as it threatened to explode.

“Magnus, you’re bleeding!” His mother was at his side before he could even bring the room back into focus. Something was forced against his nose. “What’s happened to you? Reggie, what happened to your brother?”

Reggie responded something Magnus couldn’t hear. It got lost in the pounding.

“Shh.” The low whisper draped over the air with the effectiveness of a cozy blanket, smothering all sound, except one—the demon’s. “Everything is all right.”

It took Magnus a full minute to realize she wasn’t talking only to him through her connection. Everyone in the room had stilled and was watching her.

“Who are you?” Liam asked.

The demon took a single step forward to stand in Magnus’s path, and as though her body were a shield, all the voices, except hers quieted.

“My name is Zara, keeper of the flames.”

Liam blinked. “You’re an oracle.”

Zara inclined her head. “I was taken from my temple and sold into … this.” She held up her hands to show them the rope marks around her wrists.

“Did you say an oracle, as in there are more of her?” Riley piped up.

“There are six of us guarding the temple of the Gods and feeding the sacred flames,” Zara answered.

“Can I touch your hair?” Riley blurted. “What?” she muttered when the others looked at her. “It’s so pretty.”

Zara chuckled inside, outside, she was a perfect statue with the occasional facial twitch to match her inner words, a grin, a frown, a furrow of her brows or twinkle in her eyes.

“What have you done to my son?” Kyaerin cut in sharply.

Zara turned and tilted her chin downward to peer at Magnus still kneeling behind her, gripping a blood-soaked rag to his face.

“I have done nothing. Your son has somehow bound himself to me and my abilities.”

“So, it is true then,” Liam piped in. “You are his mate.”

Zara seemed to consider this a long while, violet eyes never wavering from Magnus’s.

“I am a vessel for the Gods,” she said instead. “I am incapable of being the thing you seek.”

“You bare the mark.” Kyaerin pointed to Zara’s arm, despite being concealed beneath the sleeve of Magnus’s coat.

Zara peered down at it as if she could see it through the bulky fabric, or maybe, like him, she could feel the tingle of it. “It will not remain once I am freed.”

“You’re not going anywhere.” Magnus shoved to his feet, then bent and helped his mother up before facing the demon. “I’m taking you to Damier and getting my niece back.”

“You will not,” Zara said without missing a beat. “I am an oracle. Do you not understand what would happen if I fall into the wrong hands?”

“I really couldn’t give a fuck,” he replied simply. “You’re the means to an end. I told you that.”

“Whoa! Wait. Stop.” Riley shot to her feet. “Are you serious right now? You’re actually considering the idea of taking her to that creep? She’s your mate.”

Magnus barely shot her a glance. “So?”

Riley blinked. Her gaze darted from him to the others in the room before returning. “She. Is. Your. Mate,” she said again, slower, like he was an idiot. “She’s your mate,” she repeated louder. “How could you even think to just give her away?”

“She’s a demon,” Magnus pointed out.

“So?” she shouted. “She’s your mate! Doesn’t that mean anything to you?”

“No,” he said, meaning it.

Riley rocked back on her heels as though his response had physically struck her. Her look of horror tangled with the disbelief and disgust in her eyes.

“Magnus is right,” Valkyrie cut in with a tilt of her chin. “She’s only a demon.”

“I’m only a strigoi,” Riley growled out through clenched teeth, her crimson eyes bright with fury. “Daphne’s only a human. Is that all we are? All that bullshit about family and soulmates … I never realized how utterly replaceable we were.”

“Riley…”

She wrenched away from the hand Octavian set on her arm. “Don’t you touch me. It’s apparent that I mean nothing, that our bond, that our marks, mean nothing. How long before I’m only another monster, another demon you can toss aside?”

“No one is getting tossed aside.” Liam took a step forward, halting the argument before Riley lost control and killed them all. “No one,” he repeated, fixing Magnus with a warning glare. “Zara is one of us now and she’s not going anywhere. Besides, she’s right. Mate or not, we can’t just giveaway an oracle. It’s too dangerous.”

“What about my daughter?” Valkyrie leaped to her feet. “Did all of you forget why Magnus went to retrieve this … creature, in the first place?”

“No one has forgotten,” Liam assured her calmly. “We will find another way.”

“There is no other way!” Valkyrie yelled. “She is the one Damier wants. If we don’t give her to him, he’s not giving back my baby. That is how exchanges work.”

“This is hilarious,” Riley jumped in. “It’s funny that it was only a few months ago we were protecting your ass from your father, but I guess that’s different, right?”

“It was different.” Valkyrie rounded on her. “And I don’t need protection. I’m a warrior.”

Riley rolled her eyes. “Oh please, you’re a stuck-up bitch.”

“Enough!” Gideon leaped into the path of his wife when she took a step towards Riley. “Both of you, knock it off.”

“Say something!” Valkyrie’s blue eyes flashed up at her husband. “Why are you just sitting there.”

Gideon’s nostrils flared. “Because I agree. We are not handing Zara over.”

The Harvester jerked out of his grasp and took a deliberate step back. “She’s more important than our child?”

“No, but she’s family too and we don’t throw family to the wolves.”

Tears glimmered in Valkyrie’s eyes, turning them a bright, violent blue. “Then you have sentenced my baby to death.”

She turned on the points of her towering heels and stalked from the room in a flurry of leather and fury.

Gideon watched her go, mouth twisted in a grim line, eyes bright with sorrow. His shoulders lifted with his deep inhale and dropped when he let it go.

“She’d gotten her hopes up with this,” he murmured. “She … we both thought this would be it.”

“It doesn’t mean it’s not,” Kyaerin assured him gently. “We know where the child is and who has him. We just need to figure out how to get him back.”

Gideon said nothing. He nodded once before leaving the room.