“But he wasn’t.” I stared at her. “It’s your fault.”

She lifted her chin, her expression resolute. “And I’ve paid for my mistake over and over. I need him to know so I can be free of the cosmic debt.”

So she could be free. She was doing this for herself, not for him. I pushed back my seat and stared down at her. “I’ll tell him, but not because you deserve to be free, but because he does. You could have confessed decades ago, but you kept your mouth shut. You make me sick.”

The party mood was over, and Kiara must have sensed it because she stood and took my arm. “Let’s go, the air in here is suffocating.”

I led her toward the doors, and like lethal shadows, the guards followed us out into the night.

I had what I wanted. An out for Mal, so why did I feel so sick?

“When will you tell him?” Kiara asked from her bed.

I was bunked on the floor on a mattress, arm hooked behind my head, staring at the ceiling in a very manly pose. Damn, I was getting good at this.

“I don’t know. I’m worried it might bring it all back, you know?”

“Yes, I was thinking the same thing. Conah told me you and Mal were getting close. He hopes that Mal’s feelings for you will help him overcome his guilt and want to live.”

“Mal and I…I think we’re a thing now?” I rolled onto my side. “I think I love him. No, I know I love him.”

She scooted to the edge of the bed to look down at me. “Have you two…”

I felt my cheeks grow hot. “Yes.”

“Oh, Fee. I’m so happy for you, and…I’m scared too.”

My stomach churned. “I know, but I have to focus on the now. I can’t let what might happen spoil the present for me. I won’t live in fear.”

She smiled. “You could have taken him from me so easily.”

“What?”

“Conah,” she sighed. “I’ve loved him forever, you know. My father, Mammon, has many children and many descendants. He helped forge the Underealm alongside Lilith, and his power is undeniable. All his offspring have inherited something, except me. I used to question why I was born with no special ability, and then I found my soulmate, Conah, and I knew that was my gift. He was my gift. Being his soulmate, loving him, was what made me special. When I found out we were to be married, it was a dream come true, but a part of me knew he didn’t love me the way I loved him. Time, I told myself, time would bring love, and it did. I saw it in his eyes, but then you came…” She sighed. “You came, and I saw the way he looked at you, with a yearning I’d never seen in his eyes for me.”

“Kiara, I—”

“No. I need to say this. I need to get it off my chest.”

I pressed my lips together and nodded.

She gave me a shaky smile. “I knew I couldn’t compete with what was growing in his heart for you. I knew if you gave him any inkling that you were amenable, then he would be yours, and so I decided to make you my friend. I was nice to you, so you’d like me and would think twice before doing anything to hurt me. I needed you to be his conscience. I pretended to like you, Fee, and somewhere along the way the fake friendship became real.”

Okay, yeah, that stung a little.

“Fee?” She was looking at me expectantly.

“I understand why you did it, Kiara, but just so you know, even if you’d been a raging fucking bitch to me, I’d never have done anything with Conah, not while he was in a relationship with someone else. I’m not that kind of girl.”

“I know that now. You could have taken him, Fee, and you didn’t.”

Words dried up in my throat because denying it was pointless. There were moments that a push, a nudge, a kiss could have pushed Conah over the edge and taken our almost romance into an affair, but neither of us had taken that step. It wasn’t who we were. Liking Kiara, becoming her friend, had just solidified my position.

I noted the sheen of tears in her eyes, and it hit me that she was going into a marriage with her soulmate, believing that, given the encouragement, he may have chosen me. That without the treaty to contend with, he may have left her.

I sat up. “Listen to me, Kiara, and you listen good. Conah loves you in a way he will never love anyone else. You are his soulmate, his best friend, and his lover. You are everything, and no one can ever come between you. Don’t you ever think otherwise.”

She pressed her lips together and nodded.

“You two are going to have a wonderful life together.”

“We are?”

“Yes, you fucking are, and I’m so honored that you chose me to be your Companion. Tomorrow is the start of a new era. It’s going to be epic.”

“It is, isn’t it?” She sniffed and laughed tearily.

“It bloody is. Now get some sleep. We can’t have puffy eyes in the morning.”

She held her hand out, and I clasped it. We stayed like that until sleep took us both.

Tomorrow would be the start of a new era not only for the Underealm, Conah and Kiara, but for me and Conah, too. I knew him well enough to know once he was married, any lingering feelings, any connection he felt for me, would be completely tempered. He was an honorable man. I’d felt it. It was what had drawn me to him in the first place.

Tomorrow was a new beginning for us all.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Mal

No Azazel yet, and I have to wonder if Conah would have chosen him as his Companion if he were here. The Dominus is cutting it fine with only two hours until the ceremony. But Lilith will forgive him his absence at the actual wedding. That part isn’t as important as the gathering afterward. Demons from all over the Underealm will be in attendance, and Lilith will need to show power. Keon and her blades, Azazel and the Dominus will give her the show of strength she needs to remind anyone thinking the word uprising to sit the fuck down, and the icing on the cake will be Mammon at her side as an ally bound by treaty.

Yeah, if Azazel misses the after-party, Lilith will make him pay.

I finish buttoning my shirt and slick back my hair before turning to Conah. He’s standing in front of the full-length mirror, cravat in hand, just staring at his reflection like a deer in headlights.

Poor bastard. He never thought it would come to this day. The treaty has been modified so many times, pushed around and delayed…He probably thought this wedding would never happen.

Now here he is. “You nervous?”

Conah puffs out his cheeks. “Fucking terrified.”

“It’ll be over before you know it.” I give him a sly grin. “And then you get to unwrap Kiara.”

Conah chuckles. “Yes, there is that to look forward to, but we need to be on our guard. There is someone out there who doesn’t want this wedding to go ahead.”

“It could still be Lilith.”

“It could be someone using her seal. We just don’t know.”

“Earnest is missing.” I zip up my boots and meet his eye in the mirror. His face is paler than usual. “I think he may have been in on it.”

“Stands to reason. He did plot the route for the drakes.” Conah meets my gaze. “Have you told Lilith Earnest is gone?”

“I found out from Keon. Lilith ordered him to reprimand Earnest about the dodgy carriage.”

“And now Keon says Earnest is missing…”

“You think Keon?” I run a finger across my throat.

Conah looks exhausted. “I don’t know. I just want to do this and go home.”

“With your wife.”

“With my wife.” He gives me a tight smile.

Guilt, empathy, not my things, but he’s pining for the woman that I’ve claimed, and fuck, I know how shitty it is to want Fee and not be able to have her. I’m lucky. So damn lucky.

I want to say something, anything to put a genuine smile on his face, but there are no words. Conah is about to sacrifice his heart for duty, and I know he loves Kiara, we all fucking do, but what he feels for Fee is passion and head-over-heels love and fuck, if things were different, if it were possible, I’d share her with him. I’d be glad knowing there’s someone to pick up the pieces once I’m gone.

Conah brushes his golden hair back from his forehead and takes a deep breath. “It’s time.”

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Cora

Leana set another mug of hot chocolate in front of me. “I’m not one to turn away customers, but honey, if you drink any more hot chocolate, you’re going to turn into a cocoa bean.”

“I do feel kinda sick.”

“I’m not surprised. Maybe he’s not coming?”

I tap the business card Vi gave me and pout. I made the call to Elijah almost three hours ago and decided to stick around Necro in case he contacted me. But maybe that isn’t the way it works? Maybe this Elijah takes longer to get in touch. I’ve picked up a cheap mobile with a prepaid sim so he can call me. But mobile reception doesn’t extend as far as the Underealm, and I have no idea how to hook up the mobile to my comm, so lurk it is.

“I’ll wait a little longer.” I hold up the book I’m reading. “I still have a few chapters.”

“You like Austen?”

“I like the way they say what they mean but in a really convoluted way.”

“Even their insults are polite.”

“Right?”

The bell above the door rings, and we both look up to see a regular customer walk in. She raises a hand in greeting and heads over to the counter.

“Back to work for me,” Leana says.

I dive back into my book. I’m half a page in when my mobile rings. I drop the book and answer. It has to be him because no one else has this number.

“Hello.”

“Coraline?” The voice is woodsmoke and firelight sex.

“Yes. Elijah?”

“What do you want?”

“I need your help. I need to know if there are any rogue warlocks in Necro City who aren’t registered, ones who might be able to create a tulpa.”