“Well, let’s find my uncle. Hopefully, he isn’t in too foul a mood after being force-fed. Although something tells me he will be.”

  Tyson opened the door and found he wasn’t alone. Witches. Dozens of them. The corridor was packed so tightly he thought his eyes were playing tricks on him. Every wand was raised. At him.

  “Hello, handsome,” one said.

  The spell left her wand without warning.

  Tyson did not have time to draw steel, or step back, or do anything to protect the two people behind him. The force of the spell struck him square in the chest and drove him backward. His spine hit stone hard enough to steal the air from his lungs. The taste of blood filled his mouth.

  Chapter 31

  À Nu

  CLAIRE

  Gorrath was right about one thing. I’d known for a long time that he was an important part of my becoming. His magick and his horn had changed my life. However, he explained that his power had limits, and breaking the curse on my choker was one of them.

  “I thought you said you couldn’t break—” I began to say, but the pain stole the rest of the sentence from my mouth. I lifted my fingers to my throat.

  “Are you alright?” Bastien asked.

  “Yes,” I lied, swallowing around the tightness of the choker.

  Gorrath studied my neck, and I had the strangest sense that he could feel it too. “I can’t break death magick. Unfortunately, it’s not one of my many talents.” He fixed us both with a penetrating look. “But we can. The three of us.”

  Chastity let out a bubbling laugh. “The power of three will set you free.” She licked her lips. “Please do let me know if you need a fourth.” The two of them, seated side by side, looked like they could be lovers. And maybe they were. Gorrath, with his rose thorn tattoos peeking out from beneath his black jacket. And Chastity, with her snakeskin tattoos running up her arms. Both were dressed in black. Both exuding the kind of energy that made men and women melt.

  Her eyes met mine, and they were laced with more than just curiosity. A flicker of interest stirred low in my belly. She was beautiful. With full breasts caged behind a black corset and a long neck. My attention drifted momentarily to Gorrath, who was leering at Bastien with the same intensity.

  Even though the choker had relaxed, my throat still felt tight. He was the demon of sex and disease. I knew that the power of his horn fed my desires until they were difficult to ignore. While Gorrath and I didn’t share the same kind of bond that Bastien and I did, I didn’t need one to understand what he was proposing.

  “Don’t you worry, Chas. There’s enough of ol’ Gorrath to go around.” He touched her cheek and gave her a fond look. It was hard to tell whether he was truly fond of her or just manipulative.

  But when you were pure want, maybe you couldn’t tell the difference. Maybe it was all the same thing. If your want was strong enough, there was nothing you wouldn’t do to get it. That thought scared me, because I related to it a little too much.

  I’d wanted things too. I’d wanted my mother’s love so badly I was willing to die for it. I wanted magick so badly, I prayed to the goddess every night. And then, of course, there was Bastien. And our child. My want for him and our family was endless.

  As much as I wanted to judge Gorrath for being so single-minded, I couldn’t. I understood him. I was him. A part of him was already inside me.

  My attention drifted to the place where his horn had been sliced off. A horn that was in my skirt pocket. A horn that I’d used to make myself come over and over again until I was sweating and writhing on the floor.

  “Can you give us a bit of privacy?” Gorrath asked Chastity. “Ensure we won’t be bothered. Would you, love?”

  The smile that had been building on her face fell. Her eyes went cold. “Of course. I have other matters that require my attention.” She smoothed her skirts, taking her time as she retreated. “Bigger and better matters.” Before she closed the door, she glanced back at the three of us, eyes narrowing on Gorrath. “Don’t forget our deal, demon.”

  He winked. “It’s at the top of my mind.”

  “Ensure that it stays there. I know how slippery your mind can be.” The dark witch smiled, then disappeared, the heavy door closing shut behind her.

  Once she was gone, Gorrath’s dark eyes twinkled with mischief. “Who’s ready to strike an accord?”

  Bastien and I exchanged looks. Tension was thrumming in the room now that the three of us were alone. Gorrath wanted to make a deal, and truthfully, there was very little I wouldn’t agree to at this point. Not because I wanted the demon in any sort of way. But because there were other things I wanted.

  I wanted to be free of this collar. I wanted to protect the flicker of life that might be stirring inside me. I wanted to live. I wanted that quiet life with Bastien. And because of the strength of my wants, I knew I needed to step back from these negotiations. I didn’t want to manipulate my husband into making a deal he was uncomfortable with. If we agreed to whatever Gorrath wanted, Bastien needed to want it too.

  “What are the terms?” Bastien inquired, unnecessarily straightening his cravat.

  Dust and bits of stone rained down as if the ceiling had coughed. Debris landed in my hair and fell down the front of my dress. I brushed it away, trying to remove the gritty texture from my skin. When I glanced up, both the demon and Bastien were watching me.

  I stilled.

  “We use the power inside us to break the spell on Claire’s necklace,” Gorrath explained. His voice had lost some of the gruffness. “I can’t break death magick, but Bastien,” he said, turning toward my husband, “you are the living dead.”

  Gorrath slunk forward like a feral tomcat until he was standing directly in front of Bastien. One hand was tucked between the buttons of his jacket. A careless black curl falling into his eyes.

  “You are the power for the spell, as someone who has already survived death.” The two men held very still. Gorrath was an arm’s length away from him, but it might as well have been a breath. I knew my husband had done things with Gorrath, things that, if I were being totally honest, I was interested in seeing. “I am the amplifier,” Gorrath continued. “And Claire is the conduit.”

  He slapped his hands together, making both Bastien and me jump.“Together, we give her what she needs to break the curse.”

  The words hung between us. Neither Bastien nor I had tried to open the connection between us. A deliberate action. On both our parts.

  “I’ve never heard of such a spell,” Bastien said. “What does it entail?”

  “It’s a union. Your power and mine. Together.” Gorrath cupped Bastien’s cheek. “Put into her.”

  I’d known Gorrath was going to suggest something like this, but it didn’t prepare me for the way it sounded out loud. My body suddenly felt too hot. The air too thick. He was suggesting that the three of us come together. Just like when he’d opened my power and reestablished the bloodline. But this time, he wouldn’t be an invisible presence. He’d be real. It would be the two of them and me. I tried to imagine what it would be like. The two of them touching me, our bodies moving as one. And as soon as I did, I knew it couldn’t happen.

  Bastien shoved the demon’s hand away and raised his blade. “Absolutely not.”

  “Once the spell is complete,” Gorrath continued, undeterred, “Claire will be liberated not just from the spell on her choker, but from death itself. She’d be like you. Immortal.”

  Immortal. The word pulled at my weary heart. I remembered the first prayer I’d offered to the God of the Underworld, standing alone in my bedchamber, clutching Gorrath’s horn, moments before it started vibrating. “Please, Damien. Make me unbreakable.”

  Was this his answer to my prayer?

  If I were immortal, then the vision Bastien had about me growing ill from the baby would never happen. I’d be like him, strong and immortal. It was the only thing that would push me toward saying yes. But I had to resist influencing my husband, who still had good steel drawn and pointed directly at Gorrath’s tattooed roses.

  “Wouldn’t there be a risk of putting too much power into her body? What about the baby?”

  Gorrath smirked. “She’s stronger than you think.”

  I tried to ignore how that made me feel, because Gorrath was manipulative.

  “How can we trust you?” Bastien asked.

  If we agreed to this deal, we’d be performing an act that would be more than just a spell. It would be a life-changing event.

  Gorrath had an answer ready for that, too. “You heard Chastity. She’ll have my balls if I don’t protect her from Shayla. If I help Claire break the curse on her choker, you two will bring down Shayla for me.”

  Bastien ran a frustrated hand through his blond hair, mussing it more than it already was. Then he took my hand, twining his cold fingers with mine. I struggled to make eye contact with him, afraid of revealing my true feelings. I could barely draw in a full breath.

  Gorrath leaned closer to us, his black eyes creasing at the corners. “Let me make one thing very clear. I’m not interested in forcing myself on either of you. This deal is either consensual or it doesn’t happen. I can find another way to get rid of Shayla.”

  Bastien withdrew his hand from mine and gripped the bridge of his nose like he was physically in pain. “I need a moment with my wife. Alone.”

  The demon didn’t argue or make a snarky comment. He simply clasped his hands behind his back and strode from the room. When the door was shut, the space felt too small to hold everything that was unsaid.

  Bastien gestured to a rough-hewn table with benches, and we took a seat beside each other. My back was pressed into the raw edge of the table. Hands folded in my lap. Bastien set his sword and cane on the floor beside his feet before propping his elbows on his knees and resting his face in his hands.

  “Are we honestly considering this?” he asked, speaking to the floor.

  The guilt of it all was ready to split me in two. I was doing this to him. It was my past. My family. My choker. My curse. It was hurting him.

  “Tell me what you’re feeling,” I said. “Don’t hold anything back.”

  He took a breath that sounded like it hurt. “Where do I even start? The idea of him touching you—it makes me want to kill him.” He turned to me, head resting in one hand. His blue eyes glassy. “It reminds me of when I caught you with Alec. Drunk and topless. His hands…” His voice broke off. “I’d been so close to killing everyone in that room.”

  Tears flooded my vision as well. That was the night everything changed. He’d given me the bloodstone that I was wearing right now and told me I was his mate. Then he’d dug out plants in his greenhouse, not just to make room for me in his garden, but in his heart. He’d put his life on the line, over and over again, just to keep me at his side. He even agreed to create an heir, when it was the one thing he was afraid of, just to help me unlock my powers.

  He’d done it all without a second thought. But this, this felt like a step too far. And I didn’t want to cause him this kind of pain. Nor did I want to lose his love or trust. “If this is how you feel, then it’s not worth it,” I said. “We’ll find another way.”

  He dragged a hand through his hair. “I need to know something. And I need you to be honest with me.”

  “Always.”

  “Do you want him?” he asked. “I know how magnetic he can be.”

  “No, of course not,” I answered immediately. Truthfully. “I don’t want anything with him. Having his power is more than enough.”

  The tension in his shoulders eased slightly. “But doesn’t the idea of him touching me disgust you?”

  I scooted closer to him on the bench so that our thighs were touching. I ran my hand through his hair, carefully pushing it behind his ear. He watched me. “No. It doesn’t.”

  “How?” he asked, sitting up.

  “He is nothing. Not to either of us. Not in the way that we are to each other. He said it himself. He is just an amplifier. Of our bond. Our love. Unless,” I hesitated, “does he still mean something to you?”

  “No,” he said flatly. Then, after a beat, “Whatever we were before—whatever mistakes I made—that was a very long time ago. So long that I can’t even remember wanting him. My human memories are hazy, like a story I heard from someone else. But I haven’t wished for him back in my life. Not one bit.”

  He exhaled, then added, “But I do want this power for you. Selfishly, I do want to be with you forever.”

  The tears that had been threatening to spill over my lashes broke free. Two fat tears rolled down my cheeks. “Me too.” I dragged in my next breath. “But I won’t trade your trust for it. If this would destroy our relationship, then eternity means nothing.”

  He leaned in and kissed my tears, catching the salty trails with his lips. His cool breath felt good on my flushed cheeks. With my face between his palms, he lifted my chin until we were eye to eye. “I would give you my immortality if I could.”

  The demonic horn that was hiding in my skirt pocket began to vibrate. Bastien and I both glanced down at it. Slowly, he let go of my face to fish it out of my pocket. Once it was free, he held the vibrating horn between us.

  The ceiling rumbled again. More dust rained down.

  Neither of us moved, but something dark and dangerous flashed in his eyes. He slid off the bench and dropped to his knees in front of me.

  “If I’m going to consider this, I need to know if I can handle it or not.”

  I nodded. “Of course.”

  I wasn’t sure what he had in mind until he began pulling my skirt up my legs, running the vibrating horn along the inside of my thighs. I momentarily forgot how to breathe when he spread my knees apart.

  “Tell me what you want him to do to us.”

  My eyes widened. I hadn’t been expecting this.

  A long blink of his lashes. “Play along with me, cherie.”

  I understood immediately that he needed this. I nodded once again, and the horn slid against my center. Vibrating. Vibrating. My breath came unsteady and thin. The desire that always lived just below my skin switching on.

  “Do you want to watch him choke on my cock?”

  I moaned. My back involuntarily arched.

  “You could sit on my face while he did it.”

  Another broken sound left my lips. The horn clattered to the ground, and his mouth was there. Licking and licking and licking. My fingers twisted into his hair, holding him closer against me, the heels of my boots digging into his back.

  The tension that had been thick in the air ripped through me in waves as I imagined the scene coming to life. Two fingers slid inside me, thrusting in and out, and I whimpered. Heat and power and the ecstasy of being devoured by the man I loved came crashing together.

  Bastien looked up at me, lips wet and pupils wide. “The only way I’d let him touch you is with a dagger against his throat. I’d tell him how to touch you. And if he strayed, I’d open his throat.”

  “Bastien,” I choked out.

  Everything inside me clenched. I was close. So close. He brought the horn back, holding its vibrating ridges against me. His fingers inside me. “Could you take us both? Could you stand that much inside you?”

  A feral cry tore from my throat. Gorrath, with his rose thorns, Bastien with his scars. Gorrath meant nothing to me. Nothing. He was nothing. But imagining it? My husband and him? Feeding me enough power to turn me into an immortal?

  “I can take it,” I rasped.

  Bastien set my hand on the horn, encouraging me to keep going, then stood over me. Trousers unlaced. His hard length in his hand. He watched me with lust in his eyes as I teetered right on the edge.

  “Put it in you. I want to see it,” Bastien gritted out. Working himself up and down like he was about to lose control.

  I did as he asked and slipped the tip of the horn inside me. It was almost too much.

  “Now fuck yourself.”

  The command rippled through me, and I obeyed without question. Our eyes locked. Our chests rising up and down in tandem. It was only a moment before the heat of my building magick crested.

  “I-I’m going to come,” I whispered, voice broken. Sweat dripping down the side of my face.

  Bastien ripped the horn out of my hand. In one quick motion, he turned me around, lifted my skirt, and bent me over the table. Rough, hard thrusts brought me to my climax, the table shaking beneath my palms while stars burst behind my eyes. A curse and a moan left his lips, followed by the warmth I was craving. It spilled inside me, and a smile rounded my lips.

  This was the only thing I ever wanted. Him. Completely feral.

  He kissed my hair. My neck. The tops of my shoulders. “If you weren’t pregnant before, you will be,” he whispered. His fingers gliding through my wetness, playing with the mess he’d made. “If another man is going to touch you, he’s going to know who you belong to.” He swirled his fingers against my sensitive spot. I sucked in a shuddering breath. “Because you are mine.”

  Chapter 32

  L’Inévitable

  CLAIRE

  After discussing our boundaries for proceeding with this spell, Bastien and I walked hand in hand toward the door. We were about to step over a line together. And when it was done, I’d be free of Mama’s curse and immortal. An illicit thrill I didn’t bother pretending away raced down my spine. Not for the demon, but for the new life I’d have. Mama would never be able to hurt me again, and I’d be with Bastien forever.

  Bastien pulled the door open, but the corridor was empty. No demon waiting for our answer. No Chastity standing guard. It was just us.

  “Where—?”

  Bastien’s question was cut off by the blast of a horn. The sound echoed so loudly I had to cover my ears.

  Footfalls came next. Three of Chastity’s witches tore past us, their red hair and black skirts flowing behind them. They didn’t stop to acknowledge us. In the distance, metal groaned, and a great booming sound filled the corridor. Another puff of dust rained down from the ceiling.