“How can I get the souls if they’ve already passed on?” I asked Sebastian.
“Through the blood summoning. You are their legacy. The souls will not be able to resist the call of their descendent—especially one as powerful as you.”
“What do you want with their souls? Don’t you have enough to choose from?”
“I do not owe you a reckoning of my affairs, Miss Desario. I’m simply informing you of your first assignment.”
“I’m not—”
Let him speak,Deirdre snapped.
“Youwillsummon their souls as required,” he said, “then use your powers of manipulation to reintegrate them into new vessels, which will then be made available for my purposes.”
I didn’t bother telling him that Liam and I hadn’t quite gotten to the Soul Reinsertion 101 portion of our lesson plan. Even if I wanted to help him summon my ancestors, there was no way I could do what he was asking.
“Let me get this straight,” I said. “You want me to yank my ancestors out of their eternal rest by tricking them into thinking I’m summoning them, then imprison them in mortal bodies, and turn them over to you for some creepy purpose you refuse to divulge?”
“Well, you make it sound rather crass, but yes. That is your first duty to me, in a nutshell.”
“Oooh-kay,” I said.
I’d meant it as a pause, a breath before I told him exactly where he could stick his bloodlines and evil plans. But Sebastian clearly took the word as my acquiescence. His eyes lit up, the overeager smile making his lips twitch. He was doing his damnedest to hide it, but he’d just shown me his full hand.
This wasn’t just some random errand he was sending me on. Something any one of his lackeys could do. Sebastian neededme. And only me.
And despite his bluster, a blood summoning wasn’t something he could force me to do, either. It was magic. It required intention. Cooperation. You couldn’t fake out a spell. If my heart wasn’t in it, the magic would know, and it would backfire.
I pressed my lips together, hiding my own smile.
So Ididhave a bargaining chip here. Maybe not the upper hand, but something close to an equal one, which was a hell of a lot more than I had when I’d walked into this dungeon.
“I’m so glad we’ve come to this agreement,” Sebastian said. “Now, if you’ll just—”
“Wait.” I held up my hand, cutting him off cold. Now that I had his attention, and new what he wanted, I decided to test the boundaries a bit. “If I do as you ask, I need something from you, too.”
“Gray.” Ronan grabbed the sides of my chair, his knuckles turning white. “Stop.”
Sebastian let out a smarmy, patronizing chuckle. “Oh, let the girl speak her pretty little mind, son! There’s no harm in hearing her request.” Then, to me, “What would you like, Miss Desario? A shopping spree? A makeover? Some chocolates?”
“Actually, I’d like you to stop interfering in my relationship with Ronan. It has nothing to do with you, and I’d appreciate it if you’d undo whatever mojo you put on him to make us catch fire at every touch.”
“This again?” He rolled his eyes. The Prince of freaking Hell rolled his eyes. “Sorry. No can do.”
“That was never part of my deal,” I said. “My relationship with Ronan didn’t exist when my contract was executed.”
“You’re right,” he said plainly. “It wasn’t part of your deal. But it was part of his.” He nodded toward Ronan, his smile stretching all the way to Texas.
“His?” Heart hammering a terrible new rhythm in my chest, I turned around and tipped my head up, trying to catch Ronan’s eyes. It was a long time before he finally looked at me.
“I had to,” he whispered. Regret filled his eyes. “It was the only way he’d agree to let us use the hell portal.”
His earlier words came back to haunt me, their meaning clear only now.
It’s not a trick, Gray. It’s a price.
“What, exactly, did you pay?” I asked.
“You know,” he said softly. His voice was breaking. So was my heart.
