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I try to speak, but my throat is hoarse. With a deep breath, I force out the words, “What did you just say?”
“I am capable of taking multiple forms.”
It takes several seconds for his words to fully register, and I clap a hand over my mouth. The sweet, attentive hound who followed me everywhere was the Boogie Man?
The same creature I poured out my heart to and allowed to sleep in my bed?
Bile rises to my throat, and I swallow back bitter betrayal. That hound was supposed to be my companion, my familiar, the only person in the world who was completely mine.
I thought I’d made a friend.
Rage surges through my veins and burns my skin. I back away from him on trembling legs.
“Why did you do it?” I ask.
He jerks his head to the side, as though explaining his trickery is tiresome.
“You’re determined to murder me with those claws,” I snarl.
He pauses. “Never.”
I hurry deeper into the darkened living room, my gaze landing on the dining table. The copies I made at the library are missing, but then I remember that I placed them on a high shelf.
Now, I understand why the hound tried to trash them. He didn’t want me reading up on spells that could send him back to hell.
“Alienor—”
“You told me time and time again that you wanted me dead.” I rush toward the papers on the shelf. “At least now I know why.”
The Boogie Man steps into my path and reaches for my shoulders.
“Listen to me.”
“Why?” I duck and continue toward the papers.
His growl makes my spine seize up with a cold shiver, and I stiffen.
“If I suffered what happened to you, I’d also become murderous,” I say. “Eleanor of Aquitaine used magic against you before your marriage and throughout. That’s the worst kind of violation.”
“That is true,” he replies.
I continue toward the shelf, but he doesn’t follow.
The papers rest in a messy stack, some of them torn apart by claws. I snatch the pile and rifle through each copied page, trying to find the spell to banish faeries.
“Your wife cursed you into an eternity of chastity, so you wouldn’t cheat—”
“I would never—”
“But she tried to steal your throne, she killed your mistress, then when she finally got some magic of her own, she used it to commit your murder.” My breath catches with a sob. “It’s no wonder you want revenge.”
“You’re wrong.”
My gaze catches on the word BANISHMENT on a paper torn in half. Now, I’ve got to find the rest of the spell before he snatches them from my fingers.
“I can’t listen to you anymore. The only time you’re ever nice to me is when you want to get sexual. Your personality switches the moment you’re satisfied, then you’re back to being vengeful.”
“That is untrue.”
