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“Be at ease, Loki. You wear your female’s name on your skin, and its brand on your heart. She is yours. I’ll make that plain, but it isn’t your mating that interests me. It’s the book your mate is clutching in her hands.”
Why am I not surprised that, once again, everything comes down to this spellbook?
“You want it? It’s yours.” And I won’t even charge him any coin for it. My bookselling days are over, and I’m thinking it’s probably a good idea to get on the right side of the Sombra ruler.
But then he snorts. “What would I do with it? I have a mate of my own and no need for its magic.”
Oh. “Okay. I mean, I can bring it back to Nuit if you want. I just… that Glaine guy said to grab it before we left.”
“Yes. Because it doesn’t belong in Sombra.”
I figured. That’s why I tried to give it to Shannon before she left. She said someone else would take care of it, and seeing Nox and Amy standing near the duke, I’m beginning to think I know exactly who that is.
Leaning forward in his throne, Duke Haures explains.
“For two thousand years, I fought to keep Sombra separate from the human world. I don’t know how the grimoire found its way to Earth in the first place, but if it hadn’t, three of my demons would never have found their human mates. How many more are meant for your people? The only way to know that is to release the grimoire back into your plane.
“Of course, my first law still stands.” The law that says humans aren’t allowed to know about Sombra. “I won’t welcome just any humans into my realm. Only those who take a Sombra demon as their mate like my— like Amelia.” The duke gestured toward Amy with one of his claws. “After discussing it, she offered to bring it back with her.”
Amy nods. “I can’t explain it, but Duke Haures is right. As long as it’s in our world… the human world, I mean… somehow that book always ends up finding its way to someone who is fated to love a Sombra demon.” She glances up, tilting her head just enough to meet her mate’s gaze. “Right, baby?”
“My reason,” he murmurs, bending his neck, nuzzling the side of her head with his chin.
Loki reaches behind him, trailing one claw down my hip. Like he can’t help but touch me while the other couple is lost in each other.
And that’s when Sammael finally speaks up. “It’s magic.”
To be honest, I kind of forgot he was there.
“He’s right. It is magic,” Loki agrees. “Old magic, lost to our mages, but magic all the same, my heart. Just human magic now. It belongs in the human realm.” And then, because this Loki after all, he says, “As you belong with me and our family.”
Our family. Made up of a beastly demon, a human with a temper, a baby that will be a mix of both of us, and a chittering creature that I’m still convinced his half squirrel, half cat.
I tap the back of the book with my fingernail.
Human magic, huh? He’s not wrong. Maybe I thought the ‘true love’ spell inside of it was a dud at first, but there’s no denying it gave me exactly what it promised when Loki finally found me.
My true love, and a happily ever after.
“I assume you’re staying in Sombra?” asks the duke. “So you won’t need the grimoire anymore.”
I think I knew from the moment Loki picked me up and tossed me over like some kind of beastly caveman that I would never be going back to Earth again. And while I wouldn’t say no if I could hop a portal to get some things that remind me of home, that could be a vacation.
This is my home.
I explained that to Shannon, and I made sure the duke’s henchman got the hint. And now it’s Duke Haures’s turn.
“I got what I wanted.” Reaching for his big hand, I wrap my fingers around two of Loki’s. “And I dare anyone to take him from me.”
“Fierce little human. So tiny yet so bold.”
The fact that the duke has a reputation for being responsible for so many horned skulls dotting the edge of Sombra’s shadows is the only reason I swallow back my heated retort.
That, and the way Loki puffs out his marked chest in pride as he says, “And she ismymate.”
I don’t know why Loki’s mentor catches my attention in that moment. I was just about to walk over to Amy so that I could hand her the book—and possibly risk my head and Loki’s sanity if I triggered her scowly mate’s protective instincts—when my eyes flicker just beyond Duke Haures. They land on Sammael, and I freeze when I see his face.
That’s… that’s not jealousy on his demon features. That’s longing.
