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PROLOGUE
SAMMAEL
As I watch Loki’s mate pass theGrimoire du Sombraoff to the two-horn, I already know that there is not a single thing I won’t do to get my claws on that book.
It’s the only of its kind in existence, and not just because of how it was kept. In the archives of the School of Mages, very few scrolls are bound in creature-skin like the spellbook. And those that are? They are powerful grimoires that only the most elite of mages are allowed to open.
As Duke Haures’s personal mage these last few centuries, I have had the opportunity to flip through many of them. As much as I hungered for knowledge, thirsted for power, the one thing I craved more than all is my one true mate.
My female.
Myforever.
For nine centuries now, I’ve waited. I’ve searched. I’vehoped… and when the sole scroll featuring the ancient matefinder spell was stolen by my prized student only for Loki to fail in the cast and turn fully demonic, I resigned myself to continuing to do the same.
As powerful a mage as I am, I was always taught that magic wouldn’t bring me my mate. The only spell thatmight… a manifestation that could possibly search the other realms and planes and even the scattered clans of Sombra for my female… was a myth spoken of in hushed whispers at the School of Mages.
And then, mere decades ago, a portal into Sombra from the human realm of legend opened, summoning Duke Haures before he brought his mortal mate back to our world of shadows. Her name was Susanna, and she was the first to confirm that there was a matefinder spell—theverus amorincantation—in the grimoire she left behind.
Duke Haures’s first law as the ruler of Sombra is that the human world is off-limits to all demonkind. Since he bonded with his formerly mortal mate, I’ve been to the human realm on the duke’s orders multiple times. Of course. My mage specialty revolves around portal travel and the ability to weave enchanted chains for his enemies and his punishments so it was always my duty, as both his mage and one of his soldiers.
I did what was commanded of me, but I never forgot the promise of Susanna’s grimoire. When Nox—a hunter from a poorer clan on the edge of Sombra’s shadows—found he was fated to belong to a human spawn who was also Susanna’s kin, I was there to put him in his chains. Then, many cycles later, when Malphas—a clan artist from Nuit—was claimed by a pale-haired human. I, along with Glaine, traveled to the human world again and again… but though I hoped to find the book, I never did.
And then Loki—no longer demonic, his empty white gaze blazing its usual purple once more—brought his human female to meet with Duke Haures in Mavro this day.
His mate carried theSombra du Grimoirein her small, pale hands. She first offered it to Duke Haures, who haughtily refused it. He had a mate of his own, though he’s still careful to keep Susanna hidden from any and all threats, and no need for the grimoire.
Now that the book is responsible for at least four demon-human pairings, the duke decided that it was firmly human magic. Loki agreed. It needed to return to the human realm so that the charms would lead another mortal to summon their demon or demoness to them.
Loki’s mate is already with spawn. He has every intention to keep her in Sombra, safe and protected in his village. Returning to the human world to bring the book back was not an option for the two-horn.
Suddenly, from my post standing at the duke’s back, I understand why he insisted on Nox and his human mate, Amelia, joining this conversation. Having taken the portal from the human realm to Mavro so that Susanna could meet with her kin, Nox and Amelia were meant to return early this morning. Instead, Duke Haures sent his favored soldier to retrieve Loki and his Kennedy from Nuit, then told the other bonded pair to stay.
I was also commanded to visit the palace.
Glaine, on the other claw, faded to shadow once he’d accomplished his task. As much as he prizes being the lead guard for the duke, I know what it costs him to visit Nuit and see Lilith. He’ll be stalking around the gardens of Mavro, regretting the choices he made, while I stand here, watching my hopes of my own future slip away as Kennedy gives the book over to Loki.
Protective and possessive, Loki can’t allow his expecting mate to approach another male. It matters not that Nox wears Amelia’s name branded on his chest the same way Loki bears that of his tiny human female on his. His eyes might be purple now, but there’s a touch of darkness that clings to his pair of double horns. If he feels like his claim to his mate is at all threatened, he won’t hesitate to ram that threat with those horns.
That’s what he did in Nuit, attacking the former clan artist. From Apollyon’s reports, Loki has calmed since then, but the way he watches the three males in this room closely, I know that he wouldn’t hesitate to act to shield his mate and their future spawn.
I don’t want his mate. I want that book because, more than anything in this plane or any other, I simply wantmine.
It’s not even about having a family, either. I’m a selfish enough male that—like Nox and his mate who, after countless gold moons passing, still are without any offspring—I’d be content to solely have my female for my own.
And that book will make sure I find her at last.
From the moment I stumbled upon Duke Haures’s dark-haired, white-skinned female in the dungeons—where the duke stored her during the tumultuous early days of their mating—something about her soft features, ridge-free brow, and head absent of any horns… I knew. I simplyknew. Susanna Benoit was meant for my master, but there would be no Soleil demoness for me.
My mate will be one of the legendary humans.
Forbidden fruit and nearly impossible to find with the duke’s first law in effect, if my mate reallyisa human female, not even being his personal mage would save me from his wrath if I break the law that he issued more than two millennia ago.
Humans aren’t allowed to know that Sombra exists. Thatweexist. I cannot take a portal and hope that I stumble upon my one true mate because that world is banned for all of my kind, save for when Duke Haures sends us on a mission—or our mates summon us to their realm.
But what if I use theGrimore du Sombrato summon her tome?
I have the magic to do so. After centuries of training and experience, there is no one more qualified to read the ancient spells and wield them than I. The matefinder scroll from the archives went missing with Loki four hundred years ago, long before I chanced on Susanna Benoit and my instincts roared that I, too, would have a human mate. Perhaps I could have wielded that one, but knowing that the book Loki’s holding now is responsible for leadingfourof my fellow Sombra demons to find their human mates has me desperate to try the fabledverus amorspell.
