AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Be at ease,” I tell her, trying to soothe her. Through our fledgling bond, I can sense her upset. That is not what I intended, but I had no other choice. “The duke’s first law is that no other human can know that Sombra exists. Only a mate can. You are my mate, beloved. Your kin… yoursister… is not.”
She shakes her head. “I don’t know what the hell any of that means, but whatever the fuck you did, you better fix my sister!”
I can do that. Momentarily closing my eyes, I use magic to erase everything Hope’s kin has learned from her about Sombra, followed by the sight of myself emerging from the shadows in my demon form. I pluck out the memory of theGrimoire du Sombraand theverusamor spell, then plant the suggestion that her visit to my mate’s home will be nothing but a dream after she returns to her own.
That done, I open my eyes and gesture at the female, though not before I fade completely to the faintest of my shadows so there is no way she can see me.
Like Hope, she has eyes the same shade as Duke Haures. She blinks them a few times, then smiles at my mate. “Wow. Look at the time. I got almost an hour’s drive back to Helmetta, and that’s hoping there’s not traffic on the Parkway. It was good seeing you, Hope. If you’re not busy, you should really see if you can stop by for the twins’ Halloween parade next week.”
Hope glances over to where I last was. Her brow is furrowed, her lips pulled downward, but when she looks at Johanna again, she forces a grin. “Yeah, Jo. That sounds great. Tell ‘em I can’t wait to see them.”
“They’re going as Barbie and Ken. It’s adorable.”
“I’m sure it is.” One last glance thrown my way, then Hope accompanies her kin to the front door. “Text me when you get home, okay? Be safe.”
“You, too. And don’t spent too much of your time worrying about those break-ins anymore. I know you get worked up over things like that, but if it helps, I can get your one of those doorbell cameras for Christmas. Think about it, yeah?”
Hope frowns again, probably because we both know that that was not why she called her sister over for help earlier, but she says nothing. Instead, she waves the other female off. Only after Johanna is gone does she shut the door behind her, then face me again.
I shift back to my demon skin. It’s what she knows me best as after these last two nights together, and I want to make sure she recognizes me outside of the dream-plane.
Her hands go straight to her hips. “Sammael.”
Ah. So shedoesremember me. “Yes, my mate?”
She winces when I call her that. She shouldn’t. After giving me the mating promise, vowing to give herself to me, she is evenmoremy mate than she was before… but I keep that to myself as she peers up at me. “You fixed Jo… kinda… but I still want to know what you did to Jo.”
“All I did was erase all of Sombra from her knowledge for her own safety. She is not a mate. Her true love is a Mark,” I remind Hope. I was listening, waiting to see if she would cast the manifestation spell, and ready to swoop the book away if Hope’s kin attempted the magic herself. “Your true love is Sammael. We are not in breach of the duke’s first law.”
“You can do that? And then, what? You gave her a nudge to go home so that we could have this little chat? Because I am…” She shakes her head, as though unable to call herself what she is: my mate. “You can do that?”
That’s only the beginning of the magic I can wield now that I am whole again. “Of course. I am a mage.”
“Like a wizard? I thought you were a demon.” Hope frowns. “I thought you were aghost.”
“I was a phantom,” I correct gently.
“Same thing.”
To a human, perhaps. To a Sombra demon, being forced to exist as a phantom, able to watch but unable to touch… it was the price I had to pay for both my hubris and my impatience.
I only wish that it’s the only one I’ll have to pay.
I refuse to think about that for now. Not with the memory of Hope’s taste on my tongue, and the way my whole essence sings to know that she has given herself to me. It insists that I do the same. Already, I have made my mating vow to her countless times, even when she could not hear me, but I refrained from giving her my essence until she was ready to accept it.
She is now. At least, I believe she is—and even if she is not, I can answer all of her questions… make her understand everything about how I feel and what it means to be a Sombra demon’s mate… if only she’ll take my essence in return.
I hold out my hand. “Touch me.”
“No, no, no.” She holds hers up, warding me off. “I did that before. In my dream, remember? And that’s when all this crazy shit really started.”
She is wrong about that. This all started the moment I took the spellbook from Loki, betraying Duke Haures by stealing it for my own instead of leaving it in the human realm for another mortal to find.
But Hope still does not know that… yet.
I wiggle my fingers. “Please, Hope.”
“‘Please’,” she echoes, huffing under her breath. “That’s how you got me last time, too.”
