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As Hope pulls on her coverings, I watch from my post in her bed as though this glimpse of her delectable mortal body is that last I’ll have. I savor the scrap of silk traveling up her legs, hiding her soft cunt from my view. I do the same when she binds her breasts before pulling on a piece that covers her completely on top, then another for her bottom. I know from her essence that they’re her favored ‘sweats’, and what she usually wears when she is staying in her quarters instead of going to her library.
I also understand why she spends all of her time surrounded by books. She loves them, but tending to them is her way of earning the coin that all humans need to possess in their realm. There is no barter system or trades like we have in Sombra, and my Hope must purchase her food rather than hunt it.
I am her male. Hermate. There is no way for me to earn coin myself without breaking the duke’s first law, so I would provide for her in other ways. I shall give her pleasure, then gratefully eat the meals she creates. I shall make it so that her jingly bits of metals—her keys—and her foot coverings—her slippers—do not get lost, and she will bring happiness to my life just by existing.
A perfect pair we are. I have my magic returned now, and once I understand all of her needs, I will use my powers to conjure her whatever her heart desires. I will strive to prove myself to her for as long as I can—
—but, to my deepest regrets, it is nowhere near long enough.
My one relief is that Hope is not in her private quarters when the portal into Sombra suddenly appears. After covering herself, she has gone downstairs in search of the morning meal she calls ‘breakfast’, and I am lying in her bedding, enjoying the sweet scent of her cunt and my seed mingling together that fills the space.
It has barely been an entire human day since Hope summoned me and, after completing the essence exchange, accepted me as her mate. I should be grateful that Duke Haures gave me that much time. The ruler of Sombra, he has the ability to sense whenever a portal off-plane opens, and I’ve always suspected that his unique brand of magic would also tell him when theverus amorspell summoned one of his subject to the human world.
My portal here opened more than four cycles ago. As a phantom, Duke Haures couldn’t send any of his guards to find me since it was as though I no longer existed. From the moment Hope fixed that—fixedme—he must have bided his time, waiting to send his soldiers after me for my crimes.
I have done the same for him many times. Usually, the first visit is a warning unless the demon has already broken the duke’s decrees. With Malphas, Glaine and I visited him on Earth to remind him that he must bond his human mate to him before the next golden moon or it would be chains for him.
All Sombra demons know when the gold moon occurs in our realm, whether we’re on that plane or not. We just passed the second since I left my home, but now that I’ve claimed Hope as mine, there is no worry that the gold moon serves as a deadline for our mating.
But that’s not why the familiar pair of males are emerging from the portal, stepping from the shadows of Sombra into the sanctity of Hope’s private quarters, is it?
Glaine steps out first. He’s firmly in his shadow form, all inky blank with the edges of his shadows wavering as he steps forward, his blazing green eyes finding me in Hope’s bedding.
I match him. If he’s choosing to be shadow, I do the same as I move so that I’m standing, facing off against my fellow guard.
Especially since Loki is also wearing his shadows.
I don’t know him as well as I do Glaine. For centuries, he was my pupil, but then he stole the matefinder spell and spent a full century in the shadows on the edge of Sombra. He lost control and lost his essence, his purple eyes turning white as he went demonic, and though he’s changed—his human mate bringing him back from the brink—he is not the male I once knew in the School of Mages.
I recognize him, though, even in his shadows. The outline of his double pair of horns makes it obvious who he is, as well as the deep purple shade of his eyes and the tense way he carries his bulk as though prepared to turn solid and ram into me at a moment’s notice.
For so many centuries, I was the mage that built the portals that carried Glaine off-plane to do Duke Haures’s bidding. Since I vanished, it seems as though Loki took my place.
He says nothing as he drifts behind Glaine, leaving the guard to take point.
Glaine meets my gaze. “Where is the book?”
I’m not surprised he asks. Deep down, I knew that—when they came for me… and theywouldcome for me—it would be because of theGrimoire du SombraI stole.
Where is it? It’s downstairs where Hope left it before we made our way to her quarters. I don’t tell Glaine that, though, since he would go and retrieve it—and I do not want Hope to know he is here.
So I tell him, “It is with my mate,” because it’s the truth and all I’m willing to offer my old friend.
He nods, accepting that. Then, his nostrils flaring, he must confirm that Hope is mybondedmate from our mingled scents in the room because Glaine’s eyes glare, a bright green shade similar to that I’ve seen on the streets outside of Hope’s home.
“You have made her yours so soon,” he says.
“She is my bonded mate.”
Loki and Glaine exchange a look. The younger demon shakes his head, showing off his two-horns, while Glaine’s scowl deepens.
“We were supposed to retrieve you before you claimed your mate,” he explains. “I was led to believe that humans tend to make their demons wait until closer to the gold moon. That there would be enough time to settle this before you involved the mortal.”
Some of the humans might have. Not my Hope.
She is not quite a mortal anymore, either. Now that I’ve given her my essence and my seed, she is as immortal as I am. Her human lifespan is now unending, just as though she was born a demoness, and even if something happens to me, she will live on… until she chooses not to, that is.
I have not had the chance to explain that to her yet. From my essence, she would know that, but she’s only had access to it for such a small amount of time. So, while my mate understands the concept of ‘forever’, there are details that she still needs to learn.
