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“I don’t know.”
“You bonded yourself to him, right? Got some of that shadow dick, right? You have his essence. Use it.”
Shannon might be one of the most entertaining women I’ve ever met. She obviously has no filter, but she’s helping me so I’m just gonna look past the easy way she refers to mating Sammael as ‘getting shadow dick’.
“How do I do that?”
“I… I can’t really explain it,” Shannon says. “You just… you do it. It’s like tapping into them to find out what makes them tick. It’s instinctive.”
Before it gave me a headache, I could do that with Sammael. But since he’s been gone…
I shake my head. “I can’t.”
“The chains,” offers Malphas. “When Nox wore them, he said they cut him off from his Amy. Maybe it’s the same for Sammael and his Hope.”
Look at that. So grown-up Amy also has a mate. I bet Susanna does as well, and if I can find a way to get Sammael back, maybe I’ll add my name to the book, too.
Then again, maybe not. Shannon is taking me showing up here like a crazy person a whole lot better than I would if I were in her shoes. That’s the last thing I need. Some other demon’s mate tracking me down at the library to ask me questions.
No, thanks.
I just want Sammael. That’s all. I want my mate back, and to begin planning what forever after looks like with him.
I get my first glimpse watching Malphas and Shannon. From what she tells me, they’ve been together for more than a year, they have a home together, and a family they’re getting ready to start a family.
They’re happy.
I want that—but not if I can’t get to Sammael.
“I don’t even know why they put him in chains. He said that humans aren’t allowed to know about him. They don’t! It’s just me. There’s no reason to take him as a prisoner.”
Shannon snorts. “There doesn’t have to be a reason, Hope. Sending demons after the good guys, putting them in chains or threatening to… that’s just what the demon dickhead does.”
“My flower…”
Shannon rolls her eyes, lips quirked in a small grin. “Sorry, babe. I meantdemon duke.”
“Duke Haures,” rumbles her mate. “The ruler of Sombra.”
“Big guy. Crazy white skin and creepy blue eyes.” Shannon reaches up, waving over her ponytail. “He wears a crown, too, in case the throne and the castle and the guards everywhere in the capitol don’t make it obvious he runs the show. Just another reason why me and Mal stick around Jericho unless we have to go to the healer to check up on our kiddo.”
I know I shouldn’t let it distract me. But now that she mentions it…
“I’m sorry.” It’s been bothering me from the moment I put two and two together and realized that she was about to pop—and that her Sombran mate is the father. “But humans and demons… so ‘shadow dick’ really leads to… I don’t know… hybrid babies?”
“That’s what they tell me. Since I’m the first we know who’s gonna give birth, I guess we’ll all find out.” With an amused gleam in her eyes, she leans in and says, “We got a pool going on if my kiddo’s gonna eventually come out with horns or not.”
“We? I thought no one is supposed to know that Sombra demons exist.”
That’s what Sammael told me. He used magic to take Johanna’s memories of him from her, and he tried to do the same to me before they dragged him away. Good thing it didn’t work on me, but if he didn’t have to do that to my sister…
“Oh, yeah. Big trouble if anyone finds out. Chains, remember? Woof.” Shannon shakes her head, long blonde ponytail swaying with the motion. “Not fun. That’s why, when I say ‘we’ like that, I mean the other mates. Amy thinks horns are a ‘yes’. Kennedy’s praying it’s a ‘no’ because she can’t imagine what they’ll do to her vagina on the way out. Me, I was a toss-up until Kennedy said that and now I’m a ‘hell fucking no’ because yikes, right?”
“Fear not, my mate,” rumbles Malphas. “I shall continue to love your cunt no matter what happens to it.”
Shannon laughs, bumping up against his side. “You better, big guy. You’re the one who did this to me.”
Malphas drapes one arm over her shoulder before bowing over her, cradling her bump. “To bring more Shannon into this realm or any other… it is my greatest masterpiece.”
