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“It pains me to see you on the other side of these bars, but you left me no choice.”
I know. “She was my mate,” is all I can say. For a bonded male like Duke Haures, that should be enough for him to understand—but he isn’t just a bonded male. He’s responsible for every soul in Sombra, and that means that he must do what’s best for all of us.
He believes that fraternizing with the humans is a danger to all demonkind. I must admit… as much as I love my Hope with every fiber of my being, I learned enough of the human world to know that he is right. There is a reason why Sombra and Earth cannot coexist. There is a reason why keeping the mortal and immortal worlds separate serves as Duke Haures’s first law.
I didn’t break it. Only one human that was not my mate learned of my existence, but I did erase the memory of my summoning from Hope’s female kin. Her sister. I kept to the tenets in the law—but that’s not why I’m here in this cell, wearing a prisoner’s chains.
And I am, all because…
“About the book—”
Duke Haures cuts me off with a wave of his hand. He has no magic, not like a mage, but I go silent at the gesture regardless. “Is it still in the human realm?”
Hope has it. “Yes.”
“Then I care nothing about theGrimoire du Sombra. You did what I expected you to. You brought the book to the human realm where it belongs and that’s where it’ll stay.” Duke Haures’s eyes cut through the shadows in the dungeons. “I also expected your return to Sombra long before I had to send my favored soldier after you.”
“I am sorry—”
He silences me again with another glance. “For what? For doing what a male in need of his mate is fated to do?”
I blink. That almost sounds as though I’m forgiven… “Your grace?”
“I know everything about my subjects. Especially those I keep close. I knowyou, Sammael. From the moment you left with the book, I expected this as well. But I also know that us Sombra demons aren’t meant to wield those spells on our own without… complications.”
Complications… yes. You can say that is what happened to me after I cast the spell and it turned me to a phantom until I found a way to convince Hope to read the manifestation herself.
“Four cycles,” he continues. “In the human realm, at least. Here, we’ve seen the gold moon pass twice—but you only just mated your female. You only just gave her your essence. Do you know why that is?”
Duke Haures never asks a question that he doesn’t already know the answer to himself. Just like he would’ve known that I found my mate but could not reach her, he had to have suspected that the spell failed on me, leaving me as a phantom.
His expression does not change at all as I tell him everything. Only then, when I finish my tale with admitting that I finally found a way to reach Hope, first through my dreams, then through her wee-jee board summoning, does he nod.
“That’s exactly what I thought. Of course, I couldn’t go to the human realm myself to prove my suspicions right. I had to bring you here. And since youdiddefy me… I see no reason why I can’t keep you here while I wait to meet your mate.”
My mate? Hope?
“That won’t be possible, your grace.”
Duke Haures has a surprisingly lovely laugh. I’ve always thought so, and he shows it off now. “And why is that, Sammael? Because you used magic to make her forget you?”
I don’t answer. He would know if I lied, and I don’t want to admit the truth.
I don’t have to.
“You bonded your mortal to you. Glaine confirmed it, and my guard is still loyal. And yet… while he insists you said you would, I know better. She remembers you, and if she’s truly meant to be your gods-given mate, she will find her way to you sooner or later.” His blue eyes glimmer. “Even with the chains.”
I know exactly what he’s referring to. Nox met his human mate when she was spawn, imprinting on her though he could not bond her to him since she was not yet a mature female. For fourteen human years, he stayed in a cell just like this one, wearing the same chains… but despite being on different planes, his mate reached through the veil, calling him to her.
Nox found a way to momentarily slip free from his chains so that he could answer her call. Apart from mages, only Sombra demons who have been summoned to different realms can return to them—and the hunter did.
He loved her too much to ignore her call. If Hope needed me, I would go to her, too.
But will my human call? We’re bonded, our instincts taking over shortly after the summoning, but though I love her, does she feel the same?
I had wanted more time. To show her that I can be the best male for her, her one true mate… and I got one moon before I had to say goodbye.
It was worth it. I won’t deny that. It was worth it—and from the way I look through the bars, meeting Duke Haures head-on, I show him that, given the opportunity, I would do the same thing all over again.
