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Sammael’s deep red skin pales, brightening to the shade of a red delicious apple. Yeah… I’m not wrong, am I?
He swallows roughly. “I… I did not know.”
“You wouldn’t, would you? Because, until now, you never had your mate, Sammael.”
“Duke Haures—”
Acting as though my mate’s voice hadn’t turned pleading, the duke tilts the flower in my direction again.
His attention solely on me, Sammael’s mouth clicks shut as everything gathered waits on bated breath to see what Duke Haures will say next.
And, whoa, is it a doozy.
“With this ashbalm flower, I can break the bond between the two of you.”
What?
Duke Haures pauses a moment for it to sink in.
Sammael’s big body jerks, the chains rustling with the motion. The guard at his back digs his claws deeper into his skin, controlling him, while I’m a few seconds behind my mate.
And then I understand: the duke is threateningourbond now—and he’s using the flower I risked myself to pick.
My mouth falls open as my stomach twists. Did I really give the ruler of Sombra the one ingredient he needed to sever this new tie between me and my demon mate?
Yes. Yes I did.
Duke Haures makes a big display of sniffing the ashbalm flower. I can only imagine what it smells like to him.
“It would be easy to do,” he says. “Sammael would return to the dungeons and, in time, I might trust him again to serve as my mage. The mortal female would have to forget him and Sombra, of course, and I’d have another mage who knows the spell to perform it since Sammael clearly refused to.” Another pause. Acalculatedone. “Or…”—or… or is good—“I could use the flower for something else.”
It’s obvious that he’s talking to me now. I finally find my voice again to reply to him. “Like what?”
“It depends on your answer. Is Sammael your mate? Or is he my prisoner?”
I don’t even hesitate. If I wanted to pretend like I’m not meant to be Sammael’s mate—if I wanted it so that Iwasn’t—I could have stayed back in Westfield after the two demons took him away from me.
But I didn’t. I went to Jericho, then I went to Sombra. I visited Nuit, Mavro, and the freaking shadows—and I did it all for Sammael.
I don’t just want to rescue him from Duke Haures’s clutches. I want to bring him home with me and continue what we started the night I taught him what a kiss… andmore…could actually be like.
I want the forever he promised me.
I want—
CHAPTER20
HOPE
HOPE
“Iwant him,” I tell the duke firmly. “I… Iclaimhim. If I’m his, then he’s mine. Your gods said so, and you might be some bondmaster or whatever. I don’t think you’re a god.”
Did I go too far? Possibly. But I’m right, and it’s about time someone told the duke that.
After giving me an appraising look—and, in my mind, I’m already imagining myself being tossed back inside of the shadows with no escape this time—Duke Haures cocks his head, then looks at Sammael. “And what do you say to that?”
His purple eyes gleam more brightly than I’ve ever seen as he peers across the throne room at me.
