AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Looking back at him, I don’t see his fangs, his rust-colored skin, the ridges that stand out along his brow… I’m only vaguely aware that he’s a foot and a half taller than me, that he could swoop me up in his embrace and make me vanish completely from either world.
At that moment, as I see all the love and affection written in every bit of his awed expression, I kinda feel like we have.
Sammael rumbles deep in his chest before he says out loud, “That I pity those who don’t have Hope for their mate. There is none better, but they will never know because, now that she’s claimed me, I will never stand for any to separate us again.”
“Even I, my mage? Is that what you’re saying?”
Duke Haures asks his question so conversationally, I almost forget that he has the authority to keep Sammael in those chains. If he decides on a whim to put him back in his dungeons, there is nothing we can do to stop him except see if he’d let me go with Sammael; at least that would be better than the shadows.
Because my big monster mate did get one thing right. They took him from me once, but I faced my fears and not only drove across state lines to find him—I went to a demon realm! I willingly walked into a wall of black shadows with glowing white eyes looking at me like I was lunch!
A stint in the dungeons with Sammael as my cellmate? That spell I read—no matter why I did it—promised me my true love. So what if my true love turned out to be a seven-foot-tall demon who shows his affection by bringing me acorns and watching over me while I sleep?
I meant what I said. He’s mine, and I’m not going to leave his side. The only reason why he was sentenced to the dungeons in the first place is because he wanted his mate and was desperate enough to steal that old spell book, then spend four months haunting me.
He loves me. From the moment he found me in my dreams, holding out his hands while saying ‘please’, I think I already felt a pull toward him. It’s only grown stronger since, and now that I know that when a Sombra demon says forever, he meansforever… that the bond between a demon and their mate is so absolute that I’ll never have to worry about human concerns like divorce or growing apart or any kind of cheating if he Duke Haures doesn’t use the ashbalm flower against it… I’m ready to open my heart up to Sammael the way I’ve already let him have my body.
Well, except for during the gold moon. I haven’t changed my mind about being childfree and, luckily for me, everything I can sense about Sammael thanks to his essence makes me realize that he feels the same. He just wants his mate, to honor her and to spoil her, to pleasure her and to keep her safe and protected—and, no matter what happens next, he has her.
Like I told the duke, if I belong to Sammael, he belongs to me.
Sammael shakes off the guard’s hold. Surprisingly, Glaine lets him, staying motionless as my mate marches over to me.
Despite the chains keeping his hands bound together, he reaches out, swallowing up my fingers in his large, warm hand. Without letting go, he glances over his shoulder, finding Duke Haures’s vaguely amused expression.
“Yes,” Sammael says simply. “The chains bind my magic. They keep me from turning to shadow. They take my strength, but when I hold Hope’s hand in mine, I need none of that to know that I will sacrifice everything for my mate. Including my loyalty to you, my lord. I’m sorry, but from the moment I found Hope, she’s earned it all. My essence was just the last I gave her until I became hers and hers alone.”
“Forget the bond for now. What if I banish you to the shadows instead of my dungeons? The first law isn’t my only, as you know all too well. You stole from Sombra, Sammael. You stole from me. You risked your mate, and the other females. You riskedmine. I’ve sent better males to the shadows for less.”
Sammael gulps visibly before shaking his head royally, his long black hair settling over his shoulders. “Then I’ll end this existence with her name on my chest and on my lips so long as you spare her.”
Wait—what?
“Sammael.”End this existence… like,die? He’s supposed to be immortal—but does that mean he can’t be killed? Is that what’s going on? Is Duke Haures threatening to execute him? Panicking, I squeeze his fingers, clutching them tightly. “No!”
It comes out more shrill than I intended, but what else could I do? I only just found him. The idea that I could love him and never worry about being betrayed, neverlosehim… and now this?
Sammael’s head snaps back so that I have all of his attention. “Hope—”
It’s in the way he says my name. It’s in the way I’m tapped into him, even with the magic of the charmed chains working to close off part of our bond even without the ashbalm interfering with it. I already have his soul… his essence… whatever he wants to call it. His heart, too.
But he’ll also sacrifice his life for me if he must, and he’ll go to his end simply grateful that he had those few ‘cycles’ with me.
Good for him. Me? I had barely two days with him outside of my dreams and, sorry if I’m greedy as fuck, but I wantmore.
“You’re my forever mate. My true love! That’s how this is supposed to work, right? That’s what Shannon said… and you, Sammael. You said, if I bond myself to you, you’ll never leave me. You already did once. Don’t do it again!”
“I do not want to, my mate—”
“Sodon’t.” He’s being stubborn, the big idiot. I know what he’s doing. Just like when he let Loki put him in chains, he thinks he’s being all noble and protecting me.
Screw that.
Letting go of Sammael, ignoring the way I get a pang of both pain and remorse as though he thinks I’ve changed my mind and I’m rejecting him now, I turn to the duke.
Before I can say anything, though, Duke Haures lifts his hand. “Be at ease, female. I just had to make sure that, if I was losing my best mage, it was because he wanted to go and not because fate said he must. That is all. Forgive me, if you would.”
I’m not the only one who is filled with confusion at the duke’s comment—and sudden change of heart. I mean, I’m glad he’s trying to calm me down—and he should, since he’s the one who got me all wound up in the first place—but what is he saying now?
