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His hand presses to the small of my back, keeping us connected. Then, guiding me to walk with him, he brings me toward the duke’s throne so that I’m not standing by myself again.
Duke Haures doesn’t say anything about that. Instead, he nods over our heads at Loki. “The chains. You may remove them.”
Loki had stayed where he was even after the portal he created winked out and I stepped away from him. I had expected him to return to Nuit so that he could be reunited with Kennedy, though it makes sense when I remember that Loki’s the one who put the chains on Sammael. With Duke Haures’s permission, he joins us by the throne and waves both of his hands over Sammael’s chains.
Each cuff unlocks at the same time. The metal of the cuffs and the chainlinks connected to itclinkas they hit the floor before vanishing entirely.
Duke Haures nods again. “That will be all.”
Loki doesn’t hesitate. Just like I thought, he immediately summons another portal. A moment later, he’s gone.
So is that guard that had stood silently at Sammael’s back.
I don’t know when or where or how he disappeared, but he’s gone.
Good riddance.
Susanna, however, has edged closer to her mate’s dais, her shadow hovering even closer in case I decide to, like, bum rush her or something. I guess that, because she’s the duke’s mate, she gets her own bodyguard. I get that, but I’m not paying her any attention. Not really.
Oh, no. The only thing I’m focusing on right now is the way the ashbalm flower in Duke Haure’s hold has suddenly gone up in flames.
I gasp. I can’t help it. I worked so hard to bring that back here before I knewwhy, and I’m not sure how he did it—especially since he explained he’s not a mage like Sammael and Loki, but abondmaster—but the duke just freakingincineratedthe flower. Hopefully that’s a good thing, but excuse me if I’m just a bit bitter that all my hard work went up in flames like that.
The fire doesn’t seem to bother him. In fact, the source of it is definitely the duke because I can see the flames covering his palm, even licking down past his thick wrist as the flower burns.
Then, almost as quickly as the fire began, Duke Haures shakes his hand. The fire dies—and so does the ashbalm flower. No longer looking like a faded black carnation, it’s nothing but a pile of actual greyish ash cupped in the duke’s palm.
“Come here, Sammael.”
He doesn’t let go of me. Though the duke called my mate only, he brings me the rest of the way toward the throne.
This close, I can see the seven silver characters carved into Duke Haures’s shockingly white chest; just like Loki and Malphas, he bears the name of his mate: SUSANNA.
Once we’re within his reach, Duke Haures stands up from his throne. I have to swallow the ‘holy shit’ that nearly bursts free from me. He’s even huger than the throne made him seem, and I feel so incredibly insignificant standing in front of him.
But then Sammael loops his arm around my waist, tucking me into his side, and that feeling fades as I turn into my mate, holding him close.
Duke Haures turns his cupped palm over Sammael’s head, letting the ashbalm flower’s remains rain down on him.
As it settles over him, the weirdest fucking thing happens to the silver glyphs carved into his solid, red-skinned chest. It said ‘SPES’ before, I’d put money down on it, but the moment Duke Haures sprinkled the ashbalm flower’sashover Sammael, it’s like the letters danced over his skin, reforming into ‘HOPE’.
Now, just like the others, he wearsmyname.
I saw it. His gaze still geared upward, watching his ruler warily, Sammael didn’t.
“The ashbalm flower failed, your grace. Our bond seems stronger than before if anything.”
“Of course. Did you think I would go back on my word and remove it after your mate claimed you so boldly?”
Through the bond that’s definitely still between us, I get the idea that Sammael had expected it when the duke called him forward. He went anyway because he didn’t want to risk me being thrown in the dungeon—or the shadows—with him if that was to be his fate, but he brought me with him because the thought of letting go of my hand… he couldn’t do it.
And now he’ll never have to…
Duke Haures sits down again, leaning back in his throne, a self-satisfied grin curving around his tusks. “You love your female. I see that. Isensethat, Sammael. But the spell that summoned you to her left you splintered, your bond weaker than it should be… there would always have been a part of you that doubted you were worthy of the same. You gave her your essence, but there were a few drops that lingered in the shadows. Now, it belongs completely to her.” He gestures at Sammael’s chest with his claw. “Your mate bond is unbreakable now. Not even I could sever it. See?”
Sammael glances down at himself. And, his fangs overhanging his lush bottom lip, he grins when he notices the change in his chest.
To see him smile like that while wearing my name proudly on his skin?
