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“We were.” She snarls, and suddenly she isn’t so pretty anymore. “Before he and Bess decided to drug me so they could bring a human over to ramp up his power levels. Gods, I was a trusting fool to drink their poison.”
No, I won’t believe that Leander and Bess plotted to hurt anyone. No matter what she says. Instead, I argue, “Leander said only fated mates could create magic.”
“And you believed that lie?” Her tone goes pitying. “Everyone knows it only takes a willing human to make magic. It’s a basic law of science.”
“Maybe they covered that in your world’s classrooms. Not in mine. Explain.”
“I’m his mate,” she says. “You’re just a human whore who bargained herself for sex, and he wanted what you could give him more than he wanted me.” Her voice almost breaks on the last.
Shit. I should’ve learned from my ex’s cheating. I’ve repeated a relationship with a man who needed what I could give him rather than me. Except this time it hurts a million times worse.
A horrible yowling comes from the hallway to my room and Leander’s. I jerk in that direction, the smell of smoke stinging my nose. The yowling comes again. One of pain and fear. Oggie.
My heart nosedives into whatever nightmare dimension might be below this one. “No, no, no.” I take off toward my room. I go faster, shouting for Oggie, for Bess, for Leander, for anyone who can help. Why does this damn maze have so many turns and sharp corners? Smoke pours overhead, and I crouch, but keep going. My breath comes too fast, and I choke. My eyes water and burn.
A huge shape runs out from the shadows, knocking me over. My head slams into the wall. Pain shoots through my temples, and blood trickles along my scalp through my hair. Clopping hooves hurry away from me.
“Bess?” I call but, with my breath slammed from my lungs in the fall, my voice’s too quiet, and no one answers. Screw this. No way will I die in this realm of liars and cheaters and fire-starters. Nor will I lose my demon cat.
Invoking my badass warrior self, I stumble forward, pushing past blurry vision and fighting for every step. “I’m coming, Oggie.”
19
LEANDER
I yell Meg’s name, but the roar of fire drowns out any response. Sweat pours off me, and my chest booms as if I have the mythical four bull hearts instead of just the one. Flames engulf her room, the heat knocking me back. The pops of explosions inside have me snarling.
Oggie zooms overhead in kitten form, shaking off the singe to his fur. Thank the gods he yowled for help. His fear for my mate terrified me so much that I almost tore into the tunnel between our suites, not caring about the inferno. While Oggie’s fireproof, I’m not. When he came out in this form instead of the demon one, I knew he hadn’t found her inside.
Using a push of magic, I seal the passageway. In the scorching heat, her pretty blooms would’ve shriveled and died before the blaze touched them. I can’t think about what she’s lost until I’m sure I haven’t lost her. She’s irreplaceable. The rest we can figure out later.
“Any sign of her?” I ask him. Sentinel demons typically only guard dimensional portals or divine artefacts treasured by the gods. I’m grateful that Oggie has appointed himself as her personal security.
He doesn’t answer, flying out of my suite and into the hallway with something clutched between his front paws. I follow because what else can I do except stop the flames from spreading through the castle? My hooves skid along the stone floor as I race after him.
“Oggie, thank goodness.” Meg’s voice comes from around the corner. Blood snakes along her left temple, she has ash in her hair, and scrapes cover her upper arm as if she slammed into the wall. I need to put out the fire, but I don’t want to let her out of my sight. The warring needs twist in my gut like a coiling serpent.
“Look after her a moment,” I tell the sentinel demon. He purrs in response and snuggles closer to Meg, letting her fret over the burned tip of his tail instead of healing the damn thing himself.
“I can look after myself,” she insists, despite the blood. When she follows, I don’t waste time arguing. No, I simply offer her the shirt off my back to keep her from inhaling more smoke than she already has.
Tapping into my magic that has slipped too fast in its power levels, I concentrate on extinguishing the flames, beginning at the edges of the blaze and working my way in without risking the structure of the castle and the maze. Ridding the place of smoke comes next. My lungs seize as though I’ve been punched in the chest. Cold sweat coats my upper body, a different sensation than what the heat had brought on. I shouldn’t be this tired from one fire. Not with the charge I’ve gotten from my mate.
Which means Theo’s theory about a siphon being out there is right, and Meg’s in danger so long as she stays. I’ve searched for an answer, distanced myself from her, tried everything I know to dodge the truth.
I have to let her go. Worse, if I’m blessed enough that she asks to stay, I must force her to leave. Anything else risks her life. I can’t deal with this right now.
Meg steps beside me into the doorway of her devastated room. “No.”
Nothing but ashes remains. The work she created the last few days? It’s all gone. If she’d been in there, she would be gone, too. I should’ve told her what Theo said, should’ve told him how close she came to dying at the market, should’ve protected my mate as my honored duty. I have failed her. I curse myself for her tear-filled eyes, the blood streaking her face, and the way she holds tight to Oggie as though ready to defend us instead of looking out for herself. My little warrior.
“I didn’t have a fire going in my hearth today,” she whispers. “I couldn’t risk it with the paint thinner.”
“You didn’t start this.” I glance at Oggie. He’s the only one who could’ve been in or near the room at the time. “Did you see anything?”
He drops whatever he flew out of my suite, and Meg catches it. “My game piece that I brought with me,” she says. “Lady Snarl, the one that looks like Bess. Hey, I thought Bess bumped into me in the hall.” She touches her scalp above the blood and winces. “I called out to her, but she didn’t stop. She probably didn’t hear me. We should go check on her. What if she found the fire and got hurt?”
Dread pools in my gut. “Or what if she set the fire?” I look to Oggie, yet he doesn’t offer any information. Sentinels guard. They don’t snitch. Or at least they don’t in my experience. But that clue, combined with Bess running into Meg outside the fire, and the fact that she sent my mate to Tauren’s stall when magic opened chasms in my world?
