The day before.Carmine was attacking Tempest tomorrow? Which meant he would soon discover the truth anyway.
But she had her demon back, an advantage Carmine had no idea about. That edge could make all the difference. I had to go through with this.
When his speech was over, Carmine turned to me again.
I faced him and held up my palm, placing the other hand behind my lower back.
The veil was proving a wise choice, becauseallthe things he wanted of me burned in his gaze—that another might have mistaken for fury.
I saw lust in his gaze. I saw ambition.
And I saw something deeper that worried me.
“You are beautiful,” he told me.
The outfit had been wasted on him. He didn’t even see it. He couldn’t even see my face. Carmine could onlysenseme under here.
When I didn’t answer, he placed his palm against mine and the other arm behind his back. Now came the part I dreaded—opening my power to him. There were ceremonial words that I used to recite in my later teens whenever sleep escaped me.
Then I would open to him, and him to me.
Our magic would handle the rest.
He started, “Mate-Intended, I declare my intention to you. To walk beside you in immortality, in smoke and scale. I declare my intention to protect you and fight any who seeks to harm you. My intention is to exist in all the gifts and glory that our mating has to offer.”
I gasped as Carmine opened his power, and my palmlockedto his. I couldn’t have pulled away if I’d tried.
Ididtry, and Carmine grunted at my efforts to be free.
The book hadn’t said anything about hand gluing. I took a steadying breath, but when I tried to speak, the words lodged in my throat.
Mother be.They wouldn’t pass. A strangled noise left me instead.
“Are you well, enamai?” Carmine said low.
Well?This bitch was prepared for battle. She just couldn’t talk. I answered him easily enough. “The words won’t come out.”
Because funnily enough, I had no intention.
Ice crept over his face. “Make them.”
“I—” I forced out.
Intend to kill you,I thought.Hate your existence. Hate that I met you. If an opportunity presented itself to end you right now, I would take it.
I imagined my grandmother sitting in the front row and cheering those words. If Carmine had glowered at her, she would’ve flipped him the bird and told him where her fucks given were parked.
I hadn’t considered this part—that I might have tomeanwhat I said.Shit.This was a problem because the next part to this would be Carmine threatening Tempest. Which meant he’d either try to drag Tempest hereorhe’d drag me to Tempest. Either way, he’d find out there was no twin in the dungeon.
He leaned forward, a smile fixed in place as he whispered in my ear, “Do I need to remind you what’s at stake?”
Called it. “I’m trying.”
“I—” I said again. “I?—”
Tempest would be in the front row, laughing. Mother, though… she had always preferred games of the mind. A game like this.
I couldn’t say the traditional words of the intention ritual. But I could say something that was true. Not my murderous plans, but something between.
