“Mate-Intended,” he said. “Please accept this small token as a congratulations on your upcoming joining with our powerful king.”
Yikes. I accepted the token. “Thank you, demon.”
I could feel the tension in Carmine’s forearm as we walked up to our thrones. The secret was out, and the entire realm knew.
Ha!
His gaze was upon me. “You informed the servants.”
I cleared my throat. “I was excited. I couldn’t keep our… love, uh, contained.”
Carmine brought the back of my hand to his lips. “Enamai…”
I hummed in question.
He looked into my gaze. “Be careful.”
After Tiers tomorrow, my dresses would be delivered, which would piss him off. But afterthat,I’d be more careful. Well, actually, there would be my joining dress, too, which he wouldn’t like… so I would be careful between the delivery of the first dresses and the delivery of the joining dress. “Yes, Carmine.”
“And yet the demure way you lower your lashes fails to convince me,” he said drily.
I sat and peered out over the royals and servants and demons from the realm. They were certainly gossiping about our intention. Which was nice for Gratia, as she dragged her new mate from the garden. Through the dirt.
My shoulders shook with more laughter. But really, my magus side felt terrible for the purple. I’d warned her of turmoil and heartache—and most of that would be worn by him. He’d deserved better than this mess of a life.
The demon part of me was more intrigued than anything else, and considering how his presence could benefit me.
Carmine had remained standing. “Silence.”
Just one time, I wouldloveif they kept talking.
“As many of you are aware, because my mate-intended was too excited to conceal the news, we have agreed to continue the mating rituals.”
Onemating ritual.
“We will prove our intention in a joining ceremony in the fortress, one week hence.” Carmine sat after.
And that was that. In a week, the day before the final round, I’d marry a monster. That shouldn’t mean anything, but I held the memories of dreams and wishes from my younger self. For years she’d dreamed of her joining day with Carmine.
So I held all the disappointment of having those dreams dashed by the monster who was my mate, too, and I couldn’t even enjoy feeling emptiness.
Most of all?
I felt sick that my visits to Adeuto would need to stop. I couldn’t risk drawing Carmine to my son. Which meant that after seven more days, I wouldn’t see my baby until Carmine was dead. Months or years.
I hadn’t allowed myself to feel that yet. I hadn’t dared to. But now, to my horror, I could do nothing else but tremble under the crashing waves of that wrenching loss.
The burning started in my throat and then worked up to my eyes. My hands shook, and I tried to conceal my bitter sadness by shifting on the throne and clutching the armrests.
No, don’t cry.I squeezed my eyes shut, then tried to be subtle as I brushed the few escaped tears away.
But then there were more than a few.
Fuck.
What if none of this plan worked? What if I never saw Adeuto again? Carmine’s mother would find them eventually.Mother be,was any of this plan worth it? I would have done better to simply live out as many of my days as possible with my son in hiding. We might have made it all the way until he was sixteen.
And then what? Death.
