The power and heat that had been streaming from the horn dulled, and the absence of magick left me shivering. Panic tore through me while anxiety clawed at my throat, almost as tightly as the barbs of Mama’s choker. The magick—I needed it back.
“You don’t get to decide when I’ve had enough.”
“That’s true,” he replied. “But I get to decide whenI’vehad enough.”
I let out a scoff. “I thought you said your want for me was endless.”
“It is. Which is why I have to be the one to draw a line. Otherwise, the only thing we’d ever do is fuck and feed. Fuck and feed. You’d never sleep. You’d never eat. You’d only be mine. Over and over and over.”
My lip quivered. I reached out through our connection to try to convince him another way, to let him see that I was fine, but I ran into a wall of stubbornness. He was afraid he would break me. That he’d gone too far,too fast. But I didn’t want to be treated like glass. Not when power was collecting in my body. Not when I felt likethiswas the answer to my unstable magick.
I needed himandthe demonic relic. Together, they would remake me. The two felt tangled, impossible to separate. I needed to become strong. For Sera. Always for Sera. And for him. And… for the thing we weren’t saying out loud.
My throat tightened as I lifted my gaze back to my mate. Bastien had shown me a vision inside his council room. Of a baby.Our baby.The one he feared might kill me. The one I feared, he promised, Tyson would never be born.
When I closed my eyes, I saw his little face staring adoringly up at me. His cold fingers tangling in my hair. It was a vision so vivid I could feel my heart reshaping around it. It was the one image, the one thought, that felt like destiny. Opening my eyes, I saw Bastien’s, which were the same shade of winter frost as our child’s. I pledged to master my dark magick for them. To free myself from Mama’s curse and be the woman strong enough to keep them safe.
I knew Bastien was absorbing the storm of my emotions through our shared connection. His jaw clenched and unclenched, as if he were waging a war between his desire for our family and his resistance to it. “I almost lost you twice. I will not risk your life again. No matter what.”
“This has nothing to do with me needing rest. You’re afraid ofhim. Our child.”
He swallowed hard. “Of course I am.”
For a moment, I had no words. I could only glare at him. “Since when has a baby scared the Duke of Roselyn?”
“Since I saw himkillingyou.”
If I closed my eyes, I could see it too. The bites on my neck. The sickly pallor of my skin. The way my body failed while he thrived. I glanced at the horn, and somethingpushed back against that image. That wasn’t how my story ended.
“You saw the girl I was,” I told him. “Not the woman I am. Not the witch I will become.”
“Claire…”
His pity stoked a flare of shame in my belly, burning hot up my throat. But I refused to buckle. Jaw high, shoulders squared, I gestured to the two wolves bonded to me. “Hera underestimated me. I’ll ask you not to do the same.”
He tried to reach for me, but I jerked away. He grimaced. “This has nothing to do with underestimating you. I’ve always seen the fire. I’ve always known you were made to burn as bright as the stars. But… there is much we don’t understand about why you received this power and why it doesn’t work properly.”
“The answer is here! Between you and me. And in this horn,” I insisted, holding it up for him. “I can feel my power charging when you touch me. If you would onlytry.” He ran a hand over his face and gave the barest shake of his head, and with that one dismissive gesture, my temper came exploding out. “You and your stubbornness are what’s keeping me from my magick!”
“My stubbornness is the only thing keeping you alive!”
And there it was. The truth he was clinging to. I pushed away from him, not wanting to hear the rest, but Bastien didn’t relent. “You can’t feed me and a baby, Claire,” he continued as tears pricked in my eyes. “We would kill you. And the worst part is”—his voice broke—“you’d let yourself die trying to prove me wrong.”
I crossed my arms and turned away from him. I had nothing more to say. Nothing at all.If he thought so little of me, if he put so much trust in some half-formed vision, then this conversation was over.
“Once we arrive at Chastity’s Stronghold, she will know how to remove that necklace. I believe it’s interfering with your magick. Once that’s taken care of, we can discusseverything else.”
I let out a disgusted huff. I didn’t need the help of some witch I didn’t know. I was ready to walk into the darkness, to embrace this power I grew up fearing, to become the woman no one needed to protect. And… to hold the baby I never thought I’d have.
“I want to charge my magick,” I demanded in a voice that didn’t altogether sound like mine. It was stronger. Fiercer. The voice of a woman who didn’t quake. I lifted the curved sheep’s horn Cora had gifted me. The one she’d claimed was her Gran’s favorite relic. I was the new owner of her grandmother’s magick, so it seemed fitting that I follow this instinct. “And when I do, I will take care of the necklace myself. Then I’ll prove that I’m strong enough to bear our child.”
The pressure of phantom barbs squeezed around my throat, a warning to bite my tongue about the necklace. I tried not to let the pain or the panic show on my face, but Bastien’s attention was on the relic. He was looking at it with the coiled focus of someone spotting a shadow where there shouldn’t be one. Something ancient passed across his expression, so faint most people would miss it. But our bond wouldn’t allow it.
“What is it now?” I asked.
He slowly reached for the horn. I jerked my hand away, not wanting him to take it, but he grabbed my wrist and held me still. As soon as he touched me, the world inside himdetonated. Ourbond surged so violently that I gasped. Shockwaves of emotion slammed into me before he could shut it down. A dark, violent flash ofknowingso old it tastedlike iron.
He let go of my wrist, and the connection between us slammed shut like an armored gate. Breathless, he said, “I need to speak with Sir Gavin about the plans for Roselyn’s security while we’re away.”
