I let out a snarl that sounded more animal than human. Bastien had banished my demon permanently? Things started to make more sense. His fear. His hesitance. It was cowardly.
“Tell me what to do!” I demanded of Devlinn, interrupting their useless bickering. “We need this power to unlock the door.”
“Claire, you are done.”
“You don’t say when I’m done!” There was menace in my words, but I couldn’t stop myself. I needed this to work. I wasn’t going to let him stop it.
Bastien slammed his cane into the snow, then pointed it at Devlinn’s chest. “Devlinn, get in there and charge your magick. You can unlock the door.”
Tansy gasped.
“I won’t do it, Your Grace,” Devlinn said defiantly.
Bastien towered over him. “And what if I ordered you to?”
Without breaking eye contact with Tansy, Devlinn replied, “Then you’ll have to kill me, Your Grace.”
Bastien growled again, and I did not want him to do something he’d regret. “Enough!” I shouted at my mate. Then turned to my mentor,my friend. He was my only hope now. Theonly way I could free whatever was inside me. “Devlinn, tell me what to do.”
He split a look between Bastien and me, as if waiting for permission to continue. When Bastien didn’t immediately shove him to the ground, he got down on his hands and knees and faced me, just outside of the circle. Lantern light flickered across his features. “Claire, everything is going to be alright. Okay? I need you to know that first.”
I sucked in my bottom lip to stop myself from crying. I was so angry, and tired, and burning from the inside out.
“Now,” he continued, speaking slowly, “if you’re not connecting with Gorrath, and heisin the Underworld, then you need more magick inside the circle.”
A sob threatening break past my lips, but I wouldn’t let it. Everything inside of me was trembling. “How do I do that?”
Devlinn spared Bastien another look. My husband looked like he was ready to draw steel any moment, but knew a sword wasn’t going to help me. “There was one way my granny always swore by, and it-it’s to make love in the circle. Release always pulls in dark magick.”
The circle fell silent. Sex. The answer was sex. Somehow… I’d known. I’d known it was Bastien and the horn that would fix whatever was happening inside of me.
“You can’t be serious,” Bastien snapped.
Devlinn sat back on his heels and chuckled. “After watching your granny ride your papa in a chanting circle, you start to believe a thing or two about power.”
I tried very hard not to allow that image to form in my mind. But it did anyway. And some of the anger flooded out of me. I remembered why I wanted this magick. And it wasn’t just to open a door or to be powerful. It was to pursue the future that I wanted. Where I was free of this choker, and I could have a family with Bastien.
“Your Grace, I’ve seen it work,” Tansy was saying. “Before we quit charging our magick, it was my favorite way to help Devlinn charge his.”
I looked pleadingly at Bastien. He stared at me like he was facing a line of invaders. As if to say there wasno wayhe was going to make love to me inside a magick circle so I could summon Gorrath.
“We’re running out of time,”I told him.
“It’s too dangerous!”
I squeezed my fists together.“This is who I am now.”
“I can help Claire, Your Grace,” Devlinn offered, interrupting the silent argument. “If she wanted me to.”
Panic clawed at my chest. “That is a kind offer,” I said, trying not to look at Bastien. “But what about Tansy? I could never…”
“Claire, we became consorts for a reason,” Tansy asserted. “We’ve never been intimidated by sharing each other. I know where his heart lies.”
Their love was so strong, so pure, so endless that it was inspiring. To be so sure of one another. To know nothing, or no one, could tear you apart. I met Bastien’s worried gaze and saw the passion and love there. I longed to touch him, to go to him. To make him see my perspective.
“It would be important that we release at the same time,” Devlinn explained. “It’s crucial to the flow of power.”
A murderous rage flared in Bastien’s ice blue eyes. Devlinn had no idea how close he was to being decapitated by my vampire mate. He would never allow another man to touch me, not even for this. But there seemed to be no other way. If he shut this down, I’d have to wait another month to perform the spell. And who knew what would happen in that time?
