His reply scraped against me. “I want this baby.”
Bastien moaned, and warmth spread through me. As soon as I felt it, the heat consumed me. I was lost. Gone to the flames. Gone to him. Just… gone.
Chapter 20
Basculer
CLAIRE
Iawoke with a start. Bastien was shouting for Devlinn as he held me in his arms.
“I’m right here, Your Grace!” Devlinn took one look at the blood on our faces and said, “I take it that you found a way to make the ritual work?”
Tansy rushed to my side, smoothing back my hair. “Of course they did. Look at her eyes, they’rered.”
They were? Had it worked? Had we done it? I couldn’t seem to remember anything after that flash of heat.
“Are you alright to stand?” my mate asked.
I nodded. “Yes, I think so.”
He carefully set me on my feet, then opened the waterskin he kept on his belt and offered it to me. “Drink.”
I took a big sip and used it to rinse the blood and black rot out of my mouth before swallowing.
“Give her the spell to open the door,” Bastien directed Devlinn.
He drew his sword, and I gave him a bewildered look. “The werewolves are coming. They’ve caught our scent.”
With his weapon in hand and pale blond hair catching in the wind, I longed to be back in his arms. He’d done the thing he’d sworn he’d never do. And he did it to help me get my magick. I couldn’t explain what it meant to me to know this man would do anything,anythingfor me.
“I take itMiss Donadieucan use her magick now?” Tyson asked, being pointedly discreet. He was standing behind Tansy, along with Lady Okeri. Both wore matching looks of amusement.
Embarrassment heated my cheeks. Tyson was a vampire after all, and his preternatural hearing meant he likely heardeverything. Although I think I was loud enough that the whole army might know.
“You will protect her. With your life,” Bastien commanded his nephew. “Swear it on your honor as an Allard and as my heir.”
The word heir caused me to touch my stomach. The warmth of his seed was already leaking between my thighs.
“I swear it,” Tyson said.
“Where are you going?” I asked, already knowing but not wanting to believe it.
Bastien continued speaking to Tyson as if he hadn’t heard me. “As soon as the door is open, get everyone inside as fast as you can. I’m trusting you.”
Only then did his eyes find mine. I knew he didn’t want to leave his nephew in charge. He wanted to stay by my side and protect me. And even though I wanted him near while I tried to work this spell, and for a million other reasons, he was the general.
“Go. We’ll get the door open.”
His pained look nearly broke my heart in two. “I know you will.”
“I love you,”I told him through our bond.
“I love you with everything inside me.”
He was gone in the snap of a black cloak, disappearing into the press of bodies. Shouts and the scream of steel rent through the air.
“The spell, Devlinn! Give her the spell!” Tansy shouted, shoving him forward.
