I saw the sword resting on his lap, and I realized it was because he hadn’t let them. He’d been guarding my body while I slept. Standing vigil instead of doing something to help himself.
I tried to push myself up, but the room tilted violently. I fought through the sickness once again. “Drink,” I demanded of him. “Now.”
“I’m fine,” he muttered.
A blatant lie. Firelight from the nearby hearth revealed his ashen skin and sunken eyes. “Don’t be ridiculous,” I whispered. “Just feed. Please. I can’t stand seeing you like this.”
He attempted a smile. “I’m not taking anything from you while you can barely sit up.”
This stubborn, impossible man.
Bastien smoothed the hair from my face, gently tucking it behind my ear. His knuckles brushed my collarbone on the way down. “I have something for you.” He opened his palm and noticed he was holding my bloodstone. The one he’d removed during the ritual. “May I?”
I hadn’t realized how naked I’d felt without it until now. “Please.”
He draped it around my neck and fastened the clasp. I touched the gem, feeling whole again.
“There. Much better,” he observed, admiring it. Then eased back against the pillow and closed his eyes.
“I didn’t think you slept,” I said.
He raised his brows, but kept his eyes closed. “I don’t. But sometimes, I rest.”
I kissed his cheek. “Rest, then.”
His hand found mine, fingers curling around my wrist like even unconscious, he needed to know I was still there. Only then did the tension leave his shoulders.
Slowly, reluctantly, Bastien found the stillness vampires called rest.
I stayed propped beside him, watching. Love swelled in my chest until it ached. I moved our hands to my stomach and tried to rest, but every time I closed my eyes, devastation waited for me. The bodies. The wreckage. After everything—my husband’s wounds, Devlinn’s death—I still had no answer for how to remove Mama’s choker.
I glanced at Bastien again, and tears fell down my cheeks. I cried. And cried. Until I didn’t think I had any more tears inside of me. Grief as I’d never known before sat on my chest and refused to get up.
A whine sounded beside the bed, and I found my wolves waiting eagerly for me. Their bodies bumping against the mattress like oversized children desperate for approval. Their eyes were bright, proud, practically vibrating with it.
I couldn’t help the small, tired laugh that slipped out of me.
“You two look very pleased with yourselves,” I murmured, brushing away tears before reaching down to scratch the white wolf behind her ear. “You were brave. In the caverns.” I patted the brown male on his head. “Yes, you too.”
Even as I stroked their soft fur and looked into their eyes, my heart sank. They’d been brave. But so had Devlinn. And now… he was gone.
The white wolf’s tail thumped hard against the bed frame. “I need to give you two names,” I said, tears filling my eyes. “Or do you already have names?”
I wasn’t sure how the bond with familiars worked. More questions I’d never get to ask Devlinn. The white one picked something up off the ground and dropped it onto my lap.
It was an opalescent stone attached to a length of cord. I picked it up, turning it between my fingers.
“What’s this?”
Chapter 25
La Délégation
TYSON
Tyson swirled his cup, wishing it were Markalish whiskey instead of whatever poor excuse for wine had been poured for him. He didn’t like this place, and not just because he’d been raised to appreciate the finer things in life. He didn’t mind a little dirt on the floor.
Everything about Chastity’s Stronghold screameddeath.
