Chastity stood from her chair, walked around to where Natalia sat, and hopped up onto the table. One boot planted on the table top. “Well,” she said, mocking Natalia. She reacheddown and closed her journal with two fingers. “I’ve already secured my ownprotection.”
Normally, seeing someone as beautiful and dangerous as Chastity talk down to his rather snarky cousin would’ve brought him joy. But this was about more than just a power play. This was about the future he would soon inherit. A peaceful border was far easier to manage than one at war. And he didn’t like the way Chastity saidprotection.
Natalia sat back in her seat and folded her arms across her chest. All decorum gone. “What kind ofprotection?”
“You saw the werewolves down in the tunnels. Did they look a little…sick?”
The black saliva. The lesions. The horrible stench.
“I suppose,” Natalia conceded. “They had pock marks. But they were living in squalor.”
“No,” Chastity replied, tapping one of her long black nails against the top of Natalia’s journal. “That wasn’tsqualor.” Her gray eyes flicked between them, savoring the reveal. “That was ademonicplague.”
Natalia rose from her chair so fast that it tumbled to the floor. “You made a deal with a demon?”
Uncle Bastien really wasn’t going to like this.
“No, little Natalia. I summoned one.”
Chapter 26
L’Invité
CLAIRE
Knock. Knock. Knock.
The sharp rap of knuckles against wood. The sound made my head throb and nausea coil in my gut. Beside me, Bastien continued to silently rest.
My wolves growled, and I petted the top of their heads, scratching behind their ears. “Who is it?” I forced myself to ask.
“An ol’ friend,” came a gruff voice.
I froze. Heart fluttering in my chest. That voice.That voice.It was only everinsidemy head. Notoutof it.
The instant the doorknob turned, I seized Bastien’s sword. It was heavier than I thought it would be, and I was too weak to hold it up. “Identify yourself!”
My wolves rushed to the door, barking and growling, when they suddenly backed off and ran under the bed, whimpering.
The door creaked open, and a man melted into the shadows of the dark room. Even though I couldn’t fully see him, I couldfeelhim. My body recognized him.
Gorrath.
“You don’t need a sword,” he said with a chortle.
I scooted closer to Bastien, unable to believe my eyes. He’d said the demon was locked away in the Underworld.
“Wake up. Bastien, wake up!” I breathed. But he didn’t move. He was a living corpse. No heartbeat. No breath. The only certainty that I had that he wasn’t completely dead was the pull of our matebond.
The demon stepped out of the shadows, and I struggled to pull in a full breath. He was tall and lean, with sculpted shoulders and wide hands. His skin was golden brown, and soft black curls fell into even blacker eyes. But the thing that unnerved me the most was the single curled horn framing the left side of his face.
“You can’t be here,” I said. “Bastien banished you. He sealed you in the Underworld.”
“Aye. That he did,” Gorrath replied. “But he forgot that he is dead. And magick dies when the caster does.”
“When he became a vampire…” I said, my voice trailing off.
“His spell weakened. Chastity was able to break it.”
