“Thank you for catching them,” one of the witches said, lifting her wand higher. “These disgusting creatures will suffer our justice for breaching our defenses.”
The woman angled her blade forward. The man beside her shifted as if preparing to lunge.
He should hand them over and rid himself of the problem they presented. If one of them was his mate and died here, they would be reborn decades—perhaps centuries—from now, and he could still inherit Roselyn unencumbered.
That hook that had landed in Tyson’s chest gave a rough tug. And despite every logical protest, his body stepped between them and the witches.
Traitor.
“These two aren’t werewolves,” he explained to the witches. “They’re consorts from Château Rose. When we killed the wolves in the tunnels, I gave them these necklaces as gifts.”
The corridor fell silent.
“If Chastity has a problem with it,” he continued lightly, “she can take it up with my uncle. Until then,” he slung his arms around both their shoulders, “they’re under my protection.”
He internally cringed, wondering what he had gotten himself into.
“We will take this up with Chastity,” one of the witches said. Then they backed slowly away. When they were gone, the woman neither lowered her knife nor thanked him. She simply studied him like he was a puzzle she hadn’t decided whether to solve or stab.
He had sworn he would never let a matebond drag him back to the capital like a leashed dog. He wanted to be just like his Uncle Bastien.
He’d meant it.
“I think we all need to have a little chat,” Tyson said, guiding the two of them in the direction of his room. Or where he thought his room likely was.
Chapter 28
La Dévoration
CLAIRE
Achoking sound cut through the dark, followed by the warm spray of something wet against my arms. I jolted awake.
Natalia was standing over Bastien. Her knee was pressed into the mattress beside his hip. Her fist was twisted in his hair, wrenching his head back. If that weren’t strange enough, a man I vaguely recognized as her sanguine partner was hovering at her side while she wrestled a silver cup to Bastien’s mouth.
“What’s going on?” I screeched.
Blood spilled over Bastien’s lips, down his chin, into the hollow of his throat, soaking into his tattered shirt. The coppery smell and the sight of someone else’s blood in my husband’s mouth made me more than sick.
I snatched my wand off the bedside table, then knocked the cup out of her hand. It clattered across the stone floor, spilling the rest of the blood. “Get away from my husband,” I snarled.
“There’s my fighter,”said the gruff voice in my head. I ignored him.
“He hasn’t fed,” Natalia said flatly. “And I’m done waiting for you to do your job.”
Heat and magick flared under my skin, and I realized the back of my head wasn’t hurting anymore. Someone must’ve healed me while I was asleep.
Gorrath’s doing.
Natalia’s eyes widened when she saw the flash of red in my eyes. “He wants to rest,” I said. “He deserves to rest.”
His niece had never been my ally, and for good reason. I had been deceiving her uncle. But nothing in me wished to harm him. Not anymore. I wasn’t the scared girl who had first met Bastien at his Sanguination Ball.
She flashed her fangs at me. “This is your plot, isn’t it? To play sick. To starve my uncle. To weaken his command with every breath you take.”
“No. You’re wrong.”
“Am I?” she spat back. “Because the evidence keeps stacking up.” She began counting them off on her fingers, as if listing crimes. “His sudden, inexplicable matebond after centuries of nothing. Your necklace. The way you shattered his alliance with one of the oldest covens in his land. Your new,convenientlybroken magick that required you to summon one of the most dangerous demons. Your wolves. Your sudden desire to bear his child.” Her gaze sharpened. “And let’s not forget disobeying Bastien’s order to stand down in the cavern. Now our entire army knows you are his mate, which puts his life in danger because this very union goes against our laws!” She growled. “You are atraitor.”
