He opened his mouth in something like a smirk, showing off rows and rows of sharp teeth. “Are you mine, sorceress? Or are you a threat?”
I gritted my teeth behind closed lips as I quietly summoned my silver needle. If my timing was just right, I could drive my needle through his eye and end him…
Alastar dropped his claw and a growl reverberated through his chest. “I have my answer, then.”
He opened his wide mouth and lunged for me. I dove out of the way, crashing against the wall of the pit near my rope ladder.
Alastar dug its claws in the ground and roared. With a flick of my hand, my silver needle speared his eye, sending the infinite thread through his skull. Alastar shook his heavy head and the thread snapped. I sent the needle through his heart, but he kept coming for me.
My heart thundered. I could not kill him.
I scrambled for the ladder. I had just pulled myself up the first rung when Alastar caught up to me.
Just as he was about to wrap his claws around my ankle, my needle wrapped the infinite thread around and around his thick wrist. The needle dove into the ground, yanking the monster back and stitching him to the bottom of the pit.
Alastar snapped the threads around his wrist, but the needle flew through the air at the same pace of my pounding heart as I pulled myself up the ladder. The needle weaved through the walls of the pit until it created what looked like a glowing spider web.
I heaved myself out of the darkness but commanded the needle to dart back and forth over the pit. Alastar roared andtried to climb through the web of threads, but its horns and claws got caught in my trap.
The needle shot out over the top of the pit and quickly stitched a tight basketweave over the opening. Right before I closed the pit, Alastar looked up at me through the threads.
“Mine,” he growled. “Mine. Mine. Mi—”
And then I sealed him in.
I stared at the glowing blanket of thread over the pit. It was not as secure as iron bars, but it was all I had. I waved my hand and the black and white tile of the ballroom reappeared over my stitches.
I was tired…so tired.
I closed my eyes and let out a breath as I released myself from Derrick’s mind.
The smell of the Duke’s chambers filled my nose and I crumpled forward onto Derrick’s mattress. I used my last bit of strength to brush the curls out of Derrick’s face. He slept peacefully, blissfully unaware of the battle I had just fought.
I crashed next to Derrick on his pillow. I let out a breath and softly traced the invisible line on his cheek where Grigory’s sword had slashed him.
If only Derrick’s mental wounds could have healed so easily.
The monster that prowled in the darkest parts of Derrick’s consciousness did not just come from the pain inflicted by his father. Alastar was also his grandfather, his great-grandfather, and all the way back until even pieces of Alastar the Conqueror had stared back at me with a covetous lust in its eyes.
As long as Alastar roamed inside Derrick, there was no way I could convince his trembling inner self to free Fraleigh—not when she was his, and the Dukedom’s, only security.
I could not kill Alastar, but maybe I could banish him. I could stitch all the cracks in Derrick’s mind together, make Alastar’spit deeper, and make that monster so small that Derrick was no longer beholden to him.
I only had eleven days left until the full moon. I had to heal every part of Midnight’s domain until he felt safe enough to accept my commands rather than lock me in my bedroom.
If I made Midnight strong, Riyan would walk the earth again.
I wished being the Duke’s mistress just meant I lived on my back like I had first thought. That at least would have given me some rest.
I started my mornings draped in Hyton Blue and glimmering with a new gift from Derrick. An emerald pendant. An onyx ring. His great-grandmother’s tiara.
He kept me sparkling and I kept him fed. I sat next to him at every meal, sampling each and every dish to check for poison. Just because the Viper held affection for Derrick did not mean others could not slip a potion into his food.
As the days passed, Derrick’s cheeks had started to fill out again…and so had mine. I matched him bite for bite at each meal to keep him eating, fighting through the pain in my stretching stomach. My calves were rounder every time I tied my garters. My Nordingaard crystal had chafed against my soft thighs before, but it grew so unbearable I hid it away in a drawer.
Derrick was always too close for me to risk him finding the crystal, anyway. I missed the calmness flowing into my skin, butI just had to wait until the next full moon before I could wear it again.
Though I had used my magic every day, I had not heard Riyan’s voice even once.
