Elric breathed out a long sigh before touching the closest one with the tip of his shadow wing. She wore a rapturous expression he had seen many times before, one he knew was dangerous and yet called to something deep inside him at the same time.
It was an expression that asked him to save them. But it was also an expression that whispered she would do whatever it took to keep the power he gave her, and to grow even stronger.
He had created, yet again, a coven with teeth and claws. And there would forever be the fear deep in his chest that he could not protect himself from their hunger.
At the sound of the crowd’s growing fury, he decided that it was time to leave. With a nod to Alexander and Hugo, who both disappeared intothe teeming mass of angry people, he spread his dark wings wide and bent to cover the witches around him. He held them close to his heart with a whispered promise in the air.
The Deathless One would keep them safe. He had centuries ago, and he would do so again. They were his. His women, his witches, his coven. There was no one in this world who would do more for them, or protect them better than he did, no matter the cost to himself.
With a quiet spell, the words guttural and deep, he whisked them away.
As the shadows fell from the sky and the moon and stars reappeared, all that remained was a dark circle where the witches had been. They had disappeared into the night, leaving anger and madness in their wake as they reappeared in the home he had built for them. A haunted house of nightmares and spirits who lived in the attic. But it was their home. It was magic, deep in the floorboards, and they could feel it.
He untangled himself from them, panic already setting in. He did not know these women or what they were capable of. He just knew they would want pieces of who he was and what he could give them. Power and magic and control, which they had never had in their lives.
But then a hand touched his chest, a familiar, warm palm with long fingers that stroked his skin. Calm tendrils spread from her touch, as she was the only woman who had ever been able to tame him.
“Thank you,” Jessamine whispered, but her words felt like a shout. “Thank you for saving us all.”
He didn’t know how to speak. He couldn’t. Because everyone was looking at him now, all of them with those eyes that were so needy and hopeful. He inclined his head toward all of them, a slight nod in the hopes that they wouldn’t ask for more.
Jessamine turned to them all. “We have rooms here, and you may join us. I don’t know if there’s enough for all of you, but tomorrow night we will welcome you into the coven. If you change your mind, that’s all right, too. We’re not going to make any of you stay.”
They all walked away, talking among themselves. The excited chatterof witches was something he had forgotten, but… there was deep pleasure in hearing the excitement around magic again. Spells and curses and ingredients that were needed to do both. All of it was wondrous to hear.
But then his stomach twisted as Jessamine’s dark, haunted eyes turned toward him. “We need to talk,” she whispered. “Something terrible has happened.”
Being home settled Jessamine’s nerves. It helped her to know that after all of this, madness hadn’t sunk its claws into her. It had been long past time to let her people know, without any level of uncertainty, that she was alive. Danger would now follow them wherever they went, of course. The rumor of her survival was not the same as a crowd of people actually seeing her. She risked Leon’s backlash once he discovered she was, in fact, within his grasp.
Now he knew for certain.
So Leon Bishop was well aware that she was back, and that there was a tidal wave coming toward him. That was why he’d been at the party. He’d wanted her to see him, to know that he wasn’t afraid of what she had brought back with her from death.
Walking down the hall to their room, she suddenly gasped as she realized why the party had been filled with so many important people. “Souls with meaning,” she whispered.
“What?” Elric asked, but then his face drew down into a troubled expression. “Shit.”
“Come on, I don’t want anyone to overhear this.”
It took them only a few minutes to get to their room, but then they were alone. Elric cast a spell that lined the rooms with shadows. She could see them writhing on the ceiling, spreading around them until they could speak in perfect privacy. No witch could hear them.
“Tell me,” he demanded in that way of his that always sent shivers down her spine.
He looked angry. Furious, even, and she realized that she hadn’t seen him look like that since Callum’s men had killed her in the alley. He was usually so calm and composed, even in the face of grave danger. But right now he was vibrating with anger.
At her questioning look, he tried to put himself back together. Jessamine watched him shove the anger deep into the depths of who he was, using perhaps a hint of his power to make his expression serene once more. But there was the faintest metallic scent in the air, like someone was already bleeding.
“If she touched you,” he muttered, his voice low. “Ifanyonetouched you, Jessamine, then tell me who they are. Allow me to peel the skin from their flesh, to feed them nightmares until they go mad. It would be my greatest honor to torture anyone who dared to harm you.”
So he’d been worried.
Poor man.
She stepped forward, her hands on his chest so that he could feel she was still here. “Elric, nothing happened. Nothing… well, everything happened, but I am unharmed.”
His hand snaked around the back of her neck, tugging her close so he could rest his forehead on hers. He took a deep breath, drinking her in until he nodded. “What has scared you so badly?”
She told him what happened as they had approached the house, and how she had used his own magic to rip out Fortuna’s memories. She told him that Leon had been in bed with Fortuna and had the distinct pleasure of watching him tense again. But when she spoke of the last piece, it became hard to say the words.
