Chapter 14
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
NICO
My anger and jealousy had gotten the best of me. After slamming the door behind me, I stopped and took a few steadying breaths.
Amari stood across the hall, as still as stone. Hell, he was stone. He stared back at me with that knowing, judging look that made my skin crawl. The gargoyle had probably heard every word between Sammy and me.
I clenched my jaw so tight that my teeth ached. The pain was good—it distracted me from the hollow ache spreading through my chest.
“Fuck off, cat,” I growled.
I stalked down the hall, my footsteps echoing against the walls of this pretentious castle. This place wasn’t meant for someone like me. Sammy might have royal blood, but I was born in the dirt, and that’s where I belonged.
Not that it mattered. I couldn’t leave her unprotected, not with the two predators circling her like she was prey. What if she wandered into another storm? What if they used her and whatever magic she now possessed?
The guest room door creaked as I pushed it open. It was the same room I’d woken up in after the panther had tossed me around like a chew toy. The same panther who’d been inside Sammy last night.
I hurled my bag across the room, where it hit the wall with a satisfying thud before crumpling to the floor, its contents spilling out across the floor.
“Shit.”
I dropped to my knees, scrambling as my hip pouch opened and spilled, rolling under the bed and armoire. My precious collection of acorns from the eastern forests, rare black walnuts, and even a few star chestnuts I’d been saving for years were now scattered and lost.
Something inside me broke.
I grabbed at them desperately, my hands shaking as I tried to gather them. A low, keening sound escaped my throat.
Becca used to tease me about my collection. I could still hear her voice the day she’d found me cataloging them by nutrient density.
Becca appeared in the doorway of our tent, eyebrows raised. “I’m starting to think you love those nuts more than me.”
I laughed, setting a star chestnut down carefully. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
“You better love our kit just as much.”
My head snapped toward my mate, and fear churned in my stomach.
She took my hand and brought it to her lips. “I’m pregnant.”
I opened my mouth to say something, but nothing came out.
Pregnancies were risky for squirrel shifters.
There was a fifty-percent chance of the woman surviving.
I was convinced it was a curse on our kind.
Something about our bodies rejected the process, as though the magic allowing our transformation from average-sized demons to small creatures couldn’t reconcile with creating new life.
Some elders whispered it was punishment for ancient transgressions, but I preferred to believe it was another fucked-up quirk of magic.
“Please tell me you’re happy about this… I want this. I’ve always wanted to be a mother.” She let out a sigh and dropped my hand.
“Becca, I can’t lose you.”
She smiled gently and put her hands on her belly. “I’ll be fine.”
“And if not?” Tears welled in my eyes from conflicting emotions.
She reached for my hand again, pulling me toward her. I knelt on the floor in front of her and brought my hands to her stomach. I couldn’t feel anything yet.
“Then you move on. You pick up your nuts, and you move on.”
I shook my head and searched her eyes. A single tear ran down my cheek. The thought of losing her was breaking my heart already. “I won’t be able to go on without you.”
“Don’t be so dramatic.” She cupped my cheek and smiled. “You’d find love again. But why are we talking like this? It’s not going to happen.”
But it did happen, and I lost a part of me right along with her.
I slumped against the bed, a star chestnut clutched in my palm. I pressed it against my forehead, breathing through the pain that never seemed to diminish.
Sammy’s words echoed in my head: “I promised her to take care of you and make sure you move on.”
Had I moved on? The rage that had consumed me at seeing Sammy with Val and Amari felt too real. I’d walked away from what could’ve been with Sammy not because I didn’t want her, but because I couldn’t bear to lose anyone else.
My protection wasn’t just physical. I could do things that would terrify most demons. There was a darkness I kept buried deep inside, a power that flowed through my veins.
I dragged myself onto the bed, still clutching my small hoard of rescued nuts. I would move the furniture later to recover the rest.
Exhaustion settled over me, my muscles aching from days of tension and vigilance. I let it pull me toward sleep, my mind finally quieting as darkness claimed me.
The hair on my arms stood on end as I woke but didn’t open my eyes. Someone was in the room with me.
I inhaled slowly through my nose, trying to identify the intruder.
The only thing I could smell was the freshness of the sheets.
Not Samara’s light floral fragrance, which always made something in my chest ache.
Not Amari’s earthy, predatory musk that set my teeth on edge.
Not even Val’s cold, metallic undertone that reminded me of blood and wine.
This was someone else entirely. Or something. In this castle, I couldn’t rule anything out.
There was movement to the side of the bed.
I sprang toward the intruder and shoved them into the wall. The man under my grasp had shocked, wide eyes, and he looked like he was about to shit himself.
I sniffed again, and all I could smell was the clean sheets. I narrowed my eyes. “Why are you in my room?”
“I-I-I…” he stuttered and took a shaky breath. “F-f-forgive me.”
His gaze was locked on the ground, and he trembled under my grip. What had he expected to happen by coming into the room unannounced?
I let him go and backed up several steps. “Who are you?”
“M-my n-n-name is... My name is K-Kage.” He looked as if he were about to burst into tears. He had pressed himself against the wall as if he hoped it would swallow him whole.
“I’m not going to hurt you, Kage.” He tensed even more, so I softened my voice. “Again, I’ll ask, why are you in my room?”
He held up a rag, and I snatched it out of his fingers, examining it. Was he going to stuff it in my mouth to stifle my shouts and then smother me with a pillow? I wouldn’t put it past the vampire to hire a hit on me.
The rag had dirt smudges on it, and I handed it back to him. “It might be better to clean when I’m not in the room.”
He nodded and then rushed out the door. I popped my head out into the hall to see which way he had run off, but he was nowhere to be seen.
Amari’s eyes met mine from down the hall. “House mage.”
I raised my eyebrows. A fucking house mage?
With a shake of my head, I shut my door again. I didn’t know much about the demons who crept around, but I knew they were a class of demons that had been systematically eradicated.
My attention landed on the nightstand, and I rushed over to it, picking up my hip pouch. If that fucker had taken my nuts, I’d hunt him down and make sure he paid.
But the weight of the pouch was as it had been before all my nuts had spilled. I emptied them onto the bed, quickly scanning them.
He’d picked them up and not sampled a single one.
I repacked the pouch slowly, one nut at a time, more to settle my nerves than anything. By the time I finished, my stomach had announced itself. Loudly.
I wanted to skip breakfast, but my stomach didn’t lie. My emotions were still raw, but I got dressed and composed myself before making my way to the dining room.
Three sets of eyes landed on me as I took a seat at the far end of the table, away from them. It was petty, but what did they expect? They could have their little ménage à trois for all I cared. I wished Lilith had stayed in power. Then we wouldn’t have been experiencing this shitshow.
Maybe I should have taken my plate of food back to my room. Far better to eat alone than endure whatever this awkward breakfast theater was supposed to be. At least in my room, I could lick my wounds in privacy, without having to watch Val’s attention flicker between Sammy and Amari.
“What are we going to do about the house mage?” Val was drinking blood, and I resisted the urge to gag.
It was only a matter of time before he convinced Sammy to let him take a bite out of her. Then she might as well be owned by him.
“They’re harmless from what my mother told me when I was young. She said that many demons stopped trusting them.” Sammy moved her eggs around her plate but hadn’t eaten anything yet. She looked exhausted, and a pang of guilt went through me that I was probably the cause.
“We should be concerned about why this one has turned up. He could be a spy.” Val had a reasonable point, but I knew he was wrong.
“He’s not a spy. His name is Kage, and he is so nervous that he stutters.” I bit into my toast that had been slathered in nut butter and stifled a groan.
“He gave you his name?” Val shifted in his seat, looking uncomfortable.
“Yes. Why?” I gulped down some water and set down my glass harder than necessary, sloshing water out. Val acted like I had done something wrong.
“He appeared out of nowhere and spoke to me too. He didn’t tell me his name, though.” Sammy shrugged as if a man appearing in her room was no big deal. “I bet he’s the reason my room has been so well taken care of.”
My anger came back in full force. That fucker had been in our room while she was in there. Just how many times had he been lurking and watching us?
Val stood abruptly and strode out of the room. We all exchanged looks. A few minutes of awkward silence later, he was back with a book.
He smacked the book down on the table between us and started flipping through the pages. I rolled my eyes at his dramatics and continued eating my breakfast. As annoyed as I was, a man’s got to eat.
He picked up the book again and began pacing the length of the table with it tucked into the crook of his arm. His finger swept over the page, and he started jabbing it.
“Get on with it already.” I bit my tongue to stop myself from tacking ‘bloodsucker’ onto the end of my command.
“He bound himself to you.” He set the book in front of me, pointing. “If a house mage tells you his name, he is yours, and you can call on him to serve you.”
I leaned over and looked to where he was pointing. “You’re fucking kidding me. Who wrote this bullshit? Let me guess, bloodsuckers?”
“I sense some hostility from you, Nicolas.” His finger moved to another paragraph. “A house mage who binds themselves to another demon answers only to the holder of their name. However, they may accept commands from that person’s mate or mates.”
I grabbed the book and brought it closer, reading through the few paragraphs of information. He would die if I released him after he had chosen me.
“Damn it.” I slammed the book shut and threw it in the middle of the table. “This is wrong on so many levels.”
I dragged my hands down my face as the weight of responsibility for another being settled on my shoulders.
Another life. Another person whose survival depended on my choices. I’d already failed at this once, already buried someone I was supposed to protect, and now the universe had handed me a nervous house mage with a stutter and magic that made him mine whether I wanted it or not.
All of their eyes were on me again, and the dining room suddenly felt like it was shrinking, the ceiling dropping inch by inch, and the walls inching closer with each passing second.
My fingers fumbled slightly as I reached for my glass of water, desperate for something to do besides sit there being scrutinized.
The cool glass against my palm offered the tiniest comfort as I gripped it, wishing I could shift and disappear behind it or douse them all and make a run for it. Neither option seemed viable.
Amari had been silent while he ate his slab of meat but put his knife and fork down. “Try calling him.”
I glared at him, my jaw clenched so tight I could feel my molars grinding against each other. The urge to shift and scamper up the nearest curtain just to escape this entire situation was overwhelming, but I stayed put.
Maybe there was a loophole since I hadn’t been aware of what Kage even was. There was only one way to find out.
“Kage, come here.”
I wasn’t expecting it to actually work, but in less than a minute, there he was, standing next to me. He had literally appeared out of thin air.
His eyes were wide, and he clutched his hands in front of him, probably to stop them from trembling.
“What the fuck have you done?” I was being an asshole, but this was the last thing we needed. The last thing I needed. “Undo whatever you have done and choose someone else.”
“I c-can only bind myself to a m-m-man.” I gave him a look that told him to continue. He quickly glanced down at Sammy and then back at me before he looked at the floor. “Sh-she is n-n-not a man and I-I-I…” He couldn’t get the rest of his words out.
I shut my eyes for a moment and took a steadying breath. “So, you bound yourself to me so you could serve her?”
I opened my eyes to see him nodding. I was about to ask why when Sammy got up and came to stand beside us. Kage visibly tensed, and Sammy looked like she desperately wanted to put her hand on his shoulder to comfort him.
That was the last thing the poor guy needed. He’d probably spontaneously combust.
“Why?” She met my eyes before turning her focus on Kage.
He was practically vibrating from the proximity to us. I oddly wanted to pull him into a hug and comfort him. What the fuck? There had to be some kind of magic wanting me to do that.
Kage huffed out a breath and gripped the back of the chair next to him, his knuckles turning white. “She is light.”
I wished he would have stuttered, but he had spoken those words with a firmness and confidence that seemed to reverberate through the dining room. His voice had lost that nervous quaver, replaced with something solid and unwavering that made me uneasy.
I tried to keep my voice nonchalant, even though I felt anything but. “We should finish eating and get to the council chambers before the other members arrive.”
“Good idea.” Sammy moved toward her seat and stole a piece of meat from Amari’s plate.
“Watch yourself,” Amari grumbled, but then put another piece on her plate.
Val’s gaze stayed locked on Kage. “What—”
“Kage, why don’t you go clean the rooms we’re staying in. I’ll come find you later.”
Kage disappeared, and I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep the relief from flooding my face.
If Val were to find out about Sammy, I’d never forgive myself. I’d do whatever it took to keep him from finding out.