Chapter Seven
CHAPTER SEVEN
Theo
A fter finding no clues at the house in the human realm, I teleport back from Val’s dimension into my home, arriving inside my locked study only seconds before a summoning call comes in from the labyrinth world. Checking on my knife-happy mate will have to wait.
A quick glance at Meg over the mirror magic connection confirms that Val’s gamer friend is with her minotaur, her fated match. With Meg safe and Rosemarie in the care of her gargoyles, I have only one last match to worry about.
The stolen one—Ava.
Val’s pounding at the door and rattling the knob serves as a painful reminder that there’s another woman who will be every bit as much of a headache as unraveling the mystery of figuring out who dared open a portal and steal a match under my care.
My mate.
Someone releases the ward holding the door closed. My sister perhaps. Or the suite itself if Val remembered to ask.
She storms into my study as I’m finishing my call with the minotaur. My vicious mate’s lip curls. She rakes her gaze over me, and fuck, she shouldn’t look so hot with murder in her eyes. I’m still reminding Meg’s minotaur of the time limits on their contract when my match makes a grab for a cursed hatchet that has been rumored to turn anyone who wields it into dust.
Horror has my heart plunging to my knees. “Val, don’t touch that,” I snap, disconnecting the call with Meg and her minotaur while reaching for my own wayward match.
She ducks from my hold but goes for a sword I collected after vanquishing a frost demon. “You let Ava be kidnapped by some monster from another dimension.” Using both hands, she swings the blade at my head.
I flinch away from the sword, worried about her hurting herself as much as maiming me. “I didn’t let?—”
“Bullshit. You lured us to the house. You knew the danger we could be in.” With each accusation, she hacks the blade closer, and my eternal restraint over my temper cracks another sliver. “It’s your fault someone snatched her.”
I curl my claws into fists to keep from taking the sword away, from forcing her to stop attacking. Will it always be a fight with her? I’ve already had a hard enough day. “I’ll handle it.”
“Handle this .” She rushes me, the sword glinting as she brings it around in an arc.
“Enough.” The roar erupts from me along with a wave of magic. Sparks flash and sizzle before I can stop them. My mate throws her arms over her face to protect herself, and the helpless gesture hits me harder than a gargoyle’s punch to the gut. She acts so invincible, it’s easy to forget she’s not. “Val, I didn’t mean?—”
My mate doesn’t interrupt me. She doesn’t get the chance.
A pint-sized dragon appears in front of me, deflecting my magic like a fireproof shield.
The sudden appearance of a soul guardian hellbent on protecting Val from me? That’s a problem.
He drops to the ground and takes up his mongoose form, screeching loud barks at me.
I hold up a hand. “Fair enough, Montejanus.” I haven’t seen the soul guardian in person, but I’ve heard the stories and seen drawings of the golden-scaled beast. He was a terror against demons in the last war who dared to go against the witch under his protection. And now, it seems he has claimed my mate as the soul who needs safekeeping.
He’s right.
The realization makes me sick.
I could’ve hurt her. I haven’t lost control of my magic in decades. How could I do it now? With my mate? I move to leave, but the mongoose rears up on his hind paws and chitters his curses at me.
Val lowers her arms and cracks open her eyes, her gaze landing on Montejanus as he chirps so sweetly at her.
Damnit, the fucking soul guardian is flirting with my mate and making far more headway than I ever could. Not that it matters. I should be able to reason her into complying, to command her if necessary. Or I could with any other woman. But Val? She’s more fiercely independent and strong willed than her family’s show hinted.
“Oh,” she says with a coo to the mongoose. “Who are you, little guy?”
“Montejanus is a soul guardian,” I answer since he’s far too busy sucking up to her, climbing in her lap, making her drop the sword with a clatter and cuddle him close. “He’s dangerous in both his forms, whether he’s a snake-killing mongoose or a fire-breathing dragon.”
I don’t bother hiding my revulsion or mentioning how, according to legends, he’s one of the few beings who exist capable of taking down demons.
“Can I call you Monty?” She strokes his fur, ignoring me completely. “Who’s a good boy? Protecting me from the big, mean demon who got my friends taken?”
I give up. The woman’s impossible. She’s also impossibly gorgeous as she scratches Monty under his chin until his eyes close in bliss. As a prince, I’m used to fighting women off—not having them literally fight me. Of course the Fates wouldn’t make the most important conquest of my centuries-long life easy.
“Perhaps we could begin again,” I suggest.
“By not kidnapping me and my friends?”
My sister picks that moment to teleport into the study. “Whoa,” Gilly says. “That sounds like a hell of a meet-cute. Demon pun intended.”
“Not funny,” I tell her. At least it’s Gilly and not Nic. As the president of Val’s fan club, I’m sure our youngest sibling would feel dutybound to take my mate’s side. Maybe I shouldn’t have left Nic alone with her earlier.
“I thought it was funny.” Gilly nods to Val. “I hear you’ve already met Nic. I’m the evil kidnapper’s other sister.” Glancing toward the mongoose pressing his furry head against my mate’s palm, she asks, “Friend of yours?”
“This is Monty,” Val answers. “Isn’t he perfect?”
My sister’s expression doesn’t change beyond the slight widening of her eyes. “Short for Montejanus?” she asks me.
“Yes.” I wait for her to validate my concerns and offer suggestions on separating Val from her new friend.
Gilly takes a step back, putting distance between herself and the soul guardian. “Theo, what did you do that was so terrible that it forced a freakin’ soul guardian to show up?” She turns to Val. “I suppose I should thank you for not running my brother through with the sword?”
My mate rises, and the soul guardian climbs from her hand to her shoulder. “No promises that I won’t stab him later.”
“I like her,” Gilly says. “Regardless of how our families have been sworn enemies the past few centuries.”
Val frowns. “What?—?”
“Later,” I interrupt. “What’d you find at the portal, Gilly?”
“Portal?” Val asks.
My sister answers her instead of me. “My brother sent me to investigate the other unauthorized portal we had open earlier today a few hundred miles down the coast from the house where you met him. I was busy following leads and only just made it back.”
“My friends?” Val doesn’t sound like a warrior with my sister. She sounds on the verge of tears. “Any signs of where Ava might’ve been taken?”
“We’ll find your lost friend.” Gilly’s voice? It’s reassuring, and my mate looks less ready to rip into her the way she’s constantly trying with me. “Both portals originated from an ocean realm which narrows our inquiry but still leaves quite a few dimensions. We’ll start with the ones that have prior authorization from demon royals. I’m heading to take over the search now. If I hear anything about her, I’ll come to you first.”
“Thank you,” Val says.
Gilly teleports out, leaving me to deal with my mate.
“What’s this about our families being enemies?” she asks. At least she doesn’t grab the sword again.
Stubborn, persistent woman. “I’ll find Ava,” I promise her. “The other doesn’t matter right now.”
“My nonna would hate you. She tells stories about a demon deal my ancestors made generations ago.”
“Not stories. Truth.”
“Sure, I’ll believe that when you do something other than lie to me,” she mutters. “About my friends.” She switches subjects faster than a pixie high on their own dust. “Where are Rosemarie and Meg?”
“Rosemarie’s with her gargoyle mates.”
Val stumbles toward a chair with Monty hissing at me in warning. “Gargoyles? Mates?”
“Yes.” I leave the explanations of other supernatural species and mating customs for later. “Meg is safe. I just spoke with her.”
“You did?” For the first time since teleporting her here, my mate doesn’t look like she wants to stab me. “Let me talk to her.”
“It doesn’t work that way. For the length of the contract she signed, unless she summons me, I have to leave her be as long as she’s safe with her minotaur mate.”
“Minotaur?” Val leans forward, her head in her hands. “When Nic said you were a matchmaker to monsters, she meant literal monsters, didn’t she?”
“Even we monsters deserve mates.” I don’t risk using the word love. I’ve never had much use for the emotion. “They’ll be safe. No monster would dare violate a matchmaking contract, and the magical upgrades they’re promised with a fated mate won’t happen without her full, informed consent.”
“I’m really not a believer in this mates thing, or any Fates who ever existed would’ve done a better job of picking out mine.”
“Ouch.” I rub the space on my human form where a heart should be.
She raises her head and glares at me, smoothing a pet over the mongoose who joins her in glaring with his beady little eyes. “Prove me wrong,” she says. “Start with finding Ava. I’ll come with you to look.”
“Someone has already stolen your friend. You’re safer here than anywhere else. I won’t let you make yourself a target.”
“Let me?” Her tone goes incredulous. “Oh no, you can’t trap me here. Don’t you dare disappear again?—”
“It’s for your own good.” I teleport out, magically locking her in the suite and hoping she won’t hate me even more for it.