Chapter Nine
CHAPTER NINE
Theo
A fight with a shadow demon of a distant cousin hadn’t been on my to do list today, and damn, I barely blasted him with magic before the incorporeal fucker slashed my throat. He’s the sixth cousin I’ve battled in the last few hours. Between family and my fated mate, someone will stab me before the day’s done.
The slice across my shoulder burns as I teleport home to Shadowvale. Maybe given the good news I’m bringing, my future wife will ditch her violent tendencies long enough for some of my wounds to heal. Or at least that’s my hope.
I drop into the room to find a pale-faced, wide-eyed Val clutching the soul guardian to her chest as if someone might take him away. As if anyone could. Except her gaze drifts past me to pin on whatever or whoever’s behind me, which has me spinning to assess the threat.
The designer perfume would’ve given my mother away if I’d taken more than a nanosecond to launch into defensive mode. I bite back my unhappy sigh. I’d rather go another round with Cousin Reginald the shadow demon than guess at whatever intrigue I’ve stumbled into. “Hello, Mother.”
She gives a chilling grin that speaks of calamity and catastrophe. “Theo dearest, you’re right on time.”
“What brings you to Shadowvale?” What I really want to ask is how the seven hells she got past the wards on my suite without an express invitation? But then, I don’t have all night to bleed out on the carpet while she lumps guilt upon my shoulders.
“Can’t a mother visit her son?”
I keep my mouth shut rather than answer and risk having her and my wife reaching for the nearest weapons. Giving my back to Val seems perilous enough, but I angle my body to block her from my mother’s view. “If you’re staying the night, Mother, I’ll have the staff prepare a private suite for you.” Because she won’t be staying in mine.
She waves a hand, massive rings winking on her human glamour’s slim fingers. “Unfortunately, I have to be going.”
Thank the gods . Something might go right today. But that doesn’t tell me why she came. Panic flashes through me. “Was there another portal opening? Or did Father have another episode?”
“Nothing so dire.” She sidesteps me for a glimpse of Val like she’s including her in the conversation. I wish she wouldn’t. “Your guest and I just finished our girl talk. Think it over, Valentina. You should accept my offer.”
“No,” I answer for my mate. “She won’t make any deals with you.”
The rustling of fabric comes from behind me, but thankfully Val doesn’t try to move around me. “You don’t speak for me.” The snap in her tone reminds me of an ice wraith.
Couldn’t one thing go smoothly today? “You’ve already signed a bargain with me,” I remind her. “Has our agreement gone so well that you’re jumping into another?”
“Maybe I find your mother to be the better negotiator.” Val squares her shoulders, and the soul guardian peeks from between her fingers with a triumphant gleam in his fiendish eyes. “Some of us value people being upfront with what they want instead of resorting to trickery.”
“Oh, I like her bravery,” Mother says. “Daring to tell off my terrifying son. This one’s much better than your other conquests. I’ll even let her borrow my favorite Brimstone Bell for a bit.”
Val bristles, and I swear the wound in my shoulder throbs worse than it did while teleporting. “If there’s nothing else,” I say through clenched teeth.
“I’ll leave you two to battle it out.” With that last quip, Mother vanishes.
“You came back.” Val makes it sound as if she would’ve rather I’d stayed gone…permanently.
I shrug away the insult. “I found Ava.”
“What?” She rushes me. “ Where ?”
“Your friend’s still in your home dimension, and she’s safe. For now anyway.” Damnit, I didn’t mean to say the last. I blame the blood loss for my oversharing.
“Let’s go get her.” She moves to leave and—is that a rocket launcher in the artillery case by the door?
I ignore the weapon for now. “Retrieving her won’t be so simple.”
“Why not?”
My body decides it has taken enough abuse today being dragged through the ocean, attacked by my future wife, and engaged in warfare with multiple relatives who swear they didn’t authorize the portal openings. I stumble toward the couch, the nearest horizontal surface other than pitching face first onto the floor, but my damned mate rushes to block me so she can continue interrogating me instead of celebrating the simple fact I located her missing friend.
Lifting the soul guardian to her shoulder where he wraps like a furry scarf, Val steps in front of me and holds her hands up as if she’s become a living stop sign. “You didn’t answer me.”
“I…” My brain goes hazy, and gravity takes over, pulling me down until I topple against her.
She reaches to catch me, the first time she has touched me without attempting to kill me. Or at least I’m hoping she doesn’t mean to end me. If she does, there’s not much I can do to fight her off when my vision has narrowed to her startled blue eyes surrounded by darkness. “What’s wrong?”
“Claw slashing,” I manage to say. “Probably poisoned.” A rustle of wings has me wondering what’s happening, but I don’t have the strength to ask questions and keep upright. I choose the latter. It’s better than crushing my mate.
“I’ve got you.” She grabs me around my waist, slinging one of my arms over her shoulders. “Ooof, you’re heavier than you look.”
“Glamour.” I sway, and she tightens her grip, hitting a painful spot. An agonizing burn shoots through me. Keeping the leash on my magic takes every bit of energy I have.
She wrestles us toward the couch. “Ew, you’re leaking something blue.”
Which means my glamour’s slipping. “It’s blood.”
Making a gagging sound, she jostles me. Hard. “Come on, don’t pass out on top of me.”
“I’d never.” Okay. There’s a strong likelihood that’s a lie. In fact, I might within the next couple of seconds.
Struggling to remain upright, I stagger in the direction she leads me, and my shins crash into the soft give of furniture. I can’t sort out the flap of small wings near my head or the sharp nails she digs into my shoulders when I could swear her hands stay far south of those spots. Oh well, if we’re under attack from giant gnats, there’s not much I can do to fight them off right now. Perhaps my mate can aim one of her many weapons at them. Hopefully not the rocket launcher.
“No face planting.” She turns us both before shoving me away from her.
I don’t have the energy to fight the push or control my descent. Instead, I crash onto the cushions, flinching when the sliced bits of me slam into the furniture. The ringing in my head muffles Val’s startled shriek.
Starbursts shoot off in my vision, and I decide to close my eyes. My mate poking and prodding me doesn’t even hurt so much. I could almost imagine today hadn’t gone ten thousand shades of bad and that I’d come home with a submissive, sweet, subservient little mate who wanted nothing more than to make me comfortable.
Of course, such a weak, passive woman wouldn’t have dragged me to the couch. She would still be crying or catatonic from what happened at the house with gargoyles descending and her friends gone. There would’ve been no way the fantasy I’d thought I’d wanted would’ve survived a private meeting with my mother.
How boring the next few centuries would’ve been if I’d gotten my wish for an obedient bride. The realization rolls through me, stirring the already present nausea into waves of bile. I swallow the ugly truth as fast as the sour coppery taste floods my mouth.
I’ll make today up to my mate and her friends. That is if I can make it through the next hour without Val killing me.