Chapter Thirty
CHAPTER THIRTY
Val
I haven’t seen Theo in days.
He returned after making promises of filthy, sexy times, and damn, if my demon didn’t treat me as if he barely knows me. The distance he slammed between us felt like we’d gone back to the beginning with me reaching for a knife to carve the smug apathy from him. Except his arrogance had been gone.
In its place had been guilt so thick I almost choked on it.
They’d stolen Gilly, and with her, they’d taken his pride.
I never thought I’d miss his swagger, but I do.
I’d offered to help him find her, to track them to the ends of the universe, to be in this together. But when I’d moved to hold him, the bastard pulled out of reach. As though I’d taken Gilly. Or that somehow her disappearance had been my fault.
The fuck it was. I’d been stuck in bed recovering from stopping him from torching Shadowvale. And what did that get me? A coldness and brush off so brutal I wanted to cry and stab at him all over again just to see some emotion in his gaze.
Here I thought we’d been mates—destined for each other. Wouldn’t real mates want to share their burdens and work together to fight their common enemy? Instead, he treated me like I’m the enemy.
Then he’d left.
I can’t even think about him without launching into a tailspin of doubt because what did I do wrong for him to ignore me? He went from handsy, slipping a tail under my skirt to indifferent. I guess he hadn’t gotten whatever he wanted out of the mating magic, and he was done with me.
“You going to stay in the lab all night again?” Nic asks from the doorway.
I turn down the volume on my blaring angry rock music. “Maybe.” She doesn’t need to know I spent most of last night doodling, procrastinating, wondering about her brother, and picking at my cuticles which are now a bloody mess. Deep breath, I tell myself, pushing past the overwhelm. “It depends on how long the gel rig takes. I’m running another analysis for repeated sequences on the DNA comparison between what you got me from recent unauthorized portals and the reference samples family members gave you.”
“You mean the ones Theo clawed out of them? Because he definitely has more power since you two made your mating official.”
“Yeah, that.” I’m not going to ask her how he has proven his level up with mating magic or even what he’s been up to since she has clearly been talking to him, but my so-called fated mate won’t bother to say hello to me. “Anyway, this could take a while.”
Monty zooms past in the tunnels overhead in full mongoose glory with the toy unicorn galloping close behind. At least someone’s having fun.
Nic crosses her arms over her chest, propping her human glamour form against a counter. “Don’t let my brother’s stupidity keep you locked in here. You could summon him, you know.” She nods toward the bracelet I’ve worn since the haunted house, the one I should’ve torn off the moment he broke his promise and didn’t come back.
But I can’t.
“I won’t,” I tell her.
She shakes her head. “I don’t know who is more stubborn. You. Or him.”
I refuse to acknowledge that little dig.
“I need to figure out which of your family members did this. Then we’ll have a better idea who took Gilly, and where they took her.” I swallow the rest of what my impulsive brain almost blurted out. The fever-soaked feeling I had that Theo’s family will come for him in some horribly tragic way? It probably stemmed from the poison, but I can’t shake it. Me, who can only focus on one thing at a time unless I want my attention pinballing at warp speed, I’m fixated on the awful premonition even when I’m locked down in lab-work mode.
“If Theo would act like the crown prince of the hell dimensions instead of a whiny, emo version of a walking guilty conscience, he’d admit where they took her. Only one place has snakes that size, and it’s buried in the deepest pits of the After Worlds where they’re imprisoned alongside the gods-awful shadow monsters who used to rule this realm.” She shudders, and yeah, I have to agree.
My single run-in with the shadow demon at the Infernal Palace who wasn’t even a full shadow monster still gives me nightmares. I can hear Reginald’s awful voice echoing in my head when I sleep…at least while Theo’s been away. But I stop letting my mind wander down that dark and repulsive path to seize on the rest of what Nic said. The important part. “You know where Gilly is?”
“Well, yeah.”
“Then what are we doing here? Grab Theo, I’ll get Monty to dragon out, and we’ll go bring her back.”
“It’s not that simple.”
“It sounds pretty damn simple.” I snatch off my safety goggles and check the settings on the machine.
Nic holds up a hand. “Let me explain the After Worlds. There’s a reason the gargoyles guard the Bridge of Souls that separate our worlds from the After Worlds. They’re a giant collection of realms. The very worst dimensions—far worse than any we have in the hell kingdom—house the monsters that the gods and elders put there for us to forget. You would basically need a god’s permission to find Gilly.”
“Then let’s go grab a god.”
She grins, a sad and brittle smile. “The only ones I know of are sleeping in the Valley of the Gods.”
“There’s no way to portal in? I mean, that’s how those snake monsters stole her.”
Nic goes quiet. “Even if we knew exactly where she was in those specific pits—which we don’t—you’d need a supercharged portal. We’re talking one that requires the King of Hell’s blood or a direct descendant.”
“Awesome. You’re a direct descendant. Get to summoning a portal.”
She shakes her head. “Use your big scientist brain and think through what that means. Very few people could have been behind my sister’s disappearance. My father says he didn’t authorize the portal at Gilly’s manor. I didn’t. Theo didn’t so?—”
Horror crawls across my senses, and sour bile floods my mouth. “You mean Gilly called up that portal and got herself taken?”
Nic blinks wide eyes at me. “No. Theo said she was as shocked as he was. Even more so. We considered my dad could have some bastard kids running around, siblings we don’t know about. But he and my mom are fated mates. They can’t cheat on each other.”
Wait. Back the fuck up. Being a fated mate comes with a biological fidelity clause? Nope. Don’t have time for that right now. “So what did you and Theo—” my apparently faithful mate who doesn’t talk to me—“decide?”
“Our dad hasn’t been well lately. Gilly tracked his behavior. He tends to lose touch with reality around the same times as the dimensional doors open. We hadn’t wanted to consider the possibility, but now that a portal that should’ve been impossible to unlock has sprung wide open, we have to. Theo and I believe our dad’s somehow subconsciously authorizing gateways to come online.”
“Oh.” I hadn’t expected the conversation to veer into some kind of portal psychosis. “If your dad loses control, that’d be a bad thing, right?”
“A very bad thing. Especially now that he disowned Theo as his heir. The kingdom would descend into pandemonium, anarchy would reign supreme, and the hell dimensions would become complete chaos. Other worlds would follow since the unrest in one realm tends to bleed into the others.”
My throat goes tight, and I can’t swallow the sudden lump stuck there. “Well, shit.”
“Yep.”
Yeah, I can’t focus on that. “ Sooo why can’t we launch a search and rescue for Gilly if we know what dimension she’s in? You could portal us in and?—”
“Dimensions are big places. Think about the size of the human realm where you came from.”
“As in the Earth?”
“As in galaxies but full of monsters so evil that they were locked away by gods who basically fucked with demons, humans, and any other species they could torment before most of them—thankfully—went to their rest in realms like the Valley of the Gods. Those gods couldn’t control these monsters.”
“Damn.” So much for going special-forces extreme with a grab and go rescue mission for Gilly. “I don’t have any news to report on the science front.”
“Not surprising when you’re trying to apply science to magic. You already cracked a botanical type of alchemy in the short time you’ve been bonded with my brother. Talk about centuries worth of progress in weeks. Maybe cut yourself some slack.”
Huh, when she puts it that way. “I am awesome.”
Nic rolls her eyes so hard I wonder if they touch her horns in her demon form. “Is it any wonder you and my brother were literally made for each other? With chutzpah like that, no one else would have either of you.”
“Don’t tell anyone, but I sort of miss him being an arrogant asshole,” I admit. I don’t add how his hurt tears at my heart like we had some kind of cosmic connection for a hot minute until he decided to throw a giant wall between us.
“Yeah, well, if we’re confessing deep, dark secrets, I do too.”
I suppose if it’s full disclosure time, I should ask the question plaguing my mind since her mommy dearest showed up to accuse me of wrecking their world with the borrowed magic she shoved inside me. “You think Theo has a problem with having a human as a mate?” I refuse to ask out loud if he has a problem with me as a mate.
“What? No.” She waves a hand at her glamour. “We find humans fascinating. Why do you think we walk around looking like your kind all the time?” She narrows her eyes. “Did he say something to you? That bastard, I’ll?—”
“No,” I answer honestly. “Theo’s never hinted at such a thing.” I don’t bring up their mom. “It’s just…” I settle on another truth. “I feel so useless.” I give the first-rate devices that fill every counter, nook, and millimeter of space in the lab an appreciative glance. “I have all this amazing equipment that Shadowvale magicked me, yet I have no answers, and if the DNA all leads back to your dad, I’m not sure I want to know.”
“Actually, I came to see if I could interest you in a magic lesson.”
“Like the one where I almost took out Theo’s entire wine collection?” Yep, that happened. I’d shot a ray of light that sliced through some really expensive bottles.
“No.” Nic goes silent and picks at her non-existent split ends to the point I debate offering her a fidget toy and a shot of truth serum. If that last is a real thing. I could ask Shadowvale the next time the castle and I have a heart-to-heart. Ooh, I wonder if I could get a supersized dose for Theo to tell me what the hell I did to make him ghost me—Nope. Focus .
I do my best Prince of Darkness imitation since my mate doesn’t bother to show his horns these days. At least not around me. “Spit it out.”
“Remember Cousin Reginald who’s part shadow monster and part demon?” she says.
I shudder. “As if I could forget the guy who tried to kill Theo and then crawled around inside my head like it was his personal pervy playground. Yeah, I remember Reggie the Repugnant. Why?”
She trails her finger along the countertop. “He’s locked in the dungeon below Shadowvale.”
“What? Why? Wait, there’s a dungeon?”
As if Monty senses my slight freak out, because why would that scary Reggie mofo be here in the castle, my mongoose magics down to paw at my hand until I strip off the nitrile gloves and pick him up for a cuddle, the toy unicorn settling in alongside him.
“Seeing a soul guardian act like a familiar will never not be weird,” Nic says.
“You have a freaking dungeon you didn’t tell me about, and you’re calling my sweet baby weird?” I keep my voice from going shrewish. Barely.
“Fair, although technically it’s Theo’s dungeon, which makes it yours too seeing as fated mates probably pre-date the whole community property concept?—”
“Nic! I’m not letting you distract me into arguing who gets what in a demon divorce. Why is your sicko shadow demon cousin in the dungeon?”
“Because Theo has a warded cell that will hold Reginald.” She finally lifts her gaze to meet mine. “And my brother might’ve mentioned keeping that deviant locked up until he could turn him permanently corporeal.”
“To do what?” Honestly, I would’ve thought Theo was a more kill first, ask questions later kind of enforcer. Guess it shows how little I know my mate.
“Because he plans to nail him to Shadowvale’s wall for an eternity of suffering as a reminder for no one to disrespect you.”
Fuck . I don’t know whether to be horrified or turned on. Maybe I’m more suited to living in the hell dimensions than I thought. I hug Monty closer. Funny enough, talk of endless torment doesn’t seem to bother the little guy. “That’s…uh, creative.”
“Cousin Reginald’s already condemned to die a billion times over for touching you, I figured we could use him as target practice for your magic. You up for it?”
“What makes you think I could do anything to that creep? He barged into my thoughts as though brains are a revolving door for him. How do I attack someone who doesn’t even have a real body most of the time? He’s just shadows—floating darkness.”
“And what destroys the dark, Ms. Smarty Pants?”
“Actually, we don’t know what dark matter is made up of so?—”
“Light,” she answers. “You were supposed to say light.”
“Oh.” The realization smacks me. “Light as in like my magic ?”
Nic grins, and I swear I see fangs despite her glamour. “As in exactly your magic.”
I’m terrified. And intrigued. Being locked in a cell with the monster who haunts my nightmares could go all sorts of wrong. Or perhaps it’d be the key to figuring out the magic I shouldn’t have. “Let’s go see if Reggie the Revolting is interested in another round.”
“Sweet,” Nic drawls with a happy air of maniacal glee. “This will be fun and totally worth it even if Theo tries to kill me for suggesting this.”