Chapter 9
Entre Deux Mondes
CLAIRE
Iimmediately regretted putting the relic on the table.
It didn’t belong beside scones and bone china.
The curves, the point, the ridges—they belonged with me.
In my hand. My fingers twitched in my lap, aching to snatch it back, but something inside warned me it was too late.
What was done was done; the moment had already shifted.
Devlinn moved aside a sugar bowl to take a closer look. “Where did you get this?”
I swallowed hard, strangling the folds of my dress to keep my hands still. “It was given to me. By one of the Kemps.”
Had it not been for her… Had it not been for the kindness and bravery of one person… I straightened my back, unable to take my eyes off the horn. “She asked me to charge my magick and preserve her grandmother’s powers.”
Devlinn reached out to touch it. I shouted, “Don’t!”
The word had leapt from my throat, not of my own volition.
Beads of sweat collected along Devlinn’s brow, glistening in the spaces between his freckles. I glanced at Tansy, who had paused with her teacup halfway to her mouth, her fingers trembling just enough to make the porcelain rattle against the saucer.
“I’m sorry,” I said, trying to regain a measure of composure. “I just don’t think you should touch it. That’s all.”
He gave me a weak smile. “Of course.”
I took a sip of my own tea, which had gone cold. “Do you have any theories as to why I can’t access my magick?”
Tansy and Devlinn exchanged a glance across the table.
I waited, forcing patience even as my nerves threatened to crawl out of my skin.
The clock on the wall ticked incessantly, each second scraping at my composure.
After visiting Imogen, I needed real answers.
Finally, Devlinn tapped his fingers on the table, eyes brightening with sudden realization. “Hold on, you’re not a Kemp, are you?”
I shook my head. “No.”
“If you aren’t a Kemp, then the magick won’t recognize your blood.”
“Dark magick is so much cooler than moon magick,” Tansy said under her breath.
Devlinn turned his chair toward me, startling the brown wolf.
“Easy, boy,” he said, patting his head, before continuing.
“This kind of magick is passed down from generation to generation, which makes it tied to a bloodline. Only someone from that bloodline, in this case, a Kemp, has the power to become a living relic. Right now, the magick is just sitting inside you with nowhere to go.”
Finally, someone had words to explain what was happening to me. This insistence inside of me was equal parts rage and desire.
“Yes!” I exclaimed. “That’s exactly what it’s like.” A rush of relief settled over me. Now that I’d identified the problem, there was only one thing left to do. “How do I fix it?”
Devlinn bit his lip and tapped his fingers on the table again. The gesture made my heart pound. The answer was close. So close I could feel it. “Oh! I’ve got it! You could open a channel between you and the demon from whom the power originated and ask it to reestablish the line of succession.”
Tansy sucked in a breath. “You can’t be serious. Claire can’t summon a demon! It’s not allowed in the Unified Territories. Not to mention it’s dangerous.”
It wasn’t the advice I was expecting, if I was expecting anything.
What if the demon said no? Would I be stuck like this?
Holding power that I could hardly use? Or worse?
My hand rose to my throat, touching the lace collar around my neck.
Would the demon take the magick away and leave me empty?
Now that I had magick, I couldn’t go back to being useless again. I wouldn’t.
A sense of calm and surety washed over me. Even from where it sat on the table, it was feeding me invisible waves of magick. The power calmed me and focused my thoughts at the same time. No one was going to take anything from me.
If I wanted my powers, all I had to do was ask for them. It would be easy.
“Claire?”
I inclined my head. A hazy smile on my lips. “Yes?”
Devlinn reached for my hand, slowly, giving me time to pull away if I wanted to.
His fingers curled around mine, his touch gentle as he took my hand between his.
A warmth spread from where he was touching me.
It collected in my chest and cradled my heart.
I drew in a full breath, then another, feeling more like myself.
“There’s more to being a living relic than just making flames come from the ground. Are you sure you want these powers?”
Tansy set her hand on my shoulder, and another warm pulse came.
“There’s a reason why we left ours behind.
The gods give us these powers, but they don’t seem to care what happens to us once we have them.
” Tears shone in her eyes. “Everyone uses magick to hurt each other. I don’t want that life for you. ”
My friends were supporting me, and yet scared for me at the same time. It caused an ache to form in my throat. I didn’t want to hurt anyone. I just wanted to live a good life with the man I loved. But the only way to make that happen was to fight. To live.
I couldn’t tell them the truth. Not about Mama’s curse. But I could give them another. “I want to use magick to help myself. T-to free myself.”
A pinch. A squeeze around my throat. Warning enough that I was going too far.
“From His Grace?” Tansy asked.
I shook my head, more tears collecting in my eyes. “No. Not from His Grace.”
Tansy and Devlinn wrapped me in a hug, their arms twining around me until I was cocooned in their love.
It was a magick of its own, having friends like them.
The moment stretched on and on, as they held me and I held them.
Tears slid down my cheeks. I was sad, so deeply sad.
And angry. And desperate to be the woman, a witch, who could never be hurt again.
I didn’t push the feelings away. I let them stay, knowing I was safe with them.
At last, they released me and returned to their chairs.
Tansy pushed her teacup aside and leaned in. “We should leave.”
“The tea room?” I asked, confused. Blotting my tears with a cloth napkin.
She shook her head. “No. I mean, leave the Unified Territories.”
I was too stunned to speak. Tansy gestured to Devlinn. “Tell her.”
“There are isles south of here where it’s warm all the time, and no one practices magick. We’ve heard whispers that they all worship logic.”
It felt like cold water had just been poured over my head. Imogen had used the word 'logic' when she spoke about Rosa. Damien and Diana’s daughter. One of the two lost goddesses.
Tansy beamed at me in a way I’d never seen before, almost like the sun was shining on her, even inside this tea room.
She brushed her long white braids behind her shoulders.
“There’s an island where people are committed to doing things that make sense.
No witches. No demons. No war. Just peace and the ocean and logic. ”
Logic and the ocean. Rosa and Maris.
“And the world’s best rum,” Devlinn added with a devilish grin. “They use it in fruity drinks that you sip out of a coconut. Because what makes more sense than that?”
I shook my head, dismissing this, because I needed to ensure I was hearing them correctly. “You said the people worship logic? And they live on an island in the middle of the sea?”
Tansy giggled, looking younger and happier than I’d seen before.
“Yes. That’s what I said. Why do you look so confused?
” She gently ran her cool fingers along my brow, studying the cut there.
I winced. “Claire, how hard did you hit your head? We should take you to the healer before we pack our trunks.”
Imogen’s croaking laugh echoed in my ears.
As if I could hear her mocking me through the layers of rock.
As if to say I wasn’t lying about any of it.
Not the story. Not my death. Not Bastien’s inquiry about how to break our matebond.
I began trembling all over in a way that not even the horn’s power could calm.
“We should leave,” she continued. “Together. You, me, Devlinn, and Alec if he shows back up. We could be each other’s family.”
I was speechless. They wanted to run away? With me? They wanted to be my family? No one besides Bastien had ever offered me that kind of unconditional love. No strings attached. No need to prove myself. Just acceptance.
Her attention narrowed on the cut on my brow, and she grimaced. “This is what magick does,” she said. “It consumes everything in your life. Everything. And His Grace, he was made from magick. Reborn in it. He cannot escape it. But we can.”
Leave? Bastien? The words didn’t even make sense. “No. I can’t leave. I’m His Grace’s sanguine partner. I am under contract.”
They huddled closer to me. “Claire,” Tansy said in a soft voice, “we love His Grace as much as anyone in this castle. He has paid us well and treated us even better. But there is going to be a war that even his army can’t stop. I can feel it.”
“We found a ship that sails south,” Devlinn added. “It’s not far from here. We can board it and never look back. We can live in peace. Away from magick. Away from all this pain.”
I stared back at her in disbelief. I hadn’t come anticipating this.
“Doesn’t that sound nice?” Tansy asked. “Seashells and sand?”
I closed my eyes and saw the little pile of seashells that had appeared to me earlier.
The ones I’d conjured with the horn. The ones that Imogen had greedily taken.
I thumbed over the bloodstone Bastien had given me, thinking of him.
Feeling into the bond between us. It was endless. My love for him was endless.
My future, my everything, was tied to him. And not just because he was my mate, but because he was the person I wanted.
“I have love for you both,” I admitted. “And if you want to find this island and drink rum from coconuts, then I wish you well. But I have to stay here.” I couldn’t stand the sad looks on their faces, so I continued, trying to explain something that I couldn’t. “I have obligations.”
Tansy frowned. “What obligation could be more important than to yourself? To find a quiet place to settle in peace?”
An uncomfortable tightness formed in my throat. There was so much I wanted to say, but our marriage was kept secret because the situation with the High Prince was so precarious. And I certainly couldn’t tell her about Mama. So I just shook my head.
“Then why stay?” she asked. “Claire, the Duke is kind. After what happened to you, I know he would let you leave. He would understand. He would want you to be happy.”
He would. He would want me to be happy. But what she couldn’t know was that no world existed where I was happy and not with him.
And even though Bastien said and did things I didn’t agree with, we did have one thing in common.
We were both concerned about the safety of those we loved more than our own happiness.
He had the people of Roselyn, and I had Sera.
“Happiness is hard to hold on to,” I said quietly. “It’s not a rabbit you can trap, or a place you can visit. It slips through your fingers. I’ve learned there are things more important than being happy all the time.”
“Like what?” Devlinn asked.
“Duty. Honor.” I paused, thinking of the little baby that I wanted to hold more than anything. “Love.”
Tansy drew in a surprised breath. “Is that it? Do you love the Duke?”