Chapter 16
L’Invocation
CLAIRE
The following night came too quickly.
I never thought I’d be on my knees—in the snow, no less—preparing to ask a demon for power.
Yet here I was, preparing the ritual circle under lantern light.
Every sound seemed amplified: the crunch of snow under my knees, the howl of wind slicing through the trees, the hiss of my own breath.
Nerves and anticipation had my hands shaking, barely able to grasp the thin wand Devlinn had fashioned for me.
The winter chill had stolen the feeling from my fingers, but I wasn’t cold.
Heat was burning beneath my skin like I was lit from within.
My vampire mate had insisted on attending the spell and wouldn’t hear otherwise, no matter how many times I insisted his duty was with the army.
He was hovering just beyond the circle, beside Tansy, like an inkblot in the snowy clearing.
The only observers besides my wolves, my friends, and my husband were the guards stationed nearby.
Bastien still didn’t know that I intended to open a channel to a demon.
I hoped his ignorance of dark magick rituals would make it easy to explain this away.
Perhaps I should’ve just told him the truth about my intentions, but he was on edge already.
And I feared that if I told him what we planned, we’d already be making the long, cold march through the graveyard.
“Are you wearing anything that conducts magick?” Devlinn asked through chattering teeth from just outside the circle. I shook my head. “What about an amulet?”
I stilled, my gaze finding Bastien’s. I wasn’t wearing an amulet, but I was wearing something else of great importance. My bloodstone.
“Yes.”
“Then it has to come off,” Devlinn insisted. “It could interfere with the spell.”
I didn’t want to take it off, but I’d already come too far. Carefully, I set down the wand and went to pull my hair back.
“Stop.”
It was Bastien.
And while he didn’t agree with any of this, he came to stand behind me with the rigidity of a man performing a task he wished belonged to someone else.
Someone who didn’t know the taste of my mouth or the sound I made when he touched the back of my knees.
Someone who hadn’t whispered I love you against my belly in the dark quiet of our bed.
Or who hadn’t vowed to spend his life keeping me safe.
When he brushed my hair to the side, cold air kissed the back of my neck.
A soft, involuntary shudder swept over me.
The wind was so cold, even his fingers felt warm as they found the clasp on the chain.
I had to fight the urge to lean back into him, and I had the sense he was fighting the urge to pull me into his arms and carry me back to our tent.
But we both resisted temptation. Carefully, he removed the chain he’d given me. As soon as it was off, an emptiness settled in my heart.
“Shall I keep this secured for you?” he asked. His words held a dozen meanings only I could hear. Tell me when I can give this back. Tell me when I can breathe again.
I nodded once, and he coiled the gold chain into his fist. I went to touch the empty place where the bloodstone had sat against my chest, but I stopped myself when I saw the way Devlinn and Tansy were watching us.
I told myself it would all be worth it when the spell worked.
“Kindly take a step back from the circle, Your Grace,” Devlinn requested.
Bastien glared murderously at the red-haired witch.
“Please,” I said through our bond. He drew in a long breath, then took a measured step back. Still close enough that he could lean forward and grab me if needed.
“You know what to do now,” Devlinn reassured me.
We’d rehearsed the spell dozens of times. It was now or never.
Tansy gave me an encouraging smile. “You’ve got this.”
I blew out a nervous breath, then lifted the horn into the air. “This circle is open. Let none disturb it.” Then I slammed the horn against the frozen earth, embracing the very darkness I had once prayed would die out of the world.
A wave of energy reverberated through the air. And the wind began to pick up speed, circling around me, lifting my hair.
If I were to be a living relic, then I had to meet the darkness unafraid. “I ask for protection to be given during this spell. Lift my voice so it can be heard even in the belly of the Underworld!”
I didn’t spare Bastien a glance even though I could feel his worry penetrating through the circle. I couldn’t afford to let his fear stop me.
I called to the power beneath the earth, invoking the current of demonic magick that Devlinn insisted I’d be able to access.
Sure enough, I felt it stir behind my palms. Felt it rise.
Up my spine. Twisting in my gut. Clawing around my throat.
The wind picked up, creating a wall of energy around the circle.
“I call to the demon whose power resides in my veins, and ask him to join me in the circle!”
Bastien was gesturing wildly outside the circle, but I couldn’t hear him over the sound of the wind and the blood thundering in my ears.
I waited for a shadowy figure to appear, but nothing happened. So I tried the words again. “I call to the demon whose power resides in my veins, and ask him to join me in the circle!”
My stomach lurched. I doubled over, coughing up a stream of black fluid into the snow. When it was done, my body shook with shivers. The black stain smoked where it hit the ground.
Bastien lunged forward, threatening to break through, but I raised a hand to stop him. “Don’t!” I shouted. “I can do this!”
None of them understood how much I needed this to work.
I wiped the liquid from my mouth, smearing it across my cheek, and set my teeth.
The memory of flames burned in my mind—the wild, terrifying fire I had called from the earth.
I closed my eyes and imagined speaking directly to the demon whose powers I possessed.
“I call upon your power, as your chosen vessel, your servant…”
Inside my head, a disembodied voice cut me off. “You are no servant of mine.”
My eyes snapped open. That was not Bastien’s voice. It was something else. Someone else. I looked at Bastien and knew, by the look of terror on his face, that he had heard it too.
My stomach lurched again, and more black liquid poured out of my mouth. It was horrible. Disgusting. When it finally stopped, I was gasping for air, trying to find my breath again. The wind died down, and the clearing went still again.
“Why is she reacting like this?” Bastien demanded. Grabbing a fistful of Devlinn’s fur cloak. “I thought this was an opening spell.”
“She can’t use her magick until the demonic bloodline is reestablished, Your Grace. The spell will be easy once she has full access to her magick.”
He shoved Devlinn to the ground, and Tansy screamed. “Then why is she reacting this way?”
“I-I can only guess, Your Grace,” Devlinn stammered while another stream of black vomit spewed from me.
I dug my fingers into the ground as my stomach churned. My throat burned. When the sickness finally stopped, and I could blink the tears out of my eyes, I realized my cloak and the horn were now covered in a thick, oily puddle. The smell alone made me want to be sick again.
“Then guess!” Bastien was shouting.
Tansy helped Devlinn to his feet. “It’s like she isn’t reaching her demon,” he said. “It’s almost like they’re not in the Underworld.”
Bastien went still. “That’s impossible. He’s there.”
Through the sickness and the haze, I searched my husband’s face. “You know whose power I have?”
He dipped his head. “Yes. His name is… Gorrath.”
The name tasted familiar on my tongue.
“You’re telling me Claire has Gorrath’s powers?” Devlinn shouted. Sounding half-amazed, half-concerned. “The Gorrath?”
“Who is Gorrath?” Tansy asked.
“Who is Gorrath?” Devlinn said with a laugh. “Only the demon of sex and disease.”
I stared at the black rot that had come from my mouth. Disease. And the desire I couldn’t seem to shake, the near-constant ache. Sex. An anger that didn’t feel altogether like my own tore through my body.
“I was the one who banished Gorrath to the Underworld,” Bastien explained. “So I know he’s there.”
“This is the Lawless Lands, Your Grace,” Devlinn offered. “They still summon demons. For all we know, Gorrath could be here. It would explain her symptoms.”
Bastien flashed his teeth, and blackness consumed the blue of his eyes. “That’s impossible!” he raged. “I sealed him there permanently.”
I let out a snarl that sounded more animal than human. Bastien had banished my demon permanently? Things started to make more sense. His fear. His hesitance. It was cowardly.
“Tell me what to do!” I demanded of Devlinn, interrupting their useless bickering. “We need this power to unlock the door.”
“Claire, you are done.”
“You don’t say when I’m done!” There was menace in my words, but I couldn’t stop myself. I needed this to work. I wasn’t going to let him stop it.
Bastien slammed his cane into the snow, then pointed it at Devlinn’s chest. “Devlinn, get in there and charge your magick. You can unlock the door.”
Tansy gasped.
“I won’t do it, Your Grace,” Devlinn said defiantly.
Bastien towered over him. “And what if I ordered you to?”
Without breaking eye contact with Tansy, Devlinn replied, “Then you’ll have to kill me, Your Grace.”
Bastien growled again, and I did not want him to do something he’d regret. “Enough!” I shouted at my mate. Then turned to my mentor, my friend. He was my only hope now. The only way I could free whatever was inside me. “Devlinn, tell me what to do.”
He split a look between Bastien and me, as if waiting for permission to continue.
When Bastien didn’t immediately shove him to the ground, he got down on his hands and knees and faced me, just outside of the circle.
Lantern light flickered across his features.
“Claire, everything is going to be alright. Okay? I need you to know that first.”
I sucked in my bottom lip to stop myself from crying. I was so angry, and tired, and burning from the inside out.
“Now,” he continued, speaking slowly, “if you’re not connecting with Gorrath, and he is in the Underworld, then you need more magick inside the circle.”
A sob threatening break past my lips, but I wouldn’t let it. Everything inside of me was trembling. “How do I do that?”
Devlinn spared Bastien another look. My husband looked like he was ready to draw steel any moment, but knew a sword wasn’t going to help me. “There was one way my granny always swore by, and it-it’s to make love in the circle. Release always pulls in dark magick.”
The circle fell silent. Sex. The answer was sex. Somehow… I’d known. I’d known it was Bastien and the horn that would fix whatever was happening inside of me.
“You can’t be serious,” Bastien snapped.
Devlinn sat back on his heels and chuckled. “After watching your granny ride your papa in a chanting circle, you start to believe a thing or two about power.”
I tried very hard not to allow that image to form in my mind.
But it did anyway. And some of the anger flooded out of me.
I remembered why I wanted this magick. And it wasn’t just to open a door or to be powerful.
It was to pursue the future that I wanted.
Where I was free of this choker, and I could have a family with Bastien.
“Your Grace, I’ve seen it work,” Tansy was saying. “Before we quit charging our magick, it was my favorite way to help Devlinn charge his.”
I looked pleadingly at Bastien. He stared at me like he was facing a line of invaders. As if to say there was no way he was going to make love to me inside a magick circle so I could summon Gorrath.
“We’re running out of time,” I told him.
“It’s too dangerous!”
I squeezed my fists together. “This is who I am now.”
“I can help Claire, Your Grace,” Devlinn offered, interrupting the silent argument. “If she wanted me to.”
Panic clawed at my chest. “That is a kind offer,” I said, trying not to look at Bastien. “But what about Tansy? I could never…”
“Claire, we became consorts for a reason,” Tansy asserted. “We’ve never been intimidated by sharing each other. I know where his heart lies.”
Their love was so strong, so pure, so endless that it was inspiring. To be so sure of one another. To know nothing, or no one, could tear you apart. I met Bastien’s worried gaze and saw the passion and love there. I longed to touch him, to go to him. To make him see my perspective.
“It would be important that we release at the same time,” Devlinn explained. “It’s crucial to the flow of power.”
A murderous rage flared in Bastien’s ice blue eyes.
Devlinn had no idea how close he was to being decapitated by my vampire mate.
He would never allow another man to touch me, not even for this.
But there seemed to be no other way. If he shut this down, I’d have to wait another month to perform the spell.
And who knew what would happen in that time?
Devlinn stood and started removing his cloak, as if preparing to enter the circle, but before he took a step closer, Bastien swung out his cane. “Close the circle. This ritual is over.”
The anger was back. The heat was back. “No!” I shouted, my voice echoing through the clearing. Then something came bubbling up, a thought that drove me from angry to enraged. “You were willing to help Hera secure her grandmother’s magick, but you’re not willing to help me get mine?”
Bastien’s eyes blazed.
“This magick is sitting inside of me with no outlet. If you think it’s dangerous to call on him, it’s more dangerous for me to keep this magick caged.” Tears formed in my eyes. “I need to speak with Gorrath and get him to reestablish the line of inheritance. So I can be balanced.”
He didn’t move. He couldn’t. And I realized this was one of those times that he needed me to give the order.
“Leave us,” I told my friends. “Take the guards with you back to camp.”
“Claire,” Tansy breathed. “You can’t be alone out here.”
“My wolves will protect us. And the Duke is not without his talents.”
Devlinn hesitated. “Your Grace?”
There was a long pause. My arms shook with barely contained magick that was begging for a way to be unleashed.
The horn began vibrating insistently, and a sudden pulse of heat throbbed between my thighs.
An ache. A need. A feeling so strong I had to grit my teeth and dig my bare fingers into the dirty snow.
My body knew what it needed. Him. And this horn. Together. And it was screaming for him to just listen to me.
“You heard her,” Bastien said at last. “Go.”