Chapter 1 #2
And then there’s me. At the rate I’m going, Clara will be happily bonded before I am, and she’s still a spawn. And with Kennedy growing another one of her own in her belly, I might still be sitting out back with Binx when the latest villager in Nuit matures and goes searching for their mate…
Sensing my frustrations, Binx climbs to his paws. He scampers up my skirts, curling in my lap.
Stevie leans over, running her fingers through his fur. She doesn’t have an ungez—she’s never wanted one—but she grew up around Binx. He tolerates her pets in a way he doesn’t Rafe’s, and he purrs softly beneath Stevie’s claws.
“Corbin offered to find me an ungez of my own,” she murmurs.
“I told him I’d rather one of the fabled blue flowers in the duchess’s private gardens.
My dad told me how beautiful it was when he served as Duchess Susanna’s personal guard.
If Corbin can figure out how to bring me one, I told him I’ll bond with him before the next gold moon. ”
Corbin is a full-blooded Sombran soldier who’s been lost for Stevie since the moment he genuflected in front of her.
I have no doubt in my mind that, to get Stevie to choose him, he’ll find a way into the oasis near Duke Haures’s palace.
Especially since Duchess Susanna is also a human—the first to come to Sombra ages ago—and is a romantic at heart.
If Corbin tells the duchess it’s for his mate, she’ll probably pluck the flower herself.
I’ve only met the duchess a few times. Like every other Sombra demon male, Duke Haures is too overprotective to allow her to leave Mavro.
I know enough about her, though, since she is kin to Mom’s close human friend, Amy.
Plus, due to my status as the chosen spawn who fulfilled a prophecy and saved Sombra, I’ve spent more than enough time with the duke.
He believes I’m to thank for breaking the mad king’s hold on the shadows, saving his people, and eventually leading him and his mate to bring three royal halflings into existence.
Why? Because my birth—that of the first ever human-demon halfling—brought the rain that threatened to snuff out Sombra’s fires, but somehow I managed to defeat him and save the entire demon realm, finishing off a prophecy that had been foretold nearly two thousand years before.
I don’t know the whole story. Mom’s kept most of it hidden, only admitting that I was abducted as a baby and captured by King Yelios, and that when she got me back, the rains stopped and Sombra was saved.
As I grew older, I also grew resentful of anything to do with my past and a prophecy I’ll never quite understand.
You see, my whole life, I’ve known that I was the child of prophecy. Half human, half demon, I was only four months old when I supposedly saved the world. Twenty-five years later, I strive to have a future when I’ve already done what I was born to do.
I’m not bitter. I’m not. Just because Stevie is one flower away from forever, and Rafe is almost there, and I feel like I’m stuck in a rut, not belonging to any of the worlds I’ve spent so long visiting…
I shake my head, sending a few of the butterflies fluttering away. “That’s great, Stevie. Congratulations.”
She shrugs. “He’s a good male. I probably would’ve already accepted his claim if Mom didn’t bring me to Earth for the first gold moon so that I could decide for myself instead of letting my cunt do the thinking for me.”
I snort. “Your mom’s smart.”
“Sometimes,” Stevie allows. “She said that just because her generation had to accept their mates before the first gold moon, that doesn’t mean I had to.”
True. That’s the duke’s first law. Humans aren’t supposed to know about demons unless they’re a mate, and even then they must finalize their bond before the gold moon shines.
My parents almost missed the deadline because, well, Mom, but if a pair of mates are in Sombra instead of hiding out on Earth, they can take as long as they’d like to bond.
Not like it’s easy. The gods give us our one true mates because they want us to bond our essences together. I’m surprised Stevie’s held out this long, but like I said, that’s the human in her.
Just like Rafe’s insistence that he’d rather have any mate than resign himself to searching for centuries might be the human in him.
“Where’s Corbin?” I ask. “Is he back at the barracks then?”
“For a couple of days. I figure he’ll come back with the flower as soon as he can.” She jerks her chin at me. “What about Rafe? When I saw the butterflies heading this way, I thought I’d find you both here.”
“Nah. He’s probably reciting poetry to Katrin about now.”
Stevie chuckles under her breath. “Poor Katrin.”
“It’s okay. He likes to put Human words into it to impress her. She has no idea what he’s saying half the time.”
“That’s Rafe for you. Just like how he completely forgot about his lessons with Loki today.”
I swivel my head, the quick motion spooking Binx. He chitters in rebuke, settling down again as I run my claws over his fluffy tail. “What do you mean?”
“I ran into Kennedy when I was passing the EL.” The Earth Library. “She heard from your mom that the two of you were visiting Brille Rouge today, but that couldn’t be right since he was supposed to meet his father this morning.”
Shit. It’s a Human curse world, one of Mom’s favorites, and pretty damn apt at the moment. “He told me he had the whole day to spend with Katrin.”
All the more reason why I ducked out and returned home earlier.
I told him I’d come back for him between our midday meal and supper.
With Kennedy knocked up again—another Human phrase, meaning she’s with spawn—she insists that Rafe sit down and have supper with Kennedy, Loni, and Kennedy’s ungez, Freya, every eve.
There are hours to go, but if I know Kennedy, she’s already searching for Rafe. And once she figures out that I used my shadows to bring him to his pretty demoness, she’ll be searching for me.
In my opinion, Rafe’s mother worries too much. She’s also convinced that if Rafe is missing—or distracted, or late, or simply breathing wrong—it somehow involves me.
And, for the most part, she’s right. While mages can open portals to other realms with Duke Haures’s permission, I’m the only one who can take my shadows anywhere, and no one even tries to stop me.
Another way that Alana of Sombra is different, though if I get on the wrong side of Kennedy, I might find someone who finally won’t treat me with undeserved reverence every time they see me.
And then Stevie says, “She was leaving the EL when I first saw the butterflies on the edge of the village. If I could follow them, so could she.”
I nudge Binx’s rump. “Up, Binx.”
Stevie raises her eyebrows at me. Unlike full demons, we don’t have the ridges over our brows, and the furry strips over our eyes are something we got from our human heritage. “Where are you going?”
“Wherever Rafe’s mother isn’t,” I tell her.
I like Kennedy. Honest. She’s so close to my mother, it’s like she’s my kin.
They run the Earth Library together, had their first—and in Mom’s case, only—spawn at the same time, giving me my best friend, but if it comes down to snitching on Rafe to his mother or buying him a little more time to woo Katrin before I grab him by his pointed ear and drag him back to Nuit, I know who has my loyalty.
“Running away, Alana?”
“Consider it a strategic withdrawal.”
A soldier’s mate, Stevie laughs as I give her a wave, heading toward the path that leads to the lava pools, Binx at my feet. “You can’t avoid her forever, Alana.”
I can’t, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to give it a good try.