“I’d consider it keeping a close eye on you. Rahna has been a nuisance since the Bloods invaded the Mortal Realm. I’ve been the only demon for centuries who can access a portal until Torque started experimenting with death magic.”
“This whole time you’ve known her plan, seen what she’s capable of, and let it go?”
He shrugs. “What she did up there wasn’t my business unless it affected me directly, and now it does.”
“In what way?” I regret asking the moment the words come out of my mouth.
“You and I are promised.”
I choke on the cannoli, gagging the contents in a napkin. All that goodness wasted on this jackhole.
“No, we aren’t. That’s ridiculous considering Nox and Uriel didn’t even know I existed until a few weeks ago.”
“It’s not, and I didn’t make a deal with Nox. I made it with the stand-in ruler of the Darklands, Umbra.”
My body goes still as a cold wash of fear crawls over me. Umbra offered my hand without telling me? Without warning me before this meeting took place?
“I’m no one’s to give away.”
“Think of it as gaining a kingdom, not losing one. You’ll be able to have anything you want and more. I’ll take care of the Rahna problem, and you’ll get to live the life you wanted in the Mortal Realm.”
Torque flashes before my eyes. His love for me and the last few days we spent together. He’s my fated mate. He has my heart.
“I already have a fated mate, Torque.”
His grin is feral and his eyes flare with green flames, but he gets his anger under control quickly.
“If you’ll allow me to touch your hand, I can show you what I saw thirty years ago when you were born. You don’t have one fated mate—you have two.”
There’s no way this is possible. Two fated mates. But then I think of Umbra and her guys. She has three. I’m in over my head here.
“What happens when I touch your hand?”
“You’ll see the vision I had. It will make you understand our path together, even if I have to share you with the Blood.” He growls the last part out.
I offer my hand. Call me curious or stupid, but I want to find out what’s going on. No one has offered me the truth like this before. The thought leaves a bitter taste in my mouth as I think about how long it took Torque to be honest with me.
“Close your eyes and take a deep breath. Clear your mind of everything. Allow the vision to drift into your mind. Don’t fight it.”
His hand is surprisingly warm in mine. It feels comfortable and reassuring. I stare into his green eyes before I let mine close.
The vision hits with a power I wasn’t prepared for. My mind goes blank. Out of black clouds comes a room in the Mortal Realm. It’s an apartment in the Downtown area if the vast picture windows are anything to go by.
Caedis is fast asleep on a bed when he’s suddenly woken up, sitting up like he had a bad dream. His eyes are cloudy, and his movements disjointed. He runs into a closet, then starts pulling out various ingredients that look like items needed for witchcraft.
As I watch him set up a circle, I realize two things. One, he’s naked, and two, he’s using Tenebris magic. How can a demon use the magic of the witches?
He chants, his voice rising with every word. They flow through me, like a chorus from my childhood. I know this spell. It’s for understanding what you see in the dreamscape. A tool to straighten things out and find your true vision.
Black smoke blows out from the copper bowl, and images form. Nox and Uriel stand with a mage, a glowing orb between them. Uriel and Nox fight, their love splitting, that same mage taking the orb with him and jumping through a portal.
The vision swirls, then I’m in the citadel. Rahna is in her office with the mage. They argue about something, and then she slices him with Ira, her sword of wrath, killing him instantly.
She takes the orb for herself, then goes into her private spell casting chambers. I’ve only been in there once when she needed my blood for a spell. It makes so much more sense now.
Rahna strips her clothes off before laying on her altar. She sprinkles herbs around her stomach, chanting an incantation I’ve never heard as she positions the orb right above her lower abdomen. When she’s finished, the orb is absorbed into her body.
HOLY FUCKING SHIT!
Rahna is the witch who carried me to term. I have her DNA running through me. She’s my mother.
The vision then fades to Rahna pregnant and ready to give birth. Three Tenebris witches attend her as I’m born. My little body is covered in goo, my dark hair matted to my head. She takes me instantly, showering me with kisses and letting me nurse from her breast.
A swirl comes over the smoke, and suddenly I’m two years old and playing at her feet while she’s working in her office. I’m so happy. I’m babbling to her, and she looks down at me with a smile.
A tear drips down my face as I think about the love I had robbed from me.
The next scene is her casting a spell on me to erase my memories because when I look back at her, my face is blank. Tears fall down her face as she hands me to the witch, who was my nanny, until I could study with the other witches.
I’m brought back to Caedis’ apartment in New City, He’s agitated as he sorts through the copper bowl, then pulls a beautiful purple dagger out of the ashes. He holds it close to his chest. I hear what the Fates tell him like it’s in my head.
“She is yours, but not only yours. She will come when
