Shadow's Claim

“And what about you?” Bettina turned on her godmother. “Vow to the Lore that you have my power! Now, Morgana.”

“Freakling, I dispatch the orders.” Rattle rattle RATTLE. “I do not receive them.”

Bettina sank down on the divan once more. “So you don’t. Both of you tricked me.”

“I, too, have inside information,” Morgana said so smoothly.

“Bullshite, harlot!”

I’ll never get my power back. But she would still be queen in two nights.

Seeing Raum and Morgana and even Cas like this made her realize she had depended on them far too much. They were fallible, just as she was.

Even without her power, Bettina had better start thinking like a queen. Before they could start up again, she said, “What will happen now? Will the Vrekeners retaliate?”

“We’ll be lucky if they don’t descend upon us for this,” Raum said. “I’d ordered my demons to do this quietly. If they were ever to reach Skye Hall, they were supposed to make the four disappear— not spill Vrekener heads in front of all and sundry of the Lore!”

“The vampire acted alone,” Morgana pointed out, sitting once more. “No one can prove otherwise.”

“Let them descend upon us!” Cas snapped. “Then maybe I’ll get the chance to actually bloody my sword with one of their ilk. We’re Deathly Ones, and we’ve been too long without war. We are fierce, and we can trace. They should fear us.”

Raum gazed away. “They’re like locusts, Caspion, a plague from the heavens. If word of this gets back to them . . . It was badly done, is all I’m saying.”

“It was perfectly done,” Morgana said. “How better to signal to the Vrekeners that we know how to reach their lair? They are not invulnerable. Perhaps now they’ll think twice about ravaging an Abaddonae royal! Or hunting my subjects like dogs!” Inhaling through her nose, she said, “This conversation is finished, Raum. Your ‘girl’ is about to be queen. There will be no chaperone. Nothing more need be said. Now, go get ready, freakling.”

Raum turned to Bettina, his expression weightier than she’d ever seen it. “Understand me, Tina, the blood contract of the tournament will compel me to give you and your medallion to the winner. If the vampire seduces you, Goürlav will kill you—and there won’t be anything I can do to stop him.”

“So certain I won’t win the tournament, Raum?” Cas shook his head in disgust. “You each know where I stand with all this. I leave now.”

“Cas, wait!” Bettina caught him before he traced. “Walk me back to my spire?”

Morgana called from the divan, “Have fun tonight, freakling. Try not to sully the vampire too hard.”

Once Bettina and Cas were alone, he said, “I still can’t believe Daciano found them! I spent sixty godsdamned nights combing plane after plane.”

She frowned at his surly tone. And you’re so young. Just like me. Seeing Cas like this made her abundantly aware of her own young age.

Maybe she had confused having someone in her heart with giving her heart to another. “Aren’t you happy that they’re dead? That I won’t have to fear at least those four?”

Caspion held up his hand to stop her. “Just don’t.”

When they neared her door, she said, “Please don’t be angry with me.”

He stopped, turning to her with a frown. “Did Daciano get your blood that first night? Or were you with him again? When you knew it wasn’t me?”

She whispered, “I was with him again.”

“I promised to be faithful!” He cast her a wild-eyed look. “But you didn’t return that promise, did you? Do you know how difficult it is for a male demon to go without sex? Have you never wondered why there are eleven restaurants in Rune and twenty-three brothels?”

“I’m sorry! I never intended to do anything with him. I got caught up, and the next thing I knew, we were kissing.”

“Just like Morgana said, it’s called seduction. I’m well versed in it.” His fists clenched, his forearms bulging. “Did he come to your rooms again?”

“I-I went to his tent.”

“Why in the hell would you do that?”

“Cas, please . . .”

He laid his hands on her shoulders. “Tell me!” His horns had straightened ominously.

She’d never seen him so angry. She grasped for a lie, but she’d always wanted to be truthful with him. “The vampire told me . . . he would spare you in the melee.”

“So that’s why he aided me? My gods, Bettina, he forced you to do things by threatening my life? You whored yourself for my safety?”

“No! Yes? When you say it like that, it sounds so much worse than it was.”

Cas wasn’t listening. “He’s earned a slow death.” He looked over his shoulder in the direction of the vampire’s tent, his grip on her tightening. “I’ll make it last—for days.”

Would he go attack Daciano this second? Neither could kill the other outside the ring.

“Cas, it wasn’t quite that way.”

He turned back. “Then what way was it?”

She remembered Daciano’s damp skin in the firelight, the sultry warmth of that tent. His eyes like onyx. She took a breath and admitted, “I didn’t do anything I didn’t want to do at the time.”

Cas released her at once, backing up with his hands in front of him. “Do you want him now? Is that it? I can’t stop this tournament, Bettina. I can’t come back from this.”

“I-I don’t know. I’m just so confused by everything—”

“Look at you!” Cas exclaimed. “You crave that vampire even now!”

“I do not!” Do I? Now that her entire existence had been upended yet again, she couldn’t stop replaying how it had felt to be enveloped in the vampire’s mist. Tethered to him.

Connected.

After she’d lost her power, that feeling of emptiness had tolled inside her. But the connection she’d shared with Daciano had made that ache ebb, even if just a little.

As if her growing bond with him didn’t leave any room for emptiness.

“Then, by all means, have fun on your tour.” Cas pointed his finger at her face. “If the vampire beds you tonight, you better pray I can defeat Goürlav.”

“Please don’t be mad at me!” She reached out to touch his shoulder, but he recoiled, tracing away.

She stared after him for long moments. They’d never fought before, had always gotten along with such ease. Yet just now he’d looked as if he couldn’t stand the sight of her.

Turning toward her rooms, she passed the guards posted at her door, ducking her head so they couldn’t see her watering eyes.

Their mewling, halfling soon-to-be queen. Who had no idea what she was doing.

Don’t cry, don’t cry. . . .

As soon as the door closed behind her, she removed her mask and swiped her forearm over her face. How could she not cry?

She’d fought with all her loved ones, and the guilt was heavy. They were all that she had in the world. Unless she counted the vampire. You are mine . . . we are fated.

On top of tonight’s developments, she was still trapped in this process—helpless to do anything but watch as Daciano and Cas likely went to their deaths.

Tears don’t help anything. What to do? Go outside and take in the night. But her feet wouldn’t quite shuffle her outside.

Alone on the balcony, up so high—in the dark? With an “imperfect” barrier spell?

Did it even matter that those Vrekeners were dead? Would more come? She suspected she’d always be