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“Then let’s get to summoning.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Theo
Winning back my shot at the throne has taken a distant backseat to taking care of Val and her powerful friends these past few days. This time away from her while she stayed in the suite with Ava only proves to me how much I can’t stand to be without her.
After showing my mate how to summon me with the band she’s now wearing as a bracelet instead of anklet, I reminded her of the matching contract between us with an unbreakable nondisclosure clause.
“So I swore not to talk about us, and you’re holding me to that even with my best friend?” she’d asked.
“You did. But now I’m asking you as your mate.”
“Fine,” she’d said.
I’d posted a battalion of guards outside our suite in Shadowvale before leaving Val with Montejanus and her best friend, Ava. The last thing I needed was a family member using my mate as bait to lure me into a trap. To keep her safe, I’ve turned out all the resort guests and brought my sisters and eventhe scum Dupree to live in Shadowvale after he and Gilly had their homes raided and ransacked.
Nic and Ora have reported assaults on the castle which is no surprise given my family’s incentive to kill me. Shadowvale’s outer walls smolder with new scars from blasts that couldn’t penetrate its exterior battlements. Two assassins even made it so far as the hall outside of the suite but committed suicide before my guards could interrogate them to see which family member is behind the attacks.
Turns out no one can breach the newest wards. Thank the gods for Ora and her connections. My mate is in the safest place in all the realms.
Ava’s mother, the sea witch, confirmed that Val was well when she’d taken her daughter from the suite to rejoin her mate on his pirate ship. She didn’t even threaten to use my human mate against me in retaliation for matching her only child to a kraken.
Val couldn’t be better guarded. She has a soul guardian which is more protection than anyone could summon or magic into existence.
Yet I can’t calm my racing thoughts until I see her again, to know for myself that she’s safe. I teleport outside her lab, sliding into my human glamour rather than risk ruining whatever she’s working on. Seeing Val at one of the cluttered counters holding a beaker to the light settles my heart.
Above her, Montejanus runs through a maze she and Shadowvale have built along the ceiling. She and the castle designed a winding burrow, full of holes and pockets for the mongoose to hide in or pop out of. He dashes over my head with a series of squeaks and chirps, Val’s toy unicorn prancing behind him.
“You’re back.” My mate pulls safety goggles off her face, tugging them over her ponytail. Gods, she’s gorgeous in herwhite lab coat. She snaps off a pair of gloves, and I think I’ve developed a new kink for hot scientist—thishot scientist. “Is Ava okay? I had to invite her parents inside the suite. I mean, at first, I was shocked they’d made it to the hell dimensions, and then I remembered her mom’s the sea witch. I get you’ve warded the place again, but it seemed cruel to?—”
I yank her close and go in for a kiss, stopping only a heartbeat to see if she’ll protest, to push me away and return to one of her many unfinished experiments. Instead, she curls one corner of her lips—those beguiling lips that can tease, test, or torture a man—into a smirk that’s a blatant dare.
Challenge accepted.
Her taste drags over my tongue like the finest wine, and the way she parts her mouth to let me lick inside? It’s intoxicating. “If you don’t kill me, Vicious, helping out your friends might.”
“But Ava’s all right?”
“She’s back with her kraken mate and adjusting to what she has learned about her mom. For all his stupidity when it comes to human women, the kraken?—”
“Please. As if you’re the expert?” She chases her taunt with a nip of my bottom lip.
“Brat.”
“You like it.”
“True.” More than I should. “Ava has returned to whatever secret fortress the kraken keeps.”
“Good. He makes her happy. As much as he infuriates her. I couldn’t stand seeing her sad. I hope they can work things out between them.”
“They have. Fated mates,” I remind her. “Destiny is on their side.”
She twists those talented fingers through my hair. “You talking about them or us?”
“Can’t it be both?” I tighten my hold on her hips, and I don’t know if it’s out of need or fear of what she’ll do next. “Your friend Meg saved her minotaur’s entire labyrinth realm.”
“What? Is she okay? Have you seen her?”
