Page 116 of Tethered Fates

“You’ve sent a murderous little mage to my door.” The demon prince’s voice is hard as granite and rough as sandpaper.

“Not like we had much choice,” Vidar barks back.

Maddox opens his mouth to say something, and from the way his lip snarls up, I doubt it’s anything friendly.

But then he frowns, his thick eyebrows pulling tight in my direction.

“You,” his deep baritone cuts through me. “I know you…”

“I don’t think so,” I bite back.

But the prince shakes his head. “We’ve met before…”

Before I can say anything else, Ramy pushes past me, his chest heaving as he stares, wide-eyed and hopeful, at Maddox and says one single word: “Soulmate.”

A slow, dangerous grin spreads across the Demon Prince’s face.

Epilogue - Teagan

One year later…

Sen’s taken me to some wild places; casinos where we lost a crazy amount of money, then we stole it all back.

I met a fae queen who tricked us into becoming her lovers. It was fun for a week, then Sen tricked her into winning our freedom.

I still meet up with her for cocktails when we’re back in Ireland.

In return, I’ve shown him the coolest spots for graffiti, climbed the Tokyo Skytree without being noticed, and gave him a handjob while we were swimming with sharks.

‘Let’s maybe never do that one again,’ he said once we’d climbed back onto the boat in Australia.

‘But you loved your danger wank,’ I teased.

We’ve spent a month in a secluded cottage where all we did was sleep, drink blood, eat fruit, chocolate and fuck.

And at every stop, I make sure to get a new stamp for Sen’s collection and a picture for Thomas.

But in all the places we’ve travelled, we always find our way back to the city where we first met, in my studio, where Sen really saw me for the first time.

“You know we don’t need to keep crawling in through the hole,” Sen complains as we wiggle our way inside the abandoned shopping centre. “I bought the place so we wouldn’t have to.”

“But it’s more fun this way.”

Sen chuckles and doesn’t argue. Why bother when he knows I’m right?

Taking his hand, I intertwine our fingers and tug him towards the shop with all my art. We haven’t been back in two months, and strolling past my wild pieces is a trip down memory lane, each one a shrine to our adventures. Soon, I might have to expand. Maybe the whole shopping centre will be covered in colour.

“Hey, Erica,” I say to my limbless mannequin.

“Lovely seeing you again, Erica,” Sen replies with a teasing tilt. “So what was your big idea that you just had to do?”

“Stay there.” I drop my backpack, then hurry to pull out the massive sheet of paper I stored here the last time we visited.

Clearing out a space, I roll it out, grabbing four cans of paint to keep it flat. I look up at Sen and say, “Alright, get naked.” Then start taking my own clothes off.

Sen is in front of me within the blink of an eye to grab my hands, stopping me. “Now, sweetheart, you wouldn’t rob an old vampire the pleasure of unwrapping what’s his, would you?”

My mouth spreads into a smile.