Chapter Twelve

Wren

Hayden disappears from my hold, vanishing as though she has become shadow.

"Hayden?" My roar brings Maximus, Glenda, and all the ghosts.

"Where is she?" Glenda asks, flickering in a frantic pattern as though she's searching multiple spaces at once. Or so terrified she can't keep her form.

Maximus barks with one head, howls with another, and whines with the last.

The ghosts all talk at once.

"Quiet," I demand. "Nothing could've gotten through the wards. Whatever magic took her?—"

"Pardon me, don't rend me, Sir Reaper, but…" Bertie the Bard sweeps his turkey leg in an odd bow.

"What?" I snap.

"I read the matching contract Hayden signed with the demon."

I do not want to discuss Theodopolis right now. "Get to the point, ghost."

"What if this is related to the mating magic mentioned in the contract? It seemed very important in the terms of the agreement?—"

"Mating magic." My voice goes almost as hoarse as Bertie's. Demons select their partners solely for the increase in magical abilities brought on by a completed mating bond—a level up for both parties. If I'm freaking the fuck out, what might my human be feeling if she suddenly acquired a new power?

Glenda tugs on her Groovy Good Time shirt. "Can you find Hayden?" Her voice breaks on a quiet sob.

Hayden .

My mate.

My world.

I block out everything but the connection we forged. Feeling her come apart around me. Knowing I wouldn't have to wait for her dreams ever again. Finding the best parts of me in loving her. Yet here, I only sense an emptiness. "She spoke of home."

"She's a wanderer," Glenda says. "She doesn't have a home."

" My home," I whisper. "What if…"

I don't take the time to finish the thought. "Come, Maximus."

Traveling through shadows, I hurry to my home realm, to the fortress surrounded by water, mirrors, prisms, and all manners of light reflection in case the dreaded, banished shadow eldritch horrors who predate us ever return. My magic pulses the closer I get to my rooms. I burst into the long shadows of my bedroom, praying to any deities in the Valley of the Gods who might hear me that I guessed right.

Hayden stands, wrapped in a blanket pulled from my bed. "You live in a castle?"

She's safe.

She's here in my home.

A feeling of contentment so deep, so heavy it drags me down like the gravity of an iron-forged realm settles in my chest. Magic pulses through my shadows, stronger than ever before. I step beside her, gathering her to me, not sure how she came to be here or what she sees when she looks at my world, but reveling in the happiness shining on her face.

"A fortress, but yeah, sure," I say, not wanting to break whatever peaceful spell this is with a demand for certainty or…gods forbid…anything that might scare her. Not when she stares at my room in astonishment.

Maximus paws at her legs, his tail wagging.

"I thought only the demon could send me here," she says. "So how did you?"

"I didn't. I think you did with whatever magic you got from our mating bond."

"I have magic?" She smiles. "Epic."

Terrifying . "You said you wanted to visit my home?—"

"And poof I was here," she finishes for me. "It's beautiful. The glass domed ceiling, the arched windows, the view of the night sky—it's like stepping into a painting. You said once it's always night here?"

"Yes. We only need enough light to cast the shadows we travel through."

"I could get used to this," she whispers, staring at the purple glow my magic casts over the stone floors and heavy drapes—galaxies of color and shade swirling around us. "How did you find me?"

"I sensed you. You said home , but when I got here, it felt right. The sensation mirrored the way I found you through your dreams."

"That's some advanced stalker shit."

"Necessary if my mate is going to walk between worlds." I remember the ghosts, Glenda's tears. "Your friends are worried about you." I don't add that I was out of my mind to find her.

Her eyes widen. "I don't know how to get back. If I can get back." Her words come faster, her tone taking on a thread of fear.

No . I don't want her afraid. "No matter what magic you have, we can face it together."

"All right. Here goes?—"

She vanishes before finishing the statement.

I travel through shadow again, following her. This time the tie between us tugs me along without any doubt of where she has landed…leading me to my true home. Where she is.