Page 69 of Dating the Dealing Demon

Nic grins, and I swear I see fangs despite her glamour. “As in exactly your magic.”

I’m terrified. And intrigued. Being locked in a cell with the monster who haunts my nightmares could go all sorts of wrong. Or perhaps it’d be the key to figuring out the magic I shouldn’t have. “Let’s go see if Reggie the Revolting is interested in another round.”

“Sweet,” Nic drawls with a happy air of maniacal glee. “This will be fun and totally worth it even if Theo tries to kill me for suggesting this.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

Theo

“Iswear I’m going to kill you,” I tell Nic as we teleport into the dungeons of Shadowvale.

“At least you’ve quit ignoring your mate. Besides, she’s handling herself.” My baby sister doesn’t bother looking at me which means she has zero concerns I’ll actually follow through on my death threat.

I’ve already lost my other sister until I can figure out who I need to beat into telling me they either stole our father’s blood or forced him to open a portal that kidnapped his own daughter. I can’t believe he would have willingly done such a thing. He must have been in one of his recent fugue states when they got to him. Gods, how am I to keep the kingdom together and our family from falling apart with my father going into psychotic breakdowns when I’ve been disowned as his heir?

I’ll solve that enormous problem as soon as I yank my mate out of the warded cell with Reginald, my shadow demon cousin. I should’ve killed him instead of throwing him in here for later public torture.

Cold snakes down my spine, a shiver having nothing to do with the chill from the damp walls of this abyss.

Hurrying through the narrow hallways, I seriously question my no-teleportation rules inside these restricted areas of Shadowvale. The wards had been meant to keep those seeking sanctuary safe, the prisoners in, and any would-be rescuers out. Since when had my wards worked against me as much as they have recently? Never.

I hadn’t imagined I would be running through the twisting corridors, fueled by fear for someoneinsidethe dungeon. For my reckless, impulsive,has more science smarts than common sensemate.

To push down the terror quickening my heartbeat with each turn, I concentrate on my anger. “Who besides you helped Val break into the cell? I need to know the names of everyone who requires punishment for endangering her.” Without waiting for an answer, which seems unlikely given Nic’s smug and sullen expression, I ask the more important question, “What madness had her going in there with him?”

“She’s taking back her power,” Nic says, a slight snarl to her voice. “Power you made her question by ditching her as though you blameherfor our family’s problems, for the portals, for the monsters snatching Gilly, even for your little temper tantrum that almost burned down Shadowvale.”

“I don’t blame Val.” I force the words out. Do I blame her? No. I can’t. Logically, it doesn’t make sense, and reason and order are all that stands between me as a former crown prince and my psycho shadow demon cousin who could be tormenting my mate this very moment.Except it started with her, an awful, twisted memory of my last argument with Gilly whispers through my mind. No. I can’t go there. “Val didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Then tellherthat,” Nic snaps. “She thinks you’ve abandoned her because of something she’s done. Not because you’re a fool who can’t recognize the miracle she is. She has brought the Brimstone Bells back, she carries magic we’ve never seen, and she puts up with your stupid ass.”

“Careful,” I warn. “If you weren’t my sister?—”

“But I am, and that blessed creature is your mate.” She waves an arm, and the wall of the cell becomes transparent, revealing Val in high-heeled boots, the lab coat I’ve come to fantasize about, and full-glam glory tossing blades of light as though she’d been born to wield them. “So treat her like it,” Nic demands on a huff. “Start by worshipping her and maybe, just maybe, she’ll forgive you for the way you’ve acted the last few days.”

Her accusations weigh heavy on me. I’d kept away from Val so I wouldn’t poison her again or set something on fire. Winning back my crown and keeping her safe had seemed more important, but what if that’s not whatshe’dwanted?

“I gave her space because…” I swallow, trying to push past the instinctive desire to appear in charge and in control, to radiate confidence that I have all the answers when I obviously don’t. “Because Gilly suggested I forced Val into the mating bond. She insinuated I’m the worst thing to ever happen to my mate, and I shouldn’t be able to live with myself if that’s true.”

“And you believed her? What’s theactualtruth, Theo? Not what you think you should say or what anyone else has told you.”

A glance at Val, and I answer from instinct. “Honestly, I don’t give a fuck if I’m the villain of this story. I won’t let Val go. No matter how much of a monster that makes me.”

My mate stands in the center of the cell, casting light in my awful cousin’s direction. Most miss, but some hit, scattering his shadows into nothing. Montejanus flies in his dragon format Val’s back, watching her six and blowing fire anytime the asshole tries to sneak up on her. She holds her own, but by the tightness in her shoulders and the quick movements of her hands, she’s either tired or angry or both. Sure, I commissioned the wards to keep my shadow disaster of a cousin from escaping or causing real physical harm. Yet I hadn’t planned to test the latter on my mate.

“I should get in there,” I tell Nic, still waiting for an apology that will likely never come.

Nic heads toward the corridors leading out of the dungeon. “I’ve done all I can,” she calls over her shoulder. “If she can’t stand you, that’s your own problem.”

Yep, no apology for putting my mate in danger will be coming from my baby sister. Between unraveling a deal I didn’t know my mother had made, losing Gilly, leaving Val, and pissing off Nic, I’m not doing so well with the women in my life.

Maybe my sister overestimated how badly my mate has taken the distance between us. With her attention split between magic and science and everything else, Val probably thought of my absence as a minor inconvenience.

I open the door to the cell and stride inside.

My mate spins my direction, glaring at me with as much contempt as she’s dishing out my cousin’s way. “You.”

“Me?” I ask. From the cruelty in her voice, she must mean Reginald.

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