Page 40 of The Demon Prince's Accidental Mate
“So, you’re going to put us in danger to keep us out of danger?”
I nodded. “The bakery is static. Easily trackable and absolutely not defensible. My magic will be trackable … to here. To this place. But once we move on from it, we leave it behind, and the trail grows muddy, much harder to follow. A temporary danger that will help you leave behind the past.”
I hoped.
Lily licked her lips, coming swiftly to a decision I had never doubted. “Okay. Let’s do it.”
Although the decision had been made quickly, trepidation filled Lily, spilling through our link. Through it, I saw her uncertainty and the questions she was asking herself about whether it was the right time and place and even whether she wanted to go through with it.
“Okay,” I said at last, having waited long enough to give her a chance to change her mind.
She didn’t.
I began setting up the ritual, drawing a circle around Lily, then a line and a fresh circle. I cut up sticks and placed them at appropriate marks, sticking one end into the ground. I completed it all by drawing a large circle around everything. Then I settled cross-legged in my circle, facing Lily.
“Are you ready?”
She chewed on her bottom lip for a moment, the look so innocent and pure that I nearly lunged across the circle. I wanted to take her, and the tight clothing with nothing underneath, the damp fabric, and now that was turning me on more than I wanted.
Lily looked up sharply, and I tamped down on my lust.
“Sorry,” I grunted, trying to rein myself in.
“I’m ready,” she said.
I reached out with my right hand, and with a gesture, fire burst from the top of upright sticks, my makeshift candles burning merrily. Then I began to speak, the sharp, guttural words indelibly marking the place to anyone who could sense demonic magic.
Triuk would have no trouble finding it. Nor would anyone else.
“Pull out one of your hairs and loop it around your right wrist,” I instructed.
Lily didn’t hesitate, following my instructions perfectly. I looped the spell around the same wrist, infusing it with her essence from the hair. Then I cast it out into the Underworld, like a lasso, until it snared her father’s spirit at my command.
The air between us shimmered, and a tiny fire imp pulled itself into our reality. One of the most minor demons, it was no more than a foot tall, covered in black fur, with red eyes that looked at me balefully as it chittered in its own language. I ignored it, focused elsewhere.
With a grunt of effort, I mentally yanked her father’s spirit back from the Underworld, using the link to Lily’s hair to pull it into this world via the same rip the imp had come from. There was a spark of yellow light, and then the imp jerked.
“What the hell is going on?” a male voice asked.
“Father?” Lily gasped.
Chapter Twenty-One
Lily
Hearing his voice again was like a thing out of my nightmares.
Since Old Andie told me I could speak with him again, I’d prepared myself for the experience. Yet I hadn’t considered what hearing that sharp, angry bark would do to my psyche. Fixated only on discovering more about my mother, everything else had gone to the wayside. Until then.
“Lilith?”
The tiny being turned to face me. Its large round eyes were a bright yellow, with a wide, triangular nose that didn’t protrude at all. Pointed ears poked out from under the thick, scruffy covering of hair—or fur, perhaps. I wasn’t sure. As it looked at me, its face twisted in anger.
“Let me go.”
“No, Victor,” I said firmly, testing out another thing I had been preparing myself for.
“Oh, it’s Victor now, is it? Not father?”
