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FELIX

“No!” I snap, my earlier anger rising up again. “No! We cannot release Draken into this world where he is Gaida’s supposed mate!”

“Not supposed,” Gaida mutters. “And not mine . Hers. The Blood Queen’s.”

“Same difference,” I growl.

“Not exactly,” Luke interjects. “There are differences. Subtle but important ones.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” I mutter. “Are we really having a semantics debate while two ancient entities are hovering around each other in the vault?”

The energy in the room crackles with tension. The vampire emotions are running hot as usual, while I’m trying to maintain enough composure for all of us. Someone has to think clearly, and this responsibility is weighing heavily on me right now. I could really use a fucking drink.

“Felix is right,” Dante says, giving me a momentary reprieve. “Releasing Draken is madness. He will go straight for Gaida, and what do we do to stop him? Kill him?”

“Then what do you suggest?” Luke asks, his voice tight with restraint. I can see the struggle in him. Mashtar’s influence is pulling against his own will. It’s only going to get worse.

“I suggest we secure the vault,” I say, moving toward the door. “Then we research a way to break Luke’s bond without unleashing apocalyptic forces.”

Gaida stands, her blue eyes glowing faintly in the dim light. Blood tears have dried on her cheeks, leaving rusty trails that make her look both vulnerable and dangerous. “I’m going with you.”

“No,” Luke and Dante say simultaneously.

I shake my head at them both. “She has to come. The sword responds to her. The chalice responds to her. Like it or not, she’s our best chance of containing those artefacts if something goes wrong. And something will go wrong.”

“You’re one giant ball of sunshine, aren’t you?” Dante mutters, rolling his eyes.

“Enough to burn you to a crisp if you keep giving me shit,” I snarl.

That shuts him up.

“Wait,” Gaida says with a gulp.

“What?” I press when she doesn’t continue.

“I don’t think I’m going to be able to separate Luke from the sire bond with Mashtar. Not with the sword.”

“That is secondary,” Luke says. “Right now, we need to get to the vault to split them up.”

“No,” she says, “I think there is only one option here. One we have already discarded. Okay, well, two actually, now that I think about it.”

“What do you mean?” I ask as Luke goes stony. Well, stonier than usual.

“She means transferring my sire bond back to Lucius.”

“And the second option?” I ask.

Her eyes fix on mine with a sense of fear. “Transferring it to me.”

Luke lets out a sound that is half groan, half noise of desire. He wants it, but at the same time, he can’t. The dynamic between them would be shattered and would probably tear them apart.

“No,” Luke says before anyone else can react, his voice hard. “That’s not an option.”

“Why not?” Gaida challenges, her chin lifting in that stubborn way that always makes me want to throttle her and worship her at the same time. “If I’m the Blood Queen, if I’m meant to be Draken’s mate, then surely I have enough power to be your sire?”

“It’s not about power,” Luke says, his voice dropping to a dangerous octave. “It’s about experience. About control. You have neither.”

I watch the hurt flash across her face before she masks it with anger. “So I’m good enough to be the Queen for an ancient power, but not good enough to handle you?”

“That’s not what I said.”

“It’s exactly what you said,” she snaps.

I take a deep breath, fighting the urge to hex them both into silence. “If you two could pause and think about this for five minutes, we still have a crisis to manage.”

Dante snickers behind me, and I shoot him a warning glare.

“Felix is right,” Luke concedes, though his eyes never leave Gaida’s. “We need to secure the vault first. Then we can debate sire bonds and other potentially catastrophic decisions.”

“Fine,” Gaida mutters, crossing her arms. “But this conversation isn’t over.”

“No, it bloody well isn’t,” he snaps and storms out of the bedroom, leaving us to follow.

I grab Gaida’s hand before she can take a step forward. “Is that really what you want?”

“I want to save him. Would I rather he goes back to Lucius? No. Would I rather be his sire? Also, no. But we are running out of options and time.”

“What if Constantine drained him to death and then gave him his blood? Would that work?” I ask. “Instead of using the sword to create a sire bond, do it the old-fashioned way.”

“We can’t risk it not working,” she says and leads me out of the room to catch up with Luke, who is already half a mile away, he is that determined to get away from us and this conversation.

Dante follows behind us, letting out an exasperated sigh. “This is fucked. All of it.”

That about sums it up.

By the time we reach the vault’s antechamber, Luke is already standing before the massive doors, his hands pressed against the ancient wood as if trying to sense what lies beyond. The air around him shimmers slightly.

“It’s quiet,” he says without turning. “Too quiet.”

“That’s ominous,” I mutter, letting go of Gaida’s hand to stand beside him. I extend my senses, letting my magick probe the wards surrounding the vault. They’re still intact, but there’s a strange resonance to them, like a crystal goblet that’s been struck and is still vibrating.

Gaida moves to Luke’s other side, her fingers hovering just above the door’s surface. “I can feel them both. The sword and the chalice. They’re definitely both in there.”

“That can’t be good,” Dante says, peering over my shoulder.

“We need to separate them,” Luke says, his voice strained. “Now.” He unlocks the wards and flings open the vault doors.

“Oh, fuck,” I mutter at the sight that greets us.

“Oh, fuck, indeed,” Luke agrees.