Page 10 of Claimed By Fangs and Darkness

He wanted to believe in me. But he was scared of losing me more.

“Can you… are you talking with Princeton now?” Kylo asked quietly.

“Sort of,” I said. “It’s more of an energy thing.”

The words came out on autopilot, as my attention lay elsewhere, toward forward momentum. I ran my hands along the bookcase in Princeton’s innocuous study, searching for the hidden trigger.

A book on sex magick stared me down.

I reached for it.

“Wait,” Kylo said. “There are wards in place. If the space doesn’t recognize you as Princeton, it could?—”

I tried not to look at Idris’s pale, lifeless form. But I could see it in my periphery. His spirit, his energy, was nowhere to be found. All of him was gone.

I reached for the book before Kylo finished his warning. I pulled it off the shelf, nearly smirking when I realized the cover was an artsy drawing of a man in a latex hood with a ball gag in his mouth.

Of course a book on kinky sex magick rituals was the door to Princeton’s evil lair.

If I had the ability to laugh right now, I would’ve.

I’d save it for when Idris was alive again.

As the bookcase trembled and began to move backward on its own, all I could see was Idris’s expression of pure determination when he rushed the born, weaponless, powerless. He was trying to stop them from taking me even knowing it would only ever end in his demise.

He knew it was a futile effort, and he did it anyway.

I wiped a stray tear from my cheek. I stepped into the dark unknown.

My foot touched hardwood floor, and warm-toned witch lights flickered to life above.

I turned back to Kylo, shuddering again at the sight of Idris.

Kylo stared at me in awe, in reverence, even as fear for my life oozed from his splintered heart—the heart he made vulnerable only for me.

“I can help you talk to Princeton,” I said. “When this is over, I can help you connect with him.”

Kylo’s eyes rounded slightly, his jaw tensing. “Thank you, Evie.”

Embarrassment reared its ugly head. Kylo’s betrayal, my grief and terror over Jacob’s death, past trauma, and sleepdeprivation had all formed a dangerous mix the past week. I hadn’t been thinking clearly.

What Kylo had done to Jacob was real. It was wrong.

But I was deeply ashamed about some of the more delusional, paranoid possibilities I’d entertained. Like the possibility that Kylo and his clan had intentionally killed Princeton to replace him with me, someone they could more easily control.

I knew that wasn’t true. I didn’t know what, exactly, the truth was yet—but Kylo loved Princeton, adored him, and I feared he felt the same for me.

“I’m going to set Idris in the center of the spell circle,” Kylo said.

“Thank you,” I mumbled, still sticky with shame as I took in our surroundings.

The room was spacious, the lights emulating a layer of warmth that might’ve otherwise been lost to the eerie darkness of the underground. Bookshelves loomed against a wall, and multiple altars stood in various focal points. There were statues of all three major goddesses present, and I struggled to make eye contact with Lillian’s. Other figures were depicted in the art displayed on walls or decorating altars, and there were many magickal objects, workings, and supplies spread out across shelves, furniture, and the floor.

In the center of the room, Kylo had already laid Idris down in the center of a large circle drawn in white chalk. Various sigils were drawn around and within the spell circle. Clearly the spirits and protections in place didn’t mind Kylo’s presence here. From the way he spoke, it seemed as though Kylo had witnessed Princeton’s mysterious, reality-bending rituals on plenty of occasions.

The bookcase swung back into place. Power was ripe and chaotic. I could feel Princeton’s lingering guides and helpers around me, in mourning.

“Thank you for allowing me to be here,” I said to them.