Page 116 of Claimed By Fangs and Darkness

Kylo’s glare was deadly, and I giggled as I sipped my coffee next to him. We both sat at the head of the table in matching high-back chairs.

He looked at me and softened. “You are all limited toonewar fling. No exceptions.”

“Seems discriminatory,” said a woman with sharp green eyes and a shaved head.

She was shockingly gorgeous, and I recognized her as Bexley, a new member of Kylo’s most trusted advisors. Apparently, she came from old money, a family that was loyalist to their core. I bet she had a lot in common with someone born in a Servants of Lillian cult; it was why she sat with us here today.

“Not all of us have monogamous hearts,” she said with a devastating smile.

Harmony’s eyes widened, shifting in her seat. Blade was watching Harmony’s reaction too, mischief ripe in the curve of his lips.

Kylo sighed. “The plight of being in a position of power. I simply can’t account for the varied proclivities of you insatiable deviants.”

“Is that a day collar, boss?” Bexley shot back, eyeing my neck.

My face burned, and I glared up at Kylo.

He smiled slowly, enjoying every second of my humiliation. His hand tightened its grip on my thigh. I willed my pussy not to react the way I knew she wanted to.

“All right,” Kylo said. “Everyone’s here. Let’s begin before my girlfriend catches another stray.”

Kylo intentionally kept today’s gathering to the smallest number possible. I’d grown closer to most everyone at the table, save Phineas, but even still, I squirmed under the weight of so many eyes on me. Especially when discussing things that still felt raw and personal.

But I opened my mouth, because I had to get back to Juliette.

“The witch who killed Princeton is Aster’s child bride,” I said.

Surprise echoed through the room. Horrified faces looked at each other and then back at me.

“Well, shewasa child. Now she’s an adult woman, another half-witch.”

I pulled a slip of paper from the pocket of my dress. It was stamped with Lord Aster’s family crest.

I’d found it in theTales of Aracynthiathis morning.

Kylo glared down at the paper. I had to block out his anger to continue.

“I now have a direct line of communication to Aster.”

Kylo’s scowl deepened.

“He told me he had a suspicion I was still alive, and when he heard about the storm I’d conjured here in Etherdale, he followed the lead. I don’t know how long he’s been here, but obviously since before Princeton was killed. I believe Juliette can sense power, as a chaos witch, which was how she set her sights on Princeton and decided he was an important kill.”

I hesitated, shame and guilt eating away at me since the link to me was obvious and unspoken. A power-hungry witch who coveted my shadows wouldn’t have been in Etherdale if it weren’t for me.

“She harvested from his death and the power it generated to fuel her own. She’s a death witch. A vulture. She’s mimicking power by stealing it, and she’s working with dark forces in order to do so. The more power she has, the easier it is for her togenerate more from the atrocities she commits. She’s turned murder into a ritual.”

“Why didn’t she killyou?” Phineas asked, earning a look of pure ice from Kylo.

“It’s not an exact science. Magick requires exchange, sacrifice, balance. I think her power is limited. It needs sustenance in order to continue, just as vampires need blood. It’s not self-generating like magick that works with the universe’s natural ebbs and flows.”

I was trying to focus on the facts, to resist telling the room how insane Juliette was. Howrevolting. It didn’t matter. It felt personal to me, but none of them would understand the violation the way I did. I needed them to trust me to get back inside the Nighswander Estate and finish what I’d started.

“She didn’t steal Princeton’s magick exactly. She only harvested what she could from his ritualized death. This conversion comes at a loss, and she will need to keep refueling to maintain her strength.”

“Evie is more valuable alive than dead,” Kylo summarized. “They don’t wish to kill her; they want her to join them.”

“But if she doesn’t switch sides, I reckon they’d still opt for her dead rather than alive and working for us,” Phineas pointed out.