Page 31 of Hunted By Fear

I can’t stop the pride that fills me knowing I did that.

His idea is just crazy enough that it might work, though I don't think it’s much better.

Kai had come to me yesterday with a possible solution to our problems. Not all of them, but a few, and that was a start.

Lucifer told him the contract was binding and that in order for us to break it, we would need to find something…bigger.

It sounds impossible, but of course, with him bringing the idea to me, he already had that worked out.

Mates.

Fated mates aren’t something any of us understands. They are a gift from the universe that neither God nor Lucifer has any say in.

Celestial, if you will.

The only problem…

None of us is certain that Bast and Aeri are mates. All we have to go on is Bast’s word, and while I think he might believe that to be true, nobody has any proof.

Demons have walked the earth for a long time, and I’ve never heard of one finding a mate. That’s why we believed it was a punishment from the universe itself.

Worse still is that even if they are mates, we don’t know what the hell that means.

Is that alone enough to override the contract? If they mate, will it be null and void? And how does one trigger a mate bond?

I’d never cared much about mates even before the fall. The divine almost always have mates, but most tend to be mortal; those who had other divines as their mates have long since found them. Seeing that most mortals don’t live long, most divine don’t even bother venturing to find them, instead waiting to see if they will go to Heaven once their time on Earth is over.

I’d never looked for my mate on Earth or in Heaven; as far as I was concerned, a mate wasn’t something I wanted or needed.

I can’t recall any of the others caring much one way or the other, either.

Maybe no demon had ever had a mate because they didn’t care to look for them. After all, I don’t know many demons besides us who go around seeking the mortals out.

The only use I’ve ever had for them was to ensure they covered our scent while topside.

Fuck, how had everything ended up so twisted?

“Bast,” I call to him down the hall as he moves away from Aerilyn’s door.

It’s rare to see him leave, but it does happen. I’m not sure if I’m grateful for that or disappointed that I don’t get to slip in and take a look at her for myself.

Kai said she had a rough night. Rome is pushing harder, probably in an attempt to draw her back to him. He’s brainwashed her and tied it up in a bow to call it “love,” but we all know it’s a lie.

Or most of us do.

Aeri seems to believe it, or at least she does about ninety-seven percent of the time. There are ‌rare glimpses of the old her that shine through every once in a while. Aeri knows what Rome is, but she’s not ‌in the driver's seat anymore.

Bast turns back to look at me, and I see a lightness shine in his eyes that’s been missing the last few months.

Something has changed.

“Hey, Asta. I was just headed down to the kitchen to grab something to eat,” he tells me as I fall into step beside him. Considering we don’t have to eat the way mortals do, I’m assuming the food is more for her than him.

I fill him in on Kai’s musing about mates possibly being something powerful enough to break the contract, and a smile pulls to his lips, full and real. I can’t remember the last time I saw Bast smile. For the last few hundred years, he’s been more withdrawn and quiet.

Whether the mortal is his mate or not, there's no denying she’s good for him; Talian as well, if I’m being honest.

“I mean, it makes sense in the logical aspect, but who’s to say mating is logical?” He shrugs, but I can tell by the look on his face that he isn’t done. Bast loves knowledge; learning new, even pointless things, has been his pride and joy for hundreds, if not thousands, of years now, and I have a strong suspicion that if he didn’t feel like Aeri needed him, he would be down in the library helping Kai comb through every book here.