Page 11 of Taken by the Twins (Sombra Demons #7)

CHAPTER 11

PROMISE

LUCIAN

I have never seen Damien so close to going fully demonic than I did when he was in his shadows, swooping over the human male, frightening him.

He was still my brother. Still good . He wouldn’t hurt the male, not if he believed it would cause pain to our Tandy, but I knew what he was doing. Certain mages have the ability to remove memories from human minds. There is Sammael, Haures’s former head mage, who was gifted in the skill. He could take memories, implant memories, do everything he could to keep the secret of Sombra and its demons hidden from the humans.

There was a hunter. Nox. I saw his future many times, though when we invited him to our cabin to offer him a prophecy, the stubborn hunter refused us. His mistake. I could’ve warned him that I saw chains in his future for visiting his human mate before she was mature enough to accept him, and that after his long imprisonment, he would find his way back to her—but when he did, he needed to be wary of the strange vessels that the humans use to get around since they can’t do shadow travel.

There’s a price to pay for those who ignore the doppelseers. Nox no longer has control over his forms, though he’s been happily mated to the duchess’s kin these last two decades so he doesn’t mind paying it.

The same with Loki, a former student of the School of Mages. He stole the matefinder spell and cast it centuries before his human mate was destined to be born. The spell backfired, turning him fully demonic. And though we saw he would recover in time, it wasn’t easy—and if he hadn’t been too proud to accept the doppelseers’ vision, it might have been.

For ages, we have kept an eye on those males whose futures were entwined with the prophecy that would either end existence in Sombra as we know it, or if we can change it, ensure prosperity and eternity for anyone who calls it their home.

It is Tandy’s home now. Watching her run to Damien, not knowing how close he was to losing the last of his essence and reverting completely to a mindless mass of shadows… watching our mate wrap her arms around him, searching for his embrace, before offering me her hand to guide her back to Sombra… this is her home.

We are her mates.

I want to finalize our bond as soon as we return to the cabin. The gold moon approaches, and my certainty that we need to be fully mated before it completes its ascent has grown stronger and stronger since Tandy summoned us to her.

She already accepted me once. Her essence tells me that she’s ready to accept Damien now.

If she takes her twins together, we can give her our essence at last, then follow it with the mate’s promise. There will be no severing our bond after that, and with it nearly irreversible, I should be able to see any future involving our mate once she is truly our mate.

That’s all I want. If the shadows come… if the rain comes… if the child comes… I will either work to change the prophecy, or I will flee to another realm with my twin and our mate. There is Brille Rouge. Soleil. Even Earth, if I must. It won’t be Sombra, and my powers will significantly weaken without the shadows that have surrounded us since birth, but it was never about the powers for me.

It was about using them to protect my mate. I will do that however I can.

And if I have to protect her from Damien, I will do that if I must.

I knew how close he was to losing control.

But Tandy? She doesn’t understand. The instance we return to the cabin and Damien makes some mumbled excuse to leave her bedroom, I don’t have a vision. I don’t need to. The pain of rejection in her essence is too potent to ignore.

She hides it. With a laugh and a smile, she says he must have other plans, and that’s okay. She’d like a bath. Something to eat. A nap.

Privacy. Our mate needs privacy, and I will always give her what she requires.

So I do. I let Damien slip down the stairs to the main floor of our cabin without stopping him. Through our twin bond, I know he hasn’t gone far, so I conjure the water at the temperature Tandy prefers. I wave my hand, the shadows falling away from her body. I only give her a fleeting, heated glance as I remember how I held her naked form against me not that long ago, then I swallow roughly.

“Rest, dear one,” I say softly. “Take your bath. Sleep if you like. I will bring you something to eat.”

Her smile is both sad yet wistful. “Whatever did I do to deserve a great guy like you, Lucian? You’re so good to me.”

Because you are my mate.

Because you are my life.

Because I love you…

My claws twitch as I realize that, for the first time since Tandy’s been in our home, did I think of her as mine.

Not Damien’s, too. Just mine .

But she isn’t. She can’t be. She belongs to both of us—and as soon as I make something worthy of her to eat that isn’t simple bread and cheese, I will remind both Damien and myself of that fact.

I find Damien over the stove. In one cooking vessel, he’s brewing a tea. At first, I think he realized how close he came to losing the last of his essence and started the ashbalm potion that bolsters our twin bond.

But then I sniff it, and say, “ Ergol .”

“For Tandy. It’ll help calm her. After the way that male spoke to her, I thought she might need it.”

No. What she needs is the support of her true mates, but before I snap that at Damien, it hits me that this is his way of supporting her.

He will always tend to emotions first. I deal with the tangible. Things I can touch. I can do. I ran her a bath. I fluffed her bedding to make it more comfortable. I came downstairs to get her something to eat…

Damien has already done so. There is a hash made of tybirs, ungez meat, and herbs sizzling on the pan. It smells both delicious and comforting, and between that and the ergol tea, Tandy will feed both her belly and her heart.

I nod at my twin. “You should serve her. I think she would appreciate it.”

Damien shakes the pan so that they meat doesn’t stick. “I’d rather you did, brother.”

“Damien—”

He glances at me. My claws cut into the flesh of my palm as I squeeze my fist.

His purple eye is white.

My twin is no longer my twin. If I looked in a scrying glass, would my eyes both be purple? I won’t look. I can’t . But if his eyes are white like those mindless creatures that can’t escape the shadows, how is he standing there so calmly? He’s speaking in the English language because we both know it makes Tandy feel more comfortable since she does not yet understand Sombran. A fully demonic male has no essence, but he is able to access Tandy’s.

Our twin bond is barely there. I only hope the fledgling one that stretches between my twin and our mate is enough to keep him from losing the last of himself.

“Damien?”

“She will choose.” His lyrical voice has gone flat. “I have sensed it.”

No. I refuse to believe that. “We are the doppelseers. What I see, you see, brother. Adn what you sense, I know.”

Damien steps away from the stovetop. “Look into your heart, Lucian. And ask it why it hides this vision from you. Your eyes might see, but your mate’s essence blinds you.”

“My mate? She is our mate.”

What happened upstairs was a fluke. A fleeting moment made up of relief that Tandy is back in the cabin, and hope that she’ll never want to leave again. She is my mate, but she isn’t mine . She is ours.

If only my twin would agree.

His white eyes dim. “We are an abomination,” he whispers. “Essence split between two males. Cursed to see… cursed to know … and I know that our Tandy is your Tandy. She will choose. And she will not choose the demonic twin.”

“You are not demonic,” I tell him.

“No?” His eyes flash. “I gave up the last of your essence when I opened the portal to the human world. I knew it was a risk. I knew that Haures will be able to tell I left. You weren’t supposed to come after me.”

I wasn’t.

Moving toward him, Damien stays still as I lay my hand on my twin’s shoulder. “You are my twin. The other half of my essence. I will always come for you.”

He shakes his head, then shakes off my hand. “Promise me. Promise me that, when the shadows claim me, you won’t follow me there.”

“Damien. Brother. I can’t do that. Don’t ask me?—”

“You must, Lucian. For Tandy’s sake, if not for the years that we’ve spent together as the doppelseers. I’ve never asked you for anything before now. So promise me. Promise me that you will keep her safe, and when I can no longer be trusted around her, you’ll let me go and not follow.”

“I—”

“Please,” he says softly—and my heart breaks for the pain in his voice. “It will happen. Whether you see it or not, it will happen. I love you, brother. You’ve given me more than I ever deserved. I never asked, but I never had to. You were generous enough to share. With me. With Sombra. Just this once, be selfish.”

I shake my head. “You ask for too much.”

“I know. And you are the good twin, Lucian. You will give it to me just like you’ve given me everything else. So, please, promise.”

I can’t use my gift to see a clear future that includes me, Damien, or Tandy. I never have. They’ve either been hazy or mere glimpses of images that flash too quickly to actually see . That doesn’t stop me from trying now, but when all I see is black, I’m not sure if it’s because the gods are hiding what will happen to the three of us from me entirely—or I am.

One thing for sure?

Damien is correct.

There isn’t anything I won’t give him.

So I shudder out a breath. “I promise.”