Page 48 of Claimed

I take it, wave him away, and settle beside my beating book to watch the footage again. The picture is dreadful but the essentials are all there.

Steven, my grotesque masterpiece, floating in the air. And Luna unravelling him.

You can see exactly when it happens.

Her terror reaches the bottom of itself and turns into something else. Her head comes up. The light in her eyes flickers then dies.

And she claims it. The darkness.

The rest is forty seconds of the most magnificent thing I’ve ever seen.

Shadows pouring out of a human woman like floodwater through a burst dam. Glass shattering. Steven held in the air while she takes him apart. Undone in layers like the dark is peeling him back to reveal whatever he has underneath.

I sit with the phone against my lips for a moment, savouring it.

I did this.

Decades of hunting and patience, and now here she is. Terrifyingly powerful just as I promised she would be.

If only Darius could see it.

I look up and realise every single pair of eyes is on me.

“You’re wondering why I’m smiling, aren’t you?” I say.

Silence.

The book throbs.

“I am smiling because, despite appearances, you are not looking at our enemy. You are looking at our future.”

At the top of the stairs, Cerberus shifts and tilts his head, listening to me.

“What our Queen just felt? That kind of power is addictive. She’s had a taste of it now and⁠—”

Cerberus barks loudly. Someone is coming down the stairs.

It’s daylight outside now and the figure that steps into the candlelight is wearing a hooded cloak, smoking gently underneath it, smelling of scorched wool and cooked skin.

Burns glaze one side of his face.

“Renfield,” I say curtly. “You look terrible.”

He bows and folds back the blanket with his less ruined hand.

“Do you know where my brother took our queen?”

Renfield nods. “They’ve gone into hiding. He took the queen and the demon hunter down the old tunnel, under the grounds. They’re in the museum now.”

“You’re certain?”

“I saw them myself, my lord.”

I nod at him. “You did well at the campsite.”

Renfield hangs his head and grunts a thank you.

I look from him to the book. Then I pluck it from its altar and hold it close to my heart. “Soon,” I whisper. “It will soon be time for you to be reunited with your mistress. I promise I will bring her here for you soon.”