Page 14 of Claimed

I hate how thin my voice sounds as I wipe my fingers on the sheet, then regret it immediately because now his scent rises. Dark. Metallic. Winter heat. Addictive. My body reacts like a complete traitor.

Valentin’s head turns, towards me. His eyes are still closed, but his face angles in my direction with unnerving precision.

Mine.

The word slides through my mind so softly I almost miss it.

I take one step closer before sense catches up and punches me in the throat.

Malachi sees that too and his expression changes, suspicion cutting into something colder. ‘Did he speak to you?’

‘No.’ The lie is too fast with zero finesse. Damn it.

Aaron’s gaze sharpens as Luca straightens.

‘What did he say?’ Malachi demands.

‘Nothing useful.’

‘So he did speak.’

‘Inside my head, yes. Briefly. Congratulations, you solved the least urgent mystery in the room.’

Malachi’s fangs flash. ‘What. Did. He. Say.’

I look at Valentin instead of answering. The chamber hums as his mark creeps another hair’s breadth higher up his throat.

I can’t say ‘mine’ out loud to them or explain what that word does to me. How it feels less like possession now and more like a hand reaching from underwater.

‘He said my name,’ I lie. Close enough. Dangerous enough. The cut beneath my tongue gives one small pulse, then settles.

Bride’s Mercy allows it.

Interesting.

Malachi’s nostrils flare. He doesn’t believe me, but he can’t prove it.

Aaron steps into the moment before it becomes bloodshed. ‘We need answers, not accusations.’

‘You have an idea?’ Malachi asks.

Aaron looks at Valentin’s mark, then the fractured barrier around him. ‘We need someone who can explain all this to us. A sorcerer. Or a witch.’

The word is a hurled blade that snaps my spine straight. ‘No.’

Malachi rounds on me. ‘You don’t have voting rights in this room, hunter.’

‘I have survival instincts. Bringing witches into this is how things get worse.’

Iskander’s eyes narrow. ‘How?’

My gaze cuts to Valentin, too still on the obsidian slab, his skin carrying that awful, ruined undertone beneath the gold. ‘Witches don’t help for free. They don’t even breathe near a disaster like this unless they’ve already calculated what they can get out of the wreckage. And that’s when they’re not actively trying to fuck with you.’ Yeah, the bitterness in my tone is top notch.

Aaron’s gaze flicks to me. ‘Sounds like you have experience with witches.’

I consider lying.

Bride’s Mercy sits quiet under my tongue, uninterested in protecting Selphine’s privacy. Rude. ‘I meet all sorts of questionable people in my line of work. Demons, ghouls. Vampires. They tend to want to kill you straight away. Witches, though, they hide all sorts of agendas behind weird smiles and overpriced candles.’