Page 76 of What Hunts Inside the Shadows

She was as much mine as he was, even if it was in an entirely different way.Sisters, united in the magic that brought us together.

“And did the witch perhaps explain what happens if one of you fails to protect the other? If there are circumstances beyond your control and one of you is faced with the choice between death and escape?” he demanded, leveling Imelda with a glare that was strong enough to make me shrink back.

“The cost of failure to fulfill your oath is death,” Imelda said, holding his stare before turning it to each of us briefly. “So long as you have theintentto uphold the blood oath, the magic will not demand that price.”

“Matters of life and death are rarely black and white. Sometimes they require hard choices and exceptions to promises such as this. Your magic does not recognizecircumstances, Imelda,” he said, turning that rage-filled stare to me. “What if she is Mab’s daughter? You’ve just put yourself at risk for nothing.”

“It is not nothing to protect a friend,” I said, raising my chin in defiance. I yanked my hand out of his grasp. “If you truly believe that, then I amsorryfor the life you’ve lived that you would so willingly sacrifice someone you love to save yourself.”

“I wouldn’t,” he said, his tone dropping low. “But I would sacrificeeveryoneI have ever met to saveyou. This was a foolish risk.”

“What if it’s me? We’re all thinking about it, right?” I asked, staring back at him in challenge. “If I am Mab’s daughter, I should think it would benefit me to have as many allies outside her influence as possible. Whatever Fallon may be, perhaps she is meant to aid me in dealing with the consequences of mymother.”

“She is not your mother,” he growled, the fury in his voice taking my breath away. “Do noteversay such a thing again.”

“How could you possibly know that? Even you have kept your distance since I started showing signs of her power. You know as well as anyone that the similarities are undeniable, Caelum,” I said, my voice gentling as I trailed off. The broken expression on his face, the outright denial to accept what I was.

He couldn’t.

“I would know if that bitch’s blood ran through your veins. I wouldfeelit. I am far too familiar with all aspects of my fucking step-mother, so I would recognize the way her daughter felt on the inside,” he said, the brutal twist of his features knocking me back a step.

Bile rose to my throat—hot and scorching.

Burning a path up and into my mouth as I resisted the urge to bend over and retch. He…

Oh Gods.

Imelda hung her head forward, her face a grimace as she refused to meet my stare. The horror of realization washed over me, watching as Caldris squeezed his eyes closed. When he opened them, they burned with regret.

He took a step toward me, wincing when I stumbled back to avoid him.

“I didn’t mean it like that,” he said, his voice gentle. “I’ve never had sex with Mab.”

“Then what exactly did you mean?” I asked, letting Fallon step up beside me. She wrapped her arms around me, leaning her head onto my shoulder and offering a small measure of comfort against the pain lacing through my body. The thought that he might have been intimate with my mother had been enough to break me.

How else could he have meant that?

“I meant you. I know what you feel like inside, your emotions. I know your soul, Little One, and I have felt hers. I’ve felt the twisted mess of it inside of me because of this cursed bond. Estrella, you are nothing like her; do you understand me? You are good and kind and so fucking stubborn, but you would turn the world over for those you love. She is incapable of caring about anyone but herself,” he said, and I heaved a sigh of relief.

“So you’ve never touched Mab sexually?” I asked, wanting a step further. There was more to sex than just sex. I wouldn’t fall prey to another Faerie play on words.

“Not directly, no,” he said. He sighed when I jerked back, hanging his head forward. “She had friends who were intrigued by me. They treat all her children like their personal playthings. It's just her way.”

“But you said you were celibate for centuries…” I said, my voice trailing off. There was no way for me to wrap my head around that deception. Unless it was because he’d been unwilling.

Rape was not sex.

My heart broke. He felt it, tilting his head to the side. “She used her influence over us to make us participate, but we were rarely willing. I stopped reacting centuries ago. It took the fun out of it for them and eventually they left me be, once they’d all had a turn. I meant it when I said I haven’t touched anyone. Please, believe that,” he pleaded, taking another step toward me. The first warm tear slid down my cheek, but I didn’t retreat from the touch when he reached out to wipe it away.

“You always wanted me to have a choice,” I said, realization dawning as I connected the dots. Because he hadn’t, because they’d forced him to touch people that he didn’t want, and he knew that pain deeply.

“You always will,” he said, sliding his hand around the back of my neck. He pulled me into his chest, pressing his chin down on the top of my head.

“What about you? Will Mab make you do that again? To hurt me?” I asked, horror dawning over me. If I was her daughter, there was no telling what she would do. If that was how she treated her children…

“Even her magic has limits and it cannot defy a mate bond. If she had tried to force me to respond to someone after you were born, she wouldn’t have been able to, and then she would have known that you exist. She cannot force me to be with someone now,” he said, pulling back to stare at me. “But there is a reason she cannot know about you until I’m strong enough to fight her. Why she can never have you in her clutches. She may not be able to force you to touch someone in the way she did me, but she could still use your body to punish me. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

“She could tear the skin from my bones,” I said, nodding my head.

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