Page 6 of Drawn to the Demon Duke
I can sense bonds. I can recognize them before they exist, and in rare situations, I can sever them. The latter is how I took the throne after Yelios abandoned it all those years ago. The demons of that age might’ve been terrified of my colorless appearance, going so far as to throw me to the shadows and hope they would swallowmewhole, that was nothing compared to the understanding that I could rip their one true mate from them should I choose to.
So the bondmaster became duke, because even terrified demons would rebel should I proclaim myself king. I still wear the crown. I still claim the throne. I still lord over Sombra from the capital I built from scratch in Mavro… and, despite how hardI’ve worked to ignore the bonds existing around me, there are times when the magic plucks at my shadowless skin.
It does so now, but in a way I’ve never known before. At least, not to this extreme.
Once I followed the doppelseers’ lead and agreed to go for the throne, I developed a thin bond with every one of my people. This? They are echoes compared to the strength of the bond pulling me forward.
Because this bond?
It’smine.
At last, the one true mate foreseen by the powerful twin seers is calling me to her.
And I must answer.
As a bondmaster,I can travel to any of my subjects in need. Thankfully, the ordinary demon in Sombra has no idea that it is possible to summon their duke to their side. Only Damien and Lucian do it frequently, while a handful of high-ranking clan leaders have that honor.
If I need to travel without relying on a bond, I have Sammael at the ready to use his mage abilities to rip open a portal. That’s why, as the strange, glowing portal appears in my throne room, Glaine—the head of my guard, and one of two soldiers flanking my throne during my meetings with my subjects—immediately barks at Sammael for disrupting the meet. But it wasn’t Sammael conjuring the portal.
It was the matefinder spell.
Two thousand years ago, the doppelseers told me that my fate was to bond with a mortal female from the legendary humanworld. However, that wasn’t the only prophecy they shared with me when they suggested I succeed Yelios…
A child born of two worlds,
belonging in both, belonging to none,
will bring with them rain,
and the fires of Sombra will be forever done.
That day, when I initially learned of Sombra’s fate one day being placed at the feet of a half-demon, half-human spawn, the first law was born. Once I was Duke Haures, I decreed that there would be no contact with the mortals in their realm. The only exception, of course, would be if the mortal was a Sombra demon’s mate calling them. Otherwise, our worlds must be kept separate to save the doppelseers’ prophecy from coming to pass before we were ready.
As ruler of Sombra, I can sense it when any of my people go off-plane; as a bondmaster, I can tell when it’s due to a mate-induced summoning. The humans wouldn’t be able to summon a demon mate without the matefinder spell, but since Fate said that a mortal female would be mine, I agreed with Lucian that we should eventually send the matefinder spell across the veil.
For two thousand years, we waited. Over the centuries, six different grimoires were bound and passed through a portal into the human world; Damien could sense when another was nothing but dust or ash or debris, leading us to create another so that only oneGrimoire du Sombrawas on Earth at any given time.
But though we’ve bound six of the books, there has never been a female mortal who has summed a Sombran demon to be her mate.
Is that why the legend of the human female has grown? Perhaps. My demons have been satisfied over the centuries, finding their mates in demonesses from nearby realms such as Brille Rouge and Soleil, but I know that some wonder if the mythical human mate might some day summonhim.
I knew my fate was to bond one of the creatures to me. I just never expected that I’d be thefirst. If Lucian and Damien expected as such, I’d hope they would’ve warned me, but it doesn’t matter.
Leaving the bickering village leaders, my stunned guards, and my curious mage behind, I stepped through the portal in my throne room, exiting out into a world of light, of sweetness, ofice, the complete absence of fire.
A shiver runs through me as I land on a dusty sigil scrawled on a solid floor. In my castle, I keep crystal tiles beneath our feet to unsettle my visitors. Sombra is a world of fire and ash, but Mavro itself is much cooler, with shades of blue—the same color as my strange bondmaster eyes—coloring everything, including my colorless skin. Here? The air is a breeze. Taking a breath is like burning my lungs in a way quite different from the fire pits in Sombra.
I’m used to have mage-powered orbs providing illumination in my castle. Here? The light is harsh and yellow, but it’s easy to see the wee creature looking up at me in… awe. Yes. Smart human. You should be in awe of Duke Haures.
“Are you my female?” I ask her. “My mate? Tilt your chin, human. Let me see you.”
She just gawks.
I am used to that. In my entire existence, I haven’t seen another demon such as I. All of the Sombran demons have red skin and black shadows; I have neither. But as the legend of Duke Haures grew, the gawking became worried glimpses between bowing before their liege.
My human does not bow. She stares at me as though she does not understand a word of Sombra.
But of course she doesn’t. She must only know human—until I make a conscious decision to accept this obvious bond between us. Only then would she learn about her male, just as I’ll know all about my mate.
