The appendages fell away. I was free to scramble to my feet and away from Jasper, very aware that I was amulet-less and at his mercy if he chose to exercise his mojo on me.
We stood meters apart in an eye-lock.
“I believe the words you’re searching for are thank you,” he said.
Fuck it. “Thank you.” I wasn’t a total douche, and credit where credit was due, he’d just saved my ass. “But if you try to use your mojo on me, I’ll—”
“You’ll nothing,” he said, eyes blazing sudden and bright. “If I want to rip you from this place and take you to my bed, then there is nothing you can do to stop me. And once you’re in my bed, you’ll willingly part your thighs.”
He had a sexual power over me I both craved and despised. He was my curse and my sickness, but I wasn’t about to submit without a fight.
I opened my mouth to argue.
“But.” He held up a finger to hush me. “I won’t do that.” His smirk was sly and smug, and all the more chilling for it. “I’ll take you back to your witches. I’ll even carry the little brats, and I’ll stand by and watch you don your pathetic amulet.”
“But?”
“But nothing.” He shrugged.
“Bullshit. There’s always a deal with you. What is it?”
He sauntered closer, and I locked my knees to stop an involuntary step back and glared up at him.
His gaze tracked over my face, lingering on my mouth like a caress, and my pulse kicked up in response.
“You don’t intimidate me, Jasper.”
He touched my cheek and then trailed his finger down to the corner of my mouth before sweeping it over my bottom lip. It took everything I had not to flick out my tongue and lick the pad of his finger.
“No,” he said. “I suppose I don’t.” His eyes darkened in that way they always did before he kissed me.
I turned my head to the side, breaking eye contact, pissed that I’d blinked first, but self-preservation was a fucking thing. “What’s the deal, Jasper?”
“The deal is that when you next remove that amulet, you do so with the knowledge that you must never put it back on and the understanding that you’re mine.” He gripped my jaw and forced me to look at him, his fingers hot against my skin. His warm breath kissed my mouth. “An oath, Cora. Say it. Say the words.”
I’d broken the first deal between us by using the amulet, but the deal hadn’t been fully binding. Jasper hadn’t had the power to exact an oath; he’d relied on my naivety and my honor to abide by the terms. Yeah, turned out honor could take a leap if it meant being free of his touch. But things were different now. He had more power, and if I took the oath, if I said the words, I’d be bound. But if I didn’t, then he’d take me now.
I needed the chance to have a choice.
“Fine.” I gritted my teeth. “I give you my oath.”
He smiled, showcasing even, white teeth. “Oh no, Cora. Say it all.”
Fuck. “I give you my oath that the next time I remove the amulet, I’ll be giving myself to you.”
A zing rushed over my skin.
“It’s done,” he said.
I wanted to ask why he’d given me this chance; why not just take me? But only a fool looked a gift horse in the mouth, and—
“Mummy?”
I looked across the clearing at the children, all wide awake now and staring at me in confusion.
“Where’s my mummy?” the girl asked.
“Fuck.”
“Language…” Jasper warned.
He walked over to the children, and my body tensed, thighs bunching, ready to react if he hurt them.
He crouched and tilted his head to the side. “You’re dreaming,” he said. “This is a dream, and when you wake up, you’ll be safe at home with your parents.”
He reached out and touched their foreheads one by one.
Their eyes closed, and their chins fell forward to rest on their chests. He scooped them up. He was wiry, all lean muscle, but he was tall and broad, and the children looked tiny in his arms.
“Shall we?” he asked.
“Please take Wren too,” a small voice said.
My head whipped to the wooden cage where the tiny furry thing was gripping the bars with its little paws and looking up at me with huge brown eyes flecked with gold.
“Please take Wren too,” it said again.
Okay, so maybe it wasn’t at the same level as a dog or cat, and it was cute, but… “You helped that thing take those children, didn’t you?”
It stuck out its bottom lip and nodded, tears brimming. “Merkle make Wren do bad things. Wren not want to be bad.” He looked past me into the darkness beyond the clearing. “Wren not want to be alone here. Take Wren with you.” Its eyes grew huge and round, pupils dilating until they were all I could see, and fuck, he was too cute to leave behind.
I had no clue what it was, but it was obviously a prisoner, and it had tried to warn me about Merkle.
“Fine.” I crouched and reached for the cage.
“That’s a bad idea,” Jasper said. “Mogwai are dangerous.”
“Mogwai?”
“They’re rare,” he said. “And like I said, dangerous.”
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. “Yeah, cos he might sing me to death.” Wait. “Can you do that?”
Wren shook his head. “Wren only make small childrensies sleepy. Better be sleepy than scared.”
There was nothing but sincerity in his eyes, and my cold, withered heart melted just a little. I unlocked the cage and held out my hand. He climbed out and hopped up into my arms.
He was warm and soft, and my instinct was to hug him. He made a low chirping sound and rubbed his head against my cheek.
“If you’re done snuggling the dangerous fae creature, can we go?” Jasper drawled. “The sooner you put your amulet back on, the sooner you can take it off again.”
The oath was suddenly a rock on my chest.
There had to be a way around it.
And I knew just the person to help me with it.
Jasper adjusted the children in his arms. “Grab hold of me,” he ordered.
I obliged, because shifting out of here was much more appealing than trekking back to the rift. As the world fractured, taking me with it, my mind was decided.
It was time to call in some warlock assistance.
Chapter Four
“You did what?” Elijah said over the phone.
His voice sounded gruff and unused, as if he’d just woken up and I was the first person he was speaking to.
Considering it was predawn, I guessed that was exactly the case.
“I’m not repeating myself, Black.” I tucked the phone between my shoulder and ear while I spread mayo on my chicken sandwich. “I need you to get me out of it.”
“You need me to—” He cut off his words with a sigh of exasperation. “You took an oath with a malevolent spirit after I specifically warned you not to.”
I stifled the pang of shame his authoritarian tone evoked. He might have slipped into mentor role, but he wasn’t the boss of me. No one was.
“It’s not like I had much choice.”