Shadow of Night (All Souls Trilogy, #2)(204)

Jack slid his hand into Matthew’s. “I will wait by your side until it passes.” My eyes pricked with tears. It was what Matthew said to him deep in the night, when Jack’s terrors threatened to engulf him.

Matthew’s hand tightened on Jack’s in silent acknowledgment. The two of them stood—one tall and broad and filled with preternatural health, the other slight and awkward and only now shedding the shadows of neglect. Matthew’s rage began to ebb.

“When Annie told me a female wearh had you, I never imagined—” He couldn’t continue.

“It was Christopher!” Louisa cried, distancing herself from the wild daemon at her side. “He said you were enchanted. But I can smell her blood on you. You are not under her spell, but feeding from her.”

“She is my mate,” Matthew explained, his tone deadly. “And she is with child.”

Marlowe’s breath came out in a hiss. His eyes nudged my belly. My broken hand moved to protect our child from the daemon’s gaze.

“’Tis impossible. Matthew cannot . . .” Kit’s confusion turned to fury. “Even now she has bewitched him. How could you betray him thus? Who fathered your child, Mistress Roydon?”

Mary Sidney had assumed I had been raped. Gallowglass had first attributed the baby to a deceased lover or husband, either of which would have roused Matthew’s protective instincts and explained our swift romance. For Kit the only possible answer was that I had cuckolded the man he loved.

“Take her, Hancock!” Louisa begged. “We cannot allow a witch to introduce her bastard into the de Clermont family.”

Hancock shook his head at Louisa and crossed his arms.

“You tried to run my mate down. You drew her blood,” Matthew said. “And the child is no bastard. It’s mine.”

“It is not possible,” Louisa said, but she sounded uncertain.

“The child is mine,” her brother repeated fiercely. “My flesh. My blood.”

“She carries the blood of the wolf,” Louisa whispered. “The witch is the one the prophecy foretold. If the baby lives, it will destroy us all!”

“Get them out of my sight.” Matthew’s voice was dead with rage. “Before I tear them into pieces and feed them to the dogs.” He kicked down the palisade and grabbed his friend and his sister.

“I’m not going—” Louisa began. She looked down to find Hancock’s hand wrapped around her arm.

“Oh, you’ll go where I take you,” he said softly. Hancock worked Ysabeau’s ring from her finger and tossed it to Matthew. “I believe that belongs to your wife.”

“And Kit?” Walter asked, eyeing Matthew warily.

“As they’re so fond of each other, lock them up together.” Matthew thrust the daemon at Raleigh.

“But she’ll—” Walter began.

“Feed on him?” Matthew looked sour. “She has already. The only way a vampire feels the effects of wine or physic is from a warmblood’s vein.”

Walter gauged Matthew’s mood and nodded. “Very well, Matthew. We will follow your wishes. Take Diana and the children home. Leave everything else to Hancock and me.”

“I told him there was nothing to worry about. The baby is fine.” I lowered my smock. We’d come straight home, but Matthew had sent Pierre to fetch Susanna and Goody Alsop anyway. Now the house was full to bursting with angry vampires and witches. “Maybe you can convince him of it.”

Susanna rinsed her hands in the basin of hot, soapy water. “If your husband will not believe his own eyes, nothing I can do or say will persuade him.” She called for Matthew. Gallowglass came with him, the two of them filling the doorway.

“Are you all right, in truth?” Gallowglass’s face was ashen. “I had a broken finger and a cracked rib. I could have gotten them falling on the stairs. Thanks to Susanna, my finger is completely healed.” I stretched my hand. It was still swollen, and I had to wear Ysabeau’s ring on my other hand, but I could move the fingers without pain. The gash in my side would take more time. Matthew had refused to use vampire blood to heal it, so Susanna had resorted to a few magical stitches and a poultice instead.

“There are many good reasons to hate Louisa at this moment,” Matthew said grimly, “but here is something to be thankful for: She did not wish to kill you. Louisa’s aim is impeccable. Had she wanted to put her lance through your heart, you would be dead.”

“Louisa was too preoccupied with the prophecy that Gerbert shared with Ysabeau.”

Gallowglass and Matthew exchanged looks.

“It’s nothing,” Matthew said dismissively, “just some idiotic thing he dreamed up to excite Maman.”

“It was Meridiana’s prophecy, wasn’t it?” I had known it in my bones ever since Louisa mentioned it. The words brought back memories of Gerbert’s touch at La Pierre. And they had made the air around Louisa snap with electricity, as though she were Pandora and had taken the lid off a trove of long-forgotten magic.

“Meridiana wanted to frighten Gerbert about the future. She did.” Matthew shook his head. “It’s got nothing to do with you.”

“Your father is the lion. You are the wolf.” Ice pooled in the pit of my stomach. It told me something was wrong with me, inside where the light could never quite reach. I looked at my husband, one of the children of the night mentioned in the prophecy. Our first child had already died. I shuttered my thoughts, not wanting to hold them in my heart or my head long enough to make an impression. But it did no good. There was too much honesty between us now to hide from Matthew—or myself.