I jerk back, shaking my head. Subtle, no more attractive than the most attractive human in the world… but powerful, nonetheless. “I’m… I’m sorry.”

“I could have warned you,” he drawls. “But I didn’t.”

Ugh. “Is that why you do the contracts? Because you’re half human and half demon?”

His mouth quirks. “The only balanced cambion in the region that both parties can trust. If the deals are going to be made, and they will be, as they have since the beginning of time, then at least I can see to it that humans aren’t taken advantage of.”

My eyes widen. “You’re… you’re good!”

He rolls his eyes, but there’s a tiny tug at the corner of his mouth. “None of that puritanical judgment. I’m not ‘good,’ I’m fair.”

“Well, it makes me trust you a little more.”

“I’ll allow it,” he says with a smirk. “At least that makes me feel a bit better about doing this.”

“Doing what?”

“It takes a special skill to weigh the metaphysical. How does one determine the quality of a soul offered against a once-in-a-lifetime supernatural power? How much is eternal youth truly worth? What does beauty weigh? There’s no single answer. It’s case by case, and sensitive business.” He presses his palm to my sternum, hot fingers on my collarbones, and holds my gaze. “Before I make a deal, I like to assess the goods, so to speak. I could take a look around, if you let me. As a favor.” His mouth pulls on one side. “Thing is, this here is… not gonna feel great.”

I grit my teeth, and nod. “Do it.”

His hand grows hot on my skin, and his eyes glow until I am falling, soft and harsh, slow and fast. Until the world is tinted red, a darker and darker and darker shade until it is no longer red, but black. His eyes reach me from far away, and a warmth, low and encouraging, spreads through my chest. Like a powerful mesmer, but so, so much deeper.

If Sel’s mesmer feels like the tide pulling me under, and Isaac’s a wave, Valec’s mind is the ocean rising up in a wall and crashing over me all at once.

A burning, searing heat pulls through my veins. The furnace in my chest that is my Bloodcraft birthright opens up to burn his power back—and voices rise from within me, my own joining them:

‘Help me see the danger before it strikes. Help me resist their entrapments. Give us the strength to hide and to fight. Protect us. Protect me. Protect her. Please.’

Valec’s power is too close, too much like theirs.

Burn. Him. Out.

An explosion inside me. I am flung back into my body—and a root fireball sends Valec flying across the room.