Chapter 8
I snapped the portal closed in my bed chamber, whirling to find Carmine behind me. I’d been about to leave for home.
Carmine dragged his gaze from where the portal had been. Did he send any smoke through? He wouldn’t find anything there, but now I’d need to portal elsewhere before heading to the desert in case his smoke followed me.
Great.
I crossed my arms. “What do you want?”
Carmine’s gaze cut to me. “Why do you protect him so?”
My heart pounded before I reminded myself that Carmine referred to my grandfather. “He protected me until I could protect myself. I owe him.”
“You owe him nothing. He chose to give his protection. For motives of his own.”
Demons, seriously. “You asked a question, and I answered it.”
“Loyalty,” Carmine said in distaste. “The human notion.”
“And most supernaturals.” Luther packs were mega loyal. Magus held great loyalty to their covens and family. Vissimo had loyalty to their immediate family and their clan, though they were closest in a lot of ways to how demons viewed strength and cunning.
“You feel loyalty to your mother and sister,” I reminded him. “You know what loyalty is.”
“I know that my mother and sister understand their role. That is not loyalty. That is a mutual agreement that we survive better together.” Carmine inspected my outfit.
Looking for clues?
Someone was shitty since their dream didn’t go well.
I, on the other hand, had trained for three and a half hours, then slept like a baby until half an hour ago.
While here, there was no reason for me to be awake at certain times.
Perhaps I should look at my time here as a holiday.
“Yes, I am just a naive human. Was there anything else, wise demon king? I’ve got somewhere to be. ”
“Naive.” Carmine entered the room to circle behind me. “Once, yes. But that part of you is lost. You are still ignorant in ways, but that will fade in time. You will be a powerful mate indeed.”
He believed in me. That was nice.
I shook my head. “There’s no more mating ritual.”
From behind, Carmine brushed my hair off one shoulder.
I whirled and slapped his hand away. “Don’t.”
Ice glinted in his eyes. “You will be mine, enamai, even if it takes eternity to convince you away from these... notions filling your head.”
That was the hilarious thing about his plan to finish the mating ritual; the ritual required two willing demons.
He really would need to convince me. “You killed my family, Carmine. That’s not a notion filling my head. You’ll need more than eternity to make me forget what you did.”
I didn’t turn my face away as he stepped closer. I wouldn’t show this bastard any fear.
“I did kill them.” His chilled gaze roamed my face. “I enjoyed it too. And still you will be mine in time. You will weaken more and more to my body, and smell, and voice. And when you are trembling with it, and begging for my touch, then I will be merciful and give you all that you need.”
I tilted my chin. “I will never love you again.”
The demon king laughed, and the coldness of it splintered shards of ice through me. “Love. Sweet Syera, perhaps you are naive after all. Love. Loyalty. Reason. These words are yours, not mine.”
Carmine leaned in, his focus dropping to my lips for the barest second. “I will relish using your power, enamai. All the more for knowing how you despise me. I would have worked with your love, but your hate—” He inhaled. “—there is something enticing about your hate.”
Carmine was often a ruthless dick, and always a breath away from his cruel side, but not usually to this degree. He was covered in ice. He’d never spoken to me this way. The vision of me trapped by his side for eternity did make me fear.
Because he could make that happen if I failed.
I replied, “Good to know. Anything else?”
“Your Highness,” spoke a crimson from the open doorway. “You asked to be alerted when—”
“Silence,” Carmine commanded.
The crimson’s mouth shut with an audible click of his jaw.
“Await me in the throne room.”
The crimson bowed and backed out.
I slid my gaze back to Carmine. Ah. The reason for his mood had nothing to do with me. “Problem at the gates?” I asked in my sweetest voice.
“Less problematic than other things.” He glanced at the crimson, then back to me.
Carmine didn’t want me to portal away. He was stalling my departure. Prior to this he hadn’t appeared to monitor my comings and goings very much, as long as I was back for the royal festivities each night.
“Better go be king then.” I tried.
Carmine’s jaw clenched. He closed the distance between us and lowered his head.
The ice was gone. “Do what you must, young mate. Just know, in your iron-encased heart, that the wall you believe to have built high and strong enough is nowhere near as thick as it should be to withstand me. That wall must be much, much stronger, Syera, or you will beg to be mine. You will exist for immortality in torment, and I will enjoy your tears.”
My gut twinged at his warning. Because that was what it was: a warning.
I searched his gaze. “I’ll do that.”
He inhaled. “You made a deal with me, Syera.”
I cast my thoughts back and came up empty. “What for?”
“You made a deal to fulfill your role as my mate now that you have returned to the fortress.”
I did? Probably. I hadn’t meant it. “I’m here, aren’t I?”
“Clearly you believe that a mate-intended and future queen does nothing more than train and sleep and disappear when she likes.”
Ah, another attempt to keep me here.
I smiled. “Why don’t you write down all my princess jobs, Carmine? I’ll get straight to them.”
“Princess?” he breathed. “You are no princess, enamai.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Here I was hoping for a pretty tiara too.”
He cast me a withering look. “Queens wear crowns.”
Oh.
“Fulfill your end of the deal, and I will have no need to stop fulfilling my end,” he said.
The one about Tiers that he’d publicly announced? I’d call bullshit except he was seriously shitty. He didn’t want me to leave, and yet he didn’t want to announce whatever he’d discovered either.
I took a breath. “We made a deal. I’ll do the princess jobs.”
Carmine stiffened at the “princess” remark, but his voice was calm when he said, “Tomorrow, you will work with Gratia to learn your new duties.”
I waited. Was there anything else he could think of to delay my departure? What did he expect me to do today that was different to other days? I watched the play of emotions on Carmine’s face. Some I couldn’t identify, but anger was there. Pain? And something wide-eyed that could be fear.
But that couldn’t be. The demon king didn’t feel fear.
Was he in danger? Was it the gates? Were we under attack? I could only hope. I searched his gray gaze for answers.
“Tygrio will die for what he offered you,” Carmine eventually said.
My heart skipped a beat. Oh, shit. Suddenly everything made sense. I rolled my eyes. “That’s what this is about? You expect me to portal to Tygrio’s room for a few hours while you’re dealing with the gates?”
“Fits of jealousy are for boys, enamai.”
“You’re in a fit of something.” I straightened, and my eyes widened. “Mother be, that’s it.”
Carmine’s jaw clenched.
I laughed. “You know that I know.”
He turned away, back tense.
“That’s right, asshole,” I said. “I know the mating ritual can be stopped and broken.”
Crimson smoke and invisible ice shards blasted through the room. A scream lodged in my throat as I reeled away from what was coming.
I landed on the bed on my back and stared up at Carmine, who was an inch from my face.
Monster.
I sucked in tiny breaths, trying to stay still.
“You will not leave this fortress again,” the monster told me.
My mind unlocked somewhat. Enough to panic at the thought of being truly trapped here. I’d made a promise I couldn’t break. “We had a deal.”
Carmine roared in my face, and the sound was so terrifying—even to me—that I turned my face and screamed out of sheer fear of survival.
My chest heaved after, but I forced croaked words from my dry mouth. “You know I’ll portal away.”
“Not if I chain you to my side.”
I closed my eyes. Because, yes, he could do that. He could do a lot to me if he chose. He just hadn’t until now.
Clearly, Carmine wouldn’t risk me breaking the ritual. So I was guessing from his behavior that once broken, there was no chance for a do-over.
I had to portal away from here every afternoon at three to return by seven.
I forced myself to look at the demon king and into gray eyes of solid ice. There was nothing inside him. He was empty. Void. Unfeeling. A robot with the sole job of chasing power for the sake of the realm.
“How did I ever love you?” I asked him, though I’d meant to say something else.
His lip curled. “Because your weakness is your pathetic human heart. Even now.”
Carmine was right about my heart, but not about it being a weakness.
He was a demon like any other, and demons understood a deal that profited both parties. “I will not sever the mating ritual with you until I am more powerful.”
The monster was listening.
“While I am partially mated to you, there are those who will not risk harming me.” The words cost me. I didn’t want him to know anything of my plans.
He smirked. “My mother.”
“Among others. The mating ritual gives me protection I currently need.”
“Until you win Tiers.” The cold faded from his features.
I could practically see him turning over all the possibilities. Then I will have already hatched my plans to control her. She will not be able to sever it then. I will let her believe that she has won.
Classic evil mastermind stuff.
Carmine pushed off the bed to loom over me. He regarded me on the bed, then turned away as though the sight of pathetic ol’ Syera on the bed was too much for him. “Go.”
The demon king stormed from the room, and there was a whoosh of a portal before silence fell and the smell of sulfur remained.
I released a long, shaking breath. Mother be. How did he find out about my conversation with Tygrio? Questions for another time, because all I wanted after being in this soulless fucking fortress with these soulless fucking people was to go home. That was my sanity in this mess.
I was already late.
First I portaled to the thin, crumbling walkway that I’d shuffled across with the other Tiers contestants last week. No one arrived behind me. Not Carmine, and not his mother. I pulsed out my smoke in search of any tendrils sent to follow me.
Nothing.
Even so, I portaled to a second fake destination before doing the series of checks again.
And then, only then, did I portal home.
I stared at the sad shack wedged against bedrock. Sand extended for as far as the eye could see, and unless you stood exactly where I was, you’d never know that a home existed here.
This place meant so much to me. Home. Refuge.
Refuge from myself and refuge from him. Here, I had healed as much as I ever would.
Here, I’d experienced so much joy and felt more exhaustion than I’d thought possible.
In this place, I’d cultivated the inner strength that Carmine now saw and that everyone else could sense. Not because of unsatiated lust.
A yell sounded from within, and a smile broke out on my face, nearly followed by tears. The door to the shack burst open, and a small form burst from the doorway.
I dropped to my knees, arms open wide to catch the little person who was my everything. Who was the reason I needed to free my twin by entering Tiers. Who was the reason I had to kill Carmine. Who, two and a half years ago, became my reason for all.
“Mama!”
I caught my son in my arms.