Chapter 15
I was a mess.
Adeuto was home alone. Not even three years old. In the desert.
I could reason that he was a demon. I could reason that Grandfather had already taught him how to wield a dagger behind my back.
But I didn’t want Adeuto to be tested in this way. I wanted him to play with rocks and smile in the daylight and never know of hardship.
I also knew that without hardship, he wouldn’t gain the tools he needed to be king.
Carmine had spent three years in the royal fortress by the same age, absorbing the intricacies and politics of surrounding demons.
Not that I believed he’d become stronger for that.
There was something about love that overrode everything else.
So I hoped.
Because love was all I had to give Adeuto. And even that was from afar these days. Though if Gratia stopped talking, then I’d make my escape to check on him. Ten minutes every hour until I could leave this afternoon for a few hours.
“Are you back here for good, Mate-Intended?” a crimson asked—one of the lesser crimsons from last night.
We were in the garden, a.k.a. a patch of dirt. Demons liked to rake dirt sometimes in patterns. The whole thing reminded me of Japanese Zen gardens, except there was zero beauty. No plants, no boulders, no statues. Instead of sand, they scoured black dirt. Beautiful, clump-free dirt, granted.
But still dirt.
“I am,” I answered. “Were you born here, demon?”
“My parents are red scales who live in the larger realm, Mate-Intended.” She dipped her head, then looked at her partners as they left with Gratia to do some dirt raking.
“What life do they live there?” I asked.
“My mother guards and guides my younger siblings, and my older siblings work with my father, who is a healer.”
Hmm. “A lot of pain in that.”
She grinned. “There is.”
Demon healers were a different breed to the Earth notion of healers. Sometimes a demon was lucky to encounter a healer who didn’t like to draw out proceedings. “You must have a lot of siblings.”
“Five, Mate-Intended.”
My brows rose. “Prolific.”
“My mother spawns well.”
What an accolade. But demon children really were rare. Carmine’s mother was hundreds of years old and had two. That I’d conceived Adeuto in mere months was unheard of. I wanted a T-shirt that read Excellent Spawner. “She is fortunate. There must be many demon males vying for your attention.”
“There are some.” She cast her lashes down.
There was a learned air to the movement that made me like her. Tempest was smart like that. “None of them have captured your attention?”
She peeked up. “My mate is not among them.”
I snorted. “There are pleasures to be had before you find your mate. Why wait?”
“I can’t be bothered with them, Mate-Intended.”
I laughed. “So you’re wise too.”
She smiled. “All who match my status were born here, and I find them rather… limited compared to others I have met.”
A grounded demon? I hadn’t known they existed.
I frowned at the others, who were raking large curves into the dirt. They appeared serene as they scratched soil. Limited wasn’t the word I would use—perhaps deluded. “What do they achieve by raking the ground?”
She exhaled. “I’m not so sure.”
I peered at the crimson. “Tell me your name again, demon. I’ll remember it this time.”
“Cyz.”
“Cyz. This wasn’t as boring or displeasing as expected.”
She dipped her head. “You are not at all what I had supposed, Mate-Intended.”
Supposed from what? The way I walked into ballrooms and banquets, and then walked out as soon as I was able? Or perhaps from the way I fought in the Crave Arena.
I left the garden.
Gratia and the others were in their raking fever dream, and I was officially done with speaking to royals while Adeuto was home alone.
The other two weren’t worth my time. They’d barely had the courage to string two words together, and those few words had only outlined their bland desire to tell me what I wished instead of anything they really thought.
I picked up my pace once inside the fortress, and my heart hammered.
Grandfather would have left once Adeuto fell asleep last night. He’d been alone all night, and then several hours since waking.
I made it to my room, then leaned against the door. I couldn’t be hasty about this. I still had to take all of the precautions in getting there.
I swiftly opened a portal and stepped through. The way to my son wasn’t the tricky part, aside from ensuring I wasn’t followed. But each return journey required me to wash and change.
I cast my magic out to check for visitors. Nothing.
I portaled to a second location, then repeated the action. Nothing.
Scanning with my physical senses, I waited a few minutes, then repeated my magical scan. I was alone.
Relief flooded me as I gave in to the urge to see my son. I ran out of my portal. “Adeuto?”
“Mama!” A face appeared in one of the tiny ventilation panels of the shack.
“It’s me,” I called.
The door was flung open as he raced out, and my heart twinged at the relief in his expression.
Carmine be damned, I was a mother first and I could survive his fury. But I couldn’t survive my son’s worry. I wasn’t leaving until my grandfather returned.
“You are so brave,” I whispered into his black hair. “Have you eaten?”
I’d forgotten to steal food from the kitchens. Damn it, Syera.
Adeuto nodded against my chest. “I ate it all.”
I chuckled and brushed his hair from his forehead. “It’s not even midday. We’d better go hunt for more.”
Grandfather would only have left for supplies if the situation was dire. Sure enough, inside I found the remnants of food I’d brought from the fortress yesterday, and nothing else.
“Grab your dagger, my love.”
Hunting with a toddler wasn’t always a recipe for success, but I was more concerned about a return trip to steal food from the fortress that ran the risk of Carmine tracking me down.
I listened to Adeuto’s stories of the morning’s adventures as we trekked across the gray sand.
Demons didn’t come out this way—only animals.
The toughest of animals at that. Once this realm was entirely desert that extended right to the peak where the fortress and Crave Arena now stood.
Demons had all lived atop the peak, but as the realm’s power grew in tandem with our increasing territory on Earth, the desert had progressively retreated.
If Carmine conquered the other supernatural races, then one day, this desert may not exist at all.
All this desolate gray sand would disappear to accommodate more demons and more mud shacks.
More markets and factories and tradespeople.
Learning centers, healers, and tinkerers.
And that would be a great shame. There was such beauty and peace in the sameness of endless sand. The isolation and quiet could sound so loud, and other times so eerily silent. I felt a camaraderie with the creatures here.
That didn’t mean I wouldn’t eat them.
I cast my magic forth and located a nismus a mile away. I shuddered. Nismus were akin to demons in my opinion. White-scaled beasts that were too intelligent for me to kill. Which was ironic, I knew, considering I’d killed actual demons days before… and would again.
I look the other way with my magic for the easiest prey, the animals on top of the sand or in the sky.
None to be found, which I could blame on the peak heat of the day.
The best time to hunt was right at dawn, the coolest time when the majority of creatures moved slowly.
Also the time of least smoke in the sky, so smelling prey was possible instead of using magic. Magic made hunting too easy sometimes.
I searched beneath the sand. Two targets. “Rte or zaza?”
Adeuto screwed up his nose. “What about the nismus?”
“I don’t like killing them.”
“Why? They’re food. And good food. Better than rte or zaza.”
“The look in their eyes.” Plus, nismus weren’t an easy kill, especially with a toddler. And also with Tiers to play in a few days’ time, I should conserve my power.
I could see that my reply baffled my son, and perhaps I shouldn’t worry about his resilience. The boy was a demon, certainly.
He sighed. “Rte. With hythre?”
We had a few hythre leaves left. “I can do that.” Might as well enjoy cooking with my toddler if I’d already pissed Carmine off.
I shot out a spear of my power and stabbed through the rte’s heart fifty feet under the sand.
The animal didn’t have an iron-encased heart like a demon, but all animals in this realm had some sort of protection there.
Many of the realm’s creatures possessed a small amount of magic, too, and they also attacked and betrayed each other as readily as any demon.
We jogged over to claim our kill before the other predators in the area smelled an easy meal.
I used magic to yank the animal up from the depths, then held the scaly creature aloft by the tail.
Rtes had vicious teeth that I’d equate to a beaver’s.
I’d been injured before after failing to confirm a rte was really dead. This one was gone.
I talked through the gutting process with Adeuto, letting him do the easier parts.
This rte would provide enough food for Adeuto and Grandfather today, and I’d eat later.
We turned back, but I tightened my hold on Adeuto’s hand, spotting a nismus in the distance. The creature was standing on our footprints, back where I had cast my magic out to find food.
The white-scaled creature lifted its great head and looked at me. Nismus were a mix between a horse and oxen. Wide shoulders, and sturdy, but with the longer legs of a horse. They were fast, even on sand, and surprisingly nimble. I’d seen them change direction in a blink while in a full canter.
I clicked my tongue, but the nismus didn’t move other than to toss its head. “Huh.”
Usually these beasts respected the hierarchy. Was this one brash or senile? “Come on, it’ll run off.”
We walked to the shack, and my eyes narrowed as the beast stayed put.
“They don’t do that,” Adeuto said, looking up at me.