Chapter 17
The hardest part of Tygrio’s parting stab at Carmine was that I had to pretend I’d never known the truth. Settling on the most believable approach was hard to gauge. Tygrio had really screwed me just now, and not in the nice way he’d offered to.
What did I feel when Adeuto first told me about Tempest?
Ah, yes.
My unblinking gaze was fixed on his severed head, and shock wasn’t hard to feign. Tygrio was dead. His father was dragging his mother out of the hall, probably fearing that she’d be next.
I summoned all the fury and betrayal and denial that I’d first felt when Adeuto had shown me his new tether to my twin.
Then I looked at Carmine.
He was watching me, whether for my reaction to Tygrio’s death or for my reaction to Tygrio’s words. Did he hear them? I had to assume so, though my life would remain exponentially easier if that wasn’t the case.
Should I wait to see if he’d acknowledge the damning words that spoke of his long-held lies? But no, I should confront him. If I wasn’t here for my own ends, then I wouldn’t hesitate to throw every bit of accusation his way.
Or would I?
The love I’d held for him was dead. He couldn’t hurt a mate-intended who didn’t love him. Perhaps that was the better path. I could mute my reaction to show him how little he meant.
I cleared my expression of shock and betrayal and fury and then smiled. “Congratulations on your honorable win, Carmine.”
Wariness entered his gaze. Yep, he’d heard Tygrio’s parting words, all right. My reaction was not what he’d expected.
“Are you ready to retire for the evening?” I asked.
I was more than ready. Tygrio was dead, and he was dead because he was a moron, but also because of me. Because I had disobeyed Carmine tonight.
This was his punishment. He’d known that Tygrio amused me, and he’d taken that small, meaningless thing away to prove his power and to prove how unpredictable the consequences might be.
“I am not, enamai,” the demon king said in a silken voice. “There are other matches to enjoy.”
Covered in Tygrio’s blood, which must hurt him, Carmine took the larger throne next to mine.
Demons were torn between looking at him, me, and Tygrio’s head.
Tygrio had known my sister, and some of his usual behavior made sense.
If not for the risk he’d taken in challenging Carmine by pursuing me, then I could chalk his parting comment down to a last punishment for his executioner.
Tygrio must have felt something for Tempest. Nothing else made sense.
So much of his behavior was erratic and illogical and had to be based in strong feeling.
If freeing Tempest was his goal, then there had been far better ways to secure my help and achieve that. Idiot.
My exhale shook, and Carmine’s gaze seared into the side of my cheek.
“Continue,” he said lazily.
The demon king sprawled on this throne.
The matches rolled on, and the mood was subdued and edged in terror. The demon king was in a killing mood, and every contestant now feared that he would fight them too.
Suffice to say that no one else asked for a kiss from the future queen.
My focus drifted from the fighting. My plan had centered on Carmine’s ignorance of my knowledge that Tempest was alive. Now the only lie saving me was that my return happened before I’d known she was in the dungeon.
Or so he thought.
But what would he do to Tempest? He’d never told me about her. If his reason for keeping her alive had only been my ignorance, then I was about to bust my twin out of jail and make a run for the demon gates with her and Adeuto.
If he planned to keep her down there, then there was no way he wouldn’t use that against me.
To tie me to him… Or would Carmine release her as a “gift” to win my good opinion?
Doubtful. I had no clue how to navigate the barrier to the dungeons, though, so if he brought her up here, then escaping would be easier.
In fact, a quick portal and my plans could accelerate by ten days.
My chest rose and fell, and I gripped the armrests. Carmine rarely did as I expected. He didn’t serve himself or me. He served the people. To an extent.
As Gratia had said, Carmine always acted in the best interest of the realm.
What was in the best interest of the realm? A mated king with untold power.
He’d use Tempest to force my agreement to continue the mating ritual. There were very good reasons why I couldn’t do that—and lust was just one of them. So I had to convince him to agree to something else for Tempest’s release or safety.
“Syera.”
But what else was possibly more important to the realm? My scales itched, and I released a wisp of smoke.
“Syera.”
I jerked and looked up at the demon I hated more than anyone alive or dead. “What?”
His eyes narrowed. “I am leaving.”
“Okay.” I needed to put more thought into what I’d bargain. I’d leave later.
But giving me time had never been Carmine’s style. He leaned down, glittering focus fixed on me. “And you are coming.”
Damn it.
My thoughts were so heavily occupied that I rose, impassive expression in place. I’d planned to rest my forearm on his and let him guide me from the room like he and everyone else expected, yet a sudden wave of revulsion flooded up through me. I felt sick at the thought of touching him.
So I bent down and scooped up Tygrio’s head.
Then I kissed his lips.
Thank you for telling me the truth. Even if I’d known. Even if this complicated things. And even if Tygrio had said the words to serve himself. I was grateful that someone in this fucking fortress had told me the truth.
Gasps and whispers erupted. The demons closest to me evacuated their seats, skittering away from Carmine’s potential wrath. Oddly, I felt no revulsion at all for kissing a severed head where I felt so very much for simply touching my mate-intended.
I set Tygrio’s head down, keenly aware of the sudden shaking and growling rising from Carmine. I extended my forearm. “I’m ready now.”
In an eruption of sulfur and a blur of shocked royals, I found myself in Carmine’s destroyed room.
He’d just lost his temper. Big time. My favorite brand of victory.
Fresh debris hurtled, and more dust clouded as Carmine took his fury to the walls. Not the ones I’d painted either. I laughed. Mother be, I couldn’t believe my idiocy, but laughter spilled from my lips. More and more of it.
“Enough,” roared Carmine.
I laughed harder. Fuck it, I’d already kissed a dead head. I slapped my thigh and hooted harder.
“Syera, stop now!”
The panic in his words did stop me. I whirled to look behind, expecting attack. When I looked back, only Carmine was there.
Icy Carmine. His words were chilled. “So you know the whole truth at last.”
I shook my head. “I should have known there was no end to your depravity.”
“You should have.” He smirked. “I had wanted to keep the news from you for a while longer, but this timing will suffice.”
So cold. So fucking cold. “My sister, Carmine. How could you do that? How could you keep that from me?”
The ice filling his soul and heart didn’t crack. “She is a threat to my throne.”
“She’s magus.”
“She possesses demon magic.”
I hissed, “So little that she never even felt it! You know that she’s no danger.” I pressed my hand to my mouth. “This whole time. Five years. All those words you would hush in the darkness about never locking another away—about how your time down there tortured you.”
Carmine showed some sign of being bothered then. Nothing more than a tiny wince. “Her time there was always going to be finite. I held her there in case you refused the mating.”
My face fell. “You… And if I’d gone through the entire mating ritual? Were you just going to reveal her on our fucking union day?”
I laced my hands through my hair and screamed. Then again. I screamed at the fucking sad, ruthless thing that was my life, and my twin’s life, and Adeuto’s life. “Why did you give me a monster?” I asked the mother.
Why did she do this to me?
I’d asked the question silently hundreds of times, but never aloud.
Carmine walked closer, scattering debris with his steps. “A monster for a monster, Syera.”
I was many things, and perhaps had many disorders, but I was not a monster. I was sure of that much.
I was also so tired of this. Of the lust, of my unwanted connection to him. Of the pain in my heart that this person was my only mate and I loathed him on such a deep level. Of all my panic and fear that he would hurt the ones I loved.
“What now?” I asked. He wouldn’t let me leave until threatening me into the mating ritual.
“I have always found your forthright manner very appealing.”
I waited.
Carmine circled before me. He took my hand and led me from his destroyed bed chamber. “Thank you for the changes to my room, enamai. I am pleased with them.”
I didn’t reply. I’d painted a replica of the painting in the lounge—the one where the demon was looking in the mirror at his monstrous reflection. Except instead of a monster in the reflection, I’d drawn a child.
As Carmine led me into the lounge, my eyes drifted to the original. Not as good as mine.
He gestured to the couch, and I let him glimpse my hatred before sitting.
“Drink?” Carmine asked, pouring whiskey into a glass.
No answer.
He smirked, then sat with his drink in hand. “You are young and foreign in many ways, but you are quickly learning. You know that there must be payment for the release of your sister from the dungeons.”
“I thought mates didn’t come with conditions,” I retorted.
Carmine sipped at his drink. “We are yet to be mated. You know what I will demand for her release.”
I said the words anyway. “You want to complete the mating ritual.”
The mating ritual that I would end.
And that made me pause. Because I could just end it. Doing so would be harder, and more perilous, and I’d be out for the count for far longer than if I did so after only three of the seven rituals.
But I could.