Chapter 21
The lust, or unfinished mating, or whatever it was, dissipated the further from Carmine I staggered. If only he’d stop fucking talking to his minions.
I gasped against a fresh surge, then couldn’t take it any longer. I portaled to my old room in the Pinnacle that I’d never used.
The yellow was in there, slumped in the corner of the empty space.
He cracked open an eyelid. “You got it bad. The craving.”
I leaned forward on my knees, sweat dripping to the ground.
Mother be, craving all right. I wanted to do thousands of things to Carmine, and thousands of things to myself for him. I was far enough away to also feel revolted by the thoughts. “Guess it’s a mate thing.”
The yellow opened his other eye. “Mate thing? No. Not the craving. We get that each week from playing the game.”
A sinking feeling filled me as I slid down the wall opposite him. “Everyone gets this?”
“Can’t you hear them?”
I fought back my own panting, and my eyes widened at the slapping and grunting higher in the Pinnacle. “Shit.”
“Slim pickings for them this week,” he mused, yellow gaze on the ceiling. “Still, while they’re occupied with that for the rest of the day and night, I get time to recover from the game.”
Whoa. My mind was whirling with this. “Why does this happen?”
The yellow cocked a brow. “We fight in the Crave Arena. Ironic, isn’t it?
There must be some type of magic in there.
Is it meant to make us more unhinged so we put on a better show, or does the craving protect contestants while they’re recovering after the game?
Either way, it works. Most of the demons here fuck each other for the entire day after the game.
No one noticed the first week, but the second week was a big leap.
” He cast me a knowing look. “This week is even worse, judging by their… volume.”
A scream trailed into a whimper high above. I wanted to be doing that. So badly.
I gasped. “Sure is.”
I’d assumed the surge of lust had to do with my depleted power.
You fucking asshole. Carmine had known. He’d fucking known that playing in the arena would make me want him more and more.
Rage boiled in my veins. Because that crossed a massive fucking line. A line where I might have done anything if he hadn’t walked away.
This was why Carmine had agreed to me reentering the game. Not to give himself time to convince me to finish our mating. He’d known that returning me to the arena could do the job for him.
Then he’d played the victim and the good guy when I’d dry humped him after the last round.
“That motherfucker,” I snarled. I was going to kill him slowly.
The yellow sighed. “Demon king been making the most of it?”
To say the least. I eyed the exhausted demon. “Why aren’t you up there having fun? You could still lie there.”
The yellow cracked a grin, eyes still closed. “I don’t feel any craving. Not for that.”
“I don’t follow.”
“My mate is gone. I only feel craving for her to live again. So I fear the day after the game because I feel that I can barely survive.”
A tear slipped from the corner of his eye.
My heart squeezed. “How did she die?”
“A random and ruthless act from a demon. I imagine that he can barely recall the act. Her death meant so little in the grander scheme of his life.”
I rested my head back, glad to feel more lust dissipating by the minute. “So you seek revenge in Tiers.”
“Revenge or death. I would rather live, but the pursuit of revenge provides an excuse for death that I have found hard to otherwise justify.” He opened his eyes briefly to look at me. “She would not approve of me seeking death. I do wish to live for her.”
But he would die. Because I could not let him live.
“Next week, I must kill you.”
The yellow smiled. “We all enter Tiers for a reason. You have your own reason too.”
“I do. But I can promise you something. Tell me the name of the demon who killed your mate, and if it’s within my power, I will make him suffer.”
The yellow straightened off the wall. “You would do that? Why?”
“Because I feel bad about killing you.”
He stared. “That doesn’t make sense.”
Not to a demon.
I chuckled. “There are entire realms of beings who extend kindnesses for no benefit to themselves other than feeling happy to have done so.”
The demon shook his head. “I don’t follow.”
I shut my eyes. “I am not solely demon, yellow; that is what I am saying. There are things I do that will never make sense to this realm.”
“Like entering Tiers even though you’re nearly queen? Like running away from the king?”
I didn’t want to kill this guy. “Exactly.”
The yellow was quiet for so long that I thought he’d fallen asleep. I was considering a quick nap when he answered.
“Carmine,” said the demon.
I cracked open an eyelid. “Huh?”
“The name of the demon who killed my mate. The demon king killed her.”
How… coincidental. “Was your plan to win Tiers and demand that the king let you kill him?”
“I would fight him.”
“So you always intended to die,” I said.
The yellow glanced away. “I could not continue living in such resentment and pain. I had to try my luck or die in the same manner as her. That detail felt important.”
So he had wished to die and by Carmine’s hand. He’d wished to know what his mate had felt in her last breaths. “You have a deal.”
The yellow smiled and shut his eyes. He likely expected that I would never do anything to Carmine. He would have heard that I’d agreed to join with Carmine in the intention ritual.
Perhaps for the yellow, confessing his reason for entering Tiers was enough.
But I had another reason to end Carmine.
“So we have to listen to that all night?” I wrinkled my nose at a series of wet squelches.
The yellow mumbled, “Yep.”
“All four of them are at it.” I tried to differentiate the sounds, but it was impossible.
“Not the red. He’s mated. Fully mated. He keeps to himself at the top of the Pinnacle since the other reds… left.”
I sniffed. “What’s his deal, do you know?”
“I keep my head down. But he’s different from the others. Only kills once in the game. He’s… afraid.”
I stood. “I’m going to pay him a visit. Want to come?”
“Can you carry me?”
“Nope, but I can help you. And I’ll also take my sword back now, thanks.”
The yellow blinked down at his hand. “Forgot it was there. Thank you for kicking it to me. Why did you do that? Is it because you’re not all demon?”
I pondered that one. “No, my demon side was entirely to blame for that. There’s something about you that I enjoy. It’s a shame that you need to die.”
We might have been friends.
Typical. I had to execute a potential friend. And Carmine had executed the other potential. Phew, this friendship gig was tricky.
I opened a portal to the top of the Pinnacle, then helped the yellow to stand and stumble through.
I pulsed my magic and located the red in a room on my left.
He’d felt my pulse and sat on a chair within, reading a book. “Mate-Intended, you do not usually remain in the Pinnacle.”
Not until I’d wanted to ravage Carmine in front of thousands of his subjects. Fresh rage simmered in my chest. I wasn’t shocked. I didn’t feel betrayed.
I was pissed off with myself. Mostly for how much I’d blamed myself for grinding on him. And he was the mastermind behind that.
This was a fresh reminder that there was no limit to his depravity. He showed no mercy in war, and even less in mating.
“I changed my mind,” I said.
“She didn’t know about the craving,” said the yellow. He staggered to the bed and collapsed on it.
The red frowned at him, then returned his gaze to me. “How did you not know? You’re mated.” His brow cleared. “Partially mated. Oh, yes, that would be a lot. I can barely resist the urge to portal to my mate.”
Fresh screams of ecstasy rocketed up to us from below.
“Why hold back?” I asked. “Especially when you need to listen to that?”
“Because my mate has responsibilities tomorrow that she cannot be exhausted for. I cannot keep her up all night pleasuring her. And if I go, then I will not be able to draw away until the craving leaves me.”
I whipped out my magic to drag another chair into the room. “So what’s your deal? Why does a week make so much difference?”
He returned my regard. “Does it matter? You must kill me anyway?”
I nodded. “Yes, I must. But I am curious how much a week can matter in the scheme of a person’s death.”
“Would you not wish for another week with your loved ones?” he asked.
My stomach plunged. “I would. That is valuable beyond measure.”
The red didn’t reveal much, but his breaths were uneven.
His fate upset him. “I did not enter Tiers on a whim, Mate-Intended. I entered to win. I bribed the coordinators to tell me who had entered. I didn’t enter until the last moment, when I was sure that I truly had a good chance to win. I would not have entered otherwise.”
I blew out a breath. “Except someone else entered at the last moment.”
He dipped his head. “And from the moment you revealed yourself before the first round, I knew that my gamble had been for naught. I would die. I have spent the last three weeks wondering what kind of fool I was that I thought entering Tiers was worth losing months more with my family. I have made a grave mistake.”
Any time at all with our loved ones was precious indeed. “Why only months more, demon?”
“Months more with my son,” he answered after a beat.
Our predicament was an unusual one, and neither demon would have been so forthcoming with me if they didn’t know death was racing to meet them in one week. I asked, “He’s sick?”
“Very sick. The right treatment could save him, or greatly extend his life, but we cannot afford it.”
I hummed. “You’re red. And a strong red at that.”
He really might have won Tiers in my absence.
The red sighed. “Powerful, but my mate is a yellow, and my family disowned me. They will not help my mate nor my son when I am gone. In fact, they will continue doing what they can to make their lives miserable and difficult. My son’s illness is of a unique nature.
No one has ever seen its like. I believe that only the king might be powerful enough to fix him. ”
I smirked at a snore from the bed, then asked, “What’s the matter with your son?”
The father’s gaze gained a hollowness that I felt in my soul—the look of a parent in despair. He said, “We would have expected our son to possess green or blue smoke, but he has yellow scales, and crimson smoke.”
My eyes widened. “His smoke is killing him.”
The red squeezed his eyes shut. “Yes. He must release smoke constantly to stay alive, but this greatly weakens him, and he still cannot release enough to stop the pain. You may have children one day, Mate-Intended, and if you do, then you will learn that there is no greater pain in this realm than watching your child suffer.”
Oh, I knew. Adeuto was a healthy, energetic boy, but I already felt so much pain about the potential suffering in his future. That was why I had entered Tiers too.
He spoke again, “I plan to make one last plea to my parents to support my widow. And I will spend this week severing our mating, so that she might go on as well as possible. I will hold my son close until I can no longer do so.”
My throat squeezed, and I waited until the urge to cry passed over me. “We can do more than that, demon.”
The red’s gaze was so weary when he looked at me. “What more is possible?”
I stretched out my legs. “Being who I am must come with some perks. Who are your parents? Perhaps I’ll pay them a visit.”
Unlike the yellow, this red didn’t hesitate to give me a name.
“Snedsaw is our family name. They are—”
“Wardens of the outer realm. By the desert,” I finished.
This was feeling like a lot more than coincidence right now. That was where Carmine’s mother was staying.
“I will pay them a visit soon enough. Send your plea anyway. I cannot say how quickly other factors will allow me to visit.”
The red asked, “Do you know them?”
“Of them.”
“They are well respected,” he said tightly. “They could not stand their son’s mating to a yellow. They wanted me to kill her.”
“Did you hear that Princess Gratia has found her mate? A purple.”
The red shook his head. “That is no condolence, Mate-Intended. I pity her greatly. What hope fills us at the beginning of such unions, but then we start to feel the unrelenting force of prejudice encroaching. That sours all we allow it to touch. The princess must be careful to honor the gift of her mating. I nearly didn’t before it was too late, but I count myself fortunate that I untangled from the snare of others’ expectations in time.
Since then, my life has been spent resisting the cruel efforts of my parents.
I have struggled as a red in a world of weaker demons, who favor dealing with each other over someone that they view as ‘playing poor and weak.’ But I have been happy, too, Mate-Intended.
So happy that I nearly burst with my memories. ”
How would I kill these demons?
“I cannot save your life, demon,” I said. “But I am very powerful in my own right, and I possess a unique magic that sees beyond what a pure-blooded demon is limited to.”
The red lifted his head.
I arched a brow. “Perhaps a demon with unique magic can help another demon with unique magic.”
“You would help my son?” he whispered, then started to shake.
“I cannot say if I can figure it out,” I quickly said. “But I will try. When you die, knowing your son is okay may bring you peace.”
“Peace,” the red echoed. The word’s definition was lost on him, though perhaps he felt its meaning in the tone I’d used.
The red sobbed into his hands, and his garbled thanks were barely audible, especially over the escalating activities of the three demons lower in the Pinnacle.
I blinked away my own tearful reaction to the red’s broken cries.
I blinked again when the blur in my vision didn’t clear. Huh, still blurry. I blinked again, then waved a hand in the air.
Smoke.
Blue smoke.
My thoughts were slow to realize that the blue smoke didn’t sting me. And that no contestants with blue scales remained in the game.
Grandfather’s smoke warning.
Adeuto!
I blurred through a portal opened on sheer reflex.
She’d found them.