Chapter 25
I almost regretted that Gratia wasn’t available for queen training to pass the time. Two hours. Two measly hours until I could portal to Athira and find out what happened to Tempest.
Knock, knock.
Yes! I bounded off the bed and wrenched the door open. “Hello!”
The blue-scaled demon blinked. “Mate-Intended. I have come with your order.”
I peered past him to the rack of dresses. Clearly he didn’t pass Carmine in the halls on the way here. “You’re the head tailor?”
He swirled his hands in the air before bowing low. The demon wore an embroidered loincloth and a collar. Not a dog collar, a shirt collar. Classy.
“I am he, Mate-Intended,” the tailor murmured.
This was the demon who cut off Yiti’s hands. “Bring them in.”
He snapped his fingers at a yellow I hadn’t seen cowering in the back. She scrambled to push the rack inside, then hung them carefully in my wardrobe after another snap of the blue’s fingers. Even Carmine didn’t snap his fingers… and he was king.
“Thank you,” I said to the yellow, then didn’t look at the tailor as I said, “That will be all.”
The head tailor hesitated, then bowed low again before leaving. Not long after, another knock interrupted my inspection of the incredible dresses.
“Come in,” I called, sensing the yellow magic on the other side.
The male opened the door, then bowed. “Mate-Intended, I was sent to inform you that there will be a royal family luncheon.”
Family luncheon? Like, where we shared a meal together, or where we ate family members? Both were as likely to happen. I shot him a look. “Where?”
“The private dining room, Mate-Intended. In twenty minutes.” He bowed again and departed.
“I call that perfect timing.” I studied the dresses again. They were exquisite. The head tailor was very talented. What a shame he wanted a monopoly on Carmine’s favor to such a vicious degree.
I picked the dress that was by far the least demony.
The material was similar to linen, though not as coarse.
The dress would hang off my shoulders, and a drawstring across my boobs would hold the bodice in place.
A crisscross of ties at the back shaped the waist, and the skirt hung in a ruffle like the open petals of a flower.
Feminine and earthy.
This was gonna be good.
I stripped off and climbed into the dress, then tied half of my hair up after navigating the various ties and drawstrings.
I had to hide the other dresses, or Carmine would hurt them.
I opened a portal to one of my midway points and gathered up the dresses to toss them through.
I’d rather hang them nicely, but there wasn’t time for that.
I left my chamber for the royal family luncheon. To my knowledge—at least in my time here—this private lunch was a first. What on Earth was Carmine thinking?
I snorted, then scowled. Athira better not be here when she was meant to be minding Adeuto.
The doors to the dining room were open, and no sound floated out. Unfortunately, the room wasn’t empty, just filled with four unspeaking demons.
Carmine stared at the far wall. Gratia and “The Purple” stared at each other, their heated thoughts very clear. Athira—who was here—was glaring painful death at her future son-in-law.
“What a lovely idea,” I declared, swishing into the room.
I sat next to the purple, and felt the weight of everyone’s focus switch to me. When did I become the safe place to look at awkward family dinners?
“Syera, you will sit opposite me, as always,” Carmine said, and I met his narrowed gaze with an innocent one.
I beamed. “How careless of me. How could I forget such a simple thing?”
I scraped back from the table and swished to the opposite end. Swish, swish.
“Where did you get that dress?” Carmine murmured.
I spun in a circle. “Beautiful, isn’t it? Linen too. Well, demon linen. Your head tailor made it for me. He is very talented.”
Carmine inhaled through his nose, and his jaw clenched. “He is.”
But what he really meant was, “He was.”
I sat in a puff of dress. “Sooo, how are things? Athira, what a delight. I’ve missed you.”
Athira tore her scowl from her daughter’s mate-intended. “Watch your tongue.”
I replied sweetly, “No luck on the hunt, I gather.”
I’d give her assholes later for leaving Adeuto alone without my say-so.
Gratia looked away from her purple to Athira, and then to me. Her face was the only one that betrayed the truth that my grandfather was already dead, though Carmine must know, and Athira surely did. Not a trace of the truth left them.
My supposed mate had no intention of telling me a family member was dead. Yet again. And I felt not a single trace of surprise.
I pretended to miss Gratia’s stricken expression. “Gratia, please introduce me to your new mate.”
She quickly stood, smiling widely, “Of course. Syera, this is Raes. Raes, this is Syera, who is my brother’s mate-intended.”
The purple cleared his throat and rose to bow slightly. Not enough for my position considering their mating wasn’t yet complete, but he’d learn.
“Mate-Intended,” he said. “I have heard much of your fighting in the arena.”
“Call me Syera. Do you watch Tiers yourself?” I asked.
He shook his head. “I could not afford to be away from my smithy to watch. But your abilities are much talked about in the realms. I look forward to watching your victory in the last round.”
“What will happen to your smithy now?” I asked.
Raes sat, and his small smile faded. “My family will run it.”
Hmm. “Will they succeed in that?”
He swallowed. “They will learn how, or fail.”
Which was a no. “I see.”
Gratia’s mate-intended was yet to learn what power he wielded, and teaching him was Gratia’s job. I glanced at her and found the princess picking at a salad—the demon version—which was a variety of barely cooked meat tossed with seasoning.
I sighed happily as the silence thickened again. “We should do this more. The whole family together at last.”
Athira deepened her scowl at Raes, and Gratia was now glaring at her.
Best family lunch ever. I snorted, then coughed to cover it. “How’s work, dear?”
Carmine only seemed to realize I meant him when everyone briefly interrupted their ire to look at him. “Huh?”
That word wasn’t in the demon vocabulary. “Work, darling. How is your day going?”
He narrowed his gaze, then decided to play along. “There is progress.”
“In the war you’re losing?”
Carmine’s nostrils flared. “Yes. Any other questions?”
I picked some cheese, meat, and fruit. “Just interested.”
Silence again. So thick.
I couldn’t take it. I snorted again. Whose idea was this? Another snort, and then I struggled to clamp down on laughter so hard and for so long that sweat broke out on my forehead.
Shit.
Carmine glared at me. Gratia glared at Athira. Athira glared at Raes. Raes looked like he’d give his smithy away if it meant escaping this situation.
Nope. A woman could only take so much.
I erupted in hoots, slapping the table. Shit, where was a napkin? The tablecloth would have to do. I dabbed at the tears streaming down my face. When the blur of them was gone, I peeked up to glimpse Carmine’s grin.
His grin?
I blanched, and in the next second, he’d hidden the grin behind a scowl.
Ugh, he was amused by this too. Which meant I suddenly didn’t find this funny anymore. We weren’t about to share personal jokes again.
Gratia slammed her cutlery on the table. “Mother, just say what you wish to say and be rid of your glaring!”
Athira broke away from her scowling to answer, “You are a princess and therefore too good for him. I do not wish to see you in a weak match where you cannot rely on your mate to protect you. Sever the mating and move on. There are many who choose their partner in life. There will be many great matches available to you.”
Yikes.
Gratia surged to her feet. “I do not question the wisdom of our mating, Mother. Who are you to do so?”
“Your mother, Gratia, who has seen many matches like this.”
“Perhaps there is a reason for such matches if they keep happening.”
“I have seen many matches like this fail,” Athira amended. “And if they exist, then perhaps it is to slowly weaken demonkind.”
Calling a demon weak was about as insulting as it got, but Raes was handling Athira’s attack well.
Her daughter… not so much.
Gratia’s fury pulsed through the room. “We won’t stay where we’re unwelcome. Come, Raes.”
Woof.
Raes bowed at Carmine, then me, and finally Athira. “I am not what you had all hoped for, but I am not frightened of a powerful woman, and I will always treat her well. I hope that our mating will strengthen us both to withstand whatever immortality might serve us.”
The bliss of the outset of mating rituals was blinding in its brightness. Always was a long, long time, as I had discovered.
I couldn’t care less that Gratia was with a purple.
Before they reached the doors, I called, “Raes, welcome to the family. The answer of you rose from within her, already decided and set. Your mating with Gratia is preordained. Hold to the trust of your shared destiny as others try to encroach on what is pure and right. And you should both know that Carmine is very relieved he won’t need to kill your twins and the other children you have. ”
Athira whipped to look at me.
I smiled at her. “That’s right, twins. And more children too. The children of your daughter, no less.”
Gratia’s voice shook. “Thank you for your support, Syera.”
Raes took her hand, and they left.
Then there were three.
Athira pushed back her chair. “They might have ten children, Syera, but all of them will be weak.”
“And think, Athira,” I said in exasperation.
“Their children will live. Can you think of no reason why their mating might be the way it is? Would you have her with a crimson so they could create a son that Carmine would kill at birth or at sixteen? As her mother, you hold dreams of her future, but they are your dreams, not hers. Be grateful that there will be less turmoil and death in your future, if nothing else.”