Chapter 30
I stared at the stone wall of my room in the Pinnacle. Tsan was back at his home. Enp was gone. His parents would face my eternal wrath.
And this was the last time I could see Adeuto because the intention ceremony would go ahead.
The longer Carmine was ignorant of Tempest’s escape, the better.
The more power I gained from our mating, the better.
He would gain it too. But when I severed the mating, he would be incapacitated as well. That could well be when we’d kill him.
And if Carmine could feel my every move, then he may not feel the need to seek out whoever remained in the desert.
If Owu’s mother had found the strength to let Owu go, then I could too.
For a far shorter time as well.
First. This craving. I couldn’t return to the fortress and risk going mindless over Carmine again. I hadn’t dared to look at him after winning Tiers. Following the trend, I expected the craving this week to be stronger than ever.
I crossed my legs and closed my eyes. Drawing in my magus power and black smoke, I began the task of centering.
Centering was a full feeling, and not always in a good way.
But over time, I’d grown used to the feeling of holding so much under my ribs.
So much pain from the smoke, and so much power from my affinity too.
As a result of centering, I had a large asterisk of black scales at the base of my ribs, which wasn’t typical for a demon.
Not a bad thing. Important things dwelled under there, after all.
“Where are you, you bastard?” I murmured to the room.
I inspected both of my powers but couldn’t find the little bug that was the craving magic. It had to be on or in me somewhere. Not at my center, clearly.
I pushed my magus power out first, from center to extremities, from bone to skin. Nothing. But then my affinity hooked on my right boot and wouldn’t let go.
I followed its path with my fingertips. Ah, finally.
The gem from Adeuto.
I eased the blue gem free then held it tight. Another scan of my body with my divination magic didn’t yield further clues, though.
My smoke was begging to be released. I eased it from my center and through my body. As the smoke drifted back through my stomach, my hand holding the gem slammed against my lower abdomen.
The gem was glued under my belly button. I peered inwardly at the area and found a tight coil of white magic buried there.
What?
I touched it with my demon power and yelped when the white pulsed in warning.
Shit!
White power? That wasn’t meant to be strong. How was it even in me? I examined the white coil with my magus magic next, but though the demon presence didn’t react violently to that side of me, it wasn’t lessened or loosened by magus power either.
Dammit. I continued my body sweep, and at the end, I slumped against the stone wall.
In addition to the one low on my stomach, there was one at the crown of my head, another two in the arches of my feet, four more placed above my ankle bone on the inside of my legs, and then a further two white coils at the area where my hips hinged.
Ten in total.
I floated my black smoke closer to the coil in the arch of my foot. I drew back when the coil unfurled to strike, then I hovered out of that range. I floated my divination affinity to join my smoke.
This magic was old. Completely unlike anything I had felt in five years. There was an undying quality to it, which made sense and also didn’t. Demons were immortal—literally undying, and yet our individual power died with us.
My brows drew together. That was the problem. My divination magic could pick up that whoever had wielded this magic wasn’t alive.
And if they were dead, how was their magic still operational?
I opened my eyes to stare at the far wall again.
I’d never considered that an ancient magic overlaid demonkind.
Magus had the mother. To my knowledge Vissimos didn’t pay homage to anyone or thing other than their clan royalty.
Luthers carried the stories and songs of their ancestors, and I supposed they carried an ancient force with them at all times in the form of their wolves.
What I was feeling, this living and extremely powerful magic that wasn’t from anyone walking this realm… felt ancient.
Forbidden to me.
Not only did my instincts warn against touching it again, but I could not sense any way into the magic. My magus magic wasn’t lending any insight, though my affinity was very curious. This white force felt impenetrable and sinister and more powerful than I could fathom.
What if this power could be harnessed or asked for help?
With this power, I could finish Carmine. The mother had gifted me a gem to sense this magic. There was a greater meaning here.
Yet I couldn’t touch it. That also meant my craving wasn’t going anywhere.
I blew out a breath, then scanned for company before opening a portal to a midway point.
The Pinnacle, now so pointlessly empty where they had been full one month ago.
Though the Pinnacle wasn’t pointless for Enp in the end, whose son would live a long and healthy life. The Pinnacle wasn’t a waste for Tsan, either, who held true hope of living to see his dreams of revenge on Carmine come true.
The Pinnacle hadn’t been a waste for me. Not really. The end didn’t play out as anticipated, but Tempest was free, and my plan to kill Carmine was still in motion and more possible than ever.
I still didn’t dare to hope Adeuto would be safe. I still didn’t dare lower my guard. But maybe this foolish, desperate move might work out.
I walked through the portal. I changed at the midway point into old training clothes because this outfit would undoubtedly inspire one hundred questions from my toddler.
I portaled to my son.
I strode into the shack, and Athira nodded at me, brushing past. Eager to leave? I grinned and crept to the chair she’d left to watch the boys play.
Well, fight.
“That’s mine!” Adeuto snapped.
Owu sighed. “Everything here is yours. What can be mine?”
A good point. I’d need to get some things to Athira to gift Owu.
“You have the necklace your mama gave you with the pictures inside,” Adeuto said, looking at the carved nismus in his hand.
This was it. The moment when my son shared.
“You can’t have it,” he declared, then turned his back on Owu. “Mama!”
I smiled against the bittersweet pain in my chest. I caught him. “My love. I am so happy to see you.”
“I’m happy to see you.” He lowered his voice. “Grandmother frowns a lot.”
She had a lot to frown about. “Maybe you should see how many smiles you can win from her each day.”
A mischievous smile curved his lips, and for a gut-swooping second, I saw so much Carmine in him.
“Hello,” said Owu.
I placed Adeuto on one knee, then beckoned Owu to the other. “How did two boys have fun today?”
That required a long stretch of thought.
Owu replied, “We ate food.”
Adeuto nodded. “We looked at Neti’s baby. Mother, you haven’t been to see him.”
“Let’s go then.”
The boys sprinted ahead, and I followed at a leisurely pace, trying to log every part of this to memory, from the smell of Adeuto, to his expressions and the way he ran. The length of his hair. His laughter that still contained an edge of babyhood. Their freedom.
That was what I needed to retain.
And preserve.
I readied myself to portal to the boys as they charged to Neti without any concern for their safety.
She opened an eye, then closed it. Only her head remained out of the sand, and only the flaring nostrils of her calf.
“Neti,” I cooed. “Aren’t you clever?”
She opened her eye again to accept my comment.
“Very clever,” I told her. “You did that all by yourself. You are a beautiful mother.”
Neti chuffed and snorted in a way that made me suspect she was—rightfully—very fucking proud of herself. She nuzzled her calf, dislodging sand from around him.
He raised his head and bleated, blinking unevenly as he woke.
Adeuto and Owu beamed at me.
“Isn’t he cute, Mother?” my son whispered, hugging into my side.
“He is, darling. We are so lucky Neti let us see all of this. Thank you, Neti.”
“Thank you, Neti,” he dutifully said.
I felt Owu watching us, yearning in his eyes. Perhaps it was for the better that I didn’t visit for a time. Athira was a colder presence that wouldn’t create jealousy in Owu.
I said, “Owu, have you ever seen a nismus?”
“Only in a book,” he answered shyly. “I didn’t know they could be tamed.”
Neti huffed in objection.
“I didn’t know they could choose to linger close to demons either,” I replied.
Adeuto crawled closer to pat the calf, and Owu dropped back to where I crouched.
“Syera,” he whispered. “Tiers was today.”
My heart dropped to the ground and was quickly swallowed by sand. “He’s gone, Owu. I wish it could have been different.”
I wish I wasn’t the one to kill him.
One day, I’d tell him the truth. But I couldn’t risk him taking any anger out on Adeuto, especially seeing as he was so young and already in possession of power. “I tried to save him.”
“Why couldn’t you?” Owu asked, hanging his head.
“Because I didn’t see the answer until too late,” I replied honestly. “And your father’s parents had already bargained his fate.”
Owu covered his face and cried.
Adeuto glanced back, and I shook my head, wrapping my arm around Owu.
“Why did they always hate us?” he cried out.
I swallowed. “I had a parent who loved me, did you know? I grew up with my mother and grandmother.”
“No father?”
“No, I never met my father. But my mother loved me so much. Just like your mother and father loved you. They moved the entire realm to heal you, Owu. Your father gave his life out of love for you and your mother. What we had… not everyone has. Your own father never had it. Now he is gone, but that love—” I pressed a hand to his head.
“—that never fades and it never goes away. The pain will fade, darling. I promise you that.”
He dashed at his tears. “I’m going to kill my grandparents one day.”