Chapter 14
I strode into the hangar area and each of my steps echoed out to the closed gates around the perimeter.
Walk like a queen.
How did queens walk?
The letter was like a burning brick in the pocket of my cloak.
Only one of the gates was open, and Carmine sat in a throne before it. He didn’t glance back at me—but he would have felt me coming.
Athira was behind him. Steth was there, too, as well as the four war councilors. They all looked my way.
I walked forward as if I wasn’t gatecrashing supernatural war negotiations.
Conversation dwindled to a halt, and while Carmine didn’t look at me, he didn’t order me out of the hangar either. I’d expected instant dismissal.
“Mate,” Carmine said in the silence.
Mate, huh?
“Carmine,” I replied.
His jaw clenched, and fury flickered deep in his eyes, probably unnoticeable to others. He didn’t want me here.
Here goes.
I turned to look through the gate.
Six chairs. All the same size.
Two Vissimo. Two Luther. Two Magus.
My sister and her mate.
My heart stopped.
“Syera,” Tempest said. Her voice echoed strangely through the fog that swirled behind them.
I couldn’t fake my way through this moment. The ability to talk didn’t return for a full ten seconds.
“Sister. Going good?”
Her lips twitched. “Never better. You?”
“Can’t complain.” I glanced at the Magus beside her. He was broody, and power radiated from him, all of it directed to surround my sister like a cocoon. A protector.
Tempest smiled. “This is my mate, Wild.”
I dipped my head. “I am grateful to meet you, Wild.”
The demons behind me weren’t grateful for this show of good will. I met the gazes of the others—Andie and Sascha, who didn’t show any recognition of me. Then the Vissimo I assumed was Basilia. She waved.
Shit, were those nails real?
And her mate, the new king. He was confident in his power. Unused to facing a more powerful opponent. And neither he nor his father managed to take Carmine down.
But my sister had.
“Syera, come here,” Carmine called.
I smoothed my expression, then faced him. He glanced at his lap, and I walked to the right side of his throne instead.
“Move,” I said to Athira.
Athira’s eyes narrowed, but she moved. Steth peered between us.
Tempest would have enjoyed that. Basilia laughed outright.
Carmine didn’t react. “Those are our terms. The return of the pup for your full surrender.”
“We agree to surrender if you forfeit your life,” stated the Vissimo king.
Why did I get the feeling that they’d said the same thing about ten times?
Carmine stood. The meeting was about to end because I’d shown up.
He said, “You are not in a position to make demands, new king. You have heard my terms, and I grant you two days to consider the wisdom of surrendering to save the needless death of your peoples. Syera.”
He extended his forearm, and I rested mine on top, curling my fingers around his fist.
As the gate started to close, I readied myself.
I stole a look back.
The other demons had remained by the gate to guard Carmine’s exit.
Now or never.
I gathered my Magus power around the letter, then focused on Tempest’s cloak. I wanted to banish the letter under her cloak and out of sight. I shot my magic forward, and immediately felt Carmine’s attention on me.
He was frowning at my hand.
I was squeezing his fist.
Oops.
I couldn’t glean a thing from the expressions of the other supernaturals when I looked back again.
I really, really hoped that Steth wasn’t now in possession of my letter to Tempest.
No one appeared to have noticed the arrow of my power shooting through the gate, and the letter wasn’t in my pocket any longer.
Dammit. Time would tell. And I’d never been great at waiting.
As soon as the gate grated to a resounding close, Carmine portaled us to his room.
He stepped away, then rounded on me, and I got a full glimpse at everything he’d been bottling up at the gate.
“I didn’t see him,” I hurried to say.
“We had a deal.” Shards of ice toppled from each of his words to shatter against stone. “How did you know about the meeting?”
I didn’t answer.
“How?” Carmine stormed closer, and instead of backing against the wall, I laid my hands on his chest.
My palms warmed. “I didn’t see him.”
Truth.
The warmth radiated through me, and Carmine sucked in a sharp breath. His chest vibrated under my fingertips. Or were my fingertips vibrating his chest? I couldn’t tell, but I could feel his reaction to my reassurance. His awe.
We couldn’t have hidden a lie in that moment, and that was true for him and me. I could see his power. Crimson smoke.
And white magic.
So much white magic.
I staggered against the wall and stared at him. Mother be.
“What was that?” he breathed.
He was talking about feeling the truth of my words, but I was gaping at him because the white magic I’d been searching for was filling Carmine to the brim. How?
“I d-don’t know,” I whispered.
“I could feel you were telling the truth.” His chest rose. “I’d call it a Magus trick if I hadn’t felt the magic was demon in nature. You didn’t go to see your lover today.”
My mind was whirling. I croaked, “I went to visit Raes’s family with Gratia.”
He continued to stare, and I returned the favor.
What was going on? I knew what I’d seen. Not just crimson smoke. So much white. All through him.
“Did that happen because of the joining ritual?” I whispered.
Carmine blew out a breath. “If it did, then I’ve never heard of such a thing. But you’re not solely demon. Perhaps your Magus side will change our mating.”
We’d received a second mating gift after joining. Not that I considered the location thing a gift, but others usually did. Now we could feel truth in the other too. Only via touch. I hoped. Because that could prove a big problem.
Carmine approached and took my hands in his.
I tensed. How could I not? Do you intend to kill me, Syera?
Of course not, honey.
He said, “I was distracted the entire meeting, going insane with wondering if you were with him.”
Warmth flooded me. Truth.
And so much white magic. I hadn’t been seeing things. If I tuned into my magical sight and blurred out his physical body, then he appeared like the Viking version of a snowman, filled with swirling crimson smoke.
This was huge. I didn’t know how, but this meant something big. I’d assumed that the white magic was a buried secret, and if I could harness the power, then I might succeed in beating Carmine in combat.
But… he’d already figured out how to harness the white magic. Was that why he was so fucking powerful? If I could figure out how to take that magic, maybe I could win on two levels—in gaining power to win while also removing his.
I pulled my hands away. “Okay. Like I said. I didn’t see him.”
His expression was unfathomable. “Thank you for upholding our deal.”
Thank you for not continuing your affair while my back was turned. “I agreed to it.”
I strode for the exit.
“It’s a great gift, enamai,” he called after me.
My thoughts were so fixed on the white magic, that I blanched, believing he referred to that.
Wait, he meant our truth touch. A gift? I wasn’t so sure.
I bolted down the hall to my room, and sat on the bed.
Whoa. Whoa.
My gaze shifted to the wardrobe where the book on demon cults was hidden. I could hear Carmine pacing in his chambers, though, and I didn’t dare riffle through pages with him so close.
My mind buzzed, and I needed to widen my net to consider all the avenues on this. At the same time, my instincts screamed that someone else had read every other book that I’d read lately. And that person was Carmine.
I was remembering how a stack of books had always filled his bedside table. Even in our shared dreams. Heavy, worn tomes.
That I’d never cared to look at, assuming they were boring king books.
The tether in me tightened as Carmine left his room and walked away. Yes.
When I could no longer hear his footsteps, I still waited another few minutes to creep over to my wardrobe and retrieve the book.
Cults through the Ages.
I shuddered over the thought that Carmine had thumbed his way through this decades ago. Whatever this was, I’d figure it out.
I searched for an index, and found none.
A skim of the pages while looking for the phrases “white scale” or “white magic” proved futile. This was a book that expected the reader to actually read it and not skip to the cool part.
I groaned. “You’re gonna make me start at the beginning, aren’t you?”
I settled into page one.
And made it all the way to page 20 of 567 before my eyes started to close of their own accord. No mention of Tyran or white-scaled animals.
If I’d come across this in the archives, I would have already put it down. But Carmine had read this, and Carmine was filled with white magic.
I slapped my face a few times. Wake up, Syera.
This was going to be a long night.