Chapter 17
The door crashed against the stone wall.
“You’re dressed,” Carmine said from the doorway.
I didn’t bother looking up. “I assumed the battle attire on my bed was for me.”
“We war tonight.”
So casual about it.
Was this our date night? We even had matching outfits. His inked torso was on display, and my leather chest armor was stitched in a matching design.
“Where are we going?” I murmured, shoving my boots on.
“Bluff City,” he replied.
“Is this the part where I’m not told anything on purpose?”
“Your connection to the other supernaturals is complicated.”
To say the least. But I’d rather not join the war council each morning, so this arrangement suited me just fine.
He stood aside as I left the room first, and we fell into step.
We walked in silence to the gates, but before we entered the hangar where Carmine’s army awaited, he took my hand in his.
“I enjoyed our dream last night, enamai.”
The warmth and truth of his statement struck me, and I was reeling in the midst long after Carmine left me to address his army.
I enjoyed our dream last night.
I bit back a groan. Dang it. I hadn’t wanted to openly acknowledge that we both knew the dreams were real.
I took a minute to let the warmth siphon off before entering the hangar.
Carmine didn’t spare me a glance while finishing his murder speech. After, he said, “Stay close to me. Do not fight.”
Yeah right. “Not even to protect myself?”
“I will do that for you.”
Oh brother.
Gates creaked open, at least ten. This time, when Carmine approached the smallest gate, I was hot on his heels.
Part of me was excited. Bluff City? I’d never visited the Vissimo territory. Mostly because Vissimo were against other supernaturals entering their territories. Also because I’d been dragged to the demon realm at sixteen.
I’d never traveled.
Did this constitute as travel?
I tracked Carmine through the thick fog and slowed as we exited atop an enormous skyscraper.
The sun was high. Middle of the day. “They’re asleep.”
Vissimo rested during the day.
Carmine nodded and otherwise ignored me to release his crimson smoke in a subtle stream, thin but constant. Steth and a few trusted others exited behind us. I had no idea where the rest of the army was. They must have left through other gates.
I wandered to the edge of the skyscraper and caught the name of the building in the reflection of the neighboring tower.
Kyros Sky
Did the Vissimo king live here? If so, Carmine was playing with fire. That guy was out for revenge for his father.
I scanned the city as the surrounding demons released their streams of smoke over the skyscraper. More demons occupied a skyscraper in the middle of the city. I could see their subtle smoke trails. Unlike from my vantage point here, I could see what they were doing.
Making a net over the building.
Humans used nets to catch fish, and demons could use nets to catch food too. Anyone in the nets could be fed upon. They would nourish the demon whose power had fueled the net.
Carmine wanted to weaken his adversaries. Another underhanded tactic, and a smart one. Direct battle hadn’t worked. My sister was too strong. But stealing power and inducing conflicts had worked on the Earth-dwelling supernaturals in the past.
I was guessing that they hadn’t agreed to surrender for Axel’s release. What a surprise.
I scanned the rest of the city, walking around the rooftop of Kyros Sky. More demons. And the majority of the army was nowhere to be seen. Oops, scratch that.
A puff of rainbow smoke was rising in the distance. On the city outskirts and closer to the shore. A large group of demons was battling over there. Was that where the Vissimo royals lived?
The beauty of the attack was that humans would think absolutely nothing of a rainbow smoke display in the middle of the day.
I stiffened as a letter slapped against my stomach and fell to the ground at my feet. I stared at the letter with my name on it.
Fuck.
Bad, bad, bad.
Wherever Tempest had intended to banish that, the letter hadn’t made it.
I covered most of the letter with my foot. Did anyone see that? No one raised an alarm, but I had demons to my left, and demons to my right, and Carmine at my back. And if those weren’t the potential lyrics to a really bad 2000s song, then maybe they would be part of the song sung at my execution.
I had to get rid of the letter, and slipping the message under my tight armor wasn’t an easy task. Tempest hadn’t achieved it either.
Okay. Okay.
The gate to my right was open. I had to banish the letter through there.
But I still didn’t trust my banishing abilities, and I’d be sending the letter into the fortress.
Unless I somehow used my rusty magic perfectly, then this message could end up in enemy hands.
Which was pretty much anyone in the fortress aside from Tsan.
Could I crouch and hide my movements somehow?
Create a distraction?
Nope and nope.
Maybe an opportunity would crop up. Until then, I could stand here, half covering a letter from my twin with my boot. I’d do that.
I gathered my Magus magic, then banished the letter into the shadows of a large vent to my left.
“Return to the realm,” Carmine ordered.
We were leaving already? Shit! There went my plan.
I sucked in a breath when he touched the small of my back. “Come, enamai.”
The letter.
I had no choice but to move along behind him.
Could I retrieve the message before the gate was closed on the other side?
I needed to practice with my Magus magic more. Dammit, Syera.
My only option was to retrieve the letter later, and that idea came up against the same barriers as the start. I couldn’t summon or banish anything past a shut gate.
I needed a way through the gates that wasn’t detectable.
I needed a crack. A tunnel.
Carmine walked ahead to give Steth instructions, and I seeped the tiniest amount of black smoke into my palms. I pressed the minuscule layers of smoke together, and infused the creation with my Magus affinity until the circular object solidified.
I was left holding the smallest ring in creation. One that would fit in the crack of a door.
Or a gate.
So I hoped.
And if that was the case, then I hoped a wisp of my power could squeeze through the middle of the ring to drag Tempest’s letter into my hands.
I hooked a thin wisp of black smoke around the ring and guided it down as I approached the gate. I shifted my trajectory to walk closer to the hinge side of the gateway, and as I passed through the entrance to the demon realm, I wedged the small ring in place in the bottom corner.
Please stay there.
Please let the gate still close.
If the gate jammed, then someone would inspect the block and find my magic.
My heart had rarely pounded harder.
Carmine touched my arm. “Syera?”
I glanced up at him. Clearly I wasn’t acting as cool and calm as I thought. I needed to put his mind at ease. “Will you feed on everyone in the skyscraper?”
Cold speared me, and I gasped at the horrible sensation. Carmine blanched, too, and both of our gazes fell to where he touched my arm.
The truth touch.
The lie detector too.
Now he knew my intentions from asking that question were false. I removed my arm from his grip, and didn’t meet his narrowed gaze.
“What happened?” He stepped closer, then surveyed the demons who’d exited behind me.
I should blame Steth. “Nothing.”
Carmine moved to touch my arm again, and I batted him away. “Don’t do that. Don’t use it that way.”
He hovered his hand between us as if wondering whether to do so anyway. If he was smart, he’d forge ahead.
The demon king drew his hand away. “Is there something wrong?”
I shook my head. “Nothing. Just… wasn’t expecting that.”
Other teams were returning from the Vissimo gates, and Carmine fixed me with one last raking gaze before turning to speak with them.
I had to be more careful about that truth touch. Hopefully I hadn’t raised Carmine’s suspicions enough for him to inspect the gate.
And no matter how much I wanted to see if my magic could squeeze through that tiny ring to access Earth, I had to wait until later.
I paused beside the exit as the bulk of the army flooded back in. Or staggered and limped, more like. Whoa, they were not in great shape. Kyros’s clan had done a number on them.
Gratia walked in and when she spotted me, a smirk widened her face. “Nice try.”
I almost asked what she meant, then recalled her announcement at the royal markets last night. Raes’s family blacksmith had officially become the royal blacksmith.
How brilliant of her.
A new sword gleamed on her hip. Blacksmith merch.
“You beat me to it.” I sighed. “I didn’t think you heard my plan.”
“I’ve lived in this place most of my life,” she answered. “My senses are always on alert. You have no idea how to play this game.”
“Clearly. But I won’t stop trying either. There’s not much entertainment in this place, so I might as well mess with your mating. I can see why you treated me so poorly at the start. Sheer boredom.”
“Which I had been making amends for. Stop trying to get between Raes and me, and we can call it even.”
I smiled. “Now those sound like begging words, Gratia. Just when I was about to turn my sights on someone else. I don’t think I will stop.”
“Then get ready to fucking play,” she spat out, storming to join her mother.
As soon as Gratia was on the right track, I’d come clean and leave them alone.
The last of the injured were carted back from Earth, and the gates started to close. I watched the gate from my peripheries, trying to deepen my shallow breaths and look unconcerned.
Closing.
Closing.
Come on, Syera. Please don’t have screwed this up.
The gates closed. All of them.
I still waited, tensed, for any call that my gate hadn’t sealed. No one inspected the gates. No one appeared to give them any thought.
Supernaturals hadn’t ever entered this realm, and they’d be foolish or desperate to try. Everyone here felt safe. The battle was done.