Chapter 22
I was dragged into a dark hall.
“What the fuck, Athira?” I hissed, rubbing my arm. She’d gripped me that hard on purpose.
She shook my arm. “Quiet. I don’t have long before I’m missed. There’s something you need to know.”
My mother-in-law was tense. She hadn’t been in touch since her warning about Steth, and I saw nothing amiss in that.
The only topic we agreed on was that Adeuto was kept safe to succeed Carmine.
Adeuto was on Earth, and Athira had made it clear she wanted no part of the actual killing of her son, but she could know something about the white magic.
If I got desperate enough, then I’d question her.
If not, then I didn’t want to risk tipping her off about a huge, hidden magic.
She spoke quickly, “The war council are setting a trap to see if you’re in communication with the supernaturals.
The nets over the skyscrapers in Bluff City aren’t yielding a hundredth of the sustenance they’d anticipated.
Our sentries have noted a number of sudden changes in the defense strategies of the supernaturals too.
Whatever the war council told you, it won’t happen.
Don’t pass it to your allies. You’re being tested. ”
“I know,” I told her. “I haven’t passed it on.”
That part anyway. I’d sent smoke out the pipeline last night with a small note to Tempest about exploring protections for the Luther pack bond.
I asked, “What will happen?”
Athira checked the halls. “They’ll use the human hostage.”
A crimson presence flared to life.
Athira and I looked at Steth. She looked back at us.
Caught.
“What is it?” Athira said coolly.
“You were missed,” Steth replied with equal ice.
That took guts when the recipient was the king’s vicious mother.
Athira walked toward her. “Then you could have assumed that I intended to be missed.”
Steth peered down the hall at me.
“Is there a problem, demon?” I asked her.
No sensible demon would answer that. Steth could only make her suspicions so obvious. But if she witnessed enough strangeness between Athira and me, then Steth would go to the king.
Steth bowed. “The mother of the king and the mate-intended of the king have never had whispered conversations in the hall.”
She had guts. I’d give her that. “The mate-intended of the king was never officially part of the royal family,” I answered. “Times change, Steth. I suggest you do too. Spying on Athira in the halls will not serve you. It will make her turn more and more to me. Jealousy is beneath you.”
The crimson glared. “I was not spying.”
Athira stepped closer to the other demon. “I’d hope not, Steth. Our friendship has been mutual until now. But you know what I will tolerate.”
Steth felt that. She stepped back and bowed again. “I have overstepped. I will go now.”
The demon portaled away, and Athira glanced back at me.
“She needs to go,” I said quietly.
Athira nodded. “In the battle tonight. I’ll do it.”
I’d never seen Carmine’s mother appear weary, but she was weary now. How long had she known Steth for? In my time in this realm, the two had always walked side by side.
“Good,” I said.
Because Athira was a demon, more of one than I’d ever be. If a deal no longer served her interests, then the deal was off.
And I had no qualms doing whatever was needed to protect Adeuto.
“You’ll need to keep an eye on her until the battle,” I said.
Athira nodded, then strode away.
I walked on to the dirt pit where Tsan and Axel were hanging out. Axel was digging again, but Tsan looked up.
“Everything okay?” he asked.
I couldn’t remember the last time things were okay. Really okay. Not since my mother and grandmother were alive, and they hadn’t been okay. They’d been raising twins who possessed both demon and Magus powers. They must have carried a lot of fears over our futures.
I’d never known a day of motherhood without fear.
I nodded, and Tsan seemed to sense that my mind was deep in thought.
Carmine would threaten Rhona to control the Luthers and the human tribe tonight. My stomach turned, and my Magus instincts flared too. He’d use Rhona to send a message. I had a feeling that was the whole point of tonight’s battle.
What could I do about it? Rhona would be in Carmine’s power, and no other supernatural could disrupt his power quickly enough to free her.
I could warn my sister. But I had to consider that Athira was being set up too. Steth may have already gone to Carmine about his mother’s unusual behavior.
I couldn’t warn them. Even if I did, I couldn’t foresee any future where Rhona returned to her people alive.
This time, I had to concede the battle to win the war. No matter how sour that tasted.
“Are you around to watch Axel this afternoon?” Tsan asked.
Carmine had confiscated my books. Gratia never found the list of previous victors where I’d tucked it in a gown, and I hadn’t gotten around to searching for them with Owu and his dead grandparents to claim my time.
I wanted to visit Neti, too, but needed Tsan’s help.
Most importantly, I could feel the focus on me. Suspicion. I had to lie low for a couple of days until they looked elsewhere. “I’m around. I have dinner with Carmine, and then war.”
Tsan blinked. “Dessert didn’t appeal?”
“Dessert would appeal far more, in different company. War is more palatable in this situation.”
“Are we winning the war?” he asked. “Are you allowed to say?”
I snorted. “We are not winning. My sister is formidable. And the other supernatural leaders seem to be formidable, too, in their own ways.”
“Your sister?”
I nodded. “My twin sister, Tempest. She leads the Magus coven.”
Tsan shook his head. “I didn’t know.”
“Neither did I until recently. But she is very powerful. I always knew she’d be queen of something.” I forced a smile. “Plans this afternoon?”
“I’m meeting up with some of the servants who are off duty,” he replied.
“What for?”
His lips twitched. “To get to know them.”
Oh. Oh.
I frowned. Like a friend thing? He was going to have more than one friend? We hadn’t discussed exclusivity, but we hadn’t discussed inclusivity either. We were co-parenting a Luther child together.
I didn’t like this. “Right. Like who?”
He lifted a shoulder. “Yiti. A couple of oranges and yellows that you might not know.”
I wanted to be friends with Yiti. I hadn’t wanted that before Tsan said he was going to be friends with her, but I did now.
I should have visited her in person to relay the order for the party organizers’ dresses instead of sending a note.
Tsan was watching me. “Is that okay?”
I pondered that, then opted for the truth. “I haven’t had many friends. This is new to me.”
“How new?”
“Pretty new.”
“You had friends on Earth.”
“Yes.”
“What were their names?”
I scowled. “Tempest, my sister.”
“Your sister doesn’t count.” He pulled a face. “You’ve never had a friend?”
Great. Now I looked like a loser. And I was a loser. In the friend department at least. “Humans didn’t appeal as friends, and we didn’t know other Magus.”
“I see.”
The quiet extended. Dammit. I should have played it cool. This was the friend equivalent of describing how many children you wanted to have on a first date.
Tsan hummed. “You know, I was hoping to get information on a list over the afternoon.”
I lifted my head. “That’s why you’re going?”
He smiled. “Yes.”
“Really?” I narrowed my gaze.
“A friendship with you seems unavoidable, and it came out of nowhere,” he said. “But I have no intentions to form others. Because of…”
His intention to follow his mate into death by helping to kill Carmine?
Axel threw back his head and howled, then ripped into a pile of dirt like it was a deadly foe. I released a breath at his youthful joy. I missed Adeuto so badly that I felt sick. He must look different. He would have learned so much. New words and skills.
Would he blame me for this absence? What if I never saw him again?
I wanted to hold my baby in my arms.
“So,” Tsan said. “Dinner.”
I wrinkled my nose. “A private dinner.”
“To discuss the next rituals?”
“I nearly died in the last ritual. He won’t do any more until he figures out what went wrong.”
I knew what went wrong. I’d disrespected the forces that made matings possible.
I’d spoken the words of the joining ritual and hadn’t meant a single one.
Is that why the Mother had ‘gifted’ Carmine and me with the lie detector ability?
I had no idea, but the only reason I was here was because I’d tapped into sixteen-year-old me who would have meant the words.
And because Carmine had nearly drained his powers so we might both cling to life.
“He seems busy,” said Tsan, but his smirk quickly froze.
“He is busy,” Carmine said from behind me. “But he will always find time for his mate.”
Great. Just what I needed.
And poor Tsan. He’d been in Carmine’s company each evening, and had likely spotted him from afar during the day, but so far he hadn’t been so close to his mate’s murderer.
“Am I needed?” I asked.
Tsan had recollected who was here and hurried to stand and bow. “My king.”
That wouldn’t have been easy.
“Tsan, I have wanted to meet you in person. Syera does not like many people.”
Carmine sat.
For fuck’s sake.
“She’s never had a friend,” Tsan said a little too fast.
But all things considered, I was impressed by his composure.
Carmine glanced at me. “Never?”
“Depends what constitutes a friend.” There was Neti…
Who was I kidding? She had hooves and still didn’t like me.
“A demon with two legs,” he answered.
Whoa. Did he just read my mind? “Then no. Carmine, meet Tsan. Tsan, meet Carmine.”
The two demons sized each other up, and it was a strange moment where history and current day were meeting.
Right then, I was transported back to how their positions of power would have once been swapped.
Carmine would have been considered the servant, and Tsan might have worn the crown.
There was still a feeling of that, which had to stem from Tsan’s lurking hatred of the king.
But the look exchanged was one of calculation.
The power of one was meeting the cunning of the other.
And those forces in each demon were equal.
Opposite too.
I really wanted to read the books that Carmine had confiscated. I wanted to know why he’d been so worried that I was reading them. He’d treated me cautiously since, as if I was unpredictable.
Or intended to hurt myself.
I paused. Was that it? Did he think that was why I’d snagged the book on healing and execution? For myself? To escape our pitiful mating.
I bit back a grin.
Carmine jerked his head as Axel howled again. “He enjoys that. My demons aren’t pleased.”
“They shouldn’t be raking dirt anyway. Maybe now they can find real hobbies.”
He grinned.
Tsan looked between us.
“Join us at the royal table later this week, demon,” Carmine said to my friend. He stood after. “I would like to know my mate’s first friend more. I have not spent time with a demon of yellow scales in a long time.”
“How long?” I asked.
He tilted his head. “Not since the dungeons, enamai. And while in the dungeons, I talked often with a yellow named Hge. I knew him for ten years when I was first there. The guards did not like our conversations and must have told your father. Hge was killed for sport while I watched. They took their time.”
Carmine hardly ever spoke of the dungeon. He hadn’t since my return, and he’d never done so while we were in other company. Why now?
Did he seek to endear himself to Tsan? Or warn me of the futility of a friendship with a yellow?
I didn’t answer.
I honestly didn’t know what to make of that.
“I will see you for dinner,” he said, then kissed my forehead. “Wear your battle attire. We will leave for Earth directly after.”
Those little touches were becoming more frequent, and I wasn’t a fan of how accepting I’d become of them. “Romantic,” I muttered.
Carmine’s lips twitched, and we watched him leave.
As if I hadn’t admitted to killing his desert wardens hours before, and been lying out my ass too.
Axel bounded up to show us a stone he’d found.
Only when he’d left did Tsan mutter, “That was a different version of him from my memory.”
“There are two versions. One who is like that. And another who is not,” I said.
“His tone was off, don’t you think?”
I arched a brow. “How so?”
“The information was random. Almost forced into conversation.”
I’d felt that too. “What do you think it meant?”
“I’ll look into it. Add Hge to the list.”
As a black-scaled demon, I’d never possess the cunning of a yellow. Carmine’s tone was odd—and reflective. He’d overshared, and he never did that in front of others. There were times when his words came across like a warning. “Let me know what you turn up.”
“I’d better go. They’ll be waiting.”
They. His other friends. My mood soured.
Tsan rose. “What will you do?”
I blew out a breath, looking at the mud-caked Luther in front of me. “Wash a werewolf, I guess.”
“Are you ready for battle?” he asked, snorting after.
I shook my head. “Probably not.”