Chapter 25
Dear King Kyros,
You put everything at risk last night.
Control your fucking emotions.
I hope your head hurts like a bitch.
Sincerely,
Syera
I wormed my magic under the fortress and up to my pipeline in the Vissimo gate, then banished the small note through.
“Your face looks funny when you do that,” Axel said from the armchair in the corner of my room.
I crossed my eyes. “Like this?”
“Like you’re on the toilet.”
“Thanks, little Luther.” I snorted and gathered up the towels and dirty clothing he’d spread everywhere while showering this morning.
He looked up from wooden pegs he was lining up. “When you use your power, I feel its path, and I know where to meet it.”
I glanced at him. “Meet it how?”
“Where to get in the way.”
Huh. “Your instincts tell you that?”
He scrunched his face. Now who looked like they were on the toilet?
I tried again. “You have those thoughts without actually thinking of them.”
The Luther nodded after a pause.
If a Luther child had that instinct, the rest of his pack certainly did. No wonder Sascha had read Carmine’s attack on Kyros so easily. They were meant to be shields in all of this.
I crouched in front of the young supernatural and lowered my voice. “Axel, thank you for sharing that with me, but while you’re in this fortress, I don’t want you to tell anyone about your powers and what Luther thoughts you have.”
“Why?” he whispered.
“Because there are those who will use what you say against your people.” If I found myself under attack from Sascha, misdirecting him with my smoke would now be my first strategy.
Axel licked his lips. “Okay.”
We both jumped when a small portal opened beside me.
I looked through at Carmine, then beyond to four beaming councilors. Did they like me again? More likely that they needed something.
“Enamai,” Carmine said. “You are needed at council.”
I glanced at Axel. Tsan was out hunting down past victors of Tiers. “I’m busy right now.”
Carmine glanced at the Luther. “He’s old enough to be by himself.”
“In a fortress of demons? I don’t think so.” Plus, a Luther boy wasn’t a demon boy. At the same age, Owu had trekked through the desert, tracked his mother, had the sense not to engage with her, then trudged off to kill his grandparents, and found enjoyment in the experience.
My gaze locked with Carmine’s.
He wanted to play nice. Whether because of me kicking ass last night or because of our adrenaline-rushed kiss, I couldn’t tell. “Is there a question I could answer here?”
He leaned back, then dipped his head. “Your sister. How did you neutralize her?”
I lifted a shoulder. “Perhaps you have answered your question already. It could have been a matter of neutralizing. We are equal and opposite. We share blood and ancestors.”
Though putting myself forward as Tempest’s equal didn’t sit right. And I wasn’t butthurt about that either. I’d always seen Tempest as a queen. She’d ruled everywhere we’d ever been on Earth.
Maybe that was why I’d never formed the same opinion of myself—Earth was never my territory.
“What did you feel when your powers connected?” Deut asked.
I reached out to hold Axel’s hand, then closed my eyes. “The touch of our magics in that way felt forbidden. We were forced apart, or something—our blood and ancestors—would not allow us to engage.”
Carmine lifted his head. “Because the power held by a demon and Magus is opposite. Always it has been that their powers will lock until one is drained, and the stronger victor emerges.”
That was true. Though I’d forgotten the lesson taught to me long ago.
More important was that I rid the demon king and his council of any thoughts of using me as a weapon.
“You want to know if I can do it again,” I said.
“The answer is that I don’t know. Tempest will already be figuring out strategies to avoid the same ending.
Their defense depends on her strength. If I were her, then I would avoid any contact with my power whatsoever.
I also can’t guess what happens with subsequent use.
Perhaps too much contact between our powers would weaken this barrier that forced us apart.
We could become locked in an energy duel after all. ”
Hopefully I’d instilled enough doubt in Carmine’s mind.
“Would your magic dissolve the barriers, mate-intended?” Tsee asked.
I shook my head. “I have one affinity. To crumble their barriers, I would need all four, and also to possess more power than the individuals. To my knowledge. If there is a way to crack in otherwise, then I do not know of it. “
“What is the progress in appointing a new desert warden?” Carmine said suddenly.
I looked at him. “No progress.”
“If you have enough time to organize a birthday celebration for my sister’s mate, then you have enough time to address a matter of the realm.”
Probably true. It was a matter of wanting to. “Noted, your majesty.”
His gray eyes narrowed, making the crimson ring more obvious. “See that it happens, Syera.”
He glanced again at Axel before the portal closed.
“It’s someone’s birthday?” the Luther asked.
“You know Raes? He’s one hundred.”
“Whoa,” Axel breathed. “That’s old.”
Not that old for a demon. I was a baby demon, really. My Earth upbringing skewed my views on my age a lot. A demon my age would be keeping her head down in the hopes of keeping her head.
“Can I come?” Axel pleaded.
I’d actually forgotten all about the party that started in about… two hours. “No, little Luther. This is a party for adults. You don’t want to be there.”
“Yes, I do.”
I smiled. “You’ll be grown up soon enough.”
“Not here, though, right? With my pack.”
If I had anything to say about it. “We focus on one day at a time. Do you miss your mother?”
“Yes, I did.” His eyes lifted to mine. “I mean—”
I raised a brow.
“Uh…” He trailed off, and pink tinged his face.
Axel had figured out a way to speak with the pack. I lifted a hand to his temple and gave him a pointed look. The little Luther swallowed, then nodded.
“I wasn’t meant to say,” he breathed.
I held a finger to my lips.
I’d assumed the Luthers could only speak through their pack bond over a certain distance, but with Magus intervention to amplify that bond—and a pipeline to allow magic through—the pack appeared to have figured things out.
My twin had taken my information and turned it into a strength.
I imagined that Axel was sending them all kinds of intel through that bond.
Now I could only wish for the same ability to speak with Adeuto. I ruffled Axel’s hair. “I’m glad you’re here. Now, let’s get you some food before bed.”
“Can I dig in the dirt more?”
“You’ve already had a shower. We’ll dig in the dirt tomorrow.”
The argument on digging in the dirt lasted until dinner, then resumed afterward until I was tucking Axel into bed in the room next to Tsan’s. I’d placed alarms on every wall of the room, and while I’d prefer the Luther closer to me, that also placed him closer to Carmine.
Axel’s jaw cracked on a yawn. “Will you go to the party now?”
I sure would. “I’ll tell you about it tomorrow.”
I left his room to return to mine and get dressed for the birthday bash I’d put in motion. I almost felt bad for Gratia after Raes’s cold shoulder last night, but I could hardly call the party off.
The celebration was already well underway by the time I’d slithered into a crimson gown. The deep V of the plunging dress almost met the high slit in the hugging skirt, but the various parts of my body would theoretically stay in place.
I took in the scene and wrinkled my nose.
Crimsons and reds were having a great time playing blacksmith and laughingly hammering molten metal.
Raes had to be rolling his eyes. Except when I located him next to Cyz in the middle of the ballroom, he wasn’t rolling his eyes at all. Again, he was engaged in animated conversation with her. They had to be discussing weapons.
I’d never seen him speak that way with Gratia. Sure enough, when I found Gratia seated near the raised thrones, she was furious.
With good reason. She was watching Raes connect with another woman.
They’d already gone past the point in the mating where they could chase sexual gratification with another demon, but I doubted whether either of them had tested that.
Because testing that would be a huge betrayal.
Better to just sever the mating if things were that far gone.
The music started up, and Raes bowed to Cyz.
They joined the dance floor together. Phew. I released a breath. Gratia had seriously pissed him off.
For the first time, I felt concerned about their mating.
I dipped my head to crimsons and reds on the way to the thrones. Carmine’s seat was empty, and so I took Athira’s seat next to Gratia.
“What did you do?” I asked her.
She ignored me.
“He wouldn’t speak to you after the battle. Now he’s dancing with another woman.”
Gratia scowled at me before returning her vigil to Cyz and Raes. “What do you care?”
Did Cyz realize she was messing with the wrong demon? I’d picked her because of her street smarts. She was one of the few fortress demons who’d grown up in the wider realm.
“I don’t. But whatever you did has worked better than any interference I might have dreamed up.”
“Like this party?” she hissed. “Like selecting single females to organize it?”
“Like this party. Like the females who I chose to organize it.”
“You even dressed them the same, so I’d know.”
I arched a brow. “Don’t they look nice?” To most they would anyway. Yiti had understood the assignment. Time would tell whether various body parts would remain within the small and flimsy confines of their dresses for the entire night.
I asked again, “What did you do?”
Gratia’s lips pressed together. “I told him that I’d sought company elsewhere.”
Mother be. Was I this much of an idiot while enamored with Carmine? I knew the answer was yes. Now I could only feel ashamed of it. “To what end?”
“To… I don’t know.”