Chapter 28
“Syera.”
I blinked open my eyes and smiled at Carmine.
He kissed the back of my hand. “You must leave the fortress. I let you sleep while everyone else left, but Mother and my sister went ahead with soldiers. The holding is secure, and you must go with Axel.”
I sat bolt upright. “We orgasmed in the dream!”
My thighs pressed together at the memory of it. Fuck. He’d obliterated my senses.
Carmine stilled. “Yes.”
“Is that a problem for you?” I asked. “I didn’t know that would happen.”
I’d depended on it not happening, but at least I’d gotten the most real experience I could have—without it being strictly physically real.
He watched me. “Is it a problem for you?”
I shook my head. “No. Just a surprise. Why that time?”
“Because you chose it.”
“We chose it?” I asked.
His lips twitched. “I have always chosen that. We should talk further on this, on what it may mean for another ritual, but you must leave.”
My mind returned to what he’d said earlier. “What happened?”
He stood. “I’ll tell you while you get dressed.”
Only then did I recall why I’d called him into the dream in the first place. Tempest’s attack. Shit! I’d forgotten. Absolutely forgotten.
I shoved back the covers, then stopped when I noticed my nudity from the waist down. My shorts were off. I pulled the covers back, and glanced up to see a flash of heat in Carmine’s gaze before he turned away.
“That was a dream, right?” I whispered.
My camisole was still on. Then again, I hadn’t removed that in the dream.
“I woke in my bed. Alone.” His back was tense.
I crossed to my wardrobe and pulled on some training clothes.
Carmine said, “The coven attacked last night. A magical attack. The soldiers who guarded the hangar are dead, along with my war council.”
“What?” I blurted. Tempest, you genius.
“Dris managed to raise an alarm before his death. We are unsure how long their magic was allowed to roam and explore before they struck. Long enough to identify where key members of my army slept.”
I tied the front of my tunic, and Carmine turned while I shoved my feet into boots. “Any other dead?”
“Not that we’ve found. But I don’t believe that was their only objective. I need everyone out while I search the fortress for magical… interference.”
I perched on the bed. “I could help.”
He shook his head. “I want you away from here. You are strong, but my mind is divided when you’re near. Especially after last night… I felt their presence and decided to remain with you in the dream.”
When he’d suddenly peered through the wall. That was obvious in retrospect—and should have been obvious at the time. But it hadn’t been.
“Oh,” I said.
“My choice, and not your fault. I need a clear mind to work.”
I rose. “Understood. I’ll grab Axel and go.”
Carmine approached and rested his hands on my upper arms. His jaw clenched, but he just searched my expression.
He wanted to tell me not to leave the stronghold to wander the realm. He wanted reassurance that I wouldn’t visit what’s-his-name, my fake lover.
But Carmine didn’t do either. He kissed my forehead. “Be safe, enamai. I will call you back soon.”
He left the room, and I released a slow breath. He hadn’t asked me if I’d had anything to do with the Magus attack. Our truth touch had me on constant edge.
I returned to the wardrobe to grab a cloak, then reached under the mattress to grab the tiara, which I tucked into an inner pocket of my cloak.
I couldn’t leave that here with Carmine fleecing the fortress.
I paused for a minute to send a smoke signal through the pipeline to Tempest. She may want to get in touch, and if not now, then I may not be allowed back for several days.
I opened a portal to Axel’s room. “Little Luther, are you awake?”
“Yeah?”
“Get dressed and come through the portal when you’re ready. We need to leave the fortress for a while.”
“Is someone hurt?”
Dead people couldn’t feel pain, so… “No one is hurt. The king is searching the fortress, though, so everyone has left while he does. Get dressed quickly. We must go soon.”
I left the portal open, then strode into the bathroom.
I was drying my washed face, when a crinkling noise arose from the towel. I pulled away and stared at the letter.
Sister
She’d had one ready to go.
I wiggled the letter under my tunic, and exited the bathroom as Axel was climbing through the portal.
“Ready,” he said.
I held out my hand, and the little Luther held it as we walked to the front of the fortress. A palanquin awaited, and I groaned. I hated these things. Why anyone had to be carried anywhere was beyond me.
“What’s that?” asked Axel as we descended the stairs.
I wrinkled my nose. “Like a carriage, but servants are the wheels.”
Or soldiers in this case.
“Cool!” exclaimed the young boy.
I sighed and climbed inside the palanquin. A box was built atop the platform, with a roof and open sides. I sat on the throne inside. There was a cushion for Axel.
As soon as we were seated, the soldiers lifted their posts onto their shoulders to raise us high. The twenty other soldiers formed around us before the convoy set out for the realm below. Away from the fortress and arena and the pinnacle.
Away from the sole, miserable, ruthless demon peak.
My lips twitched at Axel’s whoops and delighted shouts. That almost made the lurching journey worthwhile.
The stronghold wasn’t far away. At the base of the peak, the soldiers veered right, and soon after, they stopped in front of towering walls.
“What’s this place?” Axel asked.
“No idea.” I’d never been here. The fortress had never been under threat. The soldiers spoke with other soldiers, and they came to the soldierly verdict that the gate should open.
Once inside the walls, the palanquin was lowered to the ground.
Axel beamed my way. “Let’s do that again one time.”
I snorted, then led the way out.
Of course the safe place for royals was enormous. Twenty demon families could live here. Buildings extended off this sandy courtyard in a sprawling fashion that reminded me of human island resorts.
Who maintained this place? And was it used more than once a millennia?
Athira strode toward us.
Axel shrank into my shadow. “I don’t like that one.”
“That’s because you have good instincts,” I replied.
Athira narrowed her gaze. “What’s the latest on the fortress?”
She continued past us, and I guess we were meant to follow? I trailed after her, and Axel hurried along behind me.
“Carmine is searching the fortress for magical interference.”
Athira nodded. “He should have used you to help.”
“I offered. He needed to focus.”
She moved between buildings until coming to a larger accommodation a few rows back from the courtyard. “You and the Luther will go here.”
“Do you know if Tsan got out?” I asked her as Axel raced inside.
“No,” grunted Carmine’s mother.
I searched her expression. The obvious question hung between us. From Carmine’s mood in the dream, I’d assumed that Steth never got a chance to blab her theories of rebellion.
Athira lifted her chin. “Handled.”
“Good.”
“Where are you guys staying?” I scanned the other buildings. I couldn’t see them all from here, which was ridiculous. “Is this place only for royals?”
“Yes, and I’m staying as far from my daughter and her pet as possible.”
I started to ask why when a faint, rhythmic slapping sound met my ears. “Oh.”
Athira scowled. “They’re staying at the far edges. As far away as possible.”
“They’ve reunited.”
“Thanks to you.”
And it wasn’t a compliment. “You need to see Raes with a weapon, Athira. He may not be as strong as Gratia in smoke, but he’s stronger than most demons in other ways. He nearly got the better of me in training the other day.”
“A purple is a purple.”
I cocked a brow. “And a white is a white.”
She cocked her head. “Which is to say, no longer. I should kill Raes.”
Mother be. “That isn’t what I meant.”
“What did you mean?”
White magic was constantly on my mind these days. “Do you know anything about a ruler who once lived named Tyran?”
“A white,” she said. “My mate spoke of him a lot for a time. Not in a good way.”
“What did he say?”
Athira sighed in a way that informed me she wanted to be elsewhere.
“If Tyran was in charge, crimsons wouldn’t be.
Tyran was a white scale.” Her gaze honed on me again, and she added, “My mate would speak of him in a strange tone, half respect and half hatred. I didn’t often hear him use it.
He hung some of Tyran’s artwork in the fortress too.
When Carmine ascended the throne, he destroyed all of Tyran’s art. ”
“Why?”
“Tyran’s art was a visual form of his views,” she said slowly, as if to a child. “Carmine liked Tyran’s views as much as his father did. Only one piece remains. In one of the lounges in the king’s private rooms.”
I jerked. “I know the one.”
The work depicted a man looking in the mirror and seeing a monster. I’d always hated that picture.
Tyran painted that? And why did Carmine keep it?
“Why the interest in him?” Athira asked.
I turned and walked into the accommodation instead of answering, and a minute later, I heard her soft snort before she departed.
As Axel explored the new surroundings, I found a bedroom and retrieved the letter. It was thick.
Sister,
You are likely aware that our mission was a success.
We were able to eliminate his war council, and also able to plant numerous charms.
We had hoped to install more communication pipes, similar to your design, however, my Magus and I have been unable to replicate a solid form of magic.
This may be unique to your powers.
I have naturally absorbed your information and formed connections with it using my particular magic, and I must convey a warning that recently flared to life.
You have not given many details about the “ancient force” mentioned in your initial letter, but I can see there is a connection between this and the divination journey you asked for details on.