Chapter 39
I stood between Tempest and Basilia. Andie was beside Basilia. We stood atop the knoll that overlooked the meadow below.
Soon, if Tempest’s magic was correct—which it would be—then Carmine’s army would pour down from the gates and cover the meadow.
He was coming for Owu.
And me.
“Owu is in the room?” Tempest murmured.
I nodded. “With Rooke. Adeuto is in the safe chamber.”
With Delta.
In the end, I couldn’t bring myself to trust strangers with Adeuto. Demons could portal anywhere. I didn’t know how one of them may learn of the safehold, but if they did, then I didn’t want Adeuto out of my reach. I had to be close to my son.
He couldn’t be close to Owu right now, with Owu being one of Carmine’s targets.
Both of the boys were here, for better or worse. It felt like the best choice.
If the odds were against us, then Delta had orders to portal them away. Carmine would be able to track me anywhere on Earth. Anywhere.
“The lead up is always a pain,” Basilia sighed. “I just want to get started if it’s got to happen. You know?”
Andie’s voice was part growl. “I get itchy feet too.”
The Vissimo replied, “You mean paws?”
There was a faint singing noise as Andie held up her paw and unsheathed lethal claws. “I meant these.”
“Feisty,” said Basilia, chuckling softly. “Still want to give your werewolf a pedicure. You said we could.”
“Pretty sure I never said that at all.”
Tempest glanced at me. “They get like this.”
I smiled. “It is odd to be on the waiting end. Nicer to charge into battle.”
“Or neither, ideally,” my twin said.
Ideally, yes.
Behind us, Kyros, Wild, and Sascha were having their own version of the countdown.
Luther, Vissimo, and Magus filled the knolls.
The Luthers were split to the east and west to intercept smoke.
Vissimo were lined up in front of Magus and Luthers.
The Magus stood at the south, ready to deploy magical attacks and barriers.
They’d only engage once the first waves of the other supernaturals started to tire.
Their magic was more important than their battle skill, but I had a feeling all their practice would be put into action tonight.
“How are things going as king?” Sascha asked Kyros.
Kyros grunted.
Sascha asked Wild. “You seem to have settled into mating now. Everything going well?”
I glanced back in time to catch Wild’s shrug.
Sascha caught my eye, and I grinned.
He mouthed, “I tried.”
Tempest was right. He was the only stable one, and that was maybe because of Andie. I stole a look at her and saw her teeth were bared and her claws were out. She’d partially shifted.
Perhaps we had it wrong. Sascha was the glue to this alliance.
“Shift,” Sascha called out over the knolls.
Thousands of pops and snaps rent the air before they were replaced with snarls. The Luthers were a fearsome sight.
“I’m glad to be on this side,” I muttered.
Andie, a beautiful russet wolf, paced in front of us. Sascha, an enormous black wolf, paced behind the other guys. They were herding us.
Basilia said, “But how amazing would she look with red nails. You can’t tell me that wouldn’t look amazing.”
Andie snapped her teeth at the Vissimo, and Basilia scratched under her chin and kissed her nose. “It’s okay, Booker. I’ll only paint your nails when you agree.”
“Booker?” I asked.
Tempest replied, “The name of Andie’s wolf.”
“Are Luthers’ wolves a whole other entity within them?”
Tempest nodded. “Yes, my relationship with my demon was like that in the beginning. As if we were two beings in one body. I could speak to her. Now we’re assimilating. I can sense which thoughts are demon or Magus, but they’re mostly all my thoughts. I guess that will continue to happen.”
“I have that too. I know which thoughts originate from which race. And my body feels the magic of each race differently.”
She hummed. “I don’t get that so much. I have power from her.
She amplifies what I have, and gives my Magus power an edge that makes other Magus struggle to defend themselves against my attacks or barriers, but I wouldn’t consider myself as possessing two magics.
I can’t sense any smoke in me, just around the demon source of me, if that makes sense. ”
“I wonder if you can draw it out. I don’t see why you couldn’t. My Magus magic shied away from my demon magic for a year or two. They didn’t want to get along.”
“I hadn’t considered that. I’d decided that whatever demon magic I’d gotten was mostly given to me for the purposes of forging my mating bond.”
“That is a seismic shift in the race.” I wouldn’t be surprised if her demon side was funneled into creating that.
I doubled over as a presence slammed into me. Within. “Ouch.”
Kyros asked, “What?”
Tempest answered, “He’s here.”
“Here, all right.” I straightened and rubbed my chest. “That hurts after a few days apart.”
“Maybe it hurt him too,” Basilia said brightly.
Andie whined and tilted her head.
I smiled. “I’m fine.”
“Oh yeah,” Basilia said with no detectable remorse. “Are you okay?”
“Incoming,” Tempest said.
And then, he was just there.
In the middle of the meadow. He’d portaled ahead.
Carmine looked directly into my eyes, and though iciness regarded me as if deciding whether I should live or die, for the first time, I searched beyond that.
If Carmine was in there, then he was locked up tight.
“Enamai,” he called across the meadow. “There is no need for war. Come back to the realm, and my army shall return with me.”
I called back. “When would your army return?”
His lips curved. “Once they are done.”
Slippery bastard.
“Done with what?” I asked.
He walked forward, and he was dressed the same way as always—the same as when we’d first met. Except now his mating runes were on display. “Done with eradicating those you betray me for. Done with killing the boy.”
I tensed at the mention of Owu, and Carmine turned aside to pace the meadow. As if three races of supernatural weren’t in the vicinity, all of them filled with hatred for the demon king.
“You hid him well,” Carmine said conversationally. “Well done. It took three days to uncover the truth. And to track down his mother.”
Shit.
Carmine closed his eyes and his power rippled forth. “Little demon, can you hear me?”
The ground shook with the boom of his voice. There was no way Owu wouldn’t hear.
The demon king smirked. “I have your mother. Come out to face me like a warrior, and I will let her live. Her voice is hoarse from screaming.”
In that moment, I hated him anew. Enough to sharpen my feelings to what had to be done. Or attempted.
I looked at Carmine and saw insurmountable power.
How could he ever be beaten?
“Enough talking, demon,” my sister spoke. “Try what you have come to try, and we will do what we intend to do. If you’re lucky, then you may be carried away from here like the last time you made the mistake of attacking us.”
Carmine replied, “I visited the dungeons recently—those where I held your demon for five years. The dungeons reeked of her panic. That is where I will put you, leader of the fallen coven.” He inhaled the air.
“Ah, yes. She still panics at the thought. You will, too, in the end. And my mate will live to regret her subterfuge one thousand times over.”
Andie snarled at him, and I was half aware of Kyros and Sascha moving into position, and of Wild standing behind Tempest. From what I’d learned, Wild was able to amplify her power.
Magus could exchange magic if they shared a tether, but Wild didn’t just send her his finite power.
If she was the voice, he was the microphone.
What they could do went far beyond a typical tether.
“I have a 6:00 a.m. meeting with one of my boards,” Basilia said. “If he’s not going to get started, let’s do it for him. I hate rescheduling appointments.”
“You don’t reschedule them, mate,” Kyros told her. “Your minions do that.”
“Yes, but I have to tell them to do that. It’s inconvenient.”
Sascha chuffed in a wolf version of laughter.
And as if that was the signal our side had been waiting for, the meadow and surrounding knolls exploded. Tempest, Sascha, and Kyros burst in Carmine’s direction, and his first reaction wasn’t to assess their approach.
His reaction was to look at me over their heads. Malice. So much malice. If he ever got hold of me, then he would make me pay.
His army poured from the forest where they’d lurked. Like flood waters made of sword, dagger, and flail, they flowed down to the meadow. Crimsons at the front.
Red.
Purple.
Blue.
Green.
Oranges and yellows.
A rainbow of death.
Wild was crouching beside me still, his gaze focused on Tempest. Magus barriers were up, and the demons were pushed into the formations we wanted as the Magus groups split the demons into smaller portions.
Luthers and Vissimo moved to attack their allocated slice of the demon army.
Tempest’s magic collided with Carmine and distracted him enough that Kyros was able to deliver a savage blow.
Sascha intercepted a lethal spear of smoke aimed at Tempest.
The three races had been practicing together.
As had the three leaders.
Basilia held a manicured finger against her ear. “Laurel, group of crimsons squeezing around from the outside.”
Andie launched in front of Wild and absorbed a flood of crimson smoke that would drop me to one knee. The Luther showed no signs of discomfort.
Basilia spoke again. “Gerome, the demons in the north-west quadrant are falling. Divert numbers to the center.”
She listened. “No, I don’t want to grab a bite to eat after this.”
She listened again. “Yes, I am hungry. But I won’t be eating with you… I know we live in the same mansion. I have to live with you—you’re Kyros’s brother. I just try to forget you exist. Demon behind you!” Basilia laughed. “Ha, no one there. Got ya!”
I searched for the Vissimo in question and caught sight of a dark and handsome Vissimo battling at the back. He was glaring at Basilia. “Friend of yours?”