Chapter 39 #2
“What? No way. One of Kyros’s brothers who refuses to call me queen.”
The Vissimo queen returned to barking her orders, while Andie protected us from smoke attacks of demons down in the meadow hoping to get a lucky shot.
We’d discussed this part.
My part.
The part where there was no way that I’d return to the demon realm, and so we were going to attempt severing the mating.
And when I did that, Tempest and the others would contact Tsan and Athira and try to find blue gems. And try to get Neti.
Because that was the safest option for me.
It was.
I was convinced of that. Whatever happened next for Carmine and me, we would no longer be mated. Never again. Finally, I’d be free of the monster of him.
Free to mourn what might have been if he was never a king under a wrath curse.
I closed my eyes and drew my demon power to my core. The process was like centering and couldn’t be rushed.
When my power filled me, I banished my aching sadness and all my feelings of regret over the image of Carmine plastered in my mind—the one where he’d tried to fight Tyran. The one where he’d been so devastated.
I banished it all before guiding my power to the iron casing around my heart.
I sent a small thanks to my grandfather for telling me how he’d severed his mating long ago. I searched for the layer he’d described. He’d said it was over the iron casing.
There.
So fine and translucent. Pearly and glimmering, but only visible if I caught it at the exact right angle.
Beautiful.
Something Carmine and I were never allowed to be. But something Adeuto and I had always been.
My son would live, and I would live on in time.
Where is the way in? I focused my magic and narrowed my lens, as if running a microscope over the layer. There had to be a way in.
There was a dent. The mating layer was thinner there. Right over my aorta. I continued my search until completing a check of my whole heart. The dent had to be it. I couldn’t sense anything else. Maybe I could break through here.
I was fresh out of other ideas.
I pressed my power against the thinned patch and staggered to one knee.
A furious roar filled the meadow. The type of roar that could stop a war in its tracks. Everyone looked at the demon king.
“Syera,” he roared again.
I blanked him out as Tempest portaled behind him, and Kyros appeared in front. None of them, Carmine included, were looking great.
I gathered more power and pressed harder. A keening wail broke from me. It felt like I was ripping out my heart.
My soul.
“What do you need, demon queen?” Basilia asked, supporting me with a grip under my arm.
I panted. “Can’t do it slow. Need to just go for it.”
“Syera, no!” Carmine roared. The sound was cut off as Kyros landed a blow.
“You know who you’re doing this for,” Basilia said in a low voice.
I knew. I’d known how this would end for three years. I wasn’t about to fall down at the finish line.
Closing my eyes, I felt tears stream down my cheeks. Goodbye.
Goodbye to what could have been in another version of the future.
I gathered my power into a spear in my chest. I couldn’t kill myself. Not being as strong as I was. My iron casing wouldn’t collapse even with a targeted attack like this.
But my mating would die forever.
I formed the spear and took a breath.
“I’m here with you,” Basilia was saying. “We’ll get you clear and keep you safe. I swear it, and I never swear shit in case it gives me worry lines.”
I drew forth the image of Carmine, first the memory of his devastated expression, and then one more surprising.
We were in his bed, laughing over the antics of some crimsons at the play that night. Carmine leaned over and kissed me. Not a kiss that led anywhere.
A kiss of joy.
Of companionship.
Goodbye, I said to that version of Carmine. I’m setting us free.
Free of the monster that had ruined us.
I would kill Carmine, and perhaps in what came next, he could find a peace never experienced in a life of dungeons and curses.
I tightened my hold on my magic. And—
“Mama!”
My eyes opened, and I dropped my hold on the spear. My demon magic flooded back to fill me.
I surged to my feet, whirling in a circle.
Adeuto was halfway down to the meadow. “Mama!” he called. “Mama, Delta is hurt.”
He was running.
For me.
For help.
Everything I was screamed, but not a speck of it came out. Those fighting around him had stopped to gape at the boy.
“Mama!” screamed Adeuto.
And the best thing that I could do was to ignore him.
I met Tempest’s gaze in the midst of battle. The thought ran between us, and she started to move to claim Adeuto as her own.
But then my son caught sight of me on the knoll and stumbled toward me. “Mama, Delta is hurt!”
I could hear his voice through a storm.
And more and more the sounds of battle quietened and came to a stop.
No. My being collapsed in a heap. I wavered on the spot because this was my worst fear. My constant and worst fear for three years. No.
The game was finally, horribly over, and I survived each round of Tiers in the arena, and then the more sinister version at the fortress, but I had no idea how this worked out now.
I walked to meet Adeuto and picked him up. “What happened, my little love?”
He clutched my face. “Owu got sad about his mother. He ran from Rookey, then hurt Delta. I don’t know where he went!”
I hugged him close. “You did good, baby. We’ll find Owu.” I spotted a few Magus darting back into the cave. “People are already going to help Delta and search for Rooke. Owu will be okay.”
“Uh… Syera?” Basilia murmured from behind.
“What?” I asked.
My sights were on Carmine. On his expression of absolute shock. He fell to one knee, and then the next.
That’s right, you bastard. I hid him from you all this time, and you will never get your hands on him.
“Owu is here.”
I blinked. “Where?”
The word was just out of my mouth when a cannonball of crimson smoke detonated in Carmine’s direction.
Carmine’s gaze didn’t leave Adeuto and me until Owu collided with him.
“Hold Adeuto, Basilia. Don’t let him out of your sights.”
Her face hardened. “I won’t. Go.”
I portaled to Owu, who was staggering back, holding his head. “Owu, darling. You got him. You hit the demon king.”
Owu snarled and whirled on me.
I dropped to a crouch and raised my hands. “It’s Syera. You know me. You’ve lost control of your smoke because you’re scared for your mother.”
His bottom lip trembled.
“You just did something great, darling,” I kept talking. “And now I need you to do what I asked of you this morning. Do you remember what that was?”
He narrowed his gaze but shook his head.
“I need you to trust me. Trust that I will find your mother when I can. Trust that I will do everything so you’ll see her again.
Just because he has told you that she’s a prisoner, doesn’t mean he’s telling the truth.
Your mother could be hidden and safe. And if she is, and when I find her, I don’t want to tell her that you’re no longer here. ”
Owu’s smoke began to draw in.
“That’s right, darling. You were so brave. And now you need to let me do the rest. Will you let me do the rest?”
Owu sniffed, fresh tears spilling over. He nodded.
I edged closer. “No matter what the demon king says to taunt you or bait you. You know better.”
I should have kept Owu away. Fuck. Too late for that. But he had to go now. Somewhere where he couldn’t reach the demon king if he lost control again.
Owu’s smoke drew inward, and he ran into my arms, gulping back sobs. “I hurt the lady.”
“You didn’t mean to,” I said.
I glanced behind and saw the armies were regrouping. Carmine was getting to his feet. He was shaking, and I was catapulted back to the day I’d lost my mother and grandmother.
Ice speared across the meadow as his menacing gaze locked on Adeuto with Basilia. She was staying on the battlefield, and that made the most sense when the enemy could portal.
Carmine convulsed. He took a step, then wrenched back.
“No,” he screamed, gripping his head.
“Owu, go,” I said urgently. “Don’t come back.”
Ty approached and beckoned to the demon.
And I couldn’t worry about Owu any longer.
I could only watch Carmine’s battle in horror and in pain. He was screaming. Writhing. Dying from the inside out.
His army looked on in confusion, edging back. They looked at Tempest as if she was the one attacking him.
If only they knew.
“I won’t!” Carmine roared in agony. “I—”
His gaze found mine across half a battlefield, and in them I read a terror that I’d assumed only I could feel. I read a turmoil that I’d assumed only I could experience.
“Sy… era,” Carmine choked out as froth filled his mouth and poured out.
Blood dripped from his eyes and ears.
He choked out, “Stop me.”
Ice froze away Carmine’s fear, and menace sank its claws into his posture. With an earth-shattering roar, he blurred toward Adeuto.
Tempest and Kyros surged to meet him. Crimson power exploded, and Tempest hurtled through the air, and Wild was on the move.
I could tell she was out.
Kyros rolled to a stop by a group of Magus.
I saw all of that while already sprinting to intercept my mate, who was going to kill my son.
And I gathered everything I was—Magus, demon, and whatever unexplored depths they shared. I pushed that power into my legs, and into my fist.
My senses honed on Carmine in a way they’d never been able to when he ran full speed. I must be a blur too. Because I was going to make it.
I wouldn’t let him reach my son.
I drew back my arm, and as the monster king turned his surprised, cold face to me, I punched him as hard as I could.
He flew east, and I sprinted after him.
Crimsons from his army beat me to it, and in the space of seconds, hundreds of demons were between me and their king.
This had to end now.
I had to kill him.
Tempest and Kyros were out. They meant the difference in this battle. Without them awake and operational, I couldn’t risk taking myself out by severing the mating.
Which meant I had to fight Carmine the good ol’ fashioned way.