Chapter 40
I gripped his hand, then portaled us to the nearest demon gate. I threw Carmine ahead of me, and saw Athira turn aside to get out of the way as he went crashing through.
I strode in after him, then looked at the demon army gaping at me within.
I ordered, “Close the gates.”
I glanced at Gratia and Athira. “Get the king the help he needs.”
They rushed forward. Athira, only after a long look my way.
Was this the part where I killed him?
No.
I’d potentially made the stupidest decision of my life.
“Ensure the injured are tended to,” I told the closest crimsons. “The battle is done for the night.”
And bless their little demon hearts. I’d betrayed them, then betrayed the other side, and they saw nothing of concern in that.
Just a normal day for a demon.
I left the hangar. Fuck. Okay. I had to work fast. Really fast.
Carmine would recover soon. Then he’d be on me, and I could expect a ball and chain.
Tsan crashed into me in the next hall, and I wrenched him into a smaller branching passage.
His eyes were huge. “You… what happened?”
“No time,” I said very quietly. “The goal has altered somewhat. I don’t have time to explain.”
If I did, then Tsan would likely not agree with the direction of my altered goal.
I was about to betray my one and only friend.
I reached into my boot. “I need to complete another ritual with him. When I do, the white magic will likely take root in me again. I’ll be different.
I’ll be a—” I took a breath and applied the true word to myself. “—monster. You need to take this gem.”
I placed it in his hand. “Hide it. Find Athira once I enter the ritual with Carmine. Find her alone, and explain that when I emerge from the ritual, she needs to portal you and me to the desert shack. It’s crucial and everything depends on it.”
“Neti will heal you again,” he whispered.
I nodded. “Athira doesn’t need to know that part. She also doesn’t need to know about that blue gem in your hands.”
Tsan tucked it away. “Got it. Talk to Athira. Wait for the ritual to be over. Portal to Neti to heal you.”
I pulled him into a hug. “You need to go into hiding after forming a plan with Athira. And you both need to assume I won’t go without a fight. I don’t know what hold the magic will have on me this time.”
Tsan’s face firmed. “Got it. Are you sure you want to do this?”
My heart skipped a beat, but I was never happier to feel the warming in my gut from my Magus power. “I am. This is the way forward.”
We exchanged a long and fearful look.
“Then go, and I’ll be on the other side.” Tsan walked away.
My future—that of everyone—depending on the cunning of a yellow scale. That felt preordained.
Soon, if Tsan failed, then I wouldn’t know it anyway. I’d be trapped in my own body, but unlike Carmine—if last time was any indicator—I’d have no awareness of it.
I just wouldn’t be me any longer.
I walked to the bunkers, and the guards were wise enough to let me through without a word.
Athira and Gratia were speaking, and I entered the room behind them.
“He’s already recovering,” Athira said.
Or warned.
“Good,” I replied.
Gratia watched me, then dared to ask, “What happened? Decided to reverse your betrayal?”
That wasn’t too far from the truth. “Essentially, yes.”
My attention landed on Carmine, who was crouched between the seat and stone bed. His crown was on the seat, and my feet moved me to it.
I picked up the crown, and nearly choked on the power contained within. Filled with white magic.
In a trance, I placed the crown on Carmine’s head.
And the picture was complete.
The drawing of a young boy trapped in a box and wearing a crown. When my father had ascended the throne, the Istg weren’t celebrating the eventual birth of Adeuto.
They’d been celebrating the young royal thrown into the dungeons.
Placed in a box.
The young royal who would one day wear the crown.
They’d been celebrating that.
And why?
“Why are you here?” Carmine growled, rising.
“Leave us,” I said to Athira and Gratia.
Athira answered, “No.”
Gratia crossed her arms.
Carmine glanced at them. “I am strong enough. Go.”
No doubt the crown on his head had replenished him.
Gratia filed out first, and Athira followed.
“I won’t be far away,” she hissed at me.
Hopefully far enough away that we wouldn’t overhear her conversation with Tsan.
The door shut, and I approached Carmine. He let me approach, and he let me remove his crown. I tossed it on the seat.
The monster wasn’t here.
I kissed him. I kissed him like I hadn’t done since I was seventeen. Like I wanted to. I splayed a hand on his chest and looped my arm around his neck to draw him against my mouth. I abandoned all my plans during that kiss and sighed into the feel of him.
Of what this could be.
Into this brief period of time when I dared to hope for a different future.
When I drew back, my body was trembling out of fear as much as lust.
Carmine spoke next to my ear. “What game are you playing, enamai?”
“The game where I’ve made up my mind.”
I stepped back and unlaced my tunic, then drew it over my head. I unwound the bindings over my breasts next, and let the bindings fall to the floor.
Carmine stopped breathing. “That part makes sense. You fed my son.” His gaze lifted to mine. “Syera, I will kill him.”
“You won’t get to him,” I said. “Not with my mother and grandmother on the job. Tempest too.”
“And you?” he said sarcastically, a chill entering his demeanor.
Good. It was the monster I had to deal with. “My son is safe, and now I can pursue my own future. With you.”
I touched him as I said the words, and he laughed coldly at the warmth of our truth touch.
“You will never know happiness with me. Foolish demon. Did you give up all you’d won for the pain I will make sure you feel for betraying me?”
I slipped off my boots, then unbuttoned my pants, and rolled them down. “I did.”
“And is this your way of convincing me not to kill you?” he sneered.
I lowered to my knees. “No, this is my decision. We’re going to complete our mating. I didn’t know what I wanted before I tried to sever the mating. I was so focused on saving Adeuto. Now he is safe, and I have space to choose. I haven’t had that space in three years, and I know what I want.”
I wanted my mate, trapped within.
Carmine smirked, then freed his erection. “There will be no ritual. No more mating. But if you wish to live, you know what to do.”
Carmine and I had been victims of the lust of our mating for three years.
The mating had hounded us, even pulling us into dreams, in a bid to make us desperate enough to continue the rituals.
While this monster may be able to reason through the lust, as I could most times, he had underestimated the power of the mating.
The power of the mother.
So had I.
But I finally understood why she’d given me such a mate. Why all my pain and confusion had been necessary.
The horror and pain of the last five years made sense at last.
I took hold of Carmine’s cock and met his gaze as I sucked the tip into my mouth. His icy amusement faded, and then an expression of smirking surprise replaced it. I groaned as the lust in our mating surged and warmth pooled between my thighs.
His nostrils flared, and he released smoke to grab my wrists.
Carmine grabbed them overhead, and the back of my head thudded against the stone bed. He pulsed his hips, and my throat clenched in protest. He’d never done this, and I wouldn’t be deterred by any of this monster’s tests.
I kept my eyes trained on him and forced my throat to relax. He pushed in and held there, and I coughed around him.
Carmine removed his cock from my lips, and I was lifted by my wrists in the air. He reached between my legs and laughed low. “You do like it. How do you like it after what I’ve done to you?”
He pushed a finger inside, and my breath hitched. When he crooked the finger, I moaned low.
Carmine removed his finger, then lowered me to sit on the stone bed. I was spun.
“Lie down.”
I did so and was left looking at the underside of his cock.
He stepped forward and placed his length between my breasts. He hissed, and I concealed my triumphant smile. This was Carmine.
I pressed my breasts together and he started to move.
“Fuck,” he grunted, quickening his pace.
I bent my knees and let them fall to each side. Another groan was my reward.
He circled my clit, and I shouted against his thigh.
When he circled faster, I felt my body clenching in response.
“Carmine,” I gasped.
He took me to the brink, then stepped away.
I rolled over, panting.
The monster was contemplating me. “I wonder if she speaks truth. There is a change in her.”
That was all I heard of his inner narration, but I could guess the rest went something like “I could have the power of our mating after all. I can outsmart her or put her in the dungeon after. I can threaten her son if all else fails.”
He said aloud, “I will fuck you tonight, mate. But there will be no ritual until I have decided what your intention is for returning.”
We’d see about that.
“Get on your hands and knees,” he said.
I faced away and did so, then felt his length bobbing at my entrance.
Carmine hadn’t filled me in over three years.
I’d never expected it to happen again, and we both knew this—on some level—to be exactly what it was.
Transactional. I wanted to get to the real Carmine, and the monster wanted what he’d always wanted from me.
A powerful pawn.
“Take it,” he ordered, but his breath hitched.
I pushed back, moving my hips to get the right angle. I pushed back on his cock until it couldn’t go further, and then I circled my hips and sighed. Drawing forward, I dipped just the tip inside a few times until he groaned, and then I slammed back.
This was Carmine too.
My mate.
Now I had to reach him through the mating bond, or power, or by whatever force had been trying to throw us together for three years.
I arched my back and continued circling and grinding.
Carmine trailed fingers down my spine. “Enamai.”
My body tightened around him, and I shuddered my way through a climax that robbed me of thought. When my awareness returned, it was to discover Carmine slowly pulsing in and out while I came.
Still inside, he lifted me, then turned to sit on the stone platform. Carmine lay back, and I started to grind my hips atop him.
“Deep,” I gasped.
He might not have understood my garbled whisper, but my tone needed no translation.
Carmine gripped my hips and shoved upward in a short, sudden burst. I cried out, and then again when he shoved again. Just a little bit. Just enough to soon bring a scream to my lips.
“Again,” I said.
He swore low, and did so, then lifted me and turned me to face him.
I have you, my mate.
Carmine’s expression was furious, and I was certain that if he was in control right now that he was furious at me for not killing him.
He sat so our bodies were flush, and I was straddling his lap.
I smoothed my hand over his forehead. “Enough of that. We can do that later. Right now, you need to fuck your mate.”
His eyes glazed, but his frown deepened. “Syera, what have you done?”
He was here. And in control.
And that had to be everything to do with our mating bond. “It’s not about what I’ve done,” I whispered in his ear. “It’s about what I’ll do.”
I grabbed his cock and eased him inside.
Carmine’s head bowed against my chest before his large hand cupped a breast and lifted my nipple to his mouth.
I jerked as he kissed the tip.
I rocked my hips, and Carmine rested a hand in the crease of my hip to push down my thighs and embed his cock deeper within me.
His head snapped up as my pace quickened.
Carmine watched me move, and when I released the faintest wisp of smoke, his gaze snapped to it. Not his icy gaze.
But a contemplative one.
He returned his focus to my face, and I didn’t look away. I didn’t stop moving. I released more smoke toward him as I gripped his shoulders and ground harder against him.
“Syera,” he choked.
I captured his mouth in a kiss, and Carmine gripped both of my hips. Our bodies were blurring, and our tongues intertwined.
He released his smoke, and I brushed against it. There were words, I knew. Words that I’d once memorized.
But we were about to see whether this ritual worked without them.
I pressed my smoke into his, and with it my intention—that nothing in me wanted to hurt Carmine. Before this night, I couldn’t have completed this ritual, no matter if I’d wanted to try.
I could feel that my intention was everything.
Carmine’s smoke slipped into my bloodstream, as mine slipped into his, and through his distant roar and my strangled cry, we floated somewhere deeper together, carried by our bond to an unidentifiable place.
Where our mated smoke, crimson and black, burst into existence.
Our smoke curled around me, protective and despairing. I sent him back hope and strength.
We’ll get through this.
I would cling to that hope with all I had—because I’d dared to believe in all this. I’d crossed the line that I’d been sure of never crossing, and now I’d give everything to see it through.
All or nothing.
Once and for all. To the end where Carmine and I were free of the pain of this monster.
Whether in life or death.
Thank you for reading Wrath Curse. Syera and Carmine’s story continues in Final Tier!