Chapter 12
I woke in Tyran’s bed. He’d called me there last night as a reward. Lucky me. I’d passed the night in a dream with Carmine where we’d looked into each other’s eyes.
My jaw cracked on a yawn.
My mind wasn’t rested. Hard to relax with a five-thousand-year-old parasitic entity in the bed next to me.
Nearly dawn.
I rolled out of my arch nemesis’s bed, and returned to my room to dress in training attire. When I reached the training hall, Raes was warming up with two swords.
“Morning,” I grunted.
“Prepared for battle?” he replied, slowing the rapid circling of his wrists.
No. I grunted again, and pulled my new sword, which his father had made long ago, from its sheath.
The blade felt right in my grip in a way my father’s inherited sword never had. My father’s sword now belonged to Owu, but my gut told me that wasn’t its final owner.
I completed my own warm up and felt my mind awaken with the activity.
Raes met me in the middle of the hall before we locked in battle.
Our blades sang as they clashed time and again. Raes was better than me with a weapon, but weaker overall. A demon would never limit themselves to just a weapon in a fight if their magic was superior, and Raes had insisted that I shouldn’t hold back either.
And so it went. Raes claiming ground using his sword, and then me claiming it back with my sword and magic. He was getting better at deflecting stronger magic, using his purple smoke as a shield to angle my attacks away. He still copped some of the attack, but far less that way.
I lifted my sword. “Let’s pause.”
We panted through our recovery, and I took a few breaths to appreciate that these trainings weren’t one sided.
Raes really was a master with most weapons, and I’d learned a lot from him.
Still was, because each time I used one of his own tricks on him, he showed me a new way to evade or counter it.
His footing was something I could never hope to aspire to.
“Syera,” he said. “These trainings are important to me.”
I nodded. “And me.”
He straightened, sheathing his sword. “They have given me strength and… clarity on what my purpose was in my mating and here in the fortress.”
“I’m glad for it.”
He pursed his lips. “My family is different from most. We are different demons to most. We found that the best way to stay strong and unified against a common enemy was to help each other before anyone else, even at a detriment to ourselves.”
“Loyalty,” I said after a beat where utter shock ran through me. “That’s the word for what you describe.”
“I’ve never heard the word.”
“It’s from Earth.”
His brows shot up. “Is it? Then that is what my family has found to work best through several generations. Each of us finds a loyalty. Most think we have kept our smithy and home for so long before we are proficient with weapons, but now you know the truth. It is that same feeling that drives me to warn you because you were loyal to me when few were. I would like to repay that favor despite who I warn you about.”
Okay. “I’m listening.”
“For some time, Gratia has carried suspicions about the relationship between you and her mother. Since you asked to see Athira after the joining ritual. She is watching you both. She does not believe that the interactions between the two of you are genuinely hateful. She is very suspicious about Athira’s recent capture and whether it was premeditated and ordered by you. ”
I hummed, cursing within. Gratia was too fucking observant. “Those are lofty and dangerous allegations against the king’s mother and his future mate.”
“Which is why she will not move until there is proof. But considering what you have done for me in the past, this is my way of reciprocating. This fortress does not operate in the way I have always known, but I sense there are certain people who I will be able to count as family, and you are one of them.”
I smiled. “Thank you, Raes. I feel the same about you. And Gratia. I understand she seeks a way to hurt Athira right now. She will regret doing so.”
Raes searched my gaze.
I said, “Because there is much she does not understand. If she was to make the move she is considering, then she would live to regret her actions.”
“Harm would befall her?”
I shook my head. “No, it’s not a threat of what I would do to her. It’s a fact of what would happen due to her misinterpreting the signals around her and blaming the wrong person.”
Raes frowned. I didn’t expect him to understand my cryptic mutterings.
He hesitated. “We both find it difficult to understand Athira’s hatred. I won’t deny that the fortress is far less hostile for me when she’s away or a hostage.”
I cracked a grin. “Less hostile for everyone. When it comes to your mating with Gratia, I suspect that Athira is deeply afraid of losing her child, and the child that she has never had to fear losing. Athira has always had to fear losing Carmine, and so she approached her relationship with her son differently. Gratia was never at great risk. Her life, anyway. Athira has depended on that to get by more than she can admit to herself. The best thing you could have been was powerful. Yet if you were as powerful as Athira wished, then Carmine would have killed you. You are exactly the mate that Gratia needed, exactly as strong as required. The best thing you can do is reassure a mother that her child will be protected, with your sword, with your intelligence, and with your life. In a few centuries, Athira may occasionally smile at you.”
Raes didn’t answer and took to frowning at his hands.
I left him there, and portaled back to my room to shower. I dressed, and had taken one step into the hall when a servant approached.
“Mate-intended,” the orange said, bowing. “The king summons you to war council.”
Which meant Tsan would be there too, which was who I was going to find.
I walked in the opposite direction to the war rooms. Gu and Tsan were there when I arrived, and as I sat, Carmine also entered.
He leaned over the map of the knolls. Beneath the knolls was a network of caving systems occupied by my sister’s coven.
“Tonight we kill the coven leader and retrieve my mother,” he said. “Syera, you have dwelled within the coven’s caves. Where do you believe my mother is most likely kept?”
My brows drew together. “I assume she is being treated like a prisoner after killing three magus. I was never taken to those areas, but I can tell you where they’re not?”
At his nod, I released my smoke in a rough semblance of the coven tunnel system. I blacked out the dining hall and bedrooms as well as the areas where magus practiced their affinities.
“That still leaves a big search area,” Gu said.
“Our dungeons are farthest from the exit,” Tsan added. “I would think most people would think the same way.”
Carmine glanced at him. “Yes, that is most likely.”
He released his smoke after, which was predominantly crimson where mine was predominantly black. “So this area is most likely where she’s being imprisoned.”
The assumption being that Athira wasn’t free as a bird and enjoying some quality time with her grandson.
“I’d agree with that,” I said.
Gu nodded. “Yes, my king. I agree too.”
“A small force will divert to collect her. Gu, who is best suited for the task?”
“Hiub, my king.”
I said, “You should send Raes too.”
And Gratia could learn what power Athira and I had to send Raes into dangerous situations too. Not that he’d be in danger. Tempest knew that this particular purple demon was important to me. I’d saved him in battle. She wouldn’t harm him.
“For what reason?” Carmine asked.
“Political. This gives him an opportunity to prove himself to Athira.”
“I do not care about providing him with opportunity,” Carmine answered. “I care about successfully retrieving a strong demon and not losing my weapons trainer in the process. Gu, have Hiub gather a force of five or six demons. They need to be swift and powerful. And expendable.”
The older demon bowed his head. “I will see it done.”
“Yellow,” Carmine said without looking up, “you will come to observe the battle.”
I didn’t need to touch my mate to sense the bullshit in that statement. Tyran wanted my sole friend there in case I needed extra incentive to kill my sister.
“Thank you, my king,” Tsan said, not glancing my way.
“Syera, how will you kill your sister, and what can the army do to ensure its success?” The demon king finally sat.
“I am more powerful than she is, especially after our last ritual,” I said. “I plan to do the same thing to her as I did at the human tribal grounds, but I won’t sever the connection.”
“You didn’t appear to have a choice in severing it last time,” Gu stated.
Screw you, goo. “Which had more to do with not knowing what would happen. I am confident that I can maintain the connection. I will need to focus. The army needs to handle everything else.” I looked at Carmine.
“The other leaders will come for me when they see what’s happening to her. They can’t let her die.”
“I am aware. I will protect you, mate.”
My insides coiled. He’d protect me while that suited him. I really hoped that Wild was going to make this believable because Tyran would be watching like a hawk.
I added, “I don’t know what state I’ll be in after killing her.”
“I will handle it,” Carmine said.
He was going to attack the coven after Tempest died. If he did, then there was a chance Tempest would need to alive herself to fight him.
I looked down the table at him. “Once my sister is dead and I am recovered, then we should attack the coven with full force. In my opinion. What do others suppose?”
Tsan replied, “I believe if there’s opportunity to target attacks at some of the four-affinity barriers after the coven leader is dead, we should take that opportunity.
The objective of killing the leader is to create confusion and cracks to exploit.
If they also believe we have found a way to shatter their second-best defense against our smoke, then the coven will be in even more disarray. ”
“We are yet to find a way to shatter their barriers aside from threatening the lives of those they love.” Gu sneered.
“Have you tried to simply overwhelm the barrier with a huge outpouring of demon power?” Tsan asked. “It would not matter how excellently crafted a green demon’s attack was, for example. A crimson could simply send a wave of their smoke to disintegrate the attack.”
Exactly whose side was Tsan on?
Carmine observed him. “What you say could work. An attempt is warranted at the very least. The entire army will combine efforts to shatter a single barrier.”
“The barrier protecting the other leaders would send a message,” Tsan offered.
The demon king smiled. “Yes, it would.”