Chapter 21
The door to the war room opened, and Gratia entered. Gu hadn’t arrived yet, and seeing as my lucky yellow demon was gone, and Athira was out either hunting him or hopefully evacuating both of them, only Tyran and I occupied the room.
In the time between his announcement at breakfast and now, Tyran had enjoyed my silence, probably misinterpreting it for confusion.
I was worried to say the least.
All I could assume was that Tyran had big plans to martyr me, or that he meant to insert more of his power into me somehow.
If he did push more of his white magic into me, then he’d have less control over Carmine.
How much power could fill me before Tyran had access to my mind or memories?
If he found and killed my allies, for instance, then no one would be around to whisk me away for a healing, and even if they somehow managed to do that, then I wasn’t sure that I could survive such a healing.
Tyran might soon have a king and a queen under his control.
There was a word to describe the implications of that future. That word was fuck.
Gratia flicked me a look. Guilt? Doubted it. If Raes hadn’t convinced her away from this path, then only threatening her existence might have, and I could hardly do that when the demon king appeared to have resolved to keep me by his side around the clock.
“Sister,” he said, looking up from the map of Bluff City. Specifically, he’d been inspecting a mansion on the outskirts of the city where Basilia and Kyros lived with the other royal family members. Now that my sister was “dead,” his next target would be Kyros.
Gratia curtsied low. “Brother, thank you for granting this audience. I had expected that we would speak alone.”
He murmured, “Whatever you say, you can say in front of the future queen. My curiosity grows. Speak.”
Gratia dipped her head. “The news is troubling, and yet I am clear on who protects me and my loved ones. Brother, for some time I have suspected our mother of allying herself with—” She shot me another look, then swallowed. “—your mate.”
“You mean your future queen?” he asked.
Gratia inhaled. “The future queen, and my sister-in-law. I am not happy to bring you such news, but what started as a small suspicion strengthened as I paid more attention to their actions.”
“Let us not pretend that you are unhappy to bring me this news,” Tyran murmured. “Considering that you seek revenge on our mother for her sentiments on your mating.”
Gratia colored. “That has fueled me at times, brother, but it is not my mother who ensures the protection of myself and my mate, nor those of this realm. I align with you, and I always will.”
Tyran hummed. “You are wise to do so. Tell me, how have the interactions between my mate and our mother changed?”
I kept my expression amused under his look, and under her slightly panicked one. She didn’t like that I was here. She would have preferred to betray me behind my back. Fair enough. I preferred that too.
“They have always hated each other, and now they only pretend to,” Gratia answered.
“For what purpose?” he asked.
Gratia blanched at his mild tone.
Tyran’s lips twitched. “Since returning to the fortress, Syera has displayed a considerable growth in power. There is no doubt who is the stronger demon between her and our mother. Our mother is in no doubt of that either. Do you suppose that clarity in hierarchy could be behind all of these suspicious changes?”
Gratia’s face worked. “I see your reasoning. That often resolves conflicts between demons, but I do not believe that is where these changes arise from. They agree on some level. They share a purpose.”
If Gratia had known about Adeuto, then that would have provided the missing link for her. I had Tyran to thank for intervening and keeping that knowledge from her, except Tyran himself was aware of that link. So why wasn’t he more interested in Gratia’s accusations?
Tyran exhaled. “There is an obvious purpose that my mother and my mate would agree on, now that they have settled their power struggle.”
His sister flushed. “Their protection of you, of course. I would hope that’s true, yet I sense their purpose is against you.”
“You… sense,” the king drawled in bored tones. “What am I meant to do with sense, Gratia?”
“It’s more than that,” she hurried to say.
“I’ve followed them and the demon named Tsan.
I watched the yellow search a shack in the desert after speaking with our mother.
He could not have portaled there alone, and there was no magical trace of a portal after.
Our mother is skilled in masking her presence. ”
“As is my mate,” he countered. “Did you know that during her three years away from me, Syera lived in that shack in the desert?”
Okay, now I was sure that Tyran was protecting me. Or my image. Gratia was giving him everything he needed to lock me away.
“Is there any proof you can offer me of my mother’s subterfuge?” he asked. “Other than that a yellow spoke to her, then went to the desert?”
Gratia wasn’t dumb. She’d come here certain and had now realized this wasn’t going to plan.
“I-I followed Mother and Syera to the desert four days ago. The yellow was there. There was an explosion, and then Mother left with the yellow. I followed them after. When I returned to the shack, it was destroyed, and I found these.”
She whipped two daggers out of a small pouch around her waist, then held them high.
Athira’s daggers. I could still feel the two points where she’d stabbed them into my back.
The game was up. If Athira wasn’t out of this realm, she was about to become dead demon meat. Nothing could explain her presence in the shack with Tsan and me. Or her portaling away in a hurry after the explosion, which had been caused by Neti healing me.
Tyran leaned back on his high-backed chair. “Sister, because of our relationship, and only because of that, I am going to explain what you saw.”
He was?
The king said, “I asked my mother to take Syera to the desert for my own reasons. I believed that Syera had hidden something there, and that in her vulnerable state after our iron ritual, she might have revealed where and what that something was. I had informed Mother to take the yellow demon in case extra incentive was required for my mate-intended to reveal her secret. This plan went amiss, through no fault of Syera or my mother, or the yellow—but through the actions of an enemy I have long tracked through the realm with Mother’s help.
That was the explosion you witnessed—his attack.
Our mother attempted to fight off the enemy with her usual weapon of choice but quickly understood this was not a fight she could win.
As Syera stepped in to fight off the enemy, my mother returned to the fortress, intending to travel to Earth and warn me.
I happened to return at that exact moment, and she informed me of the attack on Syera.
I was able to join Syera, who had held my enemy off for as long as she could—a battle that took her three days to recover from.
I defeated the demons and returned with Syera here. ”
Gratia gaped at her brother.
I was hard pressed not to do the same. How much of that did he believe? Some of it was a definite lie, but I couldn’t be sure which parts.
He added, “You are correct about the yellow’s betrayal. He was working with my enemy, and that is why Mother is tracking him now.”
“I had n-no knowledge of this e-enemy,” Gratia stammered.
“Why would you?” her brother asked in a quelling voice.
The skin between her scales was nearly as crimson as her scales. “I have been greatly mistaken in our mother.”
“And your future queen,” he sneered.
Gratia didn’t look up at me from the ground. “And my future queen.”
If I was a future queen, then I was nothing but a confused future queen.
I could feel Carmine’s hope and his dire warnings through our mating bond.
Only because of that did I dare to believe that Tyran might genuinely believe in Athira’s innocence.
So that part had to be true. Athira had taken me to the desert at his order.
She’d also left the desert to warn him upon his return.
Athira, in simple terms, had covered her ass. So well that I couldn’t be sure if she was really on my side. As usual.
Tyran believed in her innocence, which was a feat in itself.
It dawned on me that while he knew exactly who had “attacked” me, he assumed that Athira had no idea about Neti and everything else.
I had to tread carefully.
“You have taken up enough of my time,” Tyran said.
Gratia curtsied and remained there. “My king and brother, I am ashamed to have suspected all I have. You are correct in what you say. All of this arose from my anger toward Mother over how she has treated my mate. I will do better.”
“You will,” he answered. “What do you suppose benefits my enemy most, Gratia?” When she didn’t reply, he asked, “What do you suppose might have happened if Syera and my mother and I had not worked together to defeat my enemy in the desert four days ago? What if a single one of us had not been present and unified?”
Her voice was tiny. “The enemy might have won.”
“Take great care who you accuse in my fortress,” he said. “I am powerful, but even a great king requires help against those who would remove him from the throne. I must have powerful demons by my side, and you are only one of them, and not the most powerful. Remember that.”
A shaking “Yes, my king” was her reply.
She remained sunk in her curtsey, and a full minute passed before Tyran waved a hand. “Rise and leave my sight. There will be no punishment beyond what I will tell our mother, and what our queen has learned of you too.”
Gratia curtsied in my direction. “Syera, my intentions were against my mother, and I did regret that you might be caught in the net.”
“Not enough,” I said. “But you will likely live to.”
She lowered her gaze, then left the room.
Tyran smirked. “Closer to the truth than she thinks, but misdirected. She should have suspected you and the yellow more, and Athira not at all.”
Silence felt unwise.
Defending Athira felt unwise.
What other path was there to take?
“Athira is involved,” I said.
Tyran cocked a brow, not looking away from the Vissimo mansion. “You would want me to believe that.”
Yes, I did.
I said, “She stabbed me in the back with her daggers in the desert.”
“I saw the wounds. Why wouldn’t she try to kill you after your betrayal? Her first warning upon my return was of how you were working against me with an enemy she’d never seen.”
Athira had stabbed me to weaken me so I wouldn’t attack anyone during the healing. But she’d done so to cover her tracks too.
Incredible. I still didn’t know what side she was on.
“Silence,” Tyran ordered. “I would prefer to ignore your presence.”
Suited me fine.
Fatigue weighed on me, and I had a feeling that Tyran would employ the same tactic tonight to prevent any dream conversations with Carmine.
Might as well get some shut eye while I could.