Chapter 30
“You will win this war for us, my queen.”
I grunted in response to Gu’s fervent and loud declaration. He’d witnessed me dragging an injured Carmine from a destroyed gate, and then jumped on board the Syera Fan Train with both feet.
“Syera.” Tyran waited ahead.
I was nearly grateful for the excuse to leave the beaming demons behind. Give me a hissing demon. Or even a snarling one. Beaming ones could stay away. Some supernatural races weren’t meant to smile.
“My queen!”
I bit back a groan, then glanced back. Oh. “Yiti. What is it?”
“You asked me to let you know as soon as the designs were ready, my queen.” She curtsied after.
I… had done no such thing, and she’d taken a great risk by leading with that line. “I did. I have war council now, so—”
“Nonsense,” Tyran boomed overhead. “You extracted us from near death, mate. That must earn you an hour to try on dresses.”
His subjects laughed on cue. Gross.
“Especially as I know they’re for me,” Tyran added.
Double gross. “I will attend council as soon as I’m done.”
His smile didn’t slip as he turned and strode away. He wanted me out of the council room, which meant strategies would be formed without my knowledge. He was going to strike.
“The designs are in the tailoring chambers. I hope you don’t mind,” Yiti murmured.
Mind? No. But I was very curious.
I strode to the nearest servant’s door and released a grateful sigh when darkness closed over me in the shadowed stairwell and gawking demons disappeared from my view.
Yiti didn’t say a word as she followed me down to the servants’ level of the fortress.
She walked behind me most of the way to the tailoring chambers, and then touched my arm. I glanced back, and Yiti gestured at a closed door. “In here, my queen.”
Yellows and oranges walked through the halls, and none of them paid us any mind. They knew better than that.
I checked Tyran was in the war room, then pushed into the room. Once Yiti had closed the door, I released my circle of kingly ghosts. “What is it?”
“You have a visitor,” she said, then rapped her knuckles on a wooden wardrobe in the corner.
The door creaked open, and Tsan peeked out.
His frown eased upon seeing me; then he exchanged a look with Yiti, and they shared a grin.
“What?” I asked. Had he invited me here to witness that they were still friends?
Tsan snorted. “We didn’t know how to get your attention without making the king suspicious. Yiti suggested we just ask you to come down in his presence. I didn’t think it would work.”
“Is something wrong?” I asked him. “Are you in danger?”
Yiti curtsied, then disappeared through my circle of ghosts—that she hadn’t even flinched at the sight of—to walk through another door. She closed it behind her.
Tsan climbed out of the wardrobe and stuffed a dress back inside. “She’ll need to make you a few dresses in case he asks.”
I nodded. “Coming here wasn’t a great decision.”
Tsan regarded me, and his expression grew serious. “I thought about what you said. It’s hard for me to separate what you’ve told me about Tyran controlling the king and the sight of the king killing my mate.”
“What happened to her?” I asked.
“Sra was blind in one eye,” he said. “We worked in an iron factory for a time, and there was an incident. Actually, I caused the incident. That was how we first met. But as a result of the injury, she was blinded. Sra was in the market and didn’t notice the passing of the king one day.
She was tidying her market stall, and she hadn’t curtsied with everyone else because he was standing on her blind side.
He made an example of her anyway. All because I’d blinded her ten years prior. ”
I’d hardly ever seen a demon experience guilt. Tsan was riddled with it. “It’s senseless that she’s gone. That savagery was pointless and ruthless.”
The yellow sat on the bed. Was this Yiti’s room? “They said he was scouring the realm looking for you. Sra found herself in his path on the wrong day.”
A heaviness pressed at my chest. “So I’m also to blame for Sra’s death.”
He looked up. “You? No, I don’t blame you. I applauded you for escaping such a king. Then I met you, and I felt that I’d been right about you. You wanted him dead too.”
“I did. For years, I did.”
“Revenge has filled me since grief turned cold. I have hated her, Syera, for severing our mating in those last minutes of her life. I should have died that day too. Yet I didn’t because she’d wanted me to live.
And because she wished me to live, I could not betray her by ending my life.
Yes, I hated her, and then revenge was the only path that kept me moving.
Hoping for a death by another’s hand, perhaps.
But now… to have to forgive or release some of that mindless drive to consider a different path…
that has been harder than anything since her death.
I watched the craving consume our fellow fighters in Tiers.
I’ve seen who you become after each ritual with the king, and how the healing reverts you back to yourself.
These are facts, and so to be told that same force is in the king is not far-fetched.
I just don’t wish to believe he’s blameless. ”
“He’s not,” I answered. “The force in him and controlling him is every bit to blame. For Sra and for thousands of other deaths.”
Tsan swallowed. “If he’s as ancient as we believe, then you must be right. My point is that I don’t want to believe the king is partly good or taken over. I want to hate him. I don’t know if I am strong enough to do otherwise.” He took a breath. “But I’m going to try.”
He reached under the bed and drew up a small sack.
My gaze flew to his. “The gems.”
“The gems,” he said gravely. “I will help you to get him back. I’ll do whatever it takes, and I even hope—for the sake of your future happiness—that your mate is as controlled as you think.
You need to know that I’m helping you on one condition—the force in him that killed my mate will die.
If Carmine cannot survive that, then he must die too. ”
I’d already promised Carmine as much, and I’d already come to the realization that if that happened, I would go too.
Not by choice, as such, because I didn’t wish to leave Adeuto alone.
Not ever. More so, it seemed a concrete truth that I would be taken with Carmine.
We were so tied, and I would not sever our mating until my last breath, and then it would all be too late anyway.
“I agree. Tyran must die above all else. He cannot be allowed to continue terrorizing this realm and other supernaturals.”
Tsan tucked the gems back under the bed.
“Thank you,” I said. “I didn’t expect you to help me after what I kept from you.”
“What are friends for?”
I licked my lips. “Are we? Still friends?”
“For now. Perhaps we will share a bond forever, but I cannot say what friendship will remain if all goes well and the king is freed. Seeing him happy with a mate while mine is dead by his hands…”
I whispered, “I understand.”
Tsan nodded, then shook himself. “What’s the plan?”
I sat on the bed beside him. “The plan is that my plans were obliterated. Tyran has guessed that Tempest still lives. He won’t negotiate Carmine’s freedom now. He had offered to find a new host if I helped him to win the war.”
“Who?” Tsan asked.
I lifted a shoulder. “No idea. But negotiations are off now he’s guessed about Tempest. He’s planning something, Tsan.
He’s building me up in the minds of those in the realm and the fortress.
He’s making them adore me. He’s not keeping me as close as before.
Something is in motion, and I can’t guess what. ”
We sat in silence for a minute.
He said, “We can’t control him, but we can control what we do. How can we lessen his power?”
“The gems,” I said. “But I’ll need help from the other supernaturals to do that. I’d intended to get word to them to attack the fortress. With them, I could overpower Tyran, and then attempt to heal Carmine.”
“Get word to the supernaturals,” Tyran said. “What else? Can we siphon more of the white magic into you?”
“We can, but Tyran feels my location, and I can’t siphon power without another ritual, not unless he chooses to give me his power. And he won’t do that.”
Silence reigned again, until I straightened. “His crown. His crown holds reservoirs of his power.”
“Can it be destroyed?”
“I could ask Neti, but there’s the same issue of him feeling where I am.”
“She’s the leader, right? But there are other Istg, and one of them is in the fortress.”
I shivered, thinking of the qer squelching out of my toilet.
“The butyker,” Tsan added.
The butyker. I looked at him. “In the dungeons.”
“I can go down,” he said.
I shook my head. “There are protections on it.”
“Can you risk going there, or will the consequences be too steep?”
“Too steep,” I immediately replied. “But there’s another who has access to the dungeons.”
Tsan stood and paced the room. “My mind keeps circling back to this other host. Surely this is someone in the fortress. Any guesses?”
“No one here could possibly rival Carmine’s power. Tyran wouldn’t change bodies unless he was certain the new host could beat Carmine. He’s said that my son isn’t the new host. He could be lying, or Owu could be his target, but Owu won’t exceed Carmine’s power.”
Tsan stopped before me. “If I were a powerful demon, and a queen arrived to tell me that the king was about to take over my body, I might have opinions about that. I might wish to fight with them, or at least leave the realm. We need to find this new host. Get rid of them or convince them to fight with us. Remove Tyran’s options. ”
“In all honesty, I’d rather try to destroy Tyran while he’s inside a demon who isn’t my mate. Tricking this new host needs to be an option too.” My magus morals wept for me.
Tsan nodded. “I’ll search this demon out and get word to you through Yiti.”
“In the meantime, I’ll explore whether the butyker can destroy Tyran’s crown.” I closed my eyes and sighed heavily.
“This fight is exhausting you,” Tsan said, sitting again.
I smiled. “To say the least. But there’s no giving up.
I’m just afraid that my hands will slip when I need them to stay steady.
Nothing seems to work out the way I intend.
There’s no semblance of control. I’m not moving carefully enough, but there’s no time to do otherwise. Yet there’s so much to lose.”
Yep. I was very afraid.
He took my hand. “I’m back. You don’t have to do this alone, Syera. I’m your lucky yellow.”
A lump rose in my throat. “Tsan?”
“Yeah?”
“Thank you for coming back.”
I had a friend again.