Chapter 34 #3
He dropped Booker, though, and I portaled forward, injecting smoke into my right fist that I smashed into my mate’s face with all my might. I sent a bolt of regret to Carmine through our bond. Sorry.
The ghost kings released Tyran in tandem with my blow, and every demon, though weakened, gasped at the sight of their king skimming across sand and rolling to a stop.
“Take her,” I told the leaders.
Basilia walked down the steps while the others exchanged glances over what I’d done.
I caught my twin’s eye and shook my head. “There will be no fighting today. You will leave unharmed, you have my word.”
“What good is the word of a demon?” Kyros asked.
I nearly smiled in relief when he played along. “The word of a demon is as good for as long as she wishes it to be, Vissimo king. So I suggest you do not linger. Take the Luther queen, and leave your antidote behind so that our people’s suffering can stop.”
Tempest was blinking in a way that told me she wasn’t seeing any of us. She glanced at the Crave Arena, and frowned, then faced me again and nodded.
“A truce for the day,” she declared. “Signal our armies to retreat, and know this, demon queen—the truce ends in three days’ time at midnight. Then we settle this for good.”
Her midnight or my midnight?
Sascha licked Booker’s face as Basilia carried the red-furred wolf past the other leaders and back into the fortress.
Tempest held my gaze, and I nodded at her veiled message. She wasn’t telling me when they’d attack; she was telling what her quipu had just informed her of. This would end in three days’ time at midnight.
“Do not return if you know what is good for you,” I replied.
Wild laughed. “You tried to kill her once, demon, and you failed.”
I was thankful he’d addressed the elephant in the room. The demons witnessing this wouldn’t have failed to notice my twin was alive. “I will not fail again, magus. I know that it was you who saved her. You will be the first I steal life from in the next battle.”
“If our mother could see you now,” Tempest sneered.
If Mother could see us now, then she’d be grinning, and Grandmother would be taking notes to give us later.
“You test my patience,” I told them. “Take my offer, or see what weakened demons are still capable of.”
Behind me, demons struggled to their feet, and their support despite their conditions was oddly… reassuring. Tyran was getting to his feet. Probably not to support me.
The leaders turned away, and I spotted their armies filling the entrance behind them. Their peoples parted to let them through, and the presence of the three foreign supernatural races filtered away.
It felt like the last time I’d ever speak to Tempest and the others. I may not have her quipu to get literal glimpses of the future, but I did have my trusty gut feeling. All these fearful, nostalgic thoughts plaguing me were because I could feel this coming to an end.
I could see exactly how this would play out.
I’d check the arena at the next round of Tiers in two days. With the white magic gone, I’d rally all my ragtag allies and whatever white-scaled creatures remained alive. Hopefully no qer. I’d start the mating ritual with Carmine somehow.
And then live or die.
So simple, and yet impossible.
Tyran walked toward me, and I turned to face the consequences of punching the king in the face in front of his subjects. Tempest’s words about meeting in three days at midnight didn’t feel so reassuring when Tyran could just kill me now.
I steeled myself. I couldn’t run. I hadn’t been lying to Andie about where the final battle had to occur. Here, in the realm.
I couldn’t leave Carmine. That meant no escape to Earth.
I planted my feet, and Tyran’s cold gaze swept me from head to toe, then back again.
He strode a circle around me, then stopped a few steps from my left.
“My realm, my demons, you have witnessed something never seen before in our world—a queen challenging a king.”
Demons exchanged glances, some of them had no choice but to collapse to the ground again from lack of strength. They fidgeted, and their discomfort touched my heart, because this was a show that demons would typically enjoy.
If only Tyran hadn’t made them adore me quite so much.
“This queen is stronger than me,” Tyran announced, and I jerked at his words but also from Carmine’s sudden and pounding terror.
The demon king completed his circle, then faced me and dropped to a knee. His voice boomed from him. “And so a king is unworthy to lead this realm any longer. He yields to her, his mate.”
All at once, I saw Tyran’s plan.
The way he’d built me up and laid all recent glory at my feet.
The way he hadn’t returned my attack just now. The way he wasn’t trying to kill me.
I saw everything, and all that I’d assumed about the next three days mere minutes ago evaporated like ash to float away into the abyss.
Tyran lifted his head, and his cruel lips curled as he finished his terrible speech. “In three days’ time, I will abdicate the throne, and demonkind will watch the rise of a new and unmatched ruler. Long may she live.”
We’d been searching for Tyran’s chosen replacement.
But she’d been right here all along.