Chapter 36
“Mate-intended. I mean, uh… Your Highness?”
I glanced at the panting servant. He didn’t know what to call me. I guessed that no one likely did. “Yes?”
“The… uh… king?... has arranged a private dinner for the two of you.”
I cocked a brow at the doors of the dining hall. Demons already filled the hall, and the reason for their subdued volume was easy to identify. They weren’t fools. Every demon in the realm wondered if Carmine had an ulterior motive for the coronation. Most expected him to kill me. “Where?”
“Private dining room, my… uh—” The servant bowed low to cover his stammering confusion.
I strode back the way I’d come, then swept into the smaller dining chamber soon after. “What a delightful idea.”
Tyran sat in his usual high-backed throne at one end of the long table. I sat at the other end.
“I thought we should speak before the coronation,” he said.
The coronation was two nights away. “So many details to get right.”
His lips curved. “I enjoy the thought of you trying to escape your future. How your mind must be scrambling—you’re not without intelligence, but you are limited.”
“As you are, too, I expect,” I replied.
He lifted his goblet and drank. “There are times when I find it useful to feign ignorance.”
“That’s what I say to cover my dumb moments too.”
Tyran kept talking as if I hadn’t spoken.
“For instance, it suited me to watch you interact with the Luther queen. I was able to confirm from your expressions that you were communicating somehow. The Luther boy, I imagine? You forged a bond with him that has granted you access to the pack. Once I control you, I will use that to crush them. If that does not work, then I will explore the weaknesses of their shift in greater detail. I had noticed that the Luthers were always in their wolf forms before my army arrived. When the Luther queen refused to shift, she confirmed that there is a vulnerability there. Does it leave the pack bond unguarded, I wonder?”
Fuck. I hadn’t thought about that side of things, which I could put down to my previous experiences under the white magic’s control.
I’d never been a bystander in my body. I’d always been unaware of being controlled.
From Carmine, I’d put together that parts of my thinking and even my memories could be protected, but Tyran would have access to everything he already knew about me.
He'd put together more than anticipated.
“Then there’s your bond with your twin,” he said. “You’re the stronger twin now. So once I master the use of your magus power, I will kill her. Then your son. He will run to you, and the poor child will feel so confused as he dies in your arms. Because of you.”
Under the table, my hands started to shake.
I’d known this coronation was bad, but I hadn’t thought about what controlling me would grant Tyran. I hadn’t thought past the complications of trying to heal Carmine and myself.
But Tyran had seen more of my potential importance in this war than me. I’d always seen Andie as the glue.
And she was—the glue between the hearts of the leaders. But I had become the connection to them all through my power. The power bond with my twin. The pack bond forged in life and death. Even with Kyros, we shared a respect regarding the cold nature of one another’s power.
Tyran placed a slice of roasted zaza in his mouth, and I watched the juices run down his chin as he chewed. He swallowed. “I will know all of your allies. It always takes my vessels time to learn how to hide things from me. Your allies will die on the first day of my occupation of you.”
Tsan. Athira. Gratia. Raes. Yiti.
“Through you, I will destroy Neti and her pitiful Istg at last. They will try to save you, will they not? That is how you have combated my power so far. They have concentrated their opposing magic into an antidote of some sort.”
Did he expect me to answer?
“No matter.” Tyran dabbed at his chin with a napkin.
“They have never been strong enough, and their attempt to save you will suit me. I will remove them from this realm at last. I grow weary of the amusement their efforts has provided me.” He glanced up.
“Not eating? You should. You will need your strength.”
For some reason, my appetite had disappeared. I hadn’t thought that qer could be outdone, but nausea churned my stomach at the words pouring from Tyran. His self-congratulatory speech. He couldn’t bear leaving the extent of his cunning unspoken before taking me over.
Tyran smirked. “Your magus power, while regrettable, does give me such valuable protection. I’m sure that raising an undead army cannot be so difficult.
And I have a favor to repay your grandmother and mother.
I murdered them once, but there must be such torments for the dead too.
That will be interesting to explore.” He laughed.
“You know, I am interested for the first time in thousands of years. New kings are not so different from the last. Your father was more intriguing in the challenges he presented, but you… A different power to explore, and a power unlike any other in existence. Yes, I am greatly interested.”
He leaned back, and though his mouth smiled, his eyes were cold and dead.
My hands curled into fists. I’d never wanted to draw my sword and plunge it into someone’s face more. But this was the body of my mate, even if I couldn’t see him right now.
And if I wanted to end this fucker’s existence for good, then I had to wait another two nights.
Carmine’s rage flared, and my heart stuttered at the suddenness of it.
“You know,” Tyran said confidingly. “I’m just speaking with Carmine about how I’ve never occupied a female.
That interests me too. To feel the sensations of your body as you pleasure yourself at my bidding.
You’ll loathe yourself all the while, but I won’t let you stop until you shudder from satisfaction.
The shame after.” Brightness filled his icy gaze, and he inhaled.
Tyran was turned on.
Bile rose up my throat.
“And Carmine, my trusty old vessel, will watch on as your mate, knowing all I do to you. He’s begging and pleading with me right now, do you know?
” Tyran tapped his temple. “He’s promising me anything.
Little Carmine never thought his existence could get worse.
He thought this was bad, but watching me occupy you will break him.
He is already so tired. They always get tired.
You will too. At first, you’ll fight me as I place your hand under your dress.
You’ll fight for a decade or so. Maybe twelve years—you are particularly stubborn.
But then a hollowness will creep in. You’ll just lie there while I do what I like, and you’ll try to pretend you’re someone else, but you’ll never quite succeed in that either. ”
His words could only inspire deep fear, but I’d spent a lot of years morphing fear into determination and fight. He was fueling the battle for my life and the lives of everyone I loved. There was nothing he could have done to inspire more determination in me than this sick speech.
I picked up a leg of roasted zaza and tore into it.
Tyran held his smirk. “Good. Fight, young demon. I want you to be sure that even your best was never good enough. I’ll let you have your dreams with little Carmine, too, for the same reason.
Have your secret meetings. Speak with the alliance.
From the moment I take control of you, you will know that there was never anything you could have done to escape my control. ”
I started on another leg. “I hope you don’t talk this much when I’m your vessel.”
His smirk disappeared.
I’d take that tiny win.
Tyran rose from his throne. He turned to leave, then stopped to look back. “I nearly forgot. I’m sure you won’t mind that I’ve changed the game of Tiers tomorrow? I did enjoy your game of yellows and oranges, but you’re aware that only reds and crimsons really do the job.”
He smiled. “Enjoy your dinner, my queen.”