Chapter 40 #2
Mother. Fucker. He’d wanted to do that.
My head lolled forward after, and I squinted through blurred vision toward the jutting rock. Nismus surrounded Carmine. They were healing him.
Tears filled my eyes. If Neti planned to betray me, then I had no defense against her. I had no option but to trust in the Istg leader.
“Syera,” Tempest yelled from thirty feet away. “He killed our mother. He killed our grandmother. He’s not allowed to take more.”
I returned to the spark of my demon power, and it felt like I was trying to pick one tiny square from the millions surrounding it.
I channeled more of her magus power into me and fanned the spark into a small flame. A gasp left me, and my knees gave way as an ache erupted around my heart.
My mating bond.
No!
I threw my sister’s magic, and whatever remained of my magus magic, at the small flame of demon power I’d reclaimed. I pushed the power in the direction of the iron casing around my heart to form a shield.
The ache of Tyran’s attack on my mating bond disappeared. Was Carmine still there?
I couldn’t feel him.
I sobbed.
Where was the bond?
I frantically probed around my heart until locating the crimson and black path connecting me to Carmine. He was still there, in me, and still alive too. I clutched my chest, pulling in inhales as if I’d nearly drowned.
More. I had to reclaim more. He couldn’t be allowed to attack my mating bond again. I pushed the shield around my heart outward against the crushing power that must be Tyran’s presence.
Tempest’s magic was slowing. Wild was panting and sweating, driven to his knees behind her.
Though my sister held her ruler’s relics, I could feel her limit approaching. There was a fresh panic in her gaze.
“Syera.”
I couldn’t turn my head, but in my peripheries, I spotted Tsan crouching close by.
“You need to trigger the mating ritual,” he said in a calm and low voice.
I did. That had been our plan. That’s what I had to do.
But first.
I gathered the magus power available to me and opened a tiny portal. My hand jerked in the air, tugged back by Tyran, then pushed forward by me.
I shoved against the pressure in my mind and chest, then punched through the artwork of the man looking into the mirror and seeing a monster.
Always fucking hated that. A stone had been removed behind the artwork, and the two gems shone inside.
I panted against the shaking in my arm as Tyran dragged me back from the gems. I couldn’t grab them!
Tsan leaped in and grabbed them, tossing the gems to Basilia, who blurred away with them.
To Carmine.
My lucky yellow then rounded on me. “I really hope you didn’t choose today to go without a loincloth.”
He bent down, grabbed fistfuls of my dress, and yanked.
I was only vaguely aware of my skirt tearing free—the blue gems stitched into the bottom hem going with it. Tsan raced away, and I couldn’t have said what he did next.
Iciness swept in to freeze me. I was spent. The area in my chest that I’d reclaimed shrank in tandem with Tempest’s fading help. I curled everything I had around my heart, protecting my mating bond.
Tyran owned my body now, and he made me stand to survey the carnage.
Like insects, are they not?
I shivered, curled around my heart, but Tyran’s thought battered at my exposed back and vulnerable mind.
Pathetic, all of them, he hissed. Like your efforts to thwart me. I will enjoy forcing you to kill everyone you love.
He walked me forward, and a sweep of smoke scattered the other leaders like bowling pins. I strode to the jutting rock, to the nismus.
I have anticipated killing them for eons, Tyran told me.
My body shuddered at the glee of his anticipation.
Neti planted herself in front of the others, but as the other nismus faced me, the peak started to rumble and shake.
Tyran paused me and glanced down, pulsing my power beneath the ground in search.
Dirt and rock exploded in all directions as an enormous butyker burst from the middle of the fortress.
“Hge,” Tyran used my mouth to snap, and then hissed as rubble from the dungeon showered over my body. The rubble was like shards of glass cutting me, and I recognized the feeling of the Istg’s healing immediately.
Then the nismus were on us, as well as the recovered supernatural leaders. Tyran moved my head to dodge another blow from Kyros, then released a smoke attack at the weakened forms of Wild and my sister. Andie and Sascha intercepted the attack.
My eyes tracked the butyker.
He nearly managed to take Carmine from me, you know, Tyran said in my mind. Not this time.
Neti reared before me, cutting off my vision of the enormous serpent. As she reared, a portal opened behind her, and sand pelted through, all of it aimed at me.
I roared Tyran’s outrage, throwing out a barrier at random against the feeling of my skin eroding against the sand filled with Istg magic. They were throwing everything they had at their enemy, and it didn’t seem to matter that the enemy was inside me.
Tyran blasted forth my barrier against the flurry of sand, then blurred forward to kick Neti savagely between her forelegs.
Landing in a crouch, Tyran spotted the butyker ahead. The serpent-like creature was coiling around Carmine and lifting him to his feet. Lovingly. Gently.
Fangs latched around one of my wrists, and when Tyran raised my other arm to kill Sascha, my second wrist was secured in the fangs of his mate.
My cold laughter rose above the sounds of battle.
Mate.
I lifted my head from where I remained curled around my heart.
Mate, the voice echoed in the parts of me where Tyran could not hear. Or if he did, then he did not acknowledge Carmine’s weary voice.
Carmine, I whispered back.
I’m coming to you.
Tyran wasn’t paying attention to Carmine and Hge, so I couldn’t see whether the words in my heart were true or a cruel and desperate trick.
Turn to me, Syera, Carmine whispered.
He was as exhausted as I was. The effort was colossal, but I rolled toward our mating bond.
I can’t see you, I sobbed.
I’m coming. I won’t leave you.
I nodded, tears streaming down my cheeks. Tyran had no control over those.
The movements of my body were another story. Tyran had freed me of the Luthers and now battled the others back.
He spun me to check on Carmine.
My heart stuttered. My mate was walking toward me. Hge weaved across the ground in broad swaying motions next to my mate, supporting him.
Tyran laughed again. “Do you miss me so much, Carmine? Would you like to be my pet once more? Or are you eager for death? You’re free. Run like you have wanted to run. Be free as you have pleaded with me on your knees to be free. I will allow it. You served me well after I broke you.”
“I never served you, Tyran,” Carmine replied, seeming to gather strength with each step. He rested a hand on Hge and stood taller again. “Your reign is at an end.”
Tyran tilted my head. “I have her, Carmine. Shall I extinguish her as you watch?”
Carmine replied, “You would extinguish yourself by doing so.”
Twin snarls erupted as Sascha and Andie latched onto my wrists again. Carmine blurred forward and gripped my face between his.
Powerful hands were on my shoulders, holding me still. Kyros? What remained of my twin’s power, and Wild’s locked my legs in place.
Carmine kissed me, and icy amusement filled me—none of it mine. Laughter shook its way free.
Walk to me, mate, Carmine spoke in my heart.