Chapter 22
Mina
I climbed the stairs to the tallest tower in the palace, mentally cataloguing my string of failures.
I’d come up here many times since returning from the Citadel.
Especially over the past few days. A week had passed since Rixon’s assassination attempt and we still hadn’t caught the person responsible.
He hadn’t used the shackles on me since the night I’d accepted his proposal, but our intimacy was better than ever.
He gave me at least three orgasms before bed, even the nights he returned late.
He fell asleep inside of me, making us feel impossibly close.
He stole moments for us to be together, when his duties kept him busy.
Yesterday afternoon his council meeting had run late, so I’d sought him out in his council chamber.
He’d dismissed everyone immediately. Then he’d spread me out on the large table and fucked me mercilessly, but not before I’d fallen on my knees before him and fucked him with my mouth, swallowing every drop of his seed.
I sighed, licking my lips at the memory. What was he doing now? Sitting in his study answering more missives, no doubt. Or organizing troops with the general, to ensure we were well protected in case Carth tried to attack.
There’d been no more word from the witches, from Skye. I couldn’t help but feel a prickle of unease at that. She wouldn’t give up so easily.
Unlatching the door, I stepped out onto the tower roof, inhaling the cool air. It met my cheeks in a refreshing rush and I welcomed the reprieve. Below, tendrils of smoke rose stark against the drab sky. It looked as though it might snow. I gathered my cloak more tightly around me.
As always, I scanned my surroundings for any sign of the winged demon.
I hadn’t seen the princep since our last encounter, before Rixon’s father had captured me.
While closing the portal was no longer my top priority, I couldn’t help but hope the demon might have answers.
Until then, my directive was to eliminate any and all threats on Rixon’s life.
After the general was done with him, I’d questioned Reginald Weiss using my own horrific means and come up empty-handed.
Unlike with Rixon’s first assassin, I’d healed him afterward.
Either the male was an expert liar, or he was innocent.
I was leaning towards the latter. He’d claimed that he knew nothing about why Carth’s military was assembled on our borders.
Just yesterday, we’d received yet another confirmation that it hadn’t moved, like they were waiting for something, but what?
Was it possible that Carth had sent Reginald Weiss into our midst fully oblivious? Perhaps he was merely a pawn. Which meant he was useless to us.
Trudy Holland had applied for his release several times. It seemed she had a soft spot for the ambassador. While I didn’t feel a shred of guilt, Rixon did. He’d humiliated her and now a male she supposedly loved was sitting in the dungeon.
Sooner or later, Rixon would simply give in to her wishes and release him. He’d have no choice, given her family’s position. Given that we needed their Nebrine.
I braced my hands on the parapet, remembering all too well the way Rixon had taken me against it once. Gods, I never tired of that male. He could have me a thousand times and each time thereafter would feel just as exhilarating, just as pleasurable.
The back of my neck prickled. I froze just as the breeze kicked up around me. I was already whirling around as the sound of wings met my ears. My eyes fell upon the demon as it landed several feet from me.
For a moment, I just stared, unable to believe my good fortune. It stared back, its dark, fathomless eyes taking me in. Mine looked just like that at times.
“Much has happened in my absence.” My heart kicked up at the voice that sounded in my head. I would never get used to the intrusion. “The tides are changing, all across your kingdom.”
For a brief moment, I could only stand mute, then I said, “I need your help.” It tilted its head. I took that as a sign to forge ahead. “The portal, Uzzamon. What else can you tell me about it? How do I close it for good? What happens if I don’t? If I fail?”
“There are few like it,” said the princep.
My stomach hardened with fear. “So, there are more? Others? Here?”
“Not here in this kingdom, no. In other places, far away places, lost places, dead places, linking them to hell. But Uzzamon is the only one of its kind here in your lands. The only true threat you face.”
“And if I fail to close it?”
“Then you will continue to face rifts and demon invasion from my world.” I frowned. It must have sensed my confusion. “The existence of Uzzamon creates a link between this land and my world, a scorge created by your people. That opens the way, weakening you.”
“The other rifts, the ones that keep popping up around Raeria. They…they’re because of the portal?”
“If the portal is destroyed, there will be no new rifts in your land. No new tears between here and our world to let my kind through. Giving it blood only does so much. If you truly wish to protect your kingdom, you will destroy it.”
“How? How do I do that?”
“Balance. You provide balance.” It tilted its head like it was listening to something. “I must go.”
“No, wait.” I panicked. “What kind of balance?”
“The kind that rights wrongs,” it answered, chilling me.
I thought back to Ophelia’s journal, of how the portal was created. The sacrifice of a clansman’s daughter, the pain she’d suffered to create something terrible. I thought about how each rift required something awful to rip the land open. Balance.
Maleia’s life had been taken from her against her will, and she’d suffered in the process.
“A sacrifice for good?” My pulse took off in a gallop. “Do I…do I have to give myself to it?”
The demon’s wings rustled and it took a step back, preparing to take flight. “Not yourself—not your life—but the magic that lives in you. It will be hungry. It will take everything.”
With that, it leapt from the ground. I watched, slack-jawed, as it disappeared, becoming nothing more than a speck in the sky. Then I processed its words and my stomach dropped. No. There had to be another way. How did it even know that for sure?
I thought of my magic, of how I’d gotten it. My entire family had been stolen from me, and all I had left was my power. If I lost that, if I sacrificed it to destroy the portal, who would I be without it?
“There has to be another way,” I repeated to myself, gritting my teeth.
Turning on my heel, I fled the tower. As I made my way down into the palace, my thoughts swarmed.
The princep’s words chased after me. I hated that they made so much sense.
Knowing what I did about rifts, and how to knit them together, how they were created, how the portal had been created, it made a certain kind of sense.
But if I fed it all my magic to destroy it…
“—could you be so reckless!?” a male voice whispered. “Santos has already failed—twice.” I froze, midstep. “It’s only a matter of time before his name comes up. When it does, everything will be traced back to you, to us!”
“I am doing this for us!” came a hushed hiss that sounded distinctly feminine. "The crown's rejection cost us everything. This is our only path back to real power."
I was mere steps from rounding a corridor on the upper floors, where the palace staff was housed.
My eyes darted around, frantically searching.
There was nowhere to hide. I pressed my back against the wall.
It took everything in me not to peek around the corner, to see who was speaking. I couldn’t risk them seeing me.
“I have everything handled,” the female whispered, none the wiser to my presence. I tried to place her voice, but it was too hushed to be distinct.
“If King Zakaria finds out about your interference—”
“Then he’ll thank me for making his job easier.”
“You will put an end to this recklessness before you jeopardize our entire family.”
“And what if I don’t?!”
“Your wounded pride means little to me. You will do it because I command you to. You’re lucky he believes Reginald Weiss is behind all of this,” the male muttered, keeping his voice barely audible.
“Lucky?! I want him out of that dungeon and I intend to make it happen.”
A small gasp slipped from my lips and I immediately pressed a hand to my mouth. Had I been too loud?
The voices paused and then, “Two of the guards accepted bribes. They agreed to help me free him tonight. Both of us will flee the city and rendezvous with King Zachariah’s troops in the east.”
“Absolutely not!” came the resulting answer.
“You cannot stop me! Don’t worry, I’ll be careful. Now, stop trying to corner me like this. I have things to do.”
The sound of departing footsteps spurred me into action.
I noticed a door further down the hall, back the way I’d come, and quietly rushed towards it.
The knob was locked so I fed it a tendril of my magic and then slipped inside.
Pressing my ear to it, I waited. Moments later, the heavy tred of steps passed by, accompanied by low, muttered curses.
When the sounds faded, I popped my head out just in time to see a male’s retreating back.
He was cloaked, so I couldn’t be sure of his identity.
Collecting myself, I smoothed my gown and took several deep breaths.
I had half a mind to race out and chase after the female, to capture her right now, but I wanted more proof, more than just whispered words in a corridor.
When I was sure it was safe, I departed and went in search of my wielder.
He was, unsurprisingly, holed up in his study.
He set his quill down, eyes heating at the sight of me.
I was in a lavender gown, one he’d specially selected for me.
It complemented my now pitch-black hair.
“Come to grant me a reprieve?”
I shut the door behind me and said, “Tell me you did not yet issue Reginald Weiss’s release.”
He frowned, blinking, then glanced down at the document on the desk. “I was just working on it.”
I walked over and found the slip of parchment, to be given to the guards. A full pardon. I lifted it and tore it in two. Rixon huffed. “Come now, Lady Witch, there is no need to be defiant. Unless that was intentional. Shall I punish you for it?” I could tell he was already thrilled by the idea.
“If you must.”
He eyed me. “We’ll get nothing more out of Weiss…unless you intend to kill him. Already, our relations with Carth are on the brink of disaster. This could be the only reason they need to invade.”
“I don’t intend to kill him. I just want you to keep him a little longer.”
Rixon sighed and leaned back, rubbing his face. He looked exhausted. “I suppose you have a reason?”
“A good reason, yes.”
“And?”
“One I’d like to keep to myself…for now. Just to be sure.”
“Very well, I will grant you your request…for a price.” He scooted his chair back and motioned to his desk.
My abdomen flooded with arousal. I darted between the gap he’d given me and the surface, littered with stacks of parchment. “Very well.”
I went to stand before him, turning my back to him, then politely lifted the heavy skirts of my gown, placing my torso flat atop the desk’s surface, careful not to shuffle too much around. The cool rush of air over my legs and my bare sex made me shiver.
“Wider,” Rixon said, using a foot to nudge both of my legs apart. My bare sex was on display for him, nearly at face level. “Perfect.”
I held my breath, heart hammering eagerly in my chest, knowing what would come next.
The warm, wet stroke of his tongue had stars dancing behind my closed eyes as he licked up the length of my slit.
When his teeth nipped at the little bundle of nerves at my apex, I jerked.
“Careful,” he warned. “I’m going to fuck you with my tongue, and if you so much as scoot a single paper out of order, I’ll have to punish you. ”
“I…that’s impossible.” My eyes flew open.
Besides the stacks of parchment pressed between my body and the desk, which would get shuffled if I scooted even an inch, there were several other stacks to the right and left of my hands.
I wrapped my fingers around the far edge of the desk, to keep them firmly in place.
“I suppose you had better not move so much as a muscle, then.” With that, he devoured me until I was shaking and moaning.
In the end, I managed to keep myself firmly in place through sheer willpower alone. He rewarded it for me when I came on his tongue. By the time I righted my skirts and left his study, I was plenty pleased with how our negotiations had turned out.