I faced forward again. How the fuck was I going to kill them?
I needed my demon side to shut my magus side the hell up. I was capable of anything for Adeuto, I knew.
But shit. This was cold. This felt like murder when no other kills in Tiers had.
The gate opened, and I walked out onto the slippery, sharp, and sandy floors of the Crave Arena for the last time.
I had no strategy today. I just walked through the arena with the red and the yellow, and soon enough, Owu’s father peeled away to circle back.
A while later, screams rose above the vicious tips of jutting rock.
I walked with the yellow, and I could tell his mind was far away with his mate already.
“You were my favorite,” I told him.
“I know. I used it against you,” he answered.
I laughed, and he joined me, and that was how we arrived at the checkpoint, much to the crowd’s complete confusion.
I turned to await the red, who might have ended up as my friend, if I didn’t need to kill him. And the yellow. Seriously, what the fuck? I didn’t want to be friends with Gratia.
Maybe her mate.
Surely I wouldn’t need to murder every potential friend.
Owu’s father staggered from the stones. Blood covered him, and when he reached me, he fell to his knees. “They’re gone. It’s just us.”
Shit.
The yellow fell to his knees beside me too.
And funnily enough, it only then occurred to me that if I won, the very thing that I’d entered Tiers to win had already happened. My twin had already escaped.
I stared at the yellow and red. “Oh, shit. I don’t know what to ask for.”
The red lifted his head. “What?”
“Why did you enter?” the yellow asked.
Well, to kill Carmine. But I couldn’t ask for that outright. Santa could only bring so much to this good girl.
I’d entered to use other supernaturals to wage war on Carmine.Check.If Tempest was whole again now, she was already working toward that. Plus, magus already knew demons were coming for them after Carmine’s failed attempt to conquer the coven.
Kill Carmine.Work in progress.But a large part of that depended on Tempest.
The red’s jaw dropped. “You entered for fun?”
“What, no? I’m not crazy.” I considered that. “Completely crazy. I have unofficial… stuff.”
I was just a mother who would stop at nothing to protect her son. I could ask for freedom—more time away from the fortress. I could only return at night for banquets.
Except.
Except.My heart dropped.
My grandfather was dead. He was my excuse to keep visiting the desert. I groaned, realizing just now that by continuing to portal away each night, I had accidentally informed Carmine that there was someone else out in the desert. I had to stop going there.
Which was exactly what I’d wanted to avoid by not completing the intention ritual.
