I hadn’t seen Carmine all day—another bonus—and I figured that had something to do with the mood in the training hall this morning, rather than in response to my paint job.
Something was brewing at the gates.
“He readies his army to attack,” said my grandfather from where he sharpened his dagger near the small, round table where we tended to eat.
“I’d say so.” I tossed some vo berries in my mouth—I’d taken food from the fortress again, but stole it directly from the kitchen this time. Adeuto’s face was covered in the green vo juice.
“Which supernatural will he attack first?” mused Grandfather.
Whoever it was, they should tremble with fear.
Carmine had an army of thousands, and demons were a vicious enemy. Pain was our survival, and where most races naturally feared pain, those in thisrealm chased such suffering. On top of that, we possessed magic, which Vissimo and Luthers did not. They had their own strengths, but magic wasa formidable edge and one that allowed us to attack from a distance—as Carmine had done for hundreds of years.
I answered, “I didn’t pay much attention at the time, but I expect that he will attack magus first. He spoke least of them because of my ties to the race, and there was a forbidding edge to his posture that warned me not to ask because I wouldn’t like the answer.”
Vissimo clans, a Luther pack, and a magus coven occupied the three surrounding territories, so if not magus, then one of them would soon have demons knocking at their doors.
Attacking magus made sense as they possessed magic too.
But a physical war was thefinalattack, really. Unbeknownst to other races, Carmine had been attacking them for a long time. He’d capitalized on a painful event within each race—the death of their last ruler in the case of magus—to seep his power inside their territories. His goal had been to create as much pain as possible for as long as possible. “Carmine knew that he couldn’t just cleave the other races in two to create the division he needed. At this distance, Carmine can’t affect such drastic change.”
So he’d created a situation that achieved that for him. And the magus—and then the Vissimo and the Luthers—had done all the dirty work for him. Ingenious, really.
Each supernatural race had been encouraged, in ignorance, to spark a game to decide something crucial to their species—like a new magus ruler. The games were the foundations for Carmine to continue seeping his magic into their territories and homes in a bid to split their covens, clans, or packs in two and create a real and lasting divide.
My mother’s coven had been playing their game for longest.
And all that pain and anger and division? That was crucial because it allowed Carmine to push hundreds of demon gates into their territories. These gates were invisible to them, but oneday soon, demons would pour through those gates into the heart of their homes—insidetheir defenses.
“He must have gates inside their walls now,” I murmured.
“A good thing we are two weeks from sending them a warning,” grandfather answered.
Unlike me, Grandfather didn’t care about the other supernaturals. Hedidcare that they received a warning because he wished them to rise against Carmine and do our murderous work for us. He cared about hurting Carmine.
But me… perhaps my mother and grandmother had fled their coven when Mother fell pregnant with me, and perhaps I didn’tknowany of them, but I felt a kinship to the magus coven that was impossible to ignore, mostly due to my particular magus affinity. Of the four affinities, divination tuned a magus keenly to her ancestors and her sense of home and duty. The demon realmwasmy home, but there was a sense of a sister home on Earth too.
“Two weeks feels too long,” I answered as Adeuto ran to play outside. “Anything could happen in that time.”
I felt his blue gaze settle on me.
I glanced up. “I need to search the dungeons.”
He accepted that in a blink. “The dungeons that are guarded by crimsons and likely his magic.”
“Yes, but Athira left the fortress again this morning. Aside from Carmine, she’s the only other demon who can mask their presence around me. If an opportunity presents itself, I must search for my sister.”
“You know she is there.”
I nodded. I did. Adeuto had told me, and when I’d explored his magic, I’d felt her.
The tethers that used to connect me to my twin, mother, and grandmother had withered the day of their murder. I’d assumed that the connections were gone because they were all dead. WhatI hadn’t realized for some time was that the mating ritual also severed a woman’s tethers. To everyone but her mate. Once I’d known that, I hadn’t thought to question whether my family was all dead. Instead, I’d felt some peace in knowing that I would have always lost those connections from mating Carmine.
Back when I’d loved him.
Adeuto, part magus in his own right, possessed his own familiar tethers. One to me and Grandfather, one to Carmine, his sister, and Mother, which thankfully none of them could feel, being demons. Then one day, for no apparent reason, he had gained one to my twin. What remained of her. The tether was never there before, not like the others, but suddenly it had popped into being.
That was how I’d learned, two and a half months ago, that my twin was alive.
