I laughed harder. Fuck it, I’d already kissed a dead head. I slapped my thigh and hooted harder.
“Syera, stop now!”
The panic in his wordsdidstop me. I whirled to look behind, expecting attack. When I looked back, only Carmine was there.
IcyCarmine. His words were chilled. “So you know the whole truth at last.”
I shook my head. “I should have known there was no end to your depravity.”
“You should have.” He smirked. “I had wanted to keep the news from you for a while longer, but this timing will suffice.”
So cold. So fucking cold.“My sister, Carmine. How could you do that? How could youkeepthat from me?”
The ice filling his soul and heart didn’t crack. “She is a threat to my throne.”
“She’smagus.”
“She possesses demon magic.”
I hissed, “So little that she never even felt it! You know that she’s no danger.” I pressed my hand to my mouth. “This whole time.Five years.All those words you would hush in the darkness about never locking another away—about how your time down there tortured you.”
Carmine showedsomesign of being bothered then. Nothing more than a tiny wince. “Her time there was always going to be finite. I held her there in case you refused the mating.”
My face fell. “You… And if I’d gone through the entire mating ritual? Were you just going to reveal her on ourfucking union day?”
I laced my hands through my hair and screamed. Then again. I screamed at the fucking sad, ruthless thing that was my life, and my twin’s life, and Adeuto’s life. “Why did you give me a monster?” I asked the mother.
Why did she do this to me?
I’d asked the question silently hundreds of times, but never aloud.
Carmine walked closer, scattering debris with his steps. “A monster for a monster, Syera.”
I was many things, and perhaps had many disorders, but I was not a monster. I was sure of that much.
I was also so tired of this. Of the lust, of my unwanted connection to him. Of the pain in my heart that this person was my only mate and I loathed him on such a deep level. Of all my panic and fear that he would hurt the ones I loved.
“What now?” I asked. He wouldn’t let me leave until threatening me into the mating ritual.
“I have always found your forthright manner very appealing.”
I waited.
Carmine circled before me. He took my hand and led me from his destroyed bed chamber. “Thank you for the changes to my room, enamai. I am pleased with them.”
I didn’t reply. I’d painted a replica of the painting in the lounge—the one where the demon was looking in the mirror at his monstrous reflection. Except instead of a monster in the reflection, I’d drawn a child.
As Carmine led me into the lounge, my eyes drifted to the original.Not as good as mine.
He gestured to the couch, and I let him glimpse my hatred before sitting.
“Drink?” Carmine asked, pouring whiskey into a glass.
No answer.
He smirked, then sat with his drink in hand. “You are young and foreign in many ways, but you are quickly learning. You know that there must be payment for the release of your sister from the dungeons.”
“I thought mates didn’t come with conditions,” I retorted.
