Huh?I didn’t remember falling asleep. I must’ve crawled over here, half delirious.
A hand swept down the curve of my waist, and I smiled. “Again?”
“Always,” he murmured, hooking a hand under my leg to gain better access.
There was a warning in me that couldn’t penetrate the emotional and mental exhaustion of my mind.
I felt Carmine’s cock at my entrance, and I sighed in anticipation of it filling me. When he withdrew, I rolled onto my back to peer up at him. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, enamai,” he murmured, kissing my lips. He moaned, then kissed them again. I hooked my arms around him, granting him access to deepen our kiss. I arched to align our bodies, and when he still didn’t fill me, I took matters into my own hands.
I pumped his cock with my fist, then set it back at my entrance. “I want you. Make me forget who I am.”
His jaw clenched. “Not tonight, you’re tired. Go to sleep, my queen. I have work to do.”
Annoyance filled me as he made to leave the bed.
“Do your work here,” I mumbled.
He paused and glanced back. “I could do that.” He grabbed a thick tome off the bedside table and sat back against the headrest.
“I have a mind to feel very annoyed that my mate didn’t satisfy me,” I murmured.
“He is surely insane,” Carmine whispered, and he sounded as annoyed as me. And something more, too, that exhaustion wouldn’t let me decipher.
My eyes closed.So heavy.“I’ll seek my revenge tomorrow. When you least expect it.”
“Sleep, my Syera. I am watching over you.”
20
As it turned out, emotional and mental turmoil made for a great sleep. I hadn’t felt this rested in… three years? Maybe five. Lust hadn’t jolted me awake to force me to train in the middle of the night. No dreams either. I’d cried myself to sleep by the door and woken after dawn in the same place.
Luckily I wasn’t training today because of Tiers. I would’ve slept through it, which wasn’t ideal on “probation.”
I sat cross-legged on the bed to begin centering my magus power.
Strategy had come slow last night, but ideas now flowed through me. I couldn’t underestimate the other demons today, but their combined power was far less than last week’s. And I had a little treat for them.
Once centered, I dressed for battle in the long pants that Carmine’s soldiers tended to favor, a long-sleeved tunic that laced at the front, and boots. I tucked the blue gemstone from Adeuto into my right boot, then I moved into the hall to warm up.
The fortress grew quieter as the royals left for the arena. Once total quiet had fallen but for the shuffle of soldiers’ boots,a loud hissing carried through the air from the Pinnacle and arena.
Showtime.
The walkway was half gone after my efforts last week, so I’d portal into the passageway. Should I portal right to the arena gate or just to the mouth of the passage?
I had a feeling that the remaining demons would be prepared for either.
Before opening a portal, I radiated magus power over my golden skin as a defense against foreign smoke.
Nothing else for it… I portaled to the gate.
The first net of purple smoke wasn’t a problem. The thirty other layers of smoke that joined in the space of secondswerea problem.
In a blink, I was like one of those balls made of rubber bands. In the middle of purple, blue, green, yellow, and orange smoke was me. Trussed up. There was also the smoke of the sole red who had survived last week.
Was he the ringleader today? I couldn’t see past all the layers of the trap to tell.
