“She is in a mating ritual,” said Tempest’s demon. “If I do not reach her soon, then she and her mate will die.”
I stared as that washed over me. “Magus don’t mate.”
“We are not just magus.”
Mother be.This was more than I could process. “We need to get you to her. Tonight. Carmine has sent his army to the coven.”
Panic flared in Tempest’s gaze, and she immediately drew inward. I felt her energy gather and then explode.
She sagged in a heap against the wall to join me.
“What just happened?” I whispered. “What did you do?”
“Warned her and her friends to run.”
“You would have more luck telling rain not to be wet.”
The demon snorted. “She would do well to listen.”
“Luckily she’ll soon have her smarter demon side back.” I hesitated. “I need you to carry a message to her. She needs to warn the other supernaturals that Carmine is coming for them all, through gates that grow closer to their territories via the games they’d been playing.”
The demon gripped my hand. “She knows, Syera. She is already working against the demon king. When the demon gates near the coven opened for the first time after Adeuto’s birth, the tether between our magus side and Adeuto was finally free to form. That drove her to seek out the coven and find the person on the other end. She discovered the truth of what we are eventually, then uncovered the truth about the gates and the games too.”
Pride and hope exploded in my chest. “That’s my badass twin. Of course she’s figured it out. I’d wondered why Adeuto suddenly gained the tether after so long. We need to get you back to her, and you need to tell her that I’m alive. That she’s not alone.”
Tempest exhaled. “I do not think it wise to reveal your presence to the rest of me yet. We have had issues with chaos, and Tempest would drop everything to save you. I believe the truth must be concealed until our enemy is dealt with. The truth of your Adeuto too.”
I stared into her black demon gaze that was nothing like her blue magus gaze. “She’s believed herself alone for so long. I hate to conceal anything from her.”
“She is not alone now. And she is focused. She needs everything she has to understand our connection and the consequences that may come with it. She could be in danger from the coven because of what she is. If they learn the truth.”
Demons had been derisive of my dual nature, and still considered me more like a human sometimes, but magus would be far less accepting of demon power in their midst. “You’re right. Hiding it a while longer is for the best. You must get back to her. And Tempest?”
She peered at me in the dark, and in her I saw the fierce instincts and cunning that I had always loved in my twin. How strange to see her two sides apart like this—to be able to see which qualities arose from where.
I wanted more time with her. I wanted to hold her for hours and just talk all of our problems away like when we were kids.
“I am so sorry that I didn’t get here sooner,” I choked out.
She trembled but pulled me close. “I knew that you would come. Tygrio told me that you had no idea of the truth, and that you’d escaped the fortress and no one knew where you were. When you returned, I told him to get close to you and reveal the truth when you were alone.”
That solved a mystery. He’d gone about that as stupidly and rashly as possible. “Did he mean anything to you?”
“Nothing more than as the sole person who wished to help. He was not very cunning, and I knew he would eventually die.”
Yep,this was definitely the demon part of my twin. I rested a hand on her scaled hand. “Carmine killed him.”
My twin absorbed with a blink. “We will kill Carmine in the end.”
I squeezed her hand. “We will. Now follow me. Help is waiting.”
Though I wasn’t sure if Athira was a great definition of “help.”
We returned to the barrier.
Shit.Tempest wouldn’t have clearance.
“Now what?” I asked Athira.
