Ty lowered his head in deference before beginning his practiced response. “Steig was successful in using his Power in several different villages along the Western Road, according to Iblis’s will, and I was able to use myfurorin a small village in the area as well.”
“All that took so long?” Cole asked pointedly, his eyebrows raising.
“We ran into some bandits on the way and lost a horse. And, of course, we ran into some issues with the witch.”
“Ahh, yes,” Cole began, looking far too eager to discuss the topic. “I’m dying to hear how you came to acquire our new witch-slave. It’s a very exciting development… We haven’t had one in decades, not since your mother, if I recall.”
“My mother was never a witch-slave,” Ty responded shortly, feeling tension creep in. He needed to keep calm, though—he couldn’t take the bait.
“I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree on that,” Cole said deliberately, his eyes lighting with devious glee.
Ty willed his body to relax before clearing his throat to explain. “On our way west, we stopped at the Auster Coven during theirSamhain celebration. The plan was for Steig to use hiscupidoon the mortals visiting there, but we were discovered when the witch caught Turner using his Power. We worried that killing her outright, so close to the rest of her Coven, would garner too much suspicion, so we took her instead, and Turner burned down her house as a cover.”
Ty paused, waiting to see if he bought this bastardized version of the truth. But Cole simply steepled his fingers in front of him, resting his elbows on the table, so Ty continued.
“The farther we got from the Coven, the more it became apparent that the witch was willing to cooperate with us in exchange for her life, so instead of killing her, we decided to bring her with us to add to our cover while we completed the mission, and ultimately, brought her back here.”
“So you spared her life?” Cole asked, as if this wasn’t obvious.
“Spared isn’t the word I would use,” Ty said, letting an edge enter his voice. “We simply… found a better use for her.”
“Hmm,” Cole said, contemplating. “And how exactly will she be used?”
Here came the tricky part. He needed an excuse for the research Ena would be doing about the amulet and breaking the bond to Iblis. Something that made the books she’d need seem less suspicious, but still, he hated to reveal what he had to.
“She’s extremely knowledgeable about the Covens and witch magic. She can provide information on how best to destabilize them. And,” Ty continued hesitantly, as if this were truly a secret he’d been keeping. “I have a theory. I think there may be some way to Imbue her Gift into an object using daemonic runes. Some way to combine witch and daemon magic, so the object will work on witches. And then use it to impact the Covens.”
Cole’s eyes lit up. Ty knew the vengeful fuck would love this idea.
“And what exactly is her Gift?” Cole asked, intrigued.
Ty paused. This was the part he’d been waiting for. There was no way Cole wouldn’t go for it after this.
“Visanis,” he said, raising one eyebrow in invitation.
Cole threw his head back and laughed with dark glee. “Visanis,you say?” he asked, grinning from ear to ear. “My, my, this is an interesting development.Visanisis a rare Power, even among daemons… What do you think of this, Zak?”
Fuck.
Ty whirled behind him to see his uncle Zak emerging from a nearby alcove. The bastard must’ve been waiting there the whole time, listening to their conversation. He hoped he’d been careful enough with his words to avoid any outright lying.
“Sounds like an interesting theory, Ty,” Zak said as he approached them. He was a bit smaller than Cole, and a couple years younger, but he was just as shrewd. He may not have had the outright power that Cole had in the Underworld, but he was undoubtedly Cole’s right-hand man, always there to jump when his big brother told him to. Although he hadn’t always been that way. In fact, Ty remembered a time when he and his uncle Zak had been fairly close—before his dad died.
Zak’s deep-brown eyes studied Ty as he moved to stand next to Cole’s throne.
“I will commune with Iblis and see what the rune stones can tell us of his will in this regard,” Cole said. “In the meantime, follow this theory of yours. I’ll expect an update in time for youronatacelebration.”
Ty nodded. Theonatacelebration… That reminded him.
“Thank you, Uncle,” he said, bowing his head slightly in deference. “I wonder, will you be sending a group out on a mission to trade for supplies for the celebration?”
“Yes,” he said. “To trade and fulfill other services to Iblis, of course. Why?”
Ty was no stranger to the kind of “trade” that was encouraged on missions—where supplies were acquired as much through theft as the actual exchange of goods. Cole was always going on about how Iblis wanted them to take what they were owed from witches and mortals by using their Powers. They were encouraged to do this, even though the forge usually produced more than enough metal goods to trade in good faith for whatever daemons needed. But meeting the needs of the Underworld was never Cole’s priority—it was serving Iblis and fulfilling his many vendettas, so Ty had learned to frame any request with this in mind.
“I’ve heard from Myka that the horses could use more hay to make it through the winter. And I know how vital the horses are to being able to complete missions for Iblis, so I wondered if you’d want them to get some on their way,” Ty finished pointedly.
Ty hated his uncle for many things, and his hyperfocus on serving Iblis was definitely one of them, because it wasn’t a goal Ty shared. But still, sometimes he wasn’t sure if that intense focus made him a horrible King of the Underworld, or a great one.
