CHAPTER SIX
“You might consider confiding in them, mistress.” Madga’s watchful gaze tracked my every movement as I devoured the tray of roasted meats, root vegetables, and an entire loaf of dense, chewy bread. She’d appeared after Callum left, bearing a platter laden with calories I so desperately needed. “It’s likely they have a solution,” she said as I washed down the meal with a hefty gulp of honey mead—my new favorite, calorie-dense drink.
Magda’s all-black uniform, intrinsic to the Arcana Realm aesthetic, wasn’t simple and plain as in days past. Today she wore a fitted dress, the bodice made of velvet brocade and the full skirts of floaty chiffon.
“Sorin already said there is no solution. My body simply wasn’t meant to contain such power. Besides, it’s more likely they’ll try to ground me again. I won’t take that chance, Magda.”
The demon bowed her head. “Very well, mistress.”
“You look nice today. Special plans?”
The handmaiden’s face blanched at the question. Had I accidentally made an Arcane Realm faux pas again?
I changed the topic as fast as I could think of a new one. “How are the craftsmen doing with my alterations?”
Magda breathed a sigh of relief and continued tidying the room. “They’ve assured me the gown will be ready before you travel to the Blood Realm.”
Infirm or not, the Blood King needed to know exactly who I was the moment he laid eyes on me. The craftsmen in the realm were hard at work on a dress fashioned for the occasion, just as I’d done when meeting his bastard son.
Before he’d stolen my best friend, Dex provided an interior layout of the Blood Realm palace. How much we could trust his information was up for debate but we had no better information and agreed to move forward using his intel as a guide.
The plan was simple. Shimmer strategically around the king, covering all the exits, take his life, and hopefully the holds would return to normal. Sounded simple but killing a demon, especially a king with more magic than he had any right to, wasn’t an easy task. That’s why I’d been training so hard.
“There’s only one way to kill a demon, Zurie,” Sorin said during this morning’s session. “You must take his heart.” I winced and the Shifter King smiled with dark delight. “Physically or otherwise, as the Blood King did with Lillith, it matters not. But the fact remains all this training, all the ways we’re showing you to defend yourself are simply that. You’re to defend yourself and let us handle the gory bits, is that clear, love?”
At the time I nodded, agreeing that I wanted no part in killing the king. But every hour I grew more unsettled, angrier at Emma’s captors, at the onerous power struggle within the realms and the greedy man who’d caused it.
Maybe I could take his heart.
“You’ve got murder in your eyes, love.”
Magda made a small “eeep!” as the Shifter King looming in my doorway smiled wide. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”
“Well you did,” Magda snapped, collecting the dishes and storming out of the room.
“What’s with her?” I asked as Sorin joined me on the settee.
“Your handmaiden is pure Arcana. Relations between our two realms have been strained for many centuries.”
“Is that so?” I asked, wanting to hear more about the matter.
“It is. And judging by her choice in clothing, today is the anniversary of the death of her mate.”
“Oh, that’s awful.”
Sorin nodded.
“I asked her about it, about her dress. I thought she had plans.”
The Shifter King chuckled softly. “She knows you didn’t mean to offend.”
“I’m not sure she does.”
His gaze softened. “She wouldn’t be here if she didn’t like you, Zurie. Service staff in the demon realms aren’t beholden to a family. They serve as they wish and leave as they wish. If you’d offended her as greatly as you fear, she’d assign herself elsewhere.”
Oh. Well, that was good to know.
“But that’s not why I’m here. I wanted to make sure you were all right. Verrill said you had quite a scare earlier.”
“Verrill needs to keep his big mouth shut.”
The Shifter King leveled his molten gaze on me, heavy with disapproval. “He is concerned for your wellbeing, Zurie. We all are.”
His large hand closed over mine and before I could pull away, Sorin’s calmness seeped into me, stilling my mind and relieving, if only the smallest bit, the ever-present weight of too much magic. I leaned into the barrel of his chest, head resting against the hardness of his pec. The rhythmic thud of Sorin’s heart slowed my own heartbeat, my own breathing, my own scattered thoughts.
“There,” he said, stroking my hair. “You carry more weight on your shoulders than anyone I’ve ever known. Let it go, just for a bit, love.”
I breathed in his fire and whiskey scent, breathing out the stress and tension of the day. “I’ve been wondering.”
“Hmm?”
“With all of us focused on defeating the Blood King and setting the realms right,” I said lazily into his chest. “No one’s mentioned what will happen to his charges when the extra magic they receive dries up.”
I heard the smile in Sorin’s voice. “We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.”
I looked up at him. “I’m serious. What will come of them?”
The Shifter King sighed, guiding me back to the warmth of jewel-toned fabric of his tunic and his barrel chest. “I assume the vampires won’t be pleased. But, like all of us, they’ll find their way.”
I nodded, Sorin continued petting me, and I let all thoughts of the Blood King go, allowing my eyes to fall closed. I fell asleep listening to the slow, steady thud of the Shifter King’s heart.
When I woke, hours later, Sorin was still as stone, all but his right hand which continued to pet me.
I stretched against him, working out the kinks that sleeping upright formed in my neck. “Thank you. I didn’t know how much I needed that,” I said, gazing up at him.
“Lillith help me,” Sorin whispered, horror streaking across his features before he replaced it with carefully crafted concern.
My brows pulled together. “What’s wrong?”
Sorin gestured toward the vanity.
Oh no.
Standing to catch my reflection in the mirror, a sigh fell from my lips as I glimpsed what I feared most—the glamour slipped as I slept.
I’d been vigilant about keeping it in place while sleeping, sectioning a portion of my awareness for just that, and waking before everyone to make sure it was still intact.
I stared at the gaunt reflection that only vaguely resembled me before sliding the glamour back in place.
Sorin stared at his shoes, a muscle in his jaw flexing. “How long?” The question—a rumbled whisper of a command—one I dare not disobey.
“Since I started training with Jadz.”
The gold in the demon’s eyes whirred like a stormy seascape—churning foam and washing dead things to the murky shore of his temper.
I reached deep within myself resisting the urge to step back.
“Jadzeera!” Sorin’s bellowing growl rang throughout the halls of the palace. A thick vein in the Shifter King’s neck bulged as he waited for a reply.
The Queen of Arcana shimmered before us, a nasty sneer on her lovely face, white hair blowing in her wake. “Since when is it acceptable to shout my name through palace?”
“Since you’ve been working Zurie so hard she’s little more than a shell of her former self.”
Jadzeera quirked an eyebrow at him.
“Show her,” Sorin commanded.
“It’s not her fault,” I said.
“Show her!”
“No,” I whispered. “No one else needs to know. No one needs to see.”
Beckoned by Sorin’s bellowing, Callum and Verrill appeared in my doorway.
“What’s going on?” Callum’s eyes locked on mine before darting to the others in the room.
I flicked the door shut with a thought, forcing Callum and Verrill to jump into the hall, and slammed a ward down around the bedchamber. The sigil still glowed behind my eyes as I met Jadzeera’s pale gaze.
“That was an impressive bit of spellwork.” She smiled with half her mouth. “You have a way with the arcane arts.”
I nodded. “Yeah. Just like I have a way with mind magic and shifter magic and probably green magic if I were to give it any effort. I have a way with all your demon magic. And yet....” I let the glamour slip away. “My human body wastes away, unable to provide the energy it needs.”
Jadzeera’s eyes widened at the sight of me. “Why have you hidden this?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because you collectively threatened to ground me this morning.”
“That was for your safety, Zurie.”
“You don’t get to make those choices for me. And I wasn’t giving you any reason to do so again.”
Jadzeera and I stared at each other a long moment.
Sorin finally broke the silence.
“Have you ever seen anything this extreme?”
“No. But I’ve never seen a human-born demon, either.”
“Are there spells? Ways to fortify her body?”
The icy queen shook her head. “More magic would only cause more harm.”
“Fine. Then we’re going to the Shifter Realm.”
Jadzeera shook her head. “It’s too dangerous. We’re here because these wards are the only ones the Blood King can’t unravel. If he discovers—”
“That’s why you’re coming. Right now. You’ll bolster our warding while we search for a solution.”
Sorin grabbed both our hands and stared at me, hurt staining his golden gaze. “You should have trusted me with this, Zurie.”
His words touched a festering wound within me, ratcheting up my heartbeat and turning my stomach into a rumbling pit of rage. I snatched my hand away as the darkness of his impending shimmer pressed against me. “Why?” I asked low and deadly. “Why should I have trusted you? You told me I could do nothing to fix it days ago.”
“When did I say such a thing?”
“In the kitchen when you caught me stuffing my face again. You said the shifter magic would burn through every bit of energy I had.”
The demon’s large shoulders sank. “That was before I realized the severity of the issue. If you’d told me you were suffering, I would have—”
“You would have what? Given me that same pitiful look? Thanks, I think I’ll pass.”
“I don’t see how my expression has any bearing—”
“No, you don’t see, Sorin, do you?” I stepped closer, standing in the large demon’s personal space as I yelled up at him. “You don’t see how hard I’m trying, or how much I hate myself for putting Emma in harm’s way, or how fucked up this whole prophecy is. Who in Lillith’s name thought shoving magic into a human until it kills her was a good fucking idea?”
And there it was.
The reason for my rage.
I stood panting from the outburst, from the floodgate I’d released, and Jadzeera and Sorin watched me with the cautious restraint one reserves for wild animals and natural disasters.
Jadzeera spoke first. “This is not a one-way mission for you, Zurie.”
Sorin nodded, offering his hand. “There’s help in my realm. Let me take you there.”