Page 84 of Ancient Magic

Gunther licked his lips. “You know. We ran some errands and introduced him around the neighborhood.”

With a blur, Valen’s arm snapped out and he had his fingers wrapped around the male’s thick neck. He squeezed just hard enough to make Gunther’s eyeballs bulge in terror.

“Listen very carefully,” he commanded, his voice a mere whisper. “I claimed this Gyre centuries after I’d matured and learned to control my emotions. Before then I was known as a butcher. A leader who was always willing to kill first and ask questions later.” It wasn’t an exaggeration. There’d been vicious stretches of history when his name had inflicted terror among the demons. “Don’t ever mistake my desire for peace for weakness.”

“Please.” The word came out as a pained grunt. “What do you want?”

“The truth. What did the demon pay you to do?”

“Cause trouble.”

Valen peeled back his lips to reveal the lethal length of his fangs. “You’re pissing me off, Gunther. Tell me what he paid you to do. Exactly.”

“Okay.” More lip licking. “He hired us to tear shit up.”

Valen loosened his grip on the male’s throat. That wasn’t what he’d been expecting. “Why?”

“We’d trash houses or set buildings on fire and then tell people that we’d seen your mate losing control of her magic. Stuff like that.”

Valen should have laughed. It was inconceivable that anyone would believe such bullshit. But he didn’t laugh. Because at least a few of his people had believed. At least enough to cause a low hum of prejudice against Peri.

“There had to be more,” he said in cold tones, knowing that Kane wouldn’t have snuck his servant into New York City just to set a few fires and spread gossip.

Gunther hunched his shoulders, as if preparing for a blow. “I hired a witch who looks sort of like your mate and filmed her in the park pretending to drink demon blood and sacrifice babies. Then I put it out on social media saying I’d witnessed her trying to use her evil magic to take over the Gyre.”

Valen hissed as he suddenly understood the animosity that had been brewing for weeks.

Ice coated the nearby seats as he struggled to retain control of his temper. “You were behind the rumors.”

“Igor wanted people afraid of your mate.”

“Why?” he growled.

Gabriel returned to the auditorium, obviously satisfied there were no hidden dangers.

“So that Kane could claim Peri is a threat to the Cabal and that you should be replaced,” Gabriel said, revealing he’d been listening to the conversation. “Preferably by him.”

“Shit.” Valen clenched his hands, infuriated by the nights he’d chased one empty threat after another while Kane played him like a puppet on his strings. It was embarrassing. “Why didn’t I suspect from the start that I was being sabotaged? The destruction was too organized to be random.”

“Because you feared that your people wouldn’t accept Peri as your mate.” Gabriel offered his blunt opinion. “Especially when they discovered her ability to tap into ancient magic.”

Valen flinched. Gabriel was right, of course. There’d been a part of him that had been prepared for the local demons to protest against Peri. Not only because they had vied for centuries to lure him into choosing a mate from one of the royal families, but demons didn’t trust mages. Especially one who had the power to destroy a skyscraper.

“Kane’s greatest skill has always been to divide and conquer,” he snarled, recalling the male’s scheming during his short time in St. Petersburg.

With an effort, Valen shoved away his seething emotions. Later he could wallow all he wanted in shame and self-reproach. Nothing mattered now but discovering why Micha had been kidnapped. And more importantly, his current location.

And if the answers led to Kane being banished or even forced to walk into the sunlight, so much the better.

Reaching into his pocket, Valen pulled out his phone and scrolled to the picture of Lynx he’d copied and enlarged from the security tape.

“Tell me about this male.” He turned the phone so Gunther could see the screen.

The demon started to shake his head, only to hesitate. “Wait. I think I’ve seen him around the city.”

“What’s his name?”

“I don’t know. Just a fairy hanging around—”

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