Page 100 of Last Gift: Supernatural Battle

I watched the king interact with his queen. He trailed his nose between her breasts, and I heard and saw Kyros’s revolted shudder. Basilia’s teeth were bared in a grin, and I had a feeling that the prince’s soul-deep distaste of his parents’ public display was a source of great delight to her.

The king turned his head and looked down the stairs at me.

I met his gaze and saw an eternity in them. I had experienced eternity for a few days, but this creature had walked it. He was in eternity and had found peace there too.

“You hold much power,” he announced just when the silence was growing stifling. “You are older than your years. Yet you linger at the bottom of the stairs as though you are not a queen in your own right.” His ancient gaze swept to Andie on the other side of Wild. “The Luther queen opts not to meet me at the top of the stairs because she does not see power in such displays. That, ironically, is her power. But you, Magus Queen, why do you linger at the bottom as though you were not my equal?”

No discussions about the weather with this one. “It doesn’t matter where I am now, King Julius. It matters where I could be when I desire it so.”

“You underplay your hand,” he mused, then smiled. I wish he hadn’t.

He appeared before me in a blink.

Furious snarls ripped from Wild, but I didn’t look away from Julius’s challenging gaze as he peered down at me, less than a hand’s width away.

“I favor such a method myself,” the king murmured.

He surveyed the barrier between us that I’d flung up in instinct, not even noticing it until now. My magic had my back.

“Fast,” King Julius said, and the acknowledgment seemed an unwilling one. “But are you fast enough to face the demon king?” He shifted his focus to Wild, then Kyros. “You were right, Heir To My Throne. They are mating.” Back to me. “How?”

“A good question,” I replied, keeping my heartbeat steady.

His attention snapped to Huxley over my shoulder. Had he heard something suspect there? “Indeed. A mating bodes well for the future of maguskind. Better that I deal with you now than to allow a potential threat to my clan in the future.”

“Such a move would secure a future threat. If maguskind’s ability to mate does not begin with us, then others will be favored with the mating gift in time. All supernaturals are powerless to the design of higher forces, King Julius.”

The king hummed, turning to walk up the stairs to his queen who he’d had time to drape on his throne like art before coming to test my reactions and response to intimidation. If he came straight for me in the future, could I erect a barrier in time?

The queen vacated, trailing her fingers over the back of his throne as she circled to perch on an armrest. How odd that Wild’s mother had vacated her chair for his father, but that was a far cry from the dynamic between the king and queen as they did almost the same. The king treasured his queen openly. I could see that she was collecting information on us in a different way to him, and that he was demanding focus to allow her freedom to do so. He may be the authority, but she was the authority when it came to their family and home. They held power of different measures.

“Perhaps,” the king answered after sitting. “I once did not respect that such higher forces existed, yet I have spent many hundreds of years in the world. There is such that you describe that supernaturals are powerless to. You are correct that grudges between species run deep. I have no wish to have my heir inherit a war with his throne.”

Julius ran his gaze over the six of us, ignoring the groaning Wade and silent Huxley, Hairy, and Spyne behind us. “There are many parallels before me. Too many parallels to ignore. Such occurrences are signs, and each of you would do well to remember this in what lies ahead. Lessons serve us only if we recall them. I had to recall this lesson recently while deciding whether to partner with maguskind.” He looked at Wild, then me. “I have no love for magus. So caught up in their tiny woes are they, that they have failed to see that extinction has had its eye on them for some time. Yet magus are capable of change, as we have seen with you, High Esteemed Corentine. A demon, by contrast, will always be a demon. I have watched their leaders come and go, and each has been driven by the same insatiable thirst for more territory.” His fist curled on the armrest not occupied by his queen. “Magus did not rob my family of nearly one hundred and fifty years of peace as we played for our very lives against another Vissimo clan who would not have merely killed us but broken us and kept my family for their entertainment.”

Caves had run double that amount of time, but our game had never been life and death, just about appointing leadership. Perhaps we would have ended up there in time, though, if the demons had chosen to delay their attack for another hundred years or so.

“Whatever the motive,” I said to the king, “I am glad to partner with Luthers and Vissimo in what lies ahead. Have you had any luck in finding demon gates here?”

The king dipped his head. “My children have located ten.”

Double our number.

Kyros said, “Unlike the coven, we had two enemy clans playing Ingenium and there was no love lost between us. We have not played a game for as long as your coven, but we have been a larger food source for the demons, so it would seem.”

Sascha added, “We’ve found three gates in Deception Valley, but with where the gates are placed, the demons don’t need more. We’ll be hard-pressed to guard the three gates on our own.”

“You heard that the demon gates in our territory opened?” I asked. When they nodded, I added, “We’re testing our defenses against the increased demon magic coming through. We have formed an antidote to the poisonous effect of it, but sourcing the ingredients is limiting our progress there.”

“They send this to weaken you ahead of an attack,” King Julius stated. “A tactic you will find detailed in our personal records. Kyros.”

Kyros bowed and left the room.

“Vissimo share records freely with each other,” the king continued. “But permission must be granted for magus to set their eyes upon the collective knowledge of our brother and sister clans. However, I am confident that I have read everything available on the subject of demons and have seen that transferred to our personal archives. We will ensure this is the case if allowed access to the stores of other Vissimo clans.”

I’d only expected to receive this clan’s information. If we could get access to the archives of all the clans, that would be incredible. “Thank you, King Julius.”

Andie cast me an apologetic look. “We don’t have much to add, sorry. Just some notes of their physical powers that you’ve already mentioned. We do know that the blood of demons doesn’t affect Luthers, though.”

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