Page 168 of Rise of the Queen

“Misha, you’re going to need contacts now, too. Yours are already changing with ours,”I told him.

“No deal! I’m not wearing contacts,”he said. I could hear him laughing in my head. How he managed to keep a straight face, I’ll never know.

Trino took a deep breath, trying to gain composure. “I knew Miha’s eyes changed, but I had no idea the rest of you could do it. I also don’t know what it means. I just know that I kinda wanna run when I see it.”

“I feel like running is a good life choice,” Gus said, his eyes still the size of dinner plates.

“Martin and Ricardo have both made deals with very powerful demons. We are what can stop them,” Adrik said.

I grinned, telling Trino, “Brace yourself for what I’m about to say next, Trino, because you’re not ready for it. He is the true King of the Underworld now,” I said. I could see Trino’s color drain from his face, which confirmed that my eyes had turned red again.

Stephen glanced at me, then looked back at Trino. “That’s not even the scariest color, Trino. She’s got others that are much more disturbing.” The way he said it made it seem like my eyes changing colors was the most normal thing in the world.Normal really is relative.

All Trino could do was curse under his breath for a few moments. Finally, he composed himself enough to simply ask, “How?”

We spent the next hour or so explaining everything to Trino. We didn’t leave much out. He now knew about Armando. He knew of the end game for Martin and Ricardo, as well as the other bosses. We told him everything.

To our surprise, once he got over his initial shock, he became quite curious about how it all worked. I ended up showing himwhat Andrei could see, as well as what Ivan could see. We showed him what it looked like when Viktor used Kostya to fix someone as well, telling him that they all needed Kostya’s and Viktor’s help. We even gave him a glimpse at what Armando looked like after Stephen broke him, just because he asked.

“Jefe, I remember telling you that Sephie was always meant to meet you when I first met her. I had no idea how accurate that was,” Trino said, scratching his head. “I wish my abuela was here. She would be so excited right now.”

“What’s an abuela?”Misha asked.

“Babushka,”I told him.

“Sweet, I’m trilingual now,”he responded.

“It’s a lot to take in, Trino. It’s been a lot for us to take in even. It hasn’t always been easy, but we’ve had help along the way. The demons that Martin and Ricardo made deals with are very old and very powerful. They could wreak a tremendous amount of havoc if they’re allowed to remain for much longer. It might seem like Martin is fighting a losing battle right now, but I wouldn’t put it past him to start recruiting other demons to his cause to strengthen his numbers. Same for Ricardo. We haven’t gotten word yet that any of the other bosses have made deals, but that’s not to say it hasn’t already happened or won’t happen in the future. We’ve been told that you’re a key figure in this. You know I reward those who stay loyal to me. That will never change,” Adrik said.

Trino exhaled loudly. “After knowing this, I would be a fool to not remain loyal. And not just because I’m scared of your girlfriend, Jefe.”

I held my hand up, showing him my ring as I cleared my throat. “Future wife, thank you very much.”

He cursed as he jumped up to come for a closer look. “Dios mio, Miha. Does your arm get tired carrying that around?”

“We’ve increased the weight training to compensate,” Andrei said very seriously.

Trino laughed. “It’s perfect. Congratulations.” He leaned in closer, saying quietly in Italian, “I might need the number for that jeweler sooner rather than later.” He winked at me as he went to sit back down beside Emilia.

Ivan looked at Chris and Keith, who were still sitting in mostly stunned silence. “What about you two? Still in or you’d still like to run right about now? I’ll open the door for you if it’s the latter,” he said.

“If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I would think you’re all full of shit. I knew there was something different about Sephie when I saw her go against Mike. No offense, Sephie, you’re incredibly talented and fast, but you’re still a girl. It never made complete sense in my head that you dominated him so easily,” Keith said. “Now it does.”

“Except that really was all Sephie. Her demon only started stepping forward well after that happened. She really is that good,” Ivan said.

“Okay, right back to not making sense,” Keith said.

“She could still do the same to you both. She would just break a sweat now because you’re catching up in your training,” Andrei said, slightly miffed.

“I love you both, but you’re not helping them feel any more comfortable right now,”I told both Ivan and Andrei, trying not to laugh at how white both Chris and Keith had gone.

“Shit. My bad. I got confused. I forgot we were trying to make them feel better,”Ivan said, cutting his eyes at me.

“I still love you. It is slightly irritating they would think I’d need help with that hot mess.”

“While I do find it somewhat offensive you would think she’d need help to beat someone as clearly inept as Mike was, it’snot what matters at the moment. What matters is that you can handle knowing this is going on and you still want to be a part of it,” Adrik said, making me laugh quietly.

“What exactly is the plan? Are they coming here? Are we going there?” Chris asked. He glanced around the room, adding, “I’m only asking because I need to make arrangements for my mom if I’m going to be gone for an extended period of time. If I’m moving somewhere, then she comes with me.”

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