Page 49 of Witch Queen

“I believe it’s time for everyone to calm down and eat,” Us’gorith stated thinly.

He took off his helllizard oven mitts and marched stiffly back into the kitchen.

“I think you guys pissed him off,” Cortes remarked.

“You’ll be lucky if he doesn’t poison your food,” Astarte muttered to Armaros.

More dishes arrived until a veritable feast covered the table.

An ominous rumble erupted across the dining hall. Its echoes bounced off the walls and drew worried stares from the demons dining at the next table.

Everyone looked at Mae.

“Sorry,” she mumbled, her cheeks heating up. “Breakfast was a long time ago.”

Nikolai finally relaxed. “I’m glad to see your appetite is okay.”

Cortes picked up a chunk of bread and broke it into pieces to feed Popo. “I think it would take more than this to kill her appetite.”

“What’s wrong?” Mae asked, clocking his morose expression.

“I was thinking that we can now officially claim to have dined in Hell,” Cortes said glumly. He looked around. “What’s keeping Vlad?”

Astarte helped herself to a bowl of hellboar stew. “I suspect he and his father have a lot of catching up to do.”

* * *

Windows glowedin the city beneath the castle, soft points of light that brightened the gathering gloom. Vlad’s gaze rose from the myriad trails of smoke swirling from hundreds of chimneys to the distant roof of the cavern which housed the valley and mountains surrounding the keep. Now that night was falling, he could see millions of sleeping glowworms covering the dark rock face.

He was wondering how big the creatures were, considering he could almost make out their bodies, when incubus energy fluttered against his skin.

“Pretty, isn’t it?” a voice said behind him.

He tensed as Ilmon joined him on the terrace. Tarang made a soft welcoming sound, his tail sweeping the ground. Vlad frowned at the tiger.

Traitor.

Tarang ignored him, his eyes shrinking to happy slits as the Incubus king scratched him under the chin.

Ilmon smiled at the tiger. “Your uncle found a great familiar for you.”

Surprise quickened Vlad’s pulse. He stared at Ilmon. “How did you know that?”

“I always had someone watching you. Ever since you were born.”

A melancholic look dawned on Ilmon’s beautiful face. Heat flushed through Vlad’s body. He ground his teeth.

“You have no right to be sad! Not after what you did to my mother! Not after,” he stopped and took a shaky breath, angry at himself for the tears welling in his eyes, “—not after you seduced her and abandoned her!”

Ilmon’s gaze grew hooded. “Is that what you believe happened?”

Vlad tilted his chin, his jaw so tight his face ached. “Do you deny it?”

Tarang huffed worriedly, his blue gaze swinging between them.

Ilmon looked out across the valley.

“Fate is a cruel mistress,” he said quietly. “That’s what I thought when I met Katarina.” He cut his eyes to Vlad briefly. “I know you will find this hard to believe, but it was your mother who seduced me.”

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