Page 41 of I Regret Nothing
I was less convinced. Astrid could handle her shit. I knew that from dealing with her. But she should have taken care of Venus by now.
This was going to end badly.
Chapter 34
Faust
H
auser seemed to think it was impossible to wipe out the Aether Circle, but I was digging deep to try to make it happen. I was deep in the rabbit hole of the Aether Circle. I’d dealt with corrupt covens for money. I saw criminal witches every day in Silverhold. The Aether Circle made them all look like girl scouts.
Supernaturals and humans put a lot of stock in the seven deadly sins, but for different reasons. For some reason, humans thought you ended up in Hell if you committed them while supernaturals knew that was an entirely different realm with demons who didn’t like to visit Earth and kept a lot of secrets. No one took credit for the bombings of some greenhouses that apparently grew some witch ingredients for summoning demons. We couldn’t ask them, but most people thought it was the demons.
The Aether Circle hit all seven pretty often. Rei had done the world a solid stealing that Grimoire from them. Try telling anyone that. The Aether Circle had people placed in politics, law enforcement, government agencies, and they threw their money around like candy to make sure of anything and everything.
I was a little fucking proud my mate stole from them and got away with it for so long. It was causing so much shit now, but I was going to keep her safe. She asked me not to, but I’d kill that witch in medical if she stepped out of line and tried to hurt her.
I’d already found the paper trail leading back to the Aether Circle. They had gotten to Venus. They paid for her lawyer and had already deposited a good sum into a bank account law enforcement didn’t find, but I did. I’d traced a lot of money going in and out the Aether Circle. I also cracked the encrypted server they used for email.
Venus was supposed to kill Rei in Silverhold. The Aether Circle paid her and promised her she would only have to serve three years of her sentence once she did it. Venus was playing some sort of long game, and the Aether Circle wanted it done yesterday. That was why they reached out to me, even though they didn’t know my name. They were putting feelers out everywhere.
Venus must have been pretty stupid if she thought they’d honor the deal if she didn’t kill Rei. They wouldn’t just not get her out of prison like they said. They’d pay whoever agreed to take the job on Rei to accept another assignment and kill Venus too. That was just their operandi. If you crossed them, you died. They didn’t need the Grimoire Rei stole to make it happen either.
Taking them out would be complicated. Rei was right when he compared them to a hydra. They weren’t even centralized in one location in the United States. They had a headquarters, which is where Rei stole their Grimoire, but not everyone lived there. There were plenty of coven members scattered throughout the States that would need to be taken out at the exact same time.
And that still wouldn’t solve the problem. The Aether Circle was worldwide. They would all flock here, trying to figure out who arranged the hit. If I had the ability to take them out on my own, it would never be traced back to me. Bringing that many people in to wipe them out meant a greater chance of someone talking.
The Aether Circle had spells in the Grimoire Rei stole to get into someone’s mind and make them talk. They could also control them for short periods. That was considered forbidden among the witches. Even Vampires were only supposed to use compulsion in extreme situations, mainly keeping their identity secret from humans. There were plenty of Vampires in Silverhold for abusing compulsion and plenty of witches and warlocks for using dark magic. The Aether Circle had been getting a free pass for way too long.
Maybe I didn’t need to kill them all. I didn’tneedto kill anyone. I was just good at it, and it paid well. I rid the world of a few scumbags. This called for a fresh approach. I was a rational wolf, even with so many people wanting my mate dead.
I wasn’t going to kill them. I was utterly going to destroy this coven, sit back, and watch the fallout. Never fuck with a wolf’s mate.
Chapter 35
Sota
B
arbatos was still off playing in another realm with his daughter. There was nothing I could do about that right now. I was focusing on what I could do. Mainly, we needed to capture Rei’skusoyarobrother so I could bring her home safely when I got permission to get her out of prison.
Hell was a vast realm with many places to hide. It didn’t matter what kind of demon you were, though. Patricide was frowned upon, and every region of Hell was looking for Kudan. He’d pissed a lot of people off, and everyone wanted dibs on torturing him. I’d been begging to get the honor, but it was really up to his father.
Takahiro had always spoiled Kudan. He gave the boy anything he wanted and made it go away when he got into trouble. Honestly, that was totally against the demon way of life. They should have tortured Kudan several times over for some things he’d donebeforehe tried to kill Takahiro. I’ll tell you this, if he had been properly tortured at least once in his life, none of this would be happening, and I’d actually know my bride.
The manhunt for Kudan had stepped up way before I made a stink about bringing Rei home. Kudan knew damned well everyone knew he was akoshinukefather killer and would revolt if he situated himself on the throne, but he was still trying. He sent one of his honorless minions to try to sneak into the palace and try again. He was quickly caught but killed himself before anyone could get information about Kudan’s whereabouts.
Various demons had their own beliefs about what happened if you met the final death. This assassin wouldn’t get the proper funeral rites we did if someone happened to die. We didn’t know for sure because we couldn’t ask anyone, but we believed his soul would never find rest, and he would have to walk the Earth as a restless spirit endlessly. Not all of Hell believed this, but we did.
There was only one place we didn’t have eyes on to check for Kudan. Thanks to a deal with the Fae, there was a building for him to hide in, though technically, it was supposed to be having contractors in there, making it livable. Amduscias, one of Hell’s dukes that had spent a lot of time in Scorchwood and broke out with the help of his wife, his husband, a Fae, and a wolf, gave us a tip about the prison. There were plenty of places Kudan could hide in there.
Amduscias was scheduled to visit Olympus with his mates, but before he left, he and all his prison buddies would come with us to Scorchwood to search for Kudan. All except his wife, who was quite pregnant at the moment. She wanted to come, and she was pretty effective with her fire magic, but everyone was making her stay home.
I was just waiting for them to get here. The familiar red cloud of a demon portal opened, and Amduscias stepped through with Roman and Skoll. I expected Fergus to be with Serafina, but I didn’t complain that he came. He had fire just like Serafina did. I wanted Kudan tortured for centuries until he was begging for death before someone killed him, but I would have settled for watching Fergus use his fire dragon on him. I’d heard stories about how creative he was with making people die with it. I really just wanted Kudan dead.
I was leading this expedition, even if Amduscias outranked me in the entire Hell hierarchy. He was spat from the fires of Hell, so they gave him a title. I was a Tengu with parents, but we had mutual respect. Tengu were generally impressive demons, and everyone knew that.
“I’d like to take Kudan alive to be tortured, but I won’t be upset if he’s there, and we have to kill him. Kudan is not the fall on his own sword type. He has no honor. He’ll use his minions as a shield because he’s awarugakiand a coward. He thinks theydeserveto die for him because he’s owed the throne.”
