Page 42

TYPHOS

Meanwhile…

V ivaxia trailed her manicured nails down Nos’s throne—a throne that once glowed with power. Power I’d given the Strigoi to help them thrive.

Now it simply resembled death .

How fitting that Vivaxia would choose this relic to stroke. Perhaps it was prophetic.

Melek , I called mentally. Vivaxia is in the Strigoi Palace .

I waited for him to react, to feel his surprise.

A surprise I very much echoed.

Because this shouldn’t have been possible. She’d claimed to have a key .

“What key?” I asked her. Though, I knew better than to expect a straightforward reply, or really any at all.

Vivaxia favored riddles and lies.

Which meant this was a puzzle for me to solve.

I could only assume she was referring to the magic she’d left inside of Camillia. However, I had to wonder if there was something else going on here. Because her presence here felt… permanent. Like she’d been lingering in this kingdom for much longer than a handful of minutes.

Nos had said he’d been trying to hold my attention . What had that meant? And why would he be working with Vivaxia?

She’d created so many of the Nightmare Fae in this realm. Nightmare Fae who all loathed her and what she’d done to them long ago.

Perhaps his ancestors hadn’t passed on enough of a warning, thus leaving him susceptible to her influence.

“Hmm,” Vivaxia hummed, those long nails of hers still dancing along the throne as energy vibrated in the air.

An energy I recognized.

More mirages .

More tricks.

More mind games.

It had me wondering if she was truly even here. This whole kingdom was renowned for its illusions. Perhaps someone was fucking with me now.

But who? And why?

My primary nemesis was the woman standing mere feet from me. In my realm , I thought again. Because she found a key .

Naturally, she didn’t elaborate. She just tilted her head in a playful way, a move that sent her dark hair to one side. “I brought you a present. A belated housewarming gift, if you will.”

I arched a brow, my arms folding over my chest. “I’m not interested in your gifts , Vivaxia.” Because they always came at a price.

A price I was not willing to pay.

Melek, I tried again.

His lack of a reply was uncharacteristic of him. It had me going deeper, searching for his mental state.

When I found nothing, a chill swept down my spine.

Azazel , I thought, shifting to my connection with him.

Only it was just as quiet. Just as still .

My lips threatened to tighten, my heart stuttering a little in my chest. Is this the gift she’d mentioned? Has she done something to my mates?

Was this another one of her spells, similar to the experience the other day?

Or had she done something worse?

My soul didn’t feel all that wounded, which told me Melek and Azazel were very much alive. But that didn’t make me any less concerned.

Vivaxia had been fucking with my realm for months, perhaps even longer. Her being here—in the flesh—suggested we were about to end the final round of her games.

Unless she’s just getting started, I thought, my blood running cold. Nothing with Vivaxia was ever final. I’d learned that the hard way with her agreements.

One of which she seemed to produce now as she waved a delicate hand.

Only this parchment didn’t bear my signature on it. However, I recognized her loopy scrawl. “It seems some of your fae are not all that faithful to your design,” she murmured as she sent the document my way with a magical little current from her fingertips.

I almost didn’t take the paper from her, aware that she’d probably enchanted the text. But when I saw the date on top, I snatched it out of the air.

Because I recognized that day.

Camillia’s birthday .

My gaze flickered to Nos—the one who had signed this deal—before returning my focus to the agreement. My eyebrow arched, the terms almost laughable. “You betrayed me in exchange for a queen?” I looked at him. “A queen who could never properly survive in this realm?”

My Source was very particular about whom it empowered. Bringing someone here who didn’t belong was a death sentence for most fae. Not because I would kill the intruder—or the being responsible for said intruder—but because my Source wouldn’t allow them to prosper.

Faedoms and the fae inside them all required energy to survive.

That was how our worlds worked.

“My gates exist for protection, Nos. They keep unwanted visitors out but also ensure that only those my Source can properly nurture are allowed in,” I went on. “And your failure to understand that has earned you a death sentence.”

Which officially explained the Rot in his territory.

My Source had stopped feeding him life, hence his need to steal the souls of everyone else around him. Including the female I assumed he’d claimed as queen—the one lying dead at his feet.

Or maybe she was another casualty.

Regardless, it didn’t matter.

He’d betrayed me.

And it seemed the date he’d chosen to do so also held vast significance.

Because it was Camillia’s birth date—the exact day she’d been created.

That was obviously not a coincidence.

But now I wondered if Camillia had merely been a decoy and if Vivaxia’s true intentions rested in this kingdom.

On Nos’s throne , I thought, noting the way her hand had ventured right back to the conduit, as though she needed it to remain stable inside my gates.

It was also entirely possible that everything served a purpose, that Camillia wasn’t a decoy so much as a layer in Vivaxia’s plans.

She always operated several steps ahead, a fact that used to enchant me many eons ago. But I’d learned her tricks, mastered them for myself, and fully intended to use them now to unravel her current play.

Except, something was nagging at me.

A lagging thought.

A… I frowned. A buried memory.

Something about striking deals at the right time in the right place.

Why is that important? I wondered. And why can’t I grasp the full intention of that thought?

“What is it, Ty?” Vivaxia asked, her use of Melek’s nickname for me grating on my nerves. “Struggling to understand my gift? Need some help to decipher it?”

The condescending undertone of her questions had me wanting to growl. It was like she was in my head, dancing right along with me as I tried to untangle her motives.

I’d always despised that sensation, and she was one of the few who had ever made me feel this way.

Yet it seemed worse somehow. Which was impossible. I’d spent thousands of years away from her. She had no idea what I was capable of now.

“I have to say,” she went on, “I’m not surprised.

You really have stretched your powers to the brink of self-destruction.

” She sounded sad, as though she actually cared.

But I caught the glimmer of malice in her cruel gray eyes.

However, she chased it away as she glanced down at Nos.

“I mean, he hasn’t even noticed that you’ve failed to reply at all. Isn’t that just so typical?”

She tsked, the sound one that echoed throughout the too-quiet room as she drew her nail across Nos’s throat.

He gurgled in response, causing my brow to pinch.

Then blood pooled from a fresh cut that went far deeper than should be possible from such a simple touch.

“Thank you for your service, Nos,” she said, her lips suddenly at his ear. I hadn’t even seen her bend. It was like she’d been in two places at once.

Because she’s playing with mirages , I realized as she whispered something to my dying lieutenant.

I stepped forward, only my feet didn’t move.

I frowned down at my legs, confused by their lack of a response.

“Is it that you can’t move?” Vivaxia asked softly. “Or is it that you don’t want to move?”

My gaze returned to her, my jaw clenching. “Stop fucking with my head.”

“Oh, so it’s my fault now?” She was the picture of innocence as she looked at Nos in disbelief. “Can you believe him?”

Nos released a tortured sound, one that had my teeth grinding. “You’ve made your point, Vivaxia. He betrayed me. But his life isn’t yours to take.”

“Actually,” she said, drawing out the word. “It is.” She gestured to the contract still clutched in my fist. “I gave him a queen and an heir. In return, he agreed to be mine, a deal we struck using a spell you may or may not remember.”

My hands nearly tightened into fists, my ire mounting.

Because yes, I knew the spell. I knew it well. It was the same one she’d used on Az to turn him into her personal slave.

She’d owned his life.

His every move.

His every breath.

His right to free will.

I’d fought for his freedom, agreed to countless deals until I’d finally crafted the perfect one. But I was beginning to doubt my success.

Which was probably exactly what Vivaxia wanted.

That’d been the point of her letter, the one where she’d insinuated that I hadn’t given her a proper blood sacrifice.

But did you bleed the way I wanted, sweet Typhos? Or did you grow into a being with so much more to lose? To sacrifice ?

The memory of our deal played through my mind, the terms ones I knew by heart and would never forget.

And yet, something about them felt murky at the moment.

Which was strange. I often revisited that history with Vita. It was my way of ensuring nothing like that ever happened again.

Every deal I made contained specific parameters, most of them driven by my experiences. The ones with Vivaxia were the most important of all.

So why am I struggling to recall the most significant one in our long history? I wondered, frowning.

Because that bitch is in my head, I realized in the next instant.

But how? How the fuck did she…? My eyes widened. Vita.

Vita housed all my memories.

And Camillia had shoved all that energy into?—

“I told you he wouldn’t help you,” Vivaxia murmured, her cooed words dragging my focus away from my own thoughts.

Because a fog had crept into the room.

A lethal one.

“I warned all of you, didn’t I?” she went on, her words seemingly pointed as the smog thickened. “And now you see it for yourselves, hmm? Your king has weakened .”