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“Ok… Go ahead.” Asmodeus’s eyes gloss over, his lips twitching as he fights off tears. “Kill my daughter.”
I hold up my hands and Asmodeus steps closer, letting me rest them on his temples. My magic swarms my fingers, swirling in my veins like liquid ice, and my breath comes out in a dense fog. Memories explode in my vision, but this time, I shift through them slower.
Making him forget Calamity’s face was easy. I just pushed an image I’d created into his head, and my Calamity replaced the one he knew. But physically altering entire memories is much more difficult. It’s like looking through thousands of eyes at once, trying to find one single moment.
I wipe today from his head, replacing it with a trip to the market, then I erase ever telling him to fake Calamity’s death entirely. He won’t miss a few minutes of time. Then, I find the ones associated with pulling Megara from the king’s family crypt, and him sending her over the cliff. And by the time I’m done, he believes his precious Calamity never left the dungeon, that she stepped into the riff, gone for good.
A part of me wishes I could change it, to make it something less gruesome, but the king knows and believes this is how Calamity died. Asmodeus has to be on the same page too. I start to retract my magic now that the job is done, but pause…
There’s so much about her I don’t know, and at my fingertips is a mind that knows absolutely everything. Her face might be different, but the events are real. Before I can talk myself out of it, I begin to sift through his head, trying to learn as much as I can. Only the things I find are nothing short of bittersweet.
Chapter 21
Calamity
Smearing the charcoal with my finger, I try to finish my drawing before we leave. Having set up in the open cavern, I do my best to capture this place, with the large ceilings and the crystals shining from the stone walls. Though, I wish I had colors to commemorate the glow they emit, the bright amber of the mage lights, including the fire pit in the center of the room that seems to burn constantly but never eat at the wood the flames lick against.
No matter how hard I work at it, it’ll never be as great as the real thing, but it’s something…
“I swear you’ve been working at that thing for two hours now, at least. Don’t your fingers get sore?” Vik’s voice comes from behind me somewhere, making me stiffen.
Having successfully avoided her since she walked in this morning, to say I’m not looking forward to whatever conversation is about to happen would be an understatement.
She takes a seat next to me, leaning against her hand to peer at my drawing. “You know, when I said Loric would be there for you when you went into heat, I hadn’t intended for that to be thissoon.” Her lips pull into a teasing grin, and my shoulders relax a bit. “You have all the men, minus Brenn, literally wandering around outside in the dark, too. So, I’m assuming that means no one has marked each other?”
“No. Nothing happened.” I train my eyes to the drawing, continuing to smooth out some of the harsh lines.
“Oh, I am many things, but I am not blind.” She laughs, but I’m not sure if it’s genuine or not. “It’s okay. It’s not anything to be ashamed of. You don’t have to tell me anything if you don’t want to, but if you do, I might be able to help. With how much pressure you’re putting on that charcoal, I’m surprised it hasn’t snapped.”
I can feel her eyes on me, but I’m not sure what to say about it. Loric was reacting to some magical nonsense, and I… Well, I was grateful for him showing me a way to see Meg. That’s what that was, nothing more. Just two people drawn to each other for completely different reasons.
“I really am sorry about barging in. Loric said he’d be in the room he chose, so I hadn’t expected him to be there with you.” There’s something sincere in her tone, something that makes me stop.
Meeting her violet eyes, I kiss my teeth. “I’m not upset. It was an accident. I’m just more confused than anything. Like why now? It’s the most inconvenient timing ever.” I place my charcoal back in the box, closing my sketchbook.
“That could be for a lot of reasons. Sometimes, there’s not an explanation for things, but if I had to guess, it’s that you’re around shifters, especially unmated male shifters. Your body is doing its thing.”
Chewing the inside of my cheek, I ponder it a moment but quickly shake my head. “It can’t be that. Gael was unmated and he shared a cell right next to me. And he’s only one of the shiftersthat passed through the dungeons while I was there. The guards, mostly, are hellhounds. That can’t be it.”
She smiles knowingly. “Yeah, but they probably weren’t alphas. Loric and Jesper are, and their presence has an impact.”
“In what way?”
“In the way that power rules everything in the shifter world. They’re some of the strongest shifters out there. Unfortunately, our animals choose when we go into heat, not us, and when they see someone they think is an ideal mate, they’re going to throw everything they’ve got at them to lock’em down.”
“My beast did this?” My throat turns to sandpaper as I watch Vik nod. “She’s trying to get Loric to mate me.”
“Yeah. That about sums it up. You’ve been through a lot, escaping the king’s dungeon, my brother being a dick, the Grimleer… I’d imagine that she’s looking for protection. Mine tends to when I get scared or experience extreme emotions.” She shrugs as if it’s just another day in paradise.
“You were scared. We were almost eaten, then that thing from the bestiary box tried to take our head off. You’ve been a bundle of nerves since we fell under Loric’s protection, wondering how we’d survive in the Luminaries since everyone there hates the king.”
The blood seeps from my face, my heart fluttering away as if it can’t take a full beat, yet I can hear the echo of it in my ears. The cavern seems to take on a stifling heat, turning my corset into a prison. It’s too tight, constricting my lungs until I'm struggling for breath, getting nothing more than a shallow gasp.
“He made you feel safe. He laid down in that bed and you breathed for the first time. Of course, I’m going to try. We spoke about this and agreed being mated to one of them, or at least courting, was in our best interest. This just speeds things up.”
“Excuse me.” I rise, my limbs trembling, gathering my things with hands that feel foreign to me. Numb. The world around mebegins to tilt, but I force my spine to remain erect–to harden–and my feet to carry me. I rush for the room I’ve been staying in, but not before my gaze inadvertently catches Loric and Jesper descending the stairwell. My eyes lock with Loric’s for a mere second before I tear my gaze away, then slip inside and shut the door, making sure to leave it open just a sliver.
I don't waste any time. My fingers tear the corset laces from their eyelets, and once they’re all out, I toss the boned fabric on the table, my lungs greedily drinking in the air. But it's futile. All of this is. No matter what I take off, the corset, the top layer of my skirts, nothing eases the tension or allows my heart to slow its rapid pace. Tears brim in my eyes, threatening to spill over, and I take a seat on the bed's edge, needing the support it gives.
