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Her eyes narrow. “You will listen and obey, or you know what will happen to your little vine witch.”
Hellfire sears my throat at her words, but I shove it back. “What happened to the civilizations I conquered for you, Mother? You ruled from a real throne last I saw you. And now, you’re sitting in a nightclub, surrounded by subpar security guards. Where are your armies? Your warriors? Your kingdoms?”
Her eyes narrow. “I will not explain myself to you—a servant.”
“Fine. What about him? Your partner? My father? Does he know how much power you had and lost?”
“I understand the burden of immortality and all its consequences,” Uziah snaps, rushing to my mother’s defense. “Time is the thief of power. But we will rebuild and reclaim at last.”
I shake my head.
My mother nods her agreement, her wrath cooling to disdain as she begins her instructions. “You will start with the portal site. We have our soldiers planting explosives at key locations near the square. When they go off, the surrounding buildings will be leveled. You will pile the rubble around the portal to seal off any intervention from Tartarus. When the area is secured, you will return to the air and burn anything that moves to ash and dust.”
“You want to burn the entire city?” I scoff in disgust at their twisted plan. “If you kill everyone, who will bow to you?”
“I don’t give a shit about this gods-forsaken city,” Maricha scoffs. “I want to show the Houses what we can do. And when they come for us, we’ll conquer them all. By the time we are finished in this realm, they will all cower beneath us.”
“You don’t think the Houses will put up a fight?”
“They can try.” Maricha’s eyes gleam with the familiar light of greed. It has always blinded her, but it’s worse than I remember, even for her. Five thousand years of biding her time has made her reckless. It will be her downfall, though whether I live to see it is another matter.
“And Caius? He is a god and a formidable enemy. More powerful than even you.”
“He is busy ruling an entire realm,” she says with a huff of dismissal.
“By the time he realizes what’s happened, it will be too late to stop us,” Uziah agrees.
“And what of the other creatures like me?” I press.
“Shadow beasts?” Uziah asks. “Anything in Tartarus will be trapped when we detonate the portal area.”
“Dragons. I am not the only dragon shifter in this realm, you know.”
Maricha waves my claim away. “No other dragon can do what you do.”
“Are you sure about that?” I ask.
She levels her calculating gaze on me then turns to look at Uziah. “You told me he was the only one.”
“He is,” Uziah says, wide-eyed. “As far as I know.”
I hesitate, debating on whether to divulge this particular information. I don’t want to put another at risk, but Maricha needs a wake-up call. “There is another in this realm,” I say, “I can sense him. And another still in Tartarus.”
“Where is the one you sense in this realm?” Maricha snaps.
“I can’t be sure of that. Only that it exists.”
She eyes me shrewdly, assessing for my lie. But it’s the truth; I can’t sense anything beyond what I’ve told her. Nor do I know whether it’ll come for me if I attack this place. I almost hope it does. These people don’t deserve what she plans to do.
“Maricha,” Uziah begins.
“Recon was your fucking job,” she hisses at him.
“He clearly senses what others can’t,” Uziah says, but that only seems to piss her off more.
“There are witches for that. Dark magic. Apparently, I must think of everything.” She huffs.
“None of the witches saw an unfavorable outcome. The female fae’s sister is a Seer. I had planned to use her?—”
