I returned his smile. “Do.”
“I believe that’s all I have for now.” Xai held out his hand. “I’ll be in touch as I learn more.”
“Likewise,” I assured him, setting my glass on the desktop so I could shake his hand.
I walked him to the door so that I could address the Portal Dweller. Remy stood leaning against the far wall when we appeared, but straightened immediately with a small, respectful bow. Much better than the supplication before.
“Have you heard from Tax?” I asked him, referring to his best friend and my favored Tracker Demon.
Remy shook his head. “I’ll follow up with him.”
Giving him an appreciative nod, I bid them good day, then returned to the solitude of my office.
I reclined in my chair and consulted my list for tomorrow’s interviews.
There were only a few higher-ranking demons left, and then a handful of lower level ones who had demonstrated an overabundance of ambition or had acted beyond their status. However, gazing at the names now, I just couldn’t see how any of these individuals would be powerful enough to take my territory. Not without an army behind them, anyway.
Kalida had been the only one who’d even come close to being a threat, and the only reason she was able to get as far as she did, was because she had help from the former Demonic Lord of North America, Geier.
Geier possessed historical knowledge and power that the pair had used against me. While I was more strategic and stronger, the former Demonic Lord certainly had a finesse to him that Kalida had been able to use to achieve some of her goals.
Of course, it helped that I’d been completely blind to her hatred for me. She hadn’t been particularly close with her mother, but Amarella had created Kalida. So I supposed that meant they had a bond of sorts. A bond strong enough to make my daughter despise me enough to try to take my kingdom.
Daring, stupid girl, I thought, sighing.
I didn’t regret killing Amarella. She deserved it, given her penchant for trading my secrets to two rival Demonic Lords. Not to mention the lewd affair she’d engaged in with Tardís, the Demonic Lord of Europe and my known rival.
My jaw clenched at the memory, and I picked up my glass, carrying it to the window to stare out over my property. Sunset had begun, painting the sky with watercolor clouds, and in the distance, the dark expanse of Lake Michigan spread like a blanket into the horizon.
Xai had been the first to warn me of Amarella’s intentions. He’d told me how she tried to seduce him in exchange for his loyalty. Unfortunately for her, Xai’s loyalty—and love—had been thoroughly wrapped up in Evangeline since time immemorial. So he’d turned her down and had immediately informed me.
The Son of Chaos, Xai’s official title, had proven his loyalty to me long before, and had never given me reason to question his intentions, so I had no trouble believing him. I began to monitor Amarella’s movements—movements that led her right to Tardís bed. I didn’t even care about her selling secrets to Valentino, the Demonic Lord of South America. Not after realizing her affair.
Monogamy was a trivial concept, one I rarely admired.
But she’d been my paramour, a distinct position of power that she’d abused and entirely disrespected when she went to satisfy another Demonic Lord. Had she wanted a lower-level demon consort on the side, I would have approved.
Lord Tardís? Hell no.
However, the little greedy witch just wanted more power. She assumed if she helped another Demonic Lord overthrow me, he could expand his territories and cut her in. She played all the angles. But Valentino wasn’t interested, satisfied with his South American region.
And Tardís, well, he didn’t necessarily want to expand outside of Europe. However, he did want to destroy me, and attempted to use her to do it.
Only, his plan required me to have a heart.
Which I didn’t.
Instead, I killed her in front of Tardís, in his territory, to make a statement. A proverbial, “Fuck You,” really, and also a way of demonstrating my true power.
They didn’t even see me coming.
I maneuvered them like little pawns on a chessboard, put them in a place I could easily access them, killed her without flinching, and left Tardís to clean up the mess. Harsh, quick, efficient.
And it served as a message to Tardís:I’ll do the same to you if you so much as step foot in my territory.
Maybe he’d finally found his balls and decided to take me up on that offer. Maybe he was helping someone distract me for fun. It’d be just the sort of thing for him to do.
I jiggled the ice in my glass before polishing off the last of my bourbon, and returned to my desk. Tardís hadn’t come up in my interviews, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t earned a place on my list of suspects. We had a history, he and I, that went even further than Amarella, back to our Underworld University days.
