Page 65 of Witch’s Heart

Was it possible that Carth had sent Reginald Weiss into our midst fully oblivious? Perhaps he was merely a pawn. Which meant he was useless to us.

Trudy Holland had applied for his release several times. It seemed she had a soft spot for the ambassador. While I didn’t feel a shred of guilt, Rixon did. He’d humiliated her and now a male she supposedly loved was sitting in the dungeon.

Sooner or later, Rixon would simply give in to her wishes and release him. He’d have no choice, given her family’s position. Given that we needed their Nebrine.

I braced my hands on the parapet, remembering all too well the way Rixon had taken me against it once. Gods, I never tired of that male. He could have me a thousand times and each time thereafter would feel just as exhilarating, just as pleasurable.

The back of my neck prickled. I froze just as the breeze kicked up around me. I was already whirling around as the sound of wings met my ears. My eyes fell upon the demon as it landed several feet from me.

For a moment, I just stared, unable to believe my good fortune. It stared back, its dark, fathomless eyes taking me in. Mine looked just like that at times.

“Much has happened in my absence.” My heart kicked up at the voice that sounded in my head. I would never get used to the intrusion. “The tides are changing, all across your kingdom.”

For a brief moment, I could only stand mute, then I said, “I need your help.” It tilted its head. I took that as a sign to forge ahead. “The portal, Uzzamon. What else can you tell me about it? How do I close it for good? What happens if I don’t? If I fail?”

“There are few like it,” said the princep.

My stomach hardened with fear. “So, there are more? Others? Here?”

“Not here in this kingdom, no. In other places, far away places, lost places, dead places, linking them to hell. But Uzzamon is the only one of its kind here in your lands. The only true threat you face.”

“And if I fail to close it?”

“Then you will continue to face rifts and demon invasion from my world.” I frowned. It must have sensed my confusion. “The existence of Uzzamon creates a link between this land and my world, a scorge created by your people. That opens the way, weakening you.”

“The other rifts, the ones that keep popping up around Raeria. They…they’re because of the portal?”

“If the portal is destroyed, there will be no new rifts in your land. No new tears between here and our world to let my kind through. Giving it blood only does so much. If you truly wish to protect your kingdom, you will destroy it.”

“How? How do I do that?”

“Balance. You provide balance.” It tilted its head like it was listening to something. “I must go.”

“No, wait.” I panicked. “What kind of balance?”

“The kind that rights wrongs,” it answered, chilling me.

I thought back to Ophelia’s journal, of how the portal was created. The sacrifice of a clansman’s daughter, the pain she’d suffered to create something terrible. I thought about how each rift required something awful to rip the land open. Balance.

Maleia’s life had been taken from her against her will, and she’d suffered in the process.

“A sacrifice for good?” My pulse took off in a gallop. “Do I…do I have to give myself to it?”

The demon’s wings rustled and it took a step back, preparing to take flight. “Not yourself—not your life—but the magic that lives in you. It will be hungry. It will take everything.”

With that, it leapt from the ground. I watched, slack-jawed, as it disappeared, becoming nothing more than a speck in the sky. Then I processed its words and my stomach dropped. No. There had to be another way. How did it even know that for sure?

I thought of my magic, of how I’d gotten it. My entire family had been stolen from me, and all I had left was my power. If I lost that, if I sacrificed it to destroy the portal, who would I be without it?

“There has to be another way,” I repeated to myself, gritting my teeth.

Turning on my heel, I fled the tower. As I made my way down into the palace, my thoughts swarmed. The princep’s words chased after me. I hated that they made so much sense. Knowing what I did about rifts, and how to knit them together, how they were created, how the portal had been created, it made a certain kind of sense.

But if I fed it all my magic to destroy it…

“—could you be so reckless!?” a male voice whispered. “Santos has already failed—twice.” I froze, midstep. “It’s only a matter of time before his name comes up. When it does, everything will be traced back to you, to us!”

“I am doing this for us!” came a hushed hiss that sounded distinctly feminine. "The crown's rejection cost us everything. This is our only path back to real power."