by Nikki Frank
Agma followed the Lord High Governor. I gasped. She was the only current female demon lord besides me. And she had all the female akuma allure. Her hair was dark-red like dying embers and flickered with the same sort of low light. Iya had told me Agma was nearly one-hundred-fifty years old, and the other akuma lords suspected she might be part succubus. In her hundred years of reign, no one had ever met her mate. Rumor had it she kept him locked in a tower as her plaything.
This tidbit had drawn laughter from me. Not one of the male akuma I’d met would stand for such nonsense, and all of them had the power to free themselves if someone tried. But now, faced with Agma, I wasn’t so sure. The most fierce-looking akuma of all the assembled demon lords, she wasn’t a woman I would dare mess with.
She gave me a stiff smile down her nose and brushed past me. Thanks to Shandian, I had some idea of the bias the akuma lords might carry against me and how far they might go to torment me.
“Ah, Olivia. A pleasure as always.” Kessit kissed each of my cheeks.
I pushed back my irritation with Agma and focused on him. Kessit was a relatively young demon lord, though still a good forty years older than me. Asuras were not the most handsome demons. He had red-orange skin and thick, black hair, including a voluminous mustache. Instead of horns, his kind sported tusks from the bottom jaw. How did he manage to chew without cutting his own lips? He was tailless and wingless but had six arms. Usually, he kept the hands of two pairs clasped behind his back and out of the way. Every so often, he would shift which set of arms he used. But once, at a meeting, I’d seen him get overexcited and start waving all six around like an octopus. It had taken work not to laugh aloud.
“I think we are all accounted for,” Iya told him as we stepped back inside.
In the entryway, we were greeted by a knot of demon lords all clamoring over each other to be heard. Iya gave a sharp whistle, and silence fell. He held his hands up for continued quiet so he could speak.
“I know you’ve all journeyed far. Dinner will be served in a few moments. When you’ve rested, we can begin business tomorrow.”
“No,” Agma said in a commanding voice. “You soft little boys might need your food and your beds, but my province has the longest border with the Goblin Kingdom. The late king’s plans were completely reprehensible. I wish to inflict proper punishment on Tezky. Immediately.”
The shouting started again, and Iya had to whistle for attention once more. “We’re not dishing out physical punishment on anyone.”
“But what do you plan to do with Tezky?” Kessit asked.
Iya sighed and rubbed his forehead. “This isn’t going to wait until after dinner, is it?”
“No,” all six lords shouted at once.
“Fine,” Iya snapped. “I wanted to do this in a genteel fashion, but if you insist on being blood-thirsty, we’ll go straight to business.” He gave another whistle, and Feran appeared. “Feran, would you please bring Tezky to the main hall? And have Nobi set up desks and chairs for our guests.”
Iya started to lead the others away, and I had to hurry to catch up. Kessit gave me a wide smile and put a hand on my back as we walked.
“I heard you fell ill. I’m so glad to see you looking healthy.”
“Thanks, Kessit. I feel normal now. The demon magic got hard for me to contain, that’s all.”
He nodded. “We’ve talked amongst ourselves at home. None of us were very surprised. Though you did surprise us by running to an akuma for help. We would have taken care of you. You know we all think very highly of you.”
“That makes sense now, but at the time, I felt terrified you would all lose respect for me because I wasn’t strong enough to control my own power. Or worse, I would scare you off or disgust you.”
He rubbed my back with his hand. “Poor child. And now you’ve lost your advisor on top of your parents. Talon’s a little young for the position, don’t you think? Feéroi, Drix, and I were brainstorming other options for you until you reach your majority. Either another guardian or an appropriate mate.”
I swallowed, trying to get my stomach back down. “It’s only a few more months, and everything’s fine now.”
“And if you need help again?” His eyes were kind. “You should have someone reliable to go to for help.”
I bristled. “I have plenty of reliable people. Talon, Iya, Elita, Omri, my dragons, Lord Feéroi, you guys. And it’s a good thing for us all I did go to Iya for help. Look at what we prevented.”
Kessit shifted, obviously unconvinced. “Perhaps. But we’re waiting to hear all the details. You seem to be glossing over the fact that the akuma had prior knowledge and refused to give us warning. I’d like to hear why he thought such secrecy necessary.”
He gave my back a final pat and took a seat in Iya’s throne room. The room had been set up with a circle of desks and squashy chairs. Inside the circle sat another chair, and Tezky slouched in it, pouting. Outside the circle, all decoration had been removed, even the throne. Only the dais remained. Evidently, the room was supposed to be distraction- and bias-free.
I took a seat near Iya’s, and once everyone else took their seats, Iya stood to address them. He started all the way back at the story of his father and Shandian finding out about the goblin’s plot. He told them all about his and Tomi’s original plan. Then the possibilities which opened when I came to him for help. Our run to control my demon power and how that set up the excuse the Goblin King needed to start his purge.
He told them of our plan to go in with me as the assassin and to have him to do the spell work. He told them about finding the scrolls and how Feran caught the prince for us.
“We now have all the leverage we need to bring forth the remaining goblins on the king’s list and to create a peace contract with Tezky before returning him to his throne.”
Shandian looked scandalized. “I didn’t realize you planned on sending this monster home. He needs to be eliminated for his father’s crimes.”
Iya scowled. “And once he’s gone, who’s going to rule in his place?”
“A new ruler doesn’t matter,” Agma drummed razored nails on her desk, “Because we should wipe out the whole of goblin-kind. If they harbor such intentions, let’s eliminate them before the threat can grow anew.”
“Then we’d be no better than King Valkyv,” I shot back at her. “Hate can only breed hate.”
“There won’t be any goblins left to hate us when I get through with them,” she sneered.
“We can’t wipe them out,” Iya’s tone left no room for argument. “Like it or not, we need goblins. The biggest flaw in their plan is the fallout from killing us all off. There’s a balance required for generating magic. They’d have toppled that, and eventually, our world would have collapsed around their heads. If we get rid of them, we do the same to ourselves.”
“Agreed,” Feéroi joined in. “The safest solution for all magic-kind is diplomacy. But are you sure Tezky is the man to work with?”
“He’s the legitimate heir,” I said. “The goblins are more likely to accept our conditions if we negotiate peace through him. We’ve been careful to treat him well, for all he’s been captive. He might be persuaded to tell his people he left for diplomatic reasons, present the treaty, and carry on like normal.”
Tezky gave a cackling laugh. “You are one hilarious little hellhound’s wife, you know that? Just because you snuck in and took out my father, you think you have leverage? My father was a decrepit old fool, but I didn’t want him dead. You should have tried negotiating for peace first. I’m negotiating nothing with any of you now.”
“You had no influence prior to his death,” Iya said. “And you know as well as I do, he would never have negotiated. Not to mention, by the time we found out, there wasn’t enough time to negotiate before he put his plan in motion. We already had t
o deal with troops of goblin raiders inside our borders. You’re stalling . . .”
Iya went very pale, and Tezky smirked.
“Why were you near the border in Setmyth?”
Tezky shrugged.
“You’ve never once tried to escape.”
Tezky’s smile spread.
My chair clattered on the floor as I stood and scanned him with my power. “A tracking spell. It’s faint but there.”
A snarl of rage escaped Iya. “I checked him when Feran brought him in. He carried no trace of such a spell.”
Tezky’s hard laugh could have crumbled a diamond. “You really are stupid. You can have your dragon sleep with me in his coils, but that doesn’t keep me from activating latent magic during the times when no one is paying attention. Like I was coming to you openly advertising anything.”
“How could you be so foolish?” Agma hurled the question at both of us like a weapon.
Having her angry at me brought tears to my eyes. I blinked furiously. I wouldn’t lose my composure at a moment like this, in front of the demon lords of two countries.
Iya matched her venom. “I spent nearly three days with virtually no sleep and scant meals, carried out an assassination, got shot with an arrow, and still managed to escape a magically sealed palace. I didn’t forget to check on Tezky. All things considered, I wouldn’t count this as the result of idiocy. He just happened to outmaneuver me.” He turned on Tezky. “What’s your game?”
Tezky smirked back at him. “You thought I could let such a golden opportunity go by? You plotted to kill my father, and now I can kill all of you. I’m not stupid enough to kill off all magic-kind, but taking the thrones of all the demon lords for myself won’t offset the balance.”
“You’ll never kill us all,” Agma leaped to her feet, holding a deadly-looking ball of fire.
“I’m not going to.” He snapped his fingers, and a scroll appeared on his lap. “Every goblin in my army has taken a blood oath. One of the provisions is that any stolen magic they collect falls to me, or in the case of my demise, my son. Who, by the way, is hidden where you’ll never find him.”
“You don’t have a wife,” I snapped.
He gave me a derisive look. “You really are a laughable girl. I don’t need a wife to get a son. So kill me if you want, but every goblin in my army has a shot at taking you out and giving your power and right to rule to my son.”
Sickness roared in my stomach. “The goblin troops my dragon ate?”
“The first wave led by my father’s lords. And since you lazy demon lords so graciously took your time gathering here, I never even had to hide it. The palace should be surrounded already.”
“I saw no one when I arrived,” said Kessit.
“Yes, because my army was sitting around in plain daylight for you to see,” Tezky mocked. “They had to be close enough to count you as you arrived. Your blindness is your own fault.”
The demon lords passed glances. They might be able to take on the goblin army, but not at the risk of dying and passing their powers to a goblin prince. Iya stood and gave me a pointed look. I stood as well, heart thundering. Our moment had come.
Iya cleared his throat. “Olivia and I will take care of the army.”
“How?” Agma snapped. “She might have demon powers, but she’s just an imp. And when you two die and lose your powers to this fiend, then what?”
Iya crooked a finger at me. I went to his side, struggling with every step as if glue covered the floor. The idea any of them were going to accept us seemed slim.
“I’d like you to meet my mate.”
“No,” gasps ran around the room.
Iya put his arm around me. “We pair bonded before we took on the mission to kill the Goblin King. The stakes were too high. We did everything we could to minimize the risks.”
“This is a violation of international law,” Tezky roared.
“Shut up,” all eight of us yelled back at him.
“You and your despicable, plotting family can’t protest any violation of law. You wrote the book on it,” Agma hollered at him, then rounded on us. “Of all the selfish, scheming, despicable plots.” She bore down on me. “Stealing demon power in the first place wasn’t good enough for you?”
Iya stepped between us. “This wasn’t even her idea. I came up with the plan to bond. She even had a relationship with another man. But I insisted. I felt sure we would need the combined power, and we do. She gave up love to save your sorry ass.”
Iya took my hand and practically dragged me out the front door. “I’m going to use a spell to focus on every goblin around the palace. You work with fire well enough. Encase them all in fire so they can’t escape. I’ll open a gateway to the Goblin Kingdom, and we’ll shove them back through.”
“Gateways don’t work within the Borderlands,” I protested.
Iya went a little pale. “I know. I’ll have to make a double gateway. One to Earth, then back to the Goblin Kingdom.”
“Do we have that kind of power?”
“I hope so.”
“Everyone will expect you to kill them.”
“I don’t care what they expect. I told you what the consequences of wiping out the goblins are. You really want me to go there for revenge?”
“No.” I took his hand and squeezed. “But we’ll face more flack if we spare them. Either way, I’ll stand with you.”
“I love you, Livy.”
I brushed a kiss against his shoulder and squeezed his hand back. “I love you, too.”
He raised his hands, taking mine with his, and closed his eyes. I closed mine and could see what he willed the magic to do. The scale was mind-blowing.
He pulled my demon magic and combined it with his. Then he threw the magic out like a cloth over the surrounding forest. The presence of every goblin appeared as little points of heat on my magic. Hundreds. We would have to work with Iya’s plan. Even the two of us together couldn’t kill this many.
Doing as he asked, I surrounded each point with fire, carefully keeping the temperature down so the goblin wouldn’t burn. Iya pulled more of my power, and the gateway opened. He tightened the cloth of power around the goblins, herding them into the gateway. The first at the gateway resisted, but the push behind them got so great they fell through. Others followed more willingly.
My magic wavered. We’d never used this much before. My magic also had a strange smell. Normally it smelled of sweet chilies; Iya’s smelled like cinnamon bears. But this new smell wasn’t either of those, more like the cinnamon and chilies had gotten mixed in a blend which suddenly made me crave curry. Had we pushed too far in blending our power?
Iya still pulled power. Could he smell the curry? Or hear the roaring? The last of the goblins were going through the gateway. Iya pulled a bit more to seal it.
“All done.”
I tried to open my eyes but couldn’t. Iya’s voice came from far away through the noise in my ears.
“Olivia.”
My legs gave out. Blackness took me.
Chapter 24
A low beeping cut the darkness. I knew that noise. One heard it in hospitals. But why could I hear a medical sound? Sitting up, I blinked at my surroundings. The room looked the same as the private hospital in Lord Feéroi’s palace. When had we gone back to the Central Borderlands? At my movement, an alarm went off, and a plump dryad nurse bustled in and started checking me over.
“Get out,” Iya hissed at the nurse, sliding into the room and startling me.
He radiated a quiet, deadly anger. The nurse must have caught this because she gave a nervous squeak and ran for the door.
“What have you done?” he asked me as soon as we were alone.
“Done what? I’m confused.”
Iya’s face
flushed a deep crimson under his already red skin. “You are pregnant.” He drew the three words out to feel like ten.
“No . . .” I fumbled to apply that sentence to myself. “That can’t be. I’d know.”
“You’re carrying an evil, plotting, life-sucking beast,” Iya roared, his face turning nearly purple-red.
“What are you talking about?” I’d barely woken up, and he was attacking me.
He flicked out magic, and a vase that had been holding flowers for me exploded against the opposite wall. “It’s in your belly scheming against me as we speak. I warned you what an akuma child would do. Are you plotting too? Is this an attempt to be free of me using your own offspring to do the deed?”
“You’re crazy. Why would I plot against you?”
“God damn it, Olivia. Don’t play stupid. We all know you entered our pair bond reluctantly.”
“What you’re suggesting isn’t possible.” My head spun as information pounded through. I hadn’t had a period in a while. I’d been exhausted, moody, sick in the morning, and my magic had smelled off. Fury raged through me. I ripped the tubes out of my arms and ignored the screaming machines. I would tear Iya’s head off and feed it to the other demon lords. They’d eat anything.
“You stupid prick,” I snarled. “The only time I slept with you that could have led to this was before I even knew about why we’d have to pair bond.”
“But we had sex less than two weeks ago. It could have been a calculation. You knew . . .” Each sentence Iya spat out grew less angry and more pathetic. “You said you loved me. It’s going to come out and kill me before we even get to experience a life together.” He shuddered and pressed back against the wall as if I were venomous.
