Chapter Forty-Two

***Keiran***

One more trip to the Lands Once lost. I can make it.

I have to. Or I am going to die.

My people, all seven hundred thousand of them, will die with me in just fourteen hours, and Xaden is throwing a hissy fit about the Offering. Of all four of us, he’s always treated the Offerings the worst. The things he’s done to them haven’t even compared to me locking them occasionally in a cell.

And now, of all the time in the world, of the three millennia I’ve known Xaden, now he decides to become a feminist? To protect the Offering over even me, myself?
Fuck your population, he said. Even though the people are the reason he came here. The reason he shares his power with me is to enhance the wards.

I know the Offering’s lips are pretty wrapped around a cock, but even the best blowjob of a man’s life doesn’t change a person.

My hands curl over the marble table. What the fuck happened last night?

Magic explodes from me and Xaden simultaneously in a fit of rage.

He’s attacking me now, too?

What. The. Fuck.

I barely have any magic to spare for the trip to the Lands Once Lost, let alone a fight with the Demon Slayer, so almost as quickly as it begins, it’s over.

“Fine,” I spit out, “your little girlfriend can come.”

I send Vienna and the trembling Offering away with a wave of my hand so I can think alone. Night will be here soon, followed by a two-hour sail.
Normally it takes us seventeen to get to the island, but I’ll winnow us as fast as I can.

If no one else cares about this island, its inhabitants, I will take that burden alone.

Always have, always will. If that makes me an asshole to pretty girls like Remi, then I’m an asshole.

No one is dying during my reign.

It’s the way they’ll die, too, that gets to me.

A long time ago, to ensure my compliance, the Witches established certain traps. Ways to make sure I never abandoned them. The full extent of the intricacy of their liability I don’t know, but I’ve seen visions of forest fires, poisoned rain, babies lying dead and bleeding in the streets.

It’s an image I’d rather die than see play out.

And heavy is the weight of the crown.

The wait for sunset feels like an eternity. Vienna and Xaden return occasionally, as well as the twins, to take orders, ready the ship, and ask me quick and quiet questions.

I’m another burden for not being able to leave sooner. But that is a punishment from another time, another cruel and powerful leader.

Once we have my Black Pearl, I’ll travel to their lands and destroy them.

The desperate sense of urgency I feel is unlike anything I’ve ever felt before. My heart pounds in my chest, heavy against my ribs, and all I can do is serve myself another pour.

While I wait for the sun to set, I strap as many weapons to my body as I can. Once my power is restored, they’ll be as meaningless as the toothpicks Rhodes always has in his mouth.

I’m fucking invincible with my power.

And absolutely nothing without it.

When the clock strikes eight PM, the door to my tomb opens.

Everyone is ready. Even Remi wears black fighting leather and a thin sword.

“You’re all coming?” I ask.

“Of course, we are,” Kallias answers, but something about his tone suggests that he’s only coming because of the girl in the room.

The Offering is set between the twins and looks like a tiny doll against their height. Everything about her appears fragile and breakable, but she’s different now in the fighting leathers, with a sword.

She reminds me a lot of her older sister I murdered.

We haven’t had an offering survive the Ceremony in thousands of years, and typically, before it, the power and authority all fall to me. No one steps out of line or touches her.

But now that the Ceremony is over…my little doe is being secretly watched by Xaden, Kallias, and Rhodes, in a way that makes something dark and twisted settle in my stomach.

I’ve never had to compete for the Offering's attention, for their submission, or my authority.

It’s an even playing field, now.

And my chosen brothers know it.

That feeling makes me want to rip open each of their stomachs and choke them with their guts.

Maybe once I have my power.

“So how do we get there?” The Offering asks.

“The best way is to winnow,” I answer.

She stares at me for several seconds, taking note of my exhaustiveness, no doubt. “Can you win now?”

“Not the entire way,” I admit. “I can only do about two hundred miles or so, and I need time to recharge my energy between.”

“We can take every other,” Rhodes offers.

“No,” I shake my head. “I need you…” the words are embarrassing almost, and my words come out gruff. “I need you and Kallias guarding her.”
Everyone in the room exchanges a look. Like they know something I don’t.

“Actually,” Kallias scratches the back of his head. “Xaden has offered to protect her, and we agreed.”

My mouth opens, then shuts. Despite a few hundred years in service to me, the twins and Xaden have a deep-rooted history of hating each other. They’ve never trusted each other, not even on the battlefield. And I’ve lost quite a few wars because of such.

“You can’t be serious,” I laugh. Even a fool could notice that the twins care for Remi, or maybe even fall in love with her.

Rhodes grants me an expression that he is, in fact, serious.

I raise the flats of my palms. “Whatever.”

“So we’ll winnow your ship,” Remi says, and again, my eyebrows raise.

What has happened since the Sacrifice? Has every single one of my subordinates suddenly found a voice?

They need a reminder of power and fear.

Perhaps one of them needs to be killed off.

Vienna flips her cherry red hair off her shoulder like she’s bored. “Yep, but not from the docks.”

Remi looks around at us all. Perhaps being captive by all of us has taught her when to pick up on danger. “Then…from where?”

Xaden pushes himself from where he was leaning against the wall. To my complete, and utmost surprise, the twins part slightly for him, sacrificing their want to be close to the Offering for the god-like protection he offers.

“To get to my home, little one,” the Demon Slayer holds Remi’s gaze in a way I’ve never seen from him before. I forget sometimes that he’s told her where he's from. It's his darkest secret, and he once threatened to slay Vienna alive if she told anyone.

Now they're all standing around as if it's nothing. The twins watch The Offering's every breath and movement, Xaden speaking poetry, and Vienna readjusting Remi's blade on her back so it's properly fitted.

They’re all mad. My whole Inner Circle has gone mad.

“We have to draw the ship over Persephone’s Waterfall.”

The Offering pulls back. “You must be joking.”

She looks terrified and fragile for a moment, but then puts her hands on her hips.

The twins start towards the door. “We never joke about sailing off waterfalls.”

“I don’t want to freefall from a waterfall.”

“Too bad,” I tell her and steer her out the door.

She wants autonomy? Fine.

At least if she dies it will be on her.