Chapter 39

39

I opened my eyes and turned my head.

Wild was on the bed next to me. We were in our temporary room. I’d been moved by Sven and Rooke while Corey and Huxley had moved Wild in here from the eating chamber where he’d collapsed in near-tandem with myself three days ago.

How did I know this?

Not the stiffness in my body, nor the hunger gnawing at the walls of my stomach.

Wild opened his eyes, and we shared an acknowledgment and an awe.

“Whoa,” he whispered.

Whoa indeed.

Threads filled the room. They weren’t entirely foreign to me. I’d glimpsed them a few times, first of all while training in the battle center.

Their appearance had altered. Four very distinct energies now formed the threads—the red grimoire lattice, the black battle smoke, the white apothecary casing around the first two, and then a thick gray line that sat at the very center of the red lattice.

Divination.

I’d wondered at the threads, not recognizing them for what they were because they’d never led anywhere, nor tied anyone together.

Not like they did now.

The red lattice was knowledge, and not just my own. It was impossible knowledge from this coven and those I had connection to outside of the coven. I knew some of what they knew—enough for my grimoire affinity to unite with the robe cladding my back to make leaps and put patterns together.

Knowledge.

The black battle smoke provided the drive and fight to form pathways through the red lattice. The battle smoke presented the need for me to understand the map before me in a way that would allow me to defend and attack in the name of protecting those in this coven.

Fight.

The role of the white apothecary glow around the red and black had been obvious from the start. There was a need for my magic to work as one and not as four different entities funneled through four different relics. This was the role of the white.

Harmony

And lastly, divination.

The gray lines snaked in every which direction, but unlike when I’d first noticed the threads, each line had a destination. They poured from Wild for instance, and if I chose, then I could follow one to Sven, one to Corey, and one to almost every member in this coven. I could trace one to his parents and see all they’d shared. I could see Wild’s past and the paths available to him and where they may lead. Seeing all that would take time, and too far ahead, I had a feeling the pathways would grow murkier or fainter.

My divination magic gave form to the threads.

Direction.

A tear trickled from my eye to soak into the blankets. “It’s my quipu.”

“Yes, my love. Your magic never left.”

The physical form of my quipu was set alight. There had always been the potential to make a new quipu about some other difficulty that popped up in life down the track, but I’d never foreseen what the threads meant.

Perhaps my magic never would have given me this gift if not for how it interacted with Ryzika’s relics.

I pressed a shaking hand against my mouth. It wasn’t all gratefulness. I could see so much. It was overwhelming to an enormous degree.

Wild’s arms wrapped around me. “Pull it all in, my queen.”

No easy feat.

His magic wrapped around mine, protecting it. Wild helped to pull in my four affinities to our center. I listened to his steady breaths and focused on his warmth as my vision returned to show me the room itself without the lattice of threads present. The quipu was fainter but still here.

From now on, I’d walk through a three-dimensional version of the knots and braids that used to hang on my wall.

“This will be disorientating,” I whispered.

“This is… Tempest. Do you know what this means?” he hushed.

He spoke the words, and as soon as my mind turned to the answer of his question, a pathway flared before me. I blinked and peered down the snaking thread into the distance as far as I could bear to see.

The pathway was massive and not just one thread but hundreds.

“Yes,” I stated.

Wild exhaled. “You may be able to see a way to beat the demons.”

I sat in bed. “We need to play Caves.”

“Uh… what?”

I got out of bed, pulling my robe around me. Maybe a bath was in order before I did anything else. A thread spiking out of my left upper arm rippled. I walked to the door and yanked it open. Sven was on the other side, his hand raised to knock.

“You’re awake,” he said.

I arched a brow. “Do you usually knock when you expect people not to be awake?”

He scrubbed at his face. “We tried to keep everything together while you were gone.”

I studied the threads pouring out of him. “I know.”

“The red smoke is spilling out of the ravines. We’ve pulled the sentries back. It’s moving slow, but definitely moving.”

“Yes,” I answered.

“The coven is scared,” Sven said next.

“I’m aware.”

He stopped and peered closer at me. “What’s wrong with you?”

“I have a quipu in my mind.”

“Oh, right.” He nodded a few times, then shook his head. “What the fuck does that mean?”

“It means I can see a lot of stuff, including that when Rooke gets pregnant, your parents will stop all their bullshit. All of it. They’ll be fantastic grandparents, and you’ll have the family you’ve always wanted.”

His jaw dropped.

Wild warmed my back. “I looked the same about ten seconds ago. What do you mean, we need to play Caves?”

Sven’s jaw dropped further.

I nodded. “We need to play Caves.”

Looked like there wouldn’t be a bath in my immediate future. “Come on, the coven is about to gather.”

“But—” Sven said.

I walked off down the tunnel, and the two men followed in my wake.

“What the fuck is so funny?” Sven snapped at Wild. “She’s lost her mind.”

“Gained it,” Wild said in reverent tones. “Isn’t she incredible?”

“Fucking crazy” was the reply. “We can’t play Caves right now.”

“Your mind is so small,” I responded. “Tiny.”

“It had to be to make up for my size elsewhere.” Sven laughed nervously. “But seriously, she’s not going to march in there and demand the game resumes, is she? You two have been out of it for two days. The supernaturals haven’t been in touch. The other covens don’t appear to know about her demon side yet, but they will soon enough. The advisors have received a list of transfer applications the length of my… well, it’s big, I’ll say that much.”

I kept walking, and as the rumble of shouts and crashing from the coven increased, and I made to enter the eating chamber, Sven bodily stepped in front of me.

“I can’t let you do this,” he said, half begging. “You need to lead this coven, and this isn’t the way. They need…”

I waited. “Time?”

“We don’t have any of that.”

“No,” I agreed, then studied his pathways. “We have seventy-two hours, in fact. You have done so much more than most here to keep this coven together. Thank you, Sven. It’s been hard on you, and it’s harder still to think that you may need to relinquish control when your life and Rooke’s are on the line along with everyone you know and love. But it’s time to let go.”

He closed his eyes. “You said that Rooke and I would have a child.”

“If we take the pathway I see, then that is a possibility. It is not in all other possibilities, except for the one where you and she run tonight and leave the coven to their fate. If you do that, then you will definitely have a child. Multiple. Though your parents won’t be involved in that future.”

Sven opened his gaze and looked down into mine. “If we leave, then she’ll be safe. If we don’t, she may not be safe.”

“You can exist in safety alone and out in the human world. Or you can risk death in the coven to fight for a life here with those who love you.” There was no judgment in my words. Those were just his options.

Sven took a breath. “Fuck. What a choice.”

I nodded. “It is. Get out of my way, large man.”

He paused, then dipped his head. “You got it, small woman.”

I entered the chamber, reaching back to take Wild’s hand in mine. We walked through the ranks of the quietening magus. They’d been shouting at each other not to shout so they could shout at the row of very stressed advisors lined up on the stage in front of the authority. Or something to that effect. No wonder the red smoke had spilled out of the ravines.

Slow.

Sven had mentioned the smoke moved slowly. That wasn’t usual for him, the demon wing in my mind informed me. Something was amiss in his realm, or he wasn’t at full strength. What, I couldn’t say, and yet I sensed that my demon did know. She simply believed the knowledge either wasn’t useful or that she wasn’t ready to share at this time. It wasn’t the first time I’d felt that from her, but now we’d merged, it was far more obvious that she was concealing something.

Part of possessing this quipu was also respecting that there should be limits to what I peered at. Like Sven, I’d figure that out in time, but I wouldn’t disrespect my demon’s wishes by prying. She had our best interests at heart.

“They’re awake,” someone said.

There was relief in her voice. For the most part, I wasn’t sure what to make of the opinions and emotions in the room, only that everyone was feeling very strongly, whatever emotion they’d settled on.

The coven did part ways for me to access the stage, and when I climbed the few stairs there, the advisors stepped back to allow me space.

I ran my gaze over them, seeing any number of thoughts on their faces. These people had been closest to me in the last few weeks, and yet that could have left them feeling angriest at my revelation of four days prior. Varden looked terrible. This was his worst fear come true. Winona was set on a solution to the red smoke. Delta had taken my betrayal hard, as had Ruby, but she could admit that I’d always had an edge, and this explained why. My edge should be utilized.

Opal hadn’t liked much of what I’d done. My unusual approach to the supernatural alliance made sense to her now. She’d never seen harm in me, and she felt for my grandmother, though she couldn’t fathom what my mother had seen in a demon. She expected my mother was taken forcefully by him.

Huxley was 100 percent on board.

Barrow… he felt embarrassed most of all. He liked to think his position made him privy to inside information. He’d been put on the spot and made to look foolish.

I regarded them all. “I’m sorry for the turmoil you feel, and for the turmoil you’ve had to deal with since.”

Meanwhile, I’d passed out again. How many times was this now? I really had slept—or undergone a series of transformations—for most of my leadership.

Facing the coven, I reeled back as hundreds of thousands of threads surged forward to greet me.

My knees hit the stage, and I squeezed my eyes shut.

Wild was crouched next to me, and I clung to him as we went through a more intense version of the centering process of this new quipu magic. I was panting by the end of it, and as I recovered, I became painfully aware of the white glow of Wild’s magic surrounding us.

Wild looked up at the coven. “There’s been a development in Tempest’s magic. A good one, but one that will take time for her to grow used to.”

I rested a hand on his thigh. “Help me up.”

“Can you stay standing?”

Considering the only place to sit was the authority that I couldn’t sit on unless invited to do so… yes, I could stand. “They’re manageable for the time being.”

I could see the faces of the coven through the lattice.

“Wild’s right,” I told them. “The Mother, Ryzika, and my ancestors have gifted me something that may see us survive the battle in three days.”

Three days. I saw the two words passed around.

“How do I know?” I voiced their obvious question. “Because it turns out that I am able to see my quipu in a way that’s entirely new to me.” I tapped my temple. “The pathways and patterns that were evident to me on the quipu that Frond ordered four of the magus in this room to burn.” I paused. “And yes, I know who each of you is.”

The four magus had been part of Frond’s group. Two intended to leave the coven and had filled in a transfer application. The other two were horrified at how they’d been taken in by Frond.

“That quipu is now available to me in a way that can’t be burned,” I told the coven. “The scale of the quipu is unlike anything I’d ever created physically. With it, as with how I used the quipu in Caves, I am able to see the best path to our success.”

My words weren’t registering with everyone. Some couldn’t tear their focus off my black scales and the wisps of black smoke escaping me now and then. They couldn’t see past these demon attributes for now. Maybe they never would.

“I have not come to claim the authority,” I said. “My words to you four days ago hold true on that front. I come to freely offer this pathway to my coven so that we may live. Because I am part of this coven in my heart. I would be bereft without you. I would be bereft to lose the place I know as home. I will do everything in my power to protect it whether on the authority or not… if you chose to let me do so.”

The coven members looked at each other.

Winona spoke, “Many of you are angry. You have the right to feel that way. I urge you to not react in anger now by shunning this offer. We have trained to fight the demons. As of yet, other covens have not rescinded their support. We have formed weapons to defend ourselves too. We are not powerless now, just as we were never powerless in Caves.” She glanced at me. “And yet with this power, Tempest was able to end a three-hundred-year-old game in less than three months. You can feel anger while also making a choice that aids the survival of our family.”

Would I trust someone who’d concealed such a truth from me? Would I follow their magic blindly in this moment?

Only if I were desperate enough, and only then because I’d seen it work.

There were a few nods.

Delta called, “A show of those who would like to accept Tempest’s offer, please.”

Fingertips glowed blue and red throughout the eating chamber. Those of the advisors behind me shined blue. Wild’s did too.

The wave of blue appeared in large patches throughout the coven. Together, those patches formed over half. Two-thirds even.

Two-thirds of the magus here were desperate enough to accept my offer. The rest thought trusting me was the epitome of stupid.

Varden limped forward. “The majority have voted to accept Tempest’s offer. Regarding the choice of leadership in this coven, I suggest we put that aside for now. That is not the real threat, and if we focus on that, then three days shall see us wiped away.” His sweeping scan of the coven was severe. “Might I remind those who voted against accepting Tempest’s guidance that they are part of a coven and therefore will abide by the decision of the coven. We will have no more individuals acting as Frond did. Not only will this not be tolerated, that person will be treated as the danger they are. We, all of us, are weary after the last few days of upheaval. Find peace or silence however you can while we fight for our lives.”

He dipped his head. “For what it’s worth, Tempest, I am very glad you’ve chosen to keep fighting for us. Tell us, how do we defeat the demon king?”

How was a big fucking question that would take time for me to filter through and explore. I may not even have time to fully understand every segment of what could happen before the demon king’s smoke encompassed us.

I did know the setting and how it would begin.

The threads had been flashing the answer like a damn neon sign since I woke.

A touch of amusement found me. Because the answer had stared me in the face for weeks. Hadn’t I resolved to always listen? Hadn’t I worried at the issue of how to resume Caves without strengthening division and the food source for the demons’ power?

I’d always looked at Caves as magus versus magus.

I’d never turned the puzzle around in my hands and seen the other face of it.

That Caves could be magus versus demon.

That we’d been in the perfect training for three hundred years already. That no one knew our home like us, and that no one had more incentive to protect it or the knowledge and real-life practice in doing so.

The solution was beautifully simple. And not a single person in this room, including me, would have ever seen it coming.

The demons had to be drawn down into the last place we instinctively wanted them. We had to invite the monster through the door.

I smiled at the waiting coven. “We play Caves.”