Prologue

The mighty—yetcurrently trapped—demon king paced back and forth by the locked portal, its surface hazed and impenetrable. For centuries he'd been waiting. Waiting for the sacrifice that would set him free.

He needed the blood of a messovenata, someone with sangual blood, or more simply, someone holding both the male and female sides of magic. For centuries, he'd waited for one to be born so he could be freed, the required conditions difficult to replicate. But he'd tried as best he could from his prison. Blame his failure on his idiotic minions with their puny brains. Not only did they have difficulty retaining and following orders, but they tended to be bloodthirsty when they smelled magic. It led to them killing rather than cultivating those with the potential to birth a messovenata.

But this time he could smell freedom within reach. The scars on his body numbered in the hundreds, each cut releasing some of the essence needed to communicate with those still loyal to him.

There were few left because of his enemies, the Dark Princes, the sons he should have strangled at birth. They'd dared to subvert his loyal legions and destroy his chance at escape, preferring to incur his wrath rather than set him free and once more be subjugated to his will. They'd pay with their lives for this betrayal. After all, easy enough to make new heirs—not that he ever planned on dying.

However, all his plans hinged on opening the fucking portal so he could leave his infernal prison. His minions needed to capture the messoventa, and they'd best do so before she learned to use her power.

Given they couldn't be fully entrusted with such an important task, he cast a spell, the large slice across his chest a painful burn that filled his basin with blood. Blood as dark as the stone that surrounded him.

Over top of that precious fluid he chanted and opened a conduit that allowed a part of his essence to slip into the single tiny flaw in his prison. A thread of himself that managed to enter the mind and turn to his cause someone who would be useful.

A person close to the reaper witch. By the time they realized the betrayal, it would be too late.