Father’s eyes widened as he tasted what was in the cup.
“How did you?—”
“We know some people who went to the human realm recently,” I said. “It was of little effort to ask them to bring us back a bottle of your favorite human liquor.”
Father would never admit it, but there were many things that he liked about the humans. Their flesh, for one, and their inventions—such as whiskey—another.
“You truly are trying to butter me up,” he said before throwing back the rest of the drink in one gulp.
Neither Eros nor I could keep the smile off our faces. Father truly thought his good little minions had returned to him.
“And you’ll be happy to know tomorrow they will be on their knees in front of you for their unsanctioned visit to the human realm.”
Father let out a laugh. “Perfect. You two arealmostforgiven. This is a good start.”
His words angered me more deeply than I expected and Ihad trouble not lunging at him. He didn’t ask if we forgave him for what he had done to Eve. In his mind, he was doing the right thing.Sickening.I couldn’t wait to give him what he deserved.
For Mother.For Eve.
He got up, placing the cup back on the table.
“Looking forward to tomorrow. Make sure that bottle gets sent to my room.”
“Already done, Father,” Eros said with a smile.
He left the dining room and Eros and I waited in silence. When the sound of a clock chiming throughout the palace reached us, we slowly looked at each other.
“Ready?” Eros asked.
“Born ready.”
With a forced restraint, we made our way up to our father’s room, opening the door just enough to shed some light inside.
It was time.And by the sound of his shallow breathing, our little present had already worked its magic.
“Some things cannot be forgiven,” I growled as I watched Father stumble in the darkness of his room as he got up from the bed. The crown, still on his head, glimmered in the darkness.
It didn’t even surprise me that he slept with the damned thing on.
We only had a few minutes before his guards sensed something was wrong. Not that they weren’t going to have a surprise of their own.
As it turned out, so many more were loyal to the realm, to the whole family, to my mother—to us.
“What did you do?” Father wheezed, his hand clasping his throat.
“Do you feel it?” Eros asked from my side, a feral smile spread across her face. “The fire?”
“Originally, we wanted you to be tried by the court,” I said,crossing the room. “Wanted to show every demon in existence what you had done to their queen. The crimes you’d committed while ruling them.”
He let out a hard cough, and his hand came up, motioning for us to stop. But it was too late. He had fallen into our trap.
This is what you get for taking what’s ours. For hurting her.
“You can’t do this to me,” he forced out as his throat began to close. He fell to the ground, his entire body shaking.
I leaned down, getting eye level with him. Eros was standing behind me, her laugh echoing through the room.
“Do you know how hard it was to find demon poison?” I asked, tilting my head to the side. “Remember that uprising all those years ago? When the humans threatened to murder you? You did good work getting rid of every fire lily just in case they could get their hands on one—or at least you thought you had.”
