Blood Stained Tranquility (54 page)

A male
Vy’shi
leaned forward, eyes on Zeniel. “You are the son of Sophron, the last of two males born to the royal lineage. That demoness only rules the war
Erencei
because you have allowed her to for this long. If you were to—”

Two
males? Wait . . . Zeniel had a brother?

Zeniel tensed so hard, Eve was hit with his dread, the sensation sinking deep into her stomach and making her forget her question. She placed her hand around his armor-covered thigh, staring up at his face.

“I don’t wish to be leader of the war
Erencei.
Never did.”

“It is not his destiny to be, either.”

All heads turned back to Nylicia.

“A female will take the throne of South
Eren.
And that female is in the medical wing as we speak.”

No freaking way. Sol?

“Soleria is descended of both the war
Eren
and the
Vy’shi.
She is the great-granddaughter of Mavrak’s brother, and part of the
Vy’shi
royal blood line as well. She’ll be the thing that unites both species. And she’s an angry one, so word to the wise:
Don’t
give her a hard time. Just bend over and accept your new sovereign.”

Murmurs broke out, rushing like a tidal wave down the length of the table.

Eve still couldn’t believe it. Soleria was destined to become a queen?

“Cilpera must be dethroned first,” a female called out.

Crius and Hades went single minded at the sound of that name, both staring at the table and obviously plotting murder.

Come to think of it, Dimi didn’t look too happy either. She did look eager, though, like she was seconds away from volunteering.

Evesse had seen enough when she’d locked eyes on Hades during battle to know who Cilpera was and what she’d done.

Xreak’s hard voice cut off all muttering. “We have more important issues to deal with first. The Aviraji have collapsed the entirety of the
Kystm
grid across the dimensions. We managed to seal the portals, but there are no longer any active gates between the realms. You can rest assured that they are going to start setting up their own
Kystm
grid, one we will not have access to.”

“What happens then?” Ismini asked from where she was sitting between Makayla and Dyletri.

“We’re going to do our best to shut down their gates as they go up. But we also need to start setting up our own secret grid. And I’m going to need thousands of volunteers to help with that.”

“I’ll set up the ones leading out of
Renentr
,” Crius said.

Hades nodded next to him, arms crossed as he leaned back in his seat. Cyake was still trapped inside a swirling rainbow-colored twister next to him, looking pissed to high hell. “I’ll take care of setting up some leading out of Hades. I’ve never allowed anyone free entry into my domain. Don’t make me regret it,
Sesengt
.”

XreakLi returned his nod. Voices rose as others volunteered.

“How about
Eren
?”

Nylicia got off the table. “The mind
Erencei,
element
Erencei,
peace
Erencei,
and all the other subspecies of demons have not come forward to join with us because they fear who is leading the war demons, and they don’t yet know that we are banding together. The mind
Erencei
are especially necessary to us. I will be dispatching emissaries to meet with them and bring them to our side. Zeniel . . . sorry to hit you with destiny when you least expect it, but you will be going to meet with the peace demons. As a war demon and God of Tranquility, you are the best suited to talk them into joining us.”

Eve grabbed Zen’s hand, squeezing it under the table. “You mean we’re going together.” Especially since Eve had a feeling that it wouldn’t be as simple as Zen just meeting with the peace demons.

Zen all but lifted her into his lap, his arm snaking around her and his hand settling on her hip.

The energy that had been holding down Cyake and Dago dissipated, leaving behind two sullen, nearly pouting males.

“A bunch of you are, actually.” Nylicia nodded, giving Eve a small smile. “You’ll also be one of Soleria’s main advisors when we set her up on the throne, so get used to the idea that, in some way, you will be leading your father’s subjects soon.” She didn’t give Zen the time to even make a sound in protest. Inhaling, as if she was bracing herself, she looked up at the ceiling. “The humans are a bigger issue. Maeltzkon is back in the picture.”

This time, the voices that broke out all over the hall were definitely panicked.

Humans? Really? The humans were a bigger issue to them than anything else?

Dago sneered. “That cult was supposed to have been eradicated long ago.”

“That
organization,
as they now are, apparently never disappeared. It’s been growing behind the scenes. They call themselves M-Kon now. And I can guarantee you this: They have amassed enough power and fortunes on Earth to give them all the technological weapons and advancements of all the world’s governments combined.” Nylicia shrugged one shoulder. “And now the Aviraji have tricked them into being on their side. So they have godly assets as well. Which means they’re also being given the technological advances of other planets, too.”

“They caused enough damage in ancient times! Now you are telling us they have this kind of power?” someone yelled out, slamming a fist on the table.

“Yes. And they have something worse, too.” Nylicia paused, her expression turning sheepish. “
Someone,
rather.”

Cyake shot up in his seat, looking up and down the length of the table, searching.

Confused, Evesse looked up at her mate.

Zen’s wide eyes were locked on Nylicia.

Evesse tried to use her powers to see what the hell was up, but her powers had become dormant the moment she’d landed on Enzyria, and, when she turned to look at Nylicia, all she saw was that the female was standing there, tapping her index fingers nervously against each other.

“What do they have?” Dyletri asked, leaning toward her, his forearm flat on the table’s surface.

Even XreakLi was staring at the back of Nylicia’s head questioningly.

“Where is he?” Cyake snapped, jumping to his feet. “Where the fuck is he?”

Nylicia cringed, nailing Cy with her big eyes. “M-Kon has him.”

“
What
?” Cyake roared.

Nylicia cringed some more. “M-Kon captured him.” She bit down on the knuckle of her thumb, and her next words were strained. “They have Ianthen.”

An atomic bomb of blue, white, red, and black energy exploded in the direction of the table, and everyone was thrown out of their chairs as the hundred-foot piece of marble went flying in the air.

It shot through one of the walls, landing in the courtyard outside with a loud crash.

Eve landed on top of Zen, who’d latched onto her and braced her fall. Moving her hair out of her face, she tried to find the source of that blast.

She found it. Standing by the stairs, fists clenched, and her body surrounded by a freaking twister of brutal, primal power in the same color as the blast, was Soleria.

A light blue-and-black eyed Soleria whose cheekbones had changed and who now had war demon markings slithering all over her exposed skin.

“What the hell did you just say?” Soleria asked slowly.

Nylicia reappeared, completely unruffled by the blast while
Vy
’
shis
and
Sesengts
struggled to their feet, every one of them staggering away from Soleria and the planet’s-core worth of power that was churning around her. “M-Kon has Ianthen?” This time, it came out as a question.

The next blast that shot out of Sol sent every single statue in the hall flying up toward and into the ceiling.

The fifteen-foot-tall one of Cy went through the golden dome, breaking it apart.

Golden flecks and the satellites rained down in its wake.

Nylicia held up a finger, meeting Soleria’s enraged black-and-light blue stare calmly. “I can tell you where to find him. You just gotta promise me you’re gonna kill everyone that gets in your way.”

Soleria didn’t even blink. No, she just continued to seethe. “Done.”

Epilogue

-Eighth dimension, Q’anneosis.

Cailyptsia’s Realm.

Pervasive darkness irritated the fuck out of her human eyes. Black marble walls that usually reflected back the light of thousands of candles surrounded her. The candles were currently unlit, which meant that the realm’s ruler was off sulking somewhere. No doubt she’d had another falling out with her could-have-been “daughter-in-law.”

She’s going to be your mother-in-law now, too.

Spari nearly tripped over her own feet. Where the fuck had that thought come from? No way. That shit hadn’t begun yet, and even when it did, there was no way she was accepting it that easy. No. Fucking. Way.

As the only human allowed free entry here, Spari had been through these maze-like corridors over and over again. Not just in her current lifetime either. In all her lifetimes. Thanks to that, she had the path memorized.

She turned a corner and walked into a large hallway flanked by demonic statues. Usually, when Spari reached this point in the dimension, she was hit with pure pity for the fact that her sister was trapped here. Not because the place wasn’t nice in its own right, even though it could be dark and cold as hell, but because Nylicia couldn’t leave it. At all.

This time, however, she felt nothing. As a matter of fact, for the first time in fourteen thousand years, she was fucking glad that her sister was trapped.

It wasn’t enough to stop her interfering ass from shoving her nose where it didn’t belong. Or from purposely orchestrating a completely fucked-up series of events.

Spari felt like a monster ready to tear into someone as she walked down the huge hall, going deeper into the Goddess of Destruction’s dimension. Cailyptsia was fucking lucky she was off pouting gods-knew-where. If Spari had come face-to-face with her, she would have found a way to cause some harm to the female for bringing those three annoying sons of hers to the Universe. Human or not, Spari would have laid the smack down on her.

The more Spari thought about it, the more upset she got. Not only had Cailyptsia given birth to assholes, she had forced the mating on Nylicia that ultimately led to her living fourteen millennia in proverbial hell.

And Spari had been condemned to a fate almost as horrid.

By her own condemned sister.

How could Nylicia force Cyake on her? What the hell had possessed the female into thinking that was okay? After all she had been put through as a result of Cailyptsia’s orchestrations, one would think Nylicia would have more common sense than that!

By the time Spari made it to Nylicia’s chambers, she was practically frothing at the mouth. Her sister resided in the lowest chamber in the dimension. Not only to avoid Cailyptsia as much as possible, but to avoid Destruction’s first born son lest he visited. After all, he could never know that she still existed, let alone that she was there of all places.

She drew closer to the huge entryway leading into Nylicia’s chamber and caught the sound of several voices coming from within her sister’s room. Fucking great. The “Watcher of Destinies” never entertained, but she had picked the exact moment that Spari was coming to rip her a new one to start.

Spari stopped at the entrance, just in sight of Nylicia’s projection. She was deep in conversation with another projection.

“You didn’t tell me when you sent me to spy on him that he is part of M-Kon!” Lizzisi, Goddess of Light, complained with a deep frown on her face.

Oh, lookie there. Someone else her sister was hiding shit from and sending off into the middle of messes.

Spari
so
wasn’t surprised.

“And?” Nylicia asked, with the kind of disregard that only she could pull off.

Spari clenched her fists.

“Does she know he exists?” Lizzisi asked. “Do either of them know that we know where they are now?”

“Nope. Not yet. But I promise you, Liz. You get this done, and the Brahmastra is yours. I would think that the mercenary in you would be more concerned about that then the minor details.”