Revealed in Fire (Demon Days & Vampire Nights #9)(4)

“You cannot hide here forever,” Cahal finished.

“I know. The plan is to hide until I am better acquainted with my magic. Which is really coming along, thanks to you. It’s lucky for me you saw my father training one of his heirs.” Not so lucky for my half-brother, though. His other half was human, and he’d died a miserable death in the Underworld.

“You asked about the elephants.” He fell silent for a while. “They are my favorite, yes, though my pain in seeing their death only…makes me soupy—”

“There you go. Now you’re getting it.”

“—because of my relationship with you.”

“I’m not following.”

“That is because you are incredibly impatient, and I have not yet explained.” His look suggested violence, and since I wanted to hear this, I pursed my lips in a show of silence. No baiting the druid when I wanted info. I’d learned the hard way. “I knew the last heir, as I’ve said. Not terribly well, but well enough that I was invited to watch him blossom under Lucifer’s care in the Dark Kingdom—”

“Wait.” I turned and put the edge of my hand against his arm to stop him. “You were in the Dark Kingdom?”

“Yes.”

“You got past the fog?”

“This was before the treaty your father was backed into by the elves. There was no fog. Any creature could come and go as they pleased, enjoying the sights, as Lucifer intended.”

“The treaty…” My perfect recall system, something I’d gained from my bond to Darius, brought up what he was talking about. Darius had been schooling me on all the politics—stuff I didn’t really want to know but probably should learn just in case. They were long, boring lectures only made bearable because of the frequent breaks he took to pleasure me. “Right, right. Lucifer tried to carve out a space in the Realm for his son, who was deteriorating in the Underworld because of his human side—he didn’t have the lineage of the gods like I do. The elves denied him. If Lucifer’s son had wanted to simply live in the Realm, under their rule, that would’ve been fine—or so the records say—but Lucifer wanted to create his own territory in the Realm. They tried to kick him out, he decided he’d just take their throne, and after a long, bloody battle, the elves forced him to return down below and his son stupidly followed. The son died, Lucifer was pissed, but the treaty held. What about the lack of oxygen, though? How’d you deal with that?”

“Again, that wasn’t an issue at the time. Now, however…” He paused. “I am god-touched, as you know.” Something he didn’t often speak of because it would make him a target for other magical people who wanted the same gifts. It was the same sort of magic Penny had stolen from a horrible little goblin we were sent to get rid of, and then shared with Emery through their bond. “My power can have a nulling effect on Lucifer’s, just like Penny’s spells null your magic.”

“And that’s why you can withstand my fire to some degree, and push away my walls.”

“Unless you correctly apply your power, yes. The fog and air weren’t a problem at that time, and now I can successfully walk through his fog and breathe in the inner court of the Dark Kingdom, even though his spells mask the air. He cannot use magic to deny me access—”

“Wait, wait…” My hand was back against his arm. “They mask the air? There is actually air in the center of the kingdom?”

“He does not live in a vacuum-sealed bubble. Of course there is air.”

“I hear you—I realize that you are calling me dense—but seriously, how was I supposed to know that? Physics in homeschool didn’t cover the Underworld.” I blew out a breath. “Wow. That’s a shocker. So wait…Penny and Emery can get into the Underworld since they have the god-touched magic?”

“Yes, though they shouldn’t, unless you or Lucifer strip away the magical pitfalls designed to impede their kind. There are magical traps for those who don’t belong that being god-touched won’t totally nullify.”

“Huh.”

“Getting back to the point…” he said, and I curled my lips inward. “The Underworld changed the heir significantly, and not just because the magic corroded his human side. Power corrupted his mind.

“When I think back on it, I must admit that the heir started out wanting. If he were in your position now, the only thing he’d want was more. More riches, more luxury, more power. He’d lord his good fortune over others. In your position, he’d force your friends, the natural dual-mages, further into the vampire’s employ so as to control them. Or, at least, that’s the kind of person he became.”

“And you were the friend he tried to force?”

“More of an acquaintance, but yes. He asked me to be his guard, and I refused. He tried to lure me with riches and power. Another refusal. The next lure was women—their version of women, at any rate. Then he tried to beguile me into a contract, which was the most laughable attempt of all. It showed his ignorance of how my kind work. And finally, he tried to force me.”

“He tortured an elephant?”

Again came the look.

“It’s not that I’m impatient,” I replied, “it’s that you take forever to get to the point.”