A familiar cold iced my chest, and my heart slowed to a steady beat. I became a creature of instinct when riled, and none of the self-improvement I had done up to this point had a place here.
“No magic.” Delma dropped her glamour and flexed her clawed fingers at her sides. “Daemon rules.”
“I’m not a daemon.” I palmed my wand. “Not even half. Your rules don’t apply to me.”
Jerking her head toward the column of water, she growled, “Grandmother—”
“Allowances must be made,” Calixta decreed. “She has no daemon form, as you do. She has no control of an element as you do. Would it be fair for her to defend herself as little more than human?”
Yes was written in the pinch of Delma’s mouth and the spasm under her eye. “No.”
“This was a setup.” I fed magic into my wand as she drew a long dagger. “You get that right?”
“Obviously,” Delma snapped. “I’ve worked on it for months.”
“No.” I pitied her. I really did. “She set you up to die, and you did all the work for her.”
“Heirs must be tested,” she gritted out, lunging for me. “I must prove myself fit to rule.”
Using my forearm, I blocked her jab without her slicing me open, but her strength was immense.
To throw her off, I hit her where it hurt. Right in the paranoia. In the same mania that drove her to kill.
“Aedan never mentioned he’s descended from royalty. Strange he would leave that off his application.”
Aedan, who was also my cousin.
So freaking weird.
Now I felt icky for joking about him dragging me beneath the waves to his undersea kingdom to be his bride.
Icky, and yet oddly prescient.
“He believes the lie we were all told, that Calixta is dead.” She spun aside, out of reach, too quick for me to get my wand involved. “Our grandfather was one of her many consorts, and they had ten children together. Calixta never married. She didn’t want to share her power. But after she was declared dead, rather than passing the crown to her offspring, who were all illegitimate, the throne was passed to a distant cousin.”
Delma jabbed, careful not to get too close, testing me, determining my weak spots.
“The threat of Calixta’s bloodline rising against the usurper queen was too strong. The usurper queen stabbed the consorts in their hearts and slit the throats of the children. All except for my father and me. He had been loaned out to a favorite of Calixta’s, a friend from another court, one who was interested in my future services as well.” The next stab landed closer as she hit her stride. “When word came that Calixta was dead, that Grandfather was dead, Father and I were left with only the clothes on our backs. No one would shelter us. No one would dare. That is why Aedan didn’t tell you. The shame is immeasurable.”
Her reach was longer than mine, and she didn’t have to worry about her weapon being cleaved in two.
Keep the insults coming, wear her out, make her sloppy.
Only then could I risk getting close enough to strike.
“So, instead of taking the out you were given, you decided to overthrow the monarchy. How predictable of you.” She flinched at that, and I smiled, goading her. “Still, it’s nice to have goals.”
A snarl curled her upper lip, and her eyes promised my death. She was blind to all but her own ambition.
Goddess bless, I was staring at an earlier version of myself.
She was rage and fury and scorn, desperation and insecurity and hunger, and I pitied her. She lacked the pivotal moment where past and future collided in the present to shock her into the realization of how empty the endless hunger for more had left her life. She didn’t have a Colby to act as her conscience.
And since she had dared touch Colby, she never would experience that life-altering epiphany.
I was a better person than I used to be, but I wouldn’t call myself good.
Never had I been gladder not to have reached that pinnacle of decency.