"Shit," Micah muttered, rubbing his temple hard. His head was pounding like someone had taken a hammer to his skull. "That asshole."
"Micah?" Violet called immediately. "Are you okay? What just happened?"
"I need water."
Micah stumbled and Violet rushed to his side with unnatural speed, catching him before he could collapse onto the floor.
"You’re completely wrung dry," Violet murmured. She could feel it. His energy reserves were practically nonexistent and the fact he leaned his entire body weight against her only confirmed it.
Unfortunately for Micah, Violet’s caretaking only lasted two seconds. The next moment his weight vanished off her completely as Griffin casually grabbed him and hoisted him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
"Dude!" Micah barked in outrage, staring upside down at the world now. "What the hell?!"
Ignoring the complaint entirely, Griffin carried him across the throne room and dumped him onto one of the seats nearby.
Then Lila stretched out her hand toward him. In it was a waterskin.
Micah lifted a brow suspiciously at the sight of it. Seriously? What era were they in? More importantly, where in the world had she even been hiding that thing this entire time?
Lila clearly sensed the judgment on his face because she narrowed her eyes dangerously at him.
"Do you want the water or not?"
To prove a point, she immediately started pulling it away.
Micah snatched it from her at once.
"Okay, damn."
He brought the waterskin to his lips cautiously, half expecting to drink it and somehow wake up transported back into the stone ages.
But the moment the liquid touched his tongue, his eyes widened slightly.
That was definitely not ordinary water.
Warm energy immediately spread throughout his exhausted body in gentle waves, sinking into his muscles and bones until the headache pounding behind his eyes slowly eased up.
By the time he lowered the empty waterskin, some color had already returned to his face.
Micah stared at Lila with bright curiosity.
"What did I just drink?" Micah narrowed his eyes at the waterskin. "That wasn’t water, was it?"
Lila immediately snatched the empty waterskin back from him, frowning when she realized he had finished all of it.
"It is not," she replied with obvious annoyance. "Think of it as the equivalent of glucose in your world. It restores energy."
Then almost immediately her expression sharpened again.
"Now explain what happened," she demanded. "I need to report back to the Queen and I would very much appreciate confirmation that Angus is truly gone."
Micah leaned back against the chair and released a slow breath.
"Angus is gone," he said with absolute finality.
Silence settled over the throne room at those words. There was no dramatic celebration aside from utter silence. After everything Angus had done, his absence felt less like victory and more like the end of a long nightmare they were still struggling to wake up from.
Micah explained further, "I found out Asmodeus has a claim over my child if the baby turns out to possess demon blood. Asmodeus has always hated Angus. He was supposed to die after the ritual went wrong, but your Queen Seraphira stepped in and saved him. So I made Asmodeus a deal instead. I hand Angus over to him and in exchange, my child remains free."

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