The Empires (Erafeen, #6)

by David F. Farris

As Mendac reached Kadlest with an outstretched hand, wings of smoky black curled against his back, she accepted it. He pulled her up and looked her in the eyes, the devil’s touch curling up one side of his lip. “I missed you,” he said. And in that moment, as she felt the emptiness of his presence, the magnitude of her duty filled that void. She had worked with Toono to bring this man back to life with the purpose of torturing him, showing him that the mother-son duo he had abandoned because of disappointment had become a pair that he could not best. Proper retribution for the ghastliness of his sins. Alas, Toono died, sacrificing himself in order to allow his mother a chance at avenging herself. Without her son, this task became exponentially more difficult, her method forced to adapt to the circumstances. If she wanted Mendac to suffer, she need him think her a lovesick puppy. Like he had pulled at the strings of her heart, she would caress the lumps of his bloated ego. Toono was a kind boy. A son she didn’t deserve. And that’s what she told herself as she whispered back to the thing with a demon’s smile, “I missed you, too.”

Ohhhhhhhhhh. KADLEST DID NOT OTUSMART HER SON, BUT SHE TOLD HIM THE TRUTH. If she can outsmart one of the smartest beings in Kuki Sphaira, she is one.