by Olivia Ash
When she reached the massive metallic door at the end of the hallway, she paused, hesitating to go in. She thought about the last time she visited Hecate, and she didn’t get much useful information or guidance. But maybe her approach was off back then. Maybe if she talked to Hecate in a forceful and more demanding way, she could command the ghost’s respect.
She took a deep breath. If she approached this correctly, the results might go in her favor.
Sadie pushed the metallic door open and strode straight to the middle of the courtyard where Hecate’s ghost seemed to linger. She approached the marble statue and stood beside it.
Here goes nothing. “Hecate,” Sadie said, calling out the ghost’s name. Her voice filled the place for a second before reducing the place to silence once more. And it was so silent, her ears rang.
She waited for a while until she heard eerie whispers coming out of one hallway to her right. She wondered where those hallways led. And “hallway” probably wasn’t the right term since tunnel fit them better.
The wraith floated toward Sadie. Even with its pale, translucent color, and its wide, blank eyes that seemed to look into her soul, the ghost still moved gracefully. Sadie should have felt honored, standing in front of the ghost of the previous demon queen, a great figure of the underworld’s history.
But as the ghost approached her, she noticed that, though still translucent, Hecate’s ghost had gathered a bit more opacity and color. Sadie’s eyebrows shot up. Hecate’s eyes weren’t completely white like before. They were now red and staring right at her. Sadie kept still.
She had to focus. Remembering her earlier plan of being more forceful and commanding, she took a steadying breath and stood straighter. Hecate had made a lot of enemies and, therefore, might know a lot about how to track them.
When the ghost of the demon queen had reached her, Sadie stood a little straighter. “How do I find Mara?”
Hecate floated in circles around her. She had to turn around to keep up. The ghost whispered her answer, and her voice brought chills down Sadie’s spine.
“Nothing is free, youngling.”
“What do you want?” Sadie asked.
“Just a little life.”
Without asking, Hecate raised her arms and began to cast. Sadie saw bright, red light come out of her body and stream toward the ancient demon queen. And as soon as she noticed, she felt lightheaded. It literally felt like the life was being sucked out of her.
Sadie lifted her hands to summon fire. A flame burned in her palm, but it flickered out as soon as it had ignited. The attack had been too fast. It seemed like Hecate had gathered quite a bit of energy while Sadie had been in the castle. She could feel her body growing heavier. All she wanted to do was sleep.
Sadie tried again. She raised her hands to cast. Fire, smoke, anything. But she couldn’t concentrate. And for some reason, she couldn’t reach her stores of magic. She couldn’t feel the amulet’s power. Right now, she just felt cold, and sleepy.
She hadn’t realized that her feet had been dragging her to Hecate’s direction. She tried to stop herself, but the drowsiness made her want to be closer.
So, this is what it feels like to die. It’s not that bad.
Just as she had accepted her fate, the attraction to the ghost stopped. The need to be closer ended.
What just happened? Did she really think she would let this ghost kill her?
Not a chance.
She attempted to stand up, to get up and defend herself, but she couldn’t feel her body. When she saw Mordecai race to her side, everything became surreal. She felt so sleepy that she thought all of this was a bizarre dream. She was barely aware of Mordecai casting smoke bars around the ghost to keep her contained.
The prince bent down to carry her. Through closing eyelids, she saw his mouth moving.
Such a sexy mouth.
She might have muttered it. Because he really had such a sexy mouth. And she might have passed out in his arms after that, because that was the last thing she remembered.
Chapter Forty-Two
Mordecai
Mordecai sat beside Sadie’s bed, holding her hand as he waited for her to wake up. After just one bad encounter with a ghost, her skin had grown pale, her face grew thinner, and there were dark lines under her eyes. He intertwined his fingers with hers and brought her hand to his mouth to kiss her fingers. Her veins were visible through her skin. His heart broke looking at her like this.
The feisty, sexy woman he had met just got her life force drained by a ghost. And not just a regular ghost. Hecate. The most ruthless of demon queens.
Ever since their father arrived and the incident with the abyssians, Mordecai had begun patrolling the walls of the castle during his free time. He had examined traps, checked all sorts of stuff out, and made a mental map of the fortress. He needed to set up contingency plans to protect Sadie if visitors ever dared ambush them again.
This morning, before he had seen Sadie almost die in front of his eyes, he had decided to roam the hallways of the south wing. It was his third time going to the place. He avoided it as much as possible because every time he went there, it seemed like he wasn’t alone. Like some kind of sentient power lurked in its halls.
He shifted to smoke, feeling weightless and spacious as he floated through the cold, dark blue walls and looked at the stone gargoyles that hung on them. Most of the hallways here were empty. They didn’t even have torches, and if there were, few of them were ever lit. He passed through numerous chambers filled with withering skeletons and torturing mechanisms, but with the place’s foreboding atmosphere, it didn’t really surprise him.
When he reached a hallway that he hadn’t seen before, he changed back to his demon form and walked the hallway. Its tiles were made of marble and not from the same damp bricks that seemed to be the place’s style. He examined every part of the area. To anyone else, it might look like a boring and dark hallway, but he remembered every detail and updated the mental map that he had created of the south wing.
After walking for a few minutes, he noticed a faint light glowing at the end of the hallway. He took his time getting there, a bit wary of the light and what it was. When he reached the end of the hallway, he hadn’t expected to see Sadie’s life force getting drained by a ghost.
She stood in front of the spectral figure, frozen in place with hands clenched beside her as she attempted to cast but couldn’t. The ghost became more and more solid as she sucked bright red light from Sadie’s amulet and skin. The ghost’s spell heavily affected Sadie. The effects were instantaneous. Her cheeks had already grown hollow and he watched her hair fade from black to grey to white.
Mordecai summoned his enchanted staff out of thin air and cast a cage made of smoke to confine the ghost. He ran to Sadie’s side to catch her before she fell.
“Hecate,” she said in a whisper. Mordecai stiffened.
He whipped around to see if the ghost really was Hecate. He looked at the ghost with wide eyes. The ghost smirked, not exactly looking like her translucent self anymore.
The first demon queen stood semi-solid before his eyes. The wraith floated, her white hair billowing around her pale, translucent skin. Even in this form, she looked exactly like the portraits he had seen of her in the fortress and his warlock allies’ houses.
He gasped. Impossible.
As he held Sadie steady in one arm, he held up his enchanted staff and cast smoke bars to contain the ghost. He prepared to defend Sadie if Hecate tried something. But the demoness only snarled at him and disappeared. He stood stock-still for a moment, unsure if he should believe what he had just seen. He got snapped out of his reverie when Sadie grew limp in his arms. He carried her, and she seemed to mutter something before passing out.
He had wasted no time after that. He took her back to her chambers and lay her down on the bed. He darted through every place in the fortress to look for anything that might help.
Now, he rested his head on the bed beside her, feeling
completely worthless. He didn’t know any spells to cure what Hecate had done to her. Still, he did everything he could. He scanned every page of the grimoires he owned and all those in the fortress’s vault and library. He cast every spell that he thought would help, but she still hadn’t woken up.
Besides, why was Sadie in the south wing anyway? How had she encountered Hecate? Had she known the demon queen stayed there all along?
As he sulked over what happened to Sadie, he felt a hand brush his hair. He jerked in his seat, snapping his head back to look at Sadie smiling faintly at him.
He had never felt so relieved in his entire life. He hugged her. When he heard her suck in a breath, he let her go. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay,” she said, voice cracking.
He looked her over. “How are you feeling?”
She took in a deep breath. “I feel like shit.”
She held her forearms right in front of her to examine the veins that were visible through her skin.
“I guess I didn’t dream it then.” She placed her arms to her sides. “How long have I been stuck in bed?”
“Not long. Just this morning,” he said. “It’s almost midnight now.”
“Oh.” Her voice was flat and emotionless.
He knew he should probably let her breathe, but he had to know what had happened.
“Sadie,” he said. “Did you know all this time that Hecate was in the south wing?”
Sadie sat up, wincing. He reached out to help her, but she waved his help away. She leaned back on her pillows and pulled the blankets to her waist. She fumbled with the fabric of her blanket, picking at a loose thread, and didn’t look him in the eyes, only at the numerous paintings on her bedroom walls, as she confirmed his suspicion.
“Yes. I’ve known for a while.”
He shook his head. This woman was unbelievable. His hands balled into fists, and he wanted to shout at her. But he swallowed down his emotions. He knew he should give her a break after what she had gone through.
I’ll get angry later.
As much as he tried, though, he had never been particularly good at suppressing his emotions. And they boiled over.
“Why would you keep this from us?” he asked through clenched teeth.
She glared at him and crossed her arms. “One: because it wasn’t your business. Two: because I’m only choosing one of you as an ally, and I might not be able to trust the other three with the information.”
Mordecai scoffed. He knew her reasoning made sense, but what resounded most in his ears was the fact that she still didn’t trust him enough. “And now look what happened! You almost died because you have fucking trust issues.”
She frowned. “Even you can’t deny my logic.”
Mordecai almost laughed. The woman had just come from a near-death experience and still she found the energy to hold her ground. She never lost, did she? Well, neither did he.
“It doesn’t matter!” he said, and his voice continued to rise in volume.
Sadie’s voice rose to match his. “What do you mean it doesn’t matter?”
He threw his arms up and groaned. “Because!”
She huffed out a breath. “Damn it, Mordecai! I don’t know why you’re shouting!”
He stood, looking down at her. “Because I’m furious that the woman I love would expose herself to so much danger!”
Mordecai shut his mouth, catching himself, and sat back down and leaned back on his chair. Dumbstruck, he stared at her. He was never one to use that word. Did he really just say that?
Sadie gaped at him.
“I—” she said but closed her mouth and didn’t speak. He supposed she didn’t expect that he, of all people, would admit to loving her.
He kept staring at her. Even with pale skin and even paler hair, she still looked absolutely beautiful. Her dark, wide eyes looked at him in disbelief, and he could’ve drowned in them. He always drowned in them.
Sadie pouted and bit her lip in the way that drove him crazy.
What the hell.
He rushed to her and kissed her. He cupped both her cheeks with his hands. At first, she didn’t respond, but it didn’t take long for her to wrap her arms around his neck and lean in to him. She moaned against his mouth. He growled and deepened his kisses.
This woman.
He couldn’t believe he had nearly lost her. He wouldn’t let it happen again. Because he knew within himself that if something happened to her, his whole world would be destroyed. His lips left hers only so he could move back, sit on the edge of the bed, and wrap her in his arms. He rested his chin on the top of her head and brushed her hair.
“We’ll tackle Mara together.”
“I won’t let you,” she said, but her voice was muffled since her head was pressed against his chest. Still, he didn’t let go. He needed her in his arms right now. Right now, and possibly for a long time. She was his strength, and if he let go, he wouldn’t make it.
“I won’t take no for an answer,” he said. “I care about you too much.”
She laughed and looked up at him. “And my power.”
He moved back and looked into her eyes. “Sadie, I care about you, not your power. You.” He kissed her one more time. “I love you.”
Her eyes seemed to soften. She smiled and placed a hand on his cheek. “I believe you.” His body leaned in to her touch. “And I love you, too.”
He positioned himself to lay on the bed next to her. He reached for her hand and guided her, so she could lie down again and snuggle against him. She had said she loved him, and he couldn’t ask for anything better than that. But he also knew in his heart that if she loved him, she loved his brothers, too. He snorted. This alliance thing had gotten so out of hand now. He wondered what she would do.
Sadie placed a hand on his chest and lay her head in the crook of his neck. “I won’t let you die for me. You didn’t ask for this madness.”
He laughed under his breath. “Well, this is who we are.” He kissed her forehead. “We’re all mad and surrounded by madness. We breathe it.”
She chuckled. “Is that so?”
His lips smiled against her hair. Everything felt so right when he was with her. “You’re the demon queen,” he said. “You and anyone who loves you needs to expect a little crazy.”
“Still,” she said. “I don’t want Mara to hurt you.”
He shook his head. “At this point, you can’t escape me. I won’t let you out of my sight.” He held her tighter. “You’re not going through this alone.”
Chapter Forty-Three
Sadie
“What are you all doing here? Get out!” Sadie screamed as she lay in bed, surrounded by all her men. She kept trying to get them to leave, but they just wouldn’t listen.
After finding out that she had finally woken up, the other three guys—Steele, Kaiser, and Damien—had barged into her room to find her and Mordecai sitting on the bed together and eating popcorn while watching a horror film.
Earlier, she had convinced Mordecai to do a movie marathon with her even when he had urged her to rest. Her room didn’t have a television set, but all Mordecai had to do was go to the human world and get one. It didn’t even take him twenty minutes. As soon as he arrived and began setting up the TV, he still tried to get her to go back to bed.
“All I did the entire day was sleep,” she said. “Unless you want me to spend the night alone, you should probably let me call Hobson, so I could ask him to get us some popcorn and soda.”
He just muttered something under his breath and disappeared into shadow. About ten minutes after, a knock came on her door and she opened it to find him carrying a huge tray with a bowl of popcorn and two grape soda cans on it.
Sadie and Mordecai had just reached the part of the movie where the first of the main characters die in the woods when the other three princes flung the door open without knocking. Sadie raised her arms, prepared to attack the intruders. She let down her guard when she saw the guys enter, looking wid
e-eyed and out-of-breath. She blindly reached an arm through the pillows to find the remote control, and when she had, she turned the television off.
She held the bowl of popcorn toward the guys. “Popcorn?”
Damien growled. “Are you serious?”
Steele arched an eyebrow and walked toward her to get the bowl from her hands. “Why, thank you very much.”
“You almost died, Sadie,” Kaiser said, glaring at her. “We heard what happened.”
“Here we go,” she said, rolling her eyes. “I don’t have time for this.”
“Well,” Steele said, putting a handful of popcorn in his mouth. “You should’ve thought about that before getting yourself nearly killed.” He got a bit of powdered cheese on his white tunic, so he handed her back the bowl of popcorn to brush off the powdery mess.
Damien faced Mordecai. “Did you at least catch Hecate?”
She should have guessed Mordecai had told them the news. She sighed, hoping he would have done it tomorrow instead. Or a week after. Or never.
Mordecai reached over the bowl on her lap to grab some more popcorn. “No.”
Kaiser scoffed. “And?”
Mordecai looked at him blankly.
“How can you just sit here and do nothing?” Damien asked, nose flaring.
“I already sent out my warlock spies to search for her,” Mordecai said. “And I’m not doing nothing, I’m watching a movie.”
Damien’s voice rose. “In that case, we’re all okay then!”
Sadie placed the bowl of popcorn on her bedside table and stood. “That’s it. That’s enough.” She took Damien and Kaiser’s hands to lead them out the door, but it only felt like she was pulling two trucks with her arms. “Leave.”
Mordecai leaned back against the headboard. “She’s right, guys. Leave.”
She pointed a finger at him. “You, too.” She motioned to them all. “Everyone, leave, right now. Or I’m not choosing any of you at all.”