Kingdom of Fire

by Ana Calin

  I listen to the courts talk, presenting this façade of detachment, while on the inside I’m erupting like the volcanoes beyond these walls. I can’t take my eyes off of Cerys, they stay fixed on her, pinning her to the spot, and I know she feels it.

  “Cerys Dark, Queen of the Fire Court, do you accept or deny these charges?” The representative of the courts asks.

  “I admit to it all,” she says. “I made a deal with Samael. I gave myself to him. There is proof that can attest to that.” Then she raises her head, her honey eyes meeting mine. They are still shining, beautiful, and so deceivingly innocent that I could leap down there and pin her under me, and impale her with my cock, fuck her in front of the entire Fire Court. Tear that mask off her face. Though I feel guilty for those thoughts only a second later. How could I ever hurt her like that, my sweet Cerys, whom I’ve sworn to love and protect for all eternity?

  It’s like there’s two of them, two women, fighting over my soul and tearing me apart. A battle between love and hate.

  “But before you make your decision, my King,” she says. “Let me remind you here, in front of all these people, that if you don’t hand me over to Samael, he will attack the Fire Realm again. And he can bring countless forces from the underworld, while you are still a wanted man in all the other realms, and many of your allies have turned against you.” She addresses the hall. “So before you make further suggestions about all the ways I can be made to suffer, stop and take this into consideration—you can do whatever you want with me, but if you don’t turn me over to Samael, I sure as hell won’t be the only one suffering.”

  Whispers and murmur travel through the hall. The courts confer with each other, whispering in each other’s ears, gesticulating and some arguing.

  “Turn her over,” people yell from the back of the hall. The idea catches, and more demand the same. The courts would prefer to continue with their sadistic propositions, like having her chained in a dungeon with rats and snakes.

  Draven draws closer to my side, his intelligent eyes filled with a mixture of compassion and worry. He’s probably the only one who understands what’s truly going on inside of me. Finally, when the hall is resounding with the demand that I let go of Cerys forever, I stand. It’s enough for the noise to die down. Cerys turns around, staring up at me in an almost defiant way. It’s like she’s telling me—What are you going to do now, great king? Even your own people make demands in my favor.

  I give her a grin. No, Cerys Dark. You won’t be rid of me so easily.

  “I have a better idea.”

  Cerys

  “IS HE INSANE?” I PACE back and forth in the chamber, still struggling to understand what in the cursed realms just happened in the Throne Hall. I was so shocked after Xerxes said what he wanted to do that I can barely remember the guards taking me out of there, and bringing me back to the master bedroom.

  Normally, they would have taken me to the dungeons now that I was healed of the injuries Kareim caused, but Xerxes’ new plan changed everything.

  “It’s probably the best idea of all times,” Marayke says as she gathers the items I’ll need for the journey. She’s taken out a new outfit that will help me blend in with the environment of where we’re going.

  “I’m really sorry you had to go through those horrors in the dungeon,” she says, though it sounds like she’s ashamed to even address the matter. She doesn’t dare look me in the eye while she speaks. “Kareim killing those men, then putting the blame on you, almost breaking your back. And I’m sorry I’m in this shit too deep to do anything about it. Because believe me, I would.”

  I shake my head, refusing to remember. “That’s the least of my concerns right now, Marayke.” My eyes fill with tears. The emotional and physical pain of the last twenty-four hours has been so exhausting that I’m beyond grateful to have at least Marayke, my enemy of yore, to talk to. To share the burden with. “I’ve lost Xerxes.” I wipe my tears, trying to smile, but my lips tremble. “Neither one of us gets him in the end.”

  She drops the outfits on the bed, and circles it to reach me. I would have never expected it, but she takes me in her arms, my body pressed against her armor.

  “No, Cerys,” she whispers, her breath tickling my ear shell through my hair. “You will always have him. You are his fated mate, and nothing can take that away from you.”

  “But I betrayed him. Not in the horrible way he believes I did, but I betrayed him.”

  “I share part of the blame. I should have never taken it so far with Kareim.”

  “He dragged you into it.”

  “No, that’s not entirely true, nor fair.” She takes my hands in hers, and we both sit on the bed. “I hated you back then.”

  “And now you don’t anymore?”

  “I tried to keep hating you, but you make it really hard.”

  I stare out the window, into the volcanic landscape with the dark clouds hovering over it like vultures. A deep love for the place engulfs me. It’s almost Hell, but I still wish I could stay. I wish that right now I was be lying happily under the covers with Xerxes, making love to him. Instead, here I am again, preparing to go on another quest with him, only that this time things are very different between us.

  “I guess you and I are in the same boat, Marayke,” I say. “If I tell the truth, it will destroy Xerxes. If you do, you will lose everything, his trust, your position, everything that you worked so hard to achieve. You might even lose your life. Your bastard brother may not have much magic, but he sure as hell has the cunning of a snake.”

  “He is very intelligent. Diabolically so.” She looks down at our hands, sounding broken for the first time since I met her. “He’s got a lot to gain if he gets you in Samael’s hands. Samael has a score to settle with both you and Xerxes, and he’s promised Kareim the world for his help.”

  “What exactly did he promise?”

  “Boundless magic. The dark kind, sprouting right out of Hell.”

  “He can do that? He can grain Kareim that kind of magic?”

  “Samael is the Archangel of Hell, one of the oldest and most powerful creatures ever created. Some say he’s more powerful than Lucifer. So, yes, he can do that and more.”

  “What about you?” I ask gently. “You got into this with him in the beginning. What was in it for you?”

  She rises from the bed. “Come on, we need to hurry. You need the right kind of outfit for what you and Xerxes are about to do.”

  I catch her hand and she stops. “Marayke, there’s nothing you can say that will make me resent you again.”

  “I wanted Xerxes.” It seems hard for her to tell the truth, but it also seems to come as a relief. She sits back down with a silver catsuit in her hands, one that would help me through the water portals. “The idea was that, since he would be so terribly hurt by you he would turn his attention to me. I would be there to give him comfort. Samael would provide a special love potion, too, that would make him want me, at least. Since the two of you share a mates’ bond, it would be impossible to get him interested in natural ways. It would be impossible with normal magic, too. There was a time, before he met you, when he had a different woman every night. Now, he only has eyes for you. His heart beats only for you. You’re the first thing on his mind when he wakes up, and the last thing he’ll always think about when he closes his eyes.”

  My heart cringes in pain with every word.

  “That’s all in the past now,” I say in a broken voice. “Now he surely hates me. He thinks the worst of me. He might be suffering now, but he’ll get over me eventually. In his eyes, I don’t deserve his love. Soon, I’ll be worth nothing.” I can’t regain my composure no matter how fast I wipe the tears away with the back of my hand.

  Through the blurry shield of the tears hanging on my eyelashes I can see Marayke smile, but it’s not the spiteful grin from the first times we met. It’s the smile of someone who sees hope.

  “Cerys, there’s nothing you can do that will make Xerxes love y
ou less. You are bonded mates, what you have will last forever.”

  I nod, wanting to believe her with all I have, but the way he looked at me when he presented his idea down in the Throne Hall said it all. He despises me. What I did—or what I made him believe I did—locked me out of his heart forever.

  “Cerys, listen to me,” she says, taking my hands in hers. Her mailed gloves are crushing my fingers, and I don’t even care. “No matter how Xerxes treats you from now on, what he says or does, his feelings for you won’t change, they’re too deep. I’ve known all along that the love potion Samael was going to provide for me could never equal the real thing. Nothing can carve you out of Xerxes’ chest, not even Samael.”

  I narrow my eyes. “You know, I can’t help wondering. Samael, in his wrath for what Xerxes and I have taken away from him, demanded to have me, and not Xerxes’ dark powers back. Why? Xerxes is the one who possesses the souls of those I’ve drained at the Cemetery of Doom, I channeled all that dark power into him. I could help channel it back into whatever vessel Samael wants, and then that would be that. But no, Samael wants to possess me, he demanded that I give myself over to him, or he would attack the Fire Realm.” Guilt washes over me again. Had I gone with him the first time he visited me in the royal bedchamber three nights before the wedding, it would have spared Xerxes this horrifying attack on the Fire Realm.

  “You’re more valuable than all of that dark power, Cerys,” Marayke says.

  “You haven’t seen those creatures back at the Cemetery. There was incredible power in them. I would sure as Hell want that power back if I were Samael.”

  “I can’t believe you don’t see it. You are the daughter of Hades, and the descendant of the great sorcerer Merlin. You’re much more valuable than the dead who served him at the Cemetery of Doom.”

  The doors open, and both Marayke and I jump to our feet.

  I keep a mask of coolness on my face, though it’s hard as fuck. Seeing the man I love standing in the doorway, staring at me like I’m nothing, like all he’s got left for me is contempt, feels like a red hot iron through my heart, but the heck with it. I have to be strong now, stronger than I’ve ever been.

  “Time’s up. Ready or not, we’re leaving.” He makes to leave again, but I stop him.

  “I’m not going without Nazarean.”

  Xerxes turns to me. Candor engulfs my heart, waves of compassion and love for my handsome king with the sharp features, the beautiful but brutal face that hides so much depth and fair emotion. Those red eyes that used to shine with passion and love for me and that now stare at me with cool detachment.

  No, Marayke only told me white lies. Xerxes lost his love for me, and nothing will bring it back. His love for me is dead and gone.

  “Your familiar will find his way back to your side again, I’m sure of that,” he says coldly.

  “I’m not leaving here without him.”

  “You don’t get a choice, Cerys. You are still guilty of high treason, and the only reason you’re not rotting away in a dungeon right now is because I can’t fix this without your help.”

  He makes to leave again, the light falling through the huge arched windows bathing his leather outfit in a reddish hue, revealing what he truly is. A bringer of death.

  “If Nazarean does make his appearance,” I insist. “Do you guarantee that he won’t get hurt?”

  He looks over his shoulder, scanning me up and down like he would someone who doesn’t mean jack to him. I take it with my chin high, but on the inside I’m falling apart.

  “He’s got nothing to do with all of this,” I press. “There’s no reason why he should pay for my mistake.”

  “I don’t see why Queen Cerys’ familiar shouldn’t be granted safety,” Duke Draven Ferox intervenes, joining Xerxes. While he’s not convinced of my innocence, I have a feeling he refuses to believe I’m actually guilty.

  “The place is big,” Xerxes concedes. “We don’t have the time to start a search for Nazarean. He either appears before we leave, or he doesn’t. And we’re leaving within the hour.”

  Cerys

  NAZAREAN STEPS INTO the light within the next half hour. It’s Marayke who approaches with him in her arms, in the Throne Hall. The last shadow of doubt regarding her feelings towards me vanishes. If she still wanted to hurt me, Nazarean wouldn’t have let her get anywhere near him, much less climb into her armored arms.

  She gives him over to me, and he quickly finds his place under my now once again braided ponytail. I’m wearing a shiny silver catsuit that glows as much as my face used to. It sure won’t help to hide me from sight, but it will enable me to withstand the effects of the water portal we’re going to use.

  I step in front of the throne podium, feeling complete again with Nazarean on my shoulder, and ready for the journey. My heart twists painfully in my chest as I watch Xerxes rise from his huge flame-shaped throne, a mighty king in leather, with red eyes and cleanly-cut features, ready to take on the worlds again.

  The others are gathered behind me, with Marayke standing closest. It’s incredible how enemies can become friends under the right circumstances. If only we could do something to free ourselves from the claws of her brother, who’s got both our destinies in his hands. He’s a skilled and dangerous schemer, and his cunning could get us both killed. And yet Marayke can’t bring herself to hate him. “Our parents never loved him, that’s why he turned out this way,” she said back in the master bedroom while she helped me prepare. “I’m his older sister, I’m all he has, I can’t abandon him. If I do, he’ll lose the last drop of goodness he still has.”

  But I’m not sure Kareim has any goodness left in him. He holds nothing truly dear in the world, not even his sister. But right not I’m too worried about myself to care about his story at all. Like the fact that all the soldiers in this hall stare daggers at me. If looks could kill, I would have probably dropped dead as soon as I set foot in here.

  But then I remember. They think I killed two of their comrades for no good reason in the dungeon. They probably saw the floor covered in the men’s blood, their nostrils flaring when they caught the heavy scent, their stomachs turning at what they were told had happened there.

  As for my nemesis, Kareim, I can feel his vicious eyes on me from the front line of the crowd. I glimpsed his face as I passed him by, and he stared at me with hostility. His neck is still bandaged, even though the witch doctors healed the superficial cut days ago, since before my trial, but something in his demeanor is different from the last time I saw him.

  As the Court Mages gather around Xerxes and me, chanting spells that flow into my ears and put a pleasant whirl in my head as they summon a portal, I realize what’s happening with Kareim. He’s frustrated because things aren’t going according to his plans. He expected I’d be given over to Samael, but that didn’t happen, at least not yet, which means he didn’t get paid. Bastard didn’t see Xerxes’ suggestion coming.

  He argued to Xerxes, to all his advisors and the courts that this detour might cost us a number of attacks from Samael, but Duke Draven assured everybody that, now that he knew where the threats were coming from, he would be able to hold them back until Xerxes and I returned.

  Trouble is, I don’t know if we stand a chance. What Xerxes wants is pure madness. It’s by far the hardest thing he’s ever done, as big and powerful as he is. As for me, I’m gonna have to be very careful how I play my cards. If I get things right, I might just be able to save Xerxes, and the entire Fire Realm. Succeeding in this mission might solve all our problems. The only thing it can’t do is get me his love back.

  Xerxes

  THE WATER PORTAL TAKES shape around us like a blooming flower. I hold out my hands, and Cerys gently places hers in them. Static travels up my arms, and my jaw locks. It enrages me, that her touch alone is enough to do that to me. Her scent of wild lilies goes to my head, and by the cursed realms, how I want to crush her lips with mine.

  I close my hands around hers. They feel hot a
nd hard as rocks in contrast to her soft, cool flesh. Initially I wanted to close my eyes and not look her in the face before the water swallows us, but I can’t. I keep staring at those bright honey-colored irises. Even without the glow of her skin she looks so pure, so innocent. So deceiving.

  Cursed realms, why am I still trying to justify her actions, or to deny what happened. Seems like every waking minute is a struggle to wake up from this nightmare, but she admitted to the crime herself. Her attraction to Samael, his power over her, they were stronger even than our mates’ bond. And in the end, why does it even surprise me? He is the Archangel of Death, older even than me, his magic way more far-reaching. He’s more well-versed and cunning in matters of the heart, too, he can manipulate people’s feelings.

  The water takes over us, and Cerys’ face disappears from my sight. In a split second I put both her hands in one of mine, sliding an arm around her middle. The water starts swirling around us, as powerful as a centrifuge, and it grows harder to keep my focus.

  Cerys’ suit activates like a second skin, spreading like liquid silver over her hands, her face, her hair, and even Nazarean. The suit is made to become one with her skin, and insulate her in such a way that she can breathe normally while we’re under water. She struggles in my arms as the liquid fabric spreads over her irises, panicking.

  Instinctively, I press her closer to me, giving her warmth, driving a feeling of security into her. My love for her puts her safety above all else, I will protect her with my life if I have to. Cursed mates’ bond. The first thing I’ll do when this is over is find a way to dissolve it.

  The swirling portal sucks us in forcefully. I keep my focus, not letting it scramble my brains, but I allow it to pull us in until it spits us out into an icy ocean. The water is so cold that it feels like needles piercing my flesh all the way to the bone. I never felt anything so fucking cold before. I even gasp for air when we reach the surface. I suppose it’s a normal effect for an arctic ocean to have on a King of Flames, but still, fuck me.