Hell is a Harem: Book 4

by Kim Faulks

  I answered for the others. “Because the woman we love is being held hostage there.”

  The Seelie’s steps slowed. He turned to glance over his shoulder. “Really? By whom?”

  “The Queen,” Rival’s growl.

  The fae stopped cold. “That is unfortunate.”

  “Why do you say that?” Panic filled Gabriel’s voice.

  The floor lights caught the shine of his hair as he shook his head. “Nothing, it’s just that…”

  The Hellhound smacked into my shoulder, as the Archangel crammed the hallway. “Just that…what?”

  “If the Unseelie Queen has your friend imprisoned, it’s more than likely she’s already dead.”

  “No…no, that’s not Lorn,” Rival murmured.

  I glanced at the others, and the fear I felt seemed to spill into my words. “She’s smart and tough, you have no idea how fucking tough this woman is. She’ll stay alive for us. She’ll fight and she’ll stay alive just until we get there.”

  “As soon as Redemption gets his fucking ass here.”

  “Redemption?” The Seelie’s words were a hiss. “Redemption the Unseelie?”

  “Yeah, why, you know him?” Rival took a step closer, pushing against my shoulder.

  I gave him a glare and then turned back to the fae. “What about Redemption?”

  There was a second where the guy said nothing. He looked from me, to Rival, and then to Gabriel. “Wait, you mean you really don’t know about him?”

  “Look, we don’t give a shit about his sordid past, or how many hookups he’s had, we just want him to get here so we can get through the Seelie realm and find Lorn.”

  “Stop…” the fae lifted his hand. “There is no getting through the Seelie realm for him. Even if by some miracle he made it through to my home, he’d be murdered on sight. That murderer is responsible for more death of my kind than any army has ever been. He slaughtered us…there’s no way we’d give him another opportunity. Besides, the portal doesn’t work like that, not for him…for the banished. It’d kill him, or at least leave him comatose.”

  “Wait, so you’re telling us that he’d never get through this way?” Rival snarled.

  “That’s exactly what I’m telling you,” the fae glanced at the others.

  “He knew this,” Gabriel muttered. “He knew this all along. That’s why he never came with us…why I felt…a cavern of guilt…swallowing him.”

  “The brother’s been depressed before,” Rival shook his head, and stared at the Seelie.

  “No,” the Archangel murmured. “This was something else. Something darker, something final.”

  I flinched at the words and turned my head. “What are you saying?”

  “I’m saying he’s going to do something…something like take his own life.”

  Rival’s laughter was a bark. “Yeah, right. He’s not going to do that. Not when Lorn’s just taken him back.”

  “He would if he thought he was somehow responsible,” the words slipped from my lips.

  I’d seen men like him, see them pretend everything was just fine, until they went home and ate their service pistol.

  The more I thought about it, the more I knew.

  He was backing away, distancing himself from us…

  To end his goddamn life.

  Chapter Nine

  Redemption

  I stepped out of the cab and closed the door behind me. My place towered above and was covered in darkness, only the garden lights to light my way. The echo of my boots resounded, but the rhythm was out of tune. Just like the last twenty years of my life had been out of tune.

  That thought captured me, stealing my attention as I stepped down to the outside keypad on the garage door. I punched in the combination…four goddamn numbers that corresponded to a name 5-6-7-6…Lorn.

  The lock clicked open and I stepped inside, waiting for the sensors to pick me up and close the roller door behind me.

  I left the car and the Harley behind and made for the doorway as the roller door came to a rest. I didn’t need any surprises…not with what I was about to do.

  Darkness smothered me, but it never slowed my stride, finding each rise on the steps as I climbed. I knew the darkness, felt at home in the darkness, and the cold.

  I closed my eyes, taking the last few steps blinded, and opened myself to the pain of the past. It rose up like a thunderstorm in the dead of night, with a rumble, and then a shudder.

  The vibrations coursed through me, along my bones, and into my chest, until it was all I could think of…and all I could feel.

  Would my home recognize me? Would it welcome me with open arms? Or would the realm slam its doors and leave me, cold, empty, and too far gone to save myself?

  I turned right and walked along the landing to the master bedroom. One step inside the door, and I turned for the walk-in closet and hit the lights. Designer suits filled the racks. Gold and diamonds sparkled along the drawers. None of it meant anything, it never had.

  It was a mask…just a show, and I’d fulfilled my duty for the Circle. I’d done all I could, cleaning up the filth, covering over the terror. I’d smiled, played the role as enforcer, and protector.

  But now…now I was done.

  There was no going back for me now. Maybe in a way there never had been. Maybe I had a price to pay for leaving…and surviving—and finding happiness once more.

  A life for a life…wasn’t that the Unseelie way? I lifted my gaze to the back way… and pressed my thumb against the sensor. The light turned from red to green and, in an instant, a click resounded.

  Guns, money, jewelry were neatly tucked away in the corner. In the middle was a small, long safe. I had three hundred grand stashed away in large bills, enough to get me out of the city…enough to make sure Lorn was safe.

  The Queen’s face filled my mind, and I was seized by the same old panic that always filled me…it wasn’t enough….it can never be enough. Not when it comes to her.

  My fingers trembled as I reached for the black, lead-lined case on the left. Power raced, touching the tips of my fingers as I neared. My pulse sped, lunging and squeezing. It’d been a long time since I’d touched it…too long, and not long enough. That old tug of war inside me was just as brutal today as it had been back then.

  I flipped the catch on one side, and then the other. Inside it was a case, one especially designed for not just my fingerprint, but also my power.

  I’d travelled the world searching for a warlock with enough power and ability to craft something this important and found him deep underground in the middle of the Outback in Australia.

  Power like that can drive a man toward insanity…and a weapon like this could push him over the edge. But he worked in the darkness, and was very careful not to touch it.

  The locks of the interior case unlocked and the top rose. Under the soft white lights of the closet, the pearl handle of the Royal Unseelie dagger shone like it’d finally awoken—and in a way it had.

  Power pulsed through the room. Dark, unbridled, unmatched, and for a second, I was filled with the overwhelming urge to slam the case closed once more.

  To pretend that somehow there was another way…a better way…a way that didn’t involve me dealing my soul to the power of the Unseelie realm like it was just a goddamn poker game ploy.

  Energy called from that small case just out of reach…and inside me, there was an echo of the man I used to be.

  The man who was a killer…who murdered, who enslaved…who destroyed in cold Unseelie blood for the love of a Queen he never wanted.

  Lorn…

  Her name cut through me sharper than any blade ever could. I held on to her, and the cold, unseen fist around my heart eased. She was worth it. A thousand fucking times she was worth it.

  The one woman I truly loved.

  And the one woman I’d lost, all because of a Queen. Dark whispers slipped inside my mind as I reached for the dagger and closed my hand around the hilt.

  Cold bi
t into my skin like frostbite, and then raced along my veins. Still, I grabbed the weapon and dragged it free of the case. My body moved on its own now. I reached out, pressed my thumb to the sensor, and the case and the guns disappeared once more.

  There was no turning back now. The power of the bad had begun. I could almost feel the numbness, almost taste the cold—like old moss against my tongue.

  I left the closet and the lights behind and turned into the bedroom. The sheets were still tangled, my gold Cartier watch still on the nightstand, remnants of the day my life fell apart.

  I’d tried to save Lorn…before anyone in the Circle found her, but even then it was too late. “Fuck you, Absolon, you spineless piece of fucking shit. I hope you rot in that goddamn cell.”

  I stepped into the bathroom and hit the switch. White overhead lights splashed against white tiles. I swallowed hard and grabbed the handle, swinging the wide shower door open before I stepped into the double stall, and for a second, I saw blood splattered against the shower walls.

  The perfect white tiles would be crimson, the drain would drip. Would they find me? Cold, stiff…done with this world. No, I had to hold onto hope…to the one thing I had when all the money and the cars were stripped bare.

  When I was nothing more than a man on his knees…begging.

  My knees buckled and I dropped to the floor. The light glinted off the gold blade of the King’s dagger. I didn’t need to feel the edge. It was sharp, honed to a perfect point.

  An edge that had spilled more blood than any weapon I’d ever held…now it was time to spill again.

  My fingers trembled as I reached for the buttons on my shirt. My pulse deafening, until it was all I could hear. Light bounced off steel…catching my gaze for a second. I gripped the pearl handle and rested the tip of the blade against my chest until the point dug in.

  This was all I could do now.

  All I could do to try to make it right.

  The power of the blade filled the shower stall with a hum, dark Unseelie mist seemed to rise up from the drain to swirl around me.

  The realm somehow knew I was coming home, and not to sneak in like a thief in the night—but as a fallen warrior begging for forgiveness.

  Tendrils of black mist swirled as it rose, snaking along my arm to dance around the blade. I breathed in the darkness…breathed in that Unseelie hunger and felt the magic take hold.

  My damn hand shook as I drew the blade from my chest. If this went wrong…if the realm didn’t take me back into the fold…then it’d all be for nothing.

  My death.

  And Lorn’s love.

  I stared at the tip of the dagger until the gold blade was all I could see. My life waited in that tip…and so did Lorn’s.

  Her face filled my mind, her smile…her laugh, the splattering of freckles across the bridge of her nose that she hated. The way she lived life on the edge…no fucking regrets. I wanted to be like that.

  “No fucking regrets,” I murmured, closed my eyes, and lifted my other hand.

  Fingers clenched tight around the hilt. There was a second, one moment, as I inhaled and my chest stilled.

  The arc was brutal. Muscles twitched, as a scream ripped through my head. Lorn!

  Pain flared, burning through my chest as I drove the tip of the dagger deeper…deeper. It hit something hard, crunch, and then it was through.

  It was over.

  I glanced down, crimson spilled over the gold.

  The tip carved through flesh and bone and the center of my heart.

  The world stilled.

  The silence in my head deafening.

  I waited for the power…for the rush of darkness to claim its own.

  But there was nothing.

  Nothing but the savage beast of pain as it sank its fangs deep.

  My hand fell…focus slipped. White tiles rushed up as I slumped to the floor of the shower.

  Drip…drip…drip…my blood echoed from the drain.

  And then there was nothing at all…

  Chapter Ten

  Lorn

  Acid welled in the back of my mouth. I swiped my hand across my lips and then shoved against the dining room wall.

  The room swayed around me. Dark met soft yellow light. Only the candles on the table to light my way.

  Remnants of the food were at my feet. I stared at the chunks of flesh and bits of green as the Queen’s words echoed…Unseelie heart is so delicious when it’s stewed in its own juices.

  A warning…

  A shudder raced through my body as a sickening snarl came behind me. I spun and stumbled backwards. My hand hit the wall…as something shimmered in the doorway, glowing bright and yellow…like a firefly.

  Will-o-wisp…the name filled me as the yellow light pushed into the room.

  Alma had talked about them…a trickster, she called the tiny beings. Lights in the distance, leading the weary traveler to his own death at the hands of a beast.

  My belly tightened at the memory.

  And in the will-o-wisp’s wake came a shadow. It looked like the outline of a wolf, but moved upright on two legs like a man. I was frozen, staring, as the two beings pushed into the dining room.

  Thunder echoed, shuddering the floor and the walls. I splayed my hands out wider, catching the tremors as a roar came from the hallway behind me. “Move out of the way!”

  An Unseelie guard charged into the dining room with his dagger drawn high, like a locomotive out of control. The will-o-wisp brightened, spearing a blinding glow through the dining room as the shadowed beast let out a screech that chilled my blood.

  I yanked my hands high. Palms slapped over my ears, the burn raced as I pressed my spine into the wall.

  The shadow creature reared backwards as the guard advanced and swung, carving the air with the tip of his blade. “How dare you invade the Queen’s domain. Leave now!”

  But the shadow beast lifted its massive paws in an act of surrender. More footsteps came from behind me. I turned my head, catching the haunted gaze of Boroch before he broke the connection and turned to the invasion.

  Words were spoken in a language I didn’t understand. The Queen’s personal guard stepped closer, his voice low and comforting as he motioned to the doorway.

  The will-o-wisp answered back, pulsing with a hum. Boroch stiffened, and then asked something in their language. The hum became louder until it vibrated the room. Boroch turned his head, piercing me with a stare that stole my breath.

  There was a flare of cold, hard rage before he glanced toward the guard beside him. “There’s an intruder in the forest…someone has broken through the veil. Make sure the Queen stays in her room, and sound the call for the others. I’m going out there.”

  “Not alone,” the younger Unseelie male shook his head.

  But there was no stopping Boroch. He shifted his stance, moving awkwardly. I remembered the lashes on his back…remembered that haunting fucking sound as he dragged himself from the Queen’s bedroom to the consort’s, seeking safety, protection…who the hell knows.

  “I have to, the safety of our Queen is at stake,” Boroch’s lips curled as he glanced back at me one last time and then stepped toward the will-o-wisp and the shadow beast.

  They were gone in an instant, leaving behind fading footsteps and the heady stench of hate in the air. The guard took a step and then pushed past me.

  “Wait,” I spun and stumbled after him. “What breach?” The echo of his boots was the only answer. I lunged, grasping his arm. “What breach?”

  My mind was racing. This was bad…really fucking bad.

  The portal was somehow closed. There was no way Rival and the others would’ve left me. No way they’d let me step a foot in this goddamn place alone.

  So, if they weren’t the intruder—then who the hell was?

  I glanced along the hallway behind me, listening to the fading heavy footfalls of the guard, and then glanced at the doorway.

  An icy feeling snaked its way along my spine
. The forest creatures were invading the castle grounds, and that was never a good thing.

  I stepped backwards, watching the doorway until the last possible moment, and then turned. A howl slipped in through the castle walls from outside, the sound not one of mourning, but one of desperation and fury.

  The howl was joined by another…and then another. A guttural, savage snarl joined the uproar. The Unseelie world was unhappy…and they were going to war.

  I raced along the hallway and into the consort’s bedroom. Darkness crowded the edges of the room. I scanned what I could. I needed a weapon…Hell if I knew what was coming through that damn dining room next.

  Shouldn’t have thrown away the damn knife. Shouldn’t have done a lot of damn things. Shouldn’t have killed the fucking hag—I lifted my head to the adjacent bedroom…should’ve killed the Queen instead.

  I swallowed that thought with a rancid taste in my mouth and moved around the room. For a fucking consort’s room, it was light on weapons. Nothing more than a bed, a wash basin, and a damn fireplace.

  I suppose the bed was the bitch’s weapon. My heart thundered as I stepped close to the doorway and peered into her room. It was empty, the fire now dulled to glowing embers.

  That frigid feeling of terror wormed its way under my skin. Where did the bitch go when she wasn’t torturing and fucking? I glanced toward the hallway…was she in that darkness…that rage-filled gloom waiting?

  I dropped to my knees beside her bed and searched the floor. The knife was gone…I glanced over my shoulder toward the dining room. I could go back to the kitchen…

  A sudden roar came from outside, followed by a howl…The Queen’s guards screamed. “He’s over there!”

  I flinched and shoved up from the floor. I knew the sounds of terror when I heard them. Whatever invaded the Unseelie realm was close…too fucking close.

  The screams came once more as I stumbled for the hallway. It was either fight with whatever beast had invaded the castle grounds…or do battle with the dark feral mist of hate that lingered in the hallway.