by Meg Xuemei X
I stood atop a snowy hill with Esme/Vi by my side, looking down at endless white trees beneath us.
She smiled at me. “Hell’s too hot. I thought you’d appreciate some snow for a change.”
Snowflakes fell from the sky, drifting onto our heads.
I loved snow, but I wouldn’t allow her to deceive me by any means anymore.
“I’m fine with Hell’s temperature,” I said. “I’ll take gritty, bloody reality any second of the day over a beautiful, useless illusion.”
I threw my hands up, pushing my magic through her glamour. Esme gasped and resisted, but I was stronger. Hellfire powered me. I tossed her magic aside and stomped on it. Through the tear of the fabric of illusion, I saw all the other students on their knees with stupid, dreamy grins on their faces.
She couldn’t influence me anymore, but she still held the others enthralled.
I waved a hand, releasing her magic, and the illusion she’d created for only her and me swayed for a second before returning.
Snow fell from the white sky.
Maybe I would stay in the land of pure ice and snow for a little longer and hear what she had to say.
“You’ve been growing into your power faster than I thought possible,” she said.
“What’s your true face: Vi, Esme, or this one?” I asked. “I thought you were the descendant of Athena. The magic of glamour doesn’t come from the house of the Goddess of War and Wisdom. Does anyone other than Loki know you’re a master of illusion in addition to being a telekinetic mage?”
“I’m Vi, Esme, and Finvarra,” she said, talking fast as if we were running out of time. “I wear as many faces as I need to, but you’ve become so powerful you can see through any of them. I’m sorry for leaving you behind in Crack. But I’ve never abandoned you. I went to the Half-Blood Academy to pave the path for you, just as I came here to prepare you. Glamour will be my gift to you and you alone. It doesn’t come from my Olympian power but my witch and fae bloodlines. I thought we’d have more time to train you, but the god and the devil took you out from under our noses. All I’ve done is for you. I’d do anything for you. One of my biggest regrets was being unable to tell you who you were and who I was when I was Vi.”
“You serve Loki. All you’ve done is make me a pawn and hone me as a weapon for him.”
“All of us are pawns to a degree,” she said. “But you alone can rise above that, Marigold. You haven’t learned how to absorb any power and take it for your own yet. Right now, you’re like a baby Titan, too young to assimilate Lucifer’s and Ares’s powers. However, you can take mine.”
She lashed out, her palms slamming into my chest before I could throw her off.
“No, don’t do this!” I cried.
A wild rose blossomed in my magic well. It would never wither. It would never fade, despite the ice and fire twirling at the bottom of the well.
“You’ll need the power of illusion to win this war,” Esme/Vi said as her magic finished transferring to me.
And then she vanished.
I stood alone for a long moment, letting snow fall on my face.
Then I walked through the veil and stepped back into the class. Vi wasn’t in the room either, yet her illusion still held.
The students walked in circles like lost bulldogs.
I woke up Lisa, her band, and all the half-bloods, leaving the purebloods in their wonderlands or Hell.
“They’re coming for you,” Vi had said.
Loki had sent her to warn me that Lucifer and Ares were coming to collect me before I was ready, before I could break their dark spells, before I could ignite the Living Flame.
I cut a lock of my hair and offered it to my witch friend.
“If I don’t survive,” I said, “find the demigods on the surface, show them this, and tell them that I want them to take care of you and your sister.”
“You must survive, Icy Dagger,” Lisa said in a mist of tears, “please.”
CHAPTER 19
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A feather-light kiss brushed across my lips. It tasted of cider and the galaxy at night, like my Héctor. He was death to others but the blossom of life to me.
“Want more, Héctor,” I murmured. “I ache. I ache so much for you. Need you inside me. Need you to fuck me. Need you to make me feel one last time.”
He groaned, his pure male desire radiating across me like the burning sun. I inhaled his intoxicating scent. I could never get enough of my death demigod.
Large, powerful hands pulled up my shirt, and a hand cupped my breast. I arched my back and moaned in pleasure.
He lifted me. I clung to him, expecting his steel inside my velvet the next second, expecting him to make me a woman again.
“Love, wake up,” he whispered in my ear. “We’re here. We’ve come for you. All of your mates have come for you.”
“Cookie.”
“Buttercup.”
“Rosebud.”
They called to me urgently, and I smiled as a teardrop rolled out of the corner of my eye.
“I never want to wake up from this dream,” I said.
The hellhound growled threateningly, rushing toward my bed.
Someone was in my room while I slept.
I reached for my blades, but they weren’t there. Cursing in panic and rage, I flashed open my eyes and stared right into Héctor’s—an ocean of grief, joy, rage, love, and ravenousness.
I wasn’t in bed. I was on my beloved’s lap, straddling him. My hungry gaze took in his every line, his chiseled jaw, and his lethal beauty.
Zak, Axel, and Paxton emerged from a hidden door on the stone wall and zoomed in toward me. It was like they’d just stepped out of a legend and into my room.
A realization hit me.
This room led to the hidden passage.
That was why my hellhound had picked this room for me and Loki had told me that he’d bring me my mates.
And when Vi/Esme had said, “They’re coming for you,” she hadn’t meant Lucifer and Ares. She was telling me that my demigods were coming.
I gazed at my mates through a mist of joyful tears, greedily roving over their gorgeous bodies. My trembling fingers traced the outline of Héctor’s warm, sensual lips, feeling his burning desire.
I wanted to have my mates, all of them at once.
Then fear pumped into me, as I was terrified that they’d vanish from my sight the next second.
“It’s real,” I whispered. “You’re all real. You’re all here. You came. You’re real....”
But it wasn’t enough to keep telling myself just that.
I slammed a palm into Héctor’s broad chest, needing to feel his heartbeat to convince myself once again.
“We’re here, love,” Héctor said, his voice thick with emotion.
He laid his large hand on mine as his heartbeat pounded against my palm.
Contrary to all of my fears, they’d come for me, and now I was in Héctor’s safe arms.
Joy rippled over my heart, so much so it ached.
They’d never abandoned me. I hadn’t wanted them to come for me since I wanted them to preserve their own safety, yet deep in my soul, I dreamed that they’d come.
A sob choked in my throat.
I was loved and cherished. They’d never deserted me. My mates had come to Hell for me. I took a turn to gaze at each of them with tenderness and gratitude.
Heat shimmered through their eyes in different shades and colors. Their desire for me burned through them, so bright and immense it threatened to melt me.
I wouldn’t mind being melted by their passion. I wouldn’t mind their powers crashing into me and caressing me. They wanted to claim me again, this very second, but they were going to great pains to rein in their powers and emotions so they wouldn’t alert our foes.
We were in the heart of the enemy territory.
“Zak, Héctor, Axel, Paxton.” I murmured their names like honey rolling off my tongue. They were my sun, stars, and moo
n. They were my whole world. Then I sobbed again. “I thought I’d never see you again.”
I couldn’t help being an emotional mess. This moment of reunion meant everything to me. I wanted to tell them everything at once, yet those thousands of words stuck in the back of my throat. I had to dump my passion, fire, ice, and darkness on them, yet I only shivered in my mate’s arms.
Héctor kissed away the tears flowing down my face.
“Cookie, babe,” Axel said, running his powerful hand over my hair, knowing that would comfort and calm me. “I’m here. We’re here. Don’t cry. You’re breaking my heart. We’ll never let you go. Never let you get lost. Never let you be alone. Never let you suffer again.”
Angel chose this moment to get extremely aggressive since he couldn’t stand to see my tears either. He snarled, then leapt at Zak to put himself between my mates and me, to protect me from them.
The Demigod of Sky grabbed the beast.
“Don’t hurt my hellhound,” I shouted. Then to my hellhound, I ordered, “Angel, behave. They’re my mates. They won’t harm me.”
Angel whimpered after Zak released him, but he obeyed me and sat down on his haunches, his two pairs of crimson eyes glaring at my mates, especially at Zak.
“Angel?” a stranger’s voice asked in amusement with a hint of disapproval.
I stiffened, peeking over the space between my mates’ bodies at the fifth person who’d come out of the hidden door in the wall.
His power grade was the same as Loki’s other dukes’. I instantly knew he was the prince’s half-blood spymaster, the one I hadn’t met in the red castle.
He had dark skin and fashionable, medium-length hair. He looked human, handsome, and powerful. This one could walk easily even in the heart of the demigods’ territory.
My hellhound immediately rose to greet him, tails flailing around in excitement.
“Duke Pythius,” I said.
“Princess Celeste.” He nodded and sealed the secret door behind him with a wave of his hand.
I stared at the secret door, memorizing its location.
“We own the secret passage now, Rosebud,” Zak said. “Do not concern yourself with our retreat. We’ll take care of everything.”
Pythius snorted. “Remember what we agreed upon, demigods. Control your bleeding heart. Don’t let your dicks do the thinking now that you’re here with your woman, and the plan will go well.”
My demigods snarled.
“You can leave now, Pythius,” Axel said tightly. “Your job is done. Your service and presence are no longer required.”
“You can have privacy when you’re dead,” Pythius said.
Axel stalked to him, menace rolling off him in spades. “You can either leave by choice or by force.”
Pythius shrugged. “This is what I get for helping the Olympians. Prince Loki should have listened to me and been done with you instead of smuggling you into the Underworld. We don’t need you. Anyway, what’s done is done. I’m returning to my prince.”
He turned to scratch Angel under his chin. “Keep watching, good boy. Don’t let them do anything stupid.”
And then the Duke of Deception was gone in a waft of smoke.
Loki and all his dukes could teleport easily. I should be able to teleport, too, since I was the Princess of Hell, but Lucifer’s spell prohibited it.
I looked to my mates, wondering if they could teleport me out of here.
“Our powers are limited in Hell,” Paxton said tightly.
“Worry no more, lamb,” Héctor said. “We won’t let those fuckers touch you again.”
Axel tried to remove me from Héctor and pull me into his arms, but the death demigod growled and refused to let me go. Then Zak and Paxton pressed in, strong arms around me, large hands on me everywhere.
“One at a time!” Héctor hissed.
But no one was listening to him.
I twisted my torso in Héctor’s embrace so I could receive my every mate and touch them, too. Lust heated my blood; my every atom came alive for them.
I wanted their cocks in me.
“Fuck me,” I moaned. “I need to feel you all.”
“My lamb needs to feed,” Héctor said. “She’s been starved for too long. We’re terrible mates!”
“That’s not true!” I said heatedly. “You’re the best mates any woman could hope for, but I got you all.”
My mates blinked, their eyes brimming with gratitude and love, and my heart fluttered, so drunk was I in their fiery passion for me.
However, I didn’t tell them that I could now draw in Hell’s energy. Not yet. I wanted to feed from them, to feel connected to them again.
Zak and Axel stripped me eagerly, and Héctor laid me back in bed.
Then the demigods were all busy undressing as fast as they could.
“Guard the door, please, Angel,” I ordered, proud that I still had the presence of mind to attend to security details.
Angel grunted, pulling his lips back at my mates in menacing warning before trotting toward the door. I hoped Loki and his dukes wouldn’t sift in while we were in the middle of hot action.
As if reading my thoughts, Zak held my gaze. “They won’t, love. We have plans.”
The sky demigod motioned his chin toward Paxton, who was half out of his armor and whose muscles rippled aggressively across his massive shoulders and biceps. The Demigod of Sea was more than ready to get a piece of me, too.
“You’re up for the first watch, Paxton,” Zak said.
Paxton growled, but he shrugged back on his armor and stalked toward the door until he reached midway between the door and the bed. He watched between the door and us, his legs bracing apart, his muscled arms across his chest.
I licked my lips at the delicious sight of him, and he smiled at me as he noticed my gaze on him. He didn’t hold a weapon, but I knew he could summon his sword in no time.
The hellhound was our first defense, Paxton the second. He would do anything to keep me safe, including not have his male needs fulfilled.
Raw hunger and intense longing and lust for me blazed through his violet eyes, making me want to go to him right away. In fact, I should fuck him first, just in case we were interrupted by an unexpected outside force.
But then Zak pulled off my panties and stared at my bare pussy with unbridled lust. My heart pounded, and I bucked my hips up to urge one of my mates to take me.
Héctor growled and pinned me first. He buried his face between my thighs, his hot mouth devouring my tender flesh, his teeth grazing my arousal.
I moaned and jerked my leg at the electrifying sensation.
Need strummed in my veins.
The death demigod made a satisfied sound as if he tasted heavenly nectar. His wicked tongue thrust into my heat, his thumb running a circle around my swollen clit.
I cried out in pleasure. I’d stay in Hell forever if I could have this forever. This was better than heaven.
Before I could beg to be fucked shamelessly, Zak’s mouth slanted over mine, sealing any sound or breath. Yet my throat still made an erotic noise, which only made my mates work on me more frantically.
The mating frenzy had us in its merciless, iron grip.
Zak’s tongue swept over my hard palate, sending tingling sensation all over me. His tongue fucked mine, thrusting and withdrawing and thrusting aggressively. And down there, Héctor’s tongue also swirled inside my liquid heat, tasting and savoring me voraciously.
My ass was in the air, and it belonged to my mates—theirs to ride, to control, to relish.
Lightning rolled, then blasted in my mouth, and I nearly came just from that.
Feed, Rosebud, commanded the sky demigod, his energy pouring into me with his lightning.
I inhaled his essence—deliciously stormy. He laid himself bare to me, giving me every part of him freely.
Our mating bond, which had gone dark and mute, blazed like star fire. Being bonded to my demigod mates was the best thing that had ever happened
to me. I no longer felt fearful or alone or empty.
With the three of them relishing my every inch, I was a hot, wet mess. I thrashed, I moaned, I begged, and I screamed. I burned brightly and darkly for them.
All I could think now was to fuck them. Fuck them hard to no end.
Axel chuckled in amusement while lust burned equally and messily in him.
“Later, Cookie. I’ll fuck you like you’ve never been fucked,” he promised.
He pulled my nipple into his mouth, suckling like a greedy baby. His large, powerful hand closed on my other breast, fondling it as if he had never played with a breast before. But I knew he had. He’d been the realm’s playboy before he met me. He’d had numerous women in his bed and experienced all things sensual.
The past didn’t matter. I was his present and future. And I’d be his last woman.
My lust increased to a fever pitch.
I needed my mates to fuck me now. I needed to be filled.
I propelled my hips up, thrusting my arousal toward Héctor while his mouth worked on my tender flesh.
I whimpered against Zak’s sensual lips. Just when I was about to tell them my urgent carnal need through our telepathic channel, Héctor withdrew his tongue.
I writhed.
I wanted his cock now.
Héctor lifted my legs and knelt between my thighs, his heavily hooded eyes staring at my pussy with dark fascination. From the moment he’d met me in the Dreaming, he’d been a goner, and so had I.
“My only woman,” he murmured. “My mate.”
The thick head of his cock nudged at my entrance, and my inner walls clenched his hard length. He cursed in lust and pushed in.
I sucked in a breath at the pleasure.
He drove home, hitting my molten core, filling me deliciously. It felt wonderful.
I arched my back to receive him, giving myself completely to him.
Héctor started to move in me, gentle at first, but when I slammed my ass into him, rocking his heavy balls, he turned into a storm.
He unleashed his hunger, lust, devastation, and the misery of nearly losing me into my body. I took them all and gave him my whirlwind of wildfire and the shadows that haunted me.
I had changed. I wasn’t that innocent Marigold anymore. I could never be her again. My desire for my mates wasn’t sweet either but violent and brutal. For months, I had done nothing but kill, honing violence into a cold, perfect art.