by Quinn Loftis
Bayde and the fourth warrior, whom Dhara recognized to be Krinn, attempted to alternate their attacks. They made swipes for the demon’s ankles and knees, no doubt hoping to bring him down. But Dolion moved faster than a being his size should be able to.
In a matter of minutes, all four warriors were on their backs, unconscious.
“I will kill them where they lie if you do not come with me,” Dolion threatened. His black eyes were so full of malice that Dhara couldn’t look directly into them without feeling as though all hope was being ripped from her soul.
The demon held out his hand to where Bayde lay, and she saw the gathering fire.
“Stop! I will go with you.”
“My lady.” She heard Leelin gasp and the murmuring of the others. The beasts roared at her declaration.
She looked over her shoulder at them. “I cannot let him hurt any of you. I am your queen, and it is I who will make such sacrifices. Protect your home. When the warriors wake, tell them to go to their king and tell him what has happened.”
The sadness in their eyes broke her heart, but it was nothing compared to the pain she would feel if the demon hurt or killed even one of them. Dhara turned back to the creature and started walking toward him. She tried to look stronger than she felt, but there was no hiding the trembling in her legs.
Dolion returned to his original size and wrapped a clawed hand around her arm. He opened a portal, and she could feel the heat on the other side. He was taking her to the underworld. They stepped through and she immediately collapsed.
“You might not live long enough to be useful,” Dolion spat. “That would be a waste.”
Dhara refused to spend her final hours of life in hell. She would stay alive. The demon picked her up and carried her into a chamber that appeared to be carved from obsidian. The entire room was black from ceiling to floor. There was a table—that could also be called an altar, but Dhara wasn’t going to entertain that thought—in the center of the room.
She heard a familiar growl and turned her head, much too slowly for her liking, and her eyes widened. “Beaumont?” she asked as she stared into the angry eyes of her mate. Dolion placed her on the table, and the heat from it seared her skin through her clothes. Dhara shivered as coldness seeped into her veins. She didn’t understand why she was cold on the inside but burned on the outside. Next to her mate stood Agni, Aviur’s mate, Beval, Nasima’s mate, and Ecthelion, Kairi’s mate. “You’re all here?”
Beaumont nodded as his eyes swirled a bright green. “Why are you so weak? Did he hurt you?”
“My magic is running through her veins, earth king,” Dolion purred. “How does it feel to know your female has let another male put his power in her?”
Bile rose in Dhara’s throat at the demon’s insinuation. “I did not take your magic from you,” she snapped. “Do not act as if this was some sort of intimacy.”
“Beloved,” Beaumont said in a gentler tone, though the power in his eyes still made it clear that he was raging on the inside. “What has happened?”
Dhara started to speak but had to stop as she felt the inhabitants of her realm pushing magic into her, trying to give her strength. She had no idea how long it would help, but it would keep her alive, if nothing else. As her teeth began to chatter, she fought back nausea because she knew what would happen on earth with her and Beaumont’s absence. “There was a spell I had to remove from Master Alaric,” she said through chattering teeth. “It belonged to Viscious, but Dolion’s power was mixed in with the spell.”
Beaumont tried to take a step toward her, but some sort of invisible boundary kept him from getting close. He snarled like a beast and slammed his hand against the unseen barrier. “Release me,” he growled at Dolion, who simply looked amused.
Dhara shivered again, and this time it was more violent. Her mate’s anger was only going to make things worse in the overworld. As the earth elemental king and queen, they didn’t just wield earth powers. They regulated the temperature of the earth, and not just the earth elemental realm, but of the human realm as well. If they were both gone, the earth’s temperature would drop. The other elementals could use the power of their element—air, fire, and water—but they did not take care of the earth itself. Dhara and Beaumont’s love for the planet and all living things is what kept the earth healthy. If the earth began to die, then the oceans would take over, and a great freeze would set in. The fire king and queen wouldn’t have much to work with if there was no fire left in the core of the earth. The air king and queen wouldn’t be able to create warm breezes if there was no sun to warm the air. Without the earth queen and king’s love, there would be no warmth. The sun was drawn to their power, but with them gone, the heat would diminish, as would the light.
“My love, you must calm yourself,” she said. She watched him take a deep breath. Then he stumbled forward, as whatever had been holding him back disappeared. Dhara looked back to see the demon was gone. Beaumont hurried over to her and lifted her into his arms as he took a seat and rested her in his lap. He pressed his forehead to hers, and she felt him trying to lend her his power, but he was also weak. Being in the underworld had drained him. The hands of the others touched her shoulders. She felt their strength flow into her body. It was enough to give her the stability to sit up on her own and lift her arms so she could touch her mate’s face. “Are you all right?” she asked him.
“Do not worry about me,” he said and pressed his lips to hers. “Focus on keeping the dark magic from mixing with your own.”
“Please, tell us about our mates,” Beval said.
“They are worried,” Dhara said. “But they have much on their plates at the moment.” She told them about the dark elementals and what they’d been up to. She explained how the spell had made them forget about the soul bonded and had driven a wedge between the four kingdoms. When she was done, she was exhausted.
“Rest,” Beaumont said quietly.
Dhara could feel the worry and fear coming from the three other elementals, and she wished she could offer them some sort of comfort. She had to trust that the other royals would find out she’d been taken and be able to get them all back to the human realm. Until then, with the help of her mate and the other royals with her, she would fight with everything she had to keep the earth from becoming a freezing, endless night.
Osiris felt it the moment one of his demi-lords returned to the underworld. “Dolion,” he growled under his breath. The leader of his army had been gone for some time. It was a good thing they hadn’t gone to war in a thousand years or else he’d be a dead demi-lord. Perhaps it was time that Osiris paid him a visit. It would be a nice way to occupy himself so he didn’t sit around like a pining teenager while he waited for the time to pass until the mortal female was with him.
“Crescious,” Osiris barked.
“My lord.” The demon scurried from the shadows and bowed.
“Come, we have a demi-lord to check up on,” he told the little peon.
Crescious shivered like the pathetic creature he was. “Beg your pardon, my lord, but do I have to go?”
“You could always stay here and wait for me to return and cut out your tongue for questioning me,” Osiris suggested.
The little demon squeaked. “Nope. Let’s go. Of course, I want to accompany you. I live to serve.”
“Shut up.”
“Yes, sir. Shutting up.”
Osiris didn’t give in to the urge to kick the little nuisance. He reminded himself for the thousandth time he did not want to have to train a new servant.
With a thought, he took them to Dolion’s territory, a barren area on level six that few demons inhabited. Osiris entered the opening to the cave serving as Dolion’s lair. Osiris didn’t make it far before Dolion was suddenly a few feet in front of him.
“My lord,” the demi-lord said as he bowed. “What brings you to my territory?”
“It has been a long while since you have checked in, Dolion, or even returned to the unde
rworld. I find I am quite put out for having to come find you.”
“I was headed in your direction,” Dolion lied.
Osiris knew the demon was lying because none of his demons ever sought him out of their own accord. They waited to be summoned.
“What have you been doing in the overworld?”
Dolion shrugged. “You know, a little bit of this, a little bit of that.”
“You smell of witches,” Osiris said as his lip curled. He hated witches. They liked to think they had some sort of power over the underworld because they could summon demons out into the mortal realm. They were fools.
“I have been summoned several times by different covens,” Dolion admitted.
“Why would you, a demi-lord, work with witches?”
“They have their uses,” the demon answered. He shifted and crossed his arms in front of his chest.
Osiris noticed the demi-lord’s horns had grown, and his eyes swirled a darker shade of pitch. He narrowed his eyes as he realized what was different about the demon since the last time he’d seen him. Dolion’s power had grown.
Osiris flashed his sharp teeth at the demi-lord. “Who have you been consorting with, Dolion?” He allowed his power to wrap around the demon by using his name. It should have caused him to spill his secrets, but Dolion simply shrugged.
“I’ve been doing what we do. Corrupting the innocent, possessing the weak… You know the drill.”
Osiris’s brow rose. Did Dolion seriously just talk to me, the lord of the underworld, in such a flippant tone? What the hell is going on?
He glanced around to make sure hell hadn’t frozen over because that was the only way one of his demons could possibly resist his power. Osiris had to know how the demi-lord had managed to grow more powerful while being in the overworld. He thought about killing Dolion then and there. But he wouldn’t get his answers if he destroyed the creature. So, he’d have to play along, for now. “Are you going back up anytime soon?”
Dolion nodded. “What else am I supposed to do? I’m a demon. Terrorizing humans is what you created me for.”
“I created you,” Osiris emphasized. “Be sure you do not forget that.”
“Of course,” the demon answered through gritted teeth.
Before Osiris left, he asked one more question. “Might you have happened to speak to the dark elemental fire king?”
“We’ve run across each other a time or two, considering what we do is quite similar,” Dolion admitted.
“True,” Osiris agreed. “Do not wait so long to check in with me again.” Osiris left without another word. He couldn’t stay any longer without ripping the demon’s black heart from his chest. There was something afoot with the demi-lord, and Osiris would find out what it was. Then he would rip Dolion’s heart out.
Osiris flopped down onto his throne, once again bored. “Crescious, bring me the newest souls from level one,” he told the little demon. “I feel like torturing something.”
Cresicous bowed and then disappeared. The lord of the underworld sighed as he tried not to think about the human female and the young Pharaoh. She wouldn’t choose the boy. Why would she when she could have the king of hell? “Of course, she’ll choose me,” he said as he glanced at the wailing souls in the river of lava. She’d better choose me. At least she would relieve my boredom for awhile. Perhaps I will breed her and have some spawn. That would be amusing. He chuckled. Tiny, crumb-catching demons running around like little hellions. Because that’s what they would be. Yes, that sounded like an intriguing idea.
14
Shelly opened several of the doors only to find empty rooms. “Well, that’s disappointing.”
“What were you expecting to find?” Ra asked.
She shrugged. “Burning cities, lakes of fire… You know, the usual hell stuff.”
She heard him chuckle from behind her. “You know what ‘the usual hell stuff’ is?”
“The rumors have to come from somewhere. Everyone knows hell is hot and full of lakes of fire. No one has ever said that hell was an ice world … or an enchanted forest.”
“That’s true,” Ra admitted.
“How’d you get to the underworld anyway?” she asked as she headed back to the room they’d first entered. She walked back over to the couch and sat down. It didn’t look like there were going to be any cool discoveries or revelations.
“The River Styx.”
“That’s real?” Shelly asked, her curiosity seriously piqued.
“That surprises you? After all you’ve learned?” he asked.
He had a point. “But the River Styx is like an ancient myth. I guess I don’t know what’s real and what’s not now, do I? Where is the river?”
“Part of it runs through the basement of Crimson Academy.”
“No way.” Shelly grinned. “That’s freaking cool.”
“You have a strange idea of what cool is,” Ra told her.
“Meh, normal’s overrated.” She shifted as she got more comfortable. Ra took a seat next to her and once again angled his body toward hers. His arm rested on the back of the couch. He played with a strand of her hair, wrapping it around his finger and then letting it unroll. She enjoyed his touch, even the subtle ones. “So, what happens when you cross the River Styx. Do you just walk through a door and, bam, you’re in Osiris’s throne room?”
“Not exactly. Any number of things can occur depending upon what Osiris wants to happen. There are seven levels,” he explained. “I ended up on the very bottom, which happens to be the worst. All levels of hell are evil, obviously, but the least evil souls are on level one, and they get darker as you go down.”
“What level was I on?” She shivered as she thought about the evil souls lurking on level seven.
“You were on one.”
“Those are what? Liars, cheats, thieves?”
He nodded. “Some, yes. The murderers and horrific people are down on seven. I had to travel through each level to make it to level one.”
“It sounds like a computer game,” Shelly said.
Ra’s lips quirked. “I suppose, from a person who hasn’t had to endure it, it does. But speaking from experience, it’s not a game I’d like to play again any time soon.”
Her stomach dropped as she realized the horror he’d endured to rescue her. “I can’t believe you did that, just to come for me. You don’t even know me.”
“It was the right thing to do. But that’s not the only reason I came, as I’ve already told you,” he said gently.
“Besides Tara, I’ve never met anyone that selfless. I mean, maybe my parents, but they have to try and save me because they’re my parents.” She paused and then jumped to her feet. “Holy freaking demon babies! My parents! They’re probably going out of their minds with worry.” How long had she been gone? Shelly hadn’t even considered that they would be waiting for her to come home from the dance. She didn’t want to imagine how her mom reacted when Shelly didn’t show up.
“They’re going to kill me. I mean, not right away. But after they realize I’m okay. If we get out of here, that is.”
“We will get out of here,” Ra said sternly. “And your parents will be all right. I hate that they are probably terrified, but I will make sure you see them again.”
He reached out, grabbed her hand, and pulled her back down to the couch. She sat much closer now, her thigh touching his. His warmth was nice compared to the chill that had filled her at the realization that her parents were probably worried sick.
“There’s nothing you can do right now. There’s no sense fretting over it,” Ra told her.
He was right, but she was an eighteen-year-old girl full of jacked-up hormones. There was no way she wasn’t going to fret. She’d try and at least keep it on the inside. Shelly didn’t want to drive Ra crazy with her crazy. She wasn’t sure she could handle someone else’s crazy. There should be a rule that there could only be one crazy person in any dire situation at any given time. “Okay, if there’s not g
oing to be any fretting, then what do you suggest we do?” she asked.
Ra didn’t speak for a long time. He simply stared at her as if he were completely content to do just that. But then he said, “How are you feeling?”
She took a minute to take stock of herself. “I feel good. Tired, but otherwise good.”
“You don’t have any residual pain from the burning?” he asked as his jaw clenched.
“No, thank heavens. Burning alive sucks. And I couldn’t make any noise or move, which was almost as bad. It was like I was trapped in my own mind while feeling what my body was enduring.”
Ra’s whole body tensed as she spoke, and his eyes glowed with an orange flame. “I am sorry you had to endure that. I wish I could have gotten to you sooner,” he said.
“I’m sure people have endured worse than that,” Shelly assured him. “Like those who’ve actually been burned. I wasn’t really burned.”
“Perceived pain can be just as horrific as pain that causes injury,” Ra said. “Don’t diminish what you went through just because there is no physical evidence of it.”
Shelly could tell it bothered him she’d been hurting and he’d been unable to get to her. She’d never had anyone feel that way about her. “Ra.”
“Yes,” he said as he looked into her eyes.
“I’m glad it’s you,” she said.
His brow drew down in a V. “What do you mean?”
“I mean if we are somehow destined for one another, I’m glad it’s you. With my luck, I honestly wouldn’t have been surprised if my destiny had been a guy named Earl with poor teeth-brushing habits and the need to slap my ass every time I walked by him as he yelled at me to get him a beer.”
Ra looked surprised. “Why would that be your destiny?”
“Because I’m from a tiny town in Kentucky. It’s not like we’re breeding a ton of the leaders of the free world. Not that those people are much of a step up from good ol’ Earl. They just have more money.”