Shadows & Flame Complete Boxed Set: Demons of Fire and Night Novels

by C. N. Crawford

  Ursula nearly felt a twinge of guilt. She’d executed her own brother, right in front of their dad.

  Nearly felt guilty—but not quite. “Abrax would have found a way to kill his father at some point if he’d lived,” said Ursula. “In any case, Nyxobas has been lost in the void. Didn’t have to feel a thing.”

  Since she’d killed her brother, Nyxobas had become even more remote than ever.

  She understood. He was escaping. Like father, like daughter.

  Cera cocked her head. “Do you think Nyxobas even knows that the oneiroi have been freed in the Shadow Realm, and that some of us sit on the council of lords now?”

  “No,” said Ursula. “I don’t think he’ll be coming out of the void for quite some time.”

  “Bael is Nyxobas’s Sword now,” said Kester. “Shouldn’t he be in the Shadow Realm? And you with him, if you’re his bride-to-be?”

  Ursula shook her head. “If I have anything to say about it, we’ll simply finish rebuilding in the Shadow Realm, and then we’ll leave. The longer we spend there, the more time there is for some other lord to decide it’s his turn to be Sword, and then I have to kill more people. And granted, I may be a demigod—”

  “Are you going to keep mentioning that?” Zee cut in.

  “I may be a demigod,” Ursula continued, ignoring her. “But I don’t want to have to keep killing people. I’d rather just live out my immortal, demigod life in peace.”

  The scent of acrid smoke curled through the air—a mixture of burning flesh and something else—something bitter. Ursula’s stomach clenched.

  Cera leaned across the table, her silver eyes shining with concern. “Do you really think the lord is ready for this? For what you’re asking him to do?”

  Ursula sucked in a deep breath. “I don’t know. But we had to try.”

  In the next moment, Bael glided into the room, carrying an enormous oak tray crammed with silver domes. Before each of them, he laid out a covered plate. The smell nearly choked Ursula as Bael slid a dish in front of her, his gorgeous face beaming with pride, gray eyes shining.

  “Smells wonderful,” Ursula lied.

  Across from her, Lucius was mumbling something that sounded like, “Smells like Pasqual’s basement.”

  Ursula pulled the dome off her plate, staring wide-eyed at what she found. In a small bowl, Bael had poured half a can of Spaghettios. By the side of the bowl, Ursula found small pieces of hot dog, cut up and charred. At least, she thought they were hot dog pieces. They sat next to a lump of blackened marshmallows and three graham crackers, smeared with butter and crushed peanuts.

  A heavy silence fell over the room, broken only by the scraping noise of Cera pushing marshmallows around on her plate.

  Ursula swallowed hard. “Maybe I should have helped you a bit more. I thought with the simple recipe books…”

  Bael’s dark eyebrows rose, and he dug into the Spaghettios. “I didn’t look at the books. Is this not right? I got these food products from a human supermarket. Is this not typical food for your realm?”

  Zee sighed. “I’m calling the Thai place.”

  Ursula lay on Bael’s chest, staring at the ceiling of the room that had once been hers. His powerful torso rose and fell slowly beneath her head. It seemed like ages ago that they’d first met, when she’d found him chained to a table upstairs. She’d been terrified of him then, the ancient and wounded warrior. Now, he felt like home.

  Bael stroked a hand down her hair, and she breathed in the scent of sandalwood.

  So maybe he couldn’t cook. He was perfect all the same.

  Ursula shifted, her gaze trailing over the wildflowers she’d once painted on the walls. The memory had always been there under the surface of her mind—the forget-me-nots and golden aster, the smudges of periwinkle and honey-hued blossoms, exactly like the fields in Mount Acidale. She’d always had glimpses—the flowers, the auburn-haired woman who taught her to wield a blade.

  And there—on the ceiling—the image of the star-flecked, midnight blue zodiac that had made her feel at home. Now, she knew why. Once, she’d been the Mystery Girl—a lost and adrift outcast. Now, she saw that she’d found little ways to keep her parents around her. To root herself in her past, in her history.

  Her gaze trailed over the flowered fields once more, and a vivid image burned in her mind—her mother’s face. Her mum was leaning over her, brushing a strand of red hair from her face. It still hurt that her mother had chosen Nyxobas over her, a betrayal that even now gnawed at her chest. Once, her mother had been her world.

  Bael stroked his hand over the back of her hair again, and she reached behind him, lightly touching the tip of his black wings. His dark magic thrummed over her body, mingling with her own power, her own shadows.

  A sly smile curled his lips. He liked that. “When will we marry?” he asked.

  She looked up at him, her gaze lingering over his chiseled features, his stormy gray eyes, the color of the skies over Byblos. “We’re both immortal. We have all the time in the world.”

  “Soon,” he said. “I don’t want to wait.”

  She smiled. “Soon, then.”

  Ursula wasn’t the same person she had been in Mount Acidale. Now, she was strong enough to feel, to let herself remember. In this life, she had Bael—and Kester, Zee, and Cera. And she intended to keep them close.