Angel's War

by Meg Xuemei X

  “You’re nothing but trash,” Rose spat, “and your king treats you so. He’ll never marry you even after I’m out of the way.”

  Victoria strode toward the princess to strike her.

  I was beside the general in an instant, my hand grabbing her fist and twisting her wrist before she laid a finger on Rose.

  The general groaned in pain.

  The king’s guards tensed, but none came to aid her. Not yet. I was still the High Prince of All Angels, and a formidable one.

  I shoved her back. Touching her, even in a punishing way, made me sick.

  “High Prince,” Victoria said, eyes flashing with enjoyment and anger, “you’ve just defended the traitor, who insulted the king’s general!”

  “I wouldn’t give a shit if she’d gutted you,” I said. “You’ll not touch her. No one touches her.”

  I knew then that there was no way out of this other than to fight.

  Victoria stared at me, then something registered in her eyes. “You—” She darted her gaze between Rose and me.

  I gave her a vicious grin. “I what?”

  “You’re the true suitor,” she drawled. “The Dragonian rebel commander confessed only under extreme measures. But it was you all along. When the fey princess went to Babylon, you and she were together. That was why you went against me for her when she returned. You always have that hungry look whenever your eyes fix on her. I didn’t believe that you had a thing for her before because you couldn’t get hard.” She darted a glance at my crotch. “Who could believe our High Prince has been lusting after a fey bitch?”

  “Got it all figured out, don’t you?” I said coldly, my glance darting to Rose. She widened her eyes. For the first time since I had entered the king’s chamber, the light of hope ignited in her eyes like starlight from the secret universe. Joy shone on her face despite her dire condition. My chest tightened.

  The king’s guards looked more confused than stunned. They seemed like they wanted to be anywhere but there with their mistress and me and the princess.

  “I’ll give you a chance to deny it as a courtesy, Prince Seth,” she said. “And all will be forgotten.”

  “Why would I deny it?” I said. “And who the fuck do you think you are to grant me a chance?”

  “You’re the High Prince of All Angels, one of the most powerful angels in the universe,” she said. “You can have any female of our race, yet you desire a fey. You know how this is going to end—our own high prince falling for a fairy whore that is forbidden to him.”

  “You’ll pay for what you did to her,” I said flatly.

  Victoria cocked her head. “For millennia, I thought I would never have an opening to get back at you. But payback is a bitch, High Prince. Soon, you won’t be our royal prince anymore. You won’t be merely stripped of your title, your birthright, and all of your privilege. The Lord of All Angels isn’t a forgiving type, even when it comes to his favorite warrior son. You’ll be hunted all of your life. You’ll be set as an example for all rebels to see. You’re done, through and through.”

  “Are you sure about that?” I asked.

  Suddenly, she looked uncertain.

  It was unthinkable to everyone that I, the cruelest High Prince of All Angels, would fall for any female, let alone an earthling.

  She chuckled uncomfortably. “Are you messing with me, High Prince? You’ve been heartless for eons. You’ve never looked at the same female twice.” She shook her head. “You won’t toss your life away for fey trash.” She stopped as she saw something glinting in my eyes, and her face paled.

  She was the kind that killed without remorse or hesitation, but I was more of a predator than she could ever be.

  She reached for the hilt of her sword. “You’ll go that far for her?” She still sounded incredulous, though she reeked of fear.

  “I would go to the end of hell for my mate,” I said.

  Angels had stopped being an honorable race ages ago, but we still held matehood above anything, especially when an angel had found his true mate.

  Two blades in my hands, I struck.

  PRINCESS ROSE

  Prince Seth stormed in, his gaze sweeping over me.

  I couldn’t read what was in his mind as he posed as the icy, cruel, and formidable High Prince of All Angels. This angel had nothing in common with the one who had slept on my breast a few hours ago.

  No one knew his deal with me. No one knew of our one-night stand. Now that I’d been caught for conspiring with the Dragonian rebels, the prince could just strike me down to cover his trail, and then go on with his conqueror’s life like nothing had happened between us.

  He had what he’d wanted from me anyway. I had broken his seal. It would be mercy if he just ended me now.

  I didn’t see any hope out of this horror, and I had no one but myself to blame.

  If I had acted a day earlier, my people and I would have all left for safety, and North wouldn’t have been captured.

  We would have met the angels on the battlefield by now and cost them a great deal if and when we went down.

  Now all that was left was my last lament: I was a dud. I was useless. I had tried a hundred times to conjure my magic to wreck the angel king’s palace and his army, yet I had failed.

  The prophecy said that the offensive magic in me would snap alive at the worst crisis. What crisis could be greater than this as I was chained like an animal waiting to be slaughtered?

  The prophecy was all lies.

  “You put your future queen in chains?” the prince asked Victoria expressionlessly.

  Was he trying to talk down the king’s bitch to let me go? I almost shook my head at him. That wasn’t going to happen. She had North, and he’d confessed. She wouldn’t get another chance like this to bring me down.

  The only way for him to free me was to destroy Victoria and her army. If he attempted that, he would doom himself, no matter how powerful he was. I didn’t see the reason for him to fight for me. I was just the newest female he had fucked, though he’d been more into me than any other female in the past, according to him.

  Our bond was short-lived. It was over when the mating was done.

  “She’s no queen of mine,” Victoria said, then bragged about how she’d caught North and me with one sling.

  Vanna, the rebel spy in the king’s palace, had betrayed me. Victoria had gotten the communication device from her as solid evidence.

  As I was sick of the king’s bitch’s tirade, I told her the truth that her king would never marry her, and she stormed forward to punish me, but Seth caught her fist before she could add another mark to my face. He was incredibly fast, and I’d barely seen him move. He shoved her away from me.

  My heart leapt. The prince was defending me. Would he go even further?

  “I wouldn’t give a shit if she’d gutted you,” he told Victoria, his every word emitting menace and cold fury, and even Victoria flinched. “You’ll not touch her. No one touches her.”

  Victoria darted her gaze between Seth and me, and something registered in her snake eyes. “You’re the true suitor,” she said, throwing her hand over her blood-red mouth. “You always have that hungry look whenever your eyes fixed on her. I didn’t believe that you had a thing for her before because you couldn’t get hard.” She darted a glance at his crotch, and I wanted to gouge her eyes out just for that. “Who could believe our High Prince has been lusting after a fey bitch?”

  “Got it all figured out, don’t you?” the prince said icily, his eyes on me. I met them. Why didn’t he deny it to save himself? I wouldn’t contradict him if he lied about our relationship. I wouldn’t drag him down with me at this point.

  There were thousands of words in his eyes for me, and his tenderness reserved for only me made me want to weep.

  How could I constantly doubt him?

  “You’re the High Prince of All Angels, one of the most powerful angels in the universe,” Victoria said. “You can have any female of our race, yet you des
ire a fey. You know how this is going to end—our own high prince falling for a fairy whore that is forbidden to him.”

  “You’ll pay for what you did to her,” the prince said, his voice a blade that would impale any of his opponents with fear but sent me such warmth that I shut my eyes for a second to savor it.

  I missed a few quips between them while I tried not to sob.

  The king’s general stared at Seth with a tentative look.

  “Are you messing with me, High Prince?” She let out a dry laugh. “You’ve been heartless for eons. You’ve never looked at the same female twice. You won’t toss your life away for fey trash.”

  Then she stopped. The cold kill light was evident in the prince’s eyes.

  At that moment, Seth was a purebred predator that was born and built to maim and kill.

  Victoria swallowed. “You’ll go that far for her?” Her hand moved toward her sword.

  “I’ll go to the end of hell for my mate,” Seth said, his ice-hard eyes not on me, but on her.

  My heart leapt up and pounded in my throat, which was bad for me since my fast heartbeat only made me lose blood more quickly.

  But—

  Mate.

  He called me his mate.

  I had heard that angels still held onto one unyielding honor: they treasured their mates above all.

  I blinked, trying to process the significance of what he had declared and how it had changed everything, and at the same time trying not to pass out.

  A blurry flash—Seth had moved.

  The guards at the door went down as the lighting struck.

  The prince sliced his sword toward Victoria’s head.

  Though the king’s general wasn’t as superior as Seth, she spent almost every waking hour in training or on the battlefield when she wasn’t in the sadist king’s bed. If Seth hadn’t interfered when I had dueled her, she would have ended me then.

  Victoria bent her head backward just in time to avoid Seth’s blade and thrust her long sword toward him in counterattack.

  Black lightning sizzled on Seth’s golden wings.

  “You’ll honor me for this fight, Prince,” she hissed. “You’ll fight fair.”

  “I don’t need my lightning to take you down,” Seth said.

  That bitch was shrewd. She knew she couldn’t defeat Seth, so she tried to stall him until the king returned, until her army swarmed in. She planned to overwhelm him with numbers.

  I had once used my feminine wiles on the high prince, but now that we were on the same side, I had to watch out for him.

  Playing dirty was considered clever and logical in Mysthian culture.

  “Show her no honor and no mercy, Seth!” I shouted, though excruciating pain weakened my voice. “Shove your lightning up her ass, and plenty of it!”

  Seth let out a low chuckle.

  Before his laugh died, cold fury had returned to him. He focused on her as he addressed me. “It will be over soon, love. Lightning is too good for her, for what she did to you.” He swung his sword at Victoria, but she flew backwards. She was fast.

  “Don’t let her get away!” I protested.

  “She won’t,” Seth said, stalking toward the king’s general purposefully. “And I’d appreciate it if you could restrain from shouting fighting tips at me while I’m busy.”

  Seth swept his sword in a powerful arc. Victoria parried from the side. They both moved incredibly fast and became a blur of entangled movements. The general kicked Seth’s blade in the air and used the maneuver to sneak behind him.

  The general thrust her long sword toward Seth’s heart from behind.

  He fought straight. She fought dirty.

  I cried a warning in terror, despite that Seth had just warned me to be quiet.

  Seth slammed his sword onto hers without turning. Then another dagger appeared in her hand. It drove toward Seth’s neck at lightning speed.

  My heart stopped cold. I struggled to go to him, but my shackles pulled me back.

  Seth grabbed the blade before it reached his throat, blood dripping from his hand.

  No, no, no!

  Once again, I wished I had the great offensive magic to burn a hole in the bitch’s chest.

  No one should bleed Seth except me. He was mine.

  Seth’s blade flashed white, and red blood formed on its edge.

  The High Prince of All Angels ended the fight.

  PRINCE SETH

  A thick red line crossed Victoria’s neck from ear to ear. She held her throat with a shocked expression.

  “I would have cut you to pieces before I allowed you to die if I wasn’t eager to get back to my mate,” I said.

  I watched with satisfaction as the last light abandoned her eyes. I’d said whoever hurt my mate would never see the light, and I always kept my word.

  A sentinel ducked into the inner chamber to check out the noises. I threw Victoria’s dagger backwards without looking and heard the dropping thud and wings scratching the floor.

  I strode toward Rose.

  She gazed up at me as I struck open the chains on her wrists and ankles with my lightning. I’d never seen her stare at me like that. For the first time, she was looking at me with absolute trust and unbelievable tenderness.

  As I tossed away the shackles, I noticed that the dead bitch had broken my mate’s ankle.

  Rage filled me again, but there was no more punishment I could enacted on Victoria since she had been choked to death by her own blood.

  “Seth,” my female whispered my name.

  I brushed my lips over hers gently. “I can’t remove the arrows now, or you’ll bleed profusely.”

  She nodded. “I’m fine.”

  I scooped her up in my arms, careful not to touch her wounds and the arrows in her. “Let’s get you out of here.”

  She bit back a cry of pain at the movement, even though I’d been extra gentle. Her wounds were worse than I thought.

  She snuggled her face against my jaw. Even that effort brought her wince and gasp. “Don’t try to move,” I said. “I’ll hold you. I’ll never drop you.”

  If we were outdoors, I could fly her away. I looked up at the ceiling: it would open only at Agro’s heat signature. But I could blow it off and shield Rose with my wings.

  Seemingly reading my thoughts, Rose clutched my arm. “No, wait,” she said. “We need to get the remainder of my team out of the dungeon.”

  “Not until I send you to safety first,” I snarled. “I’ll come for them later.”

  “They’ll be dead when you come back,” she said. “I’d made a promise to my courtiers to bring them home. Some of them have survived Victoria. I won’t leave them behind. So either we all escape or I won’t go. Please.”

  I gritted my teeth at her stubbornness. “They’re not my priority. You are.”

  “They’re my people, Seth,” she said. “And we must take the Dragonian commander as well. He dies, and I won’t have a Dragonian army to fight with me. You’ve saved me over and over. Now please save my people.”

  Then she slumbered in my arms. A panicked realization hit me. She could no longer keep up the appearance. Her face was ashen. Any moment she would fade away.

  I was a complete ass and an idiot to argue with her.

  Her lips shivering, Rose attempted to make her case again.

  “Shush, love,” I said. “Don’t talk. Just stay with me. I’ll take your people with us.”

  That was a lie.

  She could get mad at me later. She could hate me, but I had to get her to safety first before I even considered anyone else.

  A horde of angels charged into the room before I could cloak Rose and myself. But then I knew even if I made us invisible, the king’s angels would track us easily because Rose was bleeding. I couldn’t stop it before I brought her to my villa, and I didn’t have time to heal her while an army of hell was on my back.

  A change of plan formed in my head.

  I would hand her to her guards and help them e
scape.

  I had to stay behind to prevent my kind from hunting her down.

  That was the only way to keep my mate safe.

  PRINCESS ROSE

  The king’s palace became a war zone. Angels fought each other. I could barely tell who belonged to Seth’s team and who were on the king’s side. I spotted Ephraim. He slashed his long, black sword beside Seth, guarding his back. Seth tore an opening for us, leaving plenty of bodies behind.

  Angels’ blood splattered everywhere. Wings broke. Swords thrust into flesh mercilessly. Groans and screams and roars rose here and there. Every angel was an excellent killer, and the fighting was the most brutal I’d ever seen.

  The fragments of the battle faded from my eyes, replaced by a starry night in the twilight realm. I knew then I was passing away from this world, but at least I was in Seth’s arms.

  Mate.

  He called me his mate.

  Seth wrapped an arm around my waist and pinned me against him, so he could use his free hand to shoot lightning at the king’s soldiers. It was a difficult pose for us both. I couldn’t throw my arms around his neck to free his hands, because when I had tried, blood just poured from my wounds. And I’d been feeling too numb to lift my limbs.

  Seth refused to let any angel from his team take me, as if he was afraid once I left his hand, he would never have me again.

  While he battled, he constantly shouted at me to stay awake and checked on my condition, which reduced his effectiveness in fighting our way out. His fear for me—he was terrified that I would fade and never wake up—was so tangible that I could taste its bile and desperation.

  I fought to stay awake, but I was so cold and tired. Every minute felt like eternity.

  I forced myself to focus on the present and on my male.

  The shouts and the sound of crossing blades hurt my ears, despite my dulling senses.

  Seth fought through.

  “The dungeon, please,” I reminded him, surprised at my burst of strength before it slipped away.