by J. L. Weil
He landed in a crouched position, one hand steady on the ground before straightening as his gaze spanned over grand mountains, deep caverns, and mossy trees hung with tendrils of vines. The court was colored in various shades of greens and blues that blended together.
The land reeked of sex, greed, hatred, and… ivy? What an odd combination. When the mist of darkness faded, Ashor stood at the base of a towering ivory castle, its bricks gleaming with age and climbing ivy, which explained the smell.
I had no doubt this was the Court of Envy.
Ashor was greeted at the gate by a pair of sentries who looked more like gargoyles: stone-faced, pointed ears, wide muzzles, bat wings, and sauntering on all fours. “You’re trespassing, prince,” one of them informed with a gurgling rasp.
Ashor studied his nails, seeming bored and inconvenienced by being detained, especially by two lower demons. “Am I?”
The two sentries drew their spears together so they crossed in an X formation, blocking Ashor from advancing. “You know the rules. Prince or not, you can’t enter her kingdom without a summons.”
“I’m here to see your queen. Royal matters,” Ashor barked.
From around a stone pillar, a woman emerged. She had strawberry-colored hair that fell to her slim shoulders and startling eyes the hue of aged wine, but that was the only thing about her that was old. A tight gown of chartreuse molded to a curvaceous body before gliding to the ground and pooling at her feet. Both of her arms were coiled with gold snake bands. Ashor’s eyes flickered to the glittering crown fitted on her head, then settled on her pretty face. Her finger traced down his chest, and anger snapped inside me. “Pray tell, why is the Prince of Darkness trespassing in my court without an invitation?” Her voice held traces of an eerie hiss that I likened to that of a viper.
The Queen of Envy was lethal.
A bolt of lust ricocheted inside Ashor at her touch. “I’m here to offer you a bargain,” he said through gritted teeth, blasting the lust with a gust of coldness.
Verena wasn’t happy he had warded off her power like blowing an eyelash off a cheek. It had been an effortless maneuver on Ashor’s part. The queen’s chin lifted, her lips pursed in displeasure. “Seize him,” she ordered, obviously not interested in hearing Ashor’s deal. Not waiting to see if her command was carried out, she spun on her heels and walked off.
Ashor’s jaw tightened, but that was his only reaction. “I would think twice about that.” He flicked a hand in the air, dissolving her demon sentries into nothing but dust. I caught sight of a faint red ring circling his wrist from his time in the dungeons of darkness. “You know better than to cross me, Verena.”
She rolled her eyes. “This better be good.”
What the fuck was he up to? Nothing the prince ever did made any sense to me. And probably never would.
Someone was shaking my shoulders, calling my name, but I was still in the dream with Ashor, not ready to wake. The voice was persistent and one I knew but didn’t altogether recognize. “It is just a dream, ma cherie,” the soft voice assured.
Was it?
I was convinced more than ever that these dreams were visions. And I had to wonder, on the rare occasions that Ashor closed his eyes, did he have dreams of me here in the mortal world? Did he know what I was up to, as I knew what devious deeds he was concocting in Hell?
My head twisted back and forth on the pillow as I mumbled something about Ashor and the Queen of Envy.
“You must wake,” the voice pressed with a sense of urgency. “She can sense your presence. Your aura. If she looks too deeply in his eyes, she will see you.”
It was those words that yanked me out of the dream and into an unfamiliar bedroom. I blinked, trying to get my bearings and place where I was. Moonlight filtered in through the window, illuminating the side of a woman’s face. She sat on the edge of the bed, stroking light fingers through my damp hair. The scent of jasmine and something tangy tickled my nose.
My heart lodged in my throat. “Mom?”
Something flickered in her eyes that sparked like dying embers in a fire and I internally cringed, the last twelve hours barreling back into my conscious mind. God, I called her Mom. What the hell had possessed me to do such a thing? It was too late to take it back now, so I decided to not make a big deal out of it.
If only she would as well. “That was quite the dream you were having. I’m going to go out on a limb and assume you and the prince were having some sort of tryst?”
“Kind of,” I admitted, shifting up on the pillow so my head was propped up.
Kira crossed her arms, studying me with all too perceptive eyes. “Care to explain, seeing as I could hear you crying out his name from half a block away?”
I swallowed. Had I really been calling out for him? My cheeks warmed. “I was inside his head. I don’t know how it happens or what triggers the link. It doesn’t happen every night.” No matter how much I will it, I silently added to myself. “I don’t understand what any of it means,” I said, not making a whole lot of sense, but feeling frustrated with myself, with Ashor, with the underworld in general. “The dreams. The reflections. None of it pieces together.”
She fussed with the blanket. “The prince is using his dark glamour to make you see what he wants you to see. My guess, the dreams are real. He can’t block you from his mind or alter his reality when you’re unconscious. But the reflections… those can be reshaped.” Kira seemed to understand more about what I was going through than I did, which only reinforced my being here. This was information I needed to know.
I chewed on my lower lip mulling over her words. Was it true? It was just like him to do something like that, make me believe he was safe and unharmed, lessen my guilt. “Damn him,” I grumbled, running a hand down my face. “I have to do something. I have to stop him.” Like an impending storm, a cloud of darkness built within me.
Kira was watching me intently. “And just how do you plan to do that?”
“I don’t know. That’s why I’m here.” And willing to make that stupid deal with you! I screamed in my head, and the first flickers of flames ignited.
“What is it you need to prevent him from doing?” Kira pushed.
Did I trust my mother? I didn’t see how I had a choice. She was the only one with the means to help me and was exactly why I’d gotten on a plane and flew south. But was I seriously considering going back to the underworld? What other choice did I have? If I revealed what Ashor was really up to, would he find a way to block his mind from me, leaving me in the dark?
My fingers bunched together at the end of the blanket, needing something to do with my hands before I erupted. “What did you mean when you said she could see me?”
She stood and walked into the bathroom, her voice drifting as she said, “You were talking in your sleep. I don’t know what Ashor Clave is doing with my queen, but Verena’s power allows her to see into a person’s soul. Yours is connected to the prince, and through the bond, she also has access to you.” She came back with a glass of water and handed it to me.
A chilly tingle ran down my back, like someone had just put a ball of ice down my shirt. “Shit,” I mumbled, finally taking the cup from her and sitting up on the bed. My back rested against the soft, plush headboard.
Walking to the window, she glanced up at the night sky. “What I want to know is, why is the Prince of Darkness in Gardeness?”
I pressed the glass to my lips and took a sip of water before replying. “He is there to do Kali’s bidding, sworn by a blood oath… I think.”
She leaned against the wall and faced me. A little light went out in her scarlet eyes. “What aren’t you telling me?”
“Your queen wasn’t thrilled by his arrival, with good reason. The Queen of Darkness has it in her head that Hell needs a single ruler over all of the courts. And the next on her radar is the Queen of Envy.”
That suddenly got my mother’s attention. Her back straightened. “My queen? She wouldn’t dare.” Her voice l
owered, something dangerous creeping into her tone.
“She went after the mortal queen, my best friend, and still plans to take her crown—a crown Angel doesn’t want but can’t give it up.” I didn’t have to tell Kira about Angel’s stance on her inherited queendom. My mother knew perfectly well what my friend felt in regard to the Court of Inferno. Or more like didn’t feel, in this case.
“As long as the prince is in Gardeness, Verena isn’t safe.” I could have sworn I saw something akin to genuine fear in her expression. “You need to be careful where you go sticking your nose. If Kali manages to do what no king or queen has done in centuries, demons will walk freely in all worlds. She will have the power to break the barrier between realms. That can’t happen.”
Leaning my head against the headboard, I tugged my knees up to my chest, my blood turning cold. “That we can agree on.” A moment of silence stretched between us before I asked, “What do you know of Ashor?” There was still so much I didn’t know about the man who was fated to be my heart, soul, and body. It scared me to think that I didn’t really know anything about someone I was tied to for eternity, but then again, I had an eternity to uncover everything about Ashor. What made him laugh. What made him tick. His favorite color. The last time he cried. Did demons cry? A bazillion unanswered questions.
She ran her thumb over her bottom lip, looking lost in memories that probably spanned centuries. “Your mate has made quite the reputation for himself in the underworld.”
“Why am I not surprised?”
“The royal higher demons stick together, rarely mingle with the lower class, but that doesn’t mean we don’t hear things.” My mother was considered a lower demon. “Those with true power keep their thrones. Considering the permanent status of a challenge by higher or lower, their positions are rarely threatened, only by those with a true death wish. The Queen of Darkness is a forceful and cunning ruler; that has allowed her to preside over her court for centuries. No demon has dared take what she has claimed, although many thought her son would. And still do.”
“Which son? She has two sons,” I added to be clear.
“Two she calls sons, but only one is blood. The other is… made, I guess you could say, but not in the natural sense. It is unheard of for a demon queen to have a child of her own, rarer even than a female lower demon. I can only think of two queens in the last century who have been able to carry a child to term. Kali and Verena. When Ashor was born and his powers began to manifest, the underworld was buzzing about the prince. The whispers about him stretched from court to court.”
“What kind of whispers?” I couldn’t help but ask.
Her lips quirked. “That he would be the King of Darkness, that his powers rival his mother’s, that the queen keeps him close and under her control because she fears what he might be capable of, the unbridled darkness he can wield, control, and summon. For decades, the queen tried to conceive another child and failed, so she turned to other methods. Rumor is she captured a creature from another world and it was with that thing she bore Soren.”
A shudder tiptoed up my spine. “That explains a lot.”
Her brows lifted, a soft shadow of moonlight grazing the side of her face. “You’ve met the abomination, then?”
I nodded.
“Even in Hell, there are some things that shouldn’t exist. Many say the creature still lives in her dungeons.”
I gulped. It couldn’t be, could it? The Ngah? I didn’t want to think too long or hard on it, not when I had other pressing matters, but I would never forget the creature who had informed me of my bond with Ashor. Never in my life had I ever met anything like it. And I wasn’t sure I wanted to ever again. I had a hard enough time believing there were other worlds out there than just mine, Heaven, and Hell. “So the Prince of Darkness is like the hellish version of Chase. Wonderful.”
She let a throaty chuckle. “I would say that is a fair assessment. I can smell him on you—the darkness. It clings to your skin, to your very soul.”
My eyes lifted to hers. “The prince said something I never allowed myself to consider before. About my demon.”
“Oh, what would that be?” she inquired coyly. An act neither of us bought.
I pulled my knees in tighter, circling my arms around my legs. “That I am part succubus. That like you, sex is my power. Is that true?”
“Of course,” she said matter-of-factly with a partial grin.
Crap. I didn’t want to think too hard about what that meant. Not now. One problem at a time.
“Are you still willing to help me?” A part of me urged me to run, to get back on the next flight to Spring Valley and forget I ever met Ashor. If I did this, teamed up with my mother, I would be inserting myself into the middle of what could possibly be a demon war. My family would be in danger. But the truth was, we were already a part of this whether we wanted to be or not. Angel was a target and always would be for as long as she lived. Our demon blood allowed us to live longer, but Angel was a demon queen. She would live for as long as the crown sparkled on her head. Figuratively. Angel didn’t actually own a crown. Yet.
Funny. I wasn’t demon royalty, but somehow I ended up with a Hellish crown on my head. Demanding Ashor take this thing off me would be the first thing I did upon seeing the prince.
A tad of surprise entered her features. “You still want to make that bargain?”
8
Six months ago, I’d been killing demons like it was a nighttime gig. Except the pay sucked. Okay, it didn’t pay at all, but that was never a factor for me. I hunted because I had to. Because it was the only thing keeping me sane. I didn’t know what that said about me and my stability.
Now, I was sitting in the dark with my demon mother as she carved a blood oath onto my forearm. I already bore her demon mark on my wrist. Ashor’s mark was stamped onto the base of my neck. At this rate, I would be covered in tattoos from Hell.
FML.
This wasn’t how I dreamed my life would turn out at the age of twenty-three, but we don’t always get to choose the direction our life takes.
I winced as Kira sliced her nail along my skin, dragging it in a pattern of lines and curves of a demonic symbol. With her glowing eyes on mine, she opened up her arm with one clean cut, pressing it to my forearm to intermix our blood. Her lips murmured an ancient incantation, and with the words, the newly carved mark burned, searing itself into my flesh, before cooling into a mark that intertwined with the one I’d had since birth.
The deal was done.
She’d agreed to help me in exchange for a favor, one she could call upon at any time for any deed. It was stupid to agree to such an open-ended oath. I already knew it was one I would someday regret, but it was in the future. I’d deal with my mother and her request then. For now, I had bigger problems.
“Will you get me into the underworld?” I asked, pulling my gaze from the new mark. It still stung.
Rinsing the blood off her nail in the sink, she glanced over her shoulder at me. “Mortals don’t return from the underworld. You’ve already defeated the odds once. Are you sure you want to press your luck? If I arrange for you to get to Hell’s Gate, there is a good chance you won’t cheat those odds a second time. Is he worth your life?”
“I’m done living my life constantly looking over my shoulder. I have to find a way to stop him, to stop the queen. I don’t have a choice. We both know what will happen if the queen succeeds in starting this war.”
She turned off the tap and dried her hands on a towel. “That we agree on, but sneaking into Hell undetected and breaking the prince out is a certain death sentence, especially on your own.”
She had a point. I was embarking on a suicide mission. “Then what do you suggest?”
“I have a friend.”
“Of course you do.” I barely trusted my own mother, and she wanted to bring another person into the fold? The idea didn’t thrill me, yet it was the only feasible option. I needed a way in. “What is this friend going to b
e able to do?”
“We need information, and since I’m still banished from the underworld, I can’t exactly go strolling through Hell’s Gate, but if you are certain this is what you want, he can help you once you’re inside the gate, keep you undetected until you find the prince. If the prince is in fact in Gardeness, my friend won’t be able to step foot inside the Court of Envy, not without a personal invitation from Verena.” Kira had been banished from her court after giving birth to my brother and me and hiding us in the mortal world. The payment for that deception, not once, but twice, earned her a twenty-five-year punishment, which was nearing its end. Would she return to Gardeness once her punishment was fulfilled?
A small ache squeezed in my chest at the thought. Nothing that concerned me. It was like a bout of indigestion, and I didn’t have time to examine how I felt about Kira leaving. “How will I get in then?”
“You’re of my blood,” she said simply. “Gardeness is your court by birthright; you don’t need an invitation. If you’re serious about kidnapping the prince, we need an ally who can be our eyes and ears, be where we can’t be. And I know just the demon.” The smirk curling on her lips made me groan.
T-R-O-U-B-L-E.
That was my mother.
I could see the logic in her suggestion. I knew nothing about the Court of Envy or its queen, and I wasn’t even a hundred percent certain the dreams were real. Kira believed Ashor was shadowing me from the truth. Once again I found myself forced into a position where I had to trust someone who was unworthy of that trust.
“What happens after I get in?” Long-term strategy wasn’t my thing, and neither was being patient. Every second that went by was, in my mind, time Kali used to strengthen her advantage. If she succeeded in conquering the Court of Envy, we would all feel the rippling effects.
Kira leaned back against the counter, crossing one ankle over the other. “I have a few ideas. But first, we need to learn the prince’s whereabouts. We can’t have you just wandering around the underworld. There are things, unimaginable things, that dwell in Hell.”