by Bella Klaus
As Valentine’s snarl filled the air, the remnants of the wards fizzled over my flames. Up ahead, artificial light streaming through a ceiling grate, reflecting off a puddle of water below. I exhaled my relief with a long noisy breath. We’d finally broken out of Kresnik’s trap.
“Come.” I raised a wing, trying to make it beckon, but the limb couldn’t make the movement.
“Your Majesty.” Caiman appeared at Valentine’s side and handed him a bundle containing the clothes I had taken off at the poolside along with the fireproof cloak.
Valentine took the items with a nod of thanks. A blink of an eye later, he held up the cloak like a screen. My sneakers lay at my feet with my folded-up leggings and top.
“Get changed,” he snarled down at me with a gaze that on his preternatural self would have promised a hard spanking.
I pulled my magic back into my chakras, flinching at the rush of cold air against my naked skin.
“Mera Griffin,” he snarled in a voice sharp enough to cut throats. “You didn’t give the rest of us a chance to plan a way out before rushing into a trap that could have gotten you killed.”
Keeping my eyes to my clothes, I picked up my leggings and slipped them over my legs and hips. “People were dying, and it was the only way we were going to leave the villa without encountering the dragon and who knows what else was in the villa.”
“It’s comments like this that make me regret allowing you to come along.”
With a sigh, I pulled on my top and finally looked Valentine full in the face. Beneath the flared nostrils, the rasping breaths, and tight lips was terror. His skin glistened with a sheen of sweat and subtle tremors shook his frame.
I placed a hand over my mouth, my eyes widening with realization. Valentine had thought he’d lost me, but I’d been too accustomed to the horror of our situation, too preoccupied with breaking out of Kresnik’s trap and saving us all to appreciate that this version of Valentine hadn’t been through any of the harrowing adventures I’d shared with his preternatural self.
Remorse weighed down my heart, making it sink to my stomach. I hadn’t considered Valentine’s feelings at all.
“I’m sorry.” I leaned into his broad body, resting my head on the breastplate of his armor.
Valentine’s rapid heart reverberated against my ear, signaling his distress. Even encased in all that leather, I could still tell the muscles beneath it were as rigid as they’d been during the shock of seeing me explode.
My throat thickened, and I swallowed hard, wrapping my arms around Valentine’s middle. “I promise never to put myself in that kind of danger again.”
A harsh laugh rumbled in his chest. “A lesser man would bind you into a magical promise.”
“A better man wouldn’t suppress the natural urge of a phoenix to shield,” Hades said, his voice bitter. “Miss Griffin isn’t a fainting fancy to be confined on a bed under the influence of thrall.”
Valentine snarled at Hades, his eyes flashing red. “You overstep your place.”
Dread rolled through my belly like thunder. If I didn’t do something to calm Valentine, Hades would start a fight that would have the entire passageway falling down on our heads.
Threading my fingers through Valentine’s, I raised myself up on my tiptoes and pressed a kiss on Valentine’s jaw. “I love that you’re protective.”
Hades turned to shoot us both withering looks. “If it’s cosseting you wanted, you wouldn’t have objected to my playroom in Hell.”
Valentine stepped forward with his fists balled. “What are you talking about?”
Before I could grab Valentine’s arm, the air at my back splintered, and shards of magic engulfed my body.
Cold shock exploded through my insides, and I inhaled a noisy gasp. The sensation across my skin felt like being absorbed by a broken mirror. I lurched forward, reaching for Valentine, but a pair of strong arms appeared from behind and wrapped around my middle, pulling me into a body made of pure flame.
Valentine, Hades, and Caiman rushed forward, each of them pounding against thin air.
Realization dropped through my belly like a boulder.
By disabling that ward with my phoenix flames, I’d just alerted Kresnik’s people of my location.
I pushed my magic to the surface, transforming into a phoenix, but the presence at my back just chuckled in my ear. It was a laugh I would recognize anywhere.
Kresnik’s.
Kresnik’s arms tightened around my middle. “Thank you, Valentine, for returning my darling daughter. She’s going to be instrumental in the next stage of my plan.”
The last things I saw before fire engulfed my vision were Valentine’s stricken features.
“Say goodbye to your vampire lover,” Kresnik crooned in my ear. “This is the last time you will ever see Valentine Sargon.”
END OF BOOK SIX
READ BOOK SEVEN
Also by Bella Klaus
Abducted: A Hades and Persephone Dark Romance
I had a one-night stand with the devil. Now he thinks I’m his wife.
I snuck into a masquerade ball and did something reckless with a man dressed as Hades. How was I supposed to know it wasn’t a costume?
When I ran off, I thought that was the end of it. But he’s abducted me to a beautiful palace in hell…
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READ BOOK SIX