by Maya Nicole
"I know the prince. On a very intimate level." I left the comment vague and let him come up with the story for that. "I can be very convincing."
Henry looked at Nico. "She's kidding, right?"
He shook his head. "She's not lying. They were pretty close before Lilith came along."
Henry looked at me, his black eyes shining. I didn't need his permission to go. I was a free spirit; I could come and go as I pleased. If my brother was back, I had to go.
Still, I had been with this group for centuries. I didn't want to disappoint who I considered family.
"Let me talk to the other elders first." He turned and walked away from us.
I began wringing my hands and pacing back and forth. What was I thinking, wanting to go back there? I was happy here on the edge of everything. We seldom faced threats and didn't have to deal with any political bullshit.
"Talk to me." Nico crossed his arms over his chest, his shirt pulling at his biceps.
"What if he's actually on Lilith's side? He did kill our parents and then…" I bit my lip and tried to stop the tears from filling my eyes.
I was unsuccessful.
"You moved on from that idea a long time ago, Sammy. If your brother did have any control over what he did, he would have saved your parents too." He stopped me from pacing by grabbing onto my arms and turning me towards him. "We'll go, and I'll scout things out a bit. Then we can decide if we want to go in."
"Do you think he can defeat Lilith?" If she could find a way to defeat my father all those years ago, there was no telling how much more power she had now.
He grunted. "He's thousands of years old now, Peanut. Much older than your father was. Lilith couldn't even kill your father; she had to have Reve do it."
I sighed because he was right. He pulled me into a hug, and I wrapped my arms around his narrow waist, burying my face in his chest. He smelled faintly of walnuts and trees.
"Let's leave tomorrow morning."
The elders decided to let Nico and me go to the castle to petition for a council seat. Now Reve was back, the hopes were he'd retake the throne, and the council would return to its former glory. We would leave in the morning.
"What are you writing?" I didn't look up from the tree I was painstakingly carving into a bar of soap. I had been working on the carving for several nights, the small leaves on the branches taking a steady hand, and a level of detail that numbed my hand.
"Nothing." Nico didn't look up from his journal.
Most nights, we had the same routine. Dinner and revelry by the fire, then to our tent to relax. Almost nightly I asked him what he was writing, and almost every night he told me the same thing.
"One of these days I'm going to steal that thing and look." I finished a branch of leaves and put my work down.
I stood and walked to the small wooden table he was using. We had been in this camp so long that most of us started making furniture.
I looked over his shoulder, and he snapped the book shut. "I'll kill you if you do."
I rolled my eyes and sat in the chair next to him. "You'd never kill me."
He sighed and put his cheek on his fist. "You're doing it again."
"What am I doing?" I looked at him innocently.
He could read me like a book. "I can't be anything more than your very amazing best friend." His words cut into me for the billionth time.
I knew he'd probably never be ready to take our friendship further, but I couldn't help but try on occasion. I had been sitting closer to him the last few days, touching him more than usual, staring at him for far too long.
Yes, we'd seen each other naked, but we saw almost everyone in our entire camp naked regularly.
"I know, but a girl can hope, can't she?" I stood and went to my bag. "It's been almost a century."
My back was to him as I pulled out the shirt I slept in. I heard him stand and walk towards the flap of our tent. He stopped, and I looked up.
He had opened the flap, but not turned to look back at me.
"It doesn't matter how long it's been, Peanut. My heart and soul can't take any more." He walked out of the tent, letting the flap close behind him.
I squeezed water from the cloth and refolded it to place on Becca's forehead. Her face was deathly white, and her skin was clammy. Her mouth twisted in pain.
"Thanks." His voice sounded hoarse. She sucked in a breath through her clenched teeth. "When will Nicolas be here?"
I took my best friend's hand in mine and squeezed it. Nico was on a hunt, and our messenger had left to find him.
"I'm not sure, sweetie." I looked at the midwife who lifted the blanket to examine Becca's progress.
She shook her head subtly while Becca wasn't looking, and my heart dropped to the floor. We had already tried to turn the baby so it wasn't breech, but we were unable to. The midwife's husband had taken to the skies to find a doctor in the closest village, but that attempt was futile.
The nearest village was hours away by air, and if the doctor didn't have a fast mode of transportation, it could be days. That was if a doctor even agreed to come out to our location.
"Can you tell him something for me?" Her breaths were getting weaker, more labored.
Tears blurred my vision, and I nodded. "Anything."
"Tell him I love him and that he needs to move on even though it's going to kill him."
I nodded and gripped her hand. "I'll make sure of it."
"Promise me you'll take care of him?"
"I promise."
I stared at the wall of the tent until I heard him come back. I rolled over and watched as he took off his clothes and slid in the bed next to me.
“I’m sorry I brought it up.” He had turned on his side, facing me. He smelled faintly of alcohol.
He brought his hand to my cheek and ran a thumb just under my eye. “I know, Peanut. I know.”
Chapter 2
Nico
We left first thing in the morning, as the moonlight brightened the sky. Sammy's horse, Buttercup, was not happy to be saddled, but she couldn't ride bareback on the two-day journey.
We rode for two days straight, only stopping to get a little sleep and to eat.
As we drew closer to the castle, we decided to stop at a village about thirty minutes away. It was a shifter village, which I wasn't too fond of, but we needed to know what had transpired in the few days since it became known that Reve was back.
We stabled our horses behind the Howler Inn and went inside the two-story wooden structure that looked like it was about to topple over with one good gust of wind.
I suggested we stay in an inn next to the castle, but Sammy was worried someone would recognize her. Plus, her purple hair drew lingering glances. Color was for the rich and powerful, but colored hair was rare and tended only to be seen on witches.
Sammy was no witch.
She was a beautiful woman, curvy in all the right places, with a killer pair of lips that any man would be lucky to have wrapped around his cock. They were plump and just waiting to be sucked and nibbled.
Damn it.
I needed to stop thinking about her lips and the way her shirt stretched across her breasts.
The inn door creaked as we walked in, and the man at the front desk snapped his head up. He looked like he had been snoozing.
"What can I do for you?" He raised an eyebrow and swept his gaze down Sammy's body.
I sniffed the air. A fox. Fucking fantastic.
"We need a room." I put our payment on the counter and stood up taller.
He was smaller than I was by a solid thirty pounds. His eyes landed on me, and he sniffed the air. I frowned. I knew what was coming.
"Well, I'll be damned. Nutty McNutterson, how are you doing?" He tilted his head back and released a hearty laugh.
He was the only one laughing.
The thing about squirrel shifters, and any smaller shifter, was that there were never very many of us. Squirrel shifters, in particular, struggled to conceive, and w
hen they did, they often died during childbirth.
Those that did survive were either pecked off slowly by the more vicious shifters, or suffered merciless taunting.
I wouldn't trade being a squirrel for anything in the world.
Except when faced with a fox. Foxes could go fuck themselves.
"I see you haven't changed. Can we get a room or not?" I rapped my knuckles on the wood surface of the counter, drawing his attention away from Sammy.
It was like it was the first time he was taking a good look at me. His eyes widened, and he cleared his throat several times.
"You're with this pretty lady?" He took the money and slipped it in his pocket, not making a move to grab a key. "I'm surprised."
Sammy sidled closer to me and wrapped her arm around my waist. She put her face against my arm. "Can we get the room key now? We've been traveling for so long that we need some privacy. I can't go having any ladies accidentally seeing my man's big dick as I go down on him, now, can I?"
I bit my lip to keep from laughing and wrapped my arm around her shoulder, draping my hand over to touch her boob. I gave it a firm squeeze before moving it back to her shoulder.
The fox's jaw nearly hit the desk. If I wasn't mistaken, a little drool was at the corner of his mouth. He slid the room key across the counter with his finger.
"You two have a nice night."
I smirked and led Sammy to the stairs.
Once we were at the top, she shoved me away. "Don't grab my tit like that unless you plan on doing something about it, Nutters."
I frowned at her. The last thing I needed was for her to start calling me ridiculous names because I was a squirrel. I had moved past the days of torment I faced in my younger years when I was a scrawny thing and had no balls.
"Don't call me that." I unlocked the door to our room and moved out of the way for her to enter.
She brushed her shoulder against my chest as she passed, and I bit back a moan. It wasn't even on purpose, but the effect was the same.
It wasn’t that I didn't love Sammy, because I did. The problem was that I couldn't go through another loss like I did with Becca. Becca was my everything. She was my forever mate. When she died, I damn near lost it for at least a quarter of a century.
With Sammy, it was compounded by the fact that I had already lost Becca and our unborn baby. Sammy was my rock, and I needed her without adding something as intimate as sex into the mix. I'd never recover if something were to happen to her.
I set our bags down on the bed and turned to look at her. She was at the mirror, fixing her braid that had come loose from our travels.
"If you don't feel up for going to the bar, I can go alone." I rubbed my beard a few times as I watched her do some crazy looping to get all the hair to stay at the back of her head. Women were amazing like that. The best I could do is a half-assed bun to hold my hair out of my face.
Her eyes met mine in the mirror, and she smiled. "You need a babysitter. I know what these assholes did to you. Can't have you collecting any more nuts."
“That’s in the past, Peanut. I’m not going to pick a fight.” I sat down on the bed and waited as she dug in the bag and pulled out a clean shirt.
She pulled her shirt off, and I resisted the urge to palm my dick, which was growing uncomfortable in my pants. It had gotten bad lately, my desire for her. Maybe I needed to find a woman tonight to get her out of my system. That's not what I wanted, though.
We left the room and made our way out of the inn and down the road. Shifters were a social group, always preferring to spend time with others instead of alone. They were also loud and had loose lips. If we were going to find out any information, it would be at the bar.
I led Sammy, her hand firmly held in mine, right into the Lion’s Den. That was literally the name of the bar. Sammy snorted as we made our way inside.
"Shifter sense of humor leaves a lot to be desired." Sammy was in front of me as we wove our way through the tables to get to the bar. "Also, they have no shame in looking at me like I'm a piece of meat. Should I be scared?"
We found two empty barstools. I moved her over next to the rhino instead of the cheetah she had been about to sit next to. Cheetahs were notorious thieves of women's panties.
"What can I get for you two?" The bartender put two napkins on the bar. His eyes lingered on Sammy before turning to me.
"Two beers." I was half-surprised the lion didn't crack a joke about me being a squirrel.
"Do you have money? We don't accept acorns as payment here." A few of the shifters within earshot sniggered.
I clenched my fist and reached into my pocket. The taunting was one of the reasons I left the village in the first place. There was no respect for the smaller shifters. It was nauseating.
I slid two coins across the bar and crossed my arms over my chest. Sammy put her hand on my forearm and squeezed it.
The bartender, who happened to be a lion, came back with our beers and placed them in front of us. He turned his attention back to Sammy. "Haven't seen you around these parts. That's some hair you have there. Are you a magic-user?"
"Something like that." Sammy took a drink of her beer and wrinkled her nose. "This tastes like-"
"The finest beer in Inferna. Thanks, man." When Sammy raised her eyebrows at me, I shook my head.
The lion shifter went back to serving customers and let us be. The beer was more geared towards carnivores, so it had a slightly coppery taste to it. I could barely stand it myself.
A few men were talking a few seats over from us. I turned in my seat, so my ear pointed in their direction.
"Just got my invitation this evening from a raven. In a few days will be the coronation for the half-breed. Ridiculous if you ask me." The man shook his head in disbelief. "Half demon, half angel. How is that even possible?"
Another man clucked his tongue. "We got an invitation too. I don't know how we can support this. Angels have done nothing but wrong us. First, that piece of land they took all those years ago and now this. What's next?"
"They're saying that once the barrier is open, we can come and go to Earth as we please. I'm fine just where I'm at."
They lowered their voices. "I think if the rumors are true and Prince Reve is back, he's going to make his move tomorrow."
"I heard he is contacting old friends and organizing them."
I looked over at Sammy, who was staring across the bar to the corner of the room where a group of shifters was gathered in a booth. They were focused on something at the head of the table, their gazes tilted up.
She grabbed onto my arm and squeezed so hard that I nearly let out a yelp. She slid off the barstool and went to the table.
I couldn't tell what was said, but when she came back to her seat, she was frowning.
"What is it?" I took the last gulp of my beer and then grabbed hers since she hadn't touched it.
"He was here," she whispered.
Her brother was an alpha dream demon, which not only meant he could be someone's literal worst nightmare, but he could also produce visions and had a phantom form. There was a reason a dream demon had ruled Inferna forever; no one could kill what they couldn't see.
That was until Lilith came along and got to the prince before his abilities had fully developed. He couldn't protect himself.
"Let's go. I think we have all the information we need." I grabbed her hand, and we headed outside.
We had just crossed into the road when something hit the back of my head. I stopped abruptly and turned. Looking down, I spotted an unshelled walnut.
Sammy grabbed at my hand as I rushed for the group of coyote shifters. I swung my arm back and hit the ring leader in the jaw, his head snapping to the side with force.
Three on one. I liked those odds.
Before I could get another swing in, Sammy grabbed my arm and yanked me away. The coyotes were making a ruckus over me punching one of them, but they didn't come after me.
They had always been pussies.
Surprisingly, she was silent once we were in the room. She grabbed a wet washcloth from the bathroom and took my hand.
I winced as she pressed the cold cloth to my knuckles. They were already bruising. Coyotes had strong-ass jaws.
"I would have punched him if you didn't." Her frown was deep, and sadness was in her eyes. "Is that what you always had to deal with? Hearing you tell stories about it is one thing, but seeing it up close like that..."
"It was worse. I was a scrawny thing too, and I couldn't defend myself."
She ran her thumb over my sore knuckles, and goosebumps sprung up on my arms. I was losing my resolve to keep us from taking that final leap. I wanted to get lost in her.
"If they give us a seat on the council, we need to make sure whoever represents us makes a stand against that shit."
"You should be on the council." She snorted at my suggestion. I took her hand in mine. "You have the experience with diplomacy, you're kindhearted, you know what demons need."
She shook her head. "I'm a woman. Plus, if they found out about what has happened to me..."
They would kill her.
On the day of the coronation, we made our way to the edge of the Black Forest. We entered the castle through a secret passageway, which led through the dungeon and servant part of the castle. We both had on dark cloaks, mainly so she wouldn’t be recognized, or the color of her hair wouldn’t stand out too much.
We ended up in a closet near the ballroom, where we hunkered down and waited to see what would happen. It was too risky for us to be inside for all the action.
In the days since the Lion’s Den, it had become evident that Prince Reve and a group of angels were going to attempt to rescue Lucifer and his daughter from Lilith. Many of the demons that couldn’t be controlled by Lilith would be in attendance, but so would many who were controlled by her.
She couldn’t control some minds, but she had strong-armed many into supporting her, and at the very least, tolerating her. Many demons liked the idea of being able to go to Earth.