Heart of Fire

by Meredith Wild

  I watch him leave with a careful regard, keeping Kara tucked securely to my side. “Maybe we can sneak out now.”

  Kara gives me a look like she wants to laugh but doesn’t dare. “Jaden will be back, likely sooner than later. Even from the other room, I could tell he was enjoying talking to you.”

  I draw in a huge breath, fighting my inner conflict. I’m ready to put Rerek’s house in my rearview and have all of Kara’s attention again, but quashing her desire to spend time with her brother would be like denying her very essence and the huge heart at the core of it. The immense kindness that’s part of my admiration for her.

  With a resigned sigh, I slip my hand down into hers. I’m about to grab another drink for her, but it’s forgotten as soon as music swells louder in the next room. It’s a classical waltz. The selection is as odd as everything else about the party, which doesn’t surprise me at this point.

  “Oh, wow. Now it’s a party.” Kara gives me a spirited smile, made more gorgeous by a warm breeze that flows in to pick up her dark hair. The wind plays with the layers of her dress too, wrapping the peach fabric around her subtle curves. “Hey. You want to dance?”

  “Yeah.” I chuckle. “This one’s a real rager.”

  She gives into a laugh this time, ensuring her face is illuminated by the dancing flames from the glass fire pit out on the balcony. She’s a California fantasy come to life—light and dark, natural and joyful, sexy and smart—and right now, the stunning siren I can’t help but kiss…

  Except when I’m cut off as I lower my lips over hers.

  “Sorry to barge in.”

  As we swivel our faces, her hair mixes with my beard. The spicy scent of her shampoo is a damn aphrodisiac in my nose, which doesn’t help my diplomacy in responding to Rerek’s sanguine smile.

  “Yes?”

  He dips his head to me but extends his hand to Kara. “May I cut in?”

  For a second, I’m confused. What the hell is he cutting in on except me kissing her?

  Luckily, Kara senses enough of that to squeeze my arm in reassurance. “Just a little dance,” she says, nodding to indicate she’s pulled at least that much from the demon’s mind.

  I step back, keeping my protective glower to myself. His request is innocent enough. The two clearly share some history I’d like to learn more about. Maybe soon. Maybe even later on tonight. Just not now.

  The room grows too warm. I suspect it’s from the new sizzle in my blood and the inescapable crackle in my senses. Nothing about this party has felt right, but playing nicely with the underworld is priority one right now.

  I impale her with one more intense look, asking a silent question. Are you all right with this? She answers me by popping up to press a sweet kiss into my beard.

  “Save my spot, okay?” she whispers.

  “Doesn’t belong to anyone but you.”

  As Rerek deftly guides Kara into a waltzing swirl, Jaden approaches from my other side.

  “Why didn’t he ask you?” I grouse.

  “Because I’d have to say no, and he’d be a thousand kinds of bent about it. Besides, I can’t dance. I mean, at all. I’d end up scuffing his shoes and stomping on his feet.”

  My penetrating stare is a silent call for Jaden to tell me more.

  “I’m bound by the same vow as Kell and Kara.” He dilutes the statement with a shrug. “And it’s fine. Females are fascinating, and I’ll be content with whomever they throw at me. Rerek hasn’t said it, but I get the sense he’ll be ready and waiting as soon as my duties have been fulfilled. But I don’t anticipate that being anytime soon, so for now, we’re friends.”

  “Veronica knows this too?”

  “If my mother had her preference, I wouldn’t be mated at all—or at least until I’m much older.” Another shrug, corresponding with his casual side eye. “If you haven’t figured it out by now, males outnumber females down under. I mean, by a lot. That’s another reason why Mom’s stressing hard about Kara and Kell—and why your arrival in all this is a bigger deal than it seems at first.”

  And perhaps why Hades was so fixated on invading all my thoughts about Kara. Just thinking about last night’s encounter with him is another introduction to tension, with more on the way.

  “Well, they’d all better get used to it,” I finally utter. “Because I’m not going anywhere.”

  Jaden flips his head back, tossing the hair out of his eyes. “I don’t think anyone’s questioning that part.”

  His assurance doesn’t stop me from setting my vow on repeat in my mind while keeping watch over Rerek and Kara. Neither of them are saying much, but her discomfort isn’t cramping her style. Her frame is flawless, her footwork poetic. Even her profile captivates my imagination. I greedily take it all in, from the smooth plane of her forehead to the place where her neck blends with her collarbone, and everything in between. She makes me wish we’d really come in from the beach and just left for my place.

  As soon as she whips her stare around, eyes snagging mine before Rerek turns her again, I realize how thoroughly my fantasies have taken over my brain. And likely hers as well.

  I let her revel in my embarrassed smirk before Rerek twirls her away again, with her lush hair sweeping above and her skirt layers swirling below. Between them, her body is nothing but regal movement and innate grace. They’re dancing on their own along the far side of the room now.

  “What the hell is he doing with her?” Basic jealousy would be easier to conquer than this bizarre amalgam in my heart and mind. Uncertainty and suspicion have become my constant wingmen lately.

  Except the look on Jaden’s face mirrors my worry, which doubles my own.

  Rerek and Kara waltz closer to the balcony, even farther from us.

  An agitated rumble vibrates my chest. Heaven help me, I’ve gotten so paranoid—and maybe a little delusional. Because as I watch, Rerek’s angular features and lean frame start to phase in and out of view. It’s as if he’s been thrown into one of Gio Valari’s old movies, except his whole physical presence is flickering in slow motion.

  Forget paranoia. I’ve careened right to baffled, wondering if my senses are playing a prank—until Kara’s gaze pops wide too.

  Then I realize Rerek isn’t the only one in the room who’s phasing in and out of existence. The rest of the party guests start up with the freakish effects too.

  “Holy shit,” I mutter. Every one of them has grown fuzzy edges and sketchy visibility. On. Off. On. Off. The calculated bursts continue across the room, making me question if this is all even real.

  “You’re seeing this, right?” Jaden mutters.

  “Yeah. I’m seeing this.”

  And nothing about it is okay. Something bizarre is going on here. Something not confined to this room or this house. Something that sets off every alarm in my intuition.

  A single glance toward Jaden tells me he didn’t orchestrate a fraction of this freak show.

  But Rerek… He’s seemingly unaffected as he leans over to utter something to Kara. Something as smooth as oozing lava.

  At once, she tenses in his grasp. With matching speed, my heart crashes against my ribs.

  I curl a fist into Jaden’s shirt sleeve. “What’s he telling her?”

  Jaden inhales and then exhales. As his breath begins to leave him, a tremor claims his entire form. “Get her out of here.” Every rise and fall of his rasp conveys his underlying fear.

  “Why? What’s—”

  “You want a full transcript or my sister’s safety?” he snaps. “Get her the hell out of here. Now!”

  I believe him. I can’t afford not to. I pivot around and lurch into action. I make it all of three strides before the first couple I encounter is breaking free from their own dance, redirecting at me like they’ve been newly drafted for party security. The couples to their right and left change course in the same way, pressing in with surreal speed. Everyone’s waif thin but pushing back at me with shocking strength. At once I understand why.


  The crowd of pretty humans are more than weird holograms. The lapse in their glamorous guise reveals more of the truth with each passing moment. Now I’m getting bigger glimpses of their true selves.

  Minutes ago, this was a luxe party peopled with beautiful faces and sculpted bodies. Now the mansion is wall-to-wall with demons, in every sense of the word. Their bones drip with jagged skin. Their mouths are toothless maws. Their eyes are fathomless—and soulless.

  But every one of them has underestimated my love for the woman in their host’s grip.

  I lift a hand toward the target I’ve mentally painted on the chest of minion number one. I already envision how to domino him into his partner. If I think a few seconds ahead of each shove, this will go fast and easy.

  But my hand gets no higher than my waist.

  I growl and try again. I still can’t move.

  What the hell?

  I’m still alive—breathing, sweating, flexing, cursing—but everything from my neck down is like a hexed statue. Behind me, Jaden’s locked in the same invisible cement. We’re stuck here as Kara now visibly fights to be free from Rerek’s hold. But it’s as if the demon’s arms have become concrete too. She can’t do anything but reach for me, eyes afire with fear, fury, dread, and desperation.

  My only reply is the agony of my soul. Out of every torture method Rerek is surely familiar with, he’s handpicked the one that brings me the most awful anguish. The fear of losing Kara.

  I know it just by looking at him that he’s savoring every disgusting moment of this, laughing like a kid who’s gleeful about bigger thrills to come. And that’s when I know. I know.

  We haven’t just walked into a trap.

  We’ve been ambushed.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Kara

  Hush now. Don’t fight it. You knew this was coming.

  Rerek’s eerie warning echoes in my thoughts. Every syllable burns its way up my throat, aided by the bile consuming everything between it and my belly. The heat licks all the way up to my eyes too, but something tells me that’s not a concern in this crowd.

  Every person in the room, aside from Jaden, Maximus, and me, is fading in and out of view like holograms losing the power source that conceals their otherworldly ugliness.

  Never in the history of Hollywood have looks been more deceiving.

  The crowd is fully closed in on Maximus and my brother. They’ve done something to both of them, holding them in place with some unearthly evil. I protest with a shrill cry of anguish, already knowing it’s no use. My mighty lover, who can crush walls and summon thunder, is suddenly, terrifyingly powerless against the half-real mob.

  There’s nothing half-real about the awful rips in my heart—the terrible gashes that keep going, breaking open every seam of my soul. I watch, helpless and furious, as Maximus turns into a man possessed. He shoves and punches and tears. Swears and snarls and roars.

  Rerek’s just as determined, with his iron grip and his stance fused to the floor, keeping me right here. Right where he wants me.

  But growing up in the Tinseltown rat race has taught me some lessons better than others. Like nobody having the exclusive rights on tenacity.

  “Rerek! Stop this!”

  My verbal slash earns me little more than his flinch. I have his full attention now, though, evidenced by his open-mouth hiss. The illusion of his humanity is erased for a moment, revealing a creature with cratered skin, a hooked nose, and gaunt eye sockets.

  “I’m afraid that’s not part of the plan, Kara.”

  The plan? I go still.

  Hopelessness stabs, hard and deep. It intensifies as I consider all the awful options of what his plan might be. Worse—who’s orchestrating it. With circumstances as dire as they are, the candidates are horrifyingly few.

  “Hades.” I go ahead and hurl it, hoping Rerek will deny it and eliminate my biggest dread. “It’s him, isn’t it? Tell me, damn it. Did he put you up to this?”

  Rerek’s black eyes brighten with intrigue. “Did he put me up to this?” He scoffs. “Come now. As if I need encouragement to wreak havoc.”

  I almost believe him. Almost.

  “Then why this? And now? We’ve been friends. You care for Jaden.” I lock my lips to cloak the tremble in my voice. I’m ready to keep ticking items off the list of reasons why he wouldn’t want to betray me, but his attention is torn from me again, back to my brother.

  Dread sets in now, burrowing with awful, icy fingers. I should have been suspicious this morning when Jaden invoked Rerek’s name out of nowhere. But my guard came down because of the unexpectedly warm invitation, likely encouraged by Rerek himself…

  Rerek, who’s always been so cool about never messing with our family.

  Rerek, who’d never harm any of us for fear of alienating himself from my gorgeous, charismatic brother.

  “No. Rerek, please no,” I rasp, my stomach burning again. The horrible pressure behind my eyes joins suit, and there’s no way to prevent the appalled tears from tumbling down my face. I hurtle my glare into his, yearning for my optic flames to become a real explosion for once. Please, just this once…

  But if the Almighty has ever been tempted to hear me, now isn’t the moment. Even the Divine of the Heavens knows when it’s time to step back and let hell have its turn. To let Hades have his toys.

  And sometimes, in some instances, to let him share them.

  I examine Rerek’s features. His pastel gaze is bright and satisfied. His lips are smirking, accentuating the cruel cut of his cheekbones against his deceptively smooth skin—in the few seconds before it melts again, distorting back to his true self. There’s something else about his energy now too. Something inside matching his hideous outside. Palpable excitement.

  I hate it.

  I hate him.

  “Damn you,” I seethe.

  Rerek laughs. “Oh, Kara. What in all of the universe makes you think I care what you feel when I’m about to have what I want? Or rather who…” He swings his heated stare, swirling with azure and periwinkle, toward Jaden. “This was the way it had to happen. The only way. So sordid and messy. A chaotic adventure. And best of all, I no longer have to wait. Patience is not one of my virtues, which may come as a surprise to you.”

  Heavier tears spill and run down my cheeks. What have I done? The powers that be have become the powers that refuse to stop, adding my brother to their tally of Valaris who’ll pay the price for my rebellion. Unless I can warn him first…

  “Run!” I scream, scratching and writhing at the cage of Rerek’s grip. “Jaden, damn it. Run!”

  But I’m wasting my breath. My brother’s still trapped with Maximus, unable to move, let alone run. All three of us are hostages. Caught, captured, and all but chained down by these bizarre insurgents—and whoever fuels their power.

  Their leader.

  The fallen angel who authorizes every move they make, every breath they get, and every feeling they have. The ruler who owns their souls for the rest of time.

  Hades.

  At the moment, he’s giving all of them, Rerek included, less and less of their mortal shrouds. Soon, I’m no longer staring across a room filled with trendy wannabes. Their faces darken and shrivel. Their clothes dissolve to tatters. Their energy becomes a dirge of desperation. They’re an army of eternal slaves, moving because they have to, their voices swelling with greater grief by the second. I grit my teeth, fighting the urge to scream myself, as their hopeless, endless sorrow seeps deeper and deeper into my psyche.

  Stop. Make it stop.

  Am I going insane? How I hope so. This hurts so much. Too much. All the pain and penury and heartache…

  Stop. Make it stop!

  Then I recognize Maximus’s dread coiled in with all the others. The weight of it balls in my chest until it collides with my heart. Agony floods me. I’m weak. I’m broken. I’m terrified.

  And that’s when I know…

  This is the moment…

  At first, there�
��s nothing but a whisper of sound. A feather across my frontal lobe, making my head jolt up. It’s such a contrast to the barrage of grief, I’m disoriented—for about two seconds. It takes only that long for a new sound to dominate the air.

  Maximus’s bellow.

  “Hades!”

  There’s a third sound, visceral and violent, as if the structure around us might shatter and crumble. The lights flicker then pop. Paintings fall off the shivering walls.

  I’m not crying anymore. I’m too scared.

  Especially as the veneers crack on all of the room’s morbid statues.

  “What…in all of…” But my voice hitches as the alabaster confines continue breaking open and fall away, allowing larger, living creatures to emerge from their shattered shells. I never thought my eyes could flare this wide, but they do. I watch, stupefied, as a rearing ram statue becomes a living, moving, red-eyed ram. Next to that, a large owl emerges, wings tipped with flames, before taking flight. The next gives birth to a massive hound that splits apart at the neck so its three heads can emerge.

  Taking form next to the hound, as if the flickering hologram show is working in reverse, is a man.

  No. Not a man. The comprehension runs me through at once, a blade that twists my guts and sears my soul.

  “No!” I cry out, which does nothing to slow the intruder’s strides toward me. He’s slender and groomed, urbane and smooth. He has an easygoing stride, like a guy simply strolling to work in the financial district.

  No. Not a guy. Not even a man.

  Not. A. Man!

  I order myself to keep remembering it. But I also can’t stop staring at him, my senses plunging beyond bafflement. Why is he so…normal? He should be taller. Filthier. Darker. Shouldn’t the ruler of the underworld have three vicious faces with a bat-spawning beard? Shouldn’t he be garbed in black instead of a deep-red suit that accentuates his brutally chiseled features?

  “Kara. We meet at last.”

  As his summons permeates my thoughts, I recognize my observations of his physical presence for the stupid assumptions that they are—lame attempts to alter this nightmare by fixating on things that make sense. Like nearly everything else in my life, nothing about this makes sense. Until three weeks ago, I just accepted the fact with grim certainty, never hoping for anything different—until everything was different. Until I touched a demigod and my heart woke up.