Princes of the Underworld

by Olivia Ash

  She did as she was asked. Biting her lip, she concentrated on manipulating the color instead of the energy to harden the sword. Gradually, the grey smoke spread, and the blue glow faded, but it didn’t disappear completely. Sweat formed on her brow.

  “Try harder,” he said.

  She gritted her teeth. “I am.”

  The grey color kept spreading, but when it almost covered the entire sword, the weapon puffed into mist, disintegrating.

  “Damn it,” she said, panting heavy breaths.

  “You’ll get better with time.” He smiled, though Sadie wasn’t sure if it was a condescending smile or an encouraging one. “I’ll teach you.”

  “Thanks,” she said. “But I’m going to bed.” That thought made her wonder when she should summon Hobson to give Mordecai a room of his own. Maybe he preferred the dungeons. Especially considering he had proven he could have left them long ago.

  She turned to head for the stairway when she paused. Looking over her shoulder, she said, “Goodnight, Mordecai. Thank you for showing me more about you.”

  He nodded. “My pleasure, Your Highness. But if it was all the same to you, I would prefer a proper room.”

  Sadie faced him as a devious smirk stretched across his face. She narrowed her eyes on him.

  On second thought, I think I’ll make him wait a little longer.

  “No.”

  He shrugged. “Whatever you say, Captain.”

  She opened her mouth to ask why captain, but decided it had to be Mordecai trying to get under her skin. Assuming it was sarcastic, she would think of a way to handle that later. She snapped her mouth closed.

  He shifted to smoke and seeped through the bars of his cell. Once solidified, he smiled once more as he reclaimed his spot on the lounge. “Once I do get a room, you should help me break it in.” He winked.

  Sadie shook her head and headed back to the stairs. She thought about each of the brothers and how they each seemed to have their own unique way of getting under her skin. She heaved a sigh.

  Those men really are going to be the death of me.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Sadie

  In her scrying room, as Sadie had come to call it, she searched for Mara, taking in all the hints she could find from the images the crystal ball revealed. But she couldn’t find much useful beyond the fact Mara was a force to be reckoned with. That helped Sadie to better understand Mara, but not find her.

  She did the same for Blair, discovering more secrets and wondering how she could know her own sister so little.

  Sadie yawned. It was almost midnight, and she knew she should get some sleep, but as she returned to her room from visiting Mordecai, and what the other princes had revealed to her, she wanted to see if she could glean anything to help her with the fight she knew was going to come knocking at her door.

  She wasn’t going to wait around for Mara to find a way in. To find her. And getting the jump on things seemed to be a good tactic. At least, until now.

  If only there was a way to actively spy on her.

  An idea came to her. If she asked the ifrits to send a small group of scouts to search for Mara and follow her from a distance, they may help Sadie anticipate Mara’s attack and be better prepared for it.

  She remembered how they had seemed very eager to please her. Although, she didn’t really know them or whether she could trust them or not, their celebration earlier that evening was for her return. If they agreed to it, great. If not, at least she tried. She would consider a different approach if it came to that.

  Sadie called for Hobson, and the butler came knocking at her door not long after. She beckoned him in.

  “How may I be of service, Sadie?” Hobson asked.

  “I would like you to bring the most faithful of the ifrits to me.”

  The butler nodded and left her room.

  Not long after, another knock came on her door.

  “Come in,” Sadie said.

  Hobson entered, followed by Kiana—the ifrit that had led their visit to the village—and four other ifrits she hadn’t met yet. They all bowed before her.

  “You summoned us, Your Highness?” Kiana said.

  Sadie nodded. “I have a job for you, if you would like.”

  “Anything at all, Your Majesty.” She stood straighter, head held high. The three companions’ expressions became ones of eagerness.

  Sadie showed them the crystal ball with images of Mara’s legacy shifting inside. “I need you to find anything you can on her. This is Mara. She attacked me and my sister just before I arrived here.” She looked at each one of them. “Anything you can find. Even the tiniest details will help.”

  “Of course, Your Majesty,” Kiana said. She bowed again and went off, the other ifrits following her.

  “Thank you, Hobson. Please let me know as soon as word arrives.”

  “Absolutely,” he said with a curt bow.

  Yawning again, she excused herself to bed.

  DAMIEN

  Damien sat on the roof of the fortress, looking down at Sadie’s bedroom, debating breaking her rules to go see her. He needed to win her favor. Not just to have an alliance with the demon queen, but because he refused to leave without her. Not now that he knew how it felt to touch her, to hear her soft sighs. Her laugh.

  While lost in his thoughts, the hair on the back of his neck rose. His intuition flared, sensing something coming. He stared out into the darkness, beyond the rocky fields spread around the fortress, to see a convoy marching in his direction.

  He stood and stared harder to gain a better look at the creatures heading for the fortress. Sharp-nosed demons wearing only loincloths stepped in rhythm behind a massive, red-orange dragon. The demons’ long, pointed ears bobbed up and down as they followed along.

  He inched closer to the edge, stretching his wings and balancing precariously. He sniffed the air, picking out the putrid scents that the lowest foot soldiers carried from weeks of not bathing.

  His gaze shifted to the man riding atop of the dragon, heart skipping a beat.

  King Zagan, Damien’s father, marched toward the fortress. If he was showing up so soon after Sadie’s arrival, that meant only one thing. Bad news. His father didn’t like threats to his power, and with Sadie as the new demon queen, Damien knew his father came for one of two reasons. One: to kill Sadie and take her power. Or two: to gain alliance.

  His father was about an hour’s march out before he would cross into Sadie’s boundaries. Damien had to get to Sadie before then. She needed a crash course in King Zagan 101. Her life could depend on it.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Sadie

  Sadie had just finished slipping into a new silk nightgown and was heading into bed when her bedroom door flew open. She whirled around, about to scream at whoever it was that this was her fucking room when she saw Damien panting, eyes wide.

  “You have visitors,” he said.

  She rolled her eyes. Seriously? All this excitement for visitors? “It’s late. I’m going to bed. They can come back tomorrow.”

  Damien rushed to her and grabbed her shoulders, forcing Sadie to look him in the eyes. “You don’t understand—"

  Hobson hurried, equally out of breath. “Your Majesty, the demon king has arrived.”

  “Demon king?” she asked, jaw hanging open. She stared at Damien. “Your father?”

  He nodded, lips pressed into a grim line.

  Though she didn’t know much about the king, she knew enough to have a serious understanding of just how much his arrival meant bad news.

  Shit. Her eyebrows knitted together. “What does he want with me?”

  “Nothing good,” Damien said, grumbling. “This is just the kind of move my father would pull—catching us off guard in the middle of the night, big pomp and show of force. Surely, he will ask you to submit to him, and he will consider it an act of war if you don’t.” He stood closer to her, keeping an eye on the window as if he could see something she couldn’t. “Z
agan probably heard you’re human, and now he’s going to try to intimidate you.”

  Sadie scoffed. “Fat chance.”

  Damien seemed stressed, but a slight smirk played around his lips in response. He gazed at her in a way that made her feel ready to show their father he made a mistake thinking he could bully her. She didn’t know how, but she felt capable with him. Strong and unstoppable.

  The gears turned in her head, quickly formulating a plan. She turned to Hobson. “Gather the ifrits and have them go to the wall. Space them out so it looks like there are more of them than there are.”

  The butler immediately left to carry out Sadie’s orders.

  “I should get dressed,” she said, facing Damien.

  “I’ll wait outside.” He turned on his heel and left the room.

  Sadie opened her wardrobe, taking out the first attire she saw—a battle dress. She put it on, comfortable with its wide red and black sleeves, the long slit on the front parted to reveal the black leggings she wore underneath. She put on combat boots and clasped the outfit’s black belt across her waist. On the topmost shelf, she noticed a blood-red tiara. She grinned as she placed it on her head.

  I’ll show him human.

  When she opened the door to the hallway, Damien’s eyes widened. Her heart fluttered, and her cheeks warmed. He didn’t speak as she exited her room.

  To be honest, she felt pretty damn hot in her dress.

  “Let’s go,” she said and took a deep breath. Time for my own show of force.

  They entered a tower along the castle’s front. Sadie paused by a window overlooking the approaching army, the princes came to stand by her. Even Mordecai left his cell to show support and help deal with the matter at hand.

  Sadie watched the king’s convoy advance, observing the demons’ tiny silhouettes grow larger as they marched into her territory.

  She felt it the moment they crossed onto her land, the shift in the air, the warning from the fortress. Good. That meant she could use her castle’s magic against them if the need arose. And, even though she was still learning what it could do, she had seen enough to know it could contain intruders well enough.

  Time to go. She turned and faced the men, giving them each a long, hard stare. “Stay here, all of you.”

  “You don’t know our father,” Kaiser said. “Let us come with you.”

  “He’s right,” Damien said.

  Sadie didn’t agree. “I’m going by myself. End of discussion.”

  The princes spoke all at once. “You’re making a mistake.” “This is madness.” “He’ll kill you.”

  She held up her hand. With as much of a command she could put into her voice she said, “If you come with me, I swear, this is the last time you step foot in my fortress.”

  They grumbled, but when she walked out of the tower to the ramparts, they didn’t follow. Sadie smiled. Now they’re listening.

  When Zagan arrived, she took her time walking to the front gate, intentionally making him wait. She settled her eyes on the king as she approached the gate, stopping just a few feet away. He rode atop a dragon.

  Pomp and show, my ass…

  Sadie clenched her fists and took pity on the poor creature forced to walk on the ground instead of being free to do what it was made for. Fire burned in its throat, and its eyes seemed glossed over. Her heart broke for the poor creature.

  Settling her eyes on Zagan once again, she called out, “Who goes there?”

  “Demon queen, I would like an audience with you,” Zagan said, puffing out his chest.

  “Is that so? It seems more like you’re looking for war.” She pointed to the army that accompanied him.

  “This?” He sneered, holding out his arms. “A mere precaution, given your predecessor’s reputation.”

  She crossed her arms. “Then I hope you don’t mind if I enact precautions of my own.”

  His sneer widened. “That’s not very hospitable, is it? Won’t you even let us in?”

  “I will allow only you inside these walls, Your Majesty.”

  His mocking smile faltered. She had gotten under his skin which seemed too easy.

  “No. You will bring my army inside as well.”

  “Then, goodbye.” Sadie turned to leave. She didn’t owe him any explanation. And she certainly wasn’t going to be told what to do and who to let into her own damn fortress.

  “Let me and my army in,” he demanded, glaring at her, puffing his chest like a petulant child.

  Sadie remained unperturbed. “You can enter alone or leave.”

  He huffed and stared at the ground for a moment, probably thinking of how to use Sadie’s demand and refusal to his gain. Sadie was about to give up, take his silence and lack of moving as a sign that he still wouldn’t budge when he shifted, turning his attention back to her.

  She stared at him expectantly.

  “Fine,” he said.

  Zagan rode in on his dragon. Sadie walked back to the tower she had observed the convoy from and came across the princes.

  “All of you, remain hidden,” she said.

  Kaiser growled. “No. Not this time, Sadie. I don’t care what you say. You don’t know our father. I will go with you, and I don’t care if you don’t choose me as an ally.”

  “Same here,” Damien said. “I’m going with you, too.”

  The other two agreed without a word. They nodded in unison, arms crossed over their chests.

  Sadie sighed, certain she couldn’t convince them to stay where they were. Mordecai and Steele followed her out to the courtyard. She approached Zagan, sitting straight on the dragon’s back. A look of extreme displeasure deepened the lines formed on his forehead, and he frowned.

  The king shifted his attention to the men behind and said, “Traitors!” He gave Sadie a threatening look. “I could ransack your fortress for hiding them.”

  The nerve. Sadie just laughed at him. “Go ahead.”

  Zagan raised his eyebrows but scowled again. “Did no one tell you that it’s customary to meet important people in the throne room? You clearly don’t know what you’re doing.”

  Sadie rolled her eyes. This was all getting annoying. He was right, of course. She knew that she should bring him to her throne room, but Sadie ultimately wanted to ensure he didn’t get to see much of her fortress. She figured he probably gave her a visit only to survey the place and needed him gone ASAP.

  Mustering fake politeness, Sadie bowed. “Your Majesty, it’s damp in my throne room. Very moist. And it smells. It doesn’t do well for the lungs.” She fluttered her lashes. She could’ve sworn she heard Steele snort behind her.

  Zagan didn’t reply immediately. Instead, he dismounted. Sadie looked at the dragon again, and she felt a tug. Like the creature was calling out to her.

  “You need to ally with me,” he said as he approached her.

  Pushy asshole.

  “You will die without my protection,” Zagan continued, emphasizing die.

  The men behind Sadie shifted. She held a hand up to keep them back.

  “That is very noble and selfless of you,” Sadie said. Not. “And what will you want from me in return?”

  “Your powers, of course,” he said. “If you even have any.”

  She gave him her sweetest, fakest smile. “Sure, I have powers. I do have to apologize that you’re leaving here without an alliance. I’m still in the process of choosing an ally. And the decision will not be made tonight.”

  Zagan drew his eyebrows together. When he looked at the princes, Sadie knew he had pieced it all together. His face flushed. “If you ally with any of my sons, I will consider you an enemy and destroy you.”

  Okay, that’s it! The veins in her neck throbbed. He wasn’t going to just barge in here and threaten her. This was her home. “Well, I’d like to see you try.”

  Zagan curled his lip contemptuously and pointed at her. “Charge!”

  The ifrits along the castle walls all raised their arms, ready to defend Sadie. The pri
nces leapt into action, the four of them surrounding her. But when the dragon flew toward them, Sadie didn’t feel violence from the creature, she felt defiance. And not toward her, but Zagan.

  The dragon landed behind her and faced the demon king. She roared and blew a strong torrent of fire at the king. When it disappeared, the king stood with one hand held out, unaffected by the fire.

  “I only wanted to test that gift of yours,” Zagan said, sneering. “See if the rumors were true.”

  If he had been able to control the dragon, Sadie knew the princes and the ifrits wouldn’t have hesitated to kill the poor thing. She clenched her fist, hating the king even more for bringing an innocent creature into this.

  “I’m not here to kill you,” Zagan said. “But I will give you an ultimatum to consider. Since you’re new to this world, and I’m feeling generous, you are to join me or die. If you ally yourself with any of them,” he shot his sons a look of pure hatred, “even one, I will consider it an act of war and respond accordingly.”

  Sadie’s nails bit into her palm. “Why, pray tell, would you be so generous?”

  “You’ll come to your senses eventually,” Zagan said. “Alliances aren’t about trust, you know. They’re about power. And no one can defeat me. Not even you. Not even all of you together.”

  Sadie scoffed. How arrogant. But the comment gave her an idea. What if they worked together? She briefly glanced at the princes. But no, they wouldn’t share… would they?

  Zagan turned his back and walked away. Hobson opened the gate for him. Sadie watched as her unwelcomed visitor retreated.

  As soon as the gate closed, the princes huddled together.

  “We need to strategize,” Damien said. “Surely, he’ll come back with a greater show of force.”

  “I agree,” Kaiser said.

  Steele nodded. Serious and not goofy for once. “If he doesn’t get what he wants next time, there’ll be hell to pay.”

  Mordecai grumbled. “I’ll kill that son of a bitch.”