by Katie May
“As my executioner, you’ll be offered the protection of my kingdom,” she continues, but I’m barely processing her words.
Yes, I’ll follow you anywhere. Whatever you want from me, I’ll do.
But I don’t say those words out loud. Instead, I watch her pace in front of the table, her white dress swishing around her legs.
“You’ll be paid handsomely, of course.” She spins abruptly. “I know you have been made an offer by…Athena.” Her face twists prettily in disgust, and the man—her lover—begins to laugh.
“Baby girl, your hatred is showing,” he teases.
“Shut it, Desmond!” She whips her head around to glare at him before turning back towards me.
“I can’t offer you as much as she can. My kingdom is smaller, poorer, but I will do whatever I can to make you feel at home. If you would like a house somewhere away from the palace, I can do that.”
No! I think immediately, adamantly.
I can’t leave her.
“Rebecca.” The gorgeous woman extends a hand, and her assistant hands her a slip of paper. To me, she says, “This is what we can offer you.”
I don’t take the paper. I’ll do what she wants for free, if that is what it takes to remain by her side.
“I’d be honored.” I place my fist over my heart and bow my head subserviently. “Your Highness.”
I COME BACK to myself with all of the finesse of a bull barreling through a china shop.
Emily.
My goddess.
It feels as if I’ve been living my life caught in the intricate strings of a gossamer spider web. I was nothing but an insignificant fly preparing to be devoured by a spider. I’ve finally shed the silky strands and am able to see the world more clearly than I ever had before.
My goddess.
Before I can beg her for forgiveness, pledge my loyalty, fall to my fucking knees, the front door explodes in a kaleidoscope of orange, red, and amber.
CHAPTER 10
I see recognition spring to life in Helio’s dark, expressive eyes. He stares at me with growing horror and wonderment, mouth opened slightly.
And then, the world explodes.
At least that’s what it feels like. One second, I’m standing before my beastly mate, his eyes hooded with desire and wanton need, and the next, I’m pressed beneath his muscular body as tiny slivers from the ceiling erupt around us. The pungent stench of smoke wafts up my nostrils, and I twist my head to the side as I cough violently.
The smoky scent reminds me distinctly of…
“Did you miss me?” a familiar voice sing-songs from the doorway. Helio jumps to his feet, a low growl emitting from his chest as he faces the newcomer.
Wiping away soot and debris, I stand as well, my heart juddering wildly in my chest like a herd of wild horses.
Standing in the opened doorway, red moonlight illuminating his white-blond hair, is Arsin himself, God of Flames.
A cigarette dangles from his lush lips as he stares at me, mischief and insanity reflecting from his sparkling eyes. His blond hair hangs in loose waves down to his chin, and I have the irresistible urge to run my fingers through them. I can’t help but note the light scruff on his sharp jawline as well.
Today, he wears a form-fitting suit with a dark blue tie. No surprise. Sin is either naked or dressed to the nines. There is no in between.
“Arsin,” I breathe, taking an instinctive step closer. Helio reaches behind him to place a hand on my stomach, urging me back a step.
“Now, now, now, no need to be scared,” he drawls, his Southern accent even more pronounced than it was in the Realm of the Gods. He removes the cigarette from his mouth and lazily holds it between two fingers. I can’t help but note the tattoos on his knuckles—FLAME. The L and A are currently on display.
“He doesn’t remember you,” Helio whispers to me gruffly, but his voice carries. Sin throws his head back in hearty laughter before the noise cuts off abruptly, his smile fading as rapidly as it appeared.
“You know, you weren’t supposed to see my present until it went boom,” he continues in that indolent tone. Posture decidedly lackadaisical, he begins to pace, waving his cigarette in the air with every word. “That wasn’t very nice, Emily Lopez.”
“That was you, fucker?” I ask, charging forward with murder on my mind. Only Helio’s palm on my stomach prohibits me from torturing the cocky asshole. “I loved that car.”
“And it was even prettier in my colors,” he muses, stopping his pacing abruptly. He spins towards me and smiles sharply. “Did you like it, my love? The show? Don’t you agree that the flames were as pretty as the most brilliant sunset? Or sunrise. Or sun.” He stares down at his cigarette still hanging from his fingers before abruptly stabbing it against his arm. A low moan of satisfaction leaves his lips—I swear the man is seconds from orgasming.
I press up on my tiptoes and speak into Helio’s ear. “I need to talk to him.”
“No,” he growls in response, continuing to back us up step after step. He regards Arsin as if he’s a wild, feral animal—not at all different from the way he looked at him before. Sin has always been…eccentric, to put it mildly. Helio’s more wary of Arsin than he is of any of my other men.
“Helio, please,” I beg, watching Sin’s frantic eyes flicker from face to face. “It worked for you.”
He merely grunts in response, but I know what he wants to say. I’m saner than him. I was never going to kill you. Arsin? He won’t hesitate to light you on fire.
“I’m not going to hurt her!” my fire mate growls, baring his teeth in a decidedly feral move. “I would never hurt her!” He stares over Helio’s shoulder, imploring me with his eyes to trust him. Go to him.
And then, I see it.
A tiny flicker of light in his eyes that breaks up the monotony of darkness and insanity. Arsin remembers me—remembers us. I don’t know how long he’s had those memories, but he knows I’m the Goddess of Pain and he’s the God of Flames. He knows that he’s mine.
“Emily!” he rumbles, his giant body shaking. Though he’s wearing a tailored suit, there’s no mistaking him for anything less than savage. Sin is better suited for the wilderness than in a heavily populated city. No one can glance at him and say with certainty that he belongs. Even the most beautiful presents have the capability of housing bombs. And Sin? He’s seconds away from detonating.
“Helio,” I warn, attempting to sidestep the large man. “Helio!” My tone comes out sharper, almost acerbic, and he finally turns to look at me over his shoulder. “He remembers.”
But I can still see uncertainty on his face. His innate need to protect me from anyone who seeks to bring me harm, even from my other mates.
“Em?” Now Sin doesn’t sound angry or even manic. He sounds…broken. His body shakes as if he has a tenuous hold on his rage. “I wouldn’t hurt her!” The last statement is directed at a stone-faced Helio, accompanied by a burst of Arsin’s power.
I turn my face away as brilliant flames tear away at the wooden beams of the house. It’s a myriad of colors—orange like the setting sun, yellow like the finest of amber stones, and a deep burgundy red that reminds me vaguely of blood. They all mesh together as they eat away at the walls and the ceiling, fiery hands reaching towards us before shying away. And, in the middle of it all, is Arsin, God of Flames. He appears unscathed, but his eyes are wild and desperate.
I take Helio’s lapse of concentration to lunge forward, extending my arms out to embrace my mate.
I don’t overly like that term. Mate, I mean. It makes it sound as if our connection is paranormal or something, but I can assure you, it was wrought from hard work. I had to fight for each of my men, and I’ll be damned if I let something like fate dictate who I should and shouldn’t love. But when we inevitably came together—a family in the truest sense of the word—I knew in my soul that these men were always meant to be mine. It just took us a while to get there.
His body trembles against mine as
I rest my head on his chest. I can feel his arms snaking around my waist, holding me flush against him.
“Emily,” he whispers, his voice barely audible over the crackling fire. “I remember you.” He presses his face into my neck and inhales deeply. “I can’t stop.”
“You can, my love,” I whisper soothingly, pulling away and forking my fingers through his messy blond hair. Abruptly, he takes a step away from me and begins to shed his clothes. His jacket. His white dress shirt. His black pants. And then his boxer briefs. It isn’t long until I’m looking at an entirely naked Arsin, his cock long and proud and steadily getting harder under my attention.
“I remember,” he repeats, wonderment emanating from his eyes. Before I can respond, the fire diminishes as if it had never appeared in the first place, and his eyes roll into the back of his head. I release a startled yelp as he falls to the floor in a heap of naked flesh and sinewy muscles.
Helio stands behind him, fist raised, and shrugs unrepentantly when he notices my glare.
“I think it’s time we talked,” I manage to bite out through gritted teeth. “And figure out what the hell happened to us.”
I PLACE Sin’s head on my lap as I sit on the still smoking couch. His breathing is peaceful, his chest rising and falling steadily.
Almost absently, I rub my thumb back and forth across his high cheekbone. Sin is quite literally beauty and strength personified. I have no doubt that if he wasn’t already the God of Flames—not to be confused with the Goddess of Fire—he would be something like the God of Beauty.
But there’s a darkness behind his angelic features. Something inhuman and almost malevolent.
Helio, grunting, grabs a charred blanket from the ground and drapes it over Sin’s naked lower half.
“It’s not like you’ve never seen his cock before,” I quip, and he merely glares at me in response.
For a long moment, we’re both silent. The only sound is the intermittent pounding of my heart against my rib cage.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Helio stands against the single unburnt wall, his muscular arms crossed over his chest as he regards me with tenderness…and Arsin with unparalleled fury.
“What happened to us?” I whisper softly, glancing once more at Arsin’s sleeping face. He shifts, releasing a whimper, and I immediately begin playing with his silky hair.
He used to have nightmares in the Realm of the Gods. When I asked what they were about, he answered, “You.” That was it. That was all he ever said on the matter, and I didn’t dare press.
“Did we have our…memories wiped?” I query numbly. “Replaced? Fuck, I don’t even know what I’m saying.” I scrub a hand down my face as question after question swirls through my head. It’s a whirlpool in there, and I’m genuinely afraid I’m going to be swept away by a particularly damaging wave.
Helio scrunches his face in consideration, but he remains predictably silent.
“I’m still missing some things,” I admit.
A lot of fucking things.
I remember the Realm of the Gods, my identity, and my mates’ identities. But the days leading up to…this? Whatever this is? It’s nothing but a blank slate. It feels intrusive, almost, as if someone had dug their spindly fingers into the deepest recesses of my mind, rooting around until they found what they wanted. It’s eerie to know that you lost time, to know that anything could have transpired during those precious days.
Who did this to us?
And why?
“Don’t tell me it was that bitch Athena,” I gripe immediately. Because, yeah, my memories came with the realization that I have a mortal nemesis. Athena is a grade-A bitch. I’m pretty sure she masturbates to the lost dreams and tears of children everywhere.
Ugh. And now I’m thinking about Athena masturbating.
“I was paid to kill you.” Arsin’s quiet voice has my gaze wrenching away from Helio to focus entirely on my other lover. His eyes are wide open, a decidedly malicious grin on his handsome face. “I chose flames. For you, baby.” Maintaining eye contact, he shoves the blanket off of his body and begins to stroke his rigid cock.
Helio makes a disgruntled noise but wisely chooses to remain silent.
“I think a part of me knew it was you who I was tasked to kill,” Sin continues, stroking faster. My eyes are automatically drawn to the mushroom tip, currently dripping with pre-cum. There’s a vein on the side, one that I’m intimately familiar with. I know exactly how it feels to run my tongue up and down it, sucking it like a freaking lollipop. A—get this—cockipop.
Yeah, I’m not laughing either.
“It’s symbolic, isn’t it?” Sin’s eyes close in bliss as he tilts his chin back. The tattoos on his knuckles mock me from where they’re wrapped around his cock, pumping. Like, hey, girl, we know this is your cock and everything, but we’re going to give it a test drive. Make sure it’s still functioning.
It suddenly occurs to me that during the time we were away from each other, the time when our memories were removed, these men could’ve been with other women. The mere thought has me seeing red, and my nails automatically dig into Sin’s cheeks. That only makes him moan louder, a sardonic grin twisting up his lips as blood pours from the open wound.
“What’s symbolic?” I grit out, remembering that he asked me a question.
“For you to die in flames,” he purrs just as his cock jerks, spraying cum across his toned stomach.
“You fucking sadist,” Helio murmurs, but Arsin continues to smile unrepentantly, stroking himself through the aftershocks.
My eyes remain glued to the white liquid coating Arsin’s beautifully tan stomach. He’s gotten darker from his time on Earth, almost as if he spent most of his days lying on a beach.
Hopefully, it was just him. By himself. No males or females around him.
“Did you miss me, Flower?” Sin whispers, raising both his hands to caress my cheeks, his right one still sticky from his cum. Staring at his upside-down face, I can’t help but wilt a little bit inside like the nickname he gave me. He called me that once—what feels like an eternity ago—after an intense lovemaking session.
“I missed you all.” I lift my gaze to encompass Helio as well. “So, so much. Avery…” I trail off in stark horror.
Avery, the God of Death and my best friend. The man who’s been with me for as long as I can remember.
And the string of bodies from my childhood.
That fucker.
“Avery?” Sin sits up abruptly, eyes narrowed into slits. “Do I need to kill him?”
“He’s been with me…” I trail off at Sin’s accusatory stare and Helio’s accepting one. Of course the latter already knew that. He knows everything about me.
“Do you think he’s behind this?” Helio asks in that gruff voice of his. When his eyes darken almost imperceptibly, I know he won’t hesitate to take vengeance into his own hands if he discovers Avery betrayed us.
“No,” I say immediately, adamantly, ignoring the way Sin continues to stare up at me in abject horror. “No.”
“He’s been with you?” Sin asks slowly. “This entire time?” Before I can even respond, he’s on his feet, pacing. His cock bobs with every step he takes, and Helio backs away in disgust when Sin steps too close. “That motherfucker! How dare he? I should’ve been the one with you. Me!”
Body trembling, he bends down—flashing me his muscular ass—and grabs a pack of cigarettes from his discarded dress pants. Using the tip of his finger as a lighter, he places the cigarette to his lips.
He begins to mutter incoherently beneath his breath, continuing his incessant pacing.
“Helio, did the same thing happen to you?” I turn towards the scowling man, and his features instantly soften. “Did someone hire you to kill me?”
He frowns, as if the memory of it pains him, before nodding reluctantly.
“You were going to kill her?” Arsin roars, spinning on his heel to glare at Helio. It’s ironic, really, considering the
fact that Sin blew up my car with every intention of me being inside of it. But then again, nothing about Sin is normal. “I’ll burn you alive and eat your charred remains like a fucking duck!”
“Enough!” I snap, jumping to my feet and placing one hand on Helio’s chest and one on Arsin’s. “Do you guys have the name of the person who asked you to kill me?”
“Hired,” Sin corrects, seemingly already forgetting his original anger towards Helio. “I think you mean, the person who hired us to kill you.”
“Are you guys both assassins?” I volley my gaze between the two men, but in all honesty? I can totally see it. They practically excrete danger and havoc.
Helio’s unwavering stare holds my own, and he bobs his head once in acknowledgment. I have a vivid image of Helio stalking through the shadows, enacting vengeance on unsuspecting humans. He wouldn’t hesitate; if he or she deserved it, he’d deliver the punishment. His deaths would be quick and merciful.
Arsin, on the other hand, would relish in the pain he could inflict. He would laugh in tandem to his victim’s cries. He would light them on fire and then watch the burning body like it was prime-time television.
“Before or after I escaped from prison?” Arsin asks seriously.
“Jesus Christ,” I moan. “Seriously?”
He scoffs, throwing his head back. “As if you've never been arrested for and convicted of first-degree murder.”
“Um…no. I haven’t been.” Shaking my head once, I focus on what’s important. Namely, the person who wants me dead.
I have no doubt that he or she is also the one who stole my memories.
“We don’t know who the client is,” Helio answers. “They usually contact us through a third party or on a secure network.”
“Or smoke signals,” Arsin adds with a nod.
“Okay.” I clap my hands together once, garnering both of their attention. “Here’s what we need to do. First, I need to find my other mates.” I nibble anxiously on my lower lip. “I also need to talk to Avery. See what he knows.” And who he killed. “Next, we need to figure out who wants me dead. I’m willing to bet my life—not literally, Arsin, so put that twenty away—that it’s the same person who did this to us. And finally, I need to figure out why.”
