Fated Mates of the Underworld, Books 1-3

by Baxter, Linzi

  “You’re saying Mnemosyne used her memory powers on me?” Poseidon grumbled.

  “It wasn’t only you. She used them on me and others to get Gemma locked away for over three hundred years.”

  From the frown on his face, I could see he still didn’t believe us. “Guards!” Poseidon shouted. The seashell doors flew open, and four guards stormed in. Gods were too headstrong to argue with. They always needed proof, especially when told they’d been taken advantage of.

  “Pull the seaweed out of your ass, and let’s talk this through,” I said.

  A guard rushed to Gemma and slapped a cuff around her wrist.

  “I don’t come to hell and tell you what to do,” Poseidon said. “You don’t leave this area. Now, let’s talk about the situation.”

  It was getting harder to control my anger as a second guard stood on the other side of Gemma.

  “I promise, Poseidon. I’m not here to do you any harm. We need your help and Zeus's help,” Gemma pleaded.

  Poseidon rose from the desk and walked around until he was close to Gemma. His long white robes dragged behind him. Something was off. The man I’d known for centuries would always listen to reason and wouldn’t act without thinking.

  “What happened to you?” I asked.

  “Me? You’re the one bringing a woman around who could take us all down. She is the only thing alive that could kill us.”

  Gemma had been created to keep the gods in line. She was also someone who couldn’t be taken advantage of. That was why whoever had imprisoned her had used mind control on the Titans and not on her.

  “I was at every single one of your kids' births.” Gemma let out a bitter laugh. “Who do you think made sure they received the gift from the gods?”

  “You can also take powers away as fast as you can give them.” Poseidon stepped forward. “I don’t trust you.”

  “I trust her with everything,” I said. “Are you going to really send my love to jail and start a war between Atlantis and hell?”

  Gemma’s breath hitched when I said the word love. Over the two hundred years we’d spent together, I had never told her how I really felt. Now, standing with someone else who wanted to take her from me again, I realized I couldn’t live without her.

  “You wouldn’t know love if it smacked you in the face,” Poseidon grumbled.

  “I’m okay, Lucifer. Please don’t start a war between you and Poseidon,” Gemma said. It was sweet of her to think her plea would stop me.

  “Who are you to question my love?”

  “I’m going to put her in a magical cell while we work this out,” Poseidon said.

  Gemma huffed. “I was imprisoned for three hundred years, and men still feel like they can make decisions for women or know what is best for us. If my future is being discussed, I demand to be part of it.”

  “You have no authority here,” Poseidon said.

  The long blue curtains on the wall went up in flames. Two of the guards rushed over and tried to put out the fire.

  “You will not speak to her like that!” I yelled.

  Poseidon sent a lightning bolt my way. I had to jump to the side. It missed me by a sliver and took out the bookcases on the other side. Pages of old books rained down around us. Two guards pulled Gemma toward the door. I shot a flame at one, and his pants caught on fire.

  I turned to Poseidon. “Let her go.” The more the guard touched Gemma, the harder it was to keep my powers under control.

  “You can visit her once we’re done talking.” Poseidon threw another bolt at me. This one, I wasn’t fast enough to dodge, and it sent me sailing across the room. The guards used the opportunity to pull Gemma from the room, slamming the doors behind them.

  I ran to the doors and tried to yank them open. They were sealed shut. On the other side, I heard Gemma yelling my name.

  “Open the door,” I yelled at Poseidon. When I blasted the door with my powers, an antimagical barrier deflected my attempt, and the magic exploded back at me, sending me flying across the room again.

  “You’re not thinking clearly,” Poseidon snapped.

  I turned toward my old friend. “No, I think it’s the other way around. You just took the only woman I care about. You realize you brought war down on your kingdom?”

  Poseidon narrowed his eyes. “You're telling me the devil is going to settle down with a god killer?”

  “She is not a god killer.”

  “But she is. What’s going to happen when she has her period and you piss her off?”

  Poseidon had never been sexist before. “What is wrong with you?”

  He walked back behind his desk and sat down. “Something is off. I feel it in the waters, and everything has me on edge, and then you bring that woman here.”

  “She has a name.” Gods were almost impossible to kill. Gemma’s powers or the sword of immortality could take them out. If Poseidon didn’t stop soon, I would go searching for the sword and kill him myself. He had taken away the woman I loved.

  Poseidon stroked his long beard. “Are you sure she isn’t up to no good?” He glanced at the closed doors.

  “Come on. You’ve known Gemma for years. Are you really telling me you think she would try to kill you?” I asked. “Don’t answer that. Think about it this way—who was a top warrior? She was. Why come knocking on the front door if she wanted to take you down?”

  “Maybe you’re right.” Poseidon opened up his computer. “I’m not ready to release her quite yet.”

  “You're really going to believe something on the internet more than my word?” My fingers began to spark again.

  “I’m going to ask Fate a question.”

  Fate was locked away. “Not going to work.”

  Poseidon waved his hands, and the doors to his office blew open. “Go have a drink in the bar. I want to get some clarification before I decide how to proceed.”

  The same two guards who’d walked Gemma out entered the room. They didn’t put me in cuffs but walked alongside me until we reached Atlantis’s pub. The place wasn’t very crowded. Theseus sat up at the bar, drinking a beer. I took the seat next to him.

  “Hello, Lucifer.”

  Theseus, like his father, had a long beard braided with seashells, but he wore an expensive suit instead of robes. It wasn’t quite as lovely as mine. Since Armani now lived in hell, he made each of my custom suits.

  “I like the changes you guys made. Is the dungeon still in the same area?” I said.

  He turned and narrowed his ocean-blue eyes. “We didn’t make the changes because we wanted to. Someone decided to drink too much rum and destroy the place.”

  My lips twisted. “Seems like you guys got some upgrades out of it. Does that mean you upgraded the dungeon also?”

  The bartender walked over and handed me a bottle of rum. Before I could pour myself a glass, Theseus ripped it away.

  “That was rude,” I said.

  “I’m not going to watch you destroy my home again.”

  When Theseus turned to the side, I grabbed his beer and downed it. It wasn’t as good as the rum, but it took the edge off.

  “If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go use the bathroom.” And find Gemma, I thought as I walked away.

  8

  Gemma

  Being dragged down a hall to a dungeon wasn’t how I expected our conversation with Poseidon to go. I expected Lucifer to bust through the doors after me. I kept looking over my shoulder, waiting for my knight in Armani armor.

  He didn’t come. He hadn’t come last time either. That one he blamed on a note. For this one, he had no excuses, unless… unless he sided with Poseidon. No matter how much I wanted to hit him over the head with my shoe, I would never take away either of their powers.

  I wished I wasn’t being dragged down the hall to be locked away again. Atlantis was breathtaking, and I wanted to stop and look around at the items made out of the sea. There were jewels and crystals I’d never seen. Even the floor sparkled.

  It
felt like an hour of weaving through hallways and taking elevators down. When we finally arrived in the dungeon, I expected it to be dark and gloomy. But it wasn’t. It sparkled like the rest of the palace. The only difference was this room had bars.

  The guard on my left dropped my arm while he opened the jail cell. Poseidon’s guard on the right pushed me in the second the door opened. They didn’t stop and take the cuffs off my hands. The cell was around six feet by six feet. Lucifer’s dungeons weren’t as nice as this one. Each of Lucifer’s cells was crafted out of bone. A spell on the cells made them indestructible along with the lock. I hoped Poseidon didn’t take security as seriously as Lucifer did.

  These bars didn’t look too strong. They were made out of seaweed. Slipping my hand over two bars, I tugged as hard as I could. They didn’t budge. Like Lucifer, Poseidon used something to make the bars indestructible.

  A slight murmur of conversation had me straining my ears. I couldn’t make out what the guards were saying. If my powers had been at full strength, I would have been able to hear every word.

  As soon as I was dragged out of the room and away from Lucifer, my body started to feel weaker than it had in days. It was hard to ignore the signs. Neither one of us were shifters, so it shouldn’t have worked that way. Gods weren’t supposed to have weaknesses. Technically, our separation wasn’t affecting Lucifer. That could be the reason why it was coming faster for me. My body was taking the brunt of the changes.

  Once Lucifer had confirmation that I was weakening, he would want to bind our souls together that second. And I didn’t know if I wanted that. I wanted a man who would come to my rescue. Instead, Lucifer stayed back with the man who’d locked me away.

  Someone moved in the cell next to me. I walked over and peered inside. On the floor sat a woman with cuffs on her hands. Hers were diamond encrusted. For a second, I felt a wave of jealousy that mine were plain silver cuffs. She looked familiar, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.

  “Gemma, is that you?”

  Her voice helped me realize who she was. I hadn’t seen or talked to Hera in ages. It didn’t make sense that Poseidon would lock away his own daughter away. This was bad.

  “Yes, it’s me,” I said.

  As I slid back down to the ground, I reached into my pocket and pulled out another vial of the medicine Evanora had made. I really wished I knew what was in the bottle. As I twisted the top off, the smell of old socks assaulted me. I tilted my head back and downed the liquid. Hopefully, that would hold me over until I figured out a way to escape, because it was the last of the medicine.

  “Why are you in here?” I asked.

  “Father… changed.” Hera’s long blonde hair was dull. Her skin was pale, and her eyes weren’t bright blue like the others in her family. They were murky and cloudy. “He got angry that I kept leaving Atlantis.”

  If Hera didn’t leave, she couldn’t fulfill her destiny. Her destiny was to help with marriage and children.

  She walked over and sat on the floor next to me. She reached out and touched my hand and blinked in surprise. “You deny your true love.”

  “That’s kind of rude to look into my relationship issues without asking,” I said with a pout.

  Her touch was warm, and it brought back a flood of good memories and not just the recent ones. The first time I met Lucifer, he’d told me I would be his. The arrogant ass ruined me for anyone else that day. We were at a ball for the gods, and I had my eye on Dionysus's oldest son, Priapus. We had agreed to meet at the ball. I thought I’d finally found my knight in shining armor and someone to settle down with.

  I was standing by the stairs waiting for him to show up when Lucifer walked over and stood next to me. “He’s not coming.” I’d stared up at him, puzzled. “Priapus is not coming. It seems you dangle an orgy in front of him and his plans change.”

  Tears pricked my eyes. I didn’t understand how a man could just leave me alone, waiting, and not even send a messenger. “He will be here.”

  “You see, Gemma, I’ve had my eye on you for years. I knew if I got Priapus out of the way, you would fall at my feet.”

  I glared up at Lucifer. “I’ll find someone else.”

  Lucifer lightly held my arm. “You can try, but know one thing, Gemma—you’re mine, and nobody will stand in my way. Try me. Go dance with someone else, and see how much longer they are here. The devil always gets what he wants.”

  Something about Lucifer riled me up and made me want to prove a point. Comus had asked me out a million times, but I always wanted Priapus, so I turned him down. Now he stood on the other side of the room. I walked over and held out my hand for a dance. The younger man immediately took me onto the dance floor.

  Well into the second dance, Lucifer walked over and cut in. Instead of fighting for me, Comus walked away.

  “You will always be mine, Gemma. Stop fighting it.”

  And I did. That was the night that changed my life, and for years after, I followed Lucifer around. Until… I shook my head, getting out of the memory.

  Hera frowned. “Sorry, your love oar is in a terminal, and I haven’t been able to help anyone in years.”

  Taking a deep breath, I peered through the bars. I didn’t see anything in her eyes that would make me feel any different. Instead, I saw concern. She pushed up her glasses and held out her hand again.

  Purple and blue magic exploded as our hands touched. The room lit up with vibrant colors of the ocean. My future flashed before my eyes—a baby in my arms who looked like Lucifer… me sitting next to him in the throne room…

  When she pulled away, I gasped. “How can I know that’s true?”

  Hera rolled her eyes and rested against the bars. “Here.”

  I touched her hand again, and the same sparks lit up the room, but instead of happy images of my future, I saw Lucifer ruling, angry, as he rained down punishment on those around him. I was nowhere to be found.

  “Lucifer wouldn’t act that way.” Deep down, I knew he cared about the souls and how hell was run. He often looked at his phone. I figured he was keeping an eye on hell and his daughter.

  “If he lost his one true love…” She glared at me.

  “I was gone for three hundred years,” I said.

  “You were alive still. If you keep fighting the mating, he will live because he’s Lucifer. You won’t. It isn’t worth dying to prove a point.”

  “I want the person I end up with to love me.”

  “So Lucifer never said he loved you?” she asked, making me squirm. “You actually don’t have to answer that. I can see from the look in your eyes that he has told you. Have you said it back to him?” Her tone was judgmental.

  I glared at Hera. “We were together for years, and he said it for the first time in your father’s office just now. I’m not sure he meant it.”

  “Lucifer can’t lie.”

  It was true. My longtime love interest couldn’t lie, but he could say things in a way that wasn’t a lie but wasn’t what he meant either.

  “When did prison turn into a therapy session?” I would have preferred being stuck down there alone so I could throw myself a pity party because of Lucifer not coming for me.

  “You don’t get to pick your cellmates. Now, tell me—are you going to forgive him when he shows up?”

  “He didn’t come last time. What makes you think he will this time?” I knew I sounded whiny, but I didn’t care. My whole body was in pain, and the cuffs on my wrists were cutting off my circulation.

  “He’ll come.”

  “Have you tried to break out of here?” I stood and walked back to the cell door.

  Her lips turned down. “Dad had numerous spells put on these cells to keep prisoners in.” She waved a hand at them. “There is no use trying to break out.”

  “Your siblings haven’t come looking for you?”

  “Everyone listens when Dad wants something.” She sounded so defeated.

  “Your dad is an asshole.”

  He
ra arched a brow. “Yes, but everything he does is done for a reason.”

  “Well, I’m going to find a way out of here. You want to come or stay in your father’s hold for another few hundred years?”

  Hera shrugged. “If you can find a way out, I will go. But remember what will happen if Lucifer and you don’t end up together.”

  I turned to her. “Well, he’s not going to come here looking for me, so does it really matter if I stay here and die or go lie on the beach and die?”

  “You're a little overdramatic. I think you’re good for Lucifer, but it won’t be him fighting the attraction. It will be you.”

  I reached up and pulled the earring from my ear. “Let’s stop talking about my love life and start working on escaping the cage we are in.”

  “You think you can pick a magical lock?” she asked.

  “Well, it’s better than sitting here doing nothing.”

  Hera was leaning against the seaweed bars. “We could sit back down and discuss how you are going to seduce Lucifer when he comes for you.”

  As Hera continued to talk about how I should give Lucifer another shot, I took stock of my surroundings. I wouldn’t be able to get through the hard seashell floor. The pearl-encrusted pearl ceiling sparkled. This was at least a prettier cell than the catacombs.

  There were other cells in the room, but mine and Hera’s were the only ones with people in them. Water trickled down the far wall, creating the soothing sound of a waterfall. If I hadn’t been behind bars, it might be a relaxing place.

  What was most frustrating was the fact that I hadn’t been able to overpower the guards as they dragged me to my cell. In the past, my strength would have been enough to break the bars and knock out a few guards. My lock-picking skills weren’t the best, and I finally gave up and slid to the floor in defeat.

  9

  Lucifer

  No guards followed me down the hall to the bathroom. The security in the palace was pathetic, but that would make it easier to rescue Gemma. Then she would have to fall at my feet.