Mor shoved Ben out of the way. "My apologies, sir. My mates tend to get a little overprotective of me. My name is Mor and I am looking for some of my subjects."
"Fuck, darling, why would you just tell him everything?" Sebastian looked up, exasperated.
Mor shrugged. "Well, arguing would only get us in a fight we don't want. And he's right, this is his world, not ours. And remember what we were told."
Ben scrubbed a hand over his face. "Damn. Fine. What she said."
The creature was staring at them, amusement written across his face. "Ah, mates. They can be such exasperating creatures. I wouldn't know myself, but I've seen it happen to friends." He grinned. "Welcome to the Daemon Realm."
"Daemon? I thought it was Demon?"
The Daemon looked exasperated. "Fucking humans got it all wrong. Just because Lucifer had the audacity to tell the people they should think for themselves and not be assholes. Are they still spouting that shit about burning in hellfire for eternity?"
Mor giggled. "Yep! They are, and Lucifer is the King of Hell."
"Well, they got the King part right, anyway. But he's certainly not burning anyone in hellfires. He doesn't even execute anyone anymore."
"So, I'm Mor. Ben, Atreyu, Max, Sebastian, and Arthur are my mates. Morgana and Tristan came to help us."
"It's very nice to meet you, Mor. I am Asmodeus." He bowed. "May I join you?"
"Please! We just made dinner, would you like some?"
Ben suppressed a groan. Mor was too nice sometimes. She had a point, but inviting him to dinner? Ben didn't sit down as the Daemon sat across from Mor.
Tristan handed him a plate and came to stand next to Morgana.
Mor glared around at all of them until finally they all sat down.
Ben shook his head and kept his place standing behind Mor.
"Your mate is right to be vigilant." Asmodeus took a bite of food. "I actually agree with him that you are too trusting, my dear. But, in this case at least, you are correct in your assessment of me. Now, what makes you think you’re subjects are here? We don't typically have visitors, as it's rather hard to get to."
"One of your people is in my realm, trying to take it over. He's stashed hostages of Fae and Shifters here to force their loved ones to fight for him."
Asmodeus paused, his food halfway to his mouth. Before carefully setting his fork down he gently put his plate next to him, hands on his thighs. "What, pray tell, is the name of this Daemon who is ravaging your home world?"
"Boris Thornheart."
Asmodeus stood with a roar, his eyes flaming and fire running up his arms. "That worthless beard splitter is still alive? I thought he was killed ages ago." He heaved a breath. Then another before finally sitting down and picking up his plate again. "That must be why I haven't seen Shax. I should have checked. Damn."
"We have no idea what you are talking about," Mor said.
"Lucifer sent Shax to put him down. He was insane. He'd started a war with the Dragons and then was talking about taking over the Human and Magic Realms. What year is it?"
"Uhhh, in the human world it’s two-thousand and twenty."
"Fuck. I lost a couple of centuries. I didn't realize it'd been that long since he sent him."
"How do you lose centuries?" Ben stared at him, confused.
"Oh you know, just reading and gardening. My horses.” He shrugged, finished his plate, and stood. "Well, I suggest we get some sleep. Tomorrow, I'll take you to meet Lucifer and we'll find your people. I’ll be back for you in the morning.” Without another word, Asmodeus unfurled his wings and pushed off.
Ben looked around at the others. "Set the watch and get some rest." He wanted them all ready to go for whatever tomorrow would bring.
Chapter 17
Mor
The next morning, Asmodeus was back just as breakfast was being served, refusing Mor’s offer to join them.He stood patiently as they finished and packed up. When everything was packed away and cleaned up Mor looked over at him and asked, "Which direction?"
"Up." He smiled. Without warning, eight horses landed around him.
Eight. Flying. Horses.
"Holy fuck," she whispered. Mor stared at them in awe and forced herself to stop from running up to them.
"The fastest way to get there will be with my horses. That's where I went last night. Otherwise we'll be trekking through this forest for days, and I'm pretty sure you don't have time for that."
"Flying horses!" Atreyu held up his hand for a high-five and Mor jumped up to hit his hand.
Asmodeus smiled. "I do love your enthusiasm, but we should get going. I have notified my king that he should be expecting us."
"How do we ride them?" Morgana had thawed enough to speak in front of Asmodeus. Last night, she had spent a long time ranting about the need to be careful and how they couldn't trust these Daemons. Mor had finally told her to shut up and go to bed.
"You won't do anything other than sit. They will follow me." He regarded her. "I suppose you and the two other Dragons could simply fly and probably carry the others. I wasn't sure how you'd feel about being ridden, and then I wasn't sure if you'd prefer to ride like the others or fly yourself."
Morgana drew back, shock on her face. "How do you know what we are?"
"Young one, I know you believe you are ancient. But your people are as children compared to me. We remember the birth of your realm. I saw the first Dragon shift. Believe me when I tell you, I can see who you are."
"How is that possible?" Tristan's voice was soft.
"When you have been around long enough, you pick up some extra tricks. Now, we stay to ourselves. After the humans figured out how to kill our mates, we decided to remain here and took steps to ensure it was almost impossible to get here. Boris...lost his mate to those wars. Some of our people were driven mad by that and had to be put down." He shook his head, "Come, enough melancholy. The king is expecting us. What is your preference, Dragons?"
"We'll ride the horses." Arthur grinned. "I do love horses."
Mor smiled at the ridiculous grin on his face. He looked like a kid in a candy shop.
Asmodeus instructed them in how to sit on the horses and hold on to the mane. Apparently, these horses did not accept saddles. But that was fine. Totally fine. Bareback on a flying horse. What could go wrong?
Mor startled as her horse stomped a hoof and snorted, turning to look at her. "What? So I'm a little nervous."
Asmodeus laughed right next to her, making Mor jump. "You speak to them as you would me."
"Fae horses are...different from regular horses."
"Good, then you'll understand these are as well. Hold on." He jumped in the air, his powerful wings sending him into the sky.
Mor's grip on the horse's mane tightened as its wings moved. Within moments they were airborne, and Mor forced herself to keep her eyes open. A few moments later and they were skimming the tops of the trees. Asmodeus kept them low, which Mor was grateful for. The forest stretched on for miles all around them, which explained why Asmodeus wanted them to fly. An hour into their flight, Mor saw a tall building rising out of the forest.
Asmodeus pointed to it and nodded back at her.
Looking around, she saw her mates scanning the area. She wasn't sure what they thought they would be able to do against a hostile here while riding the flying horse of one of the possible hostiles. Morgana kept smiling and then stopping. Good. She needed to stop seeing everything through her anger. Hopefully Lucifer would be willing to help them.
Lucifer.
It really hit her how insane her life was. She was a queen who had five mates, one of whom was fucking King Arthur, and she was on her way to meet Lucifer. Who apparently wasn't a bad guy.
Best not to think too hard about it. She didn't have time to be overwhelmed. Right now she just needed to find a way to make sure Lucifer agreed to help them. She wasn't sure what they could possibly offer to them, but she had to find something. If she didn't return with the hostages,
then there was no way she could break Boris's hold over her people. The castle in the distance grew bigger - and bigger - until Mor's jaw was hanging open. It was like a small mountain.
Asmodeus guided them to a landing in front of a huge set of doors. "Welcome to Hell’s Gate!" When they all stared at him in horror, Asmodeus laughed. "I'm just teasing. I couldn't help it." He winked and pushed open one of the doors. "We don't actually have a name for the castle. It's always just been the castle, but when we allowed certain humans here many centuries ago they all panicked. And it's been a long time since I had someone new to tease."
Mor just stared at him blankly. He was so confusing. Arthur tried to push her behind him, clearly on guard. With an exasperated sigh, Mor stepped around him and followed Asmodeus inside. The hall inside was light and airy. Not at all what she had expected. She needed to remember what the Morrigan had said and stop judging.
They didn't walk very far before coming to a door that had two more Daemon's standing outside of it, clearly guarding. They looked so different from Asmodeus, Mor had to force herself not to stare. One had skin so white it shown, with black feathered wings and two horns curling back over his long, white, hair. The other had no wings and his feet were hooves. His skin was a bright red, and he was bald with intricate gold tattoos covering his exposed skin.
The shining one bowed his head to Asmodeus and stepped aside, allowing them through the entrance. Without a word to them, Asmodeus swept through the entryway. The Daemons openly stared at them as they walked through the door.
Mor forced herself to smile at them as she followed Asmodeus. The room they walked into was a large office. There was a huge three-sided desk facing the door, with massive floor to ceiling windows behind it. To the left was a sitting area with a coffee table covered by a puzzle.
At the desk sat a Daemon with bronze skin and shining, white wings. His hair was golden, and fell well past his shoulders. He was playing Solitaire. The king of Daemons was playing Solitaire.
"Hello, Asmodeus. I see you've brought our guests." His voice was deep and when he looked up, his eyes were filled with flames.
"I have. May I present to you Mor, Atreyu, Sebastian, Arthur, Max, Ben, Morgana, and Tristan. All, I have the honor of presenting King Lucifer."
Lucifer's gaze danced over all of them, lingering on Morgana a moment longer than appropriate.
Mor glanced over at Morgana to see her staring at the floor, cheeks red. Huh. That was interesting.
"Welcome, all. I am quite surprised you were able to find your way here." His eyes focused on the Seeing Stone still in its place around Mor's head. "I do recognize that. It has been a long time since I've seen it. Why have you come?"
"My people have been taken hostage by one of your kind and are being held somewhere in your realm."
"Your people?"
Sebastian stepped forward and bowed. "May I formally present, Queen Mor of the House Byrne, Queen of the Fae and Dragons and Arthur, King of the Dragons."
Lucifer looked startled. "I wasn't aware the Dragons allowed interbreeding. I'm glad to see that's changed."
"Only recently, my lord. I wasn't about to let my mate walk away because of some ridiculous tradition."
"Good. Now, Asmodeus mentioned something about Boris taking your people? I sent Shax to kill him, so he shouldn't be a problem."
"So, it turns out that was a couple centuries ago." Asmodeus looked sheepish.
"Seriously? How did we lose a couple of centuries? Damn." Lucifer ran a hand through his long hair, messing it up. "So now we have missing Fae, a missing Daemon, and an insane Daemon trying to take over a realm. How could he have over powered Shax?"
"Well, my Lord, he hunted down my family and drained them of their power." Mor said.
"How did you manage to escape?"
"Mostly dumb luck. He had stuck me with a human family to raise until I was old enough to be drained and then bred. But Atreyu found me and brought me to my mates, and then we surprised him and drove him off. But now he's settled in with an army of forced conscripts surrounding him and some seriously deadly magic."
"Drained their power? How is that possible?" Lucifer stood and stepped around the desk.
Mor forced herself not to back up. He was even taller than Asmodeus. "We don't know."
"He has a power that is able to keep someone from hearing, seeing, and moving. It's like a black wave that washes over you. My guess is that he uses that somehow to incapacitate his victims so he can do whatever it is he does to steal their power."
Lucifer drew up short. "I'm sorry, did you say a black wave that steals your ability to move, hear, or see?"
"Yes. It takes a ridiculous amount of power to stop it." Max added.
"He stole Shax's power! I didn't know that was possible!" Asmodeus was staring at Lucifer, eyes wide, as he spoke. "We cannot allow that to continue. He'd come here, eventually. Especially since you sent Shax to put him down."
"What choice did I have? He wanted to invade the other realms!" Lucifer sat down on his couch with a thud.
"Well, now he has invaded the Fae Realm. And if he isn't stopped, he'll move on to the Human Realm. And I'm sure he'll keep going to any place he can get to."
"Very well. We will aid you in finding the missing Fae and join in your fight. It's time for us to rejoin the world, it seems." Lucifer looked at the Seeing Stone again. "Would you please tell me where you got that?"
Mor glanced at Arthur and waited for his nod. When he did, she said, "I received it when I was bound to Arthur. It's been passed down in his family for a very long time."
"And does it...speak...to you?" He seemed hesitant.
"I see visions with it. And I was visited by - ” Mor hesitated, unsure if she should say.
"The Morrigan?" His face lit up with hope.
"Yes."
"Lucifer, you know what that must mean!" Asmodeus was grinning.
"It's time. I thought she had left us here, but it's time."
"Would you please let us in on whatever it is you're talking about?" Atreyu asked.
Lucifer turned to look at him, seemingly surprised. "I'm sorry. The Morrigan promised centuries ago that when the Seeing Stone returned, it would be time for us to venture out again and find our mates." He glanced at Morgana before turning back to Mor. "Your arrival here, with that stone around your head, is a sign that we can be whole again."
"I don't understand." Mor was confused. "What do you mean by ‘be whole again’?"
"When our mates were killed, we lost pieces of ourselves. We almost went insane, but the Morrigan promised my people that one day we would find mates again. We just had to wait for the right time."
"Awwwww!" Mor grinned at them. "That's so exciting!"
"First, we need to find your missing Fae and then we need to take out Boris. I will not waste my second chance." Lucifer stood. "I will summon my guard and we will find your Fae before nightfall. You have my word. Asmodeus, please escort our guests to a place they can wait more comfortably. I will send for you all as soon as we have something."
Mor nodded. "Thank you, King Lucifer. I look forward to our alliance." She followed Asmodeus out but kept an eye on Morgana. She glanced back at Lucifer several times, her blush deepening every time she made eye contact with him. Grinning to herself, Mor caught up to Asmodeus and her mates who were in a deep discussion on strategy. Hope filled her at the thought they were almost to the end. Now to just make sure it really happened.
Chapter 18
Arthur
Asmodeus was a wealth of information. He'd been in more battles than Arthur had dreamed of, and he had been very close to Boris. They spent the day discussing possible ways to subvert the power that Boris now had and different ways to break the line surrounding the Fae castle. The biggest problem was Mor's insistance that minimal force be used to attack the Fae in Boris' army.
Not that he would ever call it a problem in front of Mor, but it definitely added quite a bit of difficulty when planning a
war. No matter, they would all do as she asked. The question was, rather, if the Daemon's would respect her orders. He was still trying to process that they were going to help them at all. He couldn't imagine losing his mate and then finding another one. He hadn't thought it worked that way.
Asmodeus had trailed off again, his face far away as he thought of something. "I never found my mate."
"What?" Arthur struggled to catch up.
"My mate. I never found her. We holed up here before I could." Asmodeus grinned, "I have a chance now. One I never thought I would have."
"It's a beautiful thing. Terrifying, but beautiful." He looked over to where Mor was talking softly with Morgana and Atreyu. "I never want to be away from her, and every thought is to protect. Which I have to stop myself from doing because she's powerful in her own right. And stubborn."
"I look forward to that," he smiled and shook his head. "I need to maintain my focus, lest I make a mistake and never get to meet my mate. Tell me more about the army we will be facing.
"Well, most of them are there because they have no choice. It's that or risk the death of their hostage. But there are a few we think are there because they have taken his side. And then there are the ones spelled into following his lead."
"What? He has grown powerful in the last centuries. That is not something he was able to do before."
"Regardless, how do we kill him? If your assassin couldn't - what could we possibly do? I know how hard it is to kill a Dragon, but your kind is even stronger."
"We are very strong, that is true. The surest way is to cut off the head and remove the heart. Otherwise there is a chance of return."
"Wow. I'm not completely sure what to think of that," Arthur stared at him. "What was Boris like before he went crazy?"
"Mostly reserved. When he met his mate, he focused on her. She was beautiful and human."
"How would that work? She'd die so quickly."
"Our binding ceremony allows the mate's life to be tied to ours. We don't have females, so the only way we find mates is outside of ourselves. So we discovered a way to bind their life to ours. But the human mages severed that bond and killed our mates."
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