“I know the things I do because Fergus knows about the Fae, and he can go places I can’t. The demons have been nothing but honorable and helpful. It’s because of a demon we can watch conversations on a private cell phone between Warden Skinner and my father. It’s because of a demon I have a safe place to live. It’s because of a demon you have a safe place to hide while we clear your name. The demons are furious about what is being done in Scorchwood, and they want to shut it down.”
“Thomas promised to help clear my name too,” Kestrel said.
“Maybe he would have,” I said. “But not until you’d done what Eiltan was paying him for. Your child would have been taken from you. Eiltan may have had a warlock take your memories to spare you the pain of realizing the man you loved lied to you and gave your child away, but if Eiltan was willing to experiment on his own daughter when he realized he framed her, I highly doubt it.”
Clio just scowled. “Well, you had demons kidnap us, and it’s not like we have any idea where we are. We are wanted women. We are just as much hostages here as we were in prison.”
Amduscias just looked at her coolly.
“I can have the shadow demons come back and take you anywhere you’d like to go. We’ll take you back to the men you were hiding with before if that’s what you want. But remember everything we’ve told you. Do you want to risk being wrong?”
“Can we have a night to think about it?” Pearl asked.
Serafina just gave them a gentle smile as Fergus played on her shoulders.
“Take all the time you need. You aren’t our prisoners. If you want to leave, just say so. I just hope you’ll consider what we’ve said. My father’s network is extensive, and I wouldn’t trust anyone on Earth right now unless he has hurt them as he has us.”
“You have your pick of the rooms here,” Amduscias said. “There’s an entertainment room downstairs. Make yourself at home, and if there’s anything you prefer to eat, just tell the staff. Anok will come by once you’ve settled to get shopping lists for all of you. If you want a laptop or a phone, just tell her, but you all need clothes and entertainment. What she can’t get here, she can get in Hell.”
“You would allow us phones to find out where we are and call for help?”
“You’re in an estate off Lake Louise in the mountains in Canada,” Amduscias said. “Demons in Hell made papers for you. We don’t know if Eiltan’s reach extends to Canada, but you should be able to go sightseeing. It’s quite beautiful outside.”
Blossom stood and nodded to Serafina.
“I don’t know about everyone else, but I’m staying here. Can I get a pregnancy test, and if it’s negative, a prescription for Klonopin? I was going through withdrawals in Scorchwood, and this is just ramping up my anxiety.”
“I’ll make arrangements,” Amduscias said. “Would you be open to seeing a demon physician about your anxiety and seeing about a demon remedy? We apparently have several elementals who live in Hell permanently.”
“The birth control in Hell is pretty cool,” Serafina said. “They gassed me in Scorchwood, kidnapped me, and my father’s warlock cut my implant out of my arm without my permission.”
Every single elemental looked horrified. Perhaps Serafina shouldn’t have closed with that and just left it at the birth control being excellent. She just shrugged.
“Fergus killed him. It’s not like I didn’t get my payback.”
“What are you going to do with your father after all he’s done?” Kestrel asked.
“He will look me in the eye and tell me why he did this, and then I will kill him too.”
She said that like she was talking about the weather and not killing her father. God, I loved this woman. We were so close. We’d taken away Eiltan’s pawns. How were we supposed to get Eiltan if he was hiding in the Fae realm?
Just then, it was like the entire room lit up in flame, but the fire wasn’t burning me. I knew it wasn’t Serafina. Her fire burned white-hot. I could hear the fire roaring in my ears. Amduscias was trying to yell something, but I couldn’t make it out. He went running towards Serafina. I could barely see anything in the room it was so bright.
I saw Amduscias try to grab Serafina, then almost as soon as I could blink, the fire was out, and Amduscias was on the floor. Serafina was gone. Amduscias bolted to his feet and looked around wildly.
“We’ve been betrayed. That was a Fae portal. Eiltan Sunshadow has Serafina.”
My wolf clawed his way to the surface. We would get her back, and then we would rip her father’s throat out. We would kill whoever betrayed us. My wolf and I grinned.
Only a few people in Hell knew about Fergus. Bael wanted to keep it on a need to know basis. I didn’t think Bael would betray us.
I could only hope whoever betrayed us had no idea about Fergus. Eiltan may drop her in a ward to stop her fire, but hopefully, he wouldn’t think he would need the ward to keep Fergus away.
That fucking dragon better not let me down. I watched him kill Rathmore in the most gruesome way possible. He’d better find a way to top that now that Eiltan had taken my favorite killer.
Chapter 41
Serafina
W
ell, that was undoubtedly ballsy. I saw the bright light, and then someone just grabbed me. I punched them in the face, but they still dragged me through a portal to god knows where. I was in some ornate room with decorations I didn’t recognize from any time period or any culture. I whirled around and faced my abductor. His nose was broken, but I saw a softer version of that face every time I looked in the mirror. Why did I have to look so fucking much like my father?
He pinched his nose and tried to stop the bleeding.
“Beat me all you like, and then I want you to sit down and listen. It’s high time we had a chat.”
He just stood there and let me wail on him. He didn’t even ward the room against my fire or from Fergus. Why was he letting me beat him? He wasn’t fighting back, and he wasn’t trying to stop me. Punching him just felt hollow. It would have felt a lot more satisfying if he’d actually fought back. Wasn’t he this big, lousy asshole who had a warlock experiment on me?
I threw my arms down and shrieked. I didn’t kill him, and I didn’t call Fergus. I just wanted to know why. Why didn’t he get me when he realized he framed me? Why did he do all those things to me when he realized his child was in Scorchwood?
“He can’t lie to you, my Ena. He can dance around the truth, but he can’t lie. Be careful with your questions, and you might get to the truth.”
“Do you feel better now?” Eiltan said. “Can we sit and talk?”
I sat across from him and just glared at him. His eyes were swelling shut, but he was looking at me with pride.
“I knew when I finally had a child they would be fierce. You’re everything I hoped for in an heir, Serafina.”
What the fuck? Growing up in the convent and then on the streets, I dreamed of meeting my parents and hearing those exact words. It was just fucked up now. It wasn’t like he could claim me as his heir without the Fae murdering both of us, and he had already done so much foul shit to me.
“An illegitimate heir that the Fae would kill.”
“I wouldn’t have brought you to the Fae realm for this conversation if I couldn’t ensure your safety.”
“What the fuck?” I shrieked.
“You are in my private quarters where no one will disturb us. We needed to talk away from everyone on Earth and everyone in Hell. You are half Fae, Serafina. You should be able to live here should you so desire to.”
I laughed in his face.
“Why the fuck would I want to? Your ancestors made it a law I should die, and you had no problem having Rathmore put spells on me to manipulate me.”
“What?” Eiltan growled. “He was just supposed to wipe your memories. I told him to keep the rest of his filthy magic away from you.”
That made nothing better. I flipped him off and scowled.
“You still tried t
o breed me like a dog. I don’t even want children right now.”
“Yes, I realized my mistake after you broke out, but I couldn’t get to you in Hell. We need a child with demon and Fae blood, Serafina. I need you to help me save the Fae race. You can’t trust the demons. The entire reason this is happening is because of a demon curse. I didn’t ask you before, so I’m asking you now. Will you help me save the Fae, Serafina?”
“Fergus, what the fuck is he talking about?”
“Ask him directly. He seems to want to be honest right now.”
I squared my shoulders and glared at my father. I trusted all the demons I’d met so far except Zepar. I had no reason to trust my father except for the fact that he couldn’t lie to me.
“You’d better talk and leave nothing out. Even if I agree with you, I’m not having a baby so you can experiment on it. I have no reason to distrust the demons I’ve met so far.”
My father smiled at me.
“You’re smart and resourceful. Maybe you’ll come up with an alternate solution. It’s not all demons. This is all happening because of a deal I tried to make with Zepar. It went wrong, and I’ve been trying to make it right without letting the Fae know it was my doing. I need your help, Serafina.
“I’m sorry about what I did to you. I should have come and gotten you when I realized you were my daughter. You just don’t understand how ghastly things are in the Fae realm right now.”
“Then maybe you’d better explain.”
“It’s because of Zepar that Fae women are barren. We’ve looked into it. We need to synthesize the blood of a demon Fae hybrid to undo his magic.”
I shook my head. Even if getting pregnant would save the Fae, there had to be another answer without breaking things to get to it.
“Take me back. I promise none of my men will hurt you. We need everyone’s input if we will figure this out. I still don’t know if I will kill you when this is all over for what you did to me, but I’ll try to help you save the Fae.”
I knew I didn’t trust Zepar. Amduscias needed to hear this story so we could figure this out, and they were probably going crazy with me gone. I needed to get back to them.
We could figure this out together. Then, I may or may not kill my father.
Chapter 42
Fergus
E
iltan grabbed Serafina so fast I barely had time to react. I had been playing on her shoulder, trying to be cute and relax the other elementals. I barely had time to get through the portal before it closed. I hoped Eiltan hadn’t seen me. It was a smash and grab. I hid as soon as we entered the Fae realm. She was already in danger without them knowing she had me. That, and I knew she wanted to hear him out before she killed him.
I had no idea what he meant by making a deal with Zepar, but I also didn’t do much with the royal family. My charges tended to be peasants and healers. I portalled back with them to Zepar’s estate, and we had a vicious welcoming committee. Skoll’s wolf was ready to rip Eiltan apart, Roman was prepared to drain him dry, and I had a feeling Amduscias’s unicorn was ready to come out. I wanted to kill him myself.
Serafina jumped between them.
“Let’s not kill him just yet. He says something is going on in Hell with Zepar. Let’s hear him out. We didn’t trust Zepar this entire time.”
“How do we know you aren’t working with him?” Amduscias growled. “You seemed to find us pretty easily.”
“I made it a point to know everything about Zepar. I worked with him once hundreds of years ago. The Fae were sick. The Fae worked with the demons to cure their infected ages ago. I thought we could do the same again. I couldn’t get into Hell, so I approached Zepar. I was a young Fae at the time and a little naïve. I agreed to a contract with him he would treat our sick with payment due later.
“He gave us vials of a red potion and said it came from demon physicians. What we didn’t know was that it contained his blood. I’ve learned everything I could about Zepar since then. He has the power to make women barren. That is precisely what he did. The women who took the potion could not bear children, and the ones that took it while pregnant, their children could not bear children either.
“I’ve been trying to right this wrong for the longest time. The best Dark Fae scientists have been working on this. It was demon blood that did this to us. We thought a child with demon and Fae blood would help reverse it. The problem is, it’s challenging for Fae women to conceive, and the only demon that has ever been topside has been Zepar. I don’t trust demons anymore.
“Zepar has told me what he wants. He wants the Fae to help him take over Hell. He will reverse what he did to our women if we help him become the king of Hell. We don’t want to do that. We have no problem with the current rule in Hell.
“Amduscias, I am sorry. When you got arrested, I saw it as an opportunity to study you and see if you had the power to reverse what they did to us. We couldn’t figure out your demonic powers. We took you one day and took a blood sample. We used it to try to make a potion, but your blood doesn’t have the answer to fixing our women.”
Amduscias just scowled at him. “No, it wouldn’t. I’m not the same kind of demon. You realize you could have solved all of this by coming to the kings of Hell? We could have gotten you Zepar’s blood and dealt with him. As it stands now, you bribed, framed a bunch of innocent women, and you tortured a bunch of prisoners in Scorchwood. Hell wants your head.”
Eiltan bowed his head.
“I understand that and accept my punishment. But Hell needs to understand that Zepar is planning to overthrow Hell, and he has allies just like I do. I hope you don’t think he invited these women here out of the goodness of his heart. He wanted to force me into making a deal with him to invade Hell.”
I knew Eiltan was telling the truth. He couldn’t lie. This plot was getting deeper and deeper, and now Hell might not be safe for us.
“Then you are coming to Hell with us and explaining all this to our kings,” Amduscias said. “You need help. I’m not having a baby with Serafina until she’s ready, so that’s out. We need another answer. And you need to answer for your crimes.”
I thought about it. I’d been putting it off because she didn’t want me to. I might have to visit the Fae realm too. As far as I knew, Ior Sunshadow had a guardian once. I could talk to his guardian to speak with Ior. Eiltan might not want the Fae to know about his fuckup, but if we had a rogue demon trying to overthrow Hell and a Fae prince who had gone totally crazy trying to stop him and fix his people, then we needed all the help we could get.
Eiltan bowed his head.
“To Hell then?”
The other elementals had been watching this entire time. They didn’t want to stay in the house of a mad demon, and I didn’t blame them. We didn’t have a choice. We would have to bring them to Hell with us.
How did one fucking demon and one Fae prince cause so much trouble? At least we were a little closer to fixing this.
Afterword
Thank you for downloading this book and I hope you enjoyed following Serafina and her men as they broke out of prison. Their adventures will continue in the final installment of Scorchwood Supernatural Penitentiary, Risky Business.
To follow announcements on new books, excerpts, and cover reveals, you can join my readers group. We are a fun bunch and sometimes the memes get a little raunchy.
Did you love Pretty in Orange? Then you should read Forbidden: Snow White and the Se7ev Deadly Sins by JB Trepagnier!
I'm used to demons and voodoo. What I was not prepared for was my life turning into a fairytale, complete with the Wicked Step Mother.
My awful step mother is the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans. She's always hated me for being a Succubus. It just got a hundred times worse after my father died mysteriously. I moved out to get away from her as soon as I could, but the family business brings me close to her more often than I care for. How was I to know the intern I banged in the closet for a little top-up was one of her lovers?
She normally doesn't take lovers that far beneath her station.
She's out for blood. She sends her deadliest bodyguard after me. I barely escape with my life. I go the one place a Succubus can find the one thing she needs to heal—a local BDSM dungeon. But I haven't gone through their vetting process and the seven men who own it are ready to kick me out on my ass. That is, until they recognize me. These are not seven regular Doms. No, the Seven Deadly Sins own this dungeon.
And my mother has done a lot of sinning. All seven men want a crack at killing her and she's still out for my blood. I'm given sanctuary in the dungeon if I help keep it clean. They say they will help with my needs as a Succubus.
I'm in totally over my head. Have you ever seen a walking sin? It's too much even for a Succubus and there are seven of them. I'm falling for all of them.
Forbidden is a dark, adult reverse harem retelling of Snow White. It contains sexy times between one female and seven men and one evil step mother.
Pretty in Orange Page 18
