The Cloaked Maiden: A Reverse Harem Romance (Rise of the Ash Gods Book 2)

by Cara Wylde

  “Guys! This is not a competition! Goddess!”

  Nergal drew a couple of sigils in the air, pushed them in the general direction of the crowd, and whispered a chant in a language that Valentina couldn’t recognize.

  “I believe that’s Sumerian,” Magny whispered in her ear. “Not that I have any idea what he just said.”

  Whatever Nergal said, it worked. The crowd started dispersing, the people looking for camels, horses, and carriages to take them back to Cairo. The tourists at the entrance turned around, as if in a daze, and climbed down the pyramid blocks. It was as if they had forgotten something or had just changed their minds and decided to go inside the pyramid some other day. Ten minutes later, there was barely anyone left. Apparently, there were some people on whom Nergal’s spell hadn’t had much of an effect. They had stepped away from the entrance but remained at the foot of the pyramid or climbed a few block steps to take pictures.

  “I would have made all of them leave,” Jove said.

  “Not necessary,” Valentina reprimanded him. “You don’t get to shoo all the Ordinaries away just because you’re a superior being.”

  “Yes, I do.”

  Valentina was already headed toward the entrance. She was too enthralled by the greatness of the construction before her to pay attention to Jupiter and to how he grew in size a significant couple of inches, only to growl in annoyance when he had to readjust his height and width to go through the narrow door carved in the stone blocks. Once inside, Nergal took the lead, taking Valentina’s hand. Jupiter followed her, making sure she didn’t trip and hurt herself. At first, Val wanted to protest. She was no damsel! She could walk on her own, thank you very much! Then she saw how low and narrow the tunnels were, how old the wooden stairs, and how slippery the rock in some parts. Okay, maybe she did need their help. She was quite athletic, but one wrong step, and she’d surely break something.

  Magny kept poofing himself from one place to another, too impatient to wait. Valentina was moving slowly, and Nergal and Jupiter were too preoccupied with her to be any fun. He poofed himself from one tunnel to the next, found the initial chamber where Pharaoh Khufu first wanted to be buried, then explored the tunnels the workers had been forced to carve when the monarch changed his mind. The pyramid was even more beautiful and awe-inspiring without the noisy tourists. The last time Magny had been here, the constant chatter in all the possible languages of the world had made him regret his choice of season.

  At first, Valentina stopped to take pictures, but then gave up. All the tunnels looked the same. She focused on putting one foot in front of the other, listening to Jupiter and Nergal when they found something interesting to tell her about that wall or the other, or about the men who had worked to build the pyramid, the pharaoh who had commissioned it, and the numerous strategies they had tried to implement to ensure his tomb would not be robbed. Well, that had failed epically. When they finally reached the grand chamber where Khufu’s sarcophagus had been laid, Valentina was exhausted. Navigating the narrow tunnels without tripping or hitting her head every five minutes had proved to be quite a challenge. On the bright side, she wasn’t thinking of her failed spell practice anymore. Jove was right. She really needed this. She could already feel her mind becoming clearer and sharper as she focused all her efforts on her body.

  The chamber was empty. Dim light poured from the electrical lights above, and Valentina found herself staring at the hollow rock in front of her. That was where the pharaoh had been laid to rest. It looked so... cold, dull, and unimpressive. Yet, there was something about this room, something that made her skin prickle. She rubbed her bare arms and wrapped Death’s cloak tighter around her. It was chilly in there and, as she’d suspected, the cloak kept her warm. Magny poofed himself right on top of the rock.

  “Great! You’ve finally found it! Take a picture, will you?”

  Valentina smiled and pulled out her phone. Might as well.

  “There’s not much to see now,” Nergal said as he walked to the center of the room.

  “Oh, it’s enough.”

  She could imagine the king’s sarcophagus being carried in here with reverence, the ritual of entrusting his soul to the gods... She was almost tempted to take off her cloak and see how far in the past she could travel. She resisted the urge. It could have been an exhilarating trip, or it could have ended badly. Also, the last thing she wanted was to get sick in front of Jove and Nergal and puke at their feet. She shuddered at the thought. No. No good. After being saved one too many times by them, she had to hold on to the little dignity she had left.

  An impulse she couldn’t explain made her reach for her tarot deck. She shuffled the cards slowly, pacing the room, glancing up at the walls, soaking in the mystique of the ancient stone blocks. It struck her that, maybe, the Great Pyramid wasn’t built by Ordinary men, after all. There had to be some godly powers involved! There was no way mere men could construct such a mighty monument. Or, if gods weren’t involved, then other beings, beings who were far from Ordinary. Witches? Sure, why not? Vampires were known to have incredible physical strength. The more she thought about it, the more she was convinced there was no way the Sphinx and three pyramids on the Giza plateau had been built by Ordinaries. Magic had to be involved.

  Valentina could feel it. If she closed her eyes and listened to the soft murmur of the rock, she could sense the magic weaved subtly in the stone. A smile spread across her lips. She kept shuffling until the Magician and the Hanged Man jumped out of the deck and fell on the floor. Eyes still closed, she let her instincts guide her. Her right hand floated in the air, drawing complex sigils that she had barely been able to understand just a few hours before. In a clear, confident voice, she chanted the spell, and the words echoed against the walls and down the tunnels that had brought them there. She pushed the sigils inside the two cards, never breaking the chant, then drew more. With every second, she felt like she was growing stronger. Something warm and soft grew in her chest, like a ball of feathery energy. It grew and grew until it spread all through her body, and when her body couldn’t contain it anymore, it rose to the surface of her skin and enveloped her in a sheen of green energy, delicate and sparkling like pixie dust. She was vaguely aware of what she was doing and what was happening to her as she was doing it. Valentina had no idea such magic had been hidden inside her all along.

  Nergal, Jupiter, and Magny were speechless. The hobgoblin forgot how to breathe. When he remembered, he held his breath anyway, afraid the slightest noise or change in temperature might distract Valentina. Which was stupid! His hobgoblin breath could barely move a speck of dust, and that was when he exhaled extra hard.

  Loki and Veles emerged from the cards at the same time, slowly, floating above the ground as Valentina’s spell gave their transparent bodies substance. She furrowed her brows and chanted louder, for a moment feeling like she was losing them. She drew another sigil, pushed it inside their bodies, then ended her spell with a long, tired exhale. When she opened her eyes, they were there, standing before her, in the flesh. There was almost no need to touch them. She could see with her own eyes that it had worked. She’d done it!

  But, of course, touching was the main purpose of the whole endeavor. Loki smiled brightly, looked at his own hands for a second, then ran toward Valentina and took her in his arms, lifting her off the ground and swirling her twice. Her black hood fell off, revealing her long, dark hair. He put her back down, cupped her face with his hands, and stole a quick kiss.

  Magny looked away, but Nergal and Jove weren’t as polite. Death was already giving the two other gods murderous looks, and Jupiter stepped up, grabbed Loki by the shoulder, and pulled him away.

  “Yes, yes, we’re all happy the spell worked. Now back off, will you?”

  Valentina’s blue eyes went wide. No! This wasn’t happening! This couldn’t happen!

  Loki smacked Jove’s hand away, turned on his heels, and grabbed him by the collar. He sneered in his face.


  “You back off, mate. I found her first. She’s here because I helped her every step of the way. I was there for her. When she needed to find the Magician, I was the first one to get carded so she could continue her journey.”

  Fire burned in Loki’s green eyes. His whole being exuded power, and Valentina suddenly realized that it could all go very wrong if she didn’t do something. Loki and Veles had material form now, but they weren’t human. They looked like they were, but they weren’t. They had their full powers, while Jove and Nergal were still trapped in human bodies, born of Ordinary women a long time ago. Just like Loki had been before he was carded. Veles... well, Veles had always been a god.

  “No, no, no! You’re not doing this.” Valentina stepped between them. Gently, she pushed Loki away from Jove. “Not now, not ever.” She looked into the Trickster’s eyes. “We’ve talked about this. I told you what Kali said, and Veles confirmed it. There’s no need to fight over me.”

  Veles stood a few feet away, hands in the pockets of his cream-colored slacks, as impassive as one could be. He nodded in approval. He wanted Valentina for himself just as much as the other three gods in the room, but petty fighting and pathetic jealousy were below him. He had incarnated as a human once or twice, too, but that had been an awfully long time ago, sometime before the rulers of Rome even dreamed of building the Roman Empire. Since then, he’d had enough time to dispose himself of any human faults, feelings, or reactions. When Veles loved, he didn’t love like a human. He loved like a god.

  “What did Kali say?” Nergal stepped forward. Sharing Valentina with Jove was one thing, but who did these two other fools think they were? “You know you can’t trust the blue goddess, sweetpea.”

  Loki scowled at him. “Stop calling her that.”

  “Loki!”

  Valentina’s exasperated tone made the Trickster back down. For the time being.

  She turned to Jupiter and Nergal. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I... I didn’t know how.” She took a deep breath. Goddess, how she hated having this conversation again! “Kali looked into my future and told me that I will succeed in saving the Mysteries of the Trionfi and exorcising the Walk-Ins if I... if I...” She just had to say it – close her eyes, blush to the tips of her ears, and say it. There was no other way. “If I give myself to the gods of the Major Arcana. Body and soul.” Silence fell over the room. When neither Nergal, nor Jupiter reacted, she snapped her eyes open. “Like, you know... Body? I... I can’t choose anyway. I mean, I met Loki first, then Veles. Then you...” She nodded toward Jupiter. “And you.” A nod toward Nergal. “And I... I feel something for each of you. Why deny it? It would be easier, maybe. Less embarrassing.” Her cheeks were on fire. “But it would be a lie, and it wouldn’t serve any of us. So, here it is, out in the open: I am attracted to all of you, and I don’t want to choose. I won’t choose. Do with that what you will.”

  The heavy silence persisted for a while longer, then Nergal asked gently: “Why would you feel embarrassed, though?”

  She rolled her eyes and bit down on her lower lip. Veles stepped behind her, his warm hand resting on her waist.

  “I can tell them if you want,” he whispered.

  She laughed. “You know everything about me, don’t you?”

  The silver-haired god shrugged. “Not everything. I like observing you from a distance.”

  She looked up into his eyes. “That’s creepy.”

  Hurt, he removed his hand and stepped away. Valentina realized what she’d done, and she immediately took his hand and nestled into his chest. She felt so safe with Veles. When he was there, either in his human or his dragon form, she felt like everything was right in the world. Like she could be herself, and he would never judge her.

  “Joke! Joke! That was a joke. You’re not creepy. At all. I don’t know what I’d have done without you. You kept Ravenna away so many times.” She was talking about the nights when he slept beside her. A black dragon as big as a cat, the sole difference being that he didn’t purr.

  He smiled and wrapped her in a gentle hug.

  Valentina pulled away after a moment, turning to Loki, Nergal, and Jupiter. She bet they could already guess what she was about to say, but it was better to say it out loud anyway.

  “I feel embarrassed because I... I’m a virgin.”

  Magny poofed himself out of the room. That was too much for him. Too much! In a fraction of a second, he was out of the pyramid and on his way to a bar to drink his trauma away.

  No one noticed.

  A grin pulled at Nergal’s lips. He reached out to play with a strand of her hair.

  “Well, we’ll have to fix that, won’t we? I’d hate for you to feel embarrassed every time you’re with us. You know, maidenhood is precious and all. Until it holds you back. You don’t want to be held back, do you, sweetpea?”

  Valentina gulped.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  She wasn’t sure how they got in Nergal’s room. The Sphinx nightclub seemed to have become a leitmotif in her life. She’d miss it once she’d leave Cairo. But that was beside the point...

  How did they all get here? Something involving Nergal leaning in for a kiss, Loki grabbing her by the waist to pull her away from him, and then the three of them being transported to Nergal’s room because Nergal was thinking about it? And because Loki was thinking about taking her out of there? Veles and Jupiter soon followed. The best part of being a god, with full powers and not trapped in a restrictive human body, was the ability to travel through space and dimensions at the blink of an eye.

  Loki pulled her in his arms, her back against his chest, and started ravishing her neck and shoulder, his lips leaving heated kisses, his teeth biting everywhere they reached. He got rid of her ridiculously long cloak and threw it to the other side of the room. Nergal didn’t approve. The blond god was ready to launch himself at Loki when Valentina reached out and grabbed him by the shirt. She dragged him toward her and captured his lips in a long, passionate kiss. Loki was now busy licking the shell of her ear, and Nergal hadn’t even noticed. Nergal’s hands traveled down her body, cupping her round breasts, clawing at her yellow blouse, and finding their way underneath it. When he broke the kiss to look her in the eyes as he undid the clasp of her bra, she gasped. He smiled wickedly, wrapped his arms around her waist, and lifted her, forcing her to squeeze her legs around him. Loki growled at the sudden loss of her delicious skin.

  Valentina looked over at Jove and Veles. The silver-haired god had busied himself with something rather neat. With a simple gesture of his hand, he made Nergal’s bed larger. So large, in fact, that it had ended up pushing the couch and the coffee table, along with the two armchairs, against the opposite wall. Valentina immediately thought of what Kali had told her. A bed as large as this room. Well, out of nine gods of the Major Arcana, she was currently surrounded by four. So, this couldn’t be the scene the goddess had seen in her future. As Nergal set her on top of the mattress, she motioned for Jove and Veles to get closer.

  Loki lay down next to her, pulling her in for a kiss. From her full lips, he traveled down her jaw and neck, reaching her collarbone just as Nergal was trying to pull off her shirt. The Trickster rolled his eyes but helped him, nonetheless.

  “I can’t believe I’m doing this,” he mumbled.

  Death shoved him lightly in the shoulder. “You were her first kiss. Stop complaining!”

  “Guys, no!”

  Valentina pushed them off her and sat up. The sight of her bare breasts calmed them down. She locked eyes with Veles, and the ache between her thighs grew in intensity when she saw the lust in his electric blue irises. Her nipples hardened, drawing Jove’s attention. As he approached her, he grew in size right before her eyes, becoming taller and bulkier. What a strange ability he had! Val wondered whether he could change his size at will down there, too. She blushed at her own sinful thoughts.

  Jupiter knelt at the foot of the bed. Gently, he undid her
jeans and rolled them down her legs, leaving her in a tiny pair of lace panties that didn’t leave much to the imagination. They were quite transparent, too. When he took hold of them, Valentina clenched her legs. She could barely wrap her mind around what was happening. Veles was now on the bed, trailing his fingers up and down her stomach, taking his time, as if he hadn’t touched a woman like that in too long and he wanted to enjoy every second of it. Jupiter was looking at her with hooded, golden eyes that had turned a shade darker. She knew he was the predator and she was his prey. He wanted to devour her, and she couldn’t resist him. She had no reason to fight him. She wanted to be devoured by that perfect mouth of his. She relaxed her legs and allowed him to undress her completely.

  There she was, in the middle of the bed, bare and vulnerable, surrounded by four men who each wanted to claim her. Jove parted her knees and dived between her quivering thighs. When his tongue came in contact with her hot, soaked core, she threw her head back and moaned. No one had ever touched her like this. She had never even thought her body was able to feel so much. Loki sank his hand in her hair and kept her there, pinned. He attacked her neck once more. Apparently, the Trickster had an obsession for that particular part of her body. Nergal took over her perky breasts, his lips descending on one nipple while he rubbed the other between his fingers. Veles stretched over Nergal, and they intuitively exchanged positions. The Magician god dove in for his first kiss, and Valentina responded eagerly, opening her mouth and allowing him to explore and drink in her moans and gasps. What Jupiter was doing between her legs was out of this world!

  She started pulling at their clothes, urging them to get rid of everything that still stood between her heated skin and theirs. Nergal removed his shirt and leather pants in a few swift motions, while Loki and Veles were simply dressed one second, and naked the next. Their bare bodies pressing against her, Jove’s tongue doing its exquisite dance on and around that one spot that seemed to hold the key to a universe of pleasure... She arched her back, pushed Veles away, and let out a scream as she rode her first release. She was writhing, gushing, and Jove was eagerly cleaning every bid of the mess he’d caused. He stood up and removed his clothes one by one, grinning down at her. He took such pleasure in watching her watch him, her lips red and bruised from kissing, her blue eyes wide with anticipation. He climbed on top of her, trailing kisses from her pubic bone to her breasts, where he had to stop because Nergal had no intention of relinquishing his territory. Veles was kissing her temple and playing with her hair. What a gentleman. Jupiter could almost laugh, but he didn’t want to confuse Valentina. She looked confused enough already.