by Meg Xuemei X
The Rise of the Underworld
Of Shadows and Fire Book 2
Meg Xuemei X
The Rise of the Underworld © 2019 by Meg Xuemei X
Copyright notice: All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Warning: the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
The novel is a work of fiction. Any and all characters, events, and places are of the author’s imagination and should not be confused with fact. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or events or places is merely coincidence. Novel intended for adults only.
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MORE BOOKS BY THE AUTHOR
THE FIRST WITCH SERIES
The Dragonian’s Witch
The Witch’s Consort
OF SHADOWS AND FIRE
The Burn of the Underworld
The Rise of the Underworld
THE WAR OF GODS SERIES
A Court of Blood and Void
A Court of Fire and Metal
A Court of Ice and Wind
A Court of Earth and Ether
HALF-BLOOD ACADEMY SERIES
Magic Trials
Magic Secret
Magic Fury
Magic Unchained
Magic Flame
THE CURSED DRAGON QUEEN & HER MATES
The Fury Queen’s Harem
The Dragon Queen’s Harem
The Fae Queen’s Harem
EMPRESS OF MYSTH SERIES
Angel’s Forbidden Lust
Angel’s Indecent Proposal
Angel’s Fated Mate
Angel’s Storm Magic
TRUE MATE SERIES
Claim the Wolf King
Claim the Leopard Princess
THE WICKEDEST WITCH SERIES
Wicked Witch
Dark Vampire
Fallen Angel
DARK CHEMISTRY SERIES
The Siren
The Prince
The Red Queen
The Girl Next Door: A Small Town Romance
Table of Contents
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
Author’s Note
SNEAK PEEK: THE DRAGONIAN’S WITCH
Half-Blood Academy 1: Magic Trials
SNEAK PEEK: MAGIC TRIALS
About the Author
The Rise of the Underworld
Of Shadows and Fire Book 2
I can't forgive his betrayal, yet my body answers to his mating call.
The dirty truth about my fourth mate, a demigod druid, cut me bone deep.
To prevent an apocalypse on Earth, he had me kidnapped and taken to the Underworld. There I was raised as a warrior slave and trained to battle the Dark Lord.
I do not care how hard it was for him to send me away, the woman he treasures most. I do not feel sorry that his heart bleeds for me every second of every day. He robbed me of my birthright and the power to carve my own destiny.
I vow never to forgive him, even though he's finally come to bring me home, even as he fights alongside me with my other immortal lovers.
Yet my body craves his every scorching touch and refuses to deny my destined mate.
PROLOGUE
Emperor of Hell
__________________
Emperor Cain backhanded his commander. Azazel flew backward and crashed into the ebony wood desk, breaking three of its legs. A pen and a bottle of ink plummeted to the ground. The glass shattered, and the ink spilled across the emperor’s favorite rug.
The veins on the emperor’s temples jumped. Azazel remained motionless on the floor, restraining himself from nervously twitching his wings as he waited for the emperor’s temper to pass.
Elijah, a descendant of one of the most ancient Sváva archangel bloodlines, was unfazed by the drama in the study. His bored gaze was trained on a black tree outside the window.
The emperor gritted his teeth, desperately wanting to lunge at Elijah and tear off his golden wings, but he was afraid that he would end up dead in the hands of the formidable archangel.
Cain tucked his black wings tightly behind him.
“That slave girl was right under our noses, and you let her get away,” he spat at Azazel, who remained submissive, half-leaning on the ground in an awkward pose. “I gave you one job, one fucking job—find Lord Atlas’s great-granddaughter and bring her to me. For twenty years, the treasure has been in my Underworld, hidden in plain sight. And now she’s joined the rebels, who you also failed to dig out and squash, even with my mighty army at your command.”
“Your Majesty,” Azazel said. “My operation hunted for her all over the Upper Realm, but no one could have guessed that someone had smuggled her down here to avoid our detection. That was quite a clever ploy if you ask me.” Over Cain’s infuriated stare, the commander added quickly, “The asshole who hid her here as a slave must have masked her power so that we couldn’t sense her.”
He darted his pit-like eyes between the emperor’s agitated black wings and the archangel’s dulled golden ones.
In Sváva society, golden wings indicated the bearer’s superior bloodline and royal status. Only two living Sváva had the wings of gold—High Prince Seth and Archangel Elijah. Black wings, like the emperor had, were one step down. Red was ranked below black, then white was underneath red. Most female Sváva were born with white wings. They could still look down on the gray wings. Those who were born with mixed-colored wings were the bottom feeders.
And every Sváva demon in the Underworld knew how the emperor envied and feared the golden archangel.
“I almost had that girl in the arena,” the commander said, shuddering, remembering how Elijah had decapitated Commander Kipper with a swipe of his broad angelblade, “but then Lord Elijah had to take her to fuck her. Meaning no disrespect, sir.” He shot Elijah an apologetic glance. “But we lost the target from there.”
The emperor’s sizzling rage at his commander lessened as he appreciated Azazel’s grit at pointing his clawed finger at the archangel. Seizing the opportunity, the emperor turned to Elijah. “You cost me a great deal, letting the girl slip through your fingers. Care to elaborate on your failure, Lord Elijah?”
Elijah didn’t bother glancing at the emperor, as if the tree he was still regarding was more interesting.
“If you hadn’t sent your sultry courtesans to interrupt me,” he drawled, “t
hat little vixen would never have beaten your whores and escaped. And if I hadn’t taken her away, your goons would have murdered her in the arena and destroyed any chance we had to leave this shithole. And if she hadn’t fled me and displayed her power of death touch by slaying your sentinels, we’d never have found out that she’s the lost heir to Atlantis and the great-granddaughter of High Lord Atlas. Now that we know her true identity and that she’s our only ticket out of this hell, we need to capture her alive at all costs.”
“Did you say the courtesans interrupted you, Lord Elijah?” Cain inquired.
Elijah narrowed his gray eyes. The brilliant blue had faded from them after the time he had spent in this realm.
“Yes, they did,” he grated.
“So you didn’t get the chance to fuck the virgin slave?” Cain asked hopefully, then cringed at Elijah’s stormy look.
The emperor couldn’t control his lewd thoughts toward the slave girl. No matter if the archangel had screwed the girl or not, Cain was going to have a taste of her before he delivered her to the High Lord Atlas, who would regain his dark power after he harvested and drained his great-granddaughter’s magic.
“How do you propose to capture the slave girl, Lord Elijah?” Azazel asked as he slowly rose from the floor, lowering his red wings to show he meant the archangel no offense.
The archangel turned subtly, his cold eyes falling on Azazel, and the commander stepped back a pace, fighting the urge to wrap himself with his own wings in a protective cocoon.
“I don’t need to explain myself to my inferiors,” Elijah said. “Unless they desire to learn a lesson.”
“Lord Elijah,” said the emperor, “there’s no need to get irritable. We all work for the common good.” He really wanted to backhand the self-important archangel, too, but he didn’t dare.
However, he took great satisfaction in seeing that the archangel’s golden wings were already fading in color. His feathers weren’t as glossy anymore, and Cain wished with all his heart that Elijah’s wings would eventually fade to pale white; then the archangel’s status would be even lower than his commander.
The Underworld had a way of changing, eroding, and corrupting any outsider’s appearance and mind. The angels had all become demons in this hell. The emperor was the only one powerful enough to maintain his beautiful archangel form in public. But when he went to sleep, his black horns and claws always manifested.
But at the moment, the emperor relished his rival’s unfortunate alterations. Elijah’s cropped blond hair had turned gray, his high cheekbones had grown sunken, and the long scar sprawling from the high ridge of his nose to his cruel lips made the archangel look even more menacing and desperate.
The archangel Elijah hadn’t yet learned how to handle Hell’s power and climate, and the emperor wasn’t going to give him any pointers. He only hoped that the Underworld continued to drain Elijah. Just a couple more weeks and things were going to get worse for his rival.
Cain nearly chuckled as he looked forward to seeing Hell’s monstrous signature—horns, claws, fangs, and crimson eyes—leave a big imprint on Elijah.
The royal Sváva wouldn’t be so arrogant then, and he’d have a hard time attracting a female, supposing he didn’t force himself on one.
He’d be an archdemon in every way.
“The failure was yours, not mine,” Elijah said cockily, his tone icy. “Tomorrow, I’ll lead a team to catch the girl myself, then I’ll deliver her to High Lord Atlas. No one will get in my way, not even you, Cain.”
Cain stared at his rival with bitterness, his black wings shuffling.
He’d been the formidable general to the High Lord Atlas, who was once the most powerful being in the universe. He’d led legions of angels to conquer world after world. He’d been known as the Butcher of the Galaxies, in contrast to now being a firefly trapped in this hellhole.
After Lord Atlas lost the battle against his heir in the Heaven and Earth war, Cain had fled to Hell to avoid the pursuit of the High Prince and his bitch fae queen. Only Cain hadn’t expected that he and his Sváva army would be stuck here for centuries.
He’d lost hope until his followers in the Upper Realm intercepted the prophecy, which foretold that the heir to Atlantis would open the gate to Hell and bring the fallen angels home.
He would seize the girl for a chance to return to the Upper Realm, then take the girl to the High Lord. They’d conquer the universe again. And possibly, he’d even find a way to end Elijah.
“You’ll bring the slave girl, now the rebel queen, to me,” he ordered. “Don’t fail me again. Now leave me, both of you.”
He watched them leave.
A black wind swept through the room, and where Cain had stood, a jet-black owl spread his onyx wings.
No one knew the emperor could shift—the benefit of being the emperor of Hell.
The owl hooted eerily and flew through the high window toward the distant, blackened mountains.
He’d find Calamity before anyone else.
CHAPTER 1
Calamity
__________________
A dozen or so demons fled. The women of the Desert Belle were with us now. I looked at the dark green castle against the gloomy sky and asked the women, “Burn it?”
“Burn it to the ground!” the women cried.
As I unleashed my magic, red lightning flew from my hands, rushed across the ground, and ignited the fuel the women had poured all over the castle.
Flames engulfed the demon fort until its every stone was torched. Dirt and rocks rained down in an explosion.
The women sobbed, tears flowing down their sooty, bruised faces.
Every brick, stone, and wall was once soaked with their tears, blood, youth, and stolen innocence. My heart pained. I hoped I could do more for them.
“You’ve done a good thing for those poor women, Ayanna,” said Max, my gorgeous half-archangel, half-vampire mate. Pride beamed in his amber eyes, and heat raced in my veins.
Even on this abandoned battlefield, I wanted to slide my hand into his chestnut hair, pull his head down toward me, and kiss him hard.
The images of our coupling wheeled before my eyelids. My fingers had traced the inked tattoos of runes and waves on his hard, muscled chest before I indulged myself and played with his cock for a long time.
He held my hungry gaze, and his hunger echoed mine. Heat arose between us in spades, charging the air.
It wasn’t the right time or place for another mating.
Ash sent us a warning look.
I tore my thoughts from licking my delicious vampire mate. But moving my gaze from Max to Ash didn’t help at all, since I was equally hot and wet for my fae mate.
Ash had silver hair like mine. His blue eyes could ensnare my soul any second of the day, but I’d never told him that. I was still somewhat shy with them when I wasn’t fucking them. Xavier, my adopted father, had once told me about the legendary Winter Prince, but I’d thought it was a pure fairytale. I’d never expected that same prince to walk into my world and become my universe.
I drank in his icy, masculine beauty, and I couldn’t wholly blame the mating fever for the hot liquid pooling between my thighs.
The same heat lit in his eyes.
We’d mated. I thought we would calm down a bit now, but the fever kept rising and the flames stoking higher.
I would endanger everyone if I allowed this mating fever to drive my every action; if I let myself keep thinking how good it felt to have my mates’ massive cocks buried deep inside me.
“We need to go,” Ash urged. “We must get our mate to Atlantis as soon as possible. The demon legions from Elysium must be on the move already. Let’s delay no more.”
It hadn’t been in the plan to take down the castle of Desert Belle. We were supposed to make a detour and avoid the demons’ outposts to reach the portal to the Upper Realm, but I couldn’t leave Lydia’s sister and the other women in the prison-style brothel, and my mates wouldn’t leave me.
“Wherever you go, our queen, we follow,” Amber, the new leader of the freed women, called.
“No,” Ash said right away. “None of you will follow my mate. You will only bring her danger. She’s already jeopardized herself by rescuing you. The demon army will be on our trail.” He scanned the women with a forceful, hard glance. “I might be an ass, but my responsibility is to Princess Ayanna. My brother and I need to get her to safety at all costs. So being a complete asshole and a merciless killer is in the job description.”
“Ash, be gentle with my women,” I chided him mildly. “They’ve suffered enough.”
But we all knew he was right. It wouldn’t be practical for all of them to follow me to the Upper Realm. Two-thirds of them were weak and sick from months or possibly years of malnutrition and mistreatment. They would slow me down on the final journey to the portal, and if the demons caught up with us, none of us would make it to the Upper Realm.
Yet it wasn’t in my heart to leave them behind.
“We’ll have to stay behind.” Octavia stepped up, looking around at the women. She’d been with me ever since she and Willow helped me escape from the emperor’s court. “I once pleaded with Queen Calamity to go with us to Nightingale and meet Lady Oracle, but after careful consideration, we believe it’s best for our queen to go with her loyal, mighty consorts to reach the surface and bring their army down here to fight the emperor and his Sváva demons. Queen Calamity is the lost heir to the greatest kingdom in the Upper Realm. She, her mates, and their army will be our only salvation. And we, as her people, shall distract the demon army from her path to preserve our queen.”
