by Meg Xuemei X
I darted a dry glance at Merlin, and he looked sheepish.
Raven and Willow looked between Merlin and me.
“He did what he had to do,” Raven said. “I saw it in my vision. If he hadn’t, we would never have you, and the last of us would be enslaved or wiped out.”
I averted my gaze from Merlin. I still couldn’t deal with him, for I would never see my kingdom or my parents. I could forgive him for my ill fate, but I wouldn’t forgive him for my parents’ pain and suffering because they lost their only daughter and never knew what happened to me.
“We need to talk,” Merlin said, scanning us, “and make plans for the impending crisis. The major force of the demon army is coming in two days and they’ll level or bury Nightingale.”
The blood drained from everyone’s faces.
“What the hell is that?” Travis shrieked, pointing to the headless demon in front of Killian. “How did a high-ranking demon get into our city?”
Now everyone noticed the demon corpse outside my tent and gasped.
“That’s my tiger’s snack,” I said. “We killed a few demons while we scouted last night.”
Merlin turned to my tiger and talked to him in a guttural language I didn’t understand, and Killian rose from his spot, padded to the druid with his tail wagging slowly, and reached up to lick the back of Merlin’s hand.
I glared at Killian. What a traitor!
“Aren’t you a clever, brave boy, guarding Princess Ayanna?” Merlin asked in the common language.
So, my tiger had bragged to the druid.
The tiger turned his head and grinned at me, but I didn’t grin back.
Merlin scratched the back of Killian’s ear. “And I brought a she-dragon. I think you two will get along.”
Both Ash and Max widened their eyes in interest.
“Where’s the dragon, druid?” Ash demanded.
“Skye will be here when I summon her,” said Merlin.
“You have a dragon, revered druid?” Raven asked.
“A jade dragon. There aren’t many of them left in the world.”Merlin nodded with a sad smile. “Where should we go for a very serious meeting?”
Before anyone answered, the rose gold icon on my forearm pulsed with eagerness and urgent need. Merlin had asked for a serious meeting, and the mating bond interpreted it as a request for a serious mating.
CHAPTER 15
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We gathered in the Hollow Hall inside a gray building, a dining place for the citizens of Nightingale.
The Protectors sat on one side of an old head table. Max, Ash, Merlin, and I sat on the other side. A few top-ranking Thorn Rose warriors, including Guy, stood nearby.
“Talk, druid,” Max said. “How did you even get here?”
“I got to the bowels of the Underworld just as you did—stowing away on the slave smuggler airship,” Merlin said lazily.
Reaper, the slave airship, had been dumping new slaves in the Underworld for centuries. I’d been put on that ship when I was a baby princess, thanks to Merlin.
For years, I’d snuck to the landing site to watch the Reaper landing and check what kind of slaves they brought to Hell each time. My obsession worried Sebastian. It was as if I’d been waiting for someone to come for me on a subconscious level. And on that fateful day, three of my mates had come.
And they’d saved me.
Two of them had accompanied me every step of the way since they found me, and one had turned to the dark side. And now the fourth had also come, and for my sake, they were all stuck here.
“However, I came in a different style than you.” Merlin glanced at Max and Ash sideways, then at me. Max and Ash perched on seats on either side of me, and Merlin sat near the end of the table, next to Max. “I came as a free man without a slave mark and chains.”
“You fucker! You said putting on chains would make our arrival in Hell more plausible, which was a crock of shit,” Ash hissed. “You even branded me with a slave mark, knowing well I’m allergic to iron. I’ll remember this.”
“Your magic burned away the fake slave symbol,” Merlin said, “just as I said it would. So why are you still bitching? Unlike Princess Ayanna, she burned her true slave mark away with her flame.”
“The Queen of the Flame,” Willow murmured. “A few of my girls and I had the honor of seeing the flame on Queen Calamity’s left breast.”
That was when I had changed my outfit in front of them before we made our escape from the emperor’s court.
“You have nerve to mention the slave mark on Ayanna,” Ash snarled, tossing his ice magic at Merlin, throwing the druid out of his chair. “She would never have been a slave if it weren’t for you. You took away her birthright as the heir of Atlantis.”
Merlin got to his feet and patted the dust away from his white robe.
“Her birthright is merely delayed,” Merlin said. “I don’t deny that I wronged her, but the world’s fate is bigger than us.”
He might be right, but emotionally I was still upset. I pushed the residual anger and hurt aside. We’d need all the help we could get, and at least Merlin had come down to Hell himself to lend a hand.
“Can we all reach the Upper Realm through the Reaper?” I asked hopefully. “The ship is big enough for thousands of us, right?”
Max and Ash had said that traveling to Hell through the slave smuggler airship was a one-way journey, but the powerful druid was here now. He might be able to get us out, or he wouldn’t have come here, right?
“Unfortunately, Reaper can’t go up to the surface,” Merlin said grimly. “The leyline over there is one-way. Cain’s Sváva followers on Earth tossed their captives into the abyss, where the Reaper waited. That was how they brought the new supplies of slaves to the Underworld. When I boarded the Reaper, I sealed the leyline, so there’ll be no more slaves being shipped down here. I also killed the entire demon crew on that airship to secure a spot for my dragon on the deck. Skye flew me all night to reach Nightingale.”
“How did you know we were here?” I asked.
“I followed the beacon of the bond between us,” Merlin said with a hungry smile and glanced at my arm, covered by the sleeve. He’d returned to his seat. “You have four icons on your left forearm. Three were activated after you mated with three of your true mates. Max and Ash and I swore a blood oath, so we share a blood bond. The connection led me here.”
“May we see the icons?” Raven asked softly.
I’d refused to show the Protectors the mark of the Queen of the Flame on my person when they demanded I prove I was the prophesized queen. But Raven and Willow had shown me every courtesy and were my allies.
I rolled up my sleeve.
Raven smiled at the sight of the icons. The other male Protectors gawked at them as if they’d never seen anything like it.
The four icons lined up vertically on my inner arm all had a different color: dark gold—my bond to Elijah; silver-gold—my bond to Ash; rose gold—my bond to Merlin; and purple-gold—my link to Max.
The icons of silver-gold and purple-gold beamed brightly. The dark gold flicked on and off. And a faint light traversed along the edge of the rose gold icon, which recognized Merlin’s presence and indicated that we hadn’t mated yet.
“It’s marvelous,” Raven said in awe.
Halia looked at the icons in distaste.
As I pulled back my sleeve, an urgent thought suddenly occurred to me. If Merlin could trace us through the bond, so could Elijah.
The archdemon would find us in no time.
My heart stuttered in panic. Blood drained from my face.
“What’s the matter, Blossom?” Ash turned to me, worry creasing his brows.
Max wrapped his large hand around my cold one. “We’re with you, love.”
“Don’t worry, Ayanna. I’ve taken care of it,” Merlin said, a trace of his magic caressing me like the warm rain, like a long-lost precious memory returning. He paused for a second before continuing wi
th a touch of nostalgia. “Freyja, your mother, reacted to my magic just as you do. I first met her in my courtyard when she cleverly ditched your father. King Ares is the most dominant, powerful Dragonian. Ares followed the advice of an oracle to seek out the First Witch— his true mate—but found the ‘wolf girl’ Freyja instead, unaware the wolf girl and the First Witch were the same.
“Your mother then led your father on a wild goose chase to look for the First Witch and gave him all sorts of grief until your father succumbed to her completely and chose her over the ‘First Witch.’” His intense gaze held mine, heat lurking in his violet eyes. “That was a different time—a time for the new to replace the old, a time for the humans to grow in numbers and rise, a time for mighty kingdoms to fall, and a time for magic to shift on Earth. The Twilight Realm is still fading and the immortal fae is leaving their home and let mortals take over Earth.”
I hung on to Merlin’s every word. The stupid rose gold icon on my forearm pulsed with a slow-burning sensation, and heat pooled at my core. Merlin’s presence, magic, and the sound of his voice were all like the mating call in my veins.
I bit my lip and squeezed my thighs to suppress the stupid, ridiculous desire.
Ash and Max darted their gazes between Merlin and me and growled. They’d accepted that I would have four mates, but that was before they learned that Merlin’s meddling had resulted in two decades of my suffering.
Merlin’s eyes glowed violet at the same mating call.
And then, he felt my resistance.
He took a deep breath and brought his magic down to douse the mating fever between us, but it wouldn’t budge. He let out a ragged, labored, and pained breath as if he was burned.
“It’s stronger than I believed possible,” he murmured with a wince, more to himself.
“So, you were saying my mother misled my father and then defeated him?” I inquired, so everyone’s attention would focus on the story rather than on the sexual tension between Merlin and me.
At the same time, the mutual lust between Max, Ash, and me remained potent and charged. With Merlin, it had just started.
No matter how I felt about Merlin, I loved to hear him talk about my parents. Neither Ash nor Max had interacted much with my mother, but Merlin knew Mom well.
“You aren’t exactly like your mother,” Merlin continued, suddenly speaking to me in the ancient Sváva tongue, which I knew like it was my hidden heritage. “But you’re your mother’s daughter in every way—smart and courageous and with the great capacity of looking at the bigger picture.”
Hearing the vicious Sváva tongue suddenly brought out my vengeful nature. Before I could stop it, my reproach in the same language flowed out of my mouth.
“You’re my mother’s oldest friend and her mentor,” I said. “You speak about her with high regard. I wonder what she’ll think of you or what action my parents will take if they learn it was you who stole their only child.”
I wasn’t the woman who looked at the bigger picture now. I was being petty, and I was glad of disappointing Merlin.
“I’ll never ask for your forgiveness or theirs,” Merlin said, then he shifted to the common language. “But this time I came to bring you home in person.”
“You just said there was no chance in Hell of returning to the surface through the airship, asshole,” Ash growled. “And you sealed the other leyline as well.”
“There’s a third option,” Merlin said, surveying the audience. “That’s what this meeting’s about. The demon hordes will be here within two days. We’ll have to evacuate everyone in Nightingale. We leave at noon today.”
“Problem is, revered druid,” Raven said, “there’s no place we can go. This is the last line of defense. Nightingale is our last stronghold and haven.”
“My dragon and I will be your last line of defense,” Merlin said. “My bonded brother Max will back me up on that task.”
“I’ll stay behind to defend the city, too,” I said.
“No, you must lead your people,” Merlin said. “That’s what you were born to do.” He turned to the Protectors. “Ayanna, princess heir to the greatest kingdom on Earth and your queen, will lead you through the land of the Shades to reach the Upper Realm, with the aid of her fae mate. There’s one last leyline in the Shades.”
Raven’s eyes widened in fear. “The Shades is where the dead dwell. No one, not even me, can go into the land of the dead and come out alive.”
“You have Queen Calamity and her flame,” Merlin said. “And one of the Guardians from the Shades owes me a debt. It’s time for me to collect it. They’ll let my mate and her people pass. Besides, I have a feeling that they’ll take a liking to Ayanna.”
“This had better work, druid,” Ash said coldly. “You mess up again, you’re dead.”
Merlin nodded. “That’s fair.”
The Protectors traded uncertain and worried looks.
“We have no choice,” Jonathan said. “Queen Calamity and her mates are our best bet.” He turned to his son, who stood to the side. “Guy, get our clan ready.”
“Yes, Father,” Guy said and ran out of the Hollow Hall.
The other team leaders followed suit.
“We’d have a better chance with Emperor Cain than with the spirits in the Shades,” Halia said, her pale lips thinning. “I won’t follow this fool’s errand.”
Merlin trained his piercing eyes on her, and she cringed. She seemed to be afraid of Merlin.
“Your aura is dark,” he said. “I don’t know what you did to have that musky shadow, but you aren’t thinking of your people’s best interests. We’ll leave you behind if that’s what you want, but you aren’t allowed to stop the others in your clan from migrating with the rest of us if they choose to put their faith in their new queen.”
Halia pursed her lips, but for the first time she didn’t retort. A cold, calculating light flitted in her eyes as she darted a glance at the corner of the room.
Merlin caught her fleeting attention, turned, and locked his gaze on the black owl perching on a windowsill. The owl flapped his wings and flew out the open window in a rush.
“Strange owl,” Merlin murmured, looking thoughtful.
“Another problem,” said the Protector who was quiet most of the time. “We can’t reach the Shades through the tunnels. At the end of one tunnel, we’ll have to move out to the surface to part of Tartarus, the land of torment, to reach the land of the dead.”
“If the demon’s major force waits there,” Willow admitted, “not many of us will even reach the Shades.”
“Even if you all enter the Shades, good luck with crossing Styx,” Halia said viciously.
CHAPTER 16
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Killian trotted into the Hollow Hall, flashing images of him eating the captain to me.
Too much unwanted information. I pushed my thoughts toward him.
He sent me a tired look, and everyone in the hall gave him a wide berth as he swaggered toward me.
I didn’t sleep well last night, Calamity. My tiger opened his jaw, yawned, and complained further. I had to guard my meal.
The first explosion dropped across the high ceiling of the hall. Thunderous sound rolled above. The windows lined up on the sidewalls shattered, and the hall trembled like in an earthquake.
The Protectors jumped from their seats, their panicked eyes darting around, seeking shelter, yet there was none.
My mates rose, pulling me out of my seat and into their arms. Max shielded me with his wings. Ash tossed out his ice magic, also forming a shield above me. Merlin was checking to see if he could fortify the shield around me.
They instinctively went to protect me and forgot everyone else, including themselves.
“I’m fine,” I shouted over the thunder. “Guard Willow and Raven first.”
“I’ve shielded everyone,” Merlin said.
A trail of white light twirled around the room. That was Merlin’s magic signature.
Ki
llian sprang toward me, roaring and wanting to guard me too. All sleepiness left his eyes.
Calm, boy, I told him.
Small rocks started to drop from the ceiling, but Merlin’s and Ash’s shielding magic prevented the rocks from plummeting onto our heads.
“They’re bombing!” Halia shrieked. “They’re bombing! The demons are here!”
I locked my gaze on the rest of the Protectors. “Get everyone. We’re leaving Nightingale this moment. We can’t wait until noon unless we want to get buried down here.”
Some of them remained frozen.
“Get moving,” Ash hissed.
My mates and I started toward the exit of the hall, and the Protectors woke up from their stupor and rushed after us.
“Bring everyone to the clearing near the hall,” Max instructed. “We leave in groups.”
Merlin turned to Raven. “Lady Prophet, I’m confident that you’re familiar with the route to the Shades?”
“Yes, druid,” Raven said. “Guy and I will be your guides.”
“Queen Calamity, Prince Ash, Prince Sebastian, their companions, including the women they rescued, and the Alpha Pure team will go with you as the first group,” Merlin told Raven. “The rest of the Protectors and their clans will be placed in the middle. Their soldiers shall guard them. Max and I will bring up the rear, and Omega Power will be with us.”
“The Queen should be placed in the safest position in the middle,” Willow said.
“She won’t accept that,” Merlin said. “And without her, your people won’t have a chance to get past the Shades. So she must go first. Her magic is high caliber, and Prince Ash is capable of guarding her. Max and I will be needed to cut off the demons from chasing after you.”
As we moved out of the hall, I saw Guy run toward the clearing, his tribe of hundreds scampering after him. Many of them held torches.
Another explosion went off above. The runners picked up speed.
“First group, to me!” Ash shouted, raising his sword, icy light glinting on the tip of the blade.
