by Unknown
“Why does he need to distract his father? And from whom?” I asked.
Ephraim darted a curious and wary glance at me. “The prince warned me that you’re cunning. I think you’re trying to gain an edge over me.”
“That’s so not true!” I said indignantly and my face felt hot. “I was trying to offer you information. I was meant to tell you that Prince Seth tossed his lightning bolt at me, but it didn’t hurt me. That was why I was asking you if his bolts hurt!”
Ephraim widened his brown eyes. “No way,” he said. “His lightning is one of his most lethal weapons. Even his lord father wouldn’t risk taking a hit without wearing special armor.”
“It passed through me and knocked out the bit—Victoria,” I said.
“It can’t be,” Ephraim said, pondering. “However—” He regarded me, and then a spark of light flitted in his eyes.
If I hadn’t stepped before the king’s mistress, the voltage would have maimed the bitch badly or even finished her off. I had felt its immense power. Instead of harming me, it had caressed me. It had made me feel lighter than a feather. It had made me want to fly like an angel.
Seth hadn’t known that. He’d thought he’d ended me. I’d heard his horrified scream as he’d rushed toward me. Then I’d known I had been mistaken about him betraying me.
When his lightning had struck and swum inside me, I’d thought of the Sky Power.
I could ask Ephraim about it and try not to let him detect my true intention. He was Seth’s closest friend, so he should have known something. It would be a dangerous subject, but I needed an answer desperately.
The Dragonian oracle had wanted me to search for it. North had passed on the message. “Only when the Earth Magic and Sky Power become one, the flesh will save Earth and all earthborn.”
So I’d need both Earth magic and the Sky Power to neutralize the Forbidden Glory.
My lead guard—female angels’ favorite handsome fey male—had been buying them drinks to get them drunk in order to collect the information about the Sky Power. My other guards had been scouting Atlantis to find it. And my courtiers had been working on the high-ranking angels to obtain the intel.
We hadn’t had any luck, and my time was running short.
Tomorrow I would have one-third of my courtiers to retreat from the enemy’s territory. They had sacrificed enough; they needed to go home. As for the rest of the team, I pled silently, Just hang in there a little longer.
“This is every Mysthian’s war,” Hector had said.
Even for that, it would never wash away the stain in my soul.
If we couldn’t locate the Sky Power, all of their sacrifices would be in vain.
“Ephraim,” I said, dragging the big angel from his own deep thoughts. “I’ve never seen anyone’s power mightier than your high prince’s.” I put on a look of admiration. “Is that what you call Sky Power?”
The angel immediately tensed up, his look darkening in alarm. “Who told you about the Sky Power?” he demanded, a threatening light glinting in his eyes. “Where did you get that term?”
“The wind whispers,” I said casually, carelessly, as the corner of my eyes watched him. “Is it that dangerous, Ephraim?”
“Never speak about it again, Princess Rose,” he warned with a hiss, “if you care for your own and your people’s safety.”
I gave him a haughty look that was usually reserved for Seth. “I’ll ask Prince Seth about it. I don’t see why it’s such a big deal to ask a question.”
“I advise against asking him either, Princess Rose,” he said, getting to his feet, as if I would snare him the next second if he wasn’t quick enough. “Thank you for the lovely tea, but I must get back to my duty.”
He then stood straight outside my suite with a hand resting on the hilt of his long angel blade, eyes staring ahead like a statue.
I gave up on him then. His prince friend’s slander against my good name had worked on this guard.
Cunning? And a temptress?
He was totally a dick!
Yet my mind kept returning to him, to his touch, kiss, and scent.
I hadn’t realized how much I missed the High Prince of All Angels.
~
That very night, despite my frustration at failing to locate the Sky Power and my fear of the gloomy future for my people, I dreamt of flying with Seth.
We flew over a ridge of snow-capped mountains until the prince took me in a dive toward a cliff floating amid clouds. Pure thrill buzzed in my blood.
Then we stood in a lodge encased in a vast natural cave. I padded toward a full window, sunshine pouring on the unending forest across from the cliff. I glanced over my shoulder at Seth, then a cry escaped my lips.
The angel lunged and shoved me against the view window. The side of my face pressed against the cold glass, yet my body was on fire.
Seth lifted my white gown to my waist, pulled the thin line of the bottom of my panties aside, and propelled his hardness into me.
There was no gentleness but savage need as he plunged deep into me with a full, powerful stroke.
I wanted to protest, but a sequence of rapid thrusts muffled my cry. Pleasure crushed into me, breaking me bit by bit, and exploded like the star.
His large hand pinned my wrists over my head; his other hand cupped, squeezed, and remolded the shape of my breast. The angel kept pumping into me with an eon of hunger.
A legion of clouds drifted by. I was afraid the glass would break at any point as Seth pounded between my thighs, moving faster and faster.
His impressive length, like a hard rod, grew even larger inside me.
I moaned his name.
The rhythm of his slamming resonated with my rushing heartbeat as his hard shaft drove in deeply, pulled out, then plunged back in. And deeper.
The window rattled. I would fall through it. If I fell, would he catch me? But I was beyond care. I was already falling and falling, from the stars, from the sun, and from the world as each thrust became more forceful and demanding and wild.
I screamed in joy. I begged him to stop, for I couldn’t take it anymore. And then I begged him to never stop.
The sound of flesh slapping flesh was too erotic and dazzling and incredulous.
His every thrust was raw, nearly violent, yet I needed it all. I wanted all of him.
A sunbeam fell over me. His golden wings encaged me. Yet I felt safe for the first time in a long time. I didn’t want to think of anything beyond his glorious thrust and the simple pleasure it brought. I did not want to think of shame, burden, and fear in the entire world. I wanted only this unbelievably strong angel, and I wanted him to fuck me like this to our entwined eternity.
As if answering me, his wild thrusts became the wind, darkness, stars and a secret from a far galaxy. They swallowed me altogether, and then they shattered to shreds as excruciating pain impaled me before pleasure faded.
The blue fire of the Forbidden Glory stared at my face through the glass, and its twin flaming swords pierced my heart from opposite sides.
Harvest her, Seth commanded the fire as he held one of the flaming blades.
I flashed open my eyes.
My heart crushed against my ribcage; my body burned like it was on fire.
Cold sweat drenched the silky sheet beneath me.
And I knew this: if I didn’t find the Sky Power, the nightmare part of the erotic dream would become real.
PART 3
PRINCESS ROSE
The Earth kings, queens, and their nobles had all arrived in Atlantis, except for my emperor father. He and his court would come only for the wedding ceremony, as the contract indicated.
I wondered why the earthling rulers clocked in so early since the wedding was still a month away, and according to the protocol, the guests were to be received a week before the sacrament.
Excitement, music, and foreign languages filled great Atlantis’ streets. The earth mortals looked awed as they gazed up at the golden tower—the
angel king’s palace seemingly floated in the sky—and forgot completely that it wasn't the angels but the Dragonian who had built the skyscraper.
Angel sentinels patrolled in groups, their coiled wings swishing, their blades sharp and flashy, and their faces tight. All earthlings ducked quickly out of their way.
The angels owned Earth now.
A twinge of regret shot through me.
We Mysthians shouldn’t have shut out the mortal nations. We were all Earth natives. If we had united as one instead of being so divided, the angel horde wouldn’t have devoured us like locusts. And now with the looming war, how was I going to break ages of ice and reach the other nations to gain their alliance?
Look how the conquered people enjoyed themselves—they milled in the great Atlantis, bargained in shops, and laughed in the bars. When night fell, most of them would find parties to go to. They breathed much easier in the angels’ city than I could.
I abandoned the golden tower, no longer interested in watching them. The king’s guards trailed after me to make sure I wouldn’t leave the palace.
The air grew so menacing that it became tangible. My instinct sprang to the forefront, and an uneasy feeling brushed my mind.
Why had all of the wedding guests turned up three weeks early?
Why all of a sudden did Seth turn the cold shoulder toward me? Ephraim had said that the prince tried to avert his lord father’s attention away from…The big angel had swallowed the last word, but I knew he had meant that I was the target.
When I had caught up with the prince, he’d been all steely and glacial. He hadn’t used that nasty façade on me before, but now it was all I got. Overnight, the wind had blown away all of the warmth left in him.
When I tried to strike up polite conversation, he’d been unnecessarily rude. And every time he saw me, he couldn’t run away from me fast enough, as if I were a plague.
So I cursed him profusely and wished him to stumble and break a wing while he ran.
The smoldering heat for me was no longer in his frosty, grey eyes. I dared not stare at his groin to check if his hard-on remained. I couldn’t really see it anyway while he kept his distance and wore his trench coat.
Just when I started warming up to him, the prick started to treat me like dirt.
I trudged back to my chamber in the south wing and called Souline telepathically to prepare tea for me. I’d developed pounding headaches in Atlantis.
When I entered my suite, Femi was waiting. She brought news.
For the two days when I hadn’t seen the high prince, he’d been entertaining his female companions. He even hosted a private party for them, and Victoria was invited.
After Femi left, I threw up. As I flushed away my vomit, I had no pity but cold disgust for myself. I had let the angel make me his plaything. I had let him touch me and felt the wildfire deliciously licking my every inch.
I’d thought this angel was different, but he was just like any of his kind—cruel, self-serving, and heartless. They were the ultimate predators, and he was the worst of them all.
So that was it.
My scent no longer affected him. My hold over him was gone.
Even this second, he was bedding other females and enjoying the benefit I’d brought him. I’d awoken him from his millennia of sexual apathy. I had broken the seal of his curse.
He’d used me and dumped me like a pair of old gloves.
The day we met on the battlefield, I wouldn’t hesitate to cut the angel whore’s fucking head off.
And he wouldn’t blink cutting off mine.
At the realization, bleak fear punctured me. Since the angel prince had no need of me, he would no longer care if I lived or died. In fact, he would get rid of me anytime he felt like it.
His losing interest in me changed everything. He was now my most formidable foe with his three lethal weapons: his blade, lightning, and the Forbidden Glory.
I touched the chakram around my arm.
Had he come, I would have had a chance to introduce him to my magical chakram. We’ll meet him, Princess. I almost heard its vicious purr.
Maybe I should seek him out first and end him in his sleep before he could take me out. Then the idea of slaying him cold-bloodedly sent sharp pain to my stomach, as if I stabbed myself with an ice spear by mistake.
I closed my eyes for a second as despair, panic, and dread sank into me.
Was I ready to kill the prince if I could? The irony was that I might not be able to leave a scratch on him.
I tore my thoughts from the angel prince and ignored the whining of my treacherous body, which insisted on remembering and yearning for his scorching touch.
I had better things to consider.
North and I had decided to blow up the Forbidden Glory first. He knew I hadn’t found the Sky Power, so hitting the Glory was our last desperate and possibly useless resort before I retreated from Atlantis.
My team would work with the Dragonian spies in the king’s palace to wire the bomb in the vault building. The bomb probably wouldn’t even bruise the Forbidden Glory, but we had no alternatives. We had to try everything.
What were we going to do when the bomb went off and the Forbidden Glory stood? The prince would know it was me.
I slumped in the chair and buried my face in my hands.
The prince crushed more than just my feelings when he walked away like this.
I hadn’t realized that while I’d been busy inhaling his intoxicating male scent, losing myself in his heat, he had fractured my walls.
Now I was paying the price.
A tap sounded on the door, and Souline entered with a mug of steaming tea. I sat up straight and offered her a smile.
She looked at me, worry deep in her eyes.
“I’m fine,” I said. “We’ll be fine.” Then I saw her gray hair.
We were immortals. We weren’t supposed to have grey hair like mortals.
And that was like a wakeup call.
I was Rose Jekaterina Faylinn, the future Empress of Mysth, the last defender of the Mysthians. I’d promised to destroy the angels and drive them back to their hole in the other side of the universe.
I would not let my unchecked, pathetic emotion undo me.
Screw the High Prince of All Angels. Screw his fickle lust and icy heart.
I didn’t give a damn that he had tons of female companions and fucked each one of them every night. I hoped he came out of it with some incurable disease.
As I cursed him, my heart still bled.
If I couldn’t get rid of this pain, then I should embrace it and turn it into the fuel to kick the angels’ asses.
I had to find the Sky Power.
After the angels sacked Babylon, I’d summoned the Dragonian spy Vanna one more time to see if North was all right and if he had new information from the oracle. I had sent Vanna away when North and I had talked.
North had insisted that I was the only one who could find the Sky Power. I had wanted to punch him for being foolishly confident. Why would my allies and my people all put such faith in me while I had none for myself and didn’t feel deserving of it?
For days, I had holed up in the angels’ central library. I had snuck into the prince’s library again to search for any clue.
My courtiers hadn’t been able to collect any intel on the Sky Power either.
Maybe we’d all been looking for it in the wrong places.
Could the Sky Power come from the angels since they dominated the sky?
Then a light pulsed in my head.
Seth’s friend Ephraim had flinched when I inquired about the Sky Power. He had warned me off, his voice severe. “Never speak about it again, Princess Rose, if you care for your own and your people’s safety.”
I took a sip of my tea and considered drugging the big angel to make him talk.
I put down the cup and massaged my temples as I kept brooding.
Maybe there never had been any Sky Power.
We were looking
for the reflection of the moon on water.
Then a breeze tickled my mind and I heard a voice. Why have you trusted that specific angel?
I never trusted any specific angel. I rebuked.
You put your safety in his hands, the voice insisted.
I’d been reduced to talking to myself. I sighed. Then I was a fool to trust the oath breaker. But no more.
It’s time to stop deceiving yourself, child. Your feelings for him run deeper than you allow yourself to admit.
Wait! That voice didn’t sound like mine—I would never call myself child—yet I still responded. Lust is but a base need. Feelings come and go. Passion is as capricious.
Not yours and not his, the voice said. The mystery of the creation remains unveiled to the living. A bond forged when two souls first entwine is impossible to severe. When they meet again, no force of the universe or any individual can break them apart. The Sky son and Earth daughter must become one flesh again.
A rush of heat swelled in my chest as white light bloomed in me, the same light that had fought, intertwined, and conversed with the blue flame of the Forbidden Glory.
My breath caught before a whimper could escape. Earth Mother?
She didn’t answer.
Is the great magic in me? I asked.
The white light phased out of me.
Why didn’t your power defend me when my enemies came to take my life? I demanded.
Complete silence.
The incredible warmth in my chest turned cold.
I darted my eyes around the room, my breathing labored. I was all alone.
Had I imagined all this? The voice that had breathed in my mind sounded just like Earth Mother’s when she’d first visited me when I was a little girl. She’d been a glimpse then, a vision, almost like a dream coming to life.
The prophecy was sure that her magic was in me. I shook my head, but then the inscriptions that were etched on the doorframe of the angels’ vault beamed before my eyes.
All who enter shall perish. Except the chosen son and daughter.
I had entered, and I hadn’t perished.
The High Prince of All Angels was the other one who not only could enter, but also could wield the flaming sword.
