by Meg Xuemei X
We crossed the drawbridge without incident and stepped through the iron gate.
Max strode across the courtyard as if he owned it. No guards dared to question him or stop him, and we scurried behind him like frightened captives. The act was easy for Octavia and me, since we’d lived in fear our entire lives, but not for Ash. Instead of a meek courtesan, he looked like a proud peacock ready to try the sharpness of his beak on some demon.
I sighed. No one was perfect.
Our plan had worked so far. The demons were only looking for a silver-haired slave woman. Their emperor hadn’t realized that Max and Ash were my protectors and conspirators, so we had no need to fall into plan B: fighting our way in.
Just as I was marveling that things had gone surprisingly smoothly, thanks to Max’s intimidating looks and manners, two red-winged sentinels rushed toward us from the entrance of a building.
“What’s your business here, Archangel, if I may ask?” one of the sentinels asked. He had three stripes on his armor, which indicated he was a demon lieutenant.
Max lashed out, backhanding him and sending him flying backward. The demon lieutenant collided with a column, and his wing hung limply behind him. That was how a Sváva showed his submissiveness to a higher-ranking officer.
“How dare you question your superior?” Max snarled, his black wings turning steel-hard in menace.
The demon lieutenant’s peer, who had red horns to match the color of his wings, swallowed his questions but stared hard at Ash, Octavia, and me, sizing us up. We were the easy ones to pick on. Some demons in the courtyard leered at us with lust, regarding us as new flesh and waiting for a chance to get their claws on us.
Ash nearly snarled.
“Lead the way to the dungeon where you put the other whores, soldier,” ordered Max, his frightening power permeating the air. “These three are prepared for Commander Azazel.”
The red-horned demon flinched at Max’s power and snapped to attention.
“Yes, sir,” he said, turning away and leading us into the building.
He dared not even ask Max’s name and rank.
We entered the building. The air reeked of sex, fear, and desperation. I swallowed hard. It could have been me being locked in this castle if my father hadn’t come up with a plan to disguise me as a boy.
Some women’s groans of pain reached my sensitive ears.
My shoulders stiffened; nausea knotted my stomach.
Not yet, Blossom, Ash said in my head. We need to get all the women out first.
I nodded and told myself to stay put.
Another red-winged guard flew toward us before we could follow the red-horned demon down the stairs toward the dungeon.
“Sir, uh, I’m sorry,” the guard said to Max and bowed. “It’s not my idea. I’m a messenger, but Captain Travis said he wanted to see the new whores before you take them to their cages.”
The red-horned demon’s eyes twitched, as he expected Max to lose his temper and strike down the dutiful messenger.
Max stared hard at the messenger, his face rigid. Then he barked, “Lead the way. I want to see how this captain of yours operates here!”
He decided not to make a scene and bring attention to us. So far, we’d passed at least fifty guards in the guard posts, the courtyard, and the building.
We’d have to pick the best angle and timing to strike our enemies.
We followed the guards, turning in the opposite direction and climbing the broad stone stairs until we reached a second-floor hall.
An orgy was in full display in front of us.
Several women were pinned to the ground, with demons fucking them from behind. Several more were pushed against the walls while the demons thrust into them. All of the women had bruises on their skin.
On a vast, throne-like chair, a red-winged, red-haired demon yanked a naked woman’s hair with his sharp claws while she gave him a blow job, gagging and looking miserable. That demon must be Captain Travis.
Icy rage coursed in my veins at the rape scene. I wanted to kill them. I wanted to kill all the demons now!
Not yet, Ayanna, Max warned.
The demon captain turned to us, his lewd gaze locking on to me.
Under my glamour, I had raven-black hair instead of silver braids.
Ash balled his fists, and I could see claws protruding from his knuckles. His rage slammed into me. He was one hair away from shifting to his wolf and tearing the throat out of the demon captain. I gave him a look, and the fae prince pulled his shit together the next second.
“I didn’t hear the news of an archangel’s arrival,” murmured Captain Travis.
The two demon guards who had escorted us here shifted uneasily on their feet and sent their boss a subtle warning, but Travis was either too drunk or too arrogant to pay attention.
Or maybe I held him spellbound, for his crimson eyes never left me, roving over my body.
“This one has fire, unlike the others,” the demon drawled. I’d tried my best to appear timid, yet as a powerful demon, he could sense the defiance or magic in me. “I’ll find out soon how long she can keep her spirits high. Lord Elijah and his legion arrive in three days.”
My pounding heart leapt into my throat at his mention of Elijah coming to this location. I’d been trying so hard to push the smoldering-hot archangel out of my mind, yet his image kept haunting me.
Had he gone dark and turned into an archdemon? Would he come to hunt me? He’d once called me mate in the throes of passion. Had he missed me? Longing squeezed my chest, and conflicting emotions wheeled in my mind.
The demon captain now talked to me directly. “After I fuck you, the entire emperor’s army will fuck you and the other dirty whores. That’s your sole purpose of existence.”
Through my mating bond to my mates, I sensed the surging of ice storm and inferno in them at the same time. Yet they held back.
Fear and despair flashed in the women’s eyes at the dire news of a new demon horde’s approach. I couldn’t even imagine what they’d been suffering. A few of them held my gaze, pity in their dreary eyes.
My heart bled for them, yet my rage was greater.
“Come suck my cock, wench.” Travis grinned, showing his serrated demon fangs. “Show me what you got.”
I didn’t move an inch, holding a blank mask in place. We must ride through the show, get the women out first, and then the motherfuckers would pay.
“The two girls are off limits,” Max said icily. “They’re reserved for Commander Azazel. You can try to take them, but your head won’t be connected to your neck for too long.” He pointed at Ash. “However, you can have the dumb blonde.”
Ash grinned at Travis, baring his teeth.
Travis blinked and studied Ash with mild interest.
“She’ll do,” the demon said. “This one is also fiery. The other whores here are like unresponsive corpses.”
“Here’s the thing,” Max said. “The blonde likes to dance and tease before fucking. I’ll leave her to entertain you, Captain.” He turned to the red-horned guard. “Take these two whores to where they belong. I’ll supervise.”
Ash glared at Max, promising violence later.
“Dance now, little whore,” Travis ordered Ash while he dragged the woman’s head down to force her to take his veined demon cock deeper.
The woman’s watery gaze found me, screaming for me to run, and my gaze promised, I’ll come back for you in a second, for all of you. I won’t leave you.
We exited the orgy hall, descended the stairs, walked down a long hallway, made a few turns, and entered a massive open dungeon that hosted over twenty cage-like rooms lining all four walls.
They were twenty or so women in each cage; each one of them had the slave brand on her left temple and bruises on her naked body.
Looking at the women who were stripped of dignity and treated worse than animals, my eyes blazed with fire, and my throat burned with acid.
Through our bond, I could feel icy
rage slamming into me from Max. Sebastian sucked in a breath, anger and pity flowing in his brown eyes. Octavia gasped and fought back tears.
All the women turned their attention to us. They regarded Octavia and me as the newest items. Some of them flashed us pitying looks, but most of them looked numb. Then their gazes fixed on Max, his jet-black wings, and the tiger, and terror and alarm oozed from their every pore.
They must have had a taste of the butcher commander’s brutality and thought Max was the same, or worse.
“The key,” Max ordered the guard harshly.
There were three demon guards in the room. A gray-winged jailor pulled out a ring of keys and swiftly inserted a long key into the keyhole of a cage.
You take care of the other two, Max, I said in his head.
My hands sliding out of the loose bondage, I withdrew Dreamkiss from behind my back, hidden by my glamour, and thrust it into the jailor’s heart through his back.
At the same time, Max cut down the two standing demon guards in a blur of movement. My vampire mate was damn fast. I’d have to train with him when we got to Atlantis.
I sent Killian to guard the door.
Octavia stepped over the demon’s corpse, turned the key, and opened a cage.
The women inside gasped with wide eyes.
Max had taken a key to open a third cage. He’d broken the key ring and distributed some keys to us to speed up the process of opening the rest of the cages.
Octavia threw up a hand to stop the women from rushing to the cage. “Listen,” she said. “We’ll get you out, but you must be quiet and organized.”
A short-haired brunette moved to the front of the next cage. “I’m Amber. We’ll follow your orders. We’ll be quiet and organized. Are you the queen who has finally come for us?”
“No, I’m not her.” Octavia smiled at Amber, who seemed to have more life and spirit than the others. Maybe the hope of the queen coming for them had been sustaining her. “The one who slew the demon guard is the Queen of the Flame that the Prophet said would come. Queen Calamity has come for all of you, to shatter your chains.”
I dropped my glamour, and my silver hair glowed in the dim dungeon. I’d let all of my fellow slaves see my true face and wear my identity proudly.
“Form a line,” I said. “We’re getting you out through a secret passage.”
Instead of forming lines, all the women in the cages dropped to their knees as one.
“Our queen has come for us.” Some of them wept.
“You don’t need to kneel to me, or to anyone,” I said. “You’ll never need to kneel again. Now rise and hurry up.”
The women rose from their wobbly knees.
“Find them clothes,” Max ordered.
“Is someone called Liz here?” I asked, holding my breath. I hoped Lydia’s sister had survived.
A redheaded woman stepped to the front of a cage. She looked a lot like Lydia.
“I’m Liz, my queen,” she said.
“Are you Lydia’s sister?” I asked.
She nodded and looked at me hopefully. “Is my sister also with you, Queen Calamity?”
“Lydia died defending me. She was a worthy warrior and a friend,” I said, tears burning behind my eyelids.
Sorrowful tears streamed down Liz’s soft, beautiful face. “Our ancestors must be so proud,” she said. “I want to join you and defend you, too, Queen Calamity.”
The lines had all formed now. I was impressed at how organized and disciplined these women were. None of them rushed to fight their way out of the cages, which was remarkable, considering the kind of terror they’d endured.
“Has anyone seen this symbol anywhere in this castle?” Octavia asked, brushing her dark hair aside to expose an inked tattoo of a thorned rose on the base of her neck.
“We have,” Amber said. “I saw it in the public bath chamber one floor up.”
“Good,” Octavia said. “That’s the hidden door to a tunnel, our way out.”
All the cages were opened, and the women filed out quietly, one by one.
I clasped hands with Octavia. “Take care of them.”
“We can all get out that way, my queen,” Octavia said, looking concerned. She didn’t want to part with me. I was still her mission and charge, even though I hadn’t gone along with her plan to greet the Prophet.
I shook my head. “The demons will hunt them down, and I won’t allow that to happen. Besides, one of my mates is still in that hall.”
Anxiety churned in me as I thought of Ash alone amid dozens of demon sentinels.
The fae knows how to handle himself, doll, Max said in my head, sensing my worries. But we’ll go to him now.
“Go, lead them,” I told Octavia.
Max assigned Sebastian to assist Octavia and help the women. My brother was torn between defending me and his new love interest.
“I’ll see you soon, Bas,” I assured him, and he patted the crown of my head before rushing to help the women.
Max and I called the tiger to us as we headed upstairs to join Ash.
CHAPTER 19
_____________
Fury still coursed inside me as Max, Killian, and I raced upstairs toward Ash. We cut down every demon in our path.
Ash’s roar reached us, accompanied by the demons’ curses and shrieks of pain.
Shit! Things had gone down in the orgy room, and my fae mate had started the fight without us. Fear clenched my heart. He was alone against dozens of them.
Max and I zoomed toward the room at top speed, and Killian bellowed complaints far behind us.
Our angelblades drawn, Max and I charged into the hall.
Brandishing his broad angelblade, Ash spun like the wild wind, surrounded by hordes of demons. The demon captain was now headless on his chair—the work of my fae mate.
Ash’s ice and wind sent several demons flying back, but they regrouped and charged him.
The naked women pressed themselves against the wall, fear and hatred burning in their eyes. Untrained and weaponless, they couldn’t fight back. While the rest of the demons besieged Ash, two demons were still raping the women.
Max tore through the wall of demons to reach Ash, and I dashed toward the demon who kept thrusting into a pale-eyed woman. He wore armor, and only his ass was exposed. Without much choice, I slammed my palm onto his ass.
I hoped Max and Ash wouldn’t see this. They wouldn’t want me to touch any male’s ass except theirs, even under extreme circumstances.
But I wanted the demon to taste the wrath of my death touch.
I wanted the women to see that one of their torturers, oppressors, and rapists was punished and suffered an agonizing death.
The demon trembled, a scream tearing out of his throat. I kicked him away from his victim. The demon thrashed violently on the floor. He never stopped screaming as his skin turned gray and broke like a clay pot.
His pal stopped raping a petite girl with freckles on her nose and stared at the writhing demon at my feet.
“What the fuck?” he shouted.
I moved like a blur and buried Dreamkiss into his side and twisted up.
He hadn’t seen that coming. He had thought I was just one more human whore.
“What kind of freak are you?” he cursed.
“One of a kind,” I said, shoving my hand toward his face, planning for him to die the same excruciatingly painful death.
The petite girl pulled a dagger from her rapist’s scabbard, which was strapped to his thigh, and stabbed it into his stomach with all of her strength.
“Nice work,” I said to the girl before turning to smirk viciously at the demon, who fell to my feet. His hand clawed at his eyes, where two trails of smoke swirled out. “How do you like my death kiss, asshole?”
Tears streamed down the petite girl’s youthful face. “The queen, our queen,” she whispered, staring at me.
Now all the women looked at me with hope in their eyes.
“Go,” I ordered them softly,
my silver hair glowing. “Go to the dungeon level. Amber and Octavia will get you out.”
“I can help you fight,” the petite girl said.
“You’ll live to fight another day,” I said. “Now, go.”
She nodded and ran out of the hall with the other women while looking back at me over her shoulder.
Two demons came at me, one from each side.
I twirled my blade, ducking and lunging and attacking. I had learned a few fighting tricks from both Ash and Max. Dreamkiss was the extension of my will, my red lightning flashing across the blade and lighting the crimson runes on it.
I dodged under the arm of the first demon, then straightened and swung my blade in an arch, disconnecting his head from his neck.
The other demon widened his eyes. “You’re the arrogant gladiator slave who escaped from the arena,” he accused. “You even dared to disguise yourself as a boy!”
“Yeah, big news,” I drawled and curved Dreamkiss toward his neck. I had a penchant for beheading, and Dreamkiss loved the act even more than I did.
“Guard our mate!” Ash roared.
Max and Ash had connected and broken the demons’ rank, and now they fought toward me.
Just then, reinforcements swarmed into the hall, led by a red-winged Sváva who had an insignia of five bars on his uniform armor, which meant he was higher-ranking than the headless captain but a level lower than the emperor’s commanders. He was probably a major, then.
“Well, well,” the demon major said with a sadistic smile. “In the broad Underworld, where you could go anywhere, you had to come to my castle. Today’s my lucky day and I’ll capture the notorious female slave.”
I charged toward them, crimson runes burning brightly on the edge of my blade. “You probably think you’re charming. Most demons do.”
The demon major widened his eyes at the sight of Dreamkiss.
“Only an archangel can wield a crimson angelblade,” he hissed. “Who are you exactly?”
I had seen Max and Elijah brandish angelblades like mine. They were from the same archangel bloodline. And I was the great-granddaughter of Atlas, once the most powerful being in the universe, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that I could command a powerful weapon made by my fourth mate, a formidable demigod druid.
