by Meg Xuemei X
But none of the demons knew about my true heritage, not even their emperor.
“Capture the girl! She’s the emperor’s prize. I need her alive. And kill the rest of her conspirators,” the major barked.
“But the lord—” A demon pointed at Max.
“He’s no lord.” The demon major spat. “He’s a rogue archangel. He might be powerful, but we have the numbers.”
The demon horde rushed me. If they caught me and presented me to their emperor, the reward would be beyond their wildest dreams.
Max cut in front of me in a defensive stance. The demons would have to get through him to get to me.
“You’ll never touch her, demons,” Max said.
The demons feared Max. They’d seen how the archangel’s power rolled off him, but they’d fight him on the major’s orders. Fallen demon or not, the Sváva was part of a warrior race.
With a thunderous roar, Ash cut a path toward me, his blade hacking at any obstacle in front of him and leaving a trail of bodies and feathers behind. He reached my back and guarded my rear.
Our backs against each other, we lunged, withdrew, and charged again as the demon horde surged toward us in waves.
Our angelblades clanged against theirs, the sharp sound of steel on steel ricocheting off the walls of the hall.
Max fought like a firestorm descending from the heavens, and Ash battled like a storm wind from a glacier. Bodies fell around us, yet the demons kept coming, lunging, and fighting.
My mates kept most of the red-winged demons for themselves and let me handle the lesser gray-winged or white-winged guards.
My overprotective mates.
It wasn’t like I didn’t appreciate their effort, but I’d like them to treat me as an equal. Hadn’t they expressed just that when we were in the middle of mating?
To prove a point, I sought out more skilled demons, which ended with a demon’s angelblade cutting into my side.
I ignored the burning agony exploding in me and aimed Dreamkiss toward the one who wounded me. I scored.
I kicked his corpse away from me.
Sebastian and Killian roared, coming to aide us. Even so, we were still woefully outnumbered.
The stench of sulfur and death permeated the air, making me gag.
“Cover me,” I shouted at Max and Ash, and Max spread his wings to shield me, despite a demon’s blade impaling his left wing.
I threw up my hands, and red lightning blasted out in waves, slamming into the demon horde and electrocuting whoever it hit.
My magic was still erratic, but I got a lucky break again.
The hall rumbled and shook. The demons’ gray, red, and white feathers fell from the air.
“Red plague!” the demon major shouted in shock.
Then the coward spread his wings and flew out of a high window shattered by my red wave.
“We can’t let him get away,” I cried out.
A flock of demons frantically took flight through the entrance, the exit, and the windows and zoomed away into the high sky.
“We can’t get them all, doll. There are too many,” Max said, but he chased them out the window.
CHAPTER 20
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The battle ended, and I wasn’t exactly happy that so many demons got away. I’d wanted to slay them all.
The women, all freed and dressed, gathered in the hall, staring down at the heaps of demon corpses. The floor was slippery with their black blood. Max, Ash, and I had demon blood all over us, and our own blood. Killian ignored everyone, since he was busy eating a horned demon.
Max led us down to the open courtyard to get a breath of slightly less foul air.
Amber and Liz turned out to be healers and insisted on taking care of me. I was on the brink of exhaustion, so I couldn’t be of use healing myself or others right now. A few women offered to help clean my mates’ wounds, but Ash and Max waved them away. They could regenerate fast, like me.
“What do you want me to do with this castle?” I asked the women. “It’s yours now.”
But I knew that the demons would return. Hadn’t the demon captain mentioned that Elijah and his legion would arrive in three days?
“Burn it,” Liz said. “Burn it all to the ground.”
“Burn it!” the petite girl agreed as she brought a pitcher of water for me and my mates.
“Burn it to hell!” the women shouted.
“And we’ll follow you anywhere, our queen,” Amber said.
It wouldn’t be practical for all of them to follow me to the Upper Realm. Our small group had to reach the portal before the demon legion came. But it wasn’t in my heart to leave them behind. I’d have to discuss the logistics later with my mates when we had more energy.
We’d have to vote.
The women dropped to their knees at Amber’s mention of “our queen,” despite the ground being tainted with demon blood.
“Girls,” I said. “What did I say about never kneeling again?”
Some of them laughed and some wept.
“We kneel only to Queen Calamity,” Amber said, and many shouted their agreement.
I sighed. It seemed I was stuck with the title of queen.
“Please rise,” I said. “Get going. I need you to take out some supplies, all that we can carry, before we burn this place down.”
The women cheered. Octavia and Amber effortlessly stepped into their roles and led the woman in carrying out their tasks.
When we had all the supplies we needed—medicine, food, and all the angelblades we took from the demons—we carried them across the drawbridge.
The women had poured gas all over the castle. They retreated to a safe distance, and only my mates and I remained on the bridge.
I turned to look at the women on the desert sand, and they raised their fists, tears streaming down their faces. They’d held on long enough, and now they’d see Desert Belle burn.
I returned my gaze to the castle and threw up my hands. Red lightning from the dregs of my magical well streaked across the air and ignited the fuel.
A vast wall of flame erupted from the stone castle and shot into the overcast sky.
Max, Ash, and I zoomed from the bridge toward the desert like three flashes. A moment later, the castle exploded, a sheet of flame engulfing the entire demon fort.
“You’ve done a good thing for all of them,” Max said. “You made a statement in the Underworld and sent a message by burning down a demon fortress. You’re an immortal queen in your blood, my Ayanna.”
“Every fucking brick and stone was soaked with innocent girls’ tears and blood for centuries,” I said. “This is only the beginning of the fall of the Underworld.”
“We need to get our mate to Atlantis as soon as possible,” Ash said, watching the fire redden half of the sky. “We can no longer delay.”
I bit my lip. “The demon captain said Elijah would lead a legion to hunt us.”
“Elijah is a cold, calculating bastard,” Max said, his fingers holding my chin as he peered into my blazing eyes. “He never does anything without a reason. But whatever he does, he’ll never hurt his own mate.”
What if the Underworld had affected him? It had turned all of the fallen angels into hideous demons. Would that be his fate, too? Ice formed in my bloodstream. I didn’t voice my fear to Max and Ash, afraid that if I did, the nightmare would become reality.
“What then?” I asked defiantly, my aching heart cracking a little. “We leave him behind?”
“He’ll catch up with us,” Ash said. “Worry about nothing, Blossom. We got this.”
Max and Ash had once sworn that they’d get me home even if they didn’t get out of this hell, but I made my own vow: I wouldn’t leave any of them behind.
I tore my gaze from the raging fire to my mates. Adoration, protection, and passion blazed in their eyes. I reached out to grasp each of their large, powerful hands.
“I’ve got you,” I said. “Thank you for coming for me.”
Our mating bond flared, strengthening.
Ash’s and Max’s eyes brightened like starlight, their raw, primal need for me crashing through me, echoing mine.
When lust rampaged through me, hotter than the flames burning the sky, I wondered if I could survive this mating fever.
The Rise of the Underworld
Of Shadows and Fire Book 2
The Rise of the Underworld
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
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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, “that 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
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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?”
