by Meg Xuemei X
And no matter how long it took, we’d bring our people to our new home.
I swallowed my emotion as everyone pointed to the leyline, shouting in excitement and joy, tears brimming in my eyes at the prospect of seeing my mom and dad soon.
Merlin looked grim. He was with his dragoness, some distance away from everyone. He pressed his forehead to her scaled snout, murmuring something to her. He had to say goodbye to his long-time companion now.
I tore my gaze from them, unable to bear watching the heartbreaking farewell scene.
We’d also need the dragoness to transport our people, but it’d be extremely hard for me to ask for her help when she’d be the only one left behind.
No, she wasn’t the only one.
Elijah.
I was leaving him behind again.
My heart bled.
Yet I couldn’t save him. There wasn’t time or opportunity to turn him back into the archangel he’d once been.
Merlin and Max had sealed the path that would allow Elijah and his demon army to follow us. And if Elijah came, he’d hunt us all. He’d slaughter my people.
But how could I abandon my mate?
My tears now tasted bitter in my mouth.
Sensing my turmoil, Max wrapped an arm around my shoulder to keep me steady. Ash licked my chin to show that he was with me. Always.
Right now, I needed to take care of my people first.
And then I’d find a way to come back for Elijah. I vowed that I wouldn’t abandon him to a life of misery. He’d come to Hell for me with my other mates, knowing the peril. He didn’t choose to be turned into a demon.
I collected myself, drawing strength from my mates, and turned to face the crowd.
“Listen, free citizens of the Underworld and Nightingale,” I called.
Everyone stopped talking, and except for my mates, everyone dropped to their knees.
“Our queen, you talk and we listen,” they answered.
I sighed. I’d eventually get rid of this kneeling ritual.
“We leave the Underworld for good today,” I said, letting my voice boom over to reach every one of my people. “We’ll start a new life in Atlantis, which is my kingdom since birth. But first, we need to cross half of the ocean to enter the leyline. My mate Max will fly a few at a time. The dragon will help, too, I think. I want you to remain disciplined and organized and wait for your turn, as you’ve done impressively well during this long journey. Follow your clan leaders—”
The flap of wings shrieked louder than millions of bats. Vast wings of black, red, white, and mixed colors blotted the gloomy sky.
The Sváva army had just caught up with us.
My people cried out in dismay and terror.
When an avalanche of wings settled down, a horde of demons positioned themselves before the sea of Styx, between the glimmering leyline and us.
CHAPTER 22
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“What the fuck is this?” Max roared at Morgan, his obsidian wings whooshing out and turning to steel, ready to attack.
The wolf and the tiger flanked Max, growling at the King of Hell, about to follow Max.
“They’re the demon army that you will have to fight to get to the leyline,” Morgan said casually.
“Did you summon them?” I asked, my voice promising violence as well, my knuckles white on the hilt of Dreamkiss.
“I teleported the entire horde here,” Morgan said. “It took some effort, but it was done. It must be done.”
“You betrayed us,” I said softly and lethally.
“Not exactly,” Morgan said. “Our agreement was to get you here, and the rest is up to you. I did not guarantee safe escort to the Upper Realm. I had to execute the last rule of the Underworld, regretfully. I gave you a free pass across the land of the dead and showed you the leyline to the realm above, despite it being forbidden. Now you’ll have to win the final battle to get what you want. Every living thing is on this shore now. They either leave or die. I do not want the living in my Underworld anymore. You started this, Princess Ayanna, and you’ll finish it.”
As they said, no one escaped Hell.
The King of Hell wanted all of us dead and our souls to be part of his collection. That was his end game. He was trying to achieve that by bringing all of us here to fight to the death. And that would be the final show for him.
I wasn’t even shocked by the betrayal.
Max, Ash, and Killian lunged at Morgan. Max’s blazing sword sliced through the king’s shifting shadow, as did Ash’s and Killian’s claws.
Merlin stayed with his dragoness, oblivious to the demon army and the fight.
I shoved down my fatigue and rage and fear until cold clarity rose and replaced the panic in the center of my chest.
I evaluated our situation, just as I had stood in the emperor’s blood-stained arena.
I regarded the demon horde less than fifty yards away from us. The waves of the black sea formed and lapped at the shore behind them. The fire and light pulsed from the leyline above the sea.
If the demons defeated us, they’d leave through the leyline. The asshole Hell king had said, “The winners take all.”
But I doubted in the end he’d let anyone leave his realm alive.
My people’s horror and despair lashed at me like whips.
They’d believed I was leading them to light, freedom, and a new world dripping with honey, only to see that I led them to their final grave.
“We have only five hundred fighting men,” Sebastian murmured in desperation behind me, his eyes wild and bloodshot. “There’s no way we can defeat a demon army of tens of thousands.”
Many panicked voices echoed my brother’s obvious conclusion.
And we didn’t have magic to aid us anymore. Merlin and I had exhausted our well of powers, and Ash still couldn’t shift since he was bound by magic to stay true to our bargain with the King of Hell, even though the king sold us out in the end.
I tamped down my emotions and studied the demon army.
On the front left of the horde stood Commander Azazel, the butcher of the Underworld, his jagged, sharp red wings spread to full length in intimidating aggression, his broad angelblade still dripping with scarlet blood. His pit-black eyes spelled violence and bloodlust, and his cruel lips screwed into a sneer at our poor state. Even the sight of the dragon didn’t seem to concern him.
His sinister stare was fixed on me, with all his evil plans plain in his pitiless eyes.
On the front right, Elijah played with his flaming angelblade, its tip drawing a circle in the sand. He bore no expression on his face.
Sharp pain knifed my guts.
I’d tried to squash down my feelings, but I failed when facing Elijah now.
Saphyira, the white-winged former angel, stood by his side, holding her angelblade. She’d once served me in the bath chamber of Elijah’s quarters.
The bitch smirked at me.
I ignored her and trained my burning gaze back on Elijah.
He wore a black leather coat. His golden wings that had lost their vibrant color arched behind his shoulders at my scrutiny.
He’d completely transformed into an archdemon in appearance. His golden horns stretched longer than any demon’s, his large claws grabbed his angelblade, and his eyes glowed dark crimson. The long scar from the high ridge of his nose to his upper lip made him look even more menacing.
My heart constricted at what Hell’s dark power had done to him.
Then, for a second, his face morphed back to what he used to look like—the golden archangel. His lethal, masculine beauty had struck me like lightning when I first laid my eyes upon him.
He’d been gentle and rough with me at the same time when we first fucked and claimed each other. He’d dragged my ass to the edge of the counter in the bath chamber and pounded into me with his archangel strength.
Our lust for each other had burned white-hot, drowning out the burden and desperation of the world.
His shaft had
filled me, thrusting into me with such abandon until pleasure and orgasm lit me on fire.
Heat flashed in his eyes as if he, too, had remembered our once-in-a-lifetime mating.
Elijah locked his gaze with mine, his eyes sparkling with dark, cruel delight.
“Hello again, Ayanna,” he whispered, yet I heard every word as clear as crystal. “I told you I’d find you. I always keep my promises.”
Even now, seeing him in his monstrous form, I still wanted him. My lust for him still spread like wildfire through my veins in the most unlikely place—a final battlefield.
I tried to harden my heart toward him, yet the need to be with him and save him from this fate overwhelmed me.
“In fact, Elijah, you haven’t kept your promise,” I said in my smoky, harsh voice.
“And what is that, Ayanna, my little mate?” he asked in a purr, and my name, so intimate and endearing, rolled off his tongue.
His eyes and face remained monstrous.
“How can you hunt down your own mate and her people?” I demanded.
“So you acknowledge me as your mate?” he asked softly yet urgently.
“We share the mating bond,” I said, pulling my sleeve up and showing the dark gold icon on my inner arm. I knew that he could spot the icon even with the distance between us. And I also knew how fast he and the demons were. They could reach us in seconds. That was why Max and the others stayed on high alert while Elijah and I conversed.
We didn’t need to shout at each other to be heard, as we both had superior hearing.
“You have the same icon on your chest,” I said. “No force—no matter how powerful and dark—shall separate true mates.”
He pondered. “You think so, little mate? Then why did you run from me?”
“I told you the reason,” I said.
“Yet I wasn’t convinced,” he said. “I’m giving you a chance to convince me now.”
“Enough sentiment, Lord Elijah,” Azazel, the demon commander, barked. “We have those filthy bugs to squash before we return to the Upper Realm and stomp Earth once again!”
“Do not disturb me again when I’m talking to my woman, Azazel,” Elijah hissed.
“She won’t be your woman,” Azazel said. “She’ll be the prize to—”
Just then, Protector Halia broke through our ranks and dashed toward the demons’ side.
“Halia, what are you doing?” Raven shouted. “Do you want to kill yours—”
“Commander Azazel,” Halia shouted at the top of her lungs. “Emperor Cain struck a deal with me, so you must keep your end of the bargain. He granted me riches and safety for providing information on Calamity and turning the clans against her. I did my job. It was me who set the beacon for you to find Nightingale.”
No wonder the demons found Nightingale that fast and easily. Cold rage rose in me as I thought of the explosions over the city and the many lives lost.
“Stupid old bitch!” Guy hissed.
Go get her, Killian, I told my tiger. Eat her.
Killian lunged after Halia just as two arrows shot out at the same time, piercing Halia’s back. I turned and saw that both Jonathan and Guy had their bows in their hands, their eyes burning with hatred, their strings still vibrating from releasing arrows.
Killian reached the dead Protector in a second and bit her head off with one jerk of his open jaw.
From the demons’ ranks, Azazel shouted, “Kill them all and bring the slave girl to me!”
So this was it—the showdown.
Five hundred of our warriors pitted against tens of thousands of demons.
I raised Dreamkiss before me, the call of war in my blood.
While I was talking to Elijah, Max had ordered Guy to move the women and children to the rear. And now Max, Ash, Sebastian, and I stood in the front row, with the Alpha Pure warriors flanking us.
Omega Power, Octavia, and Amber would be the second defense, then the rest of the fighting men formed a protective line around the women and children.
Merlin strode toward us, not in a hurry at all, and his dragoness hovered in the sky above us, puffing out a trail of fire and smoke.
Elijah roared with laughter and shook his head. “No, Azazel. You won’t touch my mate. No one fucking touches what’s mine.”
“You aren’t the emperor, Lord Elijah,” Azazel said. “Learn your place today.”
“Sváva!” Elijah bellowed. “I promised you that I’d bring you back to our own galaxy. I promised you that we’d leave this Hell. Today is the day. Fight for me and my mate, and you’ll return home. This is your second chance to become an angel again, to shed this monster’s skin that’s coated us since we came to this damned place. Claim our lost glory. But go against me and my mate, and you’ll perish in this alien Hell today. Who’s with me?”
All the Sváva who wore his house insignia of golden wings hovering over a red planet roared, “We’re with you, Lord Elijah!”
“Claim our lost glory!”
“Traitor!!” Azazel yelled at Elijah in disdain and rage, his black angelblade pointing at Elijah.
“I never turned into an archdemon,” Elijah said, his voice like a glacial knife. “I was only pretending and waiting for this day to best protect my one true mate. No Hell can corrupt my love for her and the bond between us.” He gazed at me. “I might not look like the archangel you remembered, but my heart has never changed.”
Tears moistened my eyelids. He’d stayed true to me all this time.
“I’ll tear your golden wings out, Elijah!” Azazel screamed.
“Not before I have your head, demon,” Elijah answered.
The archangel and his soldiers in golden uniforms, who made up a quarter of the entire demon army, tore into Azazel’s army, who wore black-and-red uniforms.
Screams, battle cries, and clashing steel echoed on the shore as the two demon armies collided.
Elijah swung his blade, arcing it toward the demon commander, the butcher of the Underworld.
“Charge!” Max shouted at our men.
“Fight for our freedom!” I roared.
We left a hundred warriors to guard the women and children, while the rest of us sprang toward Azazel’s demon horde with battle cries, our angelblades raised high.
“Cut them down!” Merlin bellowed.
The wolf howled and the tiger roared.
Max and Merlin tore through the ranks of the demons first. I arrived a second later, the wolf and tiger on either side of me. Killian couldn’t kill a demon, but he could pin one down for me to slay and watch my blind spot.
I was a bit worried about both the wolf and the tiger, but then, right in front of my eyes, Ash transformed into his warrior form. His top regained his fae shape while his bottom remained a massive wolf. Since he was still mostly in beast form, he didn’t break the terms set by the King of Hell.
His flaming angelblade appearing in his hand, Ash stood eight-foot-tall and howled, cutting through the demon ranks in front of me and leaving a trail of bodies.
I swung my Dreamkiss left and right, puncturing through demon flesh and impaling them. I tried to conjure up my red lightning or blue flame, so I could kill dozens at a time, but my magic was spent. All I got was a spark here and there. So I infused the trace of red lightning into my blade, electrifying or stabbing each demon one at a time.
Merlin fought beside Elijah. The formidable pair was a sight to watch as they entered the demons’ ranks. The dragoness flew above them, spewing waves of fire at the enemies.
Our warriors fought bravely, and some of them fell. The demons in black-and-red uniforms still outnumbered us three to one.
“To us!” Elijah called to my team. “To me!”
We would have a better chance of survival merging into Elijah’s demon army. His Sváva soldiers had trained for millennia.
I couldn’t keep track of how long we had been fighting. My sword hand was sore and leaden, and there was no more red lightning sparking on the blade. My mates fought arou
nd me, one of them always guarding me.
I was the major target on the battlefield.
I hacked at my enemies, cutting down two more and pushing through my fatigue while all I wanted was to lie down and sleep for a hundred years.
The fire and light from the leyline turned unsteady as the battle raged on, and my heart dropped to my icy stomach. We needed to end the battle soon, or we might just be stuck in the land of the dead for good.
But there was no way the battle would end soon. The enemies were like an endless flow of violent sand.
A peal of thunder roared from the leyline, and the light around the shimmering gap dimmed.
“No, no,” I cried out. “The leyline is going to shut down. Kill them faster!”
The rest of our warriors had also joined the battle.
I kicked a demon in his middle and buried Dreamkiss into his chest while I prayed to all the powers that were willing to listen not to let any force screw up the last door to the Upper Realm.
The fire from the leyline suddenly burned brighter, and the gap opened wider and wider.
For a second, both sides stopped fighting and gawked at the leyline.
Another crack of thunder rolled from outside the leyline, then a vast spaceship bearing the word ‘Atlantis’ on its metal head tore through the gap. The door on the side of the marvelous ship slid open.
“The fae and the Dragonians have come!” Merlin shouted.
So, he’d been summoning them while I thought he was whispering to his dragoness and mourning his parting from his loyal companion. Well, the mourning would come harder once this was over, if we prevailed against the odds.
Standing at the entrance of the ship’s door was a stunningly gorgeous couple who exuded raw, potent power. The male had light brown skin and lush dark hair. He was as tall and broad as my mates. His sculpted armor clasped his muscled shoulders and chest. His amber eyes shone furiously, scanning the battle scene in front of him and searching until they found me.
Thick emotion whirled in his eyes like the storm as we held each other’s gaze.
The woman who leaned against him, fitting him perfectly, was a knockout. Her flaming red hair framed her creamy, heart-shaped face. Her dark blue eyes spat fire. Her gaze found me, too, and she grinned, her fangs appearing.
