by Meg Xuemei X
As he moved toward me, Prince Seth swung his sword and blocked him. “I’ll handle the princess.”
“With no disrespect, Your Highness,” the pack leader said, “but I have a direct order from the king and the general. My task is to deliver that rat, to toss her at General Victoria’s feet and watch her beg for mercy.”
“Then go get your prize,” Prince Seth said coldly.
Icy air travelled from my head to my toes.
“Go, Rose!” North yelled, about to lunge in front of me.
I would stand to fight with my ally. Besides, his sacrifice wouldn’t spare me from today’s fate.
Victoria’s pack swaggered toward me and North. At the same time, Prince Seth moved.
All set in motion at once.
In a blur, the prince buried his sword in the leading angel’s chest.
My chakram spun in the air, found its target, and took the neck of the next angel. It was no ordinary earthling weapon; it was made in the twilight realm by the purest magic since ancient time. It had been made for me before I’d been born.
The chakram, tainted with blood on its edge now, flew back toward me, and I caught it in the air.
North lunged at the last angel and crossed blades with him.
The last angel widened his eyes, parrying against North, while focusing on his prince. “Your Highness, you—you—”
“How dare you follow me?” Seth asked in a clam, lethal voice. “Did Victoria send you to track me?”
“We dared not trace you, Your Highness,” the angel said. “We’d been following the Mysthian princess. We’ve suspected her for a while.”
“Indeed,” Seth said, a killing light in his eyes.
A panicked look crossed the angel soldier’s face. He shoved North off with a forceful strike and sprang toward the exit.
We couldn’t afford to let him get away. I sent out my chakram again, but the angel blocked it with his broad blade. Before North and I were on him again, the angel fell on his face, wings draping limply behind him on the stairs, a dagger buried in his temple.
Prince Seth stepped forward to retrieve his dagger and wiped the blood on the dead angel’s uniform, his cold, hard eyes glued to the Dragonian leader.
“Seth,” I called, intending to break the tension.
His gaze flickered to me, his expression unreadable, then it returned to North as black lightning sparked on the blue tips of his golden wings.
The High Prince of Angels was like a sky god, beautiful and terrifying.
“If you aren’t going to kill me, Prince Seth,” I said, my mouth so dry it was hard to speak, “then let him go. Please.” And looking into his icy, gorgeous face, I decided to tell him the truth. I didn’t know if this would work, but he had once told me that the best strategy with him was to be candid and straightforward. “North is the leader of the Dragonian rebels,” I added, “and he is my ally. I’ve been scheming with him to bring a joint army to fight your brother and his horde.”
North looked at me as if I’d completely lost my mind, but Seth’s face showed I had piqued his interest, which at least broke part of his glacier makeup.
“You’re the head of my security,” I kept going, “and I’m your responsibility. You’re also bound to your word to keep me safe, and against all odds, you’ve kept me safe.”
He didn’t comment, but he was listening.
“You warned me to stop any foolishness I was planning,” I offered.
He frowned. “I said that. But did you listen?”
A small relief washed over me, at least he was responding.
“You also mocked me, saying that whatever my silly moves were, I wouldn’t succeed,” I said.
“I’ve been right,” he snarled. “Look at the mess you’re in.”
“I’m not afraid of the mess,” I said boldly. “Things will get messier. If you don’t believe that I can be a threat to your mighty angels, why don’t you let me try this once and get it out of my system? You have something you want and need to get out of your system, too, and I’ve never judged you.” I locked onto his dark gaze. Somehow my brutal openness had lessened his sizzling anger. “Give me a chance to fight the king’s army. You have no love for him, either. Please, Seth. I won’t ask you to spare my life, but I’m asking this one chance to fight fair and square.”
“You’ve never fought fair and square,” Seth grunted, “especially when you go up against me.” His gaze shifted to North, instantly becoming the edge of a blade. “Don’t expect me to help you get rid of the angels outside of your shop as well. Let me see your face again, Dragonian, you’re dead.”
“Same to you,” North grated, sending the High Prince of Angels a look of absolute hatred before charging out of the cellar to aid what was left of his team in fighting the remaining angels.
“I have to go help Lexa,” I said, ready to follow North out, but the prince grabbed my waist.
“Your guard will be fine,” he said. “You’re leaving with me.”
He raised a hand and a jet of black lightning smashed onto the half-window above the ground, blowing off the whole wall.
Lexa, I called telepathically.
Princess! I’m so sorry I couldn’t get to you. Lexa answered. We’re battling the last two angel sentinels. The Dragonian leader and his reinforcements have joined us. Two dozen Dragonian fell.
Leave now, I said. Let the Dragonian fight the rest of the angels.
I’m coming for you, she said.
Don’t. You’re now returning to Mysth.
I can’t leave you alone in the angels’ city, she said. I vowed—
I could sense her retreating from the tangle of the battle outside.
I’m not alone, I said. I’m leaving for safety. Do not ever return to Atlantis. Your death there would not aid me one jot. That is my strict order! See you at home.
The prince grabbed me and crushed me to his hard chest. As he flew me through the empty space where the wall and window had been, I saw Lexa charging into the cellar, her blade dripping blood.
“Princess!” she cried, shocked to see Seth taking me into the sky.
Chapter 30
PRINCE SETH
I had her.
She was in my arms, safe and clinging.
When I thought I might have already lost her, panic had gathered in my throat like a cluster of ice spikes. Then the realization hit me: I was no longer the unfeeling angel.
The fey princess had brought deep, negative emotions out of me. Some of the feelings confused and dismayed me.
I hadn’t expected my lust for her would drive me this far down the road.
I needed to solve this thorny issue. I needed to fuck her as soon as possible. Once I got it out of my system, I would go back to being my normal, invincible self.
At the moment, I was comforted and content that she was in my arms, soft, warm, and alive.
Her scent of night sky and jasmine caressed me. It sang a secret song and whispered that she was worth it all.
I’ll be the judge of that. I grunted and held her tighter against my chest, not caring that she was gasping for air. I had no intention of loosening my grip.
My only regret was that I hadn’t bled the Dragonian rebel to cut Rose’s connection to him. But I could always go back there, find him, and finish him off. I’d strike him down just for how he had looked at her. That male lusted after her. No male should have eyed my lamb.
She wouldn’t even have to know when I went to kill the Dragonian.
The princess had thrown me off balance when she’d been brutally honest with me. She’d revealed her alliance with the Dragonian rebels. Just as I’d suspected, she’d schemed against my kind, but I hadn’t thought it would be on such a grand scale, that she’d been assembling a joint army with the Dragonian.
The angels would cut them all like paper.
We had fought armies the numbers of the stars. We had fought a formidable race more powerful than us.
No beings in the universe
had ever crushed the angels.
The princess’s confession had soothed my temper. She then demanded I give her a fair chance to fight my species, as if she was only asking for a peach pie. I hadn’t known if I should have been angrier or amused. But strangely she had gotten through to me.
Part of me was curious to know how much she could achieve and how far she would go. Of course, I had everything under control. I wouldn’t let her go too far, would ensure she was never in danger of losing even a pinkie.
Even a fool could wage a war, but winning it needed more than an army and steel will. What did a nineteen-year-old girl who had lived a sheltered, golden life in the magic realm know about war? It would never be as glorious as she thought. It was beyond gloomy, especially so if the war lasted. She hadn’t even seen a broken body before this day when I had cut Victoria’s angels before her.
Despite her short-sightedness, she’d been open with me for the first time. And because of her first sign of trust, I had rewarded her and let the Dragonian rebel leader live for the day. But I wouldn’t let her get in touch with him again. I had to protect her from all adversaries, including herself.
“Prince,” Rose whispered, shivering in my arms. “Don’t you think we fly a bit too high?”
“I thought you’d appreciate extreme sports,” I said harshly, “considering what you pulled off today. And it isn’t ‘we fly’: I’m doing the labor and you’re just hitching a joy ride.”
She didn’t protest again but clasped her arms around my neck and wrapped her legs tightly around my waist, with the determination to hold on for dear life if I ever decided to drop her.
I liked that she clung to me like this, so I didn’t assure her that I would never let her fall.
Chapter 31
PRINCESS ROSE
The rush of air past our bodies as we hurtled up through the sky knocked the breath from my lungs.
A good scream would have released the tension of my fright, but that would give away Seth’s and my presence to the public of Babylon, and his cloaking would be for nothing. So I bit my lip and stifled the sound.
His speed, faster than a shooting arrow, was too great for me to have any comfort. Yet he kept soaring, regardless of the air turning cooler and thinner.
Fear had me in its grip and panic rose to my throat.
It hadn’t at all helped that I buried my face against his broad, hard chest. My hands clasped tightly around his neck and my legs wrapped around his waist like a clam to prevent him from dropping me, intentionally or not.
I’d seen his rage. I’d seen how effortlessly and emotionlessly he’d disposed his fellow angels.
But after flying with the angel for a while and realizing that he wasn’t going to throw me off to plunge down through the sky—at least if I didn’t provoke him again—I relaxed. As I loosened up, I started appreciating his warm chest, which felt like a safe haven in the high sky. I warned myself that this feeling of security and warmth was but an illusion. I had no business feeling cozy with the prince of my enemies.
The air grew exceedingly chilly at that high altitude, even though Seth enveloped me with his heat waves. At one point I felt his shift of mood. He was no longer the murderous menace he’d been in the Dragonian’s perfume shop.
My face lifted from his torso and my eyes peeked out. The first thing I saw was his glorious golden wings stretching fully against the blue sky. They summoned the wind. They rode the wind. They beat so fast that I could barely see them moving.
Wasn’t that fascinating?
No, you don’t get fascinated with your sworn enemy! My logic snapped at me. My look of wonder dropped, and I gazed down.
There was nothing between my feet and the far ground.
My heart fell to my stomach. I squeezed my eyes shut and my legs gripped tighter around Seth. One muscular arm was around my waist and his other moved to hold my bottom; the gesture calmed me. His hand was large. I could get used to sitting on it.
A strange peace washed over me.
He didn’t intend to send me plummeting to the ground to meet my death. Feeling bolder, I opened my eyes and looked down at Earth again.
The city was patches of flowing blue, brown, and orange.
The mountains at the edge of Babylon were like the small sand dunes that children make at the beach.
I could no longer see the crowd. I didn’t know if Lexa had made for safety. My telepathy couldn’t reach her at this distance, but I chose to believe that she was on the way to Mysth, that she would tell my generals what she had seen in Atlantis and get them into shape for the war.
Earth looked so different when you observed it from the sky.
I started searching for the twilight realm, my beloved kingdom, but the angel’s massive wings blocked my view and half the sky.
Seth kept climbing, and the air became freezing. Even with his heat, I still felt its biting power.
Fear returned. Did he mean to sentence me to death by turning me into an ice statuette? If he held such vicious intentions, then why had he knifed Victoria’s sentinels to protect me and my secret?
He hadn’t said a word since we’d left the shop.
The silence was more unnerving than suspenseful.
“Prince,” I said softly and I could hear my teeth clattering from the chill. “Don’t you think we fly a bit too high?”
I wasn’t trying to be critical. Anything could set him off at the moment, and it was unwise to piss him off while I was in the sky.
“I thought you’d appreciate extreme sports,” he said harshly, “considering what you pulled off today. And it isn’t ‘we fly’: I’m doing the labor and you’re just hitching a joy ride!”
As if I had begged him to take me for the “joy ride” in the freezing sky.
What a self-centered, self-absorbed jerk, who never considered others’ feelings.
But I swallowed my opinion.
“Seth,” I said, shivering. “I’m cold.”
He hesitated for a second, then dropped to a lower altitude.
My stomach turned as he dove speedily.
Would it kill him to slow down a little?
I fought not to scream.
Thank Earth, the angel finally stopped his dramatic descent, and the air no longer felt as frigid as before.
He flew me horizontally, and I thought wistfully only if he could just fly me home. But I couldn’t go home. Even if I slept with the prince right now and he kept his word and took me back to the twilight realm, I would bring war directly to Mysth before my army was ready.
“You can return me to the Spring Hall, Prince,” I said. “And I’ll sneak back to my chamber quietly. No one will ever know.”
“You’re sneaky. I’ll give you that,” he grated. “But you aren’t going to get off so easily.”
“Then what?” I asked, my voice no longer quiet, but it wasn’t harsh either. “What are you going to do to me?”
“You tell me.”
“I don’t play games, Prince.”
“You don’t play games?” he snorted. “You’re the queen of games! You’ve been playing me from the moment I met you. You’ve been trying to undo me ever since the day I saw you on the bridge!”
He continued to list my sins—sending my scent his way to muddy his mind, breaking into his library, breaching his vault, having my courtiers seduce him in order to stall him, setting the nasty bats on him, and using him as a cover to go see my former Dragonian lover.
“In my long existence,” he concluded bitterly, “no other female has ever done even one of those horrible things to me.”
So I was the evil queen? I thought not!
“First, it’s not my fault you’re a sucker for my smell! I’ve tried to use a different soap to not inconvenience you,” I said, getting in the mood to counter his accusations one by one. “And I’ve been doing you huge favors. Instead of telling of your infamous hard-on, I chose to preserve your virtue and reputation. I haven’t told a soul about your unspeakable s
ecret, not even to my lady-in-waiting.
“When you came to watch me bathe, which was very improper, I even let you. I should have informed the king and let him behead you, if I’d known you would have turned out to be such a pain in the butt! Yet I didn’t do it, despite that he would reward me beyond my wildest dreams for giving you up.
“When you came to my private chamber at midnight to impose on me your indecent proposal and then insulted me, I didn’t shout for the guards, as I should have. For your sake, I agreed to your dark scheme and proposal. I even went so far as to touch—to touch your male member to make you feel better, despite your unlawful demand!”
He blinked in confusion and shook his head. “I was the one being wronged, and you’re angrier than I?”
He pulled his wings back, letting the wind sustain them, and hovered in the air. Then he shifted his arm. His large hand palmed between my thighs and his fingers grazed my sex.
My breath hitched. My cheeks flamed furiously.
“As for my courtiers,” I continued, determined not to be distracted, “you didn’t need much seducing.”
“Were you saying I was an easy mark?” he grated.
“Everyone could see that you enjoyed very much having their ample breasts flashing in your stupid face,” I said. “Why didn’t you go ahead? Why didn’t you take them to your luxury penthouse instead of coming after me?”
“Do I hear jealousy?”
“I’m not threatened,” I said. “All you want is a fuck. It doesn’t matter if it’s me or my courtiers who give it to you.”
“It does matter, Princess. I’ve seen all sorts of beauties across all worlds. They don’t mean much to me. But only you—who found some kind of tethering spell somewhere and flung it in my face—can make my cock hard.”
“I didn’t cast a spell on you,” I hissed. “Maybe the universe finally decided to punish you for all the wrongs you did! Anyway, you were in heat when I left you, so you should have been able to enjoy other females with that kind of unholy hard-on. My courtiers are most beautiful and talented in the bedroom. I did you a favor.”
