by Meg Xuemei X
I descended the stairs with Kaara.
At the border of my territory, I swept a glance at three vampires’ sagged bodies. The Angel who had vowed to never touch me again had killed them brutally. I turned my gaze on the guards drained by the vampires.
I didn’t remember their names and faces, but they were my subjects whom I’d sworn to protect, yet today I had failed them.
I had been dallying with Gabriel at night, indulging in my carnal pleasure and forgetting the perilous nature of this planet. My negligence had left room for my enemies to break through my defenses.
Wolves howled in the distance.
The wolf king must have led his pack to hunt for vampires and secure the area outside my tower. Kaara looked grieved at the guards’ demise. She blamed herself. Her mate had spent the night. They must have been fucking when this had happened.
If I hadn’t thrown out Gabriel, he wouldn’t have caught the vampires, and more of my guards would be slain.
My foes might even have entered into my tower to try to slit my throat.
I’d assumed I would be safe in my tower, but once again, safety was an illusion.
I hadn’t been safe on my home planet. I wasn’t safe in my shady little empire either.
I wasn’t safe anywhere.
I raised my gaze and met Gabriel’s across the space. Though coldness and hardness coated his dark green eyes, it couldn’t completely repel the lingering heat in their depth.
He still wanted me, even though he’d vowed never to touch me again.
Heat stirred in me, trying to rise, and I let ice course through me.
Gabriel’s intense gaze scorched me as he studied me.
What did he see in me other than the Wickedest Witch who wanted to get fucked at night?
Even if he could open my book, he would see nothing inside.
I was a blank slate—there was no ink on my past. My present flitted by and would soon be forgotten, and my future might be cut short.
I stared into the empty space in search of my ward, which wasn’t visible to others. My eyes narrowed in on the rift where the vampires had breached it. The gap was expanding.
My ward had withstood every attack since I’d taken over the Witch Tower.
I’d used darkness to weave an unseen fence around my territory, but today it’d been torn open.
I moved toward the rift, seeing the dark grime mixing with dirty smoke eating away at my ward. I flicked my wrist, sending a strong wave of darkness toward it, but the grime clung to my darkness and merged with it.
The foul, alien darkness was tricking my darkness and convincing my magic it was kin.
Kinship. Akem regarded me as his kin. And only Akem possessed this darkness. But how could the vampires acquire his power? Unless—
I turned toward Gabriel.
Before I summoned him, he was at my side in an instant. I blinked. He was even faster than the vampires. It would take some getting used to his angelic speed.
“Is this what you’re looking for?” he asked, holding a slender two-inch bottle in his hand. “I took it from the lead leech. He was spraying it into the air when I put him down.”
“You did well, Gabriel,” I said, taking the bottle from him. Our hands touched, and electricity sparked between us.
It was addictive. I wanted more of it.
Gabriel’s eyes brightened amid the backdrop of Akem’s and my darkness.
“Tell me what it is,” he said.
A trail of dark dirt twirled inside the sealed bottle.
“It’s part of Akem’s power,” I said.
Kaara drew a sharp breath. “But Fia, he favors you.”
“He’s changed his mind,” I said drily.
I hadn’t been to his jungle for five days. My markings told me a year ago, when I’d been absent from his jungle for a week, he’d sent his messenger—the flying owl-lizard—to summon me.
This time, he’d offered the Dark Prince a piece of his power to tear down my ward to show his displeasure.
Was he really going to work with the vampires to destroy me, just because he was mad at me for taking Gabriel out of his realm? We’d beaten his acid fog and his creatures and fled the jungle. I’d once done the same, and he’d rewarded me with access to his realm.
What had changed?
Was Akem capable of jealousy?
Did he consider me to be his?
I’d pondered how Prince Desdemona had learned about my memory lapse. Now I knew. Akem had betrayed me. He was the only one who could know.
“We’ll take down this Akem,” Gabriel growled. He must have seen the fleeting dismay and fear on my face. Others couldn’t catch it, but Gabriel missed nothing.
Yet he had no idea who Akem was and what the elemental entity could do.
I turned to Gabriel.
The electric current still coiled between us. It wouldn’t leave me alone. It made me crave him. He was no better. The longing in his eyes was unmistakable. But he’d despised me moments ago when he had left my bed.
“I was hoping you hadn’t killed all three vampires,” I said.
“I saved one for you,” Gabriel said.
He stalked toward the vampire’s body and kicked him in the head. The vampire stirred, opening his eyes, and snarled.
Two of my guards dragged the chains they’d put on him to restrain him, but the vampire yanked at the chains, ready to crush their skulls.
Gabriel moved, but my darkness was faster.
It dashed toward the vampire and bound him.
The vampire struggled against my magic, but it was in vain.
I pressed my boot on his marble-cold chest without care and flashed the bottle in his face.
“Where did you get this?” I asked.
The vampire gave me a chilling, seductive look, and I almost jumped back.
Dark Prince Desdemona had just taken over this vessel, despite the fact that I’d beheaded the other one he’d possessed a week ago.
I had indeed made a very powerful enemy out of him, and he’d formed an alliance with the most formidable force on this planet.
My loss was his gain.
My heart sank at the sense of doom, yet my gaze remained icy and steady in a stare-down with Desdemona.
Kaara kicked the vampire in the ribs. “Answer Lady Fiammetta, motherfucker.”
She was warm around me and prickly and sweet in her mate’s presence. But when facing our enemies, she transformed into a vicious killer. I wondered where she’d come from. Maybe I’d known, but had forgotten.
She was probably the only cultured, sane person on this savage planet. She could come from a noble house, and her sword-fighting skills were impeccable, especially with the aid of her rare, lethal sword.
She was the number one sword-wielder, until the Archangel came.
“Are you truly Lady Fiammetta?” the Dark Prince chuckled softly.
I had to kill him before he could say anything more and expose me, but I needed him to confirm one thing first.
“Names mean nothing,” I said coldly. “But I have a name for you.” I twirled the bottle in my fingers, the grimy darkness trapped inside. “Akem, isn’t it?”
A vicious, gloating light flashed through the vampire’s eyes. I got what I wanted. Akem had indeed turned on me in order to punish me. Desdemona was only sending his scouts to test if Akem’s power could bring down my ward.
He had his insurance now.
He could bring his army to my door at any time.
How could I fend off both the vampire horde and Akem’s creatures when my ward couldn’t hold? My mouth went dry like the desert sand, but I laughed ruthlessly.
“I’m the Wickedest Witch, Desdemona. Do you think I have only one type of magic to ward my realm? Bring your leeches here and try again. Or you can run back to your newly acquired lover. Has Akem shared his secret of impotence with you yet?”
I was bluffing.
Gabriel chuckled, but I hadn’t meant to be funny.
<
br /> The Wickedest Witch didn’t amuse.
“Vampire,” Gabriel asked, “how did you get to this planet? Tell me truthfully, or you can spend a very long night with me and you won’t like it. I know exactly how to treat your species. We experimented on your kind a long time ago.”
The vampire shifted his gaze to Gabriel, his eyes glowing red with icy hatred.
“The Dark Prince won’t care if you torture his vessel,” Kaara said. “This vampire was newly made. He won’t know a thing. His master sent him because he’s disposable.”
“Indeed.” Desdemona laughed chillingly. “If your subjects knew what I know, Wicked Witch, they wouldn’t follow you. Well, well, I see the killing light in your eyes.” His voice went deeper and richer and silkier. “That actually turns me on, Lady Fiammetta, or whatever you like to call yourself.”
My back stiffened. At the same time, I felt both Gabriel and Kaara tensing beside me.
Gabriel didn’t like the Dark Prince’s threatening and flirtatious tone.
“If you kill my vessel now to stop me from spilling your dark secret,” Desdemona said, “you’ll only prove—”
My blood iced over.
If I didn’t kill him, he would reveal my most-guarded secret, and my army would abandon me. Or worse, they would take advantage of my amnesia and prey on me. But if I killed him now, it only proved he was right.
The Dark Prince had planted doubts and uncertainty in my subjects’ minds.
And Desdemona would always come back to taunt me as I attempted to put out the fires.
Soon, I would have no one left to defend me on Pandemonium and I would have to fend off all fiends alone. All I had built for three years in order to survive and find a way home would collapse.
Even Gabriel would laugh at me. I’d denied him. I’d humiliated him. And he wanted his revenge. How could he find a better chance than this?
And Kaara—the only one I could trust—wouldn’t trust me and guard me anymore.
I stared at the vampire prince through his vessel’s eyes, waiting for the inevitable disaster to happen. My hands didn’t shake but they were so cold.
“You can’t even remember your own—” Desdemona said.
A blade plunged into his heart, and at the same time, another angelblade slashed his throat. The first sword belonged to Gabriel, and the second was Kaara’s.
The red glow faded from the vampire’s obsidian eyes. I wondered if Desdemona had felt a piercing pain when Gabriel impaled the vessel on his sword.
I stood very still and held my breath, my darkness caressing me, offering comfort.
The two had known, yet they’d chosen to protect my secrets.
Kaara Nightshades had known them all along.
Kaara spat on the vampire as she pulled out the angelblade dripping with his black blood. She turned to the guards. “This is the result of disrespecting Lady Fiammetta!”
The guards stepped back in shock and nodded.
Gabriel chuckled as if he found this to be amusing, then drew out his long sword. He wiped the blood clean on the vampire’s red cloak and sheathed it behind his back.
I cleared my throat, and everyone stood to attention.
“Stay on full alert while I find a way to patch up the ward,” I said, and headed for my tower without looking at either Gabriel or Kaara.
30
The Angel
For the next two days, Fiammetta shut herself in her chamber, avoiding everyone. Only Kaara was allowed to see her and bring her food and water.
I thought of going to her at night, holding a small hope that she had forgotten about our quarrel, but my male pride stopped me. I’d never begged a female to receive me, and I wasn’t going to start now, no matter how badly I wanted to see her, no matter how much her absence pained me.
Occasionally, Kaara would feed me news about Fiammetta, as if pitying me, or teasing me. The wolf alpha stayed with her all the time to protect her. Sometimes he was in his gray wolf form. We’d all gotten used to the wolves running around here.
Marrok and I tried not to get in each other’s way, and I kept myself busy with leading the patrols. I didn’t sleep much since I had to keep watching during the night.
I decided to visit Fiammetta the third night, not to fuck her—though I thought of fucking her all the time—but to talk to her.
I craved the sight of her.
Then Fiammetta came out of the tower.
As usual, her presence punched my gut, and my blood immediately heated.
I walked her to the perimeter. I would walk her anywhere she wanted to go. She wouldn’t be able to get rid of me. With the vampires planning for the war against her, I wouldn’t let her out of my sight.
Fiammetta, however, never glanced at me once or said a word to me, though she was conversing with others. Which meant she had found a way to remind herself of our fight and still held a grudge. I suspected that was what her magical glyphs were for.
I often cut in and answered for others, or dismissed others except for Kaara, to force Fiammetta to face me and speak to me directly.
She answered my questions with a clipped tone and then stormed off to inspect her ward. She’d been pushing her darkness along the boundaries of her territory, but her darkness didn’t settle. She also tried to deploy her ice magic to mend the rift, but it remained open.
Somehow I could see her ward now, while others couldn’t.
Failing at every try, Fiammetta paced around the breached ward, growing anxious.
The guards kept their distance and were glad I took the task of accompanying the Wicked Witch when she was testy. They didn’t like the prospect of being thrown into the air by her ice storm when she was in a foul mood.
“It’ll be fine, Fia,” I said. “We’ll hold.”
“Of course we’ll hold.” She swept her icy gaze over me. “But did I require you to comfort me?” She paused and hissed more. “Never call me Fia again, Angel!”
“Suit yourself, witch!” I barked back.
The Wicked Witch and niceness were oil and water.
Despite her menace, I still wanted her.
The air crackled with electricity, thickened by our desire for each other.
Only Fiammetta grew better at ignoring it.
31
The Witch
My darkness and ice couldn’t keep Akem’s foul power at bay. To beat him, I would need fire to burn though his darkness.
But how could an ice witch find a living flame?
If I didn’t fix the ward before the vampire horde came, they would butcher my army and me. Akem’s creatures would invade my Witch Tower and create carnage.
Why hadn’t they come? What were they waiting for?
A foreboding feeling gnawed my insides. Their delay only meant they were preparing something worse for me than killing me, which needed a more careful, calculated move.
I returned to my chamber. I paced. And I slumped into a chair with my face in my hands.
I was doomed. I’d also doomed everyone I’d thought I could protect.
By first light tomorrow, if I couldn’t get a new ward back up, I would dismiss my army.
I would ask Kaara to take them to the wolves’ compound. They would survive with the wolves. Kaara’s mate had urged her to leave with him.
She refused to abandon me.
I could no longer shield her or anyone. I’d thought it was best for her to stay in my tower, so when I found the portal, I could take her with me. I’d promised her I wouldn’t leave her behind.
But I’d failed her and everyone else.
They did not need to go down with me. And with the formidable Angel warrior joining the wolves, they would live another day, then another day.
As for me, I alone would wait for the vampires and Akem’s creatures to come. They could kill me, but I would never let them capture me. Before I went down, I would destroy as many as I could before I slit my own throat with my ice spear.
My end was coming, as wa
s my torment.
What a shame that I had to go down before I could have my vengeance on my mortal enemies who had cast me out here.
One needed to admit defeat when it was inevitable.
Something seared my eyelids and I raised my face from my hands.
The imprint of “the Wickedest Witch in the universe” on my finger rose, circling my hand in a ring of crimson flame, before it sank back onto my skin.
Fire! My enemies must have used the fire magic to brand me. But why didn’t the flame burn me? Or maybe it couldn’t?
A spark ignited in my mind, like fire catching a twig in the wind. But before I could reach the fire and grasp it, the ember turned to ash.
What had I lost other than my memories?
The core of my very essence—the magic that defined me.
Realization hammered into my heart. Ice, storm, and darkness were all parts of my magic. They’d risen and preserved my life when I had first landed on Pandemonium, but none of them marked who I truly was.
I was something more.
My core magic that had been etched in my soul had been missing, but I couldn’t remember what it was, because I didn’t know who I was.
Only at this moment when my existence was greatly threatened had it crawled to the surface to reach me. It was calling me, but I couldn’t hear it.
I’d felt it while it had called me from light years away. It was powerful beyond measure. I was named the Wickedest Witch in the universe because of it—not due to my wicked nature.
Only with that missing magic could I build an unbreakable ward. And with it, I had a chance to go against both Akem and Desdemona.
Without retaining that missing piece of me, I wouldn’t find my way back to myself. And I would never find a way home to seek justice and revenge and a new life.
Come to me. I conjured, coaxed, begged, and threatened.
It tried to reach me through time and space.
It was in the present, but I was in the past.
The Archangel had discovered and revealed this time and space dilemma.
