by Meg Xuemei X
All chains fell off her.
She could no longer be contained.
She wanted to destroy. She wanted to burn everything in her path, until the universe was nothing but ash.
She breathed fire. Freedom!
My bones kept stretching to their limits, agony shattering my every cell. Yet it was less painful than what I felt when the God of Death tore my beloved Reys from me, spearing his flesh and chaining him.
I let pain take me over.
I breathed in pain and fire.
I had shifted. I’d adapted my fae mates’ shifting ability. I’d finally let the fiery beast out.
The shimmer from Alaric’s ring was gone.
Atop the cliff, where a dark expanse of ocean crashed against the ancient rocks, perched a dragon.
Cassandra Saélihn was no more. I was no more.
In my stead, a dragon goddess spread her scaled wings and roared fire into the black sky, for her lost mate.
A Court of Earth and Aether
War of the Gods Book 4
A Court of Earth and Aether
Cass Saélihn is the weapon, the hybrid born to kill the Olympian gods.
Only the price is her own life.
One dies so millions can live. So her mates will live.
But Cass can't just abandon them, can she? She's just found them--a home she'd never imagined she could have. So when Death offers her a way out if she plays one of his sick games, she can't refuse. If she plays it right, she might just rise from ash and ember.
And her loyal warrior-mates will be with her in life, or death. Even when she has to become the Darkness that devours the worlds. Even when she's lost to herself.
She's not lost to them.
So, she'll play the final deadly game, and when Cass unleashes her true, powerful self, the immortal gods will burn in her flames.
PROLOGUE
Alaric, King of the Hybrids
All fucked up.
First, the fucking idiot Hephaestus had to pick the third Gate of Hell as the location to forge the Blade of Five Elements, claiming the blade must be made in the boiling lava at the Hell Gate, which was the entrance to the death god’s backyard.
Then fucking Hades showed up.
We battled his army of demons and wraiths in the stifling volcano cave and suffered heavy casualties. We would mourn our fallen later. My bonded brothers nodded in unspoken agreement, as we were all battle-hardened in the long, miserable march of time before our mate came on the scene and brought life, light, and joy into our existence.
Our mate had just started experiencing war. She hadn’t learned how to block the damaging emotions of grief. She could deal with brutality, as she’d been raised in a cage and tortured by the gods, but she couldn’t handle loss.
We’d lost many warriors, and that was just the beginning.
When she saw Reysalor, her mate and our brother, chained and dragged to Hell, she lost her shit.
She turned into the meanest she-dragon.
For a long second, my bonded brothers just stared at the massive dragon in a stunned stupor.
On top of the cliff, Cass Saélihn swung her beautiful, vast wings, fire sparking on her peacock-blue scales, and all the warriors—including us, her mates—had to leap back as fast as we could, giving her a wide berth.
She raised her head, roared, and spewed fire toward the endless black sky in an inconsolable rage.
Our mate didn’t know how to cope with the heartache of losing her mate and the warriors who had become her friends.
The warriors had fallen, but Reysalor wasn’t dead yet.
We needed to help her overcome her sorrow. We must comfort our mate. She was our passion, our reason to breathe.
We needed to conjure her back to us, to shift her back to her Cass form.
“Dulcis?” Lorcan called in concern.
I glared at him, for his voice wasn’t velvet or soothing enough. The vampire still had much to learn about how to romance a female.
Cass snapped her large head toward him, baring her fangs.
Fuck, they were huge.
Yet, she was still the most beautiful and fiercest thing I’d ever seen, even in her dragon form.
Fire emitted from her scaled snout. Perhaps I’d let the vampire have a taste of her fire first, for he’d startled our mate and set her on edge.
“Sweetheart,” I tried, taking care to keep my voice gentle and enticing.
She turned to me, yet she was unmoved by the seductive smile I put on only for her.
Half-madness glinted in her two-toned dragon eyes—the left violet and the right golden like liquid living fire.
Fuck, we were losing her. And the longer she stayed in her beast form, the harder it would be to conjure her back. Pyrder and Lorcan traded a panicked, dismayed glance, sharing the same dread I tried to keep at bay.
The she-dragon roared into the dark sky one more time and flapped her fiery blue wings. An urgent, desperate look in her eyes spelled out her need to go seek out her one lost mate.
Raw, brutal fear punched my gut.
If she took off now, she might not return.
She might not find a way back.
We couldn’t lose her—our sun, our moon, and our universe.
I’d do anything to stop her from departure.
CHAPTER 1
A storm raged in me, so dark and violent that nothing else existed. I welcomed it. When the gale swept over me again, I would know no pain. I hadn’t learned how to survive the agony of losing a mate. I never wanted to learn, either.
I had lost many friends and brave warriors that I’d come to treasure.
Reys sat chained in Hell, where I couldn’t reach him. I had no strength left to go to him.
How I hated my weakness.
So, let the black storm rage.
Let its dark mass claim me, claim my flesh and soul. And let Cass Saélihn be no more and carry no grief.
The icy wind swirled in the emptiness, then erupted into fire.
A spark of an ember emerged from the center of the terrifying storm, expanding and stretching to distant galaxies to find its source.
The pain only increased, tearing into my flesh and soul.
I screamed as my bones stretched and rearranged.
I roared. It was a dragon’s roar, her powerful lungs pumping out a stream of fire.
I became a fucking dragon.
I breathed in fire—red, blue, and black—which came from my three heritages. But who was I exactly?
My memory shifted.
A veil formed in my mind. On one side, a sea of fire and smoke hovered over a blazing land. On the other side, it was but hazy colors and shapes in the endless mists.
“Cass baby…sweetheart…dulcis…”
The urgent calling and noises bothered me. I glanced down and noticed a group of immortals surrounding me atop a cliff, with a black ocean crashing onto the base of the ancient rocks.
The immortals appeared to be warriors, their swords in the grip of their bloody hands.
I snarled. Was it my blood on their blades? How dare these puny creatures try to attack me! I’d toast them to charred meat and devour them for lunch.
Not lunch. Dinner. It was dinner time.
But I couldn’t remember what I’d had for lunch, or if I’d had lunch.
I was famished.
I gave myself a quick once-over before I trained my hungry gaze on the immortals again.
I wasn’t wounded. The blood on their blades wasn’t mine. It smelt foul, like the blood of enemies.
Were the warriors allied with me?
If it were so, then why did they encircle me? Three of them seemed more brazen than the others as they approached me carefully. They didn’t hold any weapons this time, yet I wouldn’t trust them. Old wisdom said that men were treacherous and couldn’t be trusted.
Did they plan to hunt me? Had they lured me here?
My genetic memory flashed through the old tales of dragon sla
yers and their fabricated glory.
I opened my jaw, ready to devour them if they got any closer or grew aggressive. A trail of fire twirled on my snout. I longed for some appetizers.
“Throw down your fucking weapons!” an immortal with rich auburn hair shouted. “Do not let Cass see you as a threat. She might not know you at the moment.”
The warriors all around me tossed away their swords at once, sharp clanging ricocheting off the cold, rocky ground. They raised hands in the air to show they were unarmed and slowly backed away from me.
That was more like it.
They were fucking smart.
The one who had barked the order had called me Cass. I kind of liked the name.
My gaze trained on him, meeting his honey-brown eyes under his perfect dark eyebrows. Just one look and I knew he was the most ruthless, dangerous male walking the Earth. Yet he held no menace or challenge toward me even though I sensed the wealth of power vibrating inside him. He leashed it tightly.
Something clicked. Damn, he was a demigod.
His eyes never left me. There was strong love in them, layered beneath pain and grief. Why was he in pain? What had happened to him? And the love for me? I blinked. Maybe he thought I was his pet? If that were true, then he was making the biggest fucking mistake of his life. I was a huge, fearsome dragon, never a pet. I gave my magnificent body another quick, appreciative glance before I turned to study this interesting specimen.
Somehow this demigod intrigued me.
Maybe it was his lips, which were sensual and menacing and sweet at the same time. He was quite the contradiction. How would it feel to have those lips—
Where did I get that absurd thought?
He inched closer, his plum-colored scarf stirring in the wind. This male liked to dress well and did so with style. My gaze dipped lower to take in his broad shoulders, then his powerful, muscled legs encased in slacks. Menacingly hot, baby!
And an image of him pounding with vehemence between the thighs of a woman who had tri-colored hair and two-toned eyes broke through the veil in my mind before it vanished as quickly as it had appeared.
I suddenly felt liquid fire swirling in my belly. I wanted to fuck this demigod.
I blinked an eye. I was a dragon. I wasn’t supposed to bang him. I was supposed to eat him. Chew on his bones.
I licked the sharp edge of my fangs. I didn’t think I’d had lunch. My belly was empty.
I didn’t like for my belly to be empty.
I also didn’t like my body’s reaction toward my food, so I hissed at the demigod, a ring of fire puffing out toward him in warning.
“Dulcis,” another deep, cultured male voice called.
My head snapped to the newcomer. I was so distracted by the dashing demigod that I hadn’t paid attention to this stealthy one, who had sneaked up to me from the other side. And now he stood only a couple of yards away from me.
A lock of his medium-length dark hair fell into his storm-gray eyes which shone with intelligence, warmth, and worry.
The rigid wind sent his scent of pine and fine wine toward me. It was familiar, as if the scent was in my blood.
With another sniff, I recognized him as an ancient vampire, a natural-born one. The blood coursing in his veins wasn’t as cold as the turned vampires.
How did I know that?
He carried sunlight in his blood. And fire. But fire was supposed to burn a vampire, not nurture him. The fire felt like mine.
Did he steal my dragon fire?
I must teach this thief a lesson.
He reached me in one stride, swift beyond logic. His long trench coat flapped in the wind.
“Dulcis,” the vampire cooed in the ancient tongue. “My sun, my fire, and my light.”
I blew a stream of fire at him. He didn’t duck, and the fire rushed by his marble-pale face, a picture of masculine beauty, and didn’t scorch his skin.
His large, powerful hand reached my face, not to strike me for my attempt to burn him, but to caress me, as if I was precious to him.
It was surprisingly pleasurable, so I gave up the thought of biting his hand. And I purred at the sensation.
That was it. They must all have mistaken me as their dragon pet.
I’d wait to see what benefits I could get from pretending to be their pet for a little while before I showed them my fangs and scorched them with my hot fire again.
“Cass baby?” The third brave immortal sidled up to my other side, opposite the demigod.
I turned to study him.
The other warriors had given me a wide berth, and I could smell uncertainty and apprehension in them, but these three didn’t fear me at all.
This third immortal’s gorgeous turquoise eyes held mine, full of love, pain, and sorrow.
My heart suddenly ached. A memory of another set of turquoise eyes like his, only a shade lighter, flashed before my scaled eyelids. Then his masculine scent of autumn rain mixed with forest sun wrapped around me. It was also similar to another beloved scent.
The scent of a mate that was fading from my memory.
Longing pumped into my soul.
That was why I’d ended up on this cliff under the dark, starless sky.
But how had I gotten here?
I’d lost my mate. Yet I couldn’t remember his name now, as if it was on the other side of the veil, amid the mist.
I needed to break the barrier to go to the other side, but I didn’t know how.
What had happened to my lost mate?
I greedily breathed in the scent of the male who carried my lost mate’s scent. I wanted this male as well.
But I had my own mate already, even though I couldn’t find him.
How could I be so fickle, treacherous, and unfaithful?
Wasn’t it said that the dragon heart held true and they mated for life?
Why was I drawn to all three males around me? How many did I want? Yes, they were smolderingly sexy, but they weren’t even my kind.
“Sweetheart,” the demigod called, pressing his face against my side.
All three males fought for my attention, and I kind of enjoyed it.
But why did they all call me different names? How many names could a dragon have?
I opened my mouth to demand answers, since I had many questions as to who they were and if they knew anything about my lost mate. They were fetching, handsome males, but I needed to find the one I’d lost. Or had a hostile force taken my mate? If so, the fucker would pay!
My thoughts couldn’t translate to words, couldn’t demand the answers I desired. Only my fire burst from my mouth.
Yet, the fire didn’t harm these three males, as if they were my own.
They didn’t even mind the lingering fire on my snout. Their hands passed through the red flame and stroked me with tenderness, which calmed me, anchored me.
I wasn’t their pet. I was sure now. They didn’t try to control me, chain me, or trap me, either.
I meant something to them.
Fine. I wouldn’t eat them today. But I might not resist the temptation for too long, since I was hungry.
I had better take off to hunt somewhere else, since I wasn’t so sure of myself at the moment with all these sexy immortals around me.
And I wanted to fuck them all before I ate them.
What kind of monster was I?
Well, I was a monster.
My mind had splintered, no longer whole, and it was failing me fast. Only when I got my mate back would my riotous mind quiet and repair itself.
He was far away. Across the expanse of the black ocean. And even further beyond.
I needed to go find him.
The wild, chilly wind called.
The endless sky summoned.
I flapped my wings, turning back to offer the three males a regretful glance, and readied myself to take off.
“No! Cass baby!” the turquoise-eyed immortal cried out. “Stay with us, baby. We’re here. Look at us. We’re still here. We’re he
re with you.”
I wanted to tell him that, pitifully, he wasn’t my mate.
Suddenly, a thread gleamed between him and me, and he yanked it hard, pulling me to him.
Then the other two males did the same.
I had a bond to all three of them. The thread in me led to each of them, but one was missing.
How could it be? What did it mean?
My wings arched into the air, answering the irresistible call of the wind that was a fire song in my veins. I needed to soar into the sky, piercing dark clouds and lightning at the highest altitude and soaking in storms.
After my flight, I would need to find my lair.
“Dulcis, don’t go, please,” the vampire pleaded. Fear coated his gray eyes, so deep and profound it nearly cut into me.
The same panic reflected in the eyes of the other two males.
A slice of light brushed my mind.
The thought that I would take off and forsake them left the immortals terrified.
I truly meant a great deal to them. More than a great deal.
“Your home is here, with us,” the vampire cooed. “And you’re our home. My beloved, we’re all your mates.” He pressed closer and kissed me.
How dare this immortal kiss a dragon!
A stream of fire puffed from my snout, arcing mercilessly toward him, but it only caressed him, pleased with his touch.
My fire would never harm my mate.
“You’re my sun, my fire, and my light.” He said it again. “Come back to us. Come back to your mates.”
His intoxicating male scent and voice conjured a memory of long ago, or maybe not all that long ago.
Another image flashed behind my eyes.
I had been in a cage. I had been in another form that bore a young woman’s shape. And he and a black panther tore off the door of the cage and set me free.
Crystal-like tears sprang to his eyes as he saw a spark of recognition in my own.
He might be my mate. All three males might be my mates. Otherwise, the idea of leaving them wouldn’t leave me feeling quite so gutted.
It was possible I had four mates, though one was gone. That was why I’d turned into a dragon, as my every instinct drove me to go after him and bring him back.
