by Meg Xuemei X
The Dark Lord of All Angels had endless energy, considering the powers he’d stolen and robbed for eons. Yet the black hole was greedier and mightier than even the conqueror of the universe.
His red waves thinned and wavered; the powers he’d taken from my mates and me bounced back to us in glee.
“What have you done to me, you conniving little bitch?” The Dark Lord cursed for the first time, no longer laughing in vile delight as he realized what had just happened.
“You figure it out, Atlas.” I smirked. “You think my dear father, the God of Death, would really betray his only daughter? And don’t you know that the God of War has always had a soft spot for me? They’re battling the dragons for me in the Draconis Galaxy, as I asked.”
Dark confusion and rage twisted Atlas’s face. “They tricked me! And you cheated! You implanted the poison of death in me while you misled me into believing that I’d gotten you. You even let me drink the vastness of your power, and in the meantime, you set a trap to ensnare me!”
“Yes, yes, you’re so clever that you solved the big puzzle.” I waved a hand impatiently since my firstborn was stuck in my narrow passage. I had forgotten to push all the way since it wasn’t exactly easy to battle the evil lord and give birth to a demigod at the same time.
“You even used your darkness as an illusion to deceive the most powerful Lord of All Angels!” He continued to accuse me.
Didn’t they all love to slander my good name? But at least this being didn’t call me a foul-mouthed, immature brat like those uncreative weasels had.
“My bad,” I said. “But have you heard a saying from an earthling: ‘All warfare is based on deception’?”
He spat while struggling in the net of my dark mass.
“That’s rude, Sváva,” I said. “I’ve been trying very hard to be a good hostess, but you obviously don’t understand Earth culture.” I sighed. “Why did I even bother to have an intelligent conversation with you?” Especially when he wouldn’t roll over but kept sending his Red Plague inward to purge my death flame and dark mass.
It was too late for this sucker. I’d trapped him right where I wanted him to be—the unending loop of life and death. It was like I’d let him bite his serpent’s tail forever inside the revolving doors made of dark mercury. He’d never get out.
Next, I started sorting out the powers he’d taken by means of murder and slaughter. I gave some good energy to Earth, kept some cool powers for myself, and sent others to my mates and kids as unwrapped gifts.
The harder the Dark Lord fought to break free, the faster his powers went into the black hole, and I was kind enough to inform him of that.
“Let me go,” he pleaded, his voice like desert sand rubbing on smooth glass. “I vow that I’ll never come back to Earth.”
Hadn’t the Olympian gods promised the same?
So, I quoted again from an old movie that Amber had made me watch, since she said it was a classic, even though I was actually more into action and disaster movies. “‘Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, you have to walk into mine.’ So, no, Atlas, I can’t set you free. Especially after you scared and almost murdered my quadruplets. You forced them to be born a month before their due time, so now they’re very angry at you.”
“You’re a monster, Cassandra Saélihn!” The Dark Lord bellowed. “You’re the most deceptive, despicable, vicious being I’ve ever met!” Foam bubbled out of his thin mouth as he started experiencing the agony of his atoms being torn apart. “When I meet Hades and Ares again, I’ll kill them with my bare hands for sending me to the worst predator in the universe.”
“You do not want to badmouth my wife in front of my soon-to-be-born children!” Lorcan snarled as he thrust the flaming sword that he had borrowed from Reys into the evil being’s heart.
The Dark Lord of All Angels shrieked, which didn’t stop my Alaric from cleaving his left wing. Then Pyrder severed his right wing in a single sweep with a roar of satisfaction.
I had no mercy, either.
Anyone who ever threatened my kids would suffer the worst fate at my hands.
My death, dragon, and earth flames weaved with my infinite darkness, and I struck the Dark Lord with a final, brutal blow, stripping him of his time-travelling ability and ripping away his siphoning power. He’d never be able to devour anyone again.
He wailed and screamed and cursed, but my dark cocoon wrapped him tightly in its unbreakable net.
“You made a costly mistake when you came to hunt me, asshole,” I said. “Every action has consequences. Scum like you won’t even get a vacation from the phantom zone where I sent the Olympian gods. You’ll spend eternity in the black hole, and you’ll never escape. You’ll pray for the worms to eat your flesh, but not even they want you. So, you motherfucker, who’s the biggest badass in the universe?”
Alaric chuckled in wicked delight. He demanded Lorcan and Pyrder keep watch over the evil lord and hurried to my side to help Reys deliver our babies, despite my other two mates desperately wanting to join me and hold me in their arms.
“You’re the biggest ass, Cass baby,” Reys said, then over my glare, he amended, his voice full of love and adoration, “The biggest badass, I mean. Now give us one last push! You can do it.”
“I have to send away the scumdirt first,” I panted between labored breaths. “I don’t want our babies to see his fucking face on my Earth when we welcome them into this world.” I flicked my wrist. “Off you go.” And I flung the Dark Lord of All Angels, the conqueror, and the leader of the Sváva race toward the event horizon and watched the black hole swallow him mercilessly. Then I sealed the portal.
“Push!” All of my mates now surrounded me, urging me to push and push harder.
I roared and pushed with all I had, but if I heard one more call of “push,” I’d hit someone.
“I’m a goddess,” I said, breathing hard. “I should not have this pain!”
“You’re also a woman, Cass baby,” said Pyrder, stroking my back to ease my suffering.
I turned to glare at him and howled in anguish again.
“You know better than to rile up mate while she’s in the middle of labor, panther!” Alaric chided.
Pyrder leaned in to kiss the crown of my wild hair. “Sorry, Cass baby. It’s all my fault.”
“Breathe and push again, dulcis!” Lorcan said, grasping my hands between his. I stared hard at him, and he said adoringly, “I love you.”
My grip tightened on his fingers as another wave of pain rolled through me. Then, suddenly, I felt a weight leave my body, and light filled me.
Chapter Five
A baby’s cry was the most beautiful melody in the world; no sound could ever compete with that.
My firstborn son, Knox, made his entrance into the world. He soon stopped crying and wiggled in Lorcan’s large hands as Reys passed the baby on to his bonded brother, ready for the birth of our second child.
Knox flung his arms out, and weak lightning shot out of him toward where the Dark Lord had disappeared, where only a pair of his black wings left behind. My son had been so eager to come out of his haven to defend me.
“Ass—hoe!” he declared, his tiny mouth quivering.
All of my mates stared at our firstborn in stunned silence, and I was even more shocked than them that the first precious word coming out of my son’s mouth was a curse, because he’d felt so threatened by the enemy while he was in my womb.
Lorcan growled at Alaric. “Who dared teach him to curse? That’s our son’s first word!”
Knox blinked. He had Alaric’s honey-brown eyes. He whimpered at the reprimand, then pursed his lips before bursting into hearty cries.
Alaric stared daggers at Lorcan. “Now you made our son cry.”
Lorcan pulled Knox to his broad chest. “Son, we’re not mad at you. You’re the most precious thing! I was angry at your other dad. But for your sake, I’ll let him off the hook this time.”
I had no idea if our s
on could understand that many words and all their meanings, but he stopped crying and grabbed a lock of Lorcan’s hair between his tiny, strong fingers.
“That’s right, boy,” Alaric cooed. “You can yank it as hard as you want. You can shoot lightning at the vampire, too. He won’t mind.”
“Alaric!” I warned, and he grinned at me, leaning over and kissing my nose with gratitude.
“You gave us a good, healthy son, wife,” he said. “We’ll all be good parents, I promise.”
A new wave of pain dragged me back to the matter at hand. My labor wasn’t over. I had three more babies to deliver.
Another loud cry announced the entry of Silas. Pyrder took him and wrapped him with a velvet cloak. “We got you, my son,” he said, kissing our son’s forehead. “You’re safe. Your mommy and your siblings are all safe. Daddies are here for you.”
“Daddas bad?” Silas inquired in my fae mate’s arms, and Pyrder grinned with pride, his blue eyes sparkling as he gazed down at Silas’s turquoise ones that were a shade lighter than his, exactly like his twin’s.
“Yes, son,” Pyrder confirmed, pretending to understand the baby language. “The bad guy is gone. He’ll never come back to hurt you.”
“Focker!” Silas waved his tiny fists and uttered his second word, which was equivalent to “fucker.”
Alaric’s eyes glinted with amusement, and I covered my face with a hand.
We’d have to teach our kids the correct vocabulary, but this discipline shit was going to be tough to enact on them since they weren’t ordinary children. And I already foresaw how they’d wrap their dads around their little fingers. It’d be my responsibility to stand firm when it came to our children’s education.
I swept my gaze from my firstborn son to my second, and such incredible love and warmth and happiness bloomed in my chest that I could find no power greater than that.
My sons were certainly the most beautiful things I’d ever seen.
Then Nathaniel, our third son, came into the ice world. He screamed at the top of his lungs, and I knew why. He had wrestled with his brothers inside my womb for the right to be the firstborn, yet he came out third.
I held him as I watched his wrinkled face turn red from his crying efforts. He refused to open his eyes until I pulled him to my breast. As soon as he found my nipple, he flashed open his blue eyes and suckled my nipple greedily. The baby no longer cried but made cooing sounds instead.
“Fuck, he takes after my twin,” Reys grunted. “He’s obsessed with mate’s breasts!”
Pyrder glanced between Silas and Nathaniel, wearing a silly, sexy smirk.
“Push one last time for our last baby, sweetheart,” Alaric urged. He moved behind me and let me lean my back against his solid, warm chest, ramming his demigod strength and power into me.
Adrenaline buzzed through me.
I pushed.
And we welcomed our baby girl into the ice world of the North Pole.
Instead of crying like all of her brothers, Eva clasped her tiny hands and giggled. Then she opened her mouth and showed us her vampire fangs.
Reys blinked, Alaric chuckled, and Lorcan looked astonished, happy tears glinting in his silver-gray eyes. The High Lord of Night was no longer the only one of his kind. He now had a daughter who was exactly like him.
“Lay her on my other side, please,” I whispered.
Reys put my daughter gently yet carefully against my chest while Nathaniel still sucked my nipple, cooing with satisfaction. My fae mate would immediately pull Eva off me if she ever sank her fangs into my skin. I wouldn’t mind, though. I would give my kids anything, just as I’d do anything for their dads.
Eva only patted my sweat, tear-stained face with her palms and called, “Momma?”
The whole world burned brightly at the word, and I smiled at our little girl. “Yes, my baby girl, mommy’s here.”
Now all of our boys snapped their heads to me, crying for Momma, stretching their hands toward me.
Tears brimmed in my mates’ eyes, all of different shades and colors. Then they laughed with such great joy and happiness that my heart ached and rejoiced again.
We’d won the day. We now had three boys and one girl safe in our arms, and my baby girl was going to grow into a badass vampire demigoddess.
“Threat eliminated,” Lorcan announced. “Let’s go home and get mate and the babies something to eat.”
I beamed. “Yes! I’m famished.”
“And a hot bath will be in order,” Pyrder said.
Reys scooped me up while Alaric gently pulled Nathaniel from my breast.
“Wait,” I called.
“We’re done here, dulcis,” Lorcan said, using his velvety, seductive voice. “We need to get you and the babies home where we can care for you properly.”
Even though our babies were strong demigods and demigoddess, my mates were still reluctant to expose them to the harsh climate in this land of sea ice in the North Pole.
“You bring the babies through the portal first,” I said. “I just need to make a quick call to prevent a certain Seer from the Death Valley Galaxy from coming to Earth. It’ll only take a second.”
I pulled the tail of the radiating light that connected Cinda and me, and the next nanosecond I caught up with her while she rode some kind of tempest in the wormhole.
She blinked at me.
“Turn back, oracle chick,” I told her.
“What happened, Cass? I saw the vision change.”
“My awesome mates and I blasted the old creep’s stinky ass to the event horizon,” I said. “Tell your friends who are on Atlas’s shit list that they don’t need to look over their shoulders anymore.”
“But—”
“Yeah, I know.” I waved a hand. “More evil will rise, but that’s a worry for another day. Anyway, seer chick, I just want to give you a heads-up, since you’re friendly, but Earth isn’t accepting any alien guests before my kids grow up. Our hands are already full with them, and we don’t need extra distractions.”
“But I’m already on my way to you!”
“You’ll adapt,” I said. “And I want you to spread the word—there’s no cake on Earth for any ET.”
“You’re narrow-minded!”
“Maybe,” I said. “My land, my fucking rules.”
I sealed the path and the portal.
A blink again, and I was in Reys’s arms, my hands clasped behind his neck.
He kissed my lips with passion.
“Stop fooling around,” Alaric barked. “Let’s get wife and kids home!”
Reys carried me, with me holding Eva, while Pyrder carried Silas, Lorcan carried Knox, and Alaric carried Nathaniel. Our big family stepped through the shimmer, summoned by Alaric’s golden ring, and into our manor at the edge of Sihde and Sydney.
While the busy nightlife of downtown Sydney had just begun, the fairyland was all sunny and lush.
I sighed in bliss.
Home, sweet home.
“I’m thinking of taking the kids to pick some strawberries in the fairy forest,” I said. “Maybe we can even have a picnic.”
“Anything you want, love,” said my mates.
“Only after I check my bank accounts and see if the mortals got the interest right,” I said, beaming at my mates and babies.
- The end -
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Turn the page for a teaser from Half-Blood Academy 1: Magic Trials
MAGIC TRIALS
The demigods can't decide if they want to screw me or kill me.
My name is Marigold. I'm a hunter living in the Great Merge--Lucifer has brought Hell to half of Earth, and four demigods rule the other half.
The smo
king-hot Demigod of War rounded up my team to enroll them in Half-blood Academy, aka Half-death Academy, due to the survival rate of the students.
When he sees me, he wants no one else but me. So he offers to spare my team if I go in their place. Problem is, no human outside the bloodline of the gods can survive the magic trials. The demigod insists I'm anything but human, and he's willing to risk my life to find out what I'm made of.
I'm not the weakest link, even though all the bullies in the Academy mock me. I'm nothing anyone has ever seen before, and when my forbidden power awakens, the demigods will regret they ever tried to make me their bitch.
Magic Trials is the first book in the Half-Blood Academy series with a badass heroine,four deadly, striking demigods, heart-pounding action blended with super steamy love scenes, and great romance.
SNEAK PEEK OF MAGIC TRIALS
My breath caught when I spotted the most stunning view through glass doors that led to a spacious balcony. A pair of massive, black wings spread to their glorious, full length, soaking in twilight.
As they slowly, lazily folded and then vanished, I found myself staring at the bare torso of a giant male who perched on a chair custom-made to accommodate his wings. Taut muscles rippled across his bulging arms and beautiful back as he ran a hand over the thick mane of his dark hair.
I hadn’t met anyone more mesmerizing than this specimen, even though I hadn’t yet seen his face. Unable to resist my need to take a quick peek, I snuck up to him.
At my first step, he wheeled toward me.
His gaze fell on me, so intense it froze me where I stood.
A swirl of dark stars came alive, brightening in his sapphire eyes.
“You came back,” he said, his voice deep, silky, and rich, wrapping me with its potent seduction. I could orgasm just by listening to him talk a little longer. “I’ve been waiting for you.”
