Her heart raced. “Can we have this conversation on the other side of the bridge?”
“Of course.”
He moved swiftly to the other side of the bridge, turning to offer his hand. “Is everything okay?”
“Just a little vertigo.”
“As long as you don’t try to stab me with a corkscrew again.”
“Was that supposed to be a joke?”
“I have been known to tell a joke in my twenty-two thousand years.”
“And are they the best jokes the world has ever known?”
He shot her a sharp look. Apparently, her jokes weren’t funny.
When they reached the central platform, Ursula saw a small, black marble table standing in the center, with two chairs on either side. Two silver domed trays lay on the table, along with a bottle of chilled champagne and glasses. Bael gestured for her to sit.
She pulled off her cloak, wrapping it over the back of her chair. Bael’s eyes slowly slid up and down her body, and he took a deep breath.
She sat across from Bael. His gaze locked on hers. “The clothing you wear distracts me.”
A blush warmed her chest. “Is that a bad thing?”
“No. Yes. It’s hard for me to think straight when I can see your skin through your dresses. Or when I see you standing naked in the portal room. Or that corset—”
“Is this why you asked me to dinner? To lecture me about nudity?”
“No.”
“I thought you were supposed to be a legendary lover, not a major prude.”
A smile curled his lips. “Is that what you’ve heard?”
Blushing, she drummed her fingernails on the tablecloth. “That’s what the lords’ wives say.”
Suddenly serious, he frowned. “But you understand that we’re not lovers, nor will we ever be. One of us will die soon, and I could never be with a hound of Emerazel in that way.”
Angry heat warmed her cheeks. Well, now I feel like a total idiot. “Of course I know that. That’s not what I meant. And anyway, I’d never want to be with a...an ancient shadow warrior...” she spluttered. She was pretty sure her cheeks were a fetching shade of crimson right now.
“Of course.”
“Are we going to eat?” Avoiding eye contact, she pulled the dome off her tray. She wasn’t sure what had just happened, but it stung like hell.
Neatly arranged on a plate lay a roast chicken and a watercress salad. Most awkward non-date in the history of non-dates. Why had he asked her here?
I’ll just eat in silence. She picked up her knife and fork, cutting into the chicken.
Bael pulled the dome off his tray, and steam curled into the air. “The next trial is a race. You will need training.”
“I’ll be fine. I’m good at running.”
“We won’t be running. We’ll be riding bats. You will need to learn how to fly one.”
“Great. And you’re going to train me?”
“Yes.”
She swallowed a bite of her salad. “Why, exactly, are you so eager to help a hound of Emerazel?”
“I told Nyxobas I would protect you.”
“That was before he threw me into the melee,” she pointed out.
He took a deep breath. “I don’t know why I want to help you.” He frowned. “I suppose it’s an unfair disadvantage that you’re not native to the Shadow Realm. Like I said, you deserve a fair chance.”
She cut into her chicken. “So you’re just big on fairness?”
His gaze roamed down her body, then up again. “If someone is offering you help to save your life, you’d do best not to question it.”
“Fair enough.” She sipped her champagne. “I’d just like to note your inconsistencies.”
“Noted.”
“Is that all you wanted to talk to me about? I mean, that and how we’re not going to be lovers?” Whoops. That sounded bitter.
“I wanted to talk to you about Cera,” he said.
Oh. So that’s why I’m here. “You already told me. The oneiroi are not my friends.” She obviously wasn’t going to change his mind. No point in arguing.
“It’s more than that.” He reached into his pocket, pulling out the obsidian knife. “This weapon. It could have cost Cera her life if anyone had learned where it had come from. Her desire to protect you puts her in danger.”
Guilt pressed on her chest. “I hadn’t thought of that.” She frowned. “Really though, if you’d given me the katana before the melee, it wouldn’t have been an issue.”
His jaw tightened. “That was a last-minute decision.”
She swallowed a bite of chicken. “So a part of you thought, ‘maybe I’ll just kill the hound.’”
His eyes pierced her. “A part of me thought a quick death at my hands would serve you best.”
“What made you change your mind?”
He shrugged. “What if I’d been wrong? What if you’re stronger than I’d thought? I don’t know you. You don’t even know you. You deserved a chance.” He speared his chicken.
She took a swig of her champagne. “Thank you for the chance.”
Her mind flooded again with a vision of the gore-strewn crater. Anger simmered, and the sting of Bael’s rejection only worsened her mood. “I just—I don’t understand this world. It’s savage. Nyxobas is savage. He’ll kill an oneiroi just for having a rock-knife. He forces his subjects to slaughter each other to prove themselves. Father and son hate each other. No one is actually happy here.”
Dark magic whorled off his body, angrily slashing the air. “As if your goddess is any better.”
Ursula slammed a hand on the table. “How many times do I have to tell you? She is not my goddess. I don’t remember what F.U. did.”
“That’s right.” His voice dripped with sarcasm. “She’s F.U.’s goddess.”
“Exactly.”
“And F.U. was perfectly innocent, I’m sure. A pure follower of Emerazel, who knew how to wield a sword like the most savage assassin. Who Nyxobas has chosen as his champion. Who can’t seem to control her fire, and who felt the need to wipe her memories clean to wash away the horror of what she’d done. A coward’s way out.”
His words slid through her bones, and an image of a burning house rose in her mind. What had she done? “You don’t know that F.U. was a monster.”
His powerful magic slashed the air around him. “When you threw the dagger at Nyxobas, what exactly was going through your head?”
She shook her head. I don’t want to get into that.
Bael leaned in closer, his eyes piercing. “I can see that you’re hiding something. Tell me what you were thinking?”
Tears moistened her eyes. She swallowed hard. “The voice said, kill the king.”
He leaned back. “And yet, you’re not a savage at all. Not like the shadow demons.”
“I don’t know where the voice came from.”
“Easy to be blameless when you have no memories though, isn’t it? When you divorce yourself so thoroughly from your former life that you think of yourself as two people. You’re not a killer... F.U. is. How convenient for you.”
“It’s a little hard for me to defend these accusations when I have no memory. Forget the katana. This isn’t a fair fight.”
“Don’t you get it, Ursula?” Venom laced his voice. “Having no memory is a blessing. Stop feeling sorry for yourself and count yourself lucky.”
She gripped her knife, tears stinging her eyes. “And what did you do, Bael, to end up here in this wasteland below your manor?” She gestured at the empty cavern. “What guilt eats at you, that you’ve created your own little void? No messy emotions. No one close, no one to hurt you. Pretty safe here, among the mushrooms and the rocks, isn’t it? Tell me, Bael. When was the last time you loved anyone but yourself?”
His eyes shaded to a deep black. “That is none of your concern, hound.”
“The lords’ wives told me you were an amazing lover. But it doesn’t seem you kept any women around for long. No wo
nder you adore Nyxobas. You’re just like him. Lost in the void. Talk about a coward’s way out.”
She stood, her legs shaking, and crossed back to the stone bridge. As she crossed, she peered over at the sheer drop into darkness.
And the darkness called to her.
Chapter 26
Ursula stopped when she reached the atrium. When she’d come through here with Bael, the candles in the sconces had been lit, and sunlight had streamed through the hole in the wall. Now, darkness shrouded the entire space, as if it were night. The hair rose on the back of her neck. Something was wrong.
“Cera?” she called out, her voice echoing off the ceiling.
Maybe I’d do best not to call attention to myself.
She edged back to the tunnel, and then a cloaked figure stepped from the shadows. A cold chill struck her like a slap in the face.
“Ursula,” he cooed. Abrax’s voice was unmistakable. A soft rasp, simultaneously terrifying and hypnotic. “I was hoping I might run into you.”
He pushed back his hood, revealing his perfect porcelain skin and glacial gray eyes. Black magic twisted around him. Not angry and savage like Bael’s, but cautious—almost tentative. Little tendrils that searched the darkness, probing for answers. One snaked by her throat, cold as a corpse’s fingers.
He stepped toward her and she shrunk back toward the tunnel. That was her only chance of escape, even if it meant a humiliating retreat to Bael after their argument.
But Abrax wasn’t a demon she could fight. He wasn’t even a demon. He was a demigod. And without Emerazel’s magic flowing in her veins, she didn’t stand a chance.
If she let him get too close, he’d lure her in with his seductive spell. He’d drain her soul and send it to Nyxobas’s void. She took another step back toward the tunnel. A few more steps and she’d be within the relative safety of its walls.
“Ursula,” he purred. “Don’t be afraid. I’m not here to hurt you.”
You must think I’m a total mug.
Just as she began to turn, Bael appeared in a blur of night magic. “What are you doing in my manor, incubus?”
“Oh, did I interrupt something? A lover’s quarrel?” Abrax smirked, his magic retreating. “You know that Nyxobas strictly forbids liaisons between hounds and his demons. But, of course, I’ll overlook it. I am sympathetic to perverted urges, secret passions... a bit of unnatural fornication between the godlike and the beasts.”
Ursula gagged. Did he just say unnatural fornication?
Bael’s eyes burned with black fury. “What are you doing here?”
“I wanted to congratulate you two on your performance in the melee. Fighting side by side as you did. It was like watching a ballet performed by trained serpents.”
“That’s not why you’re here,” said Bael, his voice cold as ice.
Abrax flashed a brilliant, white smile. Everything about him was repulsive—apart from how he looked. “Correct. I wish to parley.”
From what Ursula knew, “parley” was some kind of medieval English way of saying, “I’m going to talk a lot and then screw you over.”
Abrax took a step closer to the pair. “You saw how well Massu performed today.”
From the shadows behind Abrax, a pair of oneiroi stepped into the light. Ursula hadn’t even noticed them before—truly, the oneiroi were creatures of shadow.
They stood to Abrax’s right—one tall and one short. An iron muzzle covered the shorter man’s mouth, and when he lifted his face to the light, she recognized Massu’s eyes.
The larger oneiroi held an iron chain leashed around Massu’s neck. Massu glared at Ursula and started for her, but the other oneiroi yanked him back.
“I brought him along to say hello,” said Abrax.
Massu growled, jerking at his chain like an enraged pit bull.
“I hope you understand that I will win the tournament with Massu as my champion.” He glared at Bael. “Do you still have your wife’s portrait hanging in that room? I hope you’ll leave it up. I’d like to gaze at her face while I fuck my courtesans in your manor. Sorry, my manor.”
Bael’s magic whipped the air around him. She could feel the fury rolling off his body. He was exercising all of his strength not to rip Abrax’s head right off his body.
On a balcony two levels above, a flicker of movement caught her eye. A small figure peered over the rail.
“Massu will not win,” Bael growled. “And when my wings are returned to me, I will take my place as Nyxobas’s Sword once again. You may be his son. But he will never deem you worthy.”
The night magic began to swirl around Abrax again, and the temperature dropped. Ursula’s breath clouded around her head.
Cloaked in shadows, Abrax disappeared—only to appear again directly behind her. With a single, powerful hand, he pinned both of her arms behind her back.
“She’s very interesting, don’t you think?” Slowly, he ran a cold finger along her cheek, sending an icy shiver through her body. “I should have been her guardian. I don’t know what she is. Not a normal human. Not a normal demon. She repulses and attracts me at the same time, and that is an intoxicating combination.”
With her arms pinned behind her back, she struggled to free herself. Abrax’s grip was ironclad.
Slowly, Bael stepped closer. “Get away from her, incubus.”
Abrax gripped her by the back of her hair, pulling back her neck. The timbre of his voice changed becoming stronger. “Give her to me, and I will see that you keep your manor.”
“No.” Bael’s razor-sharp voice cut through the air.
“You’ll give up your manor for this dog? What is she to you?”
Snarling, Bael began to charge for Abrax—but a burst of magic from Abrax sent dark filaments of night magic racing across the room, wrapping around Bael’s chest and mouth.
Abrax’s grip on Ursula’s arms was surely crushing her bones. “Abrax,” she spat. “Do you think your daddy will be pleased that you’re assaulting his champion?”
“Shut your filthy mouth, you abomination,” said Abrax. “If I can’t have you, no one will.”
Ursula’s heart skipped a beat. Think, Ursula. Think.
She slid her leg between Abrax’s, and he pressed against her, moaning into her ear. “Have you changed your mind, little dog?” Gritting her teeth, she kicked upward, into his groin.
Abrax grunted, releasing her arms. Then, he pushed her onto the floor.
“Massu. Get your dinner.”
The taller oneiroi ripped the mask off Massu’s face. With a shrill scream, Cera’s brother leapt for her throat. She rolled to the side, and Massu landed softly on the tile, like a cat. She clambered to her feet, as Massu leapt again.
She blocked his attack with her arm. A white-hot jolt of pain seared through her as Massu buried his teeth in her forearm. She screamed.
He clawed at her, pulling her hair, exposing the soft skin of her throat.
“Massu!” Cera’s clear voice pierced the darkness. “Stop this right now, or I will give you a hiding!”
Massu loosened his grip on Ursula’s arm, his silver eyes wide.
“Destroy her,” said Abrax.
Massu’s gaze turned back to Ursula. Hungrily, he licked his teeth. Ursula’s gaze flicked to Bael. Out of the corner of her eye, she glimpsed him slowly working his way out of the bonds. Come on, Bael.
“Massu!” Cera shouted. “What did I tell you? Don’t make me come down there.”
Massu’s head swiveled between Abrax and his sister. His arms trembled with indecision.
Cera called out again. “Massu, you let her go. You are not meant to be the Corrupted.” “What is wrong with you?” Abrax roared. “I gave you a command.”
Massu’s turned back to her, baring his teeth, and she glanced at Bael again. In the shadows, he’d ripped away the filaments.
He roared, a sound of pure masculinity, a primal challenge.
His eyes wild, Massu leapt for Bael’s throat, a blur of black a
nd silver. A ravenous missile bent on the destruction of Bael’s perfect face.
But he never made it that far. A sleek black blade glinted in Bael’s hands, and Ursula watched as Bael plunged it into Massu’s chest.
Cera’s agonized wails echoed off the atrium walls, and bile rose in Ursula’s throat.
Bael lifted his knife to Abrax. “You may be the son of Nyxobas, but I will kill you to protect my manor.”
Night magic gathered around Abrax once again. The inky tendrils waved furiously about his head. “You killed my champion.”
Starlight glistened in Bael’s darkened eyes. “You violated the rules of the tournament.”
Ursula took a step closer to Abrax. “Your father must be pretty cross about that whole army you raised against him. And here you are, breaking his rules again. How does he punish you? I imagine it’s unpleasant.”
Abrax’s eyes blazed like starlight and his jaw dropped, like he’d been slapped in the face. Slowly, he turned and began to stride toward the hole in the wall at the far side of the atrium.
When Abrax reached the gap in the wall, he turned to face them, the tall oneiroi at his side. His gaze slid to Ursula. “When I capture you and force you into submission, the memories of today will only intensify my pleasure.”
A shiver inched up her spine.
Shadows curled around Abrax and his oneiroi, completely enveloping them until they disappeared. Cera’s cries still echoed through the atrium.
Bael turned to her, his face stony. “I must go to Cera. Show me your arm, first.”
She lifted her arm, wincing at the vicious teeth-marks puncturing her skin. Bael let his powerful magic caress her skin, but this time, she took no pleasure in it. Her eyes slid to Massu’s lifeless corpse, and nausea welled in her gut.
She hardly noticed Bael leaving.
She stood alone in the atrium, listening to the sound of Cera’s cries. A deep, gnawing loneliness pressed on her chest.
Suddenly, it hit her. She was going to die here in the Shadow Realm, among a legion of demons who hated her.
Chapter 27
Ursula hurried into her quarters, pulling open her door. Once inside, she shut the it behind her listening for the familiar click of the lock. For the first time in her visit to the Shadow Realm, she actually appreciated the sound.
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