Berating herself for ogling him when she believed he loved another woman—her friend who lingered near death!—she slapped her hand on his shoulder and held the material of his shirt there as she stuffed the dragon scale into his jeans.
“I got protection.” Angry at her inability to shove jealousy aside, her voice sounded militaristic. She pulled his shirt down over the scale so no one would see it. “I’m finished. You can tighten your belt now. I have a million-dragon army protecting me. How cool is that?”
Nix faced her, frowning as he adjusted his belt. “Scary, but definitely not cool. Now”—he wiggled, resettled the scale—“let’s go after Micah.”
“We’re not going anywhere; you’re going to earth and saving Alessa.”
“Madison!” He tried to get his hands on her, but she sidestepped him. Eyes narrowing, he glared at her. “Don’t you dare try and send me home without you. I’ll never forgive you if you do.”
Sadness threatened to choke her. This was the final time she’d ever be with Nix. If she could love anyone with all her being again, it would be him. It’d taken her five years to realize that fact.
Stepping closer to him, she lifted her hand and laid her palm against his cheek. He placed his hand over hers and kissed her wrist. She shivered at the wispy contact, while his gaze pleaded with her to let him stay and fight. She dragged her thumb across his bottom lip as she remembered the taste and feel of them on her own. Divine.
“When you’re finished healing Alessa, you can rejoin me to go after Micah.” Lie…and she couldn’t remember ever lying to Nix outright.
In Alessa’s embrace, shielded by her love, maybe one day he would be able to forgive her.
“That look in your eyes is saying goodbye, not we’ll fight together soon. Don’t you say goodbye to me, Mads. Don’t you fucking dare!” His voice grew husky as if emotion clogged his throat.
This is goodbye. She would go after Micah and that confrontation would diminish her chance of survival. Facing him wasn’t something she could keep putting off. But she wouldn’t say farewell to Nix either, because she simply couldn’t bring herself to utter those words.
“Kur?”
“Yes?”
“I want him returned to Zennyo Ryuo immediately.”
Nix yanked her against him and crushed his lips to hers. Madison kissed him back, putting all her emotion into the embrace.
“Live long and be happy, Phoenix Birmingham.”
“Mads, don’t! Baby, I—”
“None of that, Casanova.” Kur placed his hand to Nix’s forehead and he went limp in the dragon’s arms. Nix’s over-bright eyes indicated he remained coherent of his surroundings. “The lady wants you safe.”
If Nix’s glare could’ve killed, Kur would have been smoldering ash. The dragon held him with ease by some magic wrapped around Nix’s body, while retribution for the supernatural manhandling glowed from Nix’s eyes.
She could feel Kur’s curiosity, but she ignored him and concentrated on Nix. “Forgive me, Nix.”
Before Nix could attempt to utter a response, Kur zapped him out of Hell in red- and black-laced streaks.
“He’ll be okay?” she asked.
“Physically, he’s already earthbound. I cannot speak for his mental capacity.”
Not an answer, but it’d have to suffice.
Cael indicated Alessa. “What about the woman?”
“Take her. The man Kur just returned to earth can heal her.”
“Stay with them both until they’re out of harm’s way,” Kur instructed, as Cael and an unnamed dragon teleported out in the same red and black.
“You executed the correct choice,” the dragon said.
She blinked at him and gulped back the thick knot in her throat. It wouldn’t dislodge. She would’ve never guessed saying goodbye to Nix would be so difficult.
“The Ark of Heaven did not belong in Hell.”
“You saw that about him? When you touched him?”
“Yes.” Kur tossed his hair out of his face. “I saw many things about him, some matters quite remarkable, others fascinating.” She didn’t ask him to elaborate, even though his half-smirk suggested he might wish she would inquire.
Madison slipped her palm beneath the neck of her shirt and touched the covenant marks. “I release Phoenix Ross Birmingham from his covenant.” The marks held steady. What the hell? “E kaqauja Phoenix Ross Birmingham wkip tej yigalulh,” I release Phoenix Ross Birmingham from his covenant. She reiterated the words in Xapil and still nothing happened.
Panic rattled her bones. She rubbed the puckered marks tagging her flesh. What was she doing wrong?
“You ingested Phoenix’s messianic magic, binding you to him. Am I correct?” At her nod, he went on. “It’s much different than Micah’s seraph because Phoenix’s is Savior-born.”
“Meaning?”
“You’ve released him, but he hasn’t released you. You’re stuck with that covenant until he releases you from it also.”
“What if I don’t make it out of Hell?”
Kur shrugged. “No idea, but my guess is he’s damned along with you.”
Madison rubbed her eyes. “Freaking perfect.”
The dragon chuckled. “We can remedy that by starting with killing a particular King.”
Retribution burned from his expression. Madison’s stomach quivered at the idea. Not in joy as she’d have suspected, but in dread. What a novelty. She didn’t wish to slay her husband.
Chapter Thirty-five
Being birthed from Hell hurt more than Nix expected. He broke through the gates between worlds like a freight train smashing through a fortified concrete wall. Nix collapsed to the soil with moans. Covering his eyes from the sun’s over-bright glare, he rolled across the cool blades of grass as if on fire, hoping it’d tame his sizzling skin.
He’d exited Hell many times with Micah and never experienced this type of reaction.
“You’re okay,” a voice said from beside him. “You’ll acclimate soon.”
Nix didn’t want to acclimate. Not without Mads. Without her, life ceased to have any meaning. It didn’t matter that she’d betrayed him or protected him against his wishes. What did matter was that she remained in Hell alone, to battle an angel without him!
She couldn’t fathom the evil of that angel. Or the things he would do to get what he wanted. The things he would do to her if he got his hands on her. Fair play was never an option because fairness was for losers. In Micah’s opinion anyway.
If she made it out alive, he wasn’t sure what he’d do first. Blister her backside or crush her in a grateful hug.
Cracking his lids just a fraction, he shielded them with a hand. He could make out a couple of cars, a well-manicured lawn, and a forest of trees in every direction. He attempted to rise, but his limbs shook and refused to support his weight. Defeated and humiliated by his weakness, he dropped to the earth. That’s when he noticed the smoke coming off the arm shading his eyes. The type of smoke that radiated from something warm on a bitter day in the dead of winter.
Stop feeling sorry for yourself. Get your ass up off the ground and do something to help Mads.
Nix attempted to rise once more and suffered from the same weakness again. A burn stung the covenant marks on his shoulder. Expelling a painful hiss, he managed to dig his hand beneath his shirt and slap his palm over them. They remained, but something about his deal felt different.
Madison released me from the covenant. I’ll freaking kill her! If that was the case, why hadn’t they disappeared?
He pushed to his knees and the world rotated so violently, he expected to puke as he dropped back down on the cool grass.
“He’s stubborn,” an unidentified dragon said.
“He’s human,” the other dragon, Cael, remarked.
“What’s wrong with me?” Nix forced out between clenched teeth.
“Hell’s released its grip on you, so you’re suffering the withdrawals of its protection.” Cael kne
lt beside him with Alessa in his arms.
“Alessa,” Nix whispered and tried to touch her, but he was too weak to move more than a few centimeters.
“She needs your help. If you’ll allow me to touch you, I’ll adjust your equilibrium so you can assist her.”
“God, yes!”
Cael settled Alessa on the ground and placed his palm over Nix’s forehead, exactly like when Kur emasculated him. Not more than five seconds and his symmetry returned. Nix scrambled to Alessa and cupped the wounds on her neck. She barely breathed and her heart rate suggested imminent death. He focused and channeled his healing magic into her. On a tiny level he noted a house a hundred yards directly in front of him. The door swung open, revealing Zen and Nix’s family.
His family bolted from the house, Georgie calling his name and his uncle outrunning them all. Zen followed with Amos at his side, but at a much slower pace.
Alessa gasped and blinked as she revived.
Nix peered down at her. “Feel all better, Lucky?” She nodded and he pulled her up into his embrace. In her ear, he said, “Mads remains in Hell.”
“Oh, God, Nix, I’m so sorry. What can we do to get her out?”
“Nothing.” Cael offered Alessa his hand as support.
“Who are you?” Alessa ignored Cael’s hand.
“Madison is on her own,” Georgie said as she approached.
Not if Nix could help it. Rolling to his feet, he spoke not a word to his family as he walked twenty yards away to a bare patch in the grass. Using his heel, he dragged a faint outline of an oval shape into the grass and drew a line from one point to the other point. On one side of the half, he etched out Micah’s sigil and was in the process of writing the word “enter” in Xapil when Zen tugged his foot through Micah’s sigil.
“I won’t allow you to return.” The immortal obviously had a fucking death wish!
“You rake through my design again and we’re going to go to blows.”
Zen failed to take his threat seriously because he took out the rest of Nix’s design. “The Ark of Heaven has no place in Hell.”
“Right now I’m not the Ark of Heaven. I won’t leave her alone to face him.”
“This is her fight, Phoenix. Not yours, but hers.”
“You don’t know that motherfucker the way I do, Zen. She doesn’t stand a chance against him, and she has no idea what lengths he’ll go to keep her. I do.” Knowing she faced her nemesis ex-husband alone ripped him apart. “She cannot win this fight alone.”
“She has Kur at her side,” Cael said.
Was that supposed to make him feel better? “A dragon without the least bit of love for her.” He glared at Zen. “Fuck you both, I’m going after her.”
“I won’t allow it.”
Nix gawked at the immortal, mentally sputtering over the man’s highhanded attitude. He couldn’t remember the last time someone had given him an order and he followed through because they outranked him.
“Good luck stopping me, Zenny.”
Nix had half the oval etched out when Zen touched the back of his neck. Something cold shot through his system, numbing his limbs as blackness dimmed his vision.
Fuck…Zenny won this round.
His world went black.
Chapter Thirty-six
“Wait.” Madison halted Kur with a hand on his arm. “I want to see if I can find Micah before we run haphazardly through Hell seeking him.” Muscles flexed beneath her grip, and she snatched her hand away. “You’re freezing.” He was so cold her hands burned as if frostbitten.
“My blood runs cold, not hot.” His fingers rifled through his blue-black hair. “Our cage is located in the deepest region of Hell where it is so cold it burns. My magic is in fire and ice, and our world glitters with icecaps in sunlight. You should visit it sometime.”
She’d pass on the visit.
“I’ve got him.” Freaky how easily she plucked his location through the connection of his sigil. “Will you open a magical portal to him as I concentrate in on him?”
“Yes.”
A beautiful seam of magic exposed a crease from point A to point B. They stepped through the portal.
A bevy of dragons exited various gateways as she and Kur came out of theirs, all engaging in battle immediately with something hellish. One chopped off the head of a zombie with its tail.
“Zombies are like vampires, outside the realm of demonology.” Madison glanced at Kur, unsure why he provided the history lesson. “Good thing you sent Phoenix back because they could have harmed him even though he was under your protection.”
She nodded, digesting the information as she scanned the cavern. Every creature in sight was of non-demonic origin. It seemed Micah had a host of non-demons living inside his domain. She’d hate to read that nasty deal. Certainly Petra knew these details, so why hadn’t she prepared them?
Dragons buzzed around their heads picking off one creature after another. Screams echoed through the room from their painful demise.
She spied Micah and Elias to their right. He must have been waiting for her to notice him because when their eyes locked, he grinned and saluted her. She got the cold feeling he enjoyed their mini-war. But she also surmised he didn’t think her rebellion would last.
“He’s mine.”
Kur tensed beside her. “What should I do?”
“Whatever needs doing, just keep Elias away from me.” She made her first determined step toward Micah.
***
Nix went from out to alert, with no grogginess of wondering what’d happened.
“Feel better, Phoenix?”
“You bastard,” he snarled sitting up on the bed. “You’ve damned her without a care for her. What type of friend are you?”
He glanced about. The hand-crafted, high quality furniture had an intricate scrollwork design etched into the cherry wood. Roses were carved into the four-poster bed and the perfumes and other toiletries on the vanity left him wondering if they’d moved him to Mads’s bedroom. The deep burgundy of the bedspread suggested it could be hers, which prompted a bizarre urge to grab the pillow and breathe in her scent.
“I’m the type of friend that spared her life when her power sank part of California, killing thousands.”
That meant the immortal had some way to kill her while in Hell. Nix bolted off the bed and curled his fists into Zen’s shirt, yanking him closer. “Touch her life and I’ll kill you.”
A one-sided all-wrong grin hit the other man’s face. “Consider me forewarned.”
“I don’t think he can kill her any longer,” Amos said from the doorway and Nix wondered how long the boy had been standing there. “Something about her has changed. I can’t tell what, but I sense it.”
“He didn’t require that information.” Zen extracted himself from Nix’s grip and strode across the room.
Nix’s focus shifted between Zen and Amos, thinking back to what Micah said in the shower. “If I understood Micah correctly, Madison killed Pandora and took over her power.”
The immortal crossed his arms over his chest, his lips drawing into a displeased, straight line. “I wonder if that was Micah’s plan for her all along?”
Zen wasn’t asking his opinion, but spoke his thoughts aloud. “She also”—Nix dragged in a deep breath and said on an expelled breath—“accepted her demon DNA. I think they merged somehow.”
Zen said something in a foreign tongue, rough and sibilant-sounding. He tossed Amos a dark look. “I knew this would go wrong.”
Amos shrugged. A strange reaction for a child who wanted his mother to return. “Sometimes the demon in us isn’t as scary to accept as we might’ve thought.”
“It wasn’t a fate anyone foresaw for her,” Zen countered. “I cannot predict how gaining Pandora’s power will affect her succubus DNA.” Amos said nothing. Zen looked at Nix. “You might want to call in Sherlock reinforcements because my guess is she could go either way. If it goes bad, Hell will reign on earth.”
“I
won’t kill her,” Nix said solemnly. “I’ll help her burn the world to cinders before I harm one hair on her head.”
Amos smiled. Zen glared.
“I won’t give up hope on Mads until I have no other alternative.”
“I have you trapped in the room and your fancy doorways into Hell are locked down. Feel free to try and get out all you like, but you won’t emerge from Madison’s room until I grant you permission.” The immortal walked from the room. Somehow the way he shut the door, a silent click, expressed his volatile mood more effectively than a slam would have.
“What do you see for her, Amos?”
“Zen’s right. Momma’s split between two worlds. I watched her kill Pandora, but she blocked me from any further contact after that.”
Nix expected more emotion from Amos, something showing he wanted Mads to exit Hell. It’d been a year since he’d spent any real time with the kid, so he hoped Amos hid emotions behind a façade of calm.
He walked to Amos. “I love your momma.”
“I know, but so does Daddy.”
A chill skittered down Nix’s spine. “How do you know that?”
“How I always know.” Amos shrugged and grew fascinated with the rug beneath his feet.
Lie. Nix’s radar pinged off the charts.
“Don’t lie to me, Amos.” The boy lifted his head. “Keep secrets, but don’t lie to me.” Amos nodded and Nix went on. “I’ll fight your daddy for her.”
“I don’t know that you’re going to be my daddy anymore, Nix.”
Nix shivered at the prophetic words. Five years ago the child had declared Nix would one day be his daddy. Madison had said Amos’s prophecies were never wrong. To hear otherwise at the darkest moment of Mads’s life nearly panicked him.
Elias launched himself at Kur and a battle ensued. The demon threw balls of magic while the dragon belched a weird mixture of fire and ice crystals. Creatures went up in smoke when the concoction touched them. Only in Hell could she witness such an oddity.
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