Table of Contents
Blurb
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Other Books by Jennifer Blackstream
Preview of UNDER HIS SKIN, a paranormal romance
About the Author
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Copyright
DIVINE SCALES
Blood Prince Series: Book Four
"A mermaid with legs. An angel with a curse. With the weight of magic working against them it will take more than a kiss to balance…the Divine Scales?"
Marcela is a mermaid who takes her duties as a daughter of Triton seriously. Like all of her siblings, she takes her turn with every duty rotation—including saving the lives of sailors when a ship comes under distress. Never has she been distracted from her responsibilities, never has she stopped to dream a little dream for herself. When Prince Patricio, the angelic Prince of Meropis, is sent careening into the stormy sea, Marcela’s world is turned upside-down—literally.
Patricio is an angel beset by a curse. Charged with a god-given duty to bring sinners to justice, his magic-imbued sword sends his victims to the next life with clean souls--and leaves the sinner’s family struck with a glamour that leaves them falling over themselves to thank their loved ones’ executioner. When his interest in piqued by a mermaid that saves his life, he is disgusted to find her affection for him intense, sudden, and blind—a result of his curse, not true attraction. He’s determined to have nothing more to do with her. Until he finds himself saving the mermaid…from drowning.
With glamour following him around like a cloud, it’s difficult for an angel to be sure what’s real. A mermaid with legs and no voice. A hamadryad with a prophecy. A witch with a chip on her shoulder. The world is full of magic and mayhem and for an angel and a mermaid, it will take more than a kiss to balance…the Divine Scales.
Prologue
“It’s a sign of the apocalypse.”
Eurydice peered out at the werewolf prince standing beneath an aging ash tree, his golden yellow eyes glowing in the darkness as they focused on something in the surrounding forest. His bare chest looked like velvet in the moonlight and the breeches covering his lower body were a tip of the hat to modesty, but not much else.
What fresh hell…? Eurydice peered out of a knot in her bark and followed the direction of his scrutiny, mashing her spectral cheek to the wood as she tried to get a glimpse of whatever had prompted the statement from Etienne. Apocalypse? she mused. Not in this century.
Kirill glanced up from where he was sitting a meter or so away with his beloved parchments carefully arranged in organized chaos around him on the grass. Eurydice noted with amusement that he was carrying a small pouch of quills and ink this time as well as fresh parchment. She couldn’t help but feel a warm rush of affection. Someday centuries from now, a man greedy for information and power would be poring over parchments written by her very own vampire prince.
His crystal blue eyes bored into Etienne with the precision of a falcon strike, framed by a fall of white-blond hair. “If you’re talking about the cow that was recently born in Nysa with a valknut symbol tattooed on its side, then you can calm down. My oprichniki have assured me that the farmer drew that tattoo himself after his family had gone to bed and he’d stayed up with the heifer.” He shook his head. “Why humans are always—”
“Oprichniki?” Saamal echoed. “The demon dogs?” He turned from his conversation with Patricio, the angel’s wings framing Saamal’s body and making his grey pants and charcoal tunic stand out in sharp relief against the other prince’s brilliant white feathers. “You have hellhounds spying for you?”
All traces of emotion melted from the vampire’s face until his high cheek bones and firm lips were as smooth as freshly fallen snow. He turned back to Etienne. “Forgive my rudeness, Etienne. I have failed to inquire about the health of your lovely new wife. How is —”
“Oh for the love of Fenris.” Etienne scrubbed a hand through his shaggy brown hair, his muscles bunching and rolling. “I’m not talking about a cow.”
There was a glint in the vampire’s eyes as he reached for a quill. “Then what sign of the apocalypse are you referring to?”
Etienne rolled his eyes and pointed across the clearing.
Eurydice snickered as Adonis, the incubus prince, strode through the trees toward the glade. Bright red material flashed in brief glimpses between the dark leaves of the solid oaks as he walked, and gold sparkled from ornaments pinned at his shoulders and chest. The white of his tunic glowed like the pale skin of a rusalka as he closed the distance and completed the fifth point on their haphazard star.
“Oh, may the gods preserve us,” Kirill put a mocking hand to his chest as though to calm his unbeating heart. “He’s wearing clothes.”
“A full outfit,” The god’s lush mouth curved. “Not merely a loincloth and a grin.”
“Apocalypse,” Etienne repeated.
“Greetings, my fellow royalty!” Adonis announced, raising his arms in generous greeting and beaming at the assembled princes. His eyes sparkled like uncut emeralds in a show of his usual good humor, rivaling the brilliance of the gold clasp holding his robe over his left shoulder. “I have arrived.”
The god’s mirth waned into a dry grin. “What a pleasure it is.”
“And fully clothed,” Etienne added.
Adonis looked the werewolf up and down. “Don’t worry, Etienne. We’ll get Kirill to start carrying a shirt for you too, then we can both be fully dressed.”
Kirill let out a laugh. Eurydice stifled a chuckle. Adonis had a true gift if he could make the vampire laugh so easily.
“Marriage looks good on you, Adonis,” Saamal congratulated him with a firm handshake. “I look forward to meeting Ivy one day.”
“And meet her you shall,” Adonis promised as they parted. He looked to each prince. “I intend to invite you all for a grand ball once we’ve completed our little group.” He shot a pointed look at Patricio and Saamal. “Who will be next, I wonder?”
Saamal smiled, but there was so much sadness, the subtle mirth may as well have been a tear. Eurydice’s heart ached. She still hadn’t quite figured out how to help him. After all, Saamal didn’t need to find a mate. He simply needed to find a way to be with the one he had. And that was going to be anything but simple, all things considered. She straightened her spine. I won’t give up.
Patricio crossed his arms. “I have no intention of marrying some woman for no other reason than to…to give my blood the right balance for this tree.”
Eurydice gaped at him. Outraged. This tree?
“I have no interest in a new world, whatever it may be,” he finished.
“How can you have so little foresight?” Kirill muttered. “Surely even you must have some curiosity?”
The angel crossed his arms, thick biceps bulging with the motion. “I am content in my life as it is.”
“Oh, please,” Adonis scoffed. “You’re so miserable I’m surprised you can fly straight. If any of us needs a woman, it’s you.”
“Typical incubus.” Patricio dropped his arms and squared his shoulders as he faced off against the demon. He pressed his wings up so they rose higher over his shoulders. “Have you ever stopped to consider that not everyone requires sex to survive?”
; “I’m not talking about surviving,” Adonis corrected him. He held his arms out to the side, palms up. “I’m talking about living. Being happy. When was the last time you were happy—” his eyes flashed a sheen of crimson “—that is, a time when you weren’t killing someone?”
Patricio’s body vibrated with a sudden tension, only the twitching of his muscles disturbing his sudden stillness. “Shut up.”
“Say what you want about incubi,” Adonis continued, taking another step toward Patricio. He reached into the air and pulled a cigarette from nowhere, eyeing the tip until it burst into flame. “But at least our ‘victims’ are alive and smiling after we’re done.”
Eurydice’s stomach bottomed out. Don’t. Oh, Adonis, leave him alone.
The demon tapped his chin with his finger. “But, oh, wait. Come to think of it, your victims are smiling too.” Adonis put the cigarette to his lips and inhaled, holding the smoke in for a moment then letting it curl out of his nostrils like a dragon. His gaze bored into Patricio’s through the haze of smoke. “But of course they’re not aliv—”
Metal sang out like a battle cry in the clearing as Patricio ripped his sword from its sheath and launched himself at Adonis. His wings beat the air and the other princes backed away, giving the towering giant room to move. A snarl that would have sounded more at home on Etienne’s lips fell from Patricio’s mouth, his eyes flashing silver as he tried to take the demon’s head from his shoulders.
The demon’s eyes flashed red as he dodged, throwing himself toward the tree. His cigarette was abandoned to smolder in the grass as he ended crouched on his hands and the balls of his feet.
Patricio gritted his teeth and brought the sword up in an arc then swung it down with all the finality of an executioner.
Eurydice moaned as Adonis dove behind her trunk, hissing as his horns sprouted from his temples and curled around the crown of his head. She put her hands to her cheeks. No, no, no. Stop fighting!
“This is getting out of hand,” Etienne muttered, black claws sprouting from his fingers to drum on his opposite arm. He remained at a safe distance, lupine golden eyes flashing as he observed the fight like a disapproving parent.
“Patricio, have a little couth and stop trying to smite the demon.” Kirill gathered up his parchments and tucked them into a satchel that appeared to have come from nowhere. “He only wants to ruffle your feathers, and you make it too easy for him,” the vampire added.
“Why does he bother you so much?” Saamal mused out loud, moving farther from the tree as his two fellow princes squared off a few yards away from him. His black eyes were bottomless pits, lacking any emotion.
“I will show you as soon as I get my blade in his skin,” Patricio seethed, slicing through the air and missing Adonis’ ear by a hair’s breadth. “I will show all of you.”
“What’s the matter, Patricio?” Adonis taunted. “Can’t see my soul?”
“You have no soul!” Patricio swung again, leveling off the tip of Adonis’ left horn.
“Oh, you and I both know that’s a lie.” Adonis wagged a finger at him, wincing slightly as he tilted his head to the left in a nod to his chipped horn. “You may not like the color, but it doesn’t mean it’s not there.”
“Lies.” Patricio raised his sword to swing again.
“What color is your soul, I wonder?” Adonis stood his ground, red eyes boring into the angel’s silver gaze.
Eurydice grasped a handful of her hair in each hand, tugging at it as if the sharp pain could somehow distract her from the scene playing out before her. Oh, Adonis…
For a moment Patricio stood there, chest heaving, sword held high. His eyes shone with pain and a fine tremble took over his body. It could have been the adrenaline, but Eurydice knew better. His eyes showed too much white, his skin drained of too much blood. Patricio was terrified.
Eurydice lowered her head, and pressed her forehead against the inside of her tree for a moment. Patricio had the look of a child whose parents had told him the monsters under the bed were real. It was a look that didn’t belong on his proud face and she couldn’t bear to see it.
An unholy scream tore from Patricio’s throat. Eurydice lifted her head, unable to ignore what was happening no matter how much she wanted to. Patricio’s sword reflected the moonlight in a brilliant line of blinding light. He brought it down with every ounce of his strength behind it, moving nearly too fast for the naked eye to glimpse.
No!
There was nothing Eurydice could do, nothing but bite her lip and brace herself. Adonis dodged, rolling away from her trunk…
The sword bit into the wood.
Agony seared through her as her arboreal body splintered and gripped the blade. A scream built up and her control fractured. Magic pulsed through Eurydice’s incorporeal form and she exploded from her tree, her human upper half rising like a specter from the trunk. She reached her arms to the sky as she rose, stretching her body and blanching at the pain.
She glared down at the princes she’d taken such care to find. Patricio’s eyes widened and he leapt back, leaving his sword embedded in her arboreal lower half. Kirill huddled in on himself, tucked in his cloak of many dangers, his eyes crackling with red sparks of interest. Etienne bared his teeth, flashing canines too sharp to be human, and lurched back, body tense and coiled, ready to attack. He flexed his hands, tipped with black claws, his eyes glowing yellow in the darkness. “Get away from it, Adonis.”
The demon blinked myopically, then yelled and fell backwards, tumbling feet over head until he collided with Saamal’s leg and ended up slumped at the god’s feet. The god tilted his head, but betrayed no emotion.
“I…have had…enough.” Eurydice seethed. She reached down and closed her hand around the warm metal hilt of Patricio’s sword. It singed her hand with an electrical energy that reminded her of the kiss of lightening.
She gritted her teeth and tore it out of her body, grunting in pain as her bark released the magic-imbued blade. She pointed it at Patricio and leveled him a piercing glare. “You. You and your temper.” She lowered the sword, the memory of his earlier pain barely enough to mitigate her fury over his careless assault. “I know of your curse, Prince Patricio of Meropis, and I know what you’ve been through. But your tantrums end now.”
She twisted to look at Adonis, who had the nerve to offer her a little wave even as his lips parted and he shuffled backward. “And you.” She pointed at him with her free hand. “Stop taunting him. Grow up, Adonis, or so help me I’ll send for your wife and tell her how badly you need a lesson in manners.”
Adonis opened his mouth and she held up a finger.
“One off-colored joke about erotic discipline and I’ll tear a switch from my own body to beat you with.”
Adonis closed his mouth.
The initial adrenaline from the pain began to recede, inch by painful inch. As the agony faded, the awareness of what she’d just done crept further into her consciousness. Eurydice rolled her shoulder, resisting the urge to wring her hands as she straightened to her full height. Her branches shuddered with the realization that she’d revealed herself far sooner than she’d intended. If her plan failed now…
No. I won’t give up.
Eurydice raised her chin. “I have worked for centuries to get to this point. I’ve waited and I’ve watched. I’ve pleaded for favors and begged for help. It has taken until now to find you all, to find the perfect combination I need. I will not fail now, not when I’m so close.”
She pointed at Patricio. “Prepare yourself. You’re next.” She threw the sword at the angel’s feet, ignoring the fury in his eyes.
“I don’t believe we’ve been properly introduced.” Kirill straightened and glided from the darkness with careful and calculated steps, using the snarling werewolf as a barrier between himself and the tree.
The corner of her mouth quirked. Always cautious was her vampire.
“You obviously know us”—the vampire gestured with his arms, the fa
bric of his cloak billowing—“but I don’t believe any of us have had the pleasure?”
“I know who she is,” Adonis offered from where he sat, back against Saamal’s leg, one of his own legs stretched out in front of him and the other bent so he could rest his arm on his knee.
“What?”
Kirill whirled to face Adonis so fast that if she hadn’t been so angry, Eurydice would have laughed.
The incubus had managed to light another cigarette and the little tendrils of smoke curled up and around to vanish into the night sky. He paused as he made eye contact with Kirill, shifting uncomfortably at the glower the vampire gave him. “Don’t look at me like that. I didn’t see her before now, I couldn’t have told you.”
“You know who she is?” The werewolf’s nostrils flared, his voice gruff and slightly muffled by the mouthful of teeth that were more canine than human. “Do you know what she is?”
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