by Meg Xuemei X
My heart tore open at her suffering. How I wished I could be there to comfort her and tell her the truth, but I couldn’t.
I heard her pause inside the room, her shallow breathing turning deep as she tried to regain her composure.
The knob turned and the door swung open.
Fia stepped out, ice on her skin and darkness twirling around her.
Her face was a perfect blank mask.
She was a few years younger than me. She’d only been nineteen when she’d been dumped on Pandemonium. I doubted she knew her exact age now.
She had a heart-shaped face and piercing grey eyes, and the raven black hair that fell past her shoulders made her skin look even paler. After encountering the vampires, she’d come to despise her pale skin and often took to painting a red witch mark under her eyes to distinguish herself from the bloodsuckers.
Fia descended the stairs toward me, her movements regal and lithe. She wore three pieces: her breastplates covered one third of her bountiful breasts, her leather shorts covered only the bare minimum, and her boots reached high up her thighs.
Fia could make any man’s blood race too fast, yet none would dare make a move on her. When she trained her predatory gaze on them, they dropped their gazes instead of holding hers.
She was going into the dark jungle again.
I met her blank, icy gaze with a smile.
“Lady Fiammetta.”
Her clenched jaw relaxed. She had the confirmation of her name through my lips.
“Kaara,” she said. She’d learned my name through her marking before she opened the door. She glanced at the glass of water and an empty cup in my hand.
I always brought her water, knowing her throat had to be parched.
I poured some water into the spare cup and drank it, showing her that the water was good and clean.
Fia knew she had enemies, but not knowing who they were drove her into constant paranoia. I approached her slowly and offered her the glass of water.
She accepted my water and sipped it, a satisfaction flickering over her face. She was thirsty.
The turmoil inside her calmed.
“Thank you,” she said.
I would give anything for her to recognize me.
When I didn’t withdraw as usual, she tensed up and regarded me with a wary look.
“I have something for you, Fia.”
A strange glint flashed in her eyes, but she didn’t repute my boldness of using her endearment she was not familiar with.
I pulled out the chocolate bar from my pocket and presented it to her. An image of coffee beans and green leaves adorned the cover, a reminder of a civilization galaxies away.
She didn’t know me, but she knew what it was. “Chocolate!” she gasped.
The delight in her eyes was worth everything. If joy could trigger her and make her remember—
She licked her lips and tore her gaze from it to look at me.
The spark in her eyes fell into the deep lake. There still wasn’t a hint in her mind as to who I was to her.
A hammer slammed into my chest, but I pushed the ache away as I settled for seeing her happy for even a second.
Fia tore the package open, exposing the brown chocolate inside.
Its rich smell wafted toward me.
I tried not to lick my lips. I tried not to swallow.
I had no regret of giving it all to the princess and my best friend.
Fia moved the bar toward her lips, ready to devour the treat. I’d never seen her that eager for any food or snacks we brought her. She stopped in her tracks, turned from the chocolate, and stared at me.
I smiled at her with encouragement. “It’s the rarest on Pandemonium.”
A hint of warmth melted the ice in her grey eyes.
“Did the wolf give it to you?” she asked quietly.
My heart skipped a beat. She had recorded him and me with her magical marking last night.
“Yes,” I said, “he’s kind.”
“Did you go to the dinner?”
“No, Fia.”
I wanted to tell her all about Marrok and ask her opinion of him. I wanted her to know the wolf alpha and accept him. In Lithuaria, we’d had no secrets between us and had shared every single naughty escapade with each other.
After sex with Marrok, all other men had paled in comparison. For the first time, I’d found the right tempo. I felt more alive than ever.
But how could I share this with Fia when she wouldn’t remember it the next day?
Every day the damned Angel didn’t fall, a piece of my hope died.
Most likely, Fia and I would perish on this planet, with her in the limbo of torment, and me along with her.
She studied me. “Have you tried it?”
“Yes, it’s delicious.”
“You shall not lie,” she said.
Was she going to punish me for my lie? The Wicked Witch often resorted to use fear as a means to enhance her rule.
I’d had to lie about many things. And especially if she discovered that I was an Empath—
She tossed the chocolate bar at me, and I was fast to catch it in the air.
“Fia?”
“Marrok wouldn’t want you to give it to others,” she said. “Let me have a small bite.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat. No matter how she tried to live up to her wicked reputation, she always treated me like her own.
I broke the bar in two and gave the other half to her.
“You give me too much,” she said.
“I insist.”
We bit into the chocolate in unison like two children, our eyes closing to savor the taste as the chocolate melted on our tongues. Even then, Fia didn’t smile, but she wasn’t completely ice and steel either.
I accompanied her down the stairs.
She didn’t ask me to brief her. There was a sense of urgency in her mind. She knew we were running out of time.
She strode out of the tower, surveying the small army patrolling the perimeter, and regarded them with a cold stare as they bowed to her.
The witch headed toward the distant jungle.
Rocky and I trailed after her.
“Do not follow me today,” she said without looking back. “I’ll enter Akem’s realm through the trickiest entrance—a gate guarded by the Furies. You come with me, you’ll die.”
My heart leapt. After three years, it was the first new development, which meant she was closer to locate the veiled portal, if it was still open. If Fia thought entering the gate was perilous, it would be worse than she let on.
I waited for my anxiety to pass, but it didn’t. It churned in my stomach, the delectable chocolate turning into acid.
I couldn’t stop the princess from throwing herself into the fray.
We stopped, not wanting to enrage her by disobeying her, as we watched the Wicked Witch push further toward Akem’s lair.
Chapter 12
I was antsy the whole day. My mind darted back and forth between Marrok and Fia.
Marrok hadn’t come to visit me, even though he’d said he would.
The idea of him already forgetting about me or having met some shiny new vixen didn’t sit well with me.
When did I become so insecure when it came to men? How had that even happened?
As soon as I shoved the wolf alpha’s sunny smirk from my head, his wild, lustful eyes stared back at me.
And there was Fia.
She usually entered Akem’s realm through the part close to her territory. Now she’d rather face the Furies as she sensed the coming doom.
The three Furies—who had a female’s face, a beast’s body, and scaled, spiked wings—were the most fearsome creatures, next to the phantom. A record I’d found in the ruined museum mentioned that they weren’t Akem’s creatures, but they fell into a curse and became his immortal, nightmare guardians of the dark jungle.
They could spit black fire.
Fia had fought her way out of the jungle when she’
d first woken up on this planet. Though she couldn’t remember how she’d survived Akem’s wrath and his creatures’ pursuing, the trauma was still in her psyche. I always wondered if it were the Furies that had bruised her the most.
Since then, the once-privileged, fun-seeking, and kind princess had become ice and steel.
Who could she trust without her memories? How could she have hope when there hadn’t been any to begin with?
Despite her ordering us not to follow her, I wouldn’t let her face the Furies alone. If I had to enter the jungle to get her out, I would. If I perished, at least my future queen would live.
A lump stuck in my throat. As I counted my last breaths, I was hoping to see Marrok one last time.
“Rocky, assemble the team,” I ordered. “We’re going to pick up Lady Fiammetta.”
As I led them into the maze of the ruin at the edge of the City of Nine and away from a broken bridge we usually crossed over toward the entrance of the jungle where we’d always waited for Fia to emerge, everyone grew anxious.
Their collective, fearful moods suffocated me like thick smoke.
The deadly jungle was not too far now. Pine trees lined up at the boundary, but I did not mistake them as benign. Everything inside Akem’s forest was predatory. Plenty of cannibal plants lurked behind those pine trees, as Fia had once told me.
Wind blew in our direction, sending the smell of bitter blossoms and sulfur into our noses.
The screams of Furies in the distance pierced our ears.
Through our blood bond, I sensed Fia deep in the jungle.
I feared more for her than for myself, but my heart didn’t pound as hard now I knew she was alive.
No one in my team retreated. They knew death awaited them each day. We all knew the Wicked Witch went to Akem’s jungle to seek a way out. If she perished, none of us stood a chance of surviving in the end.
They had no doubt of the Wicked Witch’s ability, but they were worried she would leave them behind.
“Lady Fiammetta won’t leave me behind,” I’d said with my empathic power, “and I won’t leave you behind if you serve her well.”
They’d learned honor was in my blood.
Hope, even the slimmest chance, was still hope. Its weakest light could still lead us out of the long, dark tunnel. From that moment, everyone in the Witch Tower had been loyal.
“Kaara,” Rocky warned, “the Furies will see us. We need to detour and stay out of their sights.”
I nodded.
Rocky was one of the oldest aliens here. He knew the geography of the planet better than anyone. He believed there was a gray sea on the other side of the jungle.
We withdrew, scurrying along broken walls in the edge of the ruin. With Rocky taking the lead, we avoided the cannibals and Akem’s monsters who sought their prey on certain blocks.
I gestured to everyone to stay quiet as I felt the minds of the predators.
They were close.
I glanced at a half burned-down warehouse behind us and motioned for my team to retreat into it until the danger passed.
We fell back toward the warehouse, but something was faster than us.
Shadows zipped in and blocked our retreat.
The vampires!
The bloodsuckers weren’t natives either. No one knew where they’d come from. They’d once lorded over Pandemonium, until the wolf clans had arrived, and then our witch’s coven had expanded our power.
The bloodsuckers didn’t typically come to this district.
But now, eleven vampires surrounded the seven of us.
With their great speed and strength, one of them could take down three of us. We had no chance of fighting them off.
They stayed away from the Witch Tower because of the ward and their fear of the Wickedest Witch. Their Dark Prince coveted her, so they were careful when dealing with her coven. But now we were outside the witch territory with no witnesses and her protection, and their hands weren’t tied. Especially when the Dark Prince’s sister, Princess Jasmine, was leading the hunting party. For some reason, Jasmine hated Fia with her every vampire bone.
“Going somewhere, witch’s coven?” Jasmine asked with a silky voice and spiteful smile. She was a tall and slender blonde with small breasts. Her pale skin was almost as fair as Fia’s.
Even though the vampires were the most hated species here, they all had frosty beauty and bore an air of superiority.
“Leeches!” Pattern hissed. They’d drained many of his former crew in the past.
Rocky dragged him back into our tightly formed formation.
The only way to kill a vampire was to stab it through its heart or behead it. Regular weapons had a hard time to pierce through it chest, because of its hard tissues and bones. There could be no hesitation to strike, and cutting them required exact precision.
My angelblade, however, was a different story.
It could cut into anything.
I drew my blade, and my men drew theirs.
“What do you want, Jasmine?” I asked. “You do know your brother and my mistress have an understanding?”
“They do, don’t they?” Jasmine laughed. “But neither of them are here. When it comes to the Wickedest Witch, my brother is softhearted. So it leaves me to balance it. Today, I have his blessing. You formed an alliance with the wolves and thus broke the truce my brother made with the witch.”
“The truce doesn’t say that the witch’s coven can’t find allies,” I said. “And who we befriend is none of your damn business.”
“It becomes our business when you go to bed with our mortal enemies,” the vampire princess said. “You tipped the scale of an established balance. I’m here to correct it.”
The affair between Marrok and I had happened only yesterday. Did the whole city already know about it? Who had sent the message to the vampires?
“We’ve never promised exclusivity to your kind,” I said.
Jasmine laughed maliciously. “Too bad. I like threesomes any other day, but not with a dog in my bed.”
Rage coursed through me, but I turned it to lethal calmness. As an Empath, I could influence others’ mood, but not with vampires. They weren’t the living, nor were they the dead. They were different kinds of monsters, and I couldn’t tap into their mental realm.
“You came to talk to me about vampire politics on Pandemonium, Jasmine?” I asked.
I was stalling her. If another group of monsters came along, we could get them to fight each other. Every races and group in the City of Nine hated the vampires since they had a long history of enslaving and draining all other species.
“Politics is air in any corner of the galaxy, honey,” she said, “especially if we want to maintain a certain high society.”
“On that note,” I said, “I applaud your ambitions of incorporating the most savage monsters, cannibals, and criminal into your high society. Have you invited the Furies?”
My team snickered and the vampires cut me cold glares.
“Politics makes survival bearable on all levels,” Jasmine said, as if I hadn’t spoken. My sarcasm was lost on her. “My species is the only hope of civilization on this planet. My brother thought the Wickedest Witch was redeemable. However, he’s going to be disappointed.”
Rocky snorted in disdain, and the rest of the team echoed him.
“Since you aren’t familiar with how a high society works,” Jasmine continued, “I’ll have to show you. I haven’t tasted free-range, fresh blood for a while.” She gestured the vampires around. “They’re even more enthusiastic to have a sip.”
She fanned at her nose, as if to sniff better of us and determine which one contained her favorite blood type. The vampire horde now looked enthralled, their eyes turning crimson.
Fear rose in my team.
“You really want to go to war with my mistress, Jasmine?” I asked drily. “The wrath of the Wickedest Witch will be terrifying to watch.”
“She can bring it on,” Jasmine said. “However,
no one will know what happened here. After my army drains your lot, we’ll toss them to the cannibals. They’d appreciate the leftovers and clean up every bit of evidence. As for you, Kaara Nightshades, you’ll get an upgrade because my brother has a use for you. Aren’t you the lucky one? You see, he’s tired of waiting for your mistress. The ungrateful, arrogant bitch keeps brushing him off. We’re immortals, but even our patience can run thin. Thanks to you in league with the dogs, my brother has reached his limit.”
I’d thought my alliance with Marrok’s pack was a good move to secure future food resources and landed a security backup; I had never thought that would bring the bigger predators upon us. In retrospect, I could see why. Of course the vampires would want to prevent the merge of the witch’s coven and the wolf clan.
They would turn me.
I’d rather die than become one of them.
I glanced around quickly. No other party would come our way soon. We had no help. And Fia was deep in the jungle.
Jasmine laughed at my expression. “It won’t be that bad, honey, but you’ll suffer greatly when our venom gets inside you. It feels like fire in your throat, your lungs, your veins, every fiber of your being. I still remember the first burn. It can’t be avoided. If it’s any consolation, many would beg to pay the price for immortality.”
“Destroy the leeches!” I roared, hoping my scream could reach the jungle and Fia so she would know who had taken us down.
My team roared with me.
A dagger was in my hand in an instant and it shot toward Jasmine, but she ducked it in a flashy speed.
“You’re as nasty as your witch, Nightshades.”
The vampires rushed toward us.
We tightened our circle, and an archer among us shot a series of iron arrows. A harrowing scream rose from behind my back and I could feel the terror in the man the vampire had taken.
In a few seconds, they broke our rank.
I charged toward Jasmine with my angelblade. Even a small cut would wound her. She’d suffer for days from the pain, if the cut didn’t kill her.
Two vampires cut in in front of her to guard her as the vampire princess flew backwards to stay away from the battlefield. Obviously, she preferred others fighting her battles instead of getting her hands dirty. The nails on her dainty hands were polished, and I rolled my eyes.
