by Helen Scott
“Humans?” Hypnos asked. “Surely they cannot survive in the Underworld.”
“They attacked Poppy in the human realm and gained some of her blood in the process, so if they are able to beat Hel’s forces and us to the throne room, they may very well take control for themselves.”
“Want me to put them all to sleep for you?”
“You’re welcome to try,” Knox said. There was an underlying tension in the exchange, and I burned with curiosity to know what was going on, but I was also smart enough to know that now was not the time to ask. The god of sleep sneered at Knox before he vanished in a cloud of smoke.
“Was that really necessary?” Lycus asked as he looked pointedly at Knox, who just shrugged. “Now I’m going to have to go make him feel better.”
“Just leave him. He’ll be fine,” Morpheus said.
Exhaustion began to pull at me as we relaxed our guard for the first time in what felt like days. My eyelids began to droop as Lycus and Morpheus exchanged words that didn’t make sense anymore. I felt a warm band wrap around me and knew that Knox was making sure I was safe. I snuggled into his comfort a little more and reached my hand out on the other side for Derek. His warm fingers threaded through my own.
“Lycus, would you mind showing us where those rooms are?” Knox’s chest rumbled with the reverberation from his voice.
A scraping sound had my eyes snapping open and my awareness slamming into me with full force. I wanted to yell at myself for relaxing when I wasn’t one hundred percent sure we were safe.
14
Poppy
“It’s just Hunt and Nolan,” Knox said as he rubbed soothing circles on my back. His words had the opposite effect than he had intended, though. Instead of calming me down, they made adrenaline and excitement flood my system.
I twisted around and was out of his arms before he could say another word, launching myself like a rocket toward the men I felt as if I hadn’t seen in ages. My legs pumped under me as I used the little energy I had left to reach them. Of all the things I’d expected, Hunter running toward me and wrapping his arms around me in a tight hug was probably the last thing that would have come to mind.
Hunter’s arms circled me as if he were trying to protect me from the world. There was nothing that could have pried us apart in that moment. My arms wrapped around his neck, and I buried my head in his shoulder while my legs circled his waist. I clutched him close to me, thankful that all the guys had walked away from the last fight uninjured.
“You’re okay, Poppy. Everything is okay,” he whispered, stroking my hair.
When I pulled back, his forest-green eyes locked onto me, and an intense emotion played in them, but I wasn’t sure what it was. I released Hunter, even though I could have held on to him all day. The last thing I wanted was for him to feel uncomfortable, to think I was pushing him for more when he wasn’t ready to give it. As I released him, I could swear I had felt him trying to hang on to me for a little longer, but I knew that was wishful thinking.
Nolan cleared his throat next to us, and before I could stop myself, I gave Hunter a peck on the cheek and pushed away, going over to Nolan, who swept me up in a bear hug and spun me around like a dancer. My legs flew out from him, and I squeaked in surprise. His hold was firm, though, and when he stopped, one hand caught my legs and held them so I didn’t slip to the floor.
When he did release my legs, it was so gently that I didn’t even realize I had touched the floor until he was bending over to kiss me. His lips were on mine, and a hunger lit inside me fiercer than ever before. Need washed up and over me, turning the kiss from something that could be rated PG or even PG-13 to something that would definitely be more on the R side. His tongue swirled against my own, and I found myself climbing him like a tree. My arms wrapped around his neck, and my fingers threaded in his hair, holding us together as if we hadn’t seen each other for years instead of hours.
A throat cleared behind us, and when we pulled apart, I found Knox laughing silently to himself. “Come on, angel, let’s get you to bed.”
The tone of his voice heated my blood, and I was left with need pulsing through me. To the left of the table, Lycus stood by a doorway that I hadn’t noticed before and was watching us with curiosity in his eyes. I guess none of the previous queens had been as open about their relationships with the hounds and judges as I was. Maybe it was just the time period I came from versus how old he was, but the idea of hiding a relationship made me feel dirty, and not in the sexy way.
Nolan put me down once we all merged into one awkward group. I followed directly behind Lycus, Knox and Hunter were on either side of me, and Derek and Nolan brought up the rear. I desperately wanted to know where Emmett and Shadow were, but I also didn’t want to get bad news in front of someone who I planned on asking a favor of later. Lycus, his father, and whoever else we met in the Halls of Night needed to see me as strong so when I asked for their help, they knew they would be on the winning side.
“Your rooms are on the left, just here,” Lycus said as he turned by a door, gesturing to it. “There is a living area, along with a few different bedrooms, so you should be able to make yourselves feel at home.” He smiled, but there was a tension to his stance, and when I leaned to the side, his body drifted as though he were trying to block my line of sight.
“What’s back there?” I asked, unwilling to let him dictate what I could see and not see. I was supposed to be queen, damn it, and that meant I had to know my kingdom.
“Just a few more rooms.”
“Why won’t you let me see the doors?” I asked when he continued to block my line of sight.
He stuttered something about how he wasn’t doing that, but I was already pushing past him. When I got a clear view, I almost stopped. An intricately carved black door stood at the end of the hallway. A black stone archway that must have been made of marble or something similar surrounded it. If it weren’t for the small ribbons of color in the stone, the whole thing would have seemed to disappear into the shadows.
The closer I got to the door, the more the light seemed to dim and the more I was able to pick out the details in the carvings on the door. Diamond shapes covered most of it, each one containing a carving of some kind, mostly just a generic sort of pattern, but occasionally there would be a cherub or the shape of the sun or moon. In the center was a round plaque with what looked like a door knocker hanging in the middle. The wrought iron of the plaque made up an intricate weaving pattern where the strands slowly changed from flowers into the center knob.
“Your Highness, please, your rooms are this way.” Lycus’s voice sounded strained and far away.
I dragged my eyes away from the carvings and metal work only to find that I was almost pressed up against the door itself, while my guys and Lycus were standing back by the door to our rooms. The desire to stay there, to open the door and find out what was inside, was so strong that I had to talk myself into returning to my guys. The behavior and the pull were odd even for me.
When I made it back to the group, they all just stared at me. I didn’t know what to do or say, or how to explain what had drawn me to the door, so I breezed by them like nothing weird had happened at all. Inside the suite was more opulent than any room I had ever been in. The walls were a warm cream color with faux windows shrouded with almost mustard-yellow curtains accented with navy blue lace. It was odd, modern, but with a distinctive old-world feel.
I waltzed into the room, pretending I’d lived a life of luxury up until this point so it wasn’t anything amazing, and flopped onto the decidedly modern leather couch. Men’s voices muttered outside the room as Nolan came in to sit with me.
“So where are Emmett and Shadow?” I asked him, feeling confident I could handle whatever he had to say now that we were in a relatively private area.
“Searching for Cass with Megaera.”
“Oh.” My heart sank. I’d figured that Megaera would have found him by now. The news that he was still missing made
my stomach twist with anxiety. If anyone could find him, though, I knew Emmett and Shadow would.
I popped up off the couch, desperate to distract myself, and went to explore the rest of the suite. The first bedroom had a huge bed that sat in the middle of a dais. At each corner of the bed stood tall black-and-gold pillars that led to a pinkish-red-and-gold canopy. The colors were reflected throughout the room, with the same pinkish-red and gold making up the stripes on the walls and black-and-gold pillars lining the doorway. My senses felt overloaded as soon as I took one step into the room.
After I backed out, I headed to the other door. This bedroom also had an extremely large bed, but it was done in all white. The only color came from the headboard, which was a dusty-rose tufted velvet, and the taupe walls. I immediately knew this was where I was sleeping. If I tried to sleep in the other room, I probably wouldn’t even be able to close my eyes without seeing the overwhelming colors. A bathroom was off one side of the room, with a giant tub and a multi-headed shower. I couldn’t wait to take a shower. It felt as if it had been days, even though I knew it hadn’t.
Hunter’s voice drew me out of the bathroom and back to the group. “What’s the plan from here?”
I wasn’t sure who he had asked, but as I entered, Knox responded, “We wait to hear from Em and Shadow, and then we advance on the palace to take the throne room. Poppy claims the throne, and we get to kick everyone else out.”
“Simple,” I said from where I was leaning against the doorway.
Their heads turned toward me, and I came to join the group, sitting on the arms of two different chairs between Derek and Hunter. The two men could not be more different, and I loved that. Knox and Nolan sat in front of me on the other couch, and an awkward silence fell over the room.
“Do you guys want me to go?” I asked, unsure what was making them uneasy.
Knox shook his head. “I think we are all just wanting to make sure you’re okay. You were being kind of weird about that door.”
“I was being weird? What about Lycus? If he hadn’t been weird in the first place, I probably wouldn’t have noticed it.” I could feel my voice rising in pitch as I spoke, but I couldn’t stop myself.
“It’s okay, you don’t have to explain it to us. Does she, guys?” Nolan said, clearly trying to calm me down.
I crossed my arms over my chest and stood, pacing away from them before I yelled at them again.
“Angel, we are just concerned, that’s all,” Knox’s smooth baritone tugged at things deep within me, and I wanted him to shut up because he was frustrating me, but I also didn’t want him to stop talking until he’d taken me to bed.
“I’m fine, clearly,” I snapped back before taking a deep breath and trying to calmly ask, “Do you know how I go about claiming the throne?” I angled my stare at Knox.
He shook his head as he let loose a deep sigh and ran his hand through his hair. “We can’t worry about that yet. All we can do is take things one step at a time.”
“What if I can’t claim the throne anymore . . .” I didn’t want to voice my thought, but I took a deep breath and plunged ahead. “What if Cass is dead?”
“We can’t think like that. You can’t think like that. No matter what it takes, we will find him,” Derek said, surprising me. He was quiet most of the time, and I got the feeling he felt as though he didn’t fit in with the hellhounds, which was yet another reason to plead with the fates that Cass was okay.
My whole body felt as if it were vibrating with need but for so many things that I didn’t know what would stop this out-of-control feeling. It was kind of annoying. First, to find Cass, and then to figure out what was behind that door. Oh, and I couldn’t forget taking the throne, because I was starting to suspect that I would lose my mind if I stayed in the Underworld and didn’t claim it. Plus, I needed to be with my guys and allow the physical solace to distract me from my mind whirring around at about a hundred miles an hour.
Finally, I said, “I’m going to go take a shower.” I walked out of the room to silence and made my way to the bathroom, hoping that standing under some hot water would wash some of my problems away.
15
Poppy
My shower hadn’t been as therapeutic as I had hoped. The water pressure, the products, all of that had been amazing, but none of my problems had washed away. Nothing had changed since I had gotten in the shower, except now I didn’t stink of sex. The silky robe that hung on the hook reminded me of the hotel we had been staying in last. Part of me wished we were still there, that we were able to be more prepared before we left. Wishing for something to be different didn’t make it that way, unfortunately; otherwise, I’d be queen and in the middle of multiple orgasms from my guys.
I sighed and towel dried my hair before putting the robe on and opening the door. The muted colors of the room greeted me, and all I wanted to do was slip into the fluffy-looking bed and sleep until everything made sense again. The problem with that was Hunter sitting on the edge of the bed, elbow resting on his knees, and his fingers laced together while he appeared to be trying to stare a hole into the carpet.
“Hey,” I said eventually when he didn’t seem to notice my entrance.
His eyes flicked up to mine, and the amount of emotion in them was like a punch to the gut. I didn’t know what had caused it, but I hated seeing him so torn up. I was on the floor in front of him, clasping my hands around his own, before I could even debate if it was the right thing to do.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“I need to apologize to you.”
“For what?” I frowned.
“The way I’ve been treating you.” He sighed and pulled his hands from mine so he could stand and pace the room. “I’ve been a jerk to you for so long. You did nothing to deserve it, and you’ve borne it with such grace that I’m amazed. You didn’t need my negativity on top of everything else.”
I moved to perch on the edge of the bed. “Hunt, you don’t need to apologize. I understand why you were cold with me. Katherine was a big part of your life, and you lost her. There’s nothing wrong with that.”
“I found her.” He was facing away from me when he said it. It was as if he had just dropped a bomb. All the air seemed to be sucked out of the room. When he turned around, his face was a blank mask just like my own.
“Go on,” I said, my voice sounding oddly hollow to my own ears.
Whatever he saw on my face must not have been what he had been expecting, because his mask cracked. What showed through wasn’t happiness or joy as I would have expected, but looked more like hope tinged with sadness.
He took a deep breath and continued. “I’d never known where her spirit had ended up after her death. Part of me hadn’t wanted to know in case it was something bad, but her spirit is here, on the Isle of the Blessed, actually. When I found her, I thought it would be an answer to all my mixed-up feelings, but it wasn’t, not at first. When I first saw her, she was exactly as I remembered, and I knew that if we really wanted it, we could find a way to be together again. We talked a lot.” It felt as if the hits just kept coming as he spoke.
“Hunt—” I started to interrupt.
“Please just hear me out.”
I sighed and nodded, resigning myself to having my heart torn apart and trampled.
“So we talked and talked, but eventually our conversations became stilted and awkward. I realized that I wasn’t the same man who fell in love with her. If I had wanted to go back to her, then our relationship would have been different and the rose-colored glasses that I was remembering her with would be shattered. She got angry with me a few times because I kept talking about you. I didn’t realize it until she forced me to see the truth, but—” Hunter dropped to his knees in front of me, his face twisted in anguish, and I was barely able to look at him. “I love you. I know this hasn’t been the most romantic declaration, and you have every right to be angry with me for going behind your back, but I truly believe that if I had never gone to se
e her, I never would have realized that the feelings I had been clinging to were for a memory. I never would have accepted how I felt for you. Those emotions would have just stayed mixed up inside, and I would have kept you at arm’s length.”
When he was done speaking, he stayed on the ground, kneeling in front of me, while I just looked off to one side. I didn’t know how to react to what he’d said. I couldn’t differentiate between the emotions raging one after the other inside me.
"Did you kiss her?" The question popped out before I had even known I'd thought it.
"No. All we did was talk. I didn't touch her, I swear to you."
I nodded once but couldn't bring myself to look at him.
“Say something, Poppy,” he begged. His voice had turned raspy, and I wanted to turn to him, to let him see the pain and relief in my eyes, but they were too full of tears. I knew he could see them trailing down my cheek, but we were both ignoring them as if it would make them go away faster. After we sat in silence for a moment, he said, “What can I do to make this up to you, my queen? Name it and I’ll do it.”
It was the formal address that he hadn’t used before to my memory that made me turn to him. When he looked into my eyes, he visibly flinched. “Nothing,” I whispered. “I don’t want you to do anything.” My heart felt raw, and I just wanted to be left alone, to be able to sleep and let my brain figure it all out in its own time.
“I understand,” he said, and rose from where he had been kneeling. The shadows from the corners of the room swirled and grew, and then Hunter was gone.
I wasn’t sure how long I sat on the edge of the bed, but the next thing I knew, Knox was in front of me. His voice sounded garbled and strange as I tried to understand what he was saying without success. His arms wrapped around me, and he gently picked me up as though I were made of glass. He crawled onto the bed with me and laid us both down on the creamy comforter. I didn’t expect him to comfort me. I had thought I wanted to be alone, but he began gently stroking my hair until the soothing motion relaxed me enough that my eyes drifted shut and the tears slowly stopped. We could have lain like that for minutes or hours, I wasn’t sure. All I knew was that when I opened my eyes again, he was still patiently stroking my hair.
