by Faulks, Kim
And the image of that swallowed my mind.
“We cannot let that happen, Lorn. No matter what. Aeon cannot fall into their hands. No matter what.”
I understood what he was telling me, his life, my life…all our lives would be sacrificed for the greater good, and the greater good was Aeon…and now Titus.
“Wait…” Rival’s growl tore me away from the bliss.
Gabriel lowered his wings and tucked them hard against his body as Rival turned to my father. “I have a request.”
Lucifer cocked his head. His expression said it all…really?
“I want to be released from your service. I’ve served faithfully, and without question, and I will always love you. I will always be a hound.” Rival turned his head, and caught my gaze. “But I serve another now. I want to serve another, and give her everything I am.”
My father glanced toward me, one brow arched high. “And you’re willing to have him?”
Fear glinted like shards of glass in Rival’s dark eyes. There was a second where the world seemed to stop…Hell, at least. I stepped away from Gabriel, and turned to my hound. “Warts and all.”
Rival’s lips curled and then parted into a grin as Lucifer gave a nod. “So be it. Your alliance with me is broken, you’re now free.”
Rival took a step toward me, his bullet-torn shirt flapping in hell’s breeze as he opened his arms for me.
It was so easy…so easy to love, to hold…to belong.
To them all.
I lifted my head as Rival captured my body and pulled me closer, molding my body to his. The kiss was desperate and urgent, taking me hard and heavy.
Four of them…
Four males…
Four Alpha males…
A guttural snarl ripped through the air. I broke the kiss and turned my head.
Redemption swayed for a second before his knees buckled. Pain and torture filled his face. Fear filled those dark eyes as he shook his head. “Wait,” he called out, and reached for me.
I broke Rival’s embrace and lunged. “Redemption…Redemption, what is it?”
Black markings rose to the surface of his skin, carving swirls and lines over his nose and down his cheek.
“It’s an answer to a summons,” Lucifer barked. “My summons.”
I shook my head and turned to my father. I didn’t understand. “You summoned her? You summoned the Unseelie Queen?”
Lucifer turned to me, and the flames of Hell burned in his eyes. “When you left, I had no choice. It was either demand justice, or be seen as weak. You undermined my authority when you went after the Nine. Now, we cut the head off the snake—so to speak.”
Cut the head off the snake…
My pulse was racing, breath so fast it left me lightheaded.
“There’s always two sides with her,” Redemption warned. “You need to be careful. What she says is not what she does.”
“Then we leave her no choice,” Lucifer murmured. His voice had a killing edge. “We leave her no choice at all.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Lorn
A call cut through Hell, low and snarling, filled with the promise of torture and hate. It was a woman’s snarl. A vile fucking sound that made my heart race.
“I c-can’t fight her…” Redemption snarled. Sweat gleamed across his brow. His veins were pulsing at the sides of his neck and along his arms. He tumbled, shuddering and shaking as he fell forward, bracing his body on all fours.
I glanced back to Titus and Aeon. They were staring…and Aeon’s lips were moving, murmuring words I couldn’t hear.
“The mortal realm,” Redemption snapped. “She’s calling me there.”
“Common ground,” Lucifer growled. “Does she think that will save her?”
The Unseelie warrior shuddered and shook. His body faded and sharpened, like he was being dragged cell by cell to another place.
“I’m going with him,” I scrambled forward, reaching out as he faded once more.
“We’re all going with him,” Lucifer snapped behind me.
I turned my head, catching my father glancing toward Aeon. “Stay inside the Keep. You know what you need to do.”
Aeon gave a cut nod as my feet slipped and I lost my footing. Hell’s wind slapped strands of my hair into my eyes. I lunged forward, desperate to reach Redemption as I fell…
Only it wasn’t the harsh obsidian rock that caught me.
It was soft green grass and cold earth under my fingers, pulsing with the call of Hell as it slowly faded, and the unmistakable fetid smell of Unseelie filled my nose.
The sun glared, piercing the gaps in the clouds to blind me. I drew a breath and then another as movement crowded my view. There was a snigger and then a snarl as I lifted my head and stared at the wall of Unseelie warriors, and stopped at their Queen.
Dark hair, unflinching gazes. The men towered beside her, dressed in knee-length cloaks cinched at the waist to carry long silver daggers adorned with red and gold gems. They looked every bit as dangerous as what I’d been led to believe.
Redemption would’ve been at home amongst them.
He would’ve stood tall and proud at his Queen’s side.
I swallowed the pang of jealousy.
The scuff of a shoe beside me turned my head. I shoved up from the ground and swiped my hands against my jeans. Lucifer stood there, his face a beautiful stony mask of perfection as he stared across the space.
I wanted to stare at her, wanted to unravel her beauty…
But this was a battle…
This was a war.
“Where is he?” I took a step before Lucifer’s hand shot out and grabbed my arm.
Still he never wavered…he never looked away. His grip tightened, but not enough to hurt me, and that said it all.
“Mab,” my father murmured, and dipped his head.
She was beautiful, lily-white skin and deep dark eyes. Her floorlength midnight gown sparkled as the sun caught the facets of obsidian. She was younger than I’d imagined, as though she lived her life in a void.
Cold…stony…cruel.
I shuddered with the thought of that stony castle.
Redemption stood at my father’s side, pale, sweating, unable to tear his eyes from his Queen as she acknowledged my father with a curt nod, and then turned her gaze on me.
“Where the fuck is he? Where the fuck is Absolon?”
Her red lips pursed for a second, as a sickening snarl came at my back. Rival pushed close, protective. The Queen’s lips curled as she uttered a single command. “Leash the mutt, Lucifer, before he gets hurt, and the wench with him.”
Anger rose, searing and scalding. Black flames swallowed the tips of my fingers and ran up my arm. She smiled at that, without even glancing my way.
Fucking bitch…
“You know why we’re here, Mab, why start a quarrel? You know what Absolon has done. You know what he’s taken from me…” Lucifer glanced at me. “From us. What he’s taken from us. He needs to answer for that.”
She winced with the words, and that stony mask of perfection slipped.
“For what, Lucifer, you’ve lost people, I’ve lost people…where does this end?”
“It ends when he ends,” I growled. “And the Nine along with him.”
Her brow creased, her gaze shifted. It was a tell that didn’t go unnoticed.
“You didn’t know, did you?” Lucifer asked. “All this time, you didn’t know what your own son was doing. Where have you been, Mab? Locked away in your room with no one to see?”
The guard at her back moved, feet shuffled, making way. I caught the shine of slick midnight hair as Absolon pushed through the barrier of muscle to take his place by his mother’s side.
He cast an uninterested gaze across us, the corner of his mouth twitching into a smirk.
My fists clenched at the sight of him. I wanted to punch that smug fucking look from his face and tear out his eyes. My body trembled as my mind raced, dredging up mem
ories that needed to stay buried.
His hands on my body, breath hot on my face.
He wanted my mother.
And he wanted me.
“Lucifer,” the piece of shit murmured, and then glanced at me. “I see you’ve brought the toy.”
“The fuck you say?” Rival roared. “I will tear you apart, you spineless piece of shit. You like to abduct women? You like to torture women? I cannot wait to spend some quality time with you.”
Absolon paled, but that smirk stayed plastered on his lips. Something inside me soared…I was getting everything I wanted. Everything I’d fought for.
“You want my son?” The Unseelie Queen snarled, and lifted a hand. “Then he’s yours.”
Footsteps echoed, the same guards who’d moved aside for him moments ago, now grasped him by the arms.
“What?” Absolon jerked his head toward her. “Wait…what did you say?”
Guards on either side stepped forward, dragging him as they went.
“Mother…Mother, stop this! You can’t do this to me…you can’t fucking do this to me!”
She turned her head then, and for the first time met her son’s gaze. “I can and I have. You will go with them…you will answer for your crimes.”
A smile broke out on my face as the Unseelie guards neared.
Redemption watched the Queen like a man obsessed, but he didn’t understand. He didn’t realize.
All my life, Absolon had taken from me…all my life.
Rival smiled and stepped aside as the Unseelie guards marched their Prince past Lucifer. All heads turned toward him…even mine.
The grasp around my arm was quick and savage, yanking me backwards as the Queen spoke.
“And for the crimes against my people, your daughter shall answer for hers. Harm a hair on my child’s head, and see it happen to yours tenfold. You wish to play, Lucifer…so we shall play. Until next time.”
The earth seemed to open up and swallow me. I wrenched my head upwards, catching Redemption lunging forward. His mouth was open…his scream was lost…as the darkness of the Unseelie realm swallowed me…and the haunting laughter of the Unseelie Queen rang out.
The End
Hell is a Harem Book 4
Coming December 2018
One of Us Series
For lovers of Marvel's X-Men and Sense8 comes a breathtaking spin with a reverse harem romance.
There’s a place from my nightmares.
A place where bad things hide.
The memories kept me awake for most of my life. But it’s not what keeps me awake anymore.
It’s her.
She calls me, desperate and pleading. Like a shining star I can’t quite find. I feel those men from my nightmares coming for her. Only she can’t sense them—she can’t see.
Not the past.
Or the future…unlike me.
Until one day as I stood in a doorway in the barren wasteland in Afghanistan with my squad at my back…my star dimmed, and sputtered out.
I have two holes in my chest now. One which bears her name.
I have to find her. I pray I’m not too late. First I have to find the others, two more guys like me.
Together we seek a North Star.
One we were born half in love with.
Leading us back home.
Without ever knowing we were lost at all.
Releasing October 1st 2018
