by J. L. Weil
The grave wasn’t with the others, nor was it marked, but concealed by an overgrowth of bushes and vines, making it nearly invisible to the naked eye—unless you were part demon. It was Angel who noticed the unusual symbol carved on the ground, only visible to her because of her demon status.
I grumbled a string of curse words all directed toward the Prince of Darkness as Chase and Travis worked on prying open the stone hatch embedded in the ground.
The door was heavy and shrieked inch by inch as Travis and Chase pulled until it was just wide enough for us to slip through. “I don’t suppose anyone brought a flashlight?” Emma asked.
Travis blinked at his girlfriend. “Why would we need a flashlight?”
Sometimes my brother could be so dense. “She can’t see in the dark like the rest of us,” I replied, thumping him on the back of the head.
“Hey,” he complained, rubbing at the spot. “I forgot, okay. And you can just hold on to my arm. I’ll lead the way.”
Emma rolled her eyes. “Wonderful.”
This was turning into a comedy show, and not a good one either.
I stared down into the damp, cobweb-infested tomb. It looked as if it hadn’t been disturbed in decades. The stone steps leading into the crumbling temple were cracked and eroded. They groaned and creaked under our weight, pebbles skipping down the stairs into the dark abyss. “Are you sure this place is safe? It isn’t going to come crashing down on top of us, is it?” I whispered, my voice carrying from wall to wall, echoing like I was in an endless tunnel.
“I’m sure it’s fine,” Kira replied with an encouraging tone that did nothing to soothe my worries.
When we finally reached the bottom of the steps, I was inclined to order Angel to burn this place to the ground. Something in the air itched at my demon marks, like I was being stung by a swarm of pesky mosquitoes. I wanted out.
We continued to wade through the darkness, moving further into the tomb, until we saw a speck of light. “There.” Travis pointed. “Do you see it?”
“No,” Emma snapped.
“Something is there,” I told Emma, offering a speck of hope. “A torch, I think.” It only took another minute of scuffling down through the dingy cave-like corridor before we came to a small room. A collective sigh went through the group, relieving a bit of the claustrophobia I was feeling.
The chamber was barely big enough to fit all six of us, but we squeezed in, all staring at the massive stone statue that took up the back wall of the room. Goddess Hecate towered over us, long robes billowing at her feet and a crown spiked on her head. She stood in a column-carved doorway, flanked by two flickering torches, the source of light that had guided us at the end. It wasn’t like normal fire, but burned eternally—Hellfire, the same sort of fire Angel could produce.
“What’s this?” Angel asked, lifting her hand toward the statue.
“Angel, don’t!” Chase warned, flashing to his wife, but was too late. She had plucked the metal skeleton key from the goddess’s hand.
Everyone went still, as if the key was a bomb, ready to blow us to tiny bites. When nothing happened, I exhaled. “Holy shit, you gave me a heart attack.”
Angel inspected the tangled and maze-like design of the key. “Where do you think this goes?” she asked.
“Do we want to know?” Travis retorted with a nervous chuckle.
“Isn’t that the whole reason we are inside this creepy-ass tomb?” Emma reminded us.
“There is something about this place…,” Angel began, her eyes roaming around the chamber.
I shuddered. “Anyone else freezing to death?” I asked, rubbing my hands over my arms. All the summer heat was gone, leaving me suddenly trembling, as if a ghost had crossed through my body.
“It did get cold in here,” Emma agreed, but she was human and more susceptible to temperature changes. I normally wasn’t, but that had all changed after my stint at the Court of Darkness.
Kira stepped forward, shaking her head. “Amateurs. Give me the key,” she said, holding out her hand.
Angel’s eyes narrowed, and she waited for a beat before passing over the key. The compact room was tense, not a single one of us trusting my mother, but I had struck a deal, I reminded myself. It bound her to her oath just as it bound me.
Kira crouched in front of the statue, staring at the dust-covered ground.
“How did you—?”
Angel looked at me, and my words faltered. My friend’s eyes were almost wholly red in a way that was freaking me out and only happened when a demon from her court was near or she was about to lose control. Chase noticed as well, and concern clouded his silver irises. “Angel eyes,” he murmured, stroking a finger over his wife’s cheek.
She blinked, focusing on his face, but the crimson of her irises remained. “I’m okay,” she assured. “I just need to…” Angel’s focus shifted to Kira as my mother ran her fingers over the ground, smearing away a layer of dirt and other gunk I didn’t want to think about. The things scuttling in the dark made my skin crawl. “Those markings,” Angel whispered.
It took another moment or two for Kira to clear the floor enough that I could see what Angel was referring to. There were, in fact, ancient runes, symbols, or whatever cryptic script inscribed into the ground.
“What does it say?” Travis asked, hunkering down beside Kira for a closer look.
“It’s a message, a warning,” Angel whispered as we all looked at her with similar expressions of disbelief and gaping mouths.
I glanced at my cousin, who only shook his head, befuddled like the rest of us.
Kira traced her fingers over the marks. “It mentions fallen angels—those first to inhabit the underworld and form the five sectors of Hell. And warns that he who turns the key will be judged before entering Hecate’s Grove. From there, the path of your destiny is decided.”
There was a time when Chase’s father, a higher demon, had referred to Angel as the “Key.” A lump formed in my throat.
“It has to be me,” she whispered.
Chase and I exchanged uneasy glances. This could be bad.
“Angel, perhaps we should just let Kira open the door,” I suggested.
“She’s right,” Kira mumbled, so quiet, I wasn’t sure I heard her. “Any of us could open the door, but only Angel can’t be judged. Her status as a queen grants her immunity. She can’t be judged by any god or magic.”
My teeth ground together. “I thought you said this entrance would get us in undetected?”
Mom shrugged as if it was no sweat off her back if we got caught. “I was pretty sure.”
Was this why she had called my brother, because she needed Angel to open the portal? If there was any truth in my hunch, she and I were going to have words.
Angel took the key back from Kira and knelt down to the marks. There was a small hole in the center of the symbols, where she inserted the key. Everyone in the chamber held their breath, waiting to see what happened next. Chase put a hand on his wife’s shoulder. After a few more long seconds, I began to think Kira was sending us on a wild goose chase.
I turned on my heels, facing my mother with a scowl, when the doorway behind the statue trembled with enough force to shake the tomb. Rocks and debris rained over the chamber as the wall split and opened just wide enough to make an entrance.
“Holy shit,” Travis said.
“I can’t believe it,” Emma echoed. “It actually worked.” I don’t think anyone was more surprised than her.
“So, who’s going first?” I inquired, raising a brow.
Chase shot me a wicked smirk. “After you, cuz.”
I rolled my eyes but took a step toward the opening. Fuck me. Ashor better goddamn appreciate the shit I went through to protect him for once. As if the thought of my mate sent a signal down our bond, a sharp shooting pain went through my back, and I hissed. My palms flattened against the rough stone wall as I rode out the wave of agony.
“Lex,” Angel called, but her voice was s
o far away, as if she was at the other side of the ocean. She touched my elbow. “What’s wrong?” she asked.
The pain was blowing out my hearing and thankfully only lasted a few seconds. “I’m okay,” I assured, straightening back to my full height. “It’s not me. It’s Ashor,” I informed, ribbons of panic rippling through me.
“This is as far as I go,” Kira said. “Cayden will be waiting at the gate.”
I nodded. “Thank you. I couldn’t have gotten this far without your help.”
An odd expression shifted into her expression. A cross between concern and fear. “I’ll see you when you get home. You still have your end of the bargain to uphold.”
I stepped into the opening, turning to the side to make sure I squeezed through. Like a snap of a finger, the flickering light from the chamber was gone, and I was veiled in utter darkness. Nothing I wasn’t accustomed to, but my family was another story. Angel’s hand slipped into mine like an anchor, keeping us from being separated. Another snap of a finger, and the five of us were surrounded by a dense white mist cold enough to freeze the tip of my nose.
This was the in between—the leg of our journey that would be the most dangerous. It was up to Angel to guide us to Hell's Gate, to the Court of Darkness. A single wrong turn and we might never return—never see each other again. It was a massive gamble, but I didn’t see that we had another choice. My mother had kept her word. I just prayed Cayden did as well.
“Holy shit. I can’t believe we’re back here,” Travis proclaimed. A haze of mist so thick I could hardly make out his form clouded between us, but I heard the tremor in his voice, his body shuddering.
I hadn’t been with them the first time they’d wandered through limbo, but I imagined the memories weren’t pleasant, and I was sorry for it.
“I never thought I would willingly go back,” Emma agreed. They had only come in the first place to save me. Something I was never going to forget. Only family, people who truly cared about you, pulled a stunt like they had.
“None of us did,” Chase said. The doorway behind us was gone, the mist swallowing us whole.
“This way,” Angel said, her eerie eyes glowing bright like little tracking beacons through the heavy vapor.
Sticking close together, we followed her, Chase grabbing onto her hand, tying her to him. We walked blindly for at least ten minutes, and the tension at being discovered started to ease—until the temperature dropped in a familiar chill that made my skin pucker with goose bumps. My heartbeat picked up, thumping against my ribs. I couldn’t tell if it was fear or excitement that caused my pulse to race. “Someone’s coming,” I murmured, halting as I searched through the dense fog.
Travis’s voice was rough when he said, “You’re sure? I don’t see—”
The outline of a dark shadow appeared, a man sitting on top of a horse. The sight brought forth sharp needle-like pains in my chest. I couldn’t pick apart my own emotions, not now, not when I was on the verge of throwing up.
My eyes were glued to the figure, the winds blustering, whistling, and moaning like chained ghosts of the past, turning the air to frost. Snow fluttered from the misty sky like pieces of broken stars, glittering through Hell’s Mist. In the distance, Hellhounds barked battle cries, craving the hunt. Hooves thundered over the dirt, pounding into the ground in ferocity and death.
The Wild Hunt had arrived.
Fuck!
This was not part of the plan.
What was the Hunt doing here? Was Ashor with them? Had something happened to Cayden? Had he sent the Hunt after me? Or was it the bitch queen herself who gave the order?
Was it wrong to hope that just once something would go according to plan?
“I assume our cover has been blown.” Chase glowered at the approaching riders.
My pulse galloped much like the Hellmounts they rode in on, swift and earnest. It was pointless to run, so I stood frozen, waiting for the Hunt to materialize. A part of me hoped against all hope that Ashor would be among them.
“Lexi,” Chase and Travis hissed, but their voices were like pesky flies, buzzing softly in the distance.
I swatted them away and took a step forward, pulled to the Hunt. The riders called to some deep part of my soul. “It’s the Wild Hunt,” I mumbled.
“No shit,” Chase cursed, tugging me back a step. “What do you want to do?”
Dread pitted in my belly, growing with each mounting second. One rider turned into two, which turned into three and so forth. I couldn’t see their faces. Not yet. If we ran and Ashor was among them… But if we stayed and he wasn’t.
Crap! I didn’t know what to do?
I should have listened to my gut, but my impetuous nature longed to see Ashor—burned for him to be among the riders. Where is he? Where. The. Actual. Fuck is he?
This can’t be happening.
Had Cayden betrayed me? Did Cayden squeal on me, run to his queen?
Through the white air, my gaze clashed with soulless eyes as dark as tar and grew wide. My muscles locked up, and fear slammed into me, knocking the breath out of my chest. I stumbled back a step or two into Travis, who caught me. Those monstrous eyes belonged to the very last demon I wanted to see.
Soren Clave.
The air felt like little shards of glass in my lungs, tearing me up inside, and all I could do was watch as the sadistic asshole rode straight to me. Soren pulled back on the reins of his Hellmount in front of me. The horse reared up, kicking his front legs as flames licked over his hooves, warming my cheeks. With a thunderous crash, the horse hit the ground, sending tremors under my feet.
“Hello, little demon,” Soren sneered in a way that made my skin feel as if a nest of centipedes was crawling over it. “What a pleasant surprise. I wondered when we’d meet again. I just didn’t expect it would be so soon. But it does save me the trouble of having to hunt you down.” His head cocked to the side as eyes born of evil raked over me. “Although, I would have thoroughly enjoyed doing so.”
Memories of how he had trapped his brother flashed through my mind, and my fear quickly turned to a roaring rage, drowning all rational parts of me. “Has anyone ever told you that you talk too much?”
A twisted laugh went through Soren’s chest, his horse prancing under him. “Words can be powerful.”
Alongside me, my family formed a wall. “Where’s Ashor?” I demanded, getting straight to the point. It was why I was here, not to catch up with Soren.
Soren’s black cloak billowed in the wind. “Your mate? The one that abandoned you?”
Saved was more like it, but I kept my lips pressed together, my fingers curled into fists. I was about ten seconds away from knocking the demon off his horse and clocking Soren in the nose. I wanted to see his black blood coat the powder of white snow that had begun to blanket the ground. “Where is he?” I asked again with more force, feeling far braver than I felt facing this beastly demon.
“Soren,” one of the other riders said in a low warning.
Soren’s unnatural onyx eyes narrowed. “You’re a fool to come here.”
“Am I?” I taunted, attempting to confuse him and make him doubt his advantage. Soren could be his own worst enemy, a demon with such cruelty but lacking true confidence thanks to his mother. Definite mommy issues.
We stared at each other, long and unyieldingly, neither of us backing down. I refused to give Soren the satisfaction of watching me squirm.
“There is no place for you here, mortal. Or have you already forgotten what happened last time? Hmm,” he cooed, like a revelation just occurred to him. “Perhaps that’s it. You want to come back. That can be arranged. My mother would love nothing more than to see you again. Should I give you a lift?” He held out his thin, pale hand, nails long and tapered to sharp points, perfect for slicing open a heart.
Chase and Travis both snarled in protest.
The demon inside me growled, and I knew my eyes shifted into their unique shade of gold and aqua, yet regardless of the storm bre
wing inside me, I smiled at Ashor’s brother. “Why don’t you get off your high horse and come get me. Or are you afraid I’ll kick your ass again?” I readied my stance.
“Soren,” a voice boomed.
We all turned to see Cayden stalking toward us with unbridled violence. Wisps of smoke curled around him, banishing the mist with each of his steps.
I realized too late that taking my eyes off Soren for even a split second was a regrettable mistake I wouldn’t be able to undo. The arrival of Cayden sent Soren into action, knowing that Cayden wouldn’t let him hurt me, his best friend’s mate.
Soren’s fingers tangled into my hair, and I was yanked backward against his sidestepping horse. My side hit the powerful beast, the flames circling his muscular legs scorched at my ankles, and with one simple order from Soren, his horse bolted into the mist, dragging me along with them.
12
Pain burst at my hair roots, and I screamed, a vacant sound that echoed through the sudden vastness of the in between, a place neither for the living or the dead. The mist was like a heavy coat that offered no warmth, and I was sucked back into that place of panic and helplessness—a place I never wanted to be again.
“Lexi!” My name was bellowed from somewhere within the dense, frosty mist, bouncing around me from all sides as I was jarred against the horse.
Soren hauled me in front of him, and I went wild, scratching, thrashing, kicking, and punching, anything I could do to dislodge myself from his mount. I’d rather take my chances wandering aimlessly in Hell’s Mist than find out what Soren planned to do with me.
Never!
“Let me go, you asshole!” I hissed, hitting him on the shoulder as I squirmed against his hold to grab my dagger without success.
His laugh made my skin crawl and my stomach pitch. Memories of him chasing me through the woods, taunting me as he created vivid pictures of what he planned to do when he caught me rose in my mind. He hadn’t though, and I reminded myself of that fact again and again. Ashor had found me. And now I had to find him. I was every bit as persistent as the Prince of Darkness was lethal.
