by J. L. Weil
“Ashor,” I whimpered, shoving aside the pain. I braced my hand against the wall in an attempt to steady my swimming head.
I had to find him.
Before it was too late for us both.
My feet turned in a circle, not feeling the ground underneath me, and the bustle of demon activity didn’t even register. There was nothing but white noise in my head. It hit me with a force that almost knocked me off my feet. He was really gone. No matter where I searched, I wouldn’t find the prince anywhere in the Court of Envy.
Why had Verena let him leave?
Why would he leave me?
Again?
Why?
It didn’t make sense.
I was alone. Utterly alone in Hell.
My back hit the brick wall, and I began to sink to the floor, tears stinging my eyes. My world was spiraling, and I didn’t know what to do about it. Strong hands grabbed my arms, yanking and tugging me back inside the castle. I was shoved not gently back into my room, a door slamming closed in my face. My fists beat against it as I screamed his name into the empty apartment. That broken feeling from so many months ago came back, crippling my bones. Turning around, I dropped to the ground, a crumpled mess of tears and agony. Darkness exuded from my pores, enveloping me like a cloak.
Tears blurred my vision. This ache, this pain, it would only get worse the longer we were apart. It would poke and prod me, a constant reminder to find him, because only then would either of us be complete. When he left, he took half of my soul with him, and now my body was paying the price.
I hadn’t been lying when I told him I would hunt him down.
It was precisely what I planned to do.
The prince and the queen.
Damn them both. Damn him for breaking his promise. Damn him for breaking my heart—a heart I swore no man would ever have again.
Through the muddled disarray of tears and snot, a dark figure emerged from the corner of the room. Except… my room was no longer the one I remembered. It was a prison, fancy demon bars and all, but I didn’t give it more than a fleeting glance, because my tear-soaked eyes couldn’t look away from the figure walking toward me.
Ashor?
Hope surged, but it only took a gut-clenching ache to remind me that Ashor wasn’t here. This shadow wasn’t him. Then the fear came. “What are you doing here?” I hissed, jumping to my feet and scrambling backward. I smeared away the tears and watched as Soren stalked into the center of the room.
“Miss me, little huntress?” His condescending voice was one I’d hoped to never hear again. Ashor’s brother was glowering at me. Evil vibrated in the room as if it were a living thing meant to do me harm.
I sniffled, trying to quickly compose myself when all I wanted to do was fall apart. “How can I miss someone who means nothing to me?” I snapped in a dismissive manner that only infuriated Soren, but I couldn’t stop myself. Fear brought out the bitch in me.
Soren’s hateful eyes flicked over my face before settling onto mine, and a cruel smile twisted on his lips. “Then I’ll make sure to leave a lasting impression this time. Something unforgettable.”
I did the most ladylike thing I could think of. I flipped him off, smiling smugly. “Fuck off.” There was nothing this demon could do to me that would hurt more than being hurt by Ashor.
Soren made a growl of disgust in the back of his throat. “Where is your mate?” he asked as if he read my mind.
I bristled, my chin lifting. “None of your fucking business.”
“Did he leave you again?” Soren clucked his tongue. “He tends to run away from commitment. My brother was never a one-woman demon. Don’t take it to heart.”
His words were a stab in my gut that had my knees wobbling. It was an effort to stay on my feet, but I squared my shoulders and drew on my last grain of strength. “I’m not in the mood to mince words with you. What do you want?”
Solid eyes of coal raked over my body in a perusal that had bile churning in my gut. “You are looking a bit rough around the edges. Sadness isn’t a good look for you. Nor is patheticness.”
My fingers itched to smack that smug grin off his chiseled face.
He slinked closer to me, those unnatural eyes never wavering from mine, like a hawk circling his prey. “I never got a chance to welcome you to the family, sis. Something to look forward to.”
“Bite me.”
Soren flashed his teeth. “With pleasure.”
It was too late to realize the position I was in. Soren had me cornered against the wall. His fingers dove into my hair, grabbing a fistful. I curled my hand into a ball and slammed my fist into his belly just as he yanked my head to the side, sinking his teeth into my neck.
The second his fangs pierced my skin, the fight left me. My arms fell limply to my sides, and a languid feeling spread through my veins as if I was drugged. Something repulsive spread through me.
“You and I are going to have a little fun,” Soren murmured against my throat, his teeth grazing along my pulse. He bit me again. And again. More times than I could count, each bite bringing a new level of pain.
Soon there was nothing but the echoes of my screams. I withdrew inward, unable to take the tortured cries of my own agony, and it was within myself I heard a faint voice calling my name. The voice was far away, trying to cleave the screams that were growing hoarse. “Lexi,” it whispered. “Lexi. Lexi. Lexi.” It grew louder, drowning out my cries. I held on to that voice as it pulled me further and further from the nightmare. Until there was no pain. There was no Soren. There was no ache of hopelessness.
There was only Ashor, holding me in his arms and gently rocking me back and forth on the bed. Eyes wide and wet with tears, my skin glistened with cold sweat as I grappled between reality and… something else. Something utterly fucked-up.
I clung to Ashor, my arms wrapped in death grip around his neck. His scent hit my nostrils, breaking through the terror that swamped all my senses. “Ashor.” His name was a broken sob on my trembling lips.
He stiffened against me for a moment. “It’s okay. You’re okay,” he cooed, running loving fingers down my back to soothe and comfort me. “I’ve got you.”
I didn’t understand. “Your brother,” I croaked. “He—” My voice choked.
His eyes clouded with darkness. “It wasn’t real. It was just an illusion, luv. He can’t hurt you.”
I trembled in his arms, resting my damp brow against his chest. It was all an illusion? But it had felt so real. Not real, I repeated. Again. And again. And again. Just a horrible dream.
Ashor shifted on the bed, and an upswell of panic barreled within me. My arms tightened around him. “Don’t leave,” I said hoarsely.
“Never,” he vowed, pressing a kiss to my temple, settling in.
The Queen of Envy’s laugh echoed in my ears, and I hugged Ashor harder. His darkness wrapped around me, banishing the memories.
At least for the night.
20
“That bitch,” I seethed the following morning, after the worst night of my life. “She was in my head.” I was warned of Verena’s abilities, but witnessing them firsthand was an experience that would stay with me: the manipulation, the illusions, the screwing with my emotions. It seemed the Queen of Envy had an array of vile skills. She was a master illusionist. “She manipulated the world around me. How the fuck can she do that?”
“I’m sorry,” Ashor said. He was staring out the window, gazing at nothing. His fists were clenched. “It’s my fault. I’ve been so careless.”
I touched his shoulder. He flinched, and I felt an exorbitant amount of guilt and remorse through our bond. He blamed himself for what happened.
Of course he would.
Wiggling my way into his lap, I put my other hand on his check, forcing him to look at him. He did so hesitantly. “This isn’t your fault.”
His body was stiff underneath me, coiled with tension. “How is it not? Your mind is unprotected. No one knows better than me the game
s the courts play. I should have seen this coming. The moment you entered her kingdom, I should have warded your mind against such attacks.”
My mouth dropped open. “You can do that?”
“Yes,” he replied, his hand moving to my knee. “And I can promise you, it won’t happen again.”
My eyes narrowed in suspicion. “How exactly are you able to ward my mind against magical attacks?”
“It’s nothing but a seed of my darkness that I encase your mind in, shielding it from being invaded. You won’t even know it’s there,” he assured.
I was astonished by the depth of his power and the magnitude to which he could manipulate it. “You can share power like that?” I asked.
He bit down on his lip. “I can do a great deal with my gifts.” Normally, a statement like this from Ashor was brimming with cockiness, but not today. It came out more like a burden that weighed heavily on the prince.
“How does it work?” I wanted to know more. I wanted to learn.
“It’s like breathing, an nearly unconscious function that requires very little effort or energy on my part,” he explained. “Which is why I am so angry with myself. She never should have been able to warp your perception.”
If he hadn’t been so serious, I would have rolled my eyes. “First, you have to stop blaming yourself for everything that happens to me. And second, she would have only found another way to torment me. You know it’s true.”
His gaze meandered past my shoulder and back out the window. “Perhaps, but when it comes to you, I don’t exactly think clearly.”
He’d told me before that I was his one true weakness. I didn’t want to be the cause of his demise. I couldn’t take it losing him.
And through our bond, he felt the same.
What a pair we were.
The demon huntress and the dark prince. Destined. Ill-fated. Star-crossed.
We fit all of the tragic tropes.
“It isn’t your job to watch over me twenty-four seven,” I said, but the words might as well have landed on deaf ears. They were a waste of air, because Ashor and I both knew he would never stop protecting me.
That impish light in his eyes returned, twinkling alongside the dimple in his cheek. “I enjoy watching you.”
I rolled my eyes.
“Besides”—he wrapped his arms around me, lacing his fingers together—“it gives me peace of mind. She won’t be able to touch your mind again as long as I have the power to keep her out.”
Neither of us wanted to dwell on what would happen if his energy was ever drained. “Have you ever depleted your powers before?” I asked, curious just how deep his well of darkness was.
“No, but I’ve never actually tried to run it dry.”
My fingers traced over the exposed demon marks crawling up the side of his neck. “You have more power inside you then you let be known. I can feel it harbored inside you. How are you able to keep it contained?” His mother had to release her ever-growing darkness when it became too much for her body to hold. Was Ashor’s not the same?
A crooked grin curved at the side of his lips. “Some secrets are better left unrevealed.”
“That doesn’t work with me.”
He arched a brow. “It doesn’t?”
I opened my mouth and then promptly shut it again as the doors to our suite swung open. A male succubus who looked like he was plucked from the Garden of Eden with perfectly carved features stood in the doorway. His golden locks curled over his forehead in a way that made a girl want to brush them back. Like most demons in Verena’s court, he oozed sex on a stick. If I wasn’t a mated female, my lady parts would be tingling.
“Queen Verena requires your presence at once.” The statement was said with haste and no room for negotiations, yet was delivered in a voice as smooth as velvet.
Ashor and I shared a look. She was the last person I wanted to see after what she had done to me, but I also wanted to know why. What did she gain by toying with my mind?
The prince lifted me off his lap and unfolded himself from the chair to stand tall beside me. “Shall we, luv?” Ashor held out a hand to me, an expression of intrigue and caution lining his brow.
We were both thinking the same exact thought. The queen has made her choice. This was it. She was either with us or against us. Her choice in the next few minutes would decide all our fates, including whether she lived or died.
I couldn’t see how he would be able to find a loophole out of this tangled situation. Was it possible the direction she’d chosen had anything to do with Verena attacking my perception? Why had she wanted me to believe Ashor had abandoned me? I couldn’t find any correlation, but maybe there didn’t need to be.
It didn't help that Ashor was keeping things from me. No matter how hard or long I poked or prodded our bond, I learned nothing of his plot. Perhaps he hadn’t yet decided, which was why it was blocked from me. Or he was using a Lexi-proof shield that kept me from discovering the truth. Feelings were messy things. And I had much to learn about the inner workings of being mated to a demon.
“Do you think she has made her choice?” I murmured, voicing that question that was on both of our minds as we followed the succubus down the opulent white hallway.
He frowned. “I don’t have a good feeling about this. Keep alert and stay close.” Those were his last words to me before we were ushered before the queen.
Verena was seated on her throne, a toned golden leg exposed and crossed over the other. Her gown rode high up her thigh to the side of her hip. She tapped tapered nails over the arm of her throne impatiently. “Finally,” she said when Ashor and I walked in, annoyance etched over her gorgeous features.
“Have you made your…” Ashor’s voice trailed off. Ribbons of alarm tore through our bond, and I glanced at the prince. His jaw was clenched, and he paled. A roaring ripped inside my ears, drawing out all other noise.
The sharp metallic scent of blood hit my senses, and my nostrils flared. It was overwhelming, to the point I knew someone was on the verge of death.
“Cayden,” he muttered.
I swayed at the name. Dizziness spun inside my head at the sight of Ashor’s best friend sprawled out at the bottom of Verena’s dais like a slab of freshly slaughtered meat. How Ashor had identified the body astonished me, because there was nothing of Cayden in the demon who lay unconscious at the queen’s feet. His black fluid stained the floor in a bloody mess.
My eyes flicked over the queen, and I was shocked by the expression on her face. She didn’t look upset, but more put off by the mess covering her floors. “Your mother sent me a gift,” Verena said with an air of one inconvenienced.
In one sharp inhale, it became painfully clear we hadn’t been summoned for her answer. We’d been given another warning from the Queen of Darkness. A very graphic and bloody message.
That bitch.
I am going to kill her.
“I take it you were expecting him?” she added when Ashor didn’t say a word, too struck by the state of Cayden. I wasn't even sure he heard Verena speak.
Ashor dropped to the ground beside his oldest friend, taking hold of his mangled hand. Cayden gave no response, no indication that he knew Ashor was there.
Verena’s nose wrinkled. “He isn’t dead… yet. She left just enough of his soul intact to leave it up to chance, but there is a good possibility he won’t make it through the night.”
“Why would she do this?” I spat, my muscles trembling with rage.
The queen was watching me, intrigued. “Someone has a temper. And is that revenge I taste in the air? You want to make her pay.” Her lips grew into a satisfied grin. “I like you, huntress. So much like your mother.”
“To remind me why I’m here,” Ashor said, going back to my question. The pain and sorrow in his words struck me like a pang to my heart.
“After thousands of years, you’d think she would get sick of sending the same messages over and over again. I’m getting rather tired of having to mop the
blood of demons off my floors.” Verena snapped her fingers.
Two stunning female demons appeared on either side of her. They wore their human forms and moved toward Cayden. Ashor growled as they approached, stopping them from getting close. He didn’t want them to touch his friend.
There was no questioning the pure blackness of Kali’s heart or the amount of hurt she inflicted to get what she desired.
Power. Supreme power.
I felt helpless standing there, doing nothing while Cayden continued to bleed out. “Can you help him?” I beseeched to the queen, something I never thought I would find myself doing. Especially on behalf of the demon who tortured my mate for days upon days.
“Don’t,” wheezed a broken voice unrecognizable as Cayden’s. I didn’t know how he was awake, let alone managed to speak even a single word. But it didn’t last long. He was out again. Lifeless. Pale. And bleeding everywhere.
I ignored his protest, unable to allow him to just lie there in agony, wavering in and out of consciousness while his body slowly stitched itself back together. He might have tortured and inflected pain onto others, but only at the command of his queen. That didn’t absolve him of any wrongs he’d committed. No. Not completely, but I hated him a little less because of it. He was important to Ashor, which now made him important to me.
“Please. Is there nothing you can do? Can you save him?” I pleaded with the queen, hating the desperation in my voice, but the magnitude of Ashor’s pain through our bond was making me sick.
“What will you offer me in return?” Verena asked, springing onto the opportunity to make a deal with me like a cat.
Of course there was a fucking price. Demons never did anything out of the goodness of their hearts. They had no heart.
Ashor’s head snapped up. “Lexi, don’t.”
“We can’t let him die. And if he does manage to survive, it could take him weeks to recover from those injuries.” I wanted to end his suffering.
“I know.” Ashor tipped his chin, glaring at Verena as he stood. “Name your price,” he demanded of the Queen of Envy. He wouldn’t allow me to bargain with her. But he would.
