The Hanged Maiden: A Reverse Harem Romance (Rise of the Ash Gods Book 1)

by Cara Wylde

  “Wh-why?” she managed in a choked voice.

  He smiled, and that single smile lit up the whole cave. He released a long, hot breath, and Valentina closed her eyes, realizing that wasn’t a man breathing over her face, but a god and a dragon. Her tears dried up as if by magic.

  “Because Fate has already decided, and a wise god never even tries to trump Fate. I am a wise god. And I have nothing better to do anyway, so there’s that, too.”

  Valentina let out a tentative laugh. She couldn’t believe he was actually trying to make a joke. He was so serious! He released her and took a couple of steps back. She dragged in a breath and allowed her body to relax. Her muscles were sore from too much tension, stress, and squeezing against the wall in an attempt to avoid touching the god’s enticing nakedness. Come to think of it... Maybe she should have allowed herself a small indulgence. She shook her head to clear her traitorous mind.

  “So, what you’re saying is...”

  “I am the Magician you seek, and I have no reason to fight what’s coming. You will trap me inside your card, and then I will lead you to the Suit of Coins. It is what it is.”

  “Wow! I... I did not expect this. Loki...” She stole a glance at the Trickster, and laughed out loud. The look on his face spoke of doom and gloom. “Loki was not easy to convince.”

  “I’m sorry you had to deal with him. And I’m sorry your trials and tribulations will not end here.”

  “What the fuck does that mean?!” Loki stomped in front of Veles, hands squeezed into fists at his sides.

  Valentina cringed. The F-word again, and spoken in Veles’s face like that. The god was a gentleman through and through. Albeit a bit of an exhibitionist.

  “Loki...”

  He laughed in her face. “I know, princess. You’ll have to get used to it. When you learn how to summon me in the flesh, that’s exactly what I intend to do to you.”

  She blushed but did her best to look offended rather than embarrassed. What was it to him? Did he feel that threatened by Veles? He’d never spoken to her like that before, and now it was as if he was a different person.

  “Classic,” Veles said with slight disgust. “Don’t worry, Valentina. Unlike this one, I’m not an uncivil Trickster god. I’m a Sorcerer god, and I will act according to my status.”

  Loki’s laugh became even more obnoxious. “Funny you should say that. If I remember correctly, one of your aspects is, in fact, a Trickster aspect.”

  Veles threw him a murderous look. “I am who I am, and my other aspects are who they are. One of your other aspects once fathered an eight-legged horse.”

  “Now, listen here, you...”

  “Guys, stop! Please stop! Please!”

  “I’m not done here,” Loki protested.

  “Seriously, I beg of you...” She tried to grab his arm, but her hand went right through him. She cursed under her breath. “We have more important things to do. You two can fight inside the deck. How does that sound?”

  “Awful!” Loki yelled.

  Veles sighed and walked away, to the center of the cave. He looked up at the sky and smiled. This world wasn’t for him. He’d chosen to retreat to the ninth dimension because it was the most unpopulated one. Being trapped inside a tarot card didn’t bother him in the least. He would be doing his part in protecting the Mysteries of the Trionfi, and helping this beautiful, special young woman, at the same time. He had lost interest in living as a god, reincarnating on Earth, and exploring the dimensions a long, long time ago. Immortality had become a burden to him. Maybe she could help. Valentina De Rossi. Maybe, just maybe, she could be his salvation.

  “Are we doing this, or what?”

  Valentina snapped to attention. It was time to ignore Loki and do what she had come here to do. The Trickster could be such a baby and a distraction sometimes. She pulled out the painting of the Magician and the brush. She started explaining to Veles how it worked, but he silenced her with a gesture. He had already seen it when he’d looked into her eyes and her soul. He’d read her like an open book. It struck Valentina that he probably knew about the kiss, too. He knew how much Loki wanted her. This stupid ability these gods had would be the end of her. She approached him carefully, brush in hand.

  “I’m going to need a bit of your blood.”

  “Here, let me help,” Loki said, and threw a holographic knife right at the Magician. It went through him, and the Trickster cursed. Still, it had felt good enough.

  Valentina rolled her eyes at him. She rummaged through her backpack and found a sewing kit she’d taken from a random hotel. A needle should do the trick. Veles stepped closer to her, and again, she blushed like crazy.

  “Err... would you like me to...” She started pulling Loki’s coat off.

  He shook his head. “No. I feel restricted enough by this human skin. The last think I need is clothes. It was such a chore to focus my powers and see you. And all that because you found me too scary as a dragon.”

  “N-no. I didn’t find you scary at all.” As she pricked his finger, she did her best not to look between his legs. “Will you, at least, wear the Magician’s cloak when you get inside the card?” It struck her as a possible solution just as she was adding the blood to Sia’s painting, following the edges of said cloak.

  “I’ll feel better in my dragon skin. You’ll get used to it, Keeper.”

  “Of course.” Well, at least she wouldn’t have to see him naked all the time. In truth, the dragon would still be naked, but she’d never been turned on by an underground reptile before, and she doubted it would ever happen.

  The ritual lasted less than a minute. Before she knew it, Valentina had another card of the Trionfi Chiari fully recovered. Since the first thing Veles did the moment he entered his card was to shift into his dragon form, push the Magician’s tools off the table, and settle comfortably to sleep, it was Loki’s job to move Valentina back to the third dimension. Tired of his endless chatter, Val forced the Trickster back into his own card, and proceeded to find her way out of the tunnels. Blessed silence. She even allowed herself to explore the fortress and enjoy a delicious French waffle covered in melted chocolate and whipped cream.

  Life was good. She missed Piper. She even missed the hobgoblin. But life was good. She was finally getting somewhere. Back at the hotel, the Magician would show her the way to the Suit of Pentacles, and then she’d see what next. In fact, maybe she should wait until tomorrow to do that. Yes, it was important, and every minute mattered, but she was exhausted. She’d find a nice restaurant in Grenoble, enjoy a nice meal, drink a bottle of some famous French wine all by herself, take a long, hot bath, and sleep. No alarm. When she’d wake up the next day, she’d get back to this whole mad journey she’d taken upon herself.

  Two gods down. Seven to go.

  EPILOGUE

  Cairo, Egypt

  The temple of La Congrega di Denari wasn’t isolated like the other ones. Between one of the greatest bazaars in the city and a shopping mall, it looked like a mosque that was forbidden to tourists and outsiders. Valentina stepped confidently through its gates, hope fluttering in her chest. It looked anything but deserted. Keepers and Apprentices were studying in the yard, and when she walked past them toward the main door, they lifted their eyes one by one, watching her with interest. It was incredible! Almost impossible, yet true. La Congrega di Denari hadn’t been hit. The Suit of Pentacles was, most likely, perfectly safe in its altar room. Now, all she had to do was to see it with her own eyes and talk to the High Keeper about restoring the full power of the Major Arcana.

  Just as she was reaching for the door, someone grabbed her by the arm and pulled her away, behind the building. Valentina jumped out of her skin, suppressed a scream, and almost stumbled on her own feet. She reached for her deck of cards, but the person who had grabbed her pulled at her arm even harsher, and soon, they were both running out into the street. The next thing she knew, she was following the stranger through the n
arrow, winding alleys of the bazaar.

  “Wait! Who are you? What’s happening?”

  The man didn’t answer and didn’t look back at her. He dragged her through the crowd of tourists and merchants, forcing her to keep up with him. His hair was dirty and shaggy, and the only reason Valentina didn’t fight him was because he wore the purple habit of La Congrega di Denari. He took a left turn, then a right one, and a left again, and dragged Valentina inside a jewelry shop. At the back, behind the counter, he pushed a curtain aside and pulled her into a small, cramped room with no windows.

  “You have to tell me what’s going on,” Val insisted. Then, the man finally turned and looked at her. She gasped and covered her mouth with her hands. “What happened to you?”

  His face was a mess. From a distance, it might have looked normal, but from up close, Valentina could see how his features shifted. It was as if his eyes, nose, and chin were moving constantly, a little to the right, a little to the left, up, and then down. Like they couldn’t find their place, like his face couldn’t decide what it wanted to look like.

  “You’re a witch,” the man said in a gurgling voice. “A Keeper. What are you a Keeper of?”

  “The Spades.” It was a miracle she could find her words. She was in shock. She had never seen anything like this in her whole life.

  “Good. Good. I knew you’d come. I knew someone would come.” He pulled out his tarot deck. “You have to take them with you. The Suit of Pentacles. You have to keep them safe.”

  “What do you mean? No! The temple is still standing. It hasn’t been hit. Your Suit is safe. I’ve come a long, long way. You have to help me.”

  “You don’t understand.”

  He grabbed her by the arms, and she could feel how cold his hands were. Dead cold.

  “Who are you? What happened to you?” she asked.

  “I’m the High Keeper of the Pentacles. Or, what’s left of me.” His lips twitched and his eyes rolled up into his head, only to recover the next second. “Listen to me. The temple is not the same. My Keepers and my Apprentices are not the same. I’m not...” His gurgling voice cracked. He dragged in a breath. “Take the cards and go. You have to go.”

  “N-no... I don’t understand.”

  He pushed his deck into her shaking hands, and took a few steps back, covering his face with an arm, as if the poor light filtering through the curtain suddenly hurt his eyes. Valentina looked through the deck and noticed that the original Suit of Pentacles was there, the characters in the cards agitated, worried, and almost angry. The Knight of Pentacles yelled at her “Go now!”.

  “I can’t,” she said. “High Keeper, tell me how I can help you. Tell me what happened. I can fix this.”

  “You can’t.” His voice was fading, turning into something else, into a shriek from another world. “Leave.”

  Valentina reached for the curtain but didn’t pull it aside yet. She couldn’t just leave him there. She needed answers, at least. When black smoke started coming out of his ears, eyes, and nose, she knew something was terribly wrong. With wide eyes, she watched as the man practically dissolved, his skin melted, his bones crumbled to the ground, his purple robe falling on top of a heap of meat, skin, and burned pieces of cloth. She couldn’t move, couldn’t make a noise. Out of what once was the body of the High Keeper, black smoke rose to the ceiling, and slowly took the shape of a nāga. Half human, half serpent, the creature hissed at Valentina and jumped at her throat. Val took a step back, stumbled over the curtain, took it down with her, and found herself on the floor, looking into the yellow, snake eyes of the fourth-dimensional beast. She couldn’t remember a single spell, and her hands were shaking so hard that it would have been impossible to cast a sigil. What saved her was Magny’s sudden appearance out of thin air. He poofed himself on her chest, and with a wide gesture, he sent the nāga into a spin, until it hit the back wall of the cramped room, fell to the floor, and vanished in a cloud of black smoke.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “Miss, you okay?” The old shopkeeper helped her up, and Valentina held on to him for dear life. “You good, Miss? I make tea?”

  “Thank you, thank you. No, I’m fine. I... I’ll be on my way. I’m so sorry about the mess.”

  She realized he hadn’t seen a thing. He hadn’t seen the smoke creature that attacked her, and he couldn’t see the hobgoblin either. When she stole one last glance into the room, what was left of the High Keeper of the Coins was his purple robe. Just a piece of cloth that anyone could have dropped there and forgotten about it. A cup of tea would have done her a world of good, but there was no time for that. She ran out of the shop and through the crowded alleys of the bazaar. She ran until she couldn’t run anymore. Magny was bouncing on her shoulder, holding on to her thick braid like a rider holding on to the mane of his horse. She stopped a few streets away from the bazaar and the temple, and doubled over, trying to catch her breath.

  “What was that?” she rasped. “And what the hell are you doing here?”

  “You know exactly what that was.” He poofed himself on the pavement, in front of her. With a snap of his fingers, he materialized a fan out of thin air and proceeded to help her cool down.

  “The High Keeper...”

  “That wasn’t the High Keeper.”

  “He was. What was left of him. He said...”

  “We have to keep going. Actually, we should leave Cairo now. Today.”

  “I’m not... I’m not going anywhere until I get some answers.” She straightened her back. “You were supposed to be with Piper.”

  “Well, to tell you the truth, she and her girlfriend were starting to get very boring. And then, Piper decided to take Sia to Leavenworth to meet her family, and I found life with the Chases quite tedious. You’re much more fun to be around.”

  “What the hell? Piper is home? She never told me.”

  “In her defense, she wanted to tell you, but that Sia person is a bitch.”

  “Magnus!”

  “Okay, okay... Jesus! But that’s not the only reason I’m here.” He looked up into her eyes, and his courage vanished. He couldn’t tell her.

  “Magny, for Goddess’ sake! Spit it out already!”

  “I don’t know how to tell you this...”

  “Words. You put words together into sentences. That’s how you tell me.”

  He rolled his eyes at her. “Piper has a message for you. She... she wanted you to know that she saw your parents. And that friend of yours, Dante. They’re fine. They’re asking about you.”

  Valentina’s jaw fell. Literally. She closed her mouth before the stench of the hot and humid streets turned into a sticky, disgusting taste on her tongue, and took a few steps back, until she hit the wall of an old building. She crumbled to the ground and hugged her knees to her chest.

  “That can’t be right.”

  “I know, Keeper.”

  “I should be happy. Relieved. But...”

  “You’re horrified.”

  She nodded. “Magny, I’m horrified.”

  “Me too.”

  THE END

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  More Books by Cara Wylde

  Their Winter Miracle

  Reverse Harem Sci-Fi

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  After a string of bad luck and rather poor choices, curvy Pippa Steele lands on an alien planet, in an unknown galaxy, where winter seems to reign supreme. When three handsome aliens save her from freezing to death, she hopes it won’t be that hard to convince them to give her a ride back to Earth. But first, she has to make them understand that no, she’s not an escaped slave, and they should definitely not return her to the slave trader who’d tricked her into boarding his ship.

  Kayvor, Trevkon, and Ashtar form a triad, but they�
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  Lure Academy. A place ruled by demons of love and lust. A place where cambions – the offspring of incubi and succubi – come to learn how to control their powers and use them to protect mankind. Lure Academy is the only place that curvy, insecure Sophie can finally call home.

  Sophie’s first day at the Academy is equally exciting and frightening. She will attend the Midnight Ceremony and choose a mentor who will help her tap into her hidden magic. The problem is that the second she meets hot, dangerous Kain and sexy, mysterious Alexi, Sophie realizes it will be impossible for her to make up her mind. What if she chooses both of them? Would it be too much for her, as a young, inexperienced apprentice, to handle?

  Kain and Alexi are the best cambions Lure Academy has. They’ve been secretly attracted to each other for months, and now it so happens that they want the same thing: to possess Sophie. Will she bring them together, or tear them apart? Every time the three of them meet, sparkles fly and the air around them becomes heavy with desire.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Cara Wylde loves to write about strong, feisty women and their hot Alphas who will do anything to make them happy. Her books are filled with romance and just a dash of mystery, suspense, and that eerie atmosphere she fell in love with reading too many gothic novels. With a master's degree in Comparative Literature, she can't help but play with tropes and themes from various genres, trying to come up with fresh perspectives on the paranormal characters her readers love so much. Vampires, shapeshifters, demons, witches... Cara will always make sure they get their own twists.