by Meg Xuemei X
A scream from the mouth of the cave broke the stalemate and stillness.
A massive, three-headed hellhound flew past me with Amber between its jaws, flailing her limbs in the air in utter terror. Ambrosia stumbled into the cave, her face mauled, her armor in shreds.
“No! Leave her alone!” I cried, drawing part of my power back from fending off Hades to halt the hellhound.
“Cerberus is immune to magic, Cass!” Hephaestus yelled.
A flash, and a black panther rose from where Reys had been and shot toward the hellhound. Only in his panther form did he have a chance to catch up with Cerberus before the beast reached the gate.
Reys knew what Amber, my first mortal best friend, meant to me. He knew I would never allow her to be taken, especially to the death realm. He knew I wouldn’t let those I cared about bear the same scars I bore from when I’d been in captivity. So, he was doing this for me.
At the onslaught of Hades’s dark power, my flames started wavering. He was an ancient death god, and I was a new goddess. I couldn’t compete with him in strength, not yet, not while I hadn’t mastered my powers.
He grinned at me, predatory and all white teeth. “Surrender, Daughter,” he ordered, “or this won’t end well for you and your tiny army.”
The battle still raged on around us. A pillar of lava erupted somewhere.
Fire and smoke and sulfur.
Lorcan fought by my side, hacking at the enemies with all of his formidable fierceness, keeping them from getting to me. Alaric joined him in protecting me.
While our warriors had a hard time fighting the wraiths, my mates, who had my blood of fire running in their veins, had no trouble keeping the wraiths at bay.
Though, seemingly none could vanquish the wraiths for good. Only dismiss them temporarily.
The black panther rammed into Cerberus before he reached the Hell Gate, forcing the hellhound to drop Amber. Reys shifted back to his fae form and lunged to pick up my friend. Before he could teleport her to our side, Hades waved a hand at the fae prince.
An iron chain with sharp spearheads on both ends pierced Reys through both wrists, then the host of wraiths and demons were upon him. Reys whipped his flaming sword at the endless horde, cutting and slashing, but they soon overpowered him, latching onto him.
Rage burned in my veins; fear turned my blood to ice.
I couldn’t afford to lose him.
“Reys!” I shrieked, pulling part of my power from warding off Hades to peel the horde away from Reys.
But my power wasn’t enough.
They dragged him toward the Hell Gate in chains.
Lorcan and Pyrder lunged onto the bridge toward the gate. Their vampire and fae warriors charged after them, blades raised high.
Alaric and I had joined hands on the ground, his lightning and my flames having merged to resist Hades.
“You can’t win, Daughter,” Hades said. “You aren’t there yet. You have much to learn.”
His black wind turned into a hurricane, slashing at us, tossing us backwards.
Alaric reached to catch me, but I’d flown past him, my hair being pulled wildly in every direction in the violent wind.
I crashed into granite hard enough to leave a crater behind.
Alaric was at my side the next second, pulling me to my feet.
I ignored my trembling and the bone-shattering pain and lashed into the air, shooting toward Reys and Amber.
Death wind filled the cave, twirling, blinding everyone.
The surviving warriors stumbled, shouting, and covered their heads.
For a second, I could see nothing but the black wind and burning lava spinning inside a forming tornado.
The ground rumbled. The cave was going to give in.
I pushed against the force, my own wind lashing out.
“Reys! Amber!” I screamed, searching for them.
“I have what you want the most, Daughter.” Hades’s voice resonated in the wind. “You’ll come to me willingly. The Olympian gods will be here soon. They’re sure to have spotted the strong power burst in the region. I suggest you don’t linger, unless you want to lose more mates.”
A red-hot blade flew toward Hades. Somehow Alaric had dragged the unfinished Blade of Five Elements from the Hephaestus’s furnace just to try his luck.
The burning blade pierced into nothingness then buried into the cave wall.
The tornado vanished, as did Hades and his horde.
Lorcan and Pyrder stood at the other side of the river, bellowing in rage, their knuckles bone-white on the hilts of their swords.
Reys and Amber were gone. Hades had taken them.
Where the iron Hell Gate had been was a column of erupted lava, its sound the shattering of broken glass.
I dropped to my knees, not caring that they landed on the blobs of lava, threw my head back, and roared my hot fury and icy fear.
The God of Death had taken my mate and my best friend.
The image of iron spikes piercing Reys’s wrists flashed before me again and again. The fucking death god, my despicable father, chained my Reys and dragged him to hell.
Alaric dropped to his knees before me and pulled me into his lap, wrapping me in his arms.
Lorcan and Pyrder guarded on either side of me.
Pain and devastation fogged their eyes. They’d fought side by side since ancient times. They’d gone through the first war of the gods, then the great dragon war, then numerous wars against other supernaturals and mortals.
They’d formed the brotherhood. It had been broken and re-forged.
They’d found me, their mate, and we should be the unbreakable five.
They’d just gotten me back, and now we’d lost Reys to Hell. And Amber, one of our pack members and my best friend. She’d taught me to read and write.
I searched and searched.
I was Earth’s heir. I could sense all living things, but I couldn’t find Reys and Amber because they were no longer on Earth’s surface. They were out of Earth’s realm.
They were in Death’s domain, on the other side of the veil that I couldn’t reach.
“I can’t find them,” I said, my voice cracked and caught in my throat.
My heart was broken, but I refused to be so helpless.
I threw up my hands and blasted my tri-fires at where the Hell Gate had been until no fire came out of me. Until the deep well in me was exhausted.
“It’s been sealed,” Hephaestus said near me. “The gate is now beneath the Earth. You won’t be able to blast it open without the hell power. You’ll have to go through the main gate as the heir to the Underworld. That’s what Hades meant. That you’d go to him willingly.”
“Let’s go to the main gate then!” I said, struggling to get up from Alaric’s lap. “What are we waiting for?”
“We’ll all go and get Reys and Amber back, sweetheart, but not today,” Alaric said, steel and grief in his voice, terrifying menace rolling off him in waves. Hephaestus stepped away from us.
“Let’s bring our wounded and dead back home,” Lorcan added. “We’ll regroup and plan before we strike.”
We’d lost many good warriors. A lot of them became my friends. I’d seen Xihin being cut down, and Luke, too. Had Celeb survived? Last I’d seen, a wraith had thrust his claws into my half-demon friend’s chest. I needed to check on him. I needed to help all of them.
I needed to pay respect to the dead.
But I couldn’t move as grief paralyzed me.
My mates surrounded me, channeling me their strength, love, and determination, but none could diminish the hollowness in me.
Agony drowned me. A piece was missing from my soul.
“He isn’t gone,” Pyrder said. “Your mate—my twin—isn’t gone. We’ll get him back. Come back to us, Cass baby, we’re here.”
All I could see was the chains piercing Reys’s wrists.
My mates conversed with each other and the warriors, coordinating the retreat. Their words passed b
y my ears, their meanings lost to me.
“The Blade of the Five Elements is done,” Hephaestus said. “We need to burn the final runes on it.”
“I said I’d take care of the runes.” Alaric snarled. “Hand me the blade, now.”
“I need to make sure the blade is properly done,” Hephaestus insisted. “I’ll go with Cass and all of you. I’ll swear a blood vow to never betray her.”
“Dulcis,” Lorcan said with heartbreaking gentleness. “We have to go before the gods come.”
Pyrder carried me outside the cave.
A shimmer conjured by Alaric appeared in front of us.
We tore through the veil.
Harsh wind from the dark space howled, calling me.
In response, a dark storm arose in me, whirling. It was so dark and violent that nothing else existed. Then, in its depth, a spark of ember emerged, expanded, and stretched to distant galaxies.
My bones ached, twisting, enlarging, and transforming.
Pain sank its fangs into my every fiber. My flesh tore. My soul split.
A terrifying monster that I’d leashed under the ice lake broke through.
All chains fell off her.
She could no longer be contained.
She wanted to destroy. She wanted to burn everything in her path, until the universe was nothing but ash.
She breathed fire. Freedom!
My bones kept stretching to their limits, agony shattering my every cell. Yet it was less painful than what I felt when the God of Death tore my beloved Reys from me, spearing his flesh and chaining him.
I let pain take me over.
I breathed in pain and fire.
I had shifted. I’d adapted my fae mates’ shifting ability. I’d finally let the fiery beast out.
The shimmer from Alaric’s ring was gone.
Atop the cliff, where a dark expanse of ocean crashed against the ancient rocks, perched a dragon.
Cassandra Saélihn was no more. I was no more.
In my stead, a dragon goddess spread her scaled wings and roared fire into the black sky, for her lost mate.
- continued on -
The final installment A Court of Earth and Ether
Coming in February 2019
Author’s Notes
Dear Reader,
Thank you for coming so far. Cass is rude to most people, but she’ll never be rude to you guys. Because of your support, I can keep writing for you. My special thanks to each and every one of you who are so kind to leave a review for my books. You’re my rock!
Cass shifted to a dragon, now she doesn’t know how to shift back, and it’s her mates’ job to bring her back with everything they have. And I promise an epic fight between the gods and Cass and her mates, and there’ll be a very kinky, steamy sex scene somewhere in A Court of Earth and Aether.
~ Meg
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SNEAK PREVIEW: THE EMPRESS OF MYSTH
Forbidden. Sworn Enemy. Wicked Seduction.
Savage Angels have turned Earth into their hunting ground. To save all earthborn, the Fae princess Rose cedes to the marriage demands of the King of Angels, knowing she won't survive the wedding night. When she comes to Atlantis to find a secret weapon to banish the barbaric powerful alien intruders from our planet, she awakens the darkest lust in the king's lethal brother.
The most formidable Archangel comes across the universe and finds her. He will stop at nothing to possess her, even if he must fall.
The High Prince offers Rose an indecent proposal: sleep with him once and he'll protect her from the Angel King. Rose will turn his urge against him and destroy the Angels' house. While unbridled lust burns the prince, it also torments her.
Publisher's note: This complete collection contains explicit, wild love scenes, epic battles, intrigue court politics, and the hottest, dominating Archangels and feisty Fae, who fight the alien Angels in bed and war at every turn. HFN guaranteed.
Turn the page for a sneak peek of
The Empress of Mysth (The Complete Series)
Princess Rose
I swam in the natural spring creek.
My royal guards stood outside the door to make sure no one, especially angels, would disturb me.
The bath chamber was indeed one of the Dragonian’s best works in providing a luxury bath for the royal family members. I could imagine how sour the engineer race had been since the angels had taken this city of wonder from them. Some of them were bitter enough that they would do anything, including forming an alliance with me, to take back Atlantis.
The lingerie I wore covered part of my breasts and my thighs. It wasn’t modest, but it was easy to swim in.
No one would see me in it anyway.
Rain bombarded the roof. We Mysthians loved the rain as whimsical music from Earth Mother. I shifted to swim in a butterfly fashion, and a sudden wind blew from the skylight, sending down a sprinkle of rain. I twisted my torso to look up. The skylight, over a hundred feet up, was shut. Where had the wind and rain come from?
King Agro had said only he and his brother had access through the skylight, and he’d promised that he would never breach my privacy since there was no need for him to sneak up to observe my bath. He’d also mentioned that if the high prince dared to invade my personal space and come to watch me, he’d have a reason to behead his brother. King Agro had then dismissed the prospect. “Don’t mind the prick. He lost his sexual appetite toward any female two millennia ago.”
“Then he’s into males then?” I had asked.
The king had snorted. “No, he prefers to stab them.”
That was before I’d found out that I’d awoken the high prince from his sexual hibernation.
I turned to swim sideways and studied the sealed skylight.
I was alone in the Spring Hall, yet I had this feeling that I wasn’t anymore.
A puff of wind wafted a scent my way—pine in the winter, aged fine wine, and new leather in the rain.
I swallowed. The high prince was here with me. I just couldn’t see him.
He’d cloaked himself, as he’d cloaked himself and me in the king’s study. King Agro had walked past us, carrying a gold box with a chastity belt inside that was meant for me while the prince and I had stared right at him, less than five feet away.
I sharpened my senses and focused on finding the direction of the male scent.
He was perched on the north beam near the ceiling, which was a good spot to spy on me.
Ever since I’d discovered that I brought out the sexual hunger in the high prince, I’d decided that he was my mark.
He was universally feared and full of dark secrets.
He carried great powers, some of them hidden even from his own kind.
I’d tested other angels, especially the guards sent by the king and the high prince. None of the guards could make themselves invisible. They didn’t think anyone could, though they bragged to have some sort of device that could cloak their spaceships.
I strained my ears to catch any noise the prince would soon make, even a faint fluttering of wings or a heavy breath, but the prince remained quiet.
Hadn’t he realized he could never have me? I’d been promised to his brother. If he tried to take me, he would humiliate the King of Angels beyond repair. They would wage a civil war against each other. The prince commanded a small army; the king’s horde was larger.
If I could drive them to war, the Mysthians and Dragonian would fight whatever was left of the angel armies and have a better chance to win. First, I needed to fuel the prince’s lust.
I would seduce h
im, but never allow him to violate me. If he soiled me, not only would my reputation be ruined, but the king would have no need to keep me other than to display my head on a spike.
I glanced to where the high prince had cloaked himself, glad that my prey had finally come.
Watch, but you can never touch. When you touch, you burn.
Angels had no moral code, but somehow my instinct told me that the High Prince of Angels would not force himself on me, at least not in the beginning.
So let’s flame his lust and see how he handles it.
It was going to hurt like a bitch for him after awakening from long years of sexual apathy and inactivity, only to realize he could never get release from the object of his lust.
Burn!
What if his control slipped? Then I had a surprise for him.
I had put an Angel Shocker on my wrist, a nasty device made by the Dragonian. They’d rewired some of the weapons carried by the rogue angels they’d captured. The Angel Shocker was test-proven.
If the prince dared attack me, I’d shock him to kingdom come, and the king could come pick up his unconscious brother and fulfill his wish of having the prince’s head on a plate.
So, Prince Seth, come to me. I won’t disappoint you. I’ll be full of surprises for you.
I stood up, my lingerie hugging my body and showing every curve. I casually brushed my fingers over my nipples that poked against the flimsy material. I heard a rasp near the skylight, and I gazed down at the swell of my half-exposed breasts, wondering what the prince thought of them.
Slowly, I treaded toward the stream bank on the opposite side. To get a better view of me, the prince would have to move.
We would see how he was going to manage it while I was on full alert.
As I expected, he moved.
He might be the most skilled angel at flying so quietly. The sound of the pouring waterfall near me and the spattering rain on the ceiling also worked to his advantage. But he couldn’t cover the sudden wind current caused by his movement, no matter how subtle it was. Also, his pure male scent grew stronger with flight.
