The Burn of the Underworld

by Meg Xuemei X

  “Have you helped my brother?” I turned my anxious gaze back to Max and Ash. “Did you bring him medicine? My new friends told me he escaped. I need to—”

  Then I saw a large, familiar figure staggering down the slope of the hill toward me.

  Sebastian. Tears streamed down my face.

  “We had to leave him and the tiger behind to reach you,” Ash said and trained his stern gaze on Killian. “I ordered your tiger to stay with your brother. But he isn’t a well-trained tiger. He has no discipline.”

  Killian made a loud crunch as he chewed the demon’s bones.

  Of course, Sebastian couldn’t compete with Max and Ash and the tiger in speed, though he was faster than a human.

  But then, why was I faster than the Sváva?

  I tossed the angelblade onto the ground and broke into a run toward my brother. Sebastian also raced toward me, his strong arms wrapping around me as I hurtled into him.

  “Calamity,” he said with a sob. “I thought I’d lost you.”

  CHAPTER 13

  _____________

  “We’re free, Bas,” I said fiercely.

  My brother grinned at me, his face wet with tears, and hugged me tighter. “I never thought we would have this day.” He pulled away from me and studied me from head to toe. “Gods, Calamity, you’re a beautiful woman.”

  Even as my brother, he’d never seen my true form; I couldn’t afford to let my guard down for one second while I’d lived as a slave.

  It felt incredibly liberating to wear my true face and be my own self.

  And I was no longer his little “brother.” I was a woman, through and through. I could see how relieved he was that he didn’t need to pretend anymore. He no longer needed to worry that a slip of the tongue could get me killed, or worse.

  “We’ll never go back,” I said.

  “Hell, no,” he said.

  I touched his forehead with the back of my hand to test his fever. The temperature felt right. He was getting better, though his blue skin was still dull and his lips remained cracked.

  Sebastian eyed our companions over my shoulder. “Your friend brought me medicine and helped me get away. Is he a Sváva? He looks like an upgraded version.”

  Our adopted father had never told him about the history of the Sváva. When an angel fell to the Underworld, he became a demon. Over time, his appearance also changed to fit the environment.

  I knew Elijah was a pure Sváva, but Max was something else.

  Just then, Max stalked up to us, and his obsidian wings vanished.

  Sebastian’s eyes widened like eggs. “How did he do that?”

  “To answer your question, dragonian, I’m not a full-blooded Sváva,” Max said. At our expectant gazes, he shrugged. “It’s a long story.”

  Which meant he didn’t like to talk about his heritage.

  That was fine with me. I’d disguised myself as a boy my entire life until yesterday. There were reasons for people having to hide their identities.

  “We gotta move,” Max said. “When Cain doesn’t see his captain return, he’ll send a small army.”

  Ash jogged toward us and handed Sebastian an angelblade, which he had taken from the dead demon captain.

  “I’m sorry about your friends,” the fae prince said to me, his eyes brimming with sympathy.

  That reminded me. How selfish was I! I should have tended to Octavia first instead of running to hug my brother. But when I’d spotted Sebastian, I’d been overjoyed that he was safe.

  I knew beyond doubt that Lydia was gone. I’d seen her chest impaled by an angelblade, but Octavia was still alive.

  I rushed toward her.

  “Octavia!” I called.

  She couldn’t move, but she struggled to open her eyes, which were filled with relief and joy.

  “My queen,” she breathed out. “You...survived.”

  Her dark eyes begged me to leave her and run for my freedom. She wouldn’t want to be a burden.

  “Go to the...Prophet,” she pled.

  “I won’t leave you behind,” I said.

  “I can carry her,” Sebastian offered, squatting by my left side. “She’ll heal on the road.”

  When I sent a demon to his death with my lethal touch, I’d seen his essence through the contact. And I knew my touch wouldn’t hurt my friend. It could kill, but it could also heal.

  There were always two sides to a coin.

  Hesitating for a second, I pressed my palms against Octavia’s face.

  She startled, feeling the power of my touch. “My queen, you shouldn’t...waste your energy.”

  “Shush,” I said, sensing her internal bleeding through my touch.

  I closed my eyes, calling for my magic to rise from the deep well, not to kill, but to cure.

  The queen’s flame on my breast burned, then a wave of white light streamed into Octavia, finding her injuries and mending them.

  Her eyes widened, then a proud, satisfied smile formed on her lips.

  “The queen is also a healer,” she said. “The Prophet said you’d burn the Underworld, and then you’d heal it.”

  “Let’s not go that far,” I said. “Will you be able to stand?”

  She nodded and sat up with Sebastian’s help.

  “I’m sorry about Lydia,” I said, tears pooling in my eyes. “I can’t do anything for her.”

  If the redhead beauty hadn’t come with me, she’d have lived. All of them were so determined to give life to their so-called queen. Once I shook off the demon army, I’d make sure the Thorn Rose wouldn’t make me their symbol or figurehead. I was neither, though I’d never stop fighting the bad guys.

  Octavia knelt and hugged me, her face streaked with tears. “She died a warrior’s death, Queen Calamity.”

  Max offered me a hand. “We have to go.”

  I accepted his hand. “Only after we bury my friend,” I said.

  Max looked worried. He really wanted to whisk me away from this battlefield as soon as possible.

  “I won’t leave her body exposed to the wild animals,” I insisted, though my voice sounded weak. I’d been spent before we battled the demons, and my last act of healing Octavia had taken every last ounce of my energy.

  “Fine,” Max said, pulling me up, and golden stars wheeled before my eyelids.

  A wave of vertigo overcame me.

  “Max, I—” I didn’t finish it.

  I saw Ash sprint toward me, rage and worry burning in his ice-blue eyes, before I blacked out.

  ~

  My eyes fluttered open, and I found myself lolling on a bed of soft, silky feathers, the arc of a wing above me shielding me from the frigid wind. A warm, massive body wrapped me in its embrace, and a muscled, tattooed arm draped over my hip.

  Why was I snuggling against a man’s chest? Where was I? My drumming heartbeat returned to normal as I registered that the clean male scent mixing with cypress and flame belonged to Max. I stilled, savoring the feeling of warmth and safety in his arms.

  My eyes darted around slowly to take in my environment.

  We were in the open, camping on a terrain of hard dirt and dried grass. Wind whooshed by, stilled, and whistled again.

  There was no campfire. My companions must have decided not to light one for fear that any flame would attract the enemies’ attention.

  The sky was cloudy and dark. But at least the space wasn’t blocked by massive demon wings like in my dream.

  We’d left the hills and meadow behind.

  How long and how far had we traveled while I was out cold?

  My ears picked up steady, shallow breathing around me. The sound came from the slumbering forms of Octavia and Sebastian nearby. My dragonian brother was lending his body heat to my friend.

  We hadn’t lost anyone except Lydia. My chest eased with a breath of relief, then it tightened again. I pushed my grief away. It would have to wait, so it wouldn’t crush me.

  I turned my head to the left and watched a huge wolf slumbering near
me, lending me his warmth. He opened his eyelids, his eyes gazing at me and glowing faintly in the dim light. Of course, his beast form could detect the slightest stir of movement. He must have heard the shifting rhythms of my heartbeat and my breathing.

  Max pulled me closer to him, his nose nuzzling against my neck, as if he couldn’t get enough of my scent even in his sleep. The wolf growled.

  Why was he complaining?

  Max has wings, so he got to have you in his arms, the wolf said in my head. I can’t fight that, even though my fur would also warm you up. He’s one lucky bastard.

  My heart skipped a beat. If he thought Max was lucky to get to hold me, what did he think of Elijah? Ash had patrolled outside Elijah’s apartment when Elijah and I had mated. I’d heard the longing howl of the wolf the moment one of the four icons had ignited on my arm.

  The thought of Elijah sent a wave of sharp pain through my chest, but he was miles away now.

  Would I ever see the archangel again?

  Would he be my foe or my ally?

  He’d called me mate.

  Beside me, Max slowly opened his eyes, yet he didn’t pull away from me, and I had no intention of moving away from him. I desperately needed his warmth and a sense of safety a little longer.

  The wolf inched closer. Move your inconvenient wings, Max, he demanded. I want to get close to Ayanna, too. You’ve held her long enough, and now it’s my turn.

  The name again—Ayanna.

  Even the demon captain thought I was someone else.

  Max rolled his eyes, but he lifted the wing that covered me, pulled me gently onto his chest, and dragged back the wing beneath me. When he released me back onto the ground, my body lay on the edge of the wing that still covered the frozen land.

  The gray wolf nudged against my other side with a satisfied puff. Before he completely settled beside me, something flashed, and where the wolf had been there was now a man. His scent of snow, forest, and pine tantalized my nostrils. He flung Max’s hand off my hip and replaced it with his.

  “Now, that’s much better.” He chuckled in satisfaction.

  Max hissed, but he didn’t pick a fight, as if he’d gotten used to the fae, like a thorn in his side.

  Their heat radiated into me, delicious and solid and intoxicating, and their male scent encased me. Before I knew it, a trace of liquid fire erupted from between my thighs, lighting my every cell with white-hot lust.

  What the fuck?

  It happened just like it had when I was with Elijah in his apartment.

  He’d told me that I’d gone into heat. He’d also said that the mating call rang in our blood and neither of us could reject its call.

  I thought it had faded after I put distance between the archangel and me, but it had followed me all the way to the wasteland. Now it demanded I throw myself to the two males who snuggled against me to inhale my scent.

  I’m not a whore, I cursed under my breath at this unnerving mating heat.

  It didn’t care, whore or not.

  It urged me to mount the male of my choice. After I fucked him, I would fuck the other. I’d take turns riding them both, riding their massive cocks, hard and raw and brutal, over and over, until I bruised them and imprinted them forever.

  The dark, naughty voice also mentored me that I should let them both fuck me at the same time or have one of them watch.

  What the fuck? I screamed at the erotic images in my head, yet I couldn’t expel them.

  I was losing it.

  My skin burned with carnal need.

  My gaze dipped to Ash’s masculine form, from his taut chest to his powerful legs, and lingered on the bulge that distorted his pants.

  He wanted to fuck me, too, and badly.

  I licked my lips and tore my gaze from his huge erection, despite that I wanted his cock inside me more than anything.

  Our eyes locked, and his were filled with pure male lust. The air vibrated with sexual tension, like a ticking bomb.

  “How do you feel, Blossom?” Ash asked in a whisper, his voice thick with desire.

  I couldn’t even answer him for fear my voice would betray my need.

  I wiggled my body and turned to my other side to face Max.

  Max’s heated gaze held mine captive, then it dipped toward my breasts with ravenous hunger and vulnerable before returning to my face.

  My eyes roved over his perfect male torso inch by inch before fixing on the bulge that indicated his hard-on.

  Fuck, they were both loaded and fully charged.

  Liquid fire twirled inside my channel, licking my inner walls. My pussy was soaked in its wet flame. An unbearable ache throbbed inside, needing a cock to fill me and thrust into my depth.

  My breath hitched. My face burned.

  No, no, no, Calamity. Get a hold of yourself. You aren’t a beast in heat. Have some dignity.

  But I wasn’t in control of my body. It whimpered and urged me to tear the clothes from both males and fuck them.

  I balled my hands into fists, sinking my nails into my flesh and drawing blood to prevent myself from jumping on Max.

  I turned away from him and faced Ash again, only to find the same scorching lust waiting for me in his blue eyes.

  I squeezed my thighs against the throbbing ache.

  If I wanted to survive the demons, I needed to survive this animalistic heat first.

  Biting into my bottom lip, I bolted upright.

  If I hadn’t, the next second I’d have climbed on top of one of them, bared my pussy, and humped them like a mindless beast. I didn’t even care that my brother and friend were sleeping only a few yards away.

  “Ugh.” I hissed in displeasure. “How long have I been passed out?”

  “Two days and two nights,” Max said with a ragged breath, not because I’d passed out for that long but because lust hadn’t loosened its grip on him.

  I managed a word. “What?”

  Max and Ash sat up, one on each side of me, crowding and warming me. They were unwilling to put one more inch of space between us.

  That comforted me, yet it didn’t improve the situation.

  I fanned my face, then dropped my hands, realizing that the air was actually chilly.

  My cheeks flamed, from both embarrassment and the unrelenting mating fever.

  Did they know I’d been inflicted with this fever? From the heated way they both gazed at me, I’d say they were affected, too. Was I the source of the infection?

  Female animals could do that to male animals by spreading their pheromones in the territory. Were my pheromones in the air? How could I stop this madness?

  Ever since my power had awoken, I’d been like this. I needed to get my shit together.

  Damn, I hoped Sebastian wasn’t affected as well. He was my brother!

  “Max and I took turns carrying you,” Ash said, running a hand through his flowing silver hair, fighting to gather coherent thoughts. “We didn’t want anyone else to carry you. Your cousin offered frequently, but we turned him down. He’d just gotten over his illness, and we wouldn’t have risked letting him drop you. He got angry at our low confidence in him, but we handled him.”

  I widened my eyes. “You handled him?”

  Sebastian didn’t let anyone handle him.

  “He’s sleeping now, isn’t he?” Ash asked leisurely. He didn’t turn to check if Sebastian was asleep but swept his heated gaze over me, inch by inch.

  I squeezed my thighs together again, and he noticed that, too. The lust in his eyes only burned brighter.

  “Sebastian isn’t my cousin,” I said, still endeavoring to get my shit together. “He’s my brother. We aren’t blood-related, but we—”

  “Sebastian and you are blood-related.” Ash finally gave Sebastian’s still form a passing glance, probably wanting to give himself a break from the boiling lust between us. His gaze soon fixed solely on me again, setting me ablaze. “He’s truly your cousin.”

  Neither Sebastian nor I had ever asked Xavier if
he knew who our real parents were and if they were still alive. The knowledge of our heritage was useless for slaves. It would only bring unnecessary hurt to our hearts and bruise our spirits.

  Max produced a flask of water, unstopped the lid, and handed the flask to me.

  “Drink slowly,” he ordered.

  I obeyed.

  The stream of cool, clean water soothed my parched throat. I sent Max a sultry, grateful look, and he returned a heated one. I parted my lips and dropped my gaze. If I kept looking at either of the gorgeous males, my short fuse would burn to the end, and then there’d be nothing to stop me from lunging at them and fucking either of them, or both. Probably both.

  I forced out the image of me riding one of them and the other fucking me from behind.

  How would it feel to have two massive, hard cocks inside me at the same time?

  Stop! Stop it, Calamity, I ordered myself.

  Maybe I should go back to sleep, wait out this storm of lust, and hope to wake up at dawn as my normal self. But how could I fall asleep in the first place while this searing lust burned in my bloodstream?

  I’d thought that the demons were an issue, but it seemed I had a bigger problem.

  I unbuttoned my coat, wanting the chilly air to cool me down, but both Ash’s and Max’s gazes instantly snapped to my taut nipples that pricked against my shirt. Harsh male need darkened their eyes.

  Uh, this wouldn’t work. I pulled my coat back on and wrapped my hands around my chest.

  “Did you make a grave for my friend Lydia?” I asked, bringing up a somber question to diffuse the tension between us.

  Max nodded. “She’ll be remembered as a worthy warrior.”

  “She was a worthy friend,” I said as grief struck me. For a moment, it repressed and cooled the torturous heat in me.

  I hadn’t had friends growing up. Slaves couldn’t afford friendship, especially in Lethe, where diggers were driven to work like mules.

  Just as I’d started to form a relationship with the courageous courtesans, I’d lost a cherished friend forever.

  I took a few more mouthful of water, feeling my energy seeping back gradually.

  Ash produced a loaf of bread and put it on a plate in front of me. Where had they gotten the food? They weren’t like any males I’d ever met. They weren’t just formidable warriors; they were resourceful.