Author: C. R. Jane; Mila Young; Eva Chase; Joely Sue Burkhart; Helen Scott; Yumoyori Wilson; Elle Cross; Erin Bedford
Date: 2019-05-17 05:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Anthologies; Paranormal; Romance; Fantasy
Description: Forbidden Romances. Deadly Secrets. Unforgiving Darkness… Fall head over heels in love with this set of fantasy tales. Steeped in Greek, Norse, and Asian Mythologies, 8 bestselling authors bring you stories brimming with adventure, unexpected twists, and following the pursuit of true love. When it comes to the gods, passion doesn’t always follow the rules. Grab your copy today. Fans of paranormal romance, dark fantasy, and reverse harem will devour this collection of exclusive stories. Every complete novella contains steaming hot alphas, strong sexual themes / language with a satisfying HEA. A

Seduced by Myths

A Mythical Paranormal and Fantasy Anthology

C.R. Jane

Mila Young

Eva Chase

Joely Sue Burkhart

Helen Scott

Erin Bedford

Yumoyori Wilson

Elle Cross

Table of Contents

Follow Me Into The Dark

Join C.R. Jane’s Readers’ Group

Preface

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Join C.R.’s Fated Realm

Other Books by C.R. Jane

Hades’ Goddess

Blurb

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Author’s Note

About Mila Young

Books By Mila Young

Wicked Heat Series

Beautiful Beasts Academy Series

Raven's Fall

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

About Eva Chase

Mythomorphoses

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

About Joely Sue Burkhart

Cupid’s Kiss

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Other Work

About Helen Scott

Acknowledgments

Copyright

Valhalla Bound

About the Book

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Epilogue

Indebted to the Vampires

Chasing Rabbits

Marked By Hell

Until Midnight

About Erin Bedford

Come chat me up!

Luna

Prologue: The Land Of Luminus

1. The Ritual Of Luminus

2. A Taste Of Another Destiny

3. Goddess Of Eternity

4. Let's Start A Journey Together

To Be Continued.

About Yumoyori Wilson

Flame of the Phoenix

Author’s Note

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Epilogue

About the Author

More from Elle Cross

Follow Me into the Dark by C. R. Jane

Copyright © 2019 by C. R. Jane

All rights reserved.

No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review, and except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.

For permissions contact:

crjaneauthor@gmail.com

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

For all the girls who dared to be happy.

Join C.R. Jane’s Readers’ Group

Stay up to date with C.R. Jane by joining her Facebook readers’ group, C.R.’s Fated Realm. Ask questions, get first looks at new books/series, and have fun with other book lovers!

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Preface

We grow accustomed to the Dark -

When Light is put away -

As when the Neighbor holds the Lamp

To witness her Good bye -

A Moment - We Uncertain step

For newness of the night -

Then - fit our Vision to the Dark -

And meet the Road - erect -

And so of larger - Darknesses -

Those Evenings of the Brain -

When not a Moon disclose a sign -

Or Star - come out - within -

The Bravest - grope a little -

And sometimes hit a Tree

Directly in the Forehead -

But as they learn to see -

Either the Darkness alters -

Or something in the sight

Adjusts itself to Midnight -

And Life steps almost straight.

-Emily Dickenson, We grow accustomed to the Dark

Prologue

“No more,” he whispered to the stars as he peered out into the heavens. He was tired. The kind of tired that sat heavy in his bones and made him long for the kind of sleep that lasted forever. Not for the first time he wondered what it was about him that made it impossible for them to fall in love. As the centuries had passed by, and each tribute failed to pass the test, he became more and more convinced that the future he had been promised was a myth.

“We’ve found her,” came a voice that filled his nightmares when he was actually able to sleep. The voice of the Fates, the one who had given him this fate

“No more,” he called out into the darkness, knowing that he wouldn’t receive an answer.

She would come, like it or not. He wouldn’t have a choice.

Chapter 1

The breeze drifted around me, softly stroking the curls that had escaped from my haphazardly put together bun. I didn’t bother trying to tame them, I had learned long ago they were untamable.

I sighed, turning the page of my faded paperback. It was one of my favorites, which was good since my family’s lack of money meant that I didn’t own many others. I was at my usual spot, my favorite tree by the river that ran through the forest behind our house. It was old and moss-covered and somehow felt as comfortable as if I was leaning against a couch cushion. Plus, it had an amazing view of the river and the sound of the water rushing across the rocks helped me relax even when my books couldn’t. It was the perfect spot and one that I had been coming to since I was a little girl. Now at nineteen, it served as a source of comfort like only something that had seen you grow up could.

“Elena,” came a voice from across the river. Unlike the tree which calmed me, this voice made my heartbeat start to race and my breath begin to quicken. Dallin had always had that effect on me. I had been in love with him since he moved to our town two years ago, not that I would ever tell him that. I was firmly in the friend zone as far as Dallin was concerned. The girls fell all over him the second he appeared, and he had enjoyed the offerings to the fullest. The fact that we lived in a small town didn’t seem to matter as Dallin had the rare gift of remaining friends with all the girls he slept with.

Friendly exes or not, I had never been comfortable with the fact that practically every girl we saw had slept with or dated Dallin. It was far safer for us to stay best friends.

“There you are,” he said with a grin, his blonde hair waving in the breeze.

“Hi,” I said lamely, admiring him as he skipped a pebble across the river.

“I’ve been looking for you all day,” he said, giving me a heartbreaking grin that stopped my breath for a moment.

“I thought you had football practice. “I asked.

“I mean after that,” he answered.

Dallin was a receiver on the junior college’s football team. He was doing so well this year though everyone thought that he would be picked up by a major college next year. I already missed him.

“So, will you go?’ Dallin was saying, and I realized that he had been talking the whole time I had been off in lala land.

“Sorry,” I said sheepishly. “Where are we going?” He looked annoyed for half a second which was out of character for him, but he quickly hid the look when he saw me watching him. “There’s a party at one of the guys’ apartments tomorrow. I thought maybe you would go with me.”

I grimaced internally. I hated parties. I was much more of a bookworm at 19 than a normal teenager/young adult. Plus, parties with Dallin in the past had meant watching him flirt with other girls while I stood in the corner sipping punch. I began to think of an excuse.

“We haven’t been spending a lot of time together,” he said, before I could come up with anything. “This would mean a lot to me.”

He looked so earnest standing in front of me with his baby blue eyes that I couldn’t help but give in.

“What time does it start?” I asked, and his answering grin told me that I had made the right decision.

“Pick you up at 7,” he asked, walking backwards away from me with a smirk on his pretty face.

Only when he was out of sight did I allow myself to squeal a bit. I was pretty sure that I had just moved out of the friend zone. A trickle of doubt ran over me, making me question if I was making a mistake or not considering everything I knew about Dallin. I pushed it away and ran home giddy like I was ten instead of nineteen.

* * *

The next day I was a bundle of nerves. I had hung out with Dallin hundreds of times, but my stomach was so fluttery that it may as well have been a first date. I spent the entire day agonizing over what to wear. All of my clothes were from the second hand shop, and even though I was proud of my creativity, I really wished that I could have gotten a new outfit for the occasion.

Mom came up the stairs a few hours before Dallin was set to arrive. She came in quietly and sat on my bed, holding what looked like a letter in her hand. She looked like she had just gotten bad news.

“Everything alright?” I asked hesitantly. One thing about my mother, Rosie Carmichael was always in a good mood. Despite the fact that she was a single mom, despite the fact that she had to work two jobs to put food on the table for my brother and I growing up...she always had seemed to see the glass as half full. Seeing her look so dejected was troubling.

She looked up at me as if she was seeing me for the first time even though she was sitting on the bed in my bedroom. Mother had always looked younger than her age. But right now, she looked like she had aged ten years just since I had seen her downstairs an hour ago. There were lines around her eyes and on her forehead that I could have sworn didn’t used to be there, and there was a pinched expression around her mouth that I had never seen before.

“Mom?" I asked hesitantly, all thoughts of my date that night disappearing from my head at the look on her face.

She looked up at me with a fake grin, “Yes, dear?"

“Is everything all right?”

“Everything's fine. I just received some news this morning. It’s nothing. What are you getting ready for?” she asked.

I studied her for a moment, wondering why my mother was lying to me for the time that I could remember. I decided to let it go and talk to her about it later. If I needed to know, she would tell me.

“Dallin invited me to a party tonight,” I told her with an excited grin. She knew that I had liked Dallin since he moved here and had often teased me about it. This time however, there was no teasing. Instead a flash of pain crossed her face at my pronouncement, worrying me further.

She quickly covered up her strange look and put another fake smile on. “That boy has finally come to his senses,” she said with a laugh. “I knew it would happen sooner or later.”

We spent the next hour with her helping me get ready and all thoughts of the mysterious letter and her strange attitude fluttered out of my mind.

* * *

Dallin was twenty minutes late. It shouldn't have bothered me but considering this was what I thought was our first date, I thought he would be on time.

“You look amazing,” he said with a wide-eyed grin, cutting through my annoyance. I looked down at my outfit. After too much deliberation I had finally decided on a jean skirt that I'd cut to make a little bit shorter and a black tank top. Hopefully it was fancy enough for this party. My mom came out with a camera. I was immediately embarrassed. You would think that I was 16 going to prom instead of 19. Dallin graciously took a couple of pictures, and I hurried him out the door looking backwards once over my shoulder to see my mother looking after me with a wistful expression on her face. It was as if she was trying to memorize the moment.

Instead of going directly to the party, Dallin took me to one of the local seafood places that was super popular. I had never been there before. We usually couldn't afford to eat out, and even though I had picked up a job since starting classes, I tried to give my mother as much as possible since I was living at home while I did my two years at the junior college. I was worried what would happen to her when I transferred to a university. My brother has moved out three years ago, and she would be all alone once I left.

“I've been wanting to do this for a while,” Dallin said, shaking me from my thoughts as he reached across the table to grab my hand.

I looked at him, a little smirk on my face. “Oh really, I would never have guessed that with all the other dates you've been on lately.”

He answered my smirk with his own grin. “It almost sounds like you're jealous,” he said.

I scoffed. “We know each other well enough that you don't need to give me false flattery,” I said.

Dallin looked offended at my statement...and then he looked a little worried. “I never thought you would say yes to a date,” he said. "You’re always so cool and collected around me. You had to have known that I’ve been in love with you since I moved here.”

I looked at him shocked. I tried to think about how I would act if I was in love with someone. Sleeping with every girl that I came across didn't seem like something that resembled love, but maybe I was just naïve.

Conversation was easy after his admission. Maybe it was because he was saying everything that I had dreamed he would say to me if we ever went on a date, but him admitting what I had always dreamed he felt helped put me at ease. As I ate my grilled salmon it was easy to see why every girl in town had fallen under his spell, he was just that charming. Dinner went so well that it seemed like second nature to let him hold my hand as we walked out to the car.

It was a cool night, the kind that held the threat of winter but was still trying to hold on to what had been a glorious fall. I loved this time of year, but I couldn't help the trickle of unease that went down my spine at the feeling that someone was watching me.

I surreptitiously looked around, just to make sure that I wasn't crazy. When I didn't see anything, I resolved to ignore the ominous feeling and try to enjoy the night.

Dallin had understated the type of gathering that we were going to. Instead of a “couple” of football friends, it appeared that the entire junior college and all of their friends were at this party. Raucous laughter and screams of excitement filled the air. People yelled out Dallin’s name as we walked through the crowd, everyone checking me out to see who he was with. I wondered what they thought. I had always been confident about my looks, but Dallin had always been so much larger than life that I wondered in the moment if I looked like I fit with him. Acting at ease as always, Dallin put his arm around my waist, waving to people as we walked but never stopping to talk to anyone.

We finally got to a back room that was bursting with people. I recognized many of them as being on the football team with him. Several of them came over to us and they exchanged those weird complicated high fives/manly hugs that guys seemed to like to do. They gave me curious hellos, many of them glancing over my figure appreciatively as they did so. I felt Dallin’s fingers tighten around my waist signaling a possessiveness that I didn’t think he was capable of.

There was an assortment of drinking games happening all around the room, and we quickly joined in a game of flip cup. I wasn't sure that I wanted Dallin drinking since he was my ride home, but to my relief he poured Sprite into our cups. No one said anything, just another sign of the status Dallin held with the team.

The night flew by. There were a multitude of beautiful girls in the room, many that I had seen hanging around the football team at school, but Dallin seemed to only have eyes for me. It made me wonder if Dallin could be a one-woman kind of guy after all, or if this was what he was always like on first dates, and that’s how he always ended up getting lucky. Regardless, I had fun, and when we finally left the party at around one AM, I didn't object when he pushed me gently against his SUV, encircling me with his arms until I was caged against the car. Then, he kissed me.

I had dreamed what kissing Dallin would be like, and although it wasn’t my first kiss, it definitely was the best one that I had ever had. In the moment however, it was still lacking that certain something. I always daydreamed about what a kiss with someone you were in love with would be like. And this was not it.

I wondered if there was something wrong with me, or if this was a signal that a relationship with Dallin wasn’t really what I wanted. Either way, when Dallin pulled away, he looked dreamily satisfied, placing one gentler kiss on my lips before releasing me.

There was an easy silence in the car on the way home. Dallin held my hand the entire time, sneaking glances at me when he thought I wasn't looking. He kissed me again when he walked me up to the door of my house.

“When can I see you next?” he asked gently, pushing the strands of hair off my face that had fallen into my eyes. I looked into his face. Moonlight was shining down on his usually golden features making him seem more mysterious than usual. There was something different in his gaze, something more. But I couldn’t tell exactly what it was.

My first instinct at his question was to ask him if he was sure, but I figured that wasn't the confident girl thing to do. “I'm free tomorrow,” I said with a gentle smile. His eyes lit up. He brushed one more kiss across my lips before walking backwards away from me as if he wanted to hold onto the sight of me.

“Text me as soon as you wake up,” he said with that same star-eyed look. I felt a little rush of butterflies at his eagerness but still trying to play it cool, I simply nodded and walked inside the house.

I ran up the stairway, feeling a little bit like I was walking on air as I did so. I opened the door to my room and gave a little shriek when I saw that my mother was sitting on my bed in the same place that she had been earlier.

“Mom?” I asked questioningly. At 19 years old, I didn't have a curfew. My mother in general had always thought that I was responsible and had treated me accordingly. We had the understanding that I was transitioning into becoming an adult, and for the most part she treated me like one.

Unlike before my date, my mother was no longer trying to hide the despair she seemed to be feeling. There was a look of true sorrow on her face and she was still holding the same piece of paper that she had been holding earlier.

“Come here, darling,” she said in a quiet voice that held the prospect of tears. I cautiously approached her. She patted the space on the bed next to her and I sat down beside her. I wanted to cry for some reason, just because I knew that whatever was about to come out of my mother's mouth would change my life forever. Was it cancer? Had something happened to my brother? My mind reeled with all the terrible things that she could say.

I never would've guessed the truth.

“We've never talked about our family history,” she began. I looked at her quizzically, thinking that “our family history” was the last thing that I expected to come out of her mouth. “A long time ago our family was gifted with an enormous responsibility by the Gods,” she said.

I looked at her like she was crazy. The Gods? We weren't a particularly religious family. My mom took us to Catholic mass once a year for Christmas, but she never seemed to be quite into it, and I'd always felt like a fish out of water there.

I opened my mouth to ask her more questions, but she shook her head. signaling that I should let her continue. “You remember studying the ancient Greeks gods in school?” she asked. I nodded, still unsure of where she was going with this.

“What if I told you they weren’t myths?” I was about to laugh, but the look on my mother’s face was so serious that it got caught in my throat. Was she sick? Maybe she was getting early dementia, and this was a sign.

She continued on in a voice that was increasingly distraught despite the fact that I’m sure the look on my face was one of disbelief. My anxiety grew as she began to give me a history of maiden sacrifices to the Gods. Why were we talking about sacrifices right now? Was I dreaming?

“The women in our family have frequently been required to be a part of the sacrifices,” she said quietly, the paper in her hand trembling at her words. "It has been asked of us for thousands of years. My mother was told by her mother who was told by her mother before that. I had begun to think maybe it was just a legend passed down the generations as nothing had been asked of us for the past hundred years.”

She stopped speaking for a moment as if the next words were more than she could bear to say. “I received a letter in the mail today,” she said in a distraught voice, holding out the paper in her hands for me to take. Whatever she was talking about, it didn’t sound like the honor she was saying it was. It sounded like death.

I hesitantly took the paper, still scared that my mother was losing it. It all sounded so fantastical.

Your service is required…. the letter began in elegant cursive. The stunning silver letters shined from the page, imprinting in my consciousness.

Everything disappeared after that.

Chapter 2

When I woke the next morning, I thought that perhaps it had all been a dream, a terrifying dream, but a dream, nonetheless. I needed to not read thrillers before bed apparently.

As I walked downstairs, I expected my mother to be in the kitchen cooking pancakes as she was most Saturday mornings before her shift at the local diner. But that was not the case. My mother was waiting for me at the foot of the stairs, tears in her eyes. She was standing next to one of my grandmother’s packing trunks, wringing her hands in a fancy black dress that she only wore at funerals. Evidently, I had not been dreaming.

“They will be here shortly to collect you,” she said sorrowfully.

“I'm 19 years old, I can’t just be shipped off somewhere,” I said indignantly, starting to get angry at how crazy my mother was acting. “If you didn’t want me in the house, you could have just told me,” I continued, unwilling to believe her story of what was about to happen.

As soon as the words came out of my mouth, a bright red lash mark appeared on my mother’s arm. She cried out in shock and pain. I watched in horror as what seemed like a hundred other lashes began to show up across her arms, her legs, and even her face. Her cries filled the room as I watched in horror. I have never seen anything like it, and I looked around the house frozen in terror, paranoid that it had suddenly become haunted. “It's the curse,” she gasped out as lashes continued to rake across her body. “It requires our acquiescence.” She screamed as another lash seemed to strike her across her back, sending her to her knees.

At that moment the doorbell rang. Mother slowly got off her knees and went to open the door.

“Mom,” I cried, finally able to move. I ran to try and get her to sit down but she continued towards the door. “We need to get you to the doctor,” I said, momentarily relieved when it appeared that the lashes had ceased when the doorbell rang but horrified at the blood that was copiously dripping from her body.

The doorbell rang again as if the person waiting on the other side was in a hurry. She didn't answer me, instead she opened the door calmly as if she regularly looked like an extra in a horror film.

The door swung open. Standing there in the entryway was a tall, thin man who looked more like a relative of the Grim Reaper than a living person. He was dressed in a black suit, one that looked like it had come from a different age. The outfit came complete with a black top hat that sat on top of his liberally gray streaked hair.

“Is that the lady’s trunk?” he asked, gesturing towards where the trunk sat as if I had been expecting him and he wasn't a stranger standing at the door.

My mother didn't question his presence or ask him to identify himself. She merely nodded in assent. I began to feel lightheaded just then. This was really happening. I was really supposed to go somewhere with this man. I opened my mouth to object again and my Mother bowed over in pain as lashes began to appear again.

I choked on the tears that had begun to fall from my face. What could I do but go with this man for now? There was no one I loved more than my Mother in the world, and it was unbearable to me that she would get hurt. I had to go if it would stop what was happening.

No sooner had the thought cross my mind than the lashes ceased once again. Mother took a deep, unsteady breath and walked to the kitchen, coming back with a wet cloth that she began to use to wipe the blood off of her.

Everything seemed to be hazy after that. I walked to the door, and a glimmer of hope appeared on my mother’s face. She was relieved. I didn’t know how she could be relieved when she was sending her daughter off to allegedly be sacrificed, or at least sending her daughter off into the hands of crazy people. Weren’t mothers the ones that were supposed to sacrifice for your children?

Regret at my ugly thoughts filled my mind as she threw her arms around me. I could feel her blood soaking into my nightclothes. She had sacrificed for me repeatedly over the years. There had to be a reason for this now.

I was too numb and too shocked to give her a real hug back. I just prayed that someday I would understand what was happening, and why. The man was waiting impatiently outside the door, the trunk already put in the car. I reluctantly pulled away from her, trying to quell the heavy urge I had to beg her to save me.

The man gave me a small bow as I walked away from the safety of my childhood home, and then gestured to the car. I guess it was a car, it looked more like a limo. In this situation, it reminds me less of the limo people used for prom, and more like what the mafia or some other criminal mastermind used as their mode of transportation.

The inside of the vehicle was cool and dark. I slid across the leather seat; aware this was the first time that I had been surrounded by such a luxury. Although I wasn't buying the whole ancient Greek god story, whatever my mother had found herself involved in, it appeared that they had money.

There was a screen that separated the back of the limo from the front where the driver sat, but the driver helpfully moved the screen down so that I could see him. Despite the fact that he looked like the living embodiment of death, I was glad not to be alone.

“What's your name?” I asked. There was a short pause before he answered, as if he was debating whether he was supposed to tell me.

“Charon,” he finally answered.

I recognized the Greek name from my studies, and tried to remember what myth his name was involved in.

Finally, it came to me. Charon. He was the guy who had ferried spirits across the River Styx in the Greek Underworld. I laughed somewhat manically. How fitting. Maybe this was a cult filled with people that believed that they were reincarnations of Greek people. I wonder if I needed to give him a few coins to ensure my safe passage.

My laughter subsided when I thought of how my mother had somehow gotten involved with these people. And I couldn’t explain those cuts that had come out of nowhere.

I didn't have any other questions after that. Instead I looked out the window, staring at the countryside as we passed it by. I had never been farther than a few miles outside of our town my entire life. I had always wanted to explore the world, I never imagined I would leave home this way.

After a few hours, we stopped. We were still close enough that it wouldn’t be impossible for me to get home. Maybe I could escape.

As soon as I had the thought, it’s like I could feel my mother’s pain as if she was right this minute being struck again by invisible whips just at my rebellious thoughts. Somehow, I knew that I wasn’t imagining it, it was actually happening. I wasn’t going to be able to go anywhere without her suffering the consequences. As upset as I was at my mother, I couldn’t let that happen.

Charon opened the door. I peeked out, squinting in the bright sunlight. My jaw dropped when I noticed that we had parked outside of an airplane hangar. There was a sleek black jet with no writing on it waiting on the tarmac in front of us. My mysterious cult kidnappers were definitely very wealthy.

Charon grabbed my trunk out of the limo and walked with me towards the airplane. As we approached the plane, the door of it opened and a set of stairs unfolded beneath it. I wasn’t sure if that was normal.

A beautiful woman dressed in a tight black skirt and a red blouse that reminded me of blood stood at the top, a wide smile on her face as she saw us approach. I slowly walked up the stairs, not bothering to say hi to what looked like the flight attendant. She was obviously one of the cult people and therefore an enemy at the moment.

All thoughts exited my head however when I looked around the interior of the plane. It was like nothing I'd ever seen. Black and red took up the entire space, and everything was made of sumptuous fabrics. Instead of chairs, there were black leather couches lining both sides of the plane’s walls with tables in between them. There were a few doors at the back of the plane that I presumed led to a bathroom and possibly a bedroom. It was the kind of plane that the billionaires always had in the books I read.

At that moment, Charon appeared behind me, making me jump a bit. I saw that he was trying to stifle a smile at my idiotic reaction. Maybe he had a sense of humor after all.

Charon gestured to one of the lavish, black leather couches, and I went to sit down. It was the most comfortable thing I had ever sat on, and I nestled into the soft leather, enjoying the comfort after the bumpy car ride. There were seat belts connected to the couch, and I clicked one closed around me. No sooner had I done so then the door of the plan closed, and the plane started up. No one said a word to me, but I was coming to expect that after my quiet car ride with Charon. We were in the air soon after that, and I gripped the arm of the couch tightly. It was ironic really that this was my first time in an airplane. Who would've thought that it would happen after getting abducted by a crazy cult. As I watched the clouds pass by, I suddenly remembered Dallin, and the fact that he would be waiting for my text message today. Looking around and seeing that Charon and the pretty flight attendant weren’t looking my way, I surreptitiously patted my pocket, trying to see if I had remembered to slip my phone inside it. I groaned when I remembered that it was sitting on my bed upstairs still. I hadn't believed that I was actually going anywhere when I walked downstairs this morning. I definitely would have at least changed out of my pajamas and into regular clothes. I cursed my stupidity. I should've known that what was happening was very real with the way that my mother had acted the night before.

Again, a flash of hurt spiraled up my spine. How could she have gotten herself involved in something like this and brought me into it. I thought that she had loved me.

We flew for hours. The flight attendant brought by a plate of assorted nuts and fruit, but I had lost any semblance of hunger with the situation and politely declined despite the fact that I hadn’t eaten since the night before. Charon tried to be helpful by turning on a movie on one of the giant flat screens. I laughed when I saw that he had turned on Brad Pitt's version of Troy. How fitting for the situation.

At some point in the flight, I drifted off. My dreams filled with images of me surrounded by Greek heroes battling in a field soaked in blood. And in the background my mother silently wept as she watched me in their midst’s. I was woke up by the plane hitting the tarmac, signaling that we had landed. Opening my eyes was a struggle. I had been in a deep sleep.

I looked out the window to see where we were. It looked similar to the terrain at home. There were thousands of trees everywhere you looked, and they stretched on for miles. The only thing different was the giant mountains in the distance, their peaks covered in snow.

“Where are we?” I asked no one in particular. As usual, I didn't get an answer. The plane door opened up, and I unbuckled my seatbelt and got up. Charon walked past me from the back, carrying my heavy black truck once again. He exited the plane, not saying a word to me. Apparently, I was supposed to follow him.

For some reason the flight attendant looked decidedly less happy with me as I approached the staircase. I wondered if my refusal of her fruit tray had somehow set her off. I said thank you and headed down the stairs, but I could feel her eyes boring into the back of my skull as I walked away.

There was another limo waiting right outside the plane. Charon had the door opened already and was once again impatiently waiting for me. I got into the back seat and he closed it behind me. Away we went once again.

There was no sign of civilization as we drove. There were no stores, or other cars, or any other signs of life. For someone who had always been around other people, it was a little bit terrifying to feel so alone. Charon finally turned down a long driveway that was almost entirely obscured by trees. A few feet in we stopped at an enormous set of iron gates, the kind that usually stood outside a giant manor or other historical building. It opened in front of us slowly and we drove through. The driveway seemed to stretch on forever. The thick foliage along the sides of the road made it impossible for me to see what was around. After another five-minute drive, we finally saw the first sign of civilization. It was a house, or maybe the better word for it was a castle. All gray stone and winding turrets, it was something out of a fairy tale.

I looked at it in awe. I had never seen such a structure, not even the rich kids in my town had lived in places that came close to equaling the size of it. Whoever owned this had to have a legion of servants and help to keep up the property. Or maybe this was where the entire cult was located. It certainly looked like it could hold hundreds of people comfortably. Everyone could probably have their own bedroom.

Charon seemed more at ease when he opened my door, his posture more relaxed than before. I wondered what he had been so nervous about before. Did he think I was going to put up a fight? I think we were past that for now.

I looked at my surroundings as I followed Charon to the massive set of double doors that marked the entrance, trying to memorize the lay of the land around me in case I needed to do something drastic like escape. The door opened before we could knock on it. Another man stood in the doorway dressed in another dated tuxedo. I wondered if there was a cult requirement that you had to be dressed up at all times. Looking down at my black leggings and my oversized sweatshirt I had slept in, I gave a little laugh. Maybe when the head of the cult saw what I looked like he would send me right back.

The man at the door had a hook like nose and wide set brown eyes. His hair was perfectly black, and it was hard to guess how old he was. He was an interesting enough looking character, and there was a friendliness in his eyes as he looked at me that set me at ease. He bowed low to me as we approached.

"Welcome my lady," he said to me in a delightful British accent. Standing in front of me was a real-life British butler. Things were looking up. Or maybe I had officially cracked, and this was my idea of things looking up.

I forgot all about the butler and Charon when I stepped inside the cavernous front entryway. My mouth dropped open at the sight. The entryway was enormous, larger than my entire house. There were two sets of winding staircases that led up to the second story. Shiny obsidian colored marble covered the entire floor, and the walls were a light gray color. Apparently, the leader of this cult really enjoyed dark colors.

The air was cool, and a bit musty despite the fact that everything looked to be pristine without a speck of dust to be found. It somehow felt empty, like no one had lived here for a long time though. Which couldn’t be true since the butler was standing right here. And surely the cult people were around here somewhere.

After the journey I had just experienced, I was even more confused about what was going on. For a sacrifice, I sure was being treated well. I had kind of expected to be thrown into a dark cell until the crazies came to get me...but maybe that was still coming.

The butler took my bag and began to ascend the stairs, evidently expecting me to follow him. The staircase seemed to go on forever, and I realized that I was probably going to get in really good shape if I was here for long. We began to walk down a hallway that stretched on and on. The lighting was dim and as I looked closer at the lamps on the wall, I realized that they were actually candles, not lightbulbs lighting the way. I prayed that they had electricity in some of the rooms...and plumbing. If I was going to die, I at least wanted to be able to watch some episodes of The Office before I did so.

We finally stopped at the last door in the hallway. The butler pulled a keyring out of his pocket that was loaded with what looked like at least fifty keys and unlocked the door.

“This suite has been specially prepared for you,” he said. But I wasn’t really listening, I was too busy admiring the room we had just stepped in. While the rest of the house had been old world glamour, this one looked like someone had studied the inside of my brain and come up with precisely what I would pick as my dream room. The bed was huge and covered with a fluffy white comforter that had an explosion of colorful pillows on top of it. The floor was a gleaming dark wood, made homier by an assortment of colorful rugs that matched the pillows perfectly. Along one wall there was a floor to ceiling bookcase that was filled to the brim with books. Gasping a little, I walked over, skimming over the titles. Along with some of my favorites, there were hundreds of books that were on Amazon wish list, along with a host of first editions that were probably worth more than the house I had grown up in.

Dragging my gaze from the bookshelf, I spotted a window seat with a white padded cushion and an assortment of the same pillows as on the bed. There was an enormous flat screen television on the wall, and I gasped in delight when the butler pressed a button on the wall and a shelf appeared in the wall filled with hundreds of movies.

The butler opened another door in the room, revealing a full en-suite bathroom with a tub that could fit ten people and a shower that had four shower heads. Another door led to a full living room complete with a tv screen that took up the entire wall and several comfortable looking white leather couches set up in front of it.

It was all incredible. And now I was even more confused.

I stood in the middle of the room, my gaze darting from one fabulous thing to another.

“There’s one more thing,” the butler said before pulling on the full-length mirror on the wall to reveal a gigantic closet that was filled to the brim with clothes. I hesitantly walked into the closet, wondering if this was filled with the last sacrifice’s clothes. But when I looked at some of the sizes, I realized that everything would fit me perfectly.

Whoever had designed the room knew everything about me down to my bra size.

“I will have one of the maids bring you up some food while you relax. I’m sure that it was a trying journey,” he said as he walked to the main door to let himself out.

“Wait, I still don’t know your name,” I cried, panicking for some reason at the thought of being alone.

He turned and gave me a small, weird bow. “Cerberus, my lady,” he said. “And we are all quite glad that you are here.”

With that he left the room.

Chapter 3

I fell asleep on the floor as soon as he left, my dreams filled with images of strange three-headed dogs and a skeletal ferryman who rowed my soul across a dark river. I didn’t wake up until there was a knock on the door.

“Come in,” I said in a groggy voice, standing up from the floor wearily. The door cracked open, and a young freckle faced kid who looked like he could only be around twelve or thirteen peeked his head in.

“I’ve got your breakfast,” he said in a cheerful voice as if he wasn't talking to someone who had just gotten abducted and appeared in his home. I was sure he was the son of one of the cult members.

“You can bring it in,” I said, walking over to my bed and watching him walk in the door warily. He carried a tray full of delicious smelling food. The smell reminded me that I hadn’t eaten in almost twenty-four hours.

“Do you need anything else, my lady?” he asked after he had shyly set the tray down next to me. He looked around the room happily. “Do you like your room? Master had us working night and day to prepare it for your arrival,” he said.

Master. Was that the name that the cult leader required everyone to call him? I was not going to be calling him that.

I looked speculatively at the boy. Out of the few people that I had met so far, he seemed the most approachable and the most likely to give me some answers. Maybe I could find out information from him.

“What’s your name?” I asked. He glanced at me, blushing shyly. “Hermes,” he responded. It was all I could do to stifle my laugh. I guess they were keeping to the Greek theme.

So how long have you lived here?" I asked with a smile that I hoped looked innocent. Hermes looks nervous all of a sudden. His gaze darted around the room like a caged animal. For as long as I can remember," he finally answered. I nodded although his answer was vague. “How old are you?” I asked.

Now he looked even more nervous.

“13,” he answered, but the way he said it made it seem like he was lying. Why would he lie about his age?

"Does your mother live here as well?" I asked. Now he got really nervous and he started backing out of the room. I was suddenly desperate for him not to leave. "Please don't go.”

He was out of the door before I could say another word. “Stupid girl,” I muttered to myself with a sigh. It was obviously going to be impossible to get information out of people here if I couldn't even get it out of a young boy.

The delicious smell wafting from the tray finally caught my attention. I walked over to where Hermes had left the food on the bed. I examined it closely wondering if it was poisoned. But then that didn't seem like a good way to sacrifice someone, by poisoning them. I decided that I was so hungry I would just take the risk.

Hermes had said he brought breakfast, but it seemed to be more like a dinner. There was a lemon rice that had just the right amount of flavor and some chicken kebabs covered with a spicy seasoning. Everything was delicious. After I finished devouring the entire tray, I realized that despite my nap, I was still exhausted. I lay down on my bed, not bothering to look for any clothes to change into. I immediately fell into a thankfully dreamless sleep this time.

* * *

I had that feeling when I woke up, like I'd been sleeping far longer than I was supposed to. It took me a second to realize that I still was not home, that I was in fact still in the strange castle that I been brought to by a group of crazy cult members.

Looking around the room for a clock, I finally found one, and I gasped in surprise at the time. It had only been around nine pm when I went to sleep last night, and the clock was now saying that it was approaching five pm. I suddenly wondered if my food this morning had been drugged with some kind of sleeping pill. I felt disgusting being in my clothes for so long, so I wandered over to the luxurious bathroom that I'd been shown. I took a quick shower, wrapping a towel around me that evidently had been heating on the towel rod.

Even the floor was warm under my feet despite the fact that it looked like it was marble. I wondered at the fact that my room had so much technology when the hallways were lit by candlelight. Maybe that was just the aesthetic that whoever was in charge here liked.

I wandered over to the closet still amazed at the fact that all of these clothes were supposed to be mine. I didn't know what was expected of me for the rest of the day, so I picked out a long black skirt with a clingy dark purple top that looked pretty. Looking around the closet I didn’t see a single pair of pants. I would need to ask one of the staff members about that whenever I saw someone. I at least needed to get my yoga pants washed.

I walked over to the door, wondering if it was locked. To my surprise it easily flung open, and I found myself looking down the dark hallway. I tentatively walked down the hall, listening for any sound. I wondered when my sacrifice was going to take place. It seemed kind of cruel for them to string me along in this beautiful place without telling me when I was on the docket. I’d at least like to prepare myself for it. Or prepare myself to escape from it...

I finally got to the long set of stairs that led down to the front entryway, and I walked down the stairs slowly. I still hadn’t seen a soul. Then, as if my thoughts had brought him into existence, Cerberus appeared at the foot of the stairs. He gave me one of his small, strange bows.

“Do you need anything, my lady?” he asked solicitously.

“I apparently slept the day away; I must’ve been more tired than I thought.”

He nodded as if it was normal to sleep for almost twenty-four hours straight, and I wondered again if they had given me a sleeping pill or something.

“The cook will have dinner ready in about an hour’s time,” he said. “In the meantime, would you like a tour of the house?”

Cerberus had been nothing but kind to me thus far, and I was curious to see the rest of the castle and its inhabitants, so I agreed. We began to walk, Cerberus giving me random facts about the place as we went along. My eyes widened with every room we came across. There was room after room filled with the sort of luxury that I had only read about in my books. There was a theatre room complete with a screen that covered the entire 12-foot wall. Another room held a library that looked straight out of Beauty and the Beast. There was an indoor pool and Cerberus explained that there was a large outdoor pool as well that stayed heated all fall and winter.

After an hour of going through rooms it seemed we had only seen a small portion of the castle. It was that enormous.

After we had toured for a while, I finally got the nerve to ask some questions. “Cerberus, where is everyone else?” I asked. He looked at me in confusion. “Everyone else?” he responded in a puzzled voice.

I nodded and leaned in close to whisper to him. “Where are all the other cult members?” His eyes took on a merry twinkle at my question, and he burst into a boisterous laughter that seemed very out of character for him. He wiped his eyes trying to respond to me. “You want to know where the other cult members are?" he repeated in a voice that was still filled with laughter. I nodded, suddenly feeling very foolish.

“This is not a cult, my lady," he said.

"But then who lives here that still practices sacrifice?” I asked in a voice that shook with anger.

He sobered up immediately. "I'm afraid that there’s been a mistake. There are no sacrifices happening here,” he answered as if I had offended him. Now I was even more confused and upset.

"My mother told me that the whole reason that I was here was to be a part of a sacrifice that our family has been forced to participate in for generations," I explained, frustrated tears starting to fill my eyes. At the sight of my tears, Cerberus started to panic.

"Now, now, my lady, don't cry. There will be no sacrifices happening here. You are our most desired guest. You'll find out everything in due time. I swear on my soul, no one here will hurt you. That’s the last thing that anyone of us want to do. In fact, we hope that you are happier here than you ever have been before,” he added in a meaningful tone. Tears continued to stream down my face.

“Let's get over to the dining hall. Master will be appearing soon, and he can explain more,” Cerberus said, gently gesturing down the hallway to where the dining hall sat that he had shown me earlier. We walked slowly. I knew that he was trying to give me time to recover before I met this mysterious “Master.” I would have appreciated his thoughtfulness if I had any interest in meeting the person in charge.

Right before I got to the doorway, I stopped abruptly in the entryway. “I don't think I feel very hungry,” I said, turning to face him. “I think I'll just go back up to my room.”

Cerberus was shaking his head before I had even finished my sentence. “You must meet the Master,” he said. "I assure you that you will feel much better after doing so.”

I wiped the tears off my face with the back of my hand. I didn’t need a mirror to know that I looked like a mess. Guess it would be a good first impression.

Nodding my head reluctantly, I followed him into the dining room. The dining room had a table that could seat at least 50 people. But the table tonight was only set for two. Was I dining with the “Master” myself? The thought made me extremely nervous. Cerberus pulled out my chair so I could sit down, taking my cloth napkin from the table to lay it on my lap once I had sat down. The table setting was fancier here than I had seen even in a restaurant, and I had thought the place I went to with Dallin had been nice.

I felt a stroke of pain at the thought of Dallin. Was he thinking of me? Was he worried about me at all? I wondered if there was a way that I could get information to him that I was all right. Maybe eventually I'd be released from here, and he would still be out there waiting for me. I shook my head at the thought. I wasn't going to fool myself that the connection Dallin had felt with me was enough to make him wait for me. I don't think the guy usually went a couple days without a date. The thought that he couldn’t wait for me weirdly made me feel better. Maybe it was the idea that I wasn't losing out on true love, because true love would wait, right?

My thoughts were interrupted when someone cleared their throat. It was like whoever it was was announcing himself before he walked into the room so as not to startle me. I looked over at the doorway, and I promptly lost my breath. All thoughts of Dallin went out the window as I gazed at who had just walked into the room.

Standing before me was a creation that had to have been blessed by the Gods... if you believed in that sort of thing. He looked too perfect to be real. Shiny black hair was slicked back from a face that looked like it had been carved by the angels. Piercing blue eyes, as blue as a starry night sky, stared back at me, seemingly just as interested in observing me as I was interested in observing him.

He seemed lost as he stared at me, like I was destroying preconceived notions he had had about me.

He finally opened his mouth.

“Persephone?” he breathed. I was immediately confused and strangely disappointed at the fact that he thought I was another woman.

“Elena,” I answered. The light in his eyes dimmed and a look of absolute devastation crossed his face before he turned and stormed out of the room.

“Oh dear,” came a worried voice as the cook came into the room wringing her hands. “That could have gone better,” she muttered before straightening her expression and turning my way. “Are you ready for dinner, my lady?” she asked with a face that was attempting to be hopeful.

“Who was that?” I asked, still feeling that strange sense of disappointment at the stranger’s actions.

“That was the Master, my lady,” she said. “He’s just having an off night. I’m sure he will be right as rain in the morning,” she stated cheerfully as she turned to go back through the doors that led to the kitchen.

“Why did he call me Persephone?” I called after her, needing to know the answer for some reason.

She froze in her tracks. Her shoulders slumped as I watched, and she gave a large sigh.

She looked back at me sadly. “It’s probably because you bear a striking resemblance to Master’s long lost love, Persephone,” she said warily, watching my reaction carefully.

The man who had just been in the room looked like he was barely thirty. How long ago did he lose this Persephone?

I opened my mouth to ask another question, but the cook had left the room. I knew she would probably be bringing out food in just a moment, but I had no appetite since my strange encounter with my handsome host. Feeling oddly tired despite all the sleep I had gotten the night before, I got up and left the dining hall, returning to my room.

As I walked up the mountainous stairs, a sound that resembled a man wailing in agony sounded in my ears. I had never heard such a devastated sound in my life. Somehow, I knew that it belonged to the man from earlier and that I was the cause of such pain.

Maybe it would make him let me go.

Surprisingly, a dinner tray was already waiting on my bed when I finally got to my room. Luckily the sound of the man’s anguish couldn’t be heard from my room, and I was able to find some peace although he didn’t stray far from my thoughts. I picked at the dinner even though the food looked like something you would find at a five-star restaurant.

My sleep was fitful that night as his star filled gaze filled my dreams.

Chapter 4

The next morning, I woke up feeling like I had been run over by a twenty-ton truck. I was debating whether to go back to sleep when a knock sounded on the door.

Not thinking of what I looked like, I dragged myself out of bed, walking to the door still half asleep. I quickly woke up however when I saw who was at the door.

He looked just as surprised to see me as I was to see him despite the fact that he was the one who had knocked on my door. There was a slight flush to his cheeks as he glanced down at my barely clothed body. Too late I realized that I was standing in front of this Adonis in boy shorts and a white cami that left very little to the imagination. I quickly hid my body behind the door, peeking just my head out. But it was too late. There was a fire in his eyes that hadn’t been there the night before. Like he had seen something he liked, and he wanted it very much.

“Can I help you?” I finally said in a voice that came out much breathier than I would have liked.

He cleared his throat and shook his head slightly as if he was trying to clear it. “I was wondering if you would like to have breakfast with me. I was having a poor evening last night and I squandered our first meeting,” he said. His voice rolled over me, the sensation of it like bathing in a warm bath. It was smooth and cultured, warm and masculine. I had never heard a sound I liked more.

It took me a second to regain my wits. “I’m sorry, but I have no earthly clue who you are?” I told him once I had regained my ability to speak. I noticed for the first time what he was wearing. It was hardly past seven in the morning and he was dressed like he was about to go to a meeting in a boardroom rather than a breakfast in his own home.

He smiled. it was the first time he had done so in my presence and it somehow managed to transform his already perfect looks into something that resembled a miracle. Crazy cult leader or not I was going to remember the moment I had seen him smile for the first time for the rest of my life.

“Ah, I see that the servants have been tight-lipped,” he said charmingly. “They are protective like that. My name is Hades, and I’m honored to have you here.”

“You’re the leader of the cult?” I blurted out, still hiding behind the door.

He looked at me quizzically for a moment before bursting into laughter. “That’s quite clever,” he said. His laugh did something funny to my insides. “I guess that story makes sense in this case,” he said. “But no, Elena. This is not a cult compound, and I am not a cult leader,” he said, still smiling. The way he said my name made me hot all over.

My cheeks flushed. I had no other ideas for why I would be here. Did my mother owe someone money? Was my brother being held hostage somewhere and this was the payment? I needed to ask about a million more questions, but I thought it might be best to get dressed first.

“Just give me a moment,” I said, closing the door before he could answer. I hurried to the closet, cursing again when I remembered the lack of jeans. Thinking of how dressed up he had been, I grabbed a sundress that managed to fit me better than any other piece of clothing had before. I hurried into the bathroom and began brushing my hair.

I looked dreadful, like I hadn’t slept in days. My eyes were still swollen from all the crying that I had been doing. I opened a drawer and saw that it was full of makeup products, all colors that seemed like they would suit me. I began to put some mascara on before I stopped. Why in the world was I trying to impress this person who was essentially my kidnapper? I walked out of my bedroom without putting on any more makeup.

When I saw him waiting in the hallway, there was a sense of familiarity about him that I couldn’t shake, and when we touched as I wrapped my arm around his proffered arm, it almost felt like our souls were connecting. It was romantic nonsense, but the guy did something to me.

“Let’s walk around the grounds,” he said, sounding more like an eighteenth-century lord than a man in the twenty-first century.

We didn't exchange any more words until we made it outside of the castle. I found myself in a garden that looks straight from the garden of Eden. There were statues of various gods and goddesses that I didn't know the name of situated here and there, lending further credence to the idea that this was a cult obsessed with Greek and Roman mythology. He gave me furtive glances as we walked, turning away as soon as I was looking at him. It was like he had a million questions on the tip of his tongue, but he was too afraid to ask. Finally, I broke the silence.

"Why am I here?" I said, peering at him closely. He sighed and I could somehow feel his regret. There was something about him that seemed ancient in that moment.

“The reason why you're here is a little hard to believe,” he answered, stopping at a bench to sit down. He took both of my hands in his. It somehow felt like the most intimate moment that I'd ever experienced in my life. There was something about him that drew me in, made me want to know everything about him, uncover all of his secrets...fall in love. Love? Where did that come from?

“What if I told you that I was the God Hades, cursed to search for the reincarnation of my lost love,” he said, watching me closely. I burst out laughing, I was so shocked. I had expected him to be crazy, but this was a level I hadn’t anticipated.

I tried to pull my hands away, but he held them tightly. "Greek Gods," he said earnestly. "They aren’t just legends. We've hid ourselves throughout the years but we’re still around,” he said. He changed topics abruptly. “What do you know about the legend of Hades and Persephone,” he asked.

Having decided that the man I was sitting next to was in fact a crazy person that could attack me at any time, I decided to try to play long in order to appease him.

“Didn’t he steal her away from her mother by tricking her, and then somehow he got her to eat half a pomegranate which forced her to spend half a year with him after that?” I asked, watching his face closely to make sure he wasn’t about to attack me. He grimaced.

“That is how the legend goes,” he said. “But that's not how it was in reality. Persephone and I were in love,” he said softly, a wistful longing in his voice that made my heart ache. “So in love that the rest of the Gods were jealous because they had never been loved as intensely as she loved me,” he said. “She was killed by one of my brothers. I've never found out who did it, although I have my suspicions. The Fates felt sorry for my lost love, especially after they saw me go mad with grief. They made a promise to me that Persephone would be reborn, and we would be reunited once again.”

“What does this have to do with me?" I asked.

He stared into my eyes, so intensely it was like he was trying to see right into my soul. In that moment I half wondered if he could. “Your family was picked by the Fates. It was their prophecy that Persephone would be reincarnated through your family line. No one has been a match yet.” This time, he let me yank my hands free from his grasp. This lunatic actually thought that there was a chance I was the reincarnated version of his old dead girlfriend. It was enough that he considered himself some kind of God, but how did my family get picked to be the object of his hysteria?

"My name is Elena," I said firmly. "I was born on January 2nd in a tiny town in Illinois, fifty miles from Chicago. I've lived at 101 Westchester Drive my entire life with my mother and my brother. I am not your reincarnated lost love. And I demand that you release me.”

He looked desperate after hearing my impassioned speech. He reached again for my hands, but I held them protectively against myself so that he couldn't touch me.

“Please, Elena, just listen. We are both a victim of this insufferable curse. It’s been centuries since someone in your family was picked by the Fates to come here. Your ancestors…” He trailed off, staring into the distance as if he was looking into another life. “Well, it was quite clear that they weren’t her from the very beginning. It was like that with all of them. They couldn't do it,” he said.

“Do what?" I asked. An ache had developed in my chest from his story. It was like something he had said was calling me. Probably it was the fact that I couldn’t help but feel sorry for anyone with a sad story, crazy or not.

"They could never love me like she did."

I shook myself from the spell he had woven over me and began to back away slowly.

"I'm leaving," I said. “You need to let me go.”

He shook his head sadly. “You won't be able to. There's nothing I can do that will allow you beyond these walls until the Fates are satisfied that you are not her."

I turned and ran away.

Desperate to find the edge of the property, I ran around the side of the house towards the front to where I knew there was a road that at least led to the rest of civilization. But just as I was about to take a step onto the gravel road that had led us to the castle, it was as if I hit a glass wall. I bounced back so hard from the invisible barrier that I was thrown to the ground. Standing up, and refusing to believe that this was real, I once again charged towards the road.

The same thing happened.

This time I got a dozen scrapes from the rocky ground underneath me. A manic energy passed over me at that point. In a panic I continued what I knew to be a useless effort. I began to run along the side of the property, periodically testing to see if I could take a step forward. Each time I failed. Finally, after I'd fallen too many times to count, I laid on the ground, my body bruised and bleeding. I desperately tried to suck in air as tears streamed down my face.

He stepped in front of me and looked down at me. He looked at me in a mournful way as if my pain was causing him true agony.

Bending down, he carefully lifted me into his arms, cradling me as if I was the most precious thing he'd ever held. I was too tired to try and get away from him.

I'll prove to you that I am Hades, King of the Underworld," he said. "Then we can at least spend the rest of the time you’re here being friendly to one another until the Fates decide to release us both.” I passed out after that.

Chapter 5

I woke up in my bed. It took a moment for me to remember everything that happened. And when I did, I expected there to be a flash of pain as the memory of all my injuries came back to me.

Surprisingly, as I sat up, I felt better than ever. It was like I’d visited a rejuvenating spa instead of having my ass handed to me by a mystical force that I was still pretending didn't exist.

There was a knock on the door as if someone had been waiting outside so they could hear when I woke up. Not wanting to make the same mistake of opening the door practically naked, I hurriedly pulled on a silk robe that had appeared on the hook outside of my closet and walked to the main door.

I cracked it open.

It was him again.

“I'd like to answer more of your questions this morning if you let me," he said. He looked just as beautiful as ever this morning. But beautiful didn't seem like the right word. He was more man than I ever seen in one person. The perfect embodiment of everything that you could ever wish for and love. There was no way to not feel attraction, even if he was crazy.

Remembering his last words, he had said to me the day before, I decided that I would play nice this morning. I still suspected that he was crazy, but my mother had always told me that it was easier to catch flies with honey than it was with vinegar, and cooperation seemed to be the honey that I had to offer today.

"Just give me a moment," I said, and I couldn’t help but love how his eyes lit up at my words with a fervent hope.

I put on a simple blue dress that reminded me of those eyes. It was a stupid thing to do, but my heart could be stupid sometimes. I opened the door, and he gave me an appreciative glance that made my cheeks blush.

"Let’s have breakfast, and then I'll prove to you that I’m not crazy," he said as he offered his arm again for me to take.

We walked downstairs to the dining room where the chef had laid out an array of dishes. It was a far cry from the pancake breakfast that I usually ate in the mornings. There were recognizable things like grapefruit, apple slices, and oranges, but there were also things like hard-boiled eggs and other dishes that I didn’t usually eat for breakfast.

"Would you like some eggs?" he said, holding the plate of hard-boiled eggs. "The chef does something to them that makes them better than any eggs that I've ever tasted," he said with a smile. Moving to put one on my plate. I shook my head. "I'm allergic to hard-boiled eggs," I said. His eyes seemed to spark at my comment. “How interesting. Are you allergic to all eggs?” he asked in a way that was supposed to sound nonchalant but failed miserably.

"No. It's a strange thing. It’s just hard-boiled eggs. And no one else in my family is allergic. I eat scrambled eggs almost every day," I said with a laugh.

I noticed that his hand was trembling. "Is everything all right? Are you sensitive about egg consumption?" I asked, laughing at the thought.

He recovered from whatever he had been thinking, and I watched as he schooled his face until it was perfectly devoid of any expression.

“Just curious," he said. "But that does seem strange. What other allergies do you have?" he asked. "I believe I’m allergic to pomegranate," I said in jest. He laughed and we continued eating. He didn't ask any more follow up questions, and the earlier tension disappeared.

When we were both finished, he stood up and extended his hand towards me. I felt nervous for some reason. What was he going to show me? Was this where he showed that he was actually a crazy psycho and I ended up in a dark hole with him wearing my face?

I took his hand, my hand trembling as I did so. "Relax,” he said softly. “Everything is going to be alright."

We walked down a hallway that Cerberus hadn’t shown me when he was giving me a tour the other day. Hades took an ancient looking key out of his pocket and inserted it into the lock on the door. "Never try to get in here without me present,” he ordered, his voice the most serious I had heard it sound. I nodded, my anticipation and fear growing as I wondered what was going to be beyond the door.

He opened the door, and I gasped in amazement. The inside of the room resembled a cave, a cave that stretched on and on so far that I couldn’t see where it ended. Pulling me beside him, we began to walk through the cave. My mind struggled to try and understand how this could be. It had to be some kind of elaborate decoration. He must've had some Hollywood set designer come and re-create a cave he had seen.

But even as I had that thought, I couldn’t help but notice how the room even felt like a cave. The air was damp and earthy smelling. The ground underneath my feet felt like stone and dirt. Why try and create something like this in your home...unless it was real.

Surely it couldn’t be real?

As we walked deeper, a light appeared in the distance. It grew brighter and brighter, until I could see that it was emanating from a large lake that was giving off a ghastly green glow.

I didn't think it was possible that anyone was skilled enough to put a lake in a house, castle or not. Something strange was definitely going on. Once we reached the shore line, a boat appeared. And in the boat, I saw Charon. Except he wasn’t the same Charon I had met before. He looked even more skeletal in the dim, green lighting. More demon than human. Instead of the suit he had been wearing before, he was dressed in a simple black shift. He looked like I had always imagined the mythical Charon had looked.

"Master," he said to Hades. Hades just nodded at him and stepped into the boat, helping me to step inside of it afterwards.

I was officially freaked out.

We began to move across the lake. Looking down into the water, I realized that it wasn't just a light that was emanating from the water. There seemed to be what looked like spirits in the water underneath me.

I shifted closer, unable to believe what my eyes were seeing. The spirits seemed to be crying out in agony as they stared up at me. These weren’t the lovely spirits we'd been promised we would be in our Catholic Mass. These were spirits in torment. Their hands seem to reach out to me beseechingly. I felt myself moving to get closer to them.

"Elena" I heard Hades’ panicked voice say before a pair of strong arms grabbed me and pulled me back into the safety of the boat. "Don't touch them," he said chastisingly. "They feast on misery and they would love to get someone like you in their midst."

All I could do was nod numbly as we continued to float across the haunting green body of water. None of us said a word, but I could feel Hades’ eyes upon me, watching me closely for my reaction.

It seemed like forever before we reached the other end of the lake. Charon got out first, followed by Hades, who helped me onto the shoreline. My knees buckled for a second at everything that I had just seen, and I was lucky that Hades deftly caught me.

"Easy there. Just relax," he crooned at my soothingly.

We walked down another cave-like tunnel until we reached a room that had me gasping in amazement. That seemed to be my overall reaction on this little expedition.

The room looked like it was made of millions of sparkling lavender crystals. At the middle of the room stood something that looks like a marble birdbath. Hades pulled me towards it.

"This is the pool of the Fates. They let me borrow it to watch over my domain," he explained.

Flashes of images appeared in the water inside the birdbath looking thing. There was what looked like a golden field that happy couples were running across holding hands. Another imaged showed people being burned alive. I could hear their screams of agony, and it made my stomach turn. Still another pool held an image of what looked like paradise, similar to the Garden of Eden. My heart yearned for that place, a reaction that startled me. Through all the images, Hades watched me closely.

“You recognize that?" he asked, and again the way he asked the question felt like he was asking something of great importance to him.

"You look like I should recognize this," I responded. I continued to stare at the image that strangely felt like home to me. "It looks like somewhere I’ve been before," I continued softly.

He made a pained sound that made me look at him sharply.

"Are you okay?" I asked, staring at his tortured face. Hades simply nodded and pulled us both away from the pool. I followed him with reluctance, not wanting to leave the image of the garden that I had seen.

He walked us to the other side of the room and waved his hand along the wall. A hidden doorway opened up, what looked like the inside of an elevator inside of it. Hades led us both inside.

Just like in an elevator, Hades pressed a button and the door to the crystal room closed, hiding it from view. I gasped as the room started to move, it appeared it was some kind of elevator.

"Where are we going?" I asked, holding onto the wall.

He smiled at me softly. "I'm trying to give you all the proof that you need to know that this is real and not just some kind of trick. I'm taking you to Mount Olympus," he said. My mouth hung open in shock.

The elevator seemed to move up forever. I had once been on an elevator in the Sears Tower when my class took a field trip to Chicago in middle school. It took you to the top where the lookout was. There had been a screen in the elevator that showed you how high you were compared to national and world landmarks. I'd always been afraid of heights and seeing how high we were freaked me out at the time. I had a feeling that I would've been even more scared if I could see how high we were traveling right now.

At last the elevator stopped and my stomach returned back to its normal place in my body. Hades looked like it hadn't affected him, and as the doors opened, he simply smoothed back a piece of his hair that had fallen in his face, and he took my hand again. I hated that my heart seemed to leap whenever he touched me, and that his touch was beginning to feel familiar and almost necessary to me in such a short time. I got that strange sense again that I knew him from somewhere.

My trail of thoughts disappeared when I actually took notice of the room we were walking into. It was the size of a ballroom, the most enormous ballroom on earth. It looked like it could fit hundreds and hundreds of people. The walls and floor were gold and the light in the room was almost blinding despite the fact that I couldn’t see any light fixtures anywhere. There were beautiful people in various poses around the room. Some were laying on lounges while what looked like servants brought them things. A group of perfectly built men were wrestling in one of the corners. There was a fierce looking woman that evoked images of an Amazonian shooting arrows at a target in the far corner of the room. My eyes flitted back and forth, not knowing where to look since there was so much to see. But through it all I felt Hades’ eyes on me.

"Hades," called a booming voice. I looked and saw someone who looked like the polar opposite of Hades approaching us. Where Hades reminded me of the nighttime sky and made you want to discover the secrets he held within the depth of his sparkling indigo eyes, this man looked like the sun. Everything about him was golden, and his eyes were so light of a blue they looked almost translucent. His hair was gold as well, but a shade darker than his skin. It was unruly and slightly longer than Hades’ hair.

I hadn’t been able to see very much of Hades’ body, but from what I could tell from the way his clothes fit, both of these men were built the same. They looked like their bodies had been carved by Michelangelo himself. And just like Hades, this man was watching me intensely.

"Zeus," Hades responded coldly.

My eyes widened in alarm. I was standing in front of “The Zeus.” This had to be a dream, there was no way that this could be real. Behind Zeus’ shoulder I saw the Amazonian looking woman fire a shot at another handsome man. I gasped in amazement as I saw the arrow disappear in a cloud of smoke right before it would've hit him square in the chest. As I looked around the room, I realized that everyone looked too perfect, not even in magazines did human beings look like this. These were definitely not human beings I was surrounded by.

"What do we have here?" the Zeus character asked, still eyeing me critically although the twinkle in his eye suggested that like Hades, he liked what he saw. Looking around the room again I couldn't see how they could even notice me in a room full of such beautiful people.

"This is the Fates’ latest try," he responded in a stilted voice. I found myself gripping his hand tighter, wanting for some inexplicable reason to offer some comfort in what was clearly an uncomfortable situation for him.

"Much prettier than the others," Zeus said flippantly. "What do you think your chances are with this one?" he asked as if he was discussing the weather and not the fact that his brother had been suffering from heartbreak and a curse for who knows how many years.

Anger rose up sharply inside of me. “This one's name is Elena," I replied sarcastically, beginning to get the feeling that the God standing in front of me was a jerk. "Hasn't anyone told you that it's rude to talk about someone in front of them," I said. I felt Hades chuckle beside me, and I could almost feel his tension disappearing with my comments. Zeus threw back his head and gave a laugh so boisterous that everyone in the room turned and looked, curious to see what had made their leader laugh so hard.

"I like you little Elena," he said, still chuckling. His eyes gleamed brighter, suggesting that I had sparked his interest even more. Hades inexplicably moved his hand from mine to around my waist, pulling me close to him in a way that made my knees weak.

I looked up at him. He was giving Zeus the universal signal for him to “fuck off.” Was Hades feeling territorial over me? The thought made me happier than I wanted to admit.

"We will have a banquet in your honor. We don't have guests very often," Zeus announced, waving his hand. I jumped in surprise as a table that could seat 100 people appeared in the middle of the room, laden with food that immediately had my mouth watering.

"Show off," muttered Hades under his breath.

“Come, come," said Zeus, gesturing towards the table. "Let us eat." Hades reluctantly led me to the table.

"I'm getting the feeling that you don’t see your family very often," I said. He gave me a small smile.

"You would be correct in that assumption," he said wryly.

Zeus sat us in the chairs next to him at the head of the table. Without having to lift a finger, my plate was filled with an array of mouthwatering food. The sound of chairs being pulled out from the table signaled that the other beautiful creatures in the room were joining us at the table. Harp music began to play, filling the whole room with haunting, delicate sounds despite the fact I saw no speakers in the room and there were no musicians playing.

Dinner seemed to last forever. The food was good, but it was hard to concentrate as I continued to gape at the mystical specimens around the table. There was a particularly beautiful woman at the end of the table that had been eyeing me throughout the meal. She had golden hair that seemed to glimmer like there were tiny crystals all over it. Her eyes were a shocking green color that reminded me of emeralds. I had never before seen a more spectacular looking woman. But while I admired her, she seemed to have a great sense of distaste for me judging by the scowl that was smeared across her perfect face.

“Who is that?” I whispered to Hades, who was still glumly picking at his food.

He looked up and rolled his eyes. “That’s Aphrodite,” he answered. “Ignore her, she can’t stand when other women have attention on them.”

“The Aphrodite?” I asked in amazement.

He smiled at me, obviously enjoying the continued awe that I couldn’t help but display.

“Yes,” he said.

The meal continued like this except it became more of a guessing game as I would try to put names on the Gods. For the most part they fit their stereotypes and I only missed the ones that hadn’t been talked about much in school.

As interested as I was in everything though, I soon realized that I was becoming exhausted.

“Can we leave?” I asked Hades, admiring how the golden light of the room reflected off his jet-black hair. He had the kind of beauty that made your heart throb once you realized that it could never be yours.

He looked relieved at my request. “Of course. I’ve just been waiting for you.”

We stood up to leave. “You’re not leaving, are you?” asked Zeus, standing abruptly in his chair.

“As fun as this has been, she’s exhausted and we need to get back home,” Hades said, emphasizing the word “fun” rather sarcastically.

Zeus turned towards me, an intense look in his eye as he lifted up a hand and softly stroked my face. I couldn’t help the tingles that went down my spine at his touch. And they weren’t all bad. In fact, they resembled the feelings I had whenever Hades touched me.

It must be a god thing.

“I’ll be seeing you soon,” Zeus said to me, and the way he said it sounded much more like an oath than an obligatory farewell. I heard Hades softly growl behind me and then a hand gripped me, pulling me back towards him.

We left without another word, but I could feel Zeus’s stare follow us until we were safely enveloped in the elevator.

By this time, I was exhausted. “I can’t believe I’m this tired,” I said. “It’s only been a few hours since I woke up.”

Hades rubbed my shoulder comfortingly. “Being in Olympus around that much higher energy is exhausting for humans. We wouldn’t be able to have stayed much longer regardless if you had wanted to.”

“How long will it last?”

“You should be fine by tomorrow,” he said as the elevator doors opened. He had me step out first and we both stopped abruptly as we looked around the room. The crystal room had been transformed. There were flowers covering every surface of the room. I couldn’t help but step closer to the walls, reaching out my hand to touch one of the vibrant pink petals of a flower that had caught my eye. The flower appeared to grow as soon as it made contact with my hand, and I quickly yanked my hand away in surprise.

“What in the world…” I said as I turned to Hades. The rest of my sentence was cut off with the way he was looking at me. There was a new gleam in his eye. It looked a lot like hope. And it made me nervous.

“Do your rooms regularly change like this?” I asked him, wanting to know what he was thinking. My question seemed to yank him out of whatever trance he had been in, and he was in front of me, holding me within seconds.

“Not usually,” he said, that same strange sparkle in his eye. All of a sudden, the room’s wonders faded from my mind as I realized that his lips were inching ever closer to mine.

At first the kiss was softer than anything I’d ever known, like a quiet whisper. I couldn’t help but dig my hips into his, wanting more. My lips parted, encouraging him to explore my mouth with his tongue. Completely possessed with a blinding desire, I found myself lowered onto a velvet couch that had appeared out of nowhere. He braced himself above my body, claiming my mouth in a way that made me want him to claim every last inch of me. My chest expanded beneath him with heavy breaths and we melted into one, my arms locked around his neck as if I had no intention of ever letting go as his fingers shaped to the fine contours of my skull as if I was the most precious and delicate thing that he’d ever touched.

I finally pulled away with a gasp as we lay there staring at each other. Never in my life had I reacted to someone like that. He stared at me in a possessive, hungry way that sent sparks shooting across my body. I wanted more...but at the same time I was scared at how fast this had all of a sudden started moving. A few hours ago, I was thinking I was the victim of a kidnapping...and now I liked him.

“I think we should go back to the manor,” I told him in a breathy voice that I couldn’t hide.

He reluctantly nodded and pulled away from me. I finally took a second to realize that he had just made an elegant purple velvet couch appear out of thin air. “That’s quite the useful trick,” I told him with a shy grin.

He blushed, making him even more attractive to me. He pulled me up, brushing another soft kiss across my lips as if it was difficult for him to stay away.

The journey back was a blur as my exhaustion made me so tired that I couldn’t help but stumble as we walked.

Hades scooped me up into his arms. The rocking of the boat as we were once again funneled across the glowing green river, and the feeling of his warm body heat enveloping me, sent me into a dream-filled sleep before we even made it across.

Chapter 6

I wake enveloped in a pair of arms. Once it hits me that someone is in bed with me, I yanked myself away with a small shriek.

“It’s just me,” came Hades’ voice, and I relaxed back into the bed, my heart still racing.

I rolled over. “Why are you in bed with me?” I asked him, not able to prevent myself from admiring how yummy he looked in his slightly sleep-rumpled state. He took off his shirt to sleep and my eyes devoured the hard, perfect planes of his golden chest that led to a set of abs that looked airbrushed they were so flawless. My fingers itched to touch them.

“I didn’t want to stay away from you,” he admitted shyly. “I haven’t felt like this since…”

“Since Persephone,” I finished for him, an unbidden shock of jealousy coursing over me at the sound of her name.

“Yes,” he agreed.

“So now that I’m willing to believe that you possibly could be an ancient mythological lord of the underworld, what are we doing today?” I asked him, settling back into the warmth of his arms.

“I thought we could do some experiments,” he said vaguely. I opened my mouth to ask him what he was talking about, but I’m interrupted when he suddenly pulled me out of bed and kissed my lips with a perfunctory smacking sound. “After breakfast,” he said, setting me down. He disappeared out of the room before I could utter another word.

* * *

After breakfast, where he distracted me with tales of his family’s exploits, he led me out to the gardens once again. We walked until we got to a section that we hadn’t seen the day before. It was a patch about an acre wide that looks like it had been scorched; there’s no sign of green or living vegetation anywhere.

“What happened here?” I ask.

“This used to be the prized section of Persephone’s garden,” he said softly, sadness leaking out of his words. “The day she died a mysterious fire started, decimating it all.”

Again, I hate that we’re talking about her for some reason, but my heart ached for the sadness in his voice. Will anyone ever be able to replace her in his heart? Does the curse even have a chance of being broken?

He started to lead me around the perimeter, stealing glances at me as if he was waiting for something. When we’ve walked all around it, he seemed to be even more depressed.

“Maybe we should go somewhere else,” I tell him softly, not willing to watch him mourn another woman for another second. He nodded and we walked around the rest of the gardens for another hour before he led me back to the manor. We barely spoke during the whole walk, and I felt frustrated and depressed when he led me back to my room.

He turned to go with a stilted, “I’ll see you later.”

“Are you even willing to let anyone else in?” I called after him, channeling all my frustration of the last hour. “Can the curse even be broken if you’re unable to stop mourning someone who’s been gone for centuries? We need to find a way for me to go home if that’s the case.”

He turned back around and started walking towards me in a determined manner. “Make me forget,” he said to me before his lips were crashing against mine and he was pushing me through the doorway of my bedroom.

I should have pushed him away, unwilling to compete with a dead woman, but his kisses were magic against my skin.

Once we had laid on my bed, his kisses turned soft at first as he slowly coaxed my lips open with his tongue. His hand moved up my back and into my hair, positioning me to deepen the kiss. His other hand moved to cup my chest, his thumb teasing me until I couldn’t help but arch into his hand, moaning softly into his mouth.

He abruptly pulled away from the kiss. A sound of protest came out of my mouth until my dress was pulled over my head. He angled me to the side, laying me back on the bed as he hovered above me.

"I'm going to taste every inch of you starting with these." He popped the front clasp of my bra, pulling the cups to the sides, exposing my breasts to him. I could feel my face turning a deep shade of red, my face and chest burning as he stared, lightly tracing my skin.

"Perfect," he spoke softly as if to himself before he dipped his head, capturing my breast into his mouth and sucking it in deep. My back bowed off the bed, my hands flying into his soft as silk hair. The sensation was unlike anything I could describe, making warmth flow to my whole body. He took his time licking, sucking, biting, and caressing every inch of skin above my waist frequently returning to nip and kiss my lips during his exploration until I was a writhing, wiggling body of need.

"Please," I whimpered at one point, begging to be put out of such pleasurable agony. But Hades either didn't hear me or chose to ignore me as he continued his devastating ministrations. He returned to my mouth, sucking on my bottom lip. His hands scored through my hair; his fingers pressed into my scalp. He ground his pelvis into mine, and I instinctively ground back.

He sat up, breathing heavy as he pulled my thong over my hips and down my legs. Again, he stared, taking in the length of me. I squirmed under his scrutiny, reaching to cover myself with a sheet, but he grabbed my wrist halting my progress.

"Don't." He brought my palm to his lips and kissed it softly. "Don't ever hide yourself from me. You're perfect. Every inch of you." He traced a line of kisses from the center of my chest down the rest of my body. His nostrils flared as he breathed me in. "Your scent is intoxicating. It's been driving me crazy since I first saw you. If I don't taste you soon, it will drive me insane."

I had an idea what he planned to do, but the reality was more than I could have imagined. His tongue felt wicked as it licked me deftly. I raised my hips and ground against his mouth, trying to get closer. His mouth latched on, sucking, as he touched the right spot perfectly. I didn't last long. My orgasm erupted from my body and out my mouth in a long moan. The sound must have excited Hades because he growled against me, prolonging the climax and sending more aftershocks coursing through me. Spent, my limbs like jelly, I wasn't sure if I could move. I raised her head. Hades was still between my legs, nuzzling against me while lightly kissing the insides of my thighs. I plopped my head back down, and he made his way up my body, stopping to bury his face in my neck, breathing me in. He wrapped his arms around me and held me close. I brought my arms around him as well, my hands like a magnet, digging into his hair, my fingers playing with the silken strands.

* * *

I startled awake, alone. The bed was cool next to me, as was the air as it settled over my skin. My body ached in all the right places since Hades had made sure and gone the full distance after my first mind-blowing orgasm.

I smiled through my stretch, my hands above my head and my toes pointed. If I let myself, I could get lost in the hotter-than-hell memories of Hades’ hands on me, and his lips, and the way his body fit perfectly into mine, but I’d really like to find my missing person and entice him into bed to recreate the perfection. I grabbed his shirt from the floor and slipped it on while walking into the living room portion of my bedroom suite. His skin was burnished gold in the dim lighting of the lamp that sat on the coffee table beside the couch where he was sitting writing in what looked like a journal.

He pulled at his lower lip with his fingers. I stood in the doorway, watching the rise and fall of his bare chest in complete awe that I just slept with this perfect creature. He looked up. “Did I wake you?” he asked.

I frowned at his rigid jaw and his tone—affectionate Hades was gone; a stranger is securely in place.

“No, I…. You weren’t there when I woke. I missed you.”

His eyes fell back to his journal. “I couldn’t sleep any longer. Go back to bed.”

“But I’m cold without you,” I teased, walking behind him.

Bending down, I grinned into his neck and slid my hands down to rub his chest. He tensed and his quick intake of breath told me I had his attention. “Come to bed, please.”

Pinning my fingers between his, he snapped, “I need a moment, Elena. Give me a second to be alone.”

Right. That hurt.

My heart plummeted to my stomach. I yanked my hand away and wrapped them around myself. He didn’t move. And before he had a chance to follow, I darted to the bedroom, slammed the door behind me, and threw myself on the mattress, head buried in the pillow. Last night meant nothing to him when it meant so much to me.

I’ve been dismissed. I can see it now; I’m the girl he’ll fuck when he needs to scratch an itch, but I’ll never mean anything to him.

His words were crystal clear. It’s one thing to have unattached sex, but disrespect was intolerable. I wouldn’t allow him to treat me like shit because he was a broken bastard. I deserved more than that. I dragged myself to my feet, I slipped to the door and locked it, wishing he had picked somewhere else to sulk other than my beautiful suite. It’s going to be forever tainted now. The memories, the feelings, the experience I wish I could take back. How soon could I get out of here?

My room felt stale and dark, but I flung myself onto the bed and took up a new chant. I would not cry. I would not cry. I wouldn’t; tears are for fools. They don’t wash away pain or free me from it. A long time ago I began to see them as a weakness, and I hadn’t allowed myself to cry until I got to this Grecian funhouse. My lids burned as the tears threatened. What had I done?

Chapter 7

An hour passed before there was a soft knock on the door that separated the sitting area from my bedroom. I ignored it, hoping he would get the hint and use the other door in that room to let himself out. He knocked again and after I didn’t answer, I heard the lock disengaging in the door. Of course, the bastard would have a key.

The door opened.

“Elena,” Hades softly called in a devastated voice. I ignored him.

He startled me when he sat on the bed beside me, his footsteps were so light that I didn’t even hear him move. He reached out and brushed a piece of hair away from my tear-stained face.

“I’m so sorry,” he said in a choked-up voice. “I shouldn’t have done that. I didn’t mean it.”

I sat up and scooted as far away from him as I could. “Get out of my room,” I hissed at him.

He crawled across the bed towards me, his eyes burned as he reached out and enfolded me into his arms. I wanted to fight, but all I could do is cry. He’s ruined everything.

“Let me go,” I sobbed.

“Ask me something that’s possible,” he said to me as he buried his head in my neck.

“I won’t be treated like that. I’m not something you can just throw away when the mood suits you. Last night meant something to me. I didn’t force you to be with me.”

“I’m so sorry. It’s the truth, Elena. I want to be with you. But that was the first time I had slept with someone that wasn’t Persephone. To be with you, I have to work through my emotions without hurting you. Last night was a big lesson for me.”

He dragged his forehead to mine, forcing eye contact. “Please forgive me. It won’t happen again, I promise you.”

“I want to believe you.”

“Give me a second chance.”

So much sadness is in him; it’s in me too ever since my father deserted us when I was child, yet I wondered if it had to be that way. This was new territory for both of us, and we would have to work together to figure it out.

I brushed my lips against his.

“I may be a fool, but I will.” We stay stuck to each other for minutes, and then he laid me down so that he was laying on top of me. I ran my fingers over his back while he nuzzled my neck.

“Don’t you have some Lord of the Underworld tasks to get to?” I asked on my way to complete distraction.

He brushed a kiss against my lips. “I have some time to show you just how sorry I am.”

He nestled between my thighs and I giggled, sinking my hands into his silken hair.

* * *

I don’t know how long we lay wrapped together. My limbs are like jelly. Incapable of holding myself upright, I stayed snuggled into his side. Hades rubbed my back, his fingers soft on my bare skin. Finally, I looked up, gauging his reaction to make sure I didn’t lose him to dark thoughts like I did last night. His eyes were closed, and he looked relaxed. His cheeks were soft, his jaw wasn’t clenched as I’ve noticed it gets when he’s tense. He opened one eye, smiled, and then opened the other to fully look at me.

Before I said anything, he gripped under my arms to bring my lips to his. I leaned back to look at him and slipped my hand through his ebony hair that had become disheveled from my grip. I brushed my mouth against his, once and then again, I snuggled back into his arms, but I’m not cocooned in his warmth for long. He slid out from beneath me and leaned on his elbow. He stared while I lay flat on my back. I immediately covered my chest, but he stopped my hands.

“I want to look at you,” he said, smiling.

And he did, every curve and inch of my body. Moving to my stomach, he drew a circular path around the planes of my abdomen, getting lost in his own thoughts. His fingers came to a sudden halt. I grabbed his chin, forcing his gaze to meet mine. “Hey, don’t go anywhere. I want you to stay with me.” For the briefest moment his eyes widened. There’s vulnerability within them and then he’s gone. He becomes blank, shutting down and shutting me out. I sensed his internal struggle against falling back into his comfortable pain. He clenched his jaw; he rolled onto his back and broke all contact with me. His lids closed tight, and my heart lurched in my chest.

As soon as he lets go, gets close to me, he withdraws or tries to push me away. I’m not going to let that happen. I scrambled onto my knees beside him. I grabbed his chin and mimicked his stern tone, “Hades, look at me.”

He doesn’t move. He lifted his hands to press the palms against his eyes, his long fingers covering his forehead, reaching into his tousled hair.

“Talk to me.”

It’s heartbreaking to see him, a god, splintered in this way; unable or unwilling to move beyond the misery he’s convinced himself he should live with.

After a moment of silence, I lost my patience. “You are an obstinate, confusing asshole!”

I think his lips lifted in a hint of a smile, but I couldn’t be sure.

“I’m going to be honest with you, and if you get mad so be it. I’d rather fight for you than let you slip away with a ghost. Persephone is gone.” Her name stung my lips. “Her death was tragic; I can’t imagine the pain you endured. She died thousands of years ago, Hades. I can only presume to know the love she had for you, and with that, Persephone would not have wanted you to suffer her death for a millennium. You loved her; it’s okay to let her go.”

His brooding silence sliced my heart with each passing minute. Getting frustrated, I pulled against one of his arms and he allowed me to move it easily, lifting his other so his wary eyes can open. I kneeled naked by his side, I grasped his hand and waited for him to speak.

“It’s much easier not to feel anything,” he said finally.

His jaw clenched as he contemplated his thoughts. “It’s hard for me to let go of what happened, forget the past and trust what I feel when I’m with you. I can’t relive the pain I experienced; it almost broke me.” On a sigh, he continued. “When I’m with you, Elena, I forget about everything. I forget about Persephone and what happened. I feel alive again. And then I feel guilty for forgetting her in those brief moments of happiness you have given me.”

I wish I knew how to help him. “I’m not Persephone.” My voice wavered as I said it. Longing to touch him, I gently stroked down his cheek and ran my thumb along his full bottom lip. “You deserve to be happy, Hades.” He winced.

“I’m not the woman you fell in love with all those years ago. My future is not tied to Persephone, just as my past is different from hers. Maybe it’s time to take a leap of faith. Believe in me.” I sounded desperate even to my own ears. For an inexplicable reason, I needed him to believe in me. He remained silent, considering my words for a long moment.

He finally sat up, his chest an inch from my breasts. He dug his fingers into my hair, and he held me still as his thumb rubbed over my bottom lip. Our eyes remained connected as he answered me with a sweet kiss. I leaned in, parting my mouth to accept his tongue. Falling back to the bed, he took me with him, covering his body with mine in a blanket of heat.

* * *

“Master,” accompanied a pounding on the door as one of the servants frantically tried to get Hades’ attention. “Master, are you in there?” came the distressed cry. Hades cursed as he pulled away from me, pulling a pair of pants on and marching to the door.

He pulled it open, “What is it? This better be important.”

“Her garden, you have to come see it!”

Hades is out the door before I can ask what the servant is talking about. A sense of foreboding filled the air as I hurriedly put on my clothes and flew after them. There’s no sign of them in the house and I hated what must be Hades’ godlike speed as I tried to think of where in the gardens they could be. “Her garden,” rang in my head and I had a feeling of dread as I jogged towards the scorched plot where Hades had taken me the day before.

As I turned the corner and finally got to the area where I thought I remembered the garden being the day before, I gasped in amazement. I must have gotten lost and walked to the wrong place because the garden in front of me was unlike anything I had seen before. A multitude of flowers, fruit trees, and greenery fill every inch of the plot. The colors and sweet smells of the flowers are more vibrant than anything I’ve ever sensed before. Everything is larger than it should be, as if the plants were determined to be the best and brightest the world had ever seen. Thousands of butterflies flitted about, the colors on their wings shades that I didn’t think were possible. It’s as if I had stepped into a veritable Garden of Eden. It’s as if I have stepped into that image that I saw in Hades’ crystal room.

All of a sudden, I’m yanked into someone’s arms and lips come colliding down upon mine. “It’s you, it’s really you,” Hades cried as he spun me around.

I flinched as if I’d been struck by a belt. He can’t possibly mean what I think he’s saying.

“I’m who?” I croaked, my voice trembling.

“Persephone, you’ve returned to me. The curse is broken,” he said as he sat me down, an elated smile filling his whole face.

“Hades,” I choked out. “What are you saying?”

“Don’t you see...you are her,” he told me, gesturing towards the garden. “You created this. It only would have returned for Persephone. When we made love the garden came back because the curse was broken.” He said this while looking happier than I had ever seen a person look. Meanwhile, I felt like I was dying inside.

As soon as he sat me down, I backed away. I felt destroyed inside, like all the light that I’d ever held inside of me had been demolished.

He didn’t love me. He loved her.

I’ll never be anything but a replacement for the girl that he once loved with his whole heart.

I had to get out of here.

To be continued soon….

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Other Books by C.R. Jane

The Fated Wings Series

First Impressions

Forgotten Specters

The Fallen One (a Fated Wings Novella)

Forbidden Queens

Frightful Beginnings (a Fated Wings Short Story)

Faded Realms

Faithless Dreams

The Rock God (a Fated Wings Novella)

The Timeless Affection Series

Lamented Pasts

Lost Passions

The Pack Queen Series

Queen of the Thieves

Queen of the Alphas (2019)

The Sounds of Us Contemporary Series

Remember Us This Way

Remember You This Way

Remember Me This Way (2019)

Fallen World Series Co-write with Mila Young

Bound

Broken

Broken Souls Series cowrite with Mila Young

School of Broken Souls

Blurb

Hades’ Goddess

Elyse and her four gods have been to Hell and back, literally, but now that things are meant to calm down, the story after her “happy ending” isn’t quite how she imagined it would be.

Hermes brings her a dinner invitation to visit Mount Olympus. The rest of the Divine Beings want to meet the mortal who captured the heart of four gods. But things are never simple when it comes to Greek Gods because there’s always a hidden agenda, and Elyse realizes very quickly she isn’t one of the gods despite her title. And is being a goddess really worth losing so much over?

Chapter 1

With Hades’s large form on top of me, him buried deep inside of me, I writhing with desire, but I couldn’t forget. Forget about saving the world, forget about looking after the humans every damn day. Forget about who I was now.

I let my eyes roll back in my head and moaned.

“Fuck, Elyse,” Hades bit out when I closed my legs around his hips and he rammed into me harder and harder. My body shifted across the mattress until we ran out of it. His hand was fanned open behind my shoulders, his fingers curling around my neck. He held my head up and stopped me from toppling over the edge as he rode me good.

“More,” I whispered, and he obliged. Repetitively.

It wasn’t the first time I’d come undone and it sure as shit wasn’t going to be the last. I didn’t want it to be. But the way Hades handled me, hard and fast with enough gentleness to remind me what we were now in a real relationship, I knew I was in for a treat tonight.

It was always a treat with him. After having defeated Death, and Hades finally admitting he loved me, life was now beyond bliss… a dream and fantasy.

“Lie on your stomach,” he growled, pulling out.

I moaned in protest and did as he asked so he could get the fuck back in. When I was on my stomach, he ran his hands down my back, pressing with his fingers, getting to the tension I harbored there. I groaned as he kneaded the stiff muscles.

Saving the world made for a lot more aches and pains than my normal training did.

I was just getting lost in how good it felt with Hades’s hands all over my body when his dick found my entrance like a homing missile—yes, it was as cliché as that—and he speared into me. I cried out as he buried himself deep into my sex, my legs closed and the full weight of his body suddenly on me pushing buttons I hadn’t even known I had.

He’d never been this forceful before. Hades never ceased to surprise, both in sex and as one of the men I was in love with.

“Let go,” Hades growled in my ear, as if I had some kind of inclination to hold on to something at this point. But when he said it—whether it was his gravelly voice in my ear, the command, or the way he was fucking me—I let go.

And I orgasmed, screaming, convulsing, adoring every single second, holding on to the pleasure thrumming through me.

Hades pumped into me harder and faster and this time, it was for him. I could tell when he focused on himself rather than me. We’d done this so many times, I knew him inside out.

His strokes shortened and he seemed to thrust deeper and deeper.

And then he twitched and jerked inside of me and he was there, groaning loudly, his body stilling from his own orgasm, shuddering on top of me.

“You’re my undoing.” He gasped, his head against my neck, his breath hot against my ear.

It was good to know there was something out there that could still get to Hades. He was invincible at his very worst. Even when he’d been in the shittiest place emotionally, he had been a tough nut to crack.

And he was far from in that place now. Now everything was okay between him and his brothers—at least, as okay as it was ever going to get—and we were together because he’d accepted that he loved me after all. And I loved him, and I had for a long time too.

Hades rolled off, his dick slipping out of me even though he was still hard. I swear, the gods could really carry on forever. Ha! Eternity had so many definitions, both literally and figuratively.

When he collapsed next to me, he pulled me against his strong body. He had the deepest dark eyes I could fall into and escape, sharp cheekbones, raven hair, and the kind of look that had me swooning. Our skins were slick with sweat, but I didn’t care. This was the part I couldn’t get used to. Hades and I had been together for almost a year now, since he’d decided to give in and love me as much as he wanted to, and I still wasn’t used to the way he held me after sex instead of disappearing on me, the way he cared about how I felt or asked about my day. I loved it, but I was always a little unsure, worried that it would disappear again or that it was too good to be true.

“Better?” he asked.

I nodded against his chest. “Much.”

I’d been so stressed when he’d come over. Since I’d been dubbed the Goddess of Sanctuary because I was a descendant of Zeus himself, had his blood in my veins, I’d been taking the whole saving-mankind thing seriously. As a goddess, I couldn’t exactly take a vacay, especially since I lived among the humans.

Besides, I liked being a hero. At least I had the first couple of months when I’d felt like I was finally fulfilling some purpose. But it was a little bit like cleaning up a house full of kids. Every time I took care of something, another thing popped up. Sometimes I just wanted the world to stay saved for a little while instead of having to jump from one crisis to the next.

But that was why the humans needed a hero, right? If they were fine on their own, my entire bloodline wouldn’t have been needed.

Hades had come to find me freaked out and stressed and he’d distracted me in exactly the best way he knew how.

He ran his hand over my back, tracing invisible patterns with his strong fingers.

Something fell in the living room and someone cursed in a voice I didn’t recognize. Hades and I both stiffened.

“Stay here.” Hades shot out of bed like lightning. The only people who appeared in my apartment were the gods I was dating, Heracles when he was back from his world tours, Persephone when she wanted to gossip, and Zeus when he was being full of crap.

And none of them sounded like that or pushed shit over. I sat up in bed and reached for a shirt, finding Hades’s. I pulled it over my head and dragged it down my body. The fabric fell mid-thigh.

A moment later, Hades stomped into the room looking pissed off. I knew his scowl so well and it was still attractive as fuck.

“It’s for you,” he said as if it were a phone call. Behind him, another god entered the room. I could tell he was a god because of the way he walked and the dull glow that radiated from him. My guys didn’t have that unless they’d recently spent a lot of time on Mount Olympus.

Which meant Hades never had it.

“Who are you?” I asked, sitting on the bed and pulling a pillow to my chest.

“Hermes,” he said in a deep voice, his chin high, proud. He wore a white tunic and leather sandals. His hair was blond and a little curly, and his face had the air of someone who might be full of shit, but he was not altogether unattractive.

Right, the messenger of the gods. Those sandals were supposed to have wings he could fly with—did they just appear when needed or were they metaphorical?

“Why are you in my house?” I asked.

Hermes glanced at Hades. “Not very respectful, is she?”

“You’re on her turf, buddy, not the other way around. Spit it out so you can piss off.” He stiffened, wearing a gruff expression.

Hermes raised his eyebrows and held up his hands. “I forget what a grouch you are, seeing that there are never messages to deliver in your neck of the woods.”

Ouch. Hades’s temper flared, his brow furrowing, his eyes narrowing, but he bit his tongue, not saying a word, and looked at me with eyes that were filled with dark thoughts.

Hermes went on, seemingly oblivious. “You are hereby invited by Divine Decree to join the gods and goddesses for dinner.”

“What?” I asked at the precise time Hades spat out, “Bullshit.”

Hermes looked annoyed more than anything. “She’s a goddess. They want to see her. Trust me, I wouldn’t be down here unless I had a reason.”

“On Mount Olympus?” I asked.

“The gods don’t go to Earth unless there’s a reason, either,” Hermes said, as if that were supposed to be an answer to my question. I supposed it was.

“When?”

“Tomorrow night,” he said.

“That it?” Hades asked almost immediately.

Hermes nodded.

“So get the fuck out of town.”

Hermes rolled his eyes at Hades, then disappeared into a puff of air.

“Was that necessary?” I asked Hades.

He shrugged. “The guy’s a dick. Take my word for it.”

I didn’t argue because I couldn’t. Hades could be a real dick too, but it didn’t seem like the right time to bring it up. Besides, I had bigger things to worry about. A dinner? On Mount Olympus?

“Why would they want to see me?” I asked.

“You’re a goddess now.” Hades raked his hand through his dark hair.

“Do I have to be worried?”

Hades hesitated just a moment. “Of course not.”

But I wasn’t sure I believed him.

Chapter 2

I was so nervous, I couldn’t eat. I wasn’t sure I could get a single thing past my throat all night. And then the gods were going to be pissed I wasn’t eating, thinking I wasn’t taking care of myself. They were inviting me for… something. I had no idea what. When it came to the gods, nothing was straightforward. They all came with complications and hidden agendas. So, if I was invited to Mount Olympus, I struggled to believe it was for a simple meet and greet.

It felt like I was going to throw up.

“Calm down, sweetheart.” Ares moved to my side, tall and powerful. His shaved hair had started to grow, and I liked his new look. I stood in my apartment with Heracles behind me, tying a white tunic to my body with a rope that crisscrossed over my torso to eventually hang down my side. It was sexy and sultry and just the right amount of everything else that I needed to look like a real goddess.

My hair and makeup had already been done. Persephone had helped with that—my dark hair was pulled back and tied up in a high ponytail so that it spilled down my back. My makeup made my face look fierce and feminine at the same time.

If I didn’t know I was just a human, I would have believed that the Grecian beauty staring back at me in the floor-length mirror really was a goddess.

“What do they want me there for?” I asked yet again to the gods in the room.

“They want to get to know you,” Apollo said. He leaned against the wall behind me, his arms folded across his huge chest, long golden hair falling past his shoulders, and his blue eyes trailing up and down my body as if he were imagining untying all the rope Heracles had just gotten around me. I would have loved for him to do that, just to take my mind off things. Anything to avoid going to Mount Olympus.

I wasn’t going to ask “why” another time. They had all told me it was because of my newfound status and apparently it was also overdue. I wasn’t sure I agreed.

Finally, it was time to go. And I wasn’t nearly ready for it. I trembled, and my stomach hurt.

“Come on. It’ll be fine.” Apollo stepped up behind me, and I watched him, adoring the way he stared at me so sexily. Poseidon stood proud, oozed sex appeal, and appeared at my right and took a hand.

“We’ll be right here with you,” he said, kissing my knuckles.

Ares did the same on my other side. And suddenly, we weren’t at my home anymore.

I recognized Mount Olympus because of the dream state Apollo had once taken me to his place. He’d whisked me away to fuck me at his place.

But I’d been distracted then.

Now, instead of moving down a winding path to one of the palaces that were dotted in the distance as if this were some fairytale land, we moved down the wide cobbled road that led slowly toward the top of a hill. As we approached, a large roof held up by thick pillars came into view. It wasn’t dark, but it wasn’t light, either. It created a hell of a lot of mood, but I could still see everything.

I realized the pillars and the entire roof were made of marble. White with gray veins.

A table stood in the middle with chairs all around it and it was piled with food—from meats prepared in all different ways to vegetables and grains as well as fresh fruit.

And wine. A shit ton of wine.

Around the table, the gods and goddesses appeared. As we approached, more and more of them popped in, but they were talking and laughing and eating as if they had been there all along. The moment I stepped onto the floor of the structure—marble, too—they all stopped talking and turned to look at me.

The silence was deafening and I felt them scrutinize me. Were they sizing me up? Did I make the cut?

Hades entered the room from my right, looking grumpy, but damn he looked delicious polished and dressed like the rest of the gods.

“The Goddess of Sanctuary,” Heracles announced and they all nodded at me, smiling.

“Come on,” Apollo whispered in my ear.

Poseidon and Hades walked away from us toward the other end of the table and Zeus stood. His white hair seemed to flutter as if an invisible breeze blew past. He was broad and carried himself like a leader.

“Brothers,” they all said to my men, clapping hands as if they were one big, happy family, which was partially true at least. But I could feel the undercurrents all the way from where I stood.

A goddess rose from her seat next to Zeus and walked to me.

“Please sit down.” She gestured to an empty chair.

“This is Hera,” Heracles explained.

The bitch who had cursed Hades. Plus, his sister and sister-in-law. Though making sense of who was related to who in amid the gods only left me spinning.

“We are very pleased to have you, my darling.” Hera’s voice sounded syrupy sweet. It made me want to like her. She had hair like spun gold that draped over a voluptuous figure that would make any man forget his own name, and she moved like she knew it.

“Thank you for inviting me,” I said in a voice that sounded pathetically small.

Hera smiled at me. “This is your home now, child.”

I wasn’t sure I agreed with that, but I wasn’t going to challenge the goddess of… I wasn’t sure what she was the goddess of. I’d hit a blank.

She shimmied back to her seat like she was walking on pinpoints and sat down next to Zeus. Heracles ushered us to our chairs and poured me wine, which I gladly took. I gulped half of it down before I came up for air.

Hermes sat close to me, but he ignored me as if I didn’t exist. Maybe Hades’s warm welcome the other day had tainted him.

“So I hear you’ve been very kind to Persephone,” a goddess said to me from a few seats down. “I am so very grateful.”

“It’s Demeter,” Ares whispered to me.

She had long, dark hair and now that I knew that she was Persephone’s mother, I could see the resemblance.

“She can get very lonely, you know, being down in the Underworld for so long.” Demeter glanced at Hades, who shuffled in his chair. I realized he was more uncomfortable here than I was. I couldn’t imagine what it had to be like.

“It’s really the opposite,” I said. “Persephone has been a great help. I’m glad to have her as a friend.”

“Friend,” Demeter said with a smile. “What a beautiful thought.”

Right? She was weird.

“She’ll miss you when you come to live here,” Demeter added.

Say what now? Had I heard right? So, she was under some illusion that I’d relocate to Mount Olympus… Except this wasn’t my home.

“I don’t know how you held out so long down there,” a goddess who couldn’t be anyone other than Athena said. There was something about her that just screamed it at me and I had seen a lot of paintings of her. They were scarily accurate because physically she was perfection. “I wouldn’t have lasted a day. And you’re still staying there, helping the rats preserve their short lives before they die anyway. Noble, to be sure.”

Was that sarcasm?

“It’s what I was called to do.” I was defending myself to Athena. I tried not to think what that could mean.

“Yes, that’s very sweet, my dear.” She waved it off. “But you’ll thank us, you just wait and see.”

“What’s going on here?” I asked, turning to Hades. I had the feeling everyone was in on some joke I didn’t understand.

“I’ve learned to nod and smile and when I’m done, I go back to the home I understand. Even if it is a dump, it’s better than this place,” Hades said.

“Don’t be an ass,” Poseidon said.

“Fuck you,” Hades bit.

“Boys, no fighting at the table.” It was Hera, calling from the other side of the table as if she were their mother instead of their sister.

“I’ll fight wherever I fucking want,” Hades muttered, tossing a grape into his mouth.

I put food in my mouth, too, forcing myself to eat. The gods were different than I’d expected them to be. They weren’t all nice. Or even living up to what they were supposed to be. Somehow, I had expected them to be so above anything I could ever want to be that I would pale next to them. But they were just like some humans I knew—loud, overbearing, downright rude. Add a dash of entitlement and that described more than half of them here.

And superficial… God. They were so bad. I understood why Heracles and Persephone had insisted on dressing me up the way they had. If I had come in my training clothes or my jeans—the two outfits I wore all the time—the gods might have kicked me out again. It was like a formal dinner, except you had to believe you were the shit to even attend at all.

How had I ended up with the good ones?

“Wow, you’re not eating much are you?” Hermes sat close to me across the table, but he’d been ignoring me all night.

I’d been trying the different food from fruit to tiny shortbread pies filled with custard and an array of cheeses on offer. Having my mouth full seemed like the best way not to get in trouble for not saying anything, but what was Hermes expecting? To gorge.

“She’s not a glut,” Apollo snapped. So, Hades wasn’t the only one who disliked Hermes. “Back the fuck off.”

Hermes shrugged as if he were used to being treated this way. Maybe he really was an asshole and no one let him show his true colors before they snapped.

“Well, when you come to stay here,” said Hermes, “you’ll have to ramp it up. Not eating what we give you is rude.”

“Why is everyone saying I’m going to live here?” I asked, loud enough for the closest gods to hear me. “And I’m eating plenty.”

Demeter laughed as if I’d said something funny. “Oh, darling, we’re going to have so much fun once you’ve moved in permanently.”

Really? Were we?

Chapter 3

“Are you ready?” Apollo came to stand by me where I waited a few feet away from the pavilion where we’d been served dinner. Overhead, the ceiling was a tapestry of the night sky speckled with stars. Gold candelabras hung on the walls, their candles throwing light across the elaborate room made entirely of marble. A grand, long table swallowed most of the space in the room. Crystal glasses along with gold cutlery and plates adorned the spread, glass bowls overflowing with a rainbow of fruit bringing color to the room. Light harp music played nearby, and the sweetest floral smell wafted through the air.

I stood with Hades, who looked just as uncomfortable as I was, clenching and unclenching his fists.

Ready to leave? Yes, please. I nodded at Apollo, smiling, grateful he offered an escape.

“Incoming,” Ares said, appearing at my side in a puff of magic.

“Fuck,” Hades breathed.

When I looked up, Hera stood in front of me in all her divine glory. And boy, was there a lot of it. I remembered now, she was the goddess of women, marriage, and family. But she might as well have been the goddess of seduction. Everything about her screamed sex appeal. She was voluptuous, practically spilling out of her dress in all the right places and her golden hair looked like it was spun from silk.

But it was her sultry smile that really sealed the deal. If it weren’t for the way her eyes narrowed on me, I would have said this woman was a stunner. But something about the way she looked at me, the way her eyes shifted around, taking it all in, gave me the feeling we were dealing with a calculating bitch, not to mention everything she’d put Heracles through.

“You survived the evening,” she said with a smile as if she were on our side. Right, we were all friends here.

“Thank you very much for inviting me,” I said. One polite foot forward and then we could get the fuck out of here.

“A word of advice,” she warned, and Hades groaned, not bothering to hide it. “The sooner you accept that you’ll be living here permanently, the faster you’ll adjust to our ways.”

“What?” I frowned. Poseidon joined us, walking up from behind Hera, and I glanced at him. He stared at me blankly, having just missed the sentence that had ruffled all our feathers.

“You’re one of us now, darling.” She reached out to my hair and ran it through her fingers. It was an oddly intimate gesture and I wanted her to get the hell away from me.

“I’m the Goddess of Sanctuary. I look after the people. I can’t do that when I’m not with them.”

Hera laughed as if I had just said the funniest thing, her voice light and crisp. “Of course you can,” she added. “We all do our jobs from here just fine. It’s what’s done, Elyse. It’s only right.”

“I’ll have to think about it.” I offered her a tight smile, ready to get out of here already.

Poseidon sucked in his breath as if I’d said something wrong. When I glanced at Apollo, he stood stiff next to Poseidon. Ares clenched his jaw. I didn’t dare look at Hades. I could already feel the anger radiating from him.

“They’ve already started construction on your palace. We expect you in a week. We’re not joking about you living here.” Hera smiled at me, her lips perfect, her whole body exuding sexuality. She ran her hand down my arm before she walked away. It was just a brush of the fingertips, a light touch, but after she turned to leave, I rubbed my arm where she’d touched me.

“What the fuck was that?” Hades asked the moment Hera had disappeared.

“They don’t think it’s right that she lives with the humans,” Poseidon explained.

“You knew about this?” I snarled quietly.

Poseidon nodded, his lips thinning, clearly not pleased about the whole situation. “I was coming to talk to you. I spoke to Zeus just now.”

I shook my head, fury surging through me. Since losing my dad, no one had dictated my life, and no one sure as hell was going to start now. “This is bullshit. How can they expect me to give up who I am?”

“They’re not expecting that,” Poseidon responded. “They just don’t want you removed from Olympus.”

“Never bothered them with me,” Hades piped in, his voice strangled and full of sarcasm.

Poseidon rolled his eyes. “Don’t make this about you, brother,” he shot back before looking at me again. “Maybe it’s not a bad idea.”

I blinked at him. “You can’t be serious?”

“What the fuck, bro?” That came from Apollo.

Poseidon huffed loudly. “I just think it wouldn’t be bad for you to be here with us. After everything you’ve done, Zeus knows you deserve a break, to realize who you are now, to enjoy this heavenly location. And it’s not safe for you on Earth. We still don’t know if you’re immortal and if you die again, we’re all fucked.”

I shook my head, trying to process everything he’d so succinctly laid out, but this was huge and not a decision to be rushed. “So what about the people?”

“Yeah,” Apollo said. “How is she going to do what she does best if she’s removed from the humans she’s saving?”

“You dislike them,” Hades barked in response, staring at me.

I glared at him. Whose side was he on?

“What?” he asked. “You keep complaining how you need a break. Right?”

He wasn’t wrong. I did complain about that a lot. It was one of the reasons we fucked so often lately. I needed the distraction and I felt like of all the gods, Hades understood that side of me the best.

At least, so I had thought. It didn’t look like it now.

“I love the humans,” I said. “I am one of them. I’ve always been a part of that world. Just because I get tired sometimes… You know what that’s like, right? I’m sure you do.”

Hades clenched his jaw.

“I think it’s better if you stay on Earth,” Apollo declared, his voice strong and direct.

“You just want her there with you.” Poseidon’s eyebrows pulled together into a frown.

“Yeah?” said Apollo. “And you’re going to stay on Earth if she comes here? Or are you going to follow? Don’t make it sound like you’re so fucking selfless.”

“Guys, please,” I said, shaking my head. I glanced at Ares, who’d been quiet all this time. He watched us with an expression I couldn’t read, his feet wide apart, gripping his wrist like he was a sentry waiting to be called upon. “What about you,” I asked him. “What do you think?”

He shrugged, his breaths slow and calculated. “I don’t actually give a shit, truth be told.”

I didn’t know why, but that pissed me off so much more. I should have been happy that at least one of them wasn’t trying to tell me what to do. Or picking a fight about it. But that Ares didn’t actually care only made me feel like he wasn’t invested. I knew it was bullshit. Ares worried as much for me as the rest of them did. And our relationship had always been a very strange balance of give and take.

But it annoyed me he just didn’t seem to be bothered where I would be.

“So you don’t care where I end up?” I asked with a bit too much sass in my voice.

“I’m not going to tell you what to do,” he said, staring at me with sincerity in his eyes. That was what I loved about him. He was real and spoke his mind.

I bit my tongue. He’d often been called a coward by other gods and even in historical records because his life views were so different. I wasn’t going to follow suit. But it was looking a hell of a lot like he wasn’t interested in getting involved in conflict. It was fine if it wasn’t something serious, but this was my future we were talking about, and if I relocated, I wanted to ensure all four of the men in my life were okay with it.

I looked at Hades again. When he noticed, he reached for my hand and squeezed it. He was searching for shit with the other gods by saying things that riled them up, but at least he stood on my side with this. He was being a dick by telling me I didn’t like the humans, but he had my back. At the end of the day, he didn’t tell me where he wanted me, but that he longed to be with me.

That was something, and I accepted it.

“I think we need to get out of here.” Hades broke the silence, proving that he was my hero after all.

“That’s the best idea I’ve heard all night,” I replied.

Poseidon looked like he wanted to say something, the corners of his mouth twitching, but Hades pulled me against him and the next moment we were back in my apartment, the others still on Mount Olympus.

“Thank you,” I whispered, smiling too widely. Never would I have thought I’d hate being in a heavenly location.

He nodded. “I hate that place, anyway.”

“I know.”

“It’s filled with self-righteous assholes,” he hissed from clenched teeth.

After I had seen them tonight, I started to understand why Hades loathed the place and other gods. I’d always thought his dislike was rooted in jealousy or bitterness over what had happened to him. But I’d never seen so many people in love with themselves in one room together.

I’d never felt more left out, more out of place, more judged. Which was ironic because for the first time, I should have felt like I was fitting in.

Chapter 4

“I need to get out of these clothes,” I explained after a while, still standing there, feeling stiff and uncomfortable, unable to be myself. Normally, I didn’t wear makeup or dresses and I didn’t ever doll myself up to look like a sex object.

Because that was essentially what all the gods did. And that was what they wanted from me, too. How the hell was I going to survive with them? How would I live there and be one of them if I couldn’t be like that—sexed-up and full of myself? No thank you. I’d end up saying the wrong thing, probably fighting them, and they’d gang up on me. Maybe curse me. I’d read up on the Greek mythology tales and how nasty the gods were to one another.

I dragged myself to my room and started undoing the ropes Heracles had spent time wrapping around me. I dropped the tunic on the floor—just a cloth without the rope holding it in place—and I pulled my hair out of the hairband that held it back. I got into the shower, turning the spray on hot and letting the water run over my body, washing away all the bullshit that felt like it still clung to me from Mount Olympus.

Hades had been right when the gods had argued about me being on Mount Olympus or on Earth. I often complained about being around the humans, about always having to save them. There were days when I felt that everything, my life, my responsibility, was all too much. Days when I wished Heracles would come stay in Chicago with me rather than heading out to wherever he holed up now.

But I didn’t want to pull him out of the new life he’d created for himself, now that he was free of the Lowe bloodline and having to train them. Since I’d realized my full potential, the hero Zeus had always intended for the Lowes to become, Heracles had been free to live the life he hadn’t been able to live for centuries.

I wanted that for him. I wanted him to find love again, to just relax for a change.

So I was going to do this saving-the-world thing alone. I wouldn’t get a break. And sometimes, that felt like a black hole opening up in front of me.

Other times, I was fine with it. It was worth it whenever the humans were safe again and I could finally use my power for everything I was meant to do. I got a rush from being the one who could save them all, from being a hero, from being fulfilled in a way I hadn’t been before.

Fuck, how was I going to decide what I was going to do? Living on Mount Olympus sounded awful. Except for the fact that I could step away from everything for a little while and just breathe.

But to leave the humans behind? Catina and Oliver? My other friends? And the world where I’d grown up. It would feel like a betrayal if I did that.

I trembled with anger. How could I even consider leaving? To live among the gods, away from the people whom I associated with, the humans I’d promised my dad to take care of whether or not they deserved it?

Just because life had an expiration date, just because the humans were mortal, didn’t make their lives any less important than those of the gods. And I’d found my purpose in life, to look after them on a level I had never thought possible. I wasn’t going to turn my back on that just because I was tired once in a while, just because some goddess had told me that it was better another way. Besides, none of the gods, other than my four men, Heracles, and Persephone, had given two shits about me before. Now that I was the Goddess of Sanctuary, they suddenly wanted to have me join their clique. To have me pretend everything was fine and dandy and that mortals weren’t a big concern of mine anymore. Yeah, right.

When I stepped out of the shower, my pulse still raged in my veins, but at least I was less confused. And I’d made the decision not to move to Mount Olympus. This was my home and where I felt comfortable.

“What’s eating you?” Hades asked when I emerged from the bathroom wearing shorts and a tank top, a lot more comfortable in my own clothes than the robes the gods wanted me in.

“I can’t just do that,” I said as if he’d been privy to the entire argument I’d had with myself in my mind. “I can’t just leave humans behind.”

“You don’t have to,” Hades said. “It’s your choice.”

“I grew up here.” He wasn’t arguing with me, but I felt like I had to make my case, anyway. I felt like if I said it enough times out loud, I would start to convince myself that a break wasn’t what I wanted. “I was a human. Maybe I still am, in a way. We don’t even know if I can die or not. And just because I’m something else now by definition doesn’t change the core of who I am.”

Hades nodded and pulled me against him. He stroked his fingers through my wet hair. It should have been reassuring. Instead, it felt condescending. Or maybe my anger was just so much that I couldn’t think straight.

“What if I don’t want to live on Mount Olympus?” I pulled away from him. He fought me for a moment, but then he let me go.

“Then don’t,” he said matter-of-factly.

Was it really that simple to reject the invitation, to throw it back in the gods’ faces? Was it right of me to stick it to the man?

“Elyse, you’re beautiful. Inside and out. You’re not like them. I’ve been around those assholes for long enough to know that you’re everything they will never be, even if you’re a goddess now, even if they want you there. You’re not them and that’s what I love about you. You’re thinking of the right things.”

“Am I?” I asked. “I feel selfish.”

“How is choosing to stay and save the people who have been placed under your care selfish?”

I shrugged. I didn’t know how to explain to him how unsure of myself I was sometimes, how there were days I wished none of this had happened at all. Sometimes I preferred we could turn back the clock and I’d head back to the training center to train with Heracles, to learn how to defend myself against centaurs and stupid mythical beings that didn’t even bother sticking their heads out anymore.

Sometimes I just wanted to be normal.

Whatever the hell that meant.

“You know,” Hades said, sitting down on my bed and leaning back against the headboard with that nonchalant manner that all the gods possessed. “It’s never wrong to reject the gods. They might want something from you that you choose not to give. Look at me.”

He was right. He’d rejected the gods and everything they were about for a very, very long time. Maybe he’d been tricked to end up in the Underworld, but it had been his choice to become so isolated from them, to be the stubborn son of a bitch that no one really related to anymore.

It wasn’t what I wanted, of course, but it proved a point. I didn’t have to be what they expected of me. What were they going to do? Strip me of my power? I’d earned this all by myself—the gods hadn’t helped me with it. Maybe if they had, they would have been able to take it away again.

But they hadn’t, so this was my power and they couldn’t do anything to me. Maybe staying here on Earth against the gods’ will wasn’t going to get me in trouble. Not any more trouble than I could handle. I mean, how long had Apollo stayed on Earth to get away from them? They’d left him alone.

“Why are you being so nice about this?” I asked Hades, crawling onto the bed with him and putting my head on his chest. “The others are very opinionated about it. Or completely uninterested.” I shouldn’t have been that upset about Ares and the way he was acting, but I was.

“Because there’s no point being a dick about it. You’re going to decide what you want in the end, anyway. And when you do, we’re all going to have to accept it. I accepted you a long time ago, so this just follows suit.”

I closed my eyes, wrapping my arms around Hades’s torso and listening to his heart beating. It hammered against my cheek, and I lost myself in the sound. Having him be like this was a relief. I loved the way Hades was making things easier for me, not harder. He was everything I’d ever dreamed he’d be, and my chest blossomed with joy every day when I pinched myself to make sure this was real.

“What will you do if I decide to live there?” I asked, lifting my head to stare up at Hades. “You hate the place.”

Hades shrugged, his expression stoic, not revealing a single emotion. “Technically, I hate Earth, too. But it’s more tolerable because you’re here. Something tells me it will be the same on Mount Olympus.”

I pushed myself up against Hades until I could reach his lips, and kissed him, adoring every single thing about him.

Chapter 5

The kiss was immediately fiery. I’d meant to kiss Hades to show him my gratitude for being amazing about everything, but the moment our lips touched, something between us exploded.

The lust was suddenly thick in the air and Hades pulled me tightly against him. I gasped when his hard body rubbed up against mine, his erection immediate in his pants.

His tongue was in my mouth and he probed me as if he were already inside of me, as if he wanted to consume me. I moaned into his mouth and his hand slid onto my breast.

When he broke the kiss for just a moment and I looked up into his dark, curious eyes, they were drowning deep and filled with desire. The way he looked at me made me feel like he was going to devour me and I shivered. It was how he’d looked at me since the day we had met and even though we’d been together for a while now, and we’d fucked for much longer than that, I couldn’t get enough of him.

I lay against Hades’s chest, but in one swift movement, with his strong arm wrapped around me and his able body powerful enough to break me if he wanted to, he spun me around and I was horizontal underneath him.

I gasped.

Hades kissed me again, his tongue in my mouth, swirling around mine, tasting every inch of me. I could taste the desire of sex on his tongue, the urge to dominate me. And I longed for that. I needed him to fuck me like there was no tomorrow.

He pulled up my shirt without ceremony, his hand landing on my breast and pinching one of my nipples so that I cried out. I needed more of the delicious pain he caused.

Hades positioned himself over me, shifting my body with one hand on my hip as he lowered himself onto me. My legs opened for him and he ground himself against me, his erect dick pressing up against my pubic bone. With one hand on my breast, pinching and massaging, he lowered his head to the other and sucked my nipple into his mouth. I hissed when he scraped it with his teeth, just short of clamping down and nipping me.

I squirmed when he rubbed himself up against me, touching me in all the right places.

It didn’t take very long before he kissed his way down my torso. He licked a line down my stomach, lightly biting me right next to my hip bone, and I gasped again. His fingers curled around the waistband of my pants and he pulled them down in one smooth motion. My legs shut and he proceeded to pull the rest of my clothes off.

When the shirt was up above my breasts, under my arms, I pulled it off myself. And just like that, I was naked and ready for Hades to do with me what he desired.

“I want you.” Fuck, I longed for his dick deep inside of me. Buried until he reached the darkest part of me.

He gave me that cocky, bad-boy smirk. “Not yet. I’ve something else in mind first.” He kissed me on my pubic bone, and then he closed his mouth around my clit. I moaned when he flicked his tongue back and forth, waves of pleasure washing through my body as I squirmed and shivered.

I tilted my head back, my fingers digging into the mattress, and I gritted my teeth.

“Fuck, you’re so sexy.” He was teasing me, and I groaned in frustration. He loved doing this.

He kissed my thighs, around my hips, my lower stomach, everywhere but where I needed him to. I reached for his head, fisting his hair, nudging him to where I wanted him, needing him. He chuckled and simply blew on my clit, and I shivered again.

Before he took my sex into his mouth again, he drove two fingers into me and I cried out. He pushed in deep and pumped his fingers in and out, sucking on inner lips as I fell apart. My thoughts turned to mush, my breathing growing into gaps. I couldn’t even hold it together for a moment longer before the first orgasm shook through me. I squirmed beneath him, shaking as euphoria thrummed through me, the screams falling past my lips.

Hades let go of me and pushed up, pulling off his pants. They came off easily, his thick erection standing at attention.

“Turn around,” he said.

“Yes, please.” I liked it this way. Hades always seemed to understand what I needed. I pushed up on my hands and knees, waiting for him to grip my hips and fuck me.

But again, Hades had something else in mind. He positioned himself at my entrance and plunged into me, but as he did, he placed his chest against my back until I couldn’t hold his weight anymore. He forced me down so that I lay on my stomach and hooked a hand under my hips, hiking them up a little.

He lay on me and started moving in and out, and I groaned with pleasure. He went in deep. It was the second time in a row he was doing this position and I loved it. It was as dirty as doggy style, but it was sensual, too.

He curled his hand around my hair and tugged my head back to kiss me on my cheek before he twisted my head sideways, his tongue snaking into my mouth again.

The orgasm that rocked my world hit me so fast, my vision blurring. I trembled against him, his mouth claiming my moans. Something about Hades shoved me over the edge without much effort on his part. He was just that good.

“Give me another one, angel,” he said as he fucked me harder, his hand sliding onto my neck, holding me just enough to remind me of his strength, that he could break me if he intended to.

But he didn’t. He was gentle enough with me that it was pure pleasure.

And it propelled me over yet again, and so damn fast, I barely caught my breath, my body constricting around his hardness, and I adored the way I convulsed with pleasure, lost in my own world, my mind emptying.

Hades pulled out and nudged me to turn over. I turned onto my back and looked up at him. At his sexy smile, the lust in his eyes, the way he stared at me as if only I existed in his world. He crawled onto me again and kissed me.

This time, it was a lot more sensual. I sighed into his mouth when he thrust into me and I wrapped my legs around his waist as far as I could get.

He started moving in and out of me slowly, pushing in until he was buried deep inside of me and staying there until I rode out the shudder before slowly sliding out again. I moaned long and low as he did and the sex was suddenly so sensual. It was very unlike Hades.

It happened from time to time and I loved it. The way he loved me when he really showed it was special because it happened so seldom. I knew what Hades felt for me. He’d told me just before I’d defeated X and the only reason I had defeated him was because of what Hades had said.

My power had been a bonus, a beautiful combo.

But Hades wasn’t a man of many words when it came to his feelings and him saying what he felt or otherwise showing it was a big deal. So I lived with the knowledge of his love for me at my core, and when he showed me the way he did now, it took me to another level, one where I felt his power.

The moment I thought about the energy, my skin prickled and it felt as if the floodgates had opened and the fiery heat of his magic spilled into me. I cried out and my magic rose to meet his, making it a braid of power that wrapped around us and took me to a whole other place.

I orgasmed yet again. But this time, Hades was right there with me. I wasn’t sure if he had been thrusting harder and harder, or as if our magic had pulled the strength out of the both of us, but I didn’t care. It didn’t matter how we’d gotten here.

It just mattered that Hades and I were one, that the power we felt was stronger than anything I could do alone.

And that I really did love him just as much as he loved me.

When it was over, after what felt like forever, Hades slipped out of me. I groaned, my body tender after he’d taken every inch of me and turned it into mush. He moved to the side and I rolled against him. He put his arm around me, holding me tightly against him.

“Come home with me?” he asked, his voice so soft, I wasn’t sure I’d heard right.

But I nodded still the same. I understood what he was talking about. Not the place he lived in—an abandoned house on the outside, a palace on the inside here on Earth—but the Underworld. Despite how much he hated the place, he always called the Underworld home.

“Today?” I asked, flooded with a sense of uncertainty.

Hades glanced out the curtained window. Night cloaked the outdoors; we had come back from Mount Olympus sometime during the night.

“Tomorrow, after you get some sleep, little mortal.”

I giggled. “You don’t know that.”

He kissed my temple. “I know I want to hold you tonight, so we’re sleeping either way. We can think about the serious things again tomorrow.”

I curled into his arms, settling down. His words sounded like a plan to me. I didn’t want to think about anything right now. Not the guys and all their disagreeing, not Mount Olympus, and not what my future would or wouldn’t hold.

I closed my eyes and gave in to the sleep that pulled down over me like a blanket.

Chapter 6

When the sun rose, I felt better, flooded with warmth and a sense of cheer. Hades was still at my side and everything that had happened last night at Mount Olympus, including Hera’s statement that I belonged there, seemed like a dream that just didn’t make much sense.

As dreams usually did.

“Are you ready?” Hades asked, strolling into the kitchen where I was drinking coffee.

He’d just woken up but was so damn sexy. I loved it when he looked like that—his curly hair a mess, his eyes a little sleepy and not quite as sharp. And his muscular body soft and easier to cuddle.

“Ready?” I asked. I’d been up for a while. Hades slept in on a good day. On a bad day, it was major insomnia. It changed from one day to the next. I’d realized that he slept when he stayed over at my place more often than not.

I put my mug in the sink and sauntered over to him, smirking. He took my hand and pressed his lips to my knuckles, pulling me closer. With his eyes on mine, locked in a world that only the two of us existed in, everything went black.

Charon, the ferryman, was suddenly next to us. We were in Hades’s domain, and I’d been here enough times to feel comfortable… well, as at ease as one could be in the Underworld. Hades and I climbed into the long, wooden boat and Charon ferried us over the still and dark river Styx. We’d gone from my kitchen to the Underworld in a flash. I’d barely felt the shudder of our magic, and perhaps I should have brought my mug of coffee with me to enjoy.

“Home sweet home,” Hades said when we walked toward his palace of darkness. I couldn’t tell if he was being sarcastic, if he hated being back, or if this was the place he really felt at home in because it was all he had. I was still trying to figure out who he was.

We walked into the palace. The place was dark and dreary, decorated in black and red and even though it was luxurious, it was laced with death. From every window there was a view of the souls that floated around below, the reminder that this place wasn’t ever going to be somewhere that anyone could be happy.

“Elyse,” Hades said when I stood at the window, looking out over the dreary landscape.

I turned to him. He stood a few feet away and he looked solemn and regal, the god of the Underworld and not quite the guy I was dating, the guy who could be so warm when he wanted to be.

“What is it?” I asked.

He looked so stoic, it made me nervous. Since Death had returned to where he belonged, there hadn’t really been a reason to worry other than the small tasks I had to do to keep the humans safe from supernatural forces coming on Earth to take souls. But this… this looked serious.

“Stay here with me,” Hades said, his voice deep and meaningful.

I frowned. “I’m here until we head back.” A part of me screamed that he was asking me something else, but I couldn’t figure out what it was. Or maybe I didn’t want to figure it out. Because a part of me knew exactly what he was asking.

“Permanently,” he finally admitted.

Fuck. There it was.

“So you’re not going to vote for me staying on Earth because you want me here.” It was a statement, not a question. I assumed he was on my side about living at Olympus, yet he only wanted me to live in his realm. I shook my head. This was bullshit.

“It solves your problems,” he said. “You don’t have to decide between either of those. You can be here with me and no one is going to tell you otherwise.”

“What if I don’t want to stay here?” I asked. “And the other gods will come and visit me, so will you be all right with them being in your home?”

Hades’s face darkened a little. “I want to be with you, Elyse. I want you here with me, at my side, ruling the Underworld together.” That time, his voice darkened.

I shook my head. “I’m not the queen of the Underworld, Hades.” No, because that was Persephone. “I can’t play this game with you.”

“It’s not a game.”

“Oh, yeah?” I gritted my teeth. “And what exactly is it? Because I’m pretty sure you asked Persephone the same thing once. But she said no, and then you tricked her into staying with that shitty curse that forced her into the darkness for half a year. Is that what you’re going to do to me?”

Hades’s face reddened, and his nose wrinkled like it did every time he got mad. I didn’t blame him. But I was pissed off, too. Who did he think he was, that I would choose him over all the others? Who did he think I was, that I would give up everything I was and everything I had for him? I wasn’t a damsel in distress. And I had a job on Earth. Why didn’t anyone seem to recognize that?

“You’re being pathetic,” Hades snapped at me.

I let out a surprised laugh. “You have to curse women to stay with you and I’m the pathetic one?”

I hadn’t meant to hit him with such a low blow, but the words were out there and I was too angry to apologize right away. But Hades paled a little before his eyes shot fire at me.

“You have no idea what the fuck is going on here, do you?” Hades bellowed.

“I know exactly,” I cried out. “Everyone wants a piece of me, but no one can be bothered to ask me what I want. And now I’m stuck, torn apart between the four of you, and I’m supposed to make a choice that doesn’t rip me up.”

Hades came toe to toe with me. We had done this so many times. We could dance, he and I. He was one of the four gods who’s gotten physical with me like this, that used to fight me like I was a man, like the fight was equal.

But instead of letting it come to blows like we would have done before, Hades took a step back again.

It turned out that we had grown, after all, even though we were still arguing. But I doubted Hades and I would ever get to a point where we didn’t fight at all. We were very close, especially lately, but we got stuck as a general rule. The fact that we handled it differently now said a lot.

“Look, you didn’t know what you wanted, so I thought I would give you an out,” Hades said. “If you don’t like it, just say no. It’s not necessary to be a bitch about it.”

“Don’t be a dick, then,” I said. “Everyone is putting pressure on me and you know that I’m conflicted about this. What did you think was going to happen if you made it that much worse for me?”

Hades shook his head and stepped away, putting more distance between us. I wasn’t sure if it was because we would end up fighting if he didn’t, or if we would end up fucking.

That happened too when we fought, more often than not. And I’d enjoyed the idea of both with Hades.

“I was trying to help. But take it however you like. Just, for fuck’s sake, don’t be a martyr.”

“I’m not playing the victim!” I cried out. How dare he think that of me? I was in a tough spot and I damn hated it.

Hades shook his head and walked past me to the window, looking out over the souls outside. “You’re not the only person with a hard life.”

“Don’t compare my pain to yours,” I snapped.

Hades stared at me with eyes that were void of life. I hated it when he looked at me like that. It was a new thing he was doing and it reminded me of a time when he hadn’t given a shit about me. Or rather, hadn’t wanted to admit that he did.

“I am so tired of your shit,” I said. “I’m leaving.”

“Yeah, do what you do best, sweetheart,” Hades said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “Just run away. Maybe even give killing yourself a shot again. You’ll be able to garner some sympathy that way.”

I glared at him, so fucking angry, I could attack him. But I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of winning this round. Instead, I turned around and marched out of the palace. I had to cross all the way back to the River Styx and then have the ferryman take me to the other side before I was able to vanish my way back home. Being a goddess now meant I didn’t have to pay him to cross the river. I wasn’t sure how to do it any other way, the way Hades or any of the other gods would have been able to do it.

But it was proof that I wasn’t like that, that I wouldn’t fit in with them, no matter where they wanted me to be. I was, at my core, still just a human being.

And sometimes I still felt so alone, removed from everything, and like none of them would ever understand me.

Chapter 7

I stood on the roof of a building the city, looking out over the place I had to protect. The wind blew past, sweeping my ponytail over my shoulder. Chicago seemed to be the hub of all supernatural activity. Why the hell the gods and all the monsters and other troubles chose to zone in on this place was beyond me.

But it was why this place had become home. It was where my family had been settled for centuries, to do what Zeus had appointed us to do. And now that I was a goddess, I was here to do exactly what I was made to do, too.

It just all seemed like such a mess now, though. I had no idea what I was supposed to do. I didn’t want to leave and live on Mount Olympus. But I also didn’t want to be the maid who just cleaned up the mess. No one even knew who I was and what I did. No one knew why they were being saved or that they were even being saved.

People didn’t even believe in the Divine Beings anymore. Most of them didn’t give a flip about the gods and what and who we were. So I had come into the picture in an era where no one would even know there was a new one who had joined the team. Go figure.

I could disappear and no one would know. I could leave and not even give a shit and no one would be any wiser. They would just die again outside of their time.

Maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea. I had never felt so useless and so alone. I couldn’t even talk to anyone about it. Who was I going to ask? The gods were torn about it—Ares didn’t give a shit, Poseidon wanted me on Mount Olympus, Hades preferred me in the Underworld.

Apollo hoped I stayed right here, which was exactly where I intended to be. The problem was that he didn’t wish for me to be here because it was what I desired. He asked me to stay in Chicago because it was what he wanted. But if either reason ended in the same outcome, did it make a difference?

It did to me. I was going to lose something no matter what I chose. And what if I lost them on top of it—one, or two, or maybe all? Was I ready for that? Why did making a choice have so many consequences? Why did not making a choice seem to have more?

Apollo was suddenly next to me.

“You found me,” I said.

He nodded, his brow furrowed, shadows crowding under his eyes. “I can feel your pain a mile away.”

My power had its own signature and the gods often found me by following it. But my pain? I hadn’t realized it was so great.

Apollo wrapped his arms around me, and I let him pull me against him, sighing and melting into him. I took a deep breath and his fresh, crisp scent filled my nose. We had been together for the longest out of all my relationships with the gods. With him, everything had always been stable and solid. Apollo was always my rock. But now? He was a pillar of strength to me, even now. But I had no idea where we stood.

“What do you want me to do?” I asked, my voice muffled against his arm.

“To see you.”

I shook my head and pulled away a little so I could look up at his sky-blue eyes. His blond hair was getting longer, hanging well down his back by now. It by no means made him any less masculine. Apollo was about as manly as they got, and even with his long golden hair, he looked more like the lead singer in a heavy-metal rock band.

“No, I mean with this whole shitty business. About where I’ll live.”

Apollo held me at arm’s length, his hands huge on my shoulders. He was a giant against my small frame, but we were equal in power. I could feel it. If it hadn’t been like that before, it definitely was now.

“I want you to be happy,” he finally answered my earlier question, and he offered me that glorious smile that made me forget my worries. But his grin wasn’t working today.

But honestly, these were the words I’d yearned to hear. If he’d told me he wished for me to remain on Earth because it was where I belonged, or if it was because it was where he lived, I might have gotten pissed off with him. But Apollo knew me better than the others did sometimes. He understood me on a different level.

“I can’t live on Mount Olympus,” I admitted, telling him exactly what was on my mind. “They’re not my kind of people. And the humans are important to me. I need to be with them, even though sometimes they rub me the wrong way.”

“It’s always like that,” Apollo explained. “Sometimes I get so fucking pissed off at the humans, I wish Zeus would smite them and get it over with. But you’re happy here, from what I can see. You don’t have to listen to Hera. She’s full of shit on a good day. And it’s never a fucking good day with her.”

I sighed. “Everyone wants something else from me. I feel like whatever I choose, someone is going to be pissed at my decision. And I don’t want to lose any of you.” Saying those words out loud had me shivering, and my throat thickened. I hated this.

“You won’t.” Apollo’s voice softened, filled with tenderness.

I turned away from him to stare out over the city again from our vantage view on the building at the cars, skyscrapers, the park in the distance, people everywhere.

“Can you honestly say that, though? Poseidon prefers me to stay on Olympus. Hades asked me to move to the Underworld with him. And Ares? Fuck, if he would just make up his mind about at least one thing in his life, that would be great.”

It sounded harsher than I’d meant for it to and I opened my mouth to apologize, but Apollo started talking and I didn’t get around to it.

“Why do you want to stay?” he asked. “For me?”

I shook my head. “I mean, I love you. I love all of you. But I prefer to stay because it’s my home. It holds my memories of my parents, my upbringing, my friends. It’s the only home I’ve ever known.”

I wasn’t sure if he would be angry that I’d said I wouldn’t do it for him. But he nodded and he didn’t seem upset at all.

“You have the right to choose what you prefer. You’re not only your own person with the right to make choices for yourself, but you are also a goddess and no one can tell you what to do.”

“Not even Zeus?”

Apollo thought about it for a second, his gaze drifting upward. “Maybe Zeus. He’s almost like your father, after all. He can really tell any of us what to do. But that’s not the point. Zeus isn’t making it a law that gods can’t live on Earth. So you should do what you want to do.”

“That’s exactly what I needed to hear.” And I smiled for real that time, feeling assured of my decision.

“The shit part,” Apollo said, and I groaned inwardly, “is that you’re going to have to make sacrifices no matter what you decide. Your humans and your past, one of us, or the friendship of some of the gods. Nothing comes without sacrifice.”

I covered my face with my hands, and my stomach started to hurt, like it did each time stress consumed me. “That’s not fair. Why are you putting so much pressure on me?”

“I’m not doing anything.” He remained levelheaded, calm and logical, while I wanted to scream. It felt as if my chest were a tangled knot, growing tighter by the moment.

“It’s not just you—it’s all of you,” I said. “You’re all expecting me to make the world go around when I’m barely on top of what I’m doing as a goddess. This isn’t fair. I should be able to at least breathe for a moment before everything comes crashing down on me.”

I sounded accusatory, I was aware of that. And Apollo was getting angry with me, his lips thinning and he kept fidgeting, not standing still, but I didn’t care. I had a lot on my mind and damned if I was going to keep bottling everything up for the sake of sparing everyone else’s feelings.

“I was happy with how things were before, you know,” I added, being completely transparent.

“Were you really?” Apollo asked. “Because it looked to me like you were complaining more often than not about everything being the way it was. You wanted to be powerful and protect Earth, but you don’t.” He tilted his head, and damn him for judging me.

I huffed loudly, hating that he was direct and saying something rude. Because he didn’t bother with my feelings and what this was doing to me. I didn’t once allow myself to consider that maybe, above all the other things I was upset about, it was because he might be right.

“I’m not going to wait around for all of you to judge me,” I said, my words short and clipped. “I’m so sick and tired of this shit, of being treated like a pawn. You’re all acting like I’m not one of you, even though you keep telling me I am.”

“It’s not like that,” Apollo insisted, reaching out for me.

But I retreated and marched away from him because I was done hearing the excuses. I couldn’t pull the vanishing act like they could yet. Maybe I’d never be able to. Because a part of me was still human, I was sure of it. I didn’t know if I could still die, and I didn’t know a lot of things the gods knew. But I did know that no matter what they said, no matter how they treated me, I wasn’t one of them.

If I left this place behind to go live with them on Mount Olympus, then the lie would be complete.

Chapter 8

I needed to train. The only way to get my mind off things when I didn’t know which way to turn was to punch and kick a bag until I was too tired to care about anything else.

It had been months since I’d gone to the training center. Actively jumping in and saving humans took time and energy. When I wasn’t being a hero, I jogged in the streets until I was tired.

The rest of the time, when I intended to spar, I practiced with the guys. Not only was it good for me to fight actual gods now, but it was great for the mood. There was nothing like getting physical with the guys before getting… physical.

But today, I didn’t want to spar with any of them. I craved training hard until I collapsed of exhaustion. I was hoping that answers about all of this would come while I was so busy not thinking at all.

When I arrived at the training center, a light was on inside. It was already after dark and the training center was supposed to be deserted. Classes were rarely held this late at night.

I’d always practiced when the humans weren’t using the place. It was better than having to explain why a little human woman like me was so damn strong.

Maybe one of the staff was working late. Or perhaps the last couple of months had seen schedule changes I wasn’t aware of. I was in two minds. Or was it better if I left again and didn’t go in there? But my body ached for some exercise, my muscles screamed at me, and I felt like I had an itch in my chest I couldn’t scratch.

If I kept to myself and trained in one of the private rooms, maybe I could get away without being seen. I decided to go in after all.

When I pushed the door open, someone was working over the punching bag and by the quick succession of jabs, it was someone serious about what they were doing. The blows were hard, too. I could hear it in the way they connected with the bag.

It wasn’t one of the humans, that much I knew. Which meant it was one of the guys.

A small part of me wished it would be Heracles, back for some reason, here to give me advice and help me tire myself out to the point of collapse. But I knew I wasn’t going to see him when I turned the corner.

Ares’s back was turned to me. His short, cropped hair was dark in the dim light and he moved around the punching bag on the balls of his feet, lithe and dangerous like the warrior he was. I watched him for a while, seeing him as a stranger might. Everything about him was attractive but in an unreachable away.

How had it happened that we’d ended up together at all? It was a mystery. If there ever was a lone wolf, it was Ares.

“Are you just going to stand there watching me?” he asked without turning around.

“I was wondering if I should join you,” I admitted.

“Please do.” He looked over his shoulder and his green eyes were practically glowing the color of jade. He stopped the punching bag from swinging after his last hit and held on to it with two hands. I knew what those hands felt like, how he could hold me in the same way and I would tremble at his touch.

“Why are you so nonchalant about all of this?” I blurted out. I couldn’t help myself.

“About Mount Olympus?” He shrugged, his lips pinching when I nodded. “The gods are full of shit. But you’ve noticed that, I’m sure.”

He was right, they were.

“Don’t you care where I go?”

“Of course I do,” Ares said. “But I don’t own you. So it’s pointless enforcing what I want. You should do what’s right for you.”

It was very noble, but his nonchalance still bugged me. Was he not going to fight for me? I wanted a man who was independent and Ares was the epitome of independence. But he was also detached and I didn’t know if I wanted that. Then again, I couldn’t help but feel like a walking contradiction.

“Are we fighting or what?” he asked.

I nodded and walked toward him. We might as well.

We faced each other, sinking into battle stances. I was angry, frustrated, and I was the first to strike. I could see the way it affected Ares. He liked a good fight and when I started it, he reacted. It’d always been that way between us.

“What if I don’t want to leave?” I asked in between punches. Ares blocked a hit that would have landed on his throat and tried to jab me in the ribs, a move I sidestepped easily.

“Then don’t leave,” he said.

I shook my head and ducked to avoid a kick. I spun around and kicked Ares’s leg out from underneath him. He hit the mat hard.

“You’re more important than what we want,” he got up from the mat.

“But you’ve never told me what you want.”

“That’s because he doesn’t know what he wants,” Poseidon said, appearing in the training center from thin air.

Ares rolled his eyes. “Don’t start with me. I’m in the mood for a fight and you can’t face me.”

“Try me,” Poseidon snarled.

I didn’t like that they were all pitted against each other now. It was like this whole thing had caused a rift between us. Was that what Hera had wanted? Because she was a bitch and I wouldn’t put that beneath her. Maybe she was just fucking with me so that my life was hell and it didn’t matter to her either way where I ended up.

The idea just pissed me off, and I chewed on the inside of my cheek until it hurt.

“Why do you insist on me going to Mount Olympus?” I asked Poseidon.

I’d come here to forget about all my woes, to get away from everything and just train as hard as I could, but two of the guys were here now and I wanted to know what they were thinking. Might as well have it out once and for all.

“Because you’re a goddess now. It’s not right that you live among the humans. You’re more than that.”

“The humans are not good enough?” I asked.

Poseidon sighed. “How can I explain it…? They’re just a blip on the radar, a hiccup in the sands of time. If you consider how long we live and what we deal with every day, they’re so inconsequential.”

“Elyse was a human,” Ares pointed out just as I thought the same thing.

“And you were perfectly happy staying here and being with me. Or what was that all about, if you think I was so inconsequential?”

“You misunderstand,” Poseidon said.

“Do I?” I asked, hating that we were having this argument when I just wanted to be in their arms and not worry about anything else. But that was me hiding from the problems, and if I learned one thing from Hades, it was that running from troubles only made them worse.

“I think you just want her all to yourself, bro,” Ares said.

Fuck, he was needling Poseidon. And it was working, too. It was unnecessary. The gods had always been fine sharing. Even Hades and Poseidon, the two brothers who’d fallen for the same woman, had managed to make their peace about this. Why was Ares making this a thing again?

“I just think it’s where you belong,” Poseidon finally said.

I shook my head. This was getting out of hand. Poseidon was showing a side of himself I didn’t like.

They all were, in fact. Except Apollo, who seemed to be on par with what I was thinking.

It was starting to feel like no matter what I chose, I was going to lose something. Or someone. Or all of them. How had this happened? Until now, no matter what had gone wrong, it had always been us against the world. X, the humans, Zeus and his shit with Apollo’s banishment, it had all been the kind of thing that the gods shared with me, that we did together.

For the first time, it seemed like a line had been drawn and three of them were on the other side of it.

“I can’t do this,” I said, flopping down on the mat onto my ass. “I’m not going to win, no matter what I decide.”

“Sometimes that’s the curse of being a god,” Poseidon said as if he were giving a speech.

“Yeah, thanks for that, Poseidon.” I sounded as snappy as I felt.

“Elyse,” Ares said softly, and it affected my mood in a good way. “You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do.”

Even though Poseidon was pissed off, he nodded. He agreed on that, too. At least some of them were happy with me calling the shots, even though Hades still wasn’t on board.

He was the first one I was going to lose, I realized.

And the pain in my chest was ridiculous, my throat tightening. I just broke through to him and now he would be out of my life again. I could barely breathe. Fuck, tears were watering in my eyes.

“Thank you,” I said to Ares. And I really meant it, because he was trying.

It just really wasn’t that simple.

Chapter 9

I woke up the next morning to the feeling of something watching me. Not someone, something.

When I lifted my head, I jumped in my bed. A woman sat on the chair, long legs crossed over each other and golden hair braided over one shoulder. Her beady eyes were what really got me.

“Hera,” I said, sitting up in bed, trying not to let her realize how nervous she made me.

“I’ve never understood the concept of sleeping.” She looked amused, her perfectly shaped brows arching. “I would have thought that as a new goddess, you might have shaken the habit, but it looks like you really did need to recharge.”

“How long have you been here?” I asked.

She stood up from the chair and sauntered around the room, wearing her pearlescent Greek style dress wrapped around her perfect figure. She ran her finger over the windowsill and checked it as if to see if I had cleaned properly. I stiffened and didn’t want the bitch touching my stuff. I was very aware of her breasts in her dress as she moved around. She oozed sex appeal, but it was the kind that irritated me. It made me feel inadequate somehow.

And I hated to be made to feel inadequate. It wasn’t my game, I liked to be on top. Ha. Damn, she was getting to me.

“What’s time, really?” she asked, and I realized she was responding to my question. She wasn’t answering me, but I guessed it was better than nothing.

Yeah, that meant she’d been watching me for a long time.

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

“Isn’t it your custom to offer me something to drink after I traveled to get here?”

She’d probably zapped into my room which didn’t count as traveling, but I sighed. She was supposed to be some kind of divine royalty.

“Would you like some coffee?” I asked dryly. “Or water?”

“No, thank you. I can’t stand the food on this planet.” She scrunched her nose as if she might be sick.

I fought the urge to roll my eyes and kept the sarcasm out of my voice when I spoke again. “To what do I owe the pleasure of your company?” I didn’t even sound as irritated as I felt. Point for me.

“I was wondering when you were planning on joining us on Mount Olympus,” she said. “We’ve been awaiting you.”

“I haven’t decided if it’s what I want to do yet.”

“My darling.” Hera stopped and turned slightly toward me, looking at me with a shocked expression. “I didn’t realize you thought it was optional.”

“I am not going to be forced into something.” My voice rose. “And if I don’t want to live there, I’m not going to do it.”

Hera’s face changed. She’d gone from seemingly bored to shocked and motherly to bitch-from-hell. Because the woman in front of me suddenly looked like she was going to take my head off. Her eyes were fiery red and her whole body trembled. I sensed her power humming on my skin like tiny pinpricks and what I felt from her didn’t resemble the concept of a goddess of marriage and childbirth. At all.

This woman was terrifying.

“You dare reject an invitation from the gods, you lowly ingrate? You came to Mount Olympus with your impure blood thinking you have the right to call the shots when you are nothing more than a product of Zeus’s pity on a race that was already pathetic at its conception.”

Swallowing down the fury bubbling in my chest, I held myself together. “As far as I know, I’m one of you.” I remained cool and collected, but on the inside I was a raging inferno. I pictured myself jumping the hag and scratching her eyes out. It’d be an ugly clawing catfight, not even a dignified act of war.

“You will never be one of us,” Hera snarled with a voice that sounded a hell of a lot like X’s, which wasn’t something I wanted to think too hard about. That memory had me clenching my fists.

“Well, then it won’t be a problem if I don’t join you on Mount Olympus.”

Hera looked like she was going to blow up, her face reddening, her shoulders curling forward. I wondered if I would have to scrape pieces of goddess off my wall when this was done. But instead of losing her shit, she simply disappeared.

Thank fuck.

I inhaled deeply and let the breath out slowly, trying to pull myself back together. I was so angry, I felt like I could blow up. But she wasn’t worth the effort it took to be this upset. I just had to forget about her. She had done nothing but make my life hell the last week or so. And it wasn’t the first time she had done that. Hades had gone through shit because of her, too.

And that wasn’t even with a pun intended.

I was about to get back into bed when a sound from the living room made me groan.

“Whoever the fuck is out there, I’m not in the mood,” I called.

Hades stalked through my bedroom door, dressed all in black, and damn, he looked smoking hot.

“God, I don’t have the time for this shit!”

“Calm down, Elyse,” he retorted. He didn’t sound pissed, which was an improvement. Before he would have gotten as angry as me and we’d have it out. It didn’t even sound half bad. I wanted to have it out with someone.

But then we would end up fucking and I couldn’t let him in like that when I was still so mad at him.

“Just get out of here.” I suddenly sounded tired. Well, mood swings—check.

“Can we talk?” Hades asked, his voice tame and a soft expression on his face. His dark eyes were pleading, and they touched me deep inside like they always did. I couldn’t stay mad at him for long. “I want to make it right.”

“No pomegranate to trick me?” I asked sarcastically.

“Stop, Elyse.” The way he said my name so seriously made me sit up and take notice. He surprised me a lot lately. “I’m here to help.”

“Hera paid me a visit,” I said. “And she’s making it pretty damn clear that I’m not allowed to stay on Earth, even if I want to. After she told me what a piece of shit I am.”

Hades shook his head, grumbling under his breath. “Don’t listen to the bitch. I can’t stand her.”

“I know,” I added. “And I’m starting to understand why. But, I mean, I know the why of it all.”

Hades nodded. “I wanted to tell you that you’re allowed to choose whatever you want if you walk the same road that Heracles did.”

“What?”

Hades sat down on my bed. “He chose to stay on Earth.”

I nodded, aware of that. “And Zeus trapped him in the curse of watching over my bloodline for the rest of his life. Which is a hell of a long time for a demigod.”

“He asked for the job,” Hades added.

“He did?” I’d always assumed it was Zeus who’d forced him into the role to help humans. “Why?”

“Because he knew what you Lowes could do. But that’s not the point. The point is, if you choose something with the courage of your conviction, the gods can do nothing about it. Humans have been given free will. And you were human once, as was Heracles. Which means that your free will is your secret weapon against us.”

I’d never thought the gods had some kind of weakness, that the humans could have the upper hand somehow. It didn’t make sense. But in a way… it actually did.

“So I need to know for a fact that this is where I want to stay, right? And then it will be fine?”

Hades nodded. “But then you really have to know without a sliver of doubt.”

Yeah, and therein lay the problem. I still didn’t know for a fact because I wanted my four men around me. Although, after seeing Hera lose her shit in my room, I was just about convinced that Mount Olympus wasn’t the place for me.

“Am I meant to march up to Zeus and tell him this?” I was unsure how I felt about that, considering they had invited me, and gods were arrogant asses sometimes. But this was also about my happiness after everything I’d gone through.

“No need,” a voice boomed from outside, accompanied by a crack of thunder and lightning lighting up even the inside of my apartment. I flinched from the noise.

Zeus was here. Was he pissed?

“No better time than the present,” Hades confirmed with a shrug that was far too nonchalant because I was shitting myself. Zeus sounded furious and he’d never been this angry at me. Not even when I’d stood up to him. But I supposed Hades was right. This was my chance to stand my ground, to claim what I wanted and not waver back and forth.

Hades took my hand and kissed my knuckles, his eyes burning into me.

“Together,” he said.

“Why are you being so nice about this?” I asked, willing myself to not fall under his spell and just do anything he said so I could jump into his arms quicker.

“Because I love you and I want you happy. I don’t want to lose you and I know that sometimes there are different ways to lose people than them walking away.”

Right then was when my heart melted. Hades always surprised me. Always. But this was by far the nicest thing he’d ever said or done to me. And we’d been through Hell and back, literally, fought each other, fucked our brains out, hated one another—but we always came back together for a reason. We were meant to be.

“Together,” I said, squeezing his hand. We were going to do this.

Hades poofed us outside so we were in the street, where Zeus stood in the middle of the road in all his furious glory, white fabric draped around his torso and over a shoulder. His silvery hair was like silk and it flew around his head as if he were electrically charged. Lightning danced from his fingertips. His eyes were white, without pupils or irises, and he was scary as fuck.

I trembled, and not much scared me, but this here undid me. Hades squeezed my hand, reminding me I wasn’t alone here. He wasn’t running away but was standing tall by my side.

“You turned down our proposition,” Zeus growled in a voice that sounded like thunder itself. “Have you forgotten who gave you life?”

“I haven’t forgotten my roots,” I replied. “But I haven’t forgotten who I am, either.”

Zeus let out a roar and thunder shook the world around us, the ground quivering under my bare feet.

Suddenly, Apollo was next to me. And then Ares appeared, too. And lastly, Poseidon stepped up. I smiled to have my four men with me.

“You’re here,” I said to Poseidon. “Why?”

“I smelled a fight and I thought I would jump in on the action.”

“I’m staying here on Earth,” I declared, my voice strong and decision made.

Poseidon put his hand at the back of my neck and kissed me, hard.

“I guess I am too, then,” he breathed against my mouth.

They were all here for me. And they agreed with what I wanted, none of them trying to change my mind, but rather smiling in approval. When I glanced at Ares, dressed in battle gear, he nodded at me too. And so did Apollo before him and Ares fist-bumped.

I had no idea how we’d all gotten together again when there had been a rift between the lot of us, but the unity was palpable. We’d all been through so much this past year, and like me, they probably didn’t want to keep arguing. We all had so much more fun when we got along. And their energies mingling with mine was powerful as fuck.

“Are you going to fight me?” Zeus snapped, his shoulders rising.

“If I have to,” I replied, lifting my chin.

“And you think you’ll survive?” he mocked.

I nodded. “I’m fighting for something I love. And love is stronger than everything, even Death.”

X and Hades had taught me that.

“Them?” Zeus said with a chuckle. “You reckon you love them enough that you can defeat me?”

I shook my head. “I love them, yeah. Sure. But I’m not fighting you for them. Or because of them. This is for the humans. I love them, Zeus. I want to be with them. They are a part of me, as much as I am a part of them. I won’t die for the gods. But I will die for my people.”

Zeus stared at Poseidon and then Hades. “And you will defy your brother?”

“Anytime,” Hades retorted without hesitation, but that was to be expected. When I looked at Poseidon, he nodded with confidence, too. That was a surprise.

“Maybe it’s time we stop fucking up people’s lives just because we can,” Poseidon offered.

Zeus shook his head. “Big talk, brother. But Elyse isn’t walking away from this unless she walks straight to Mount Olympus.”

“No,” I yelled.

Zeus’s nostrils flared, breathing nosily, baring his teeth in a show of anger. This was all about control, I realized. It wasn’t about me; it was about not losing control of everything. But I didn’t belong to Zeus. The gods didn’t own me. When Zeus charged me, I was right there with him. I ran headlong toward him. I had no weapons, and he was the god of the gods.

But I knew what I was fighting for. And I would fight until I had nothing left.

Zeus and I collided in a flash of white light that blinded me. Heat seared through me as if I had swallowed a bolt of lightning and the sound was deafening.

I stumbled, losing my footing, sure that it was all over. My heart thumped so hard in my chest, my skin rippling with dread. This was it—I’d die my final death. After fighting to stay alive for so long, facing Death, and now this final blow came unexpectedly. And from the god who’d given me his power in the first place. I wanted to laugh at the irony, but all I could think about were the four men who’d stolen my heart and I couldn’t lose them.

When I hit the tarmac with my hands and knees, the light disappeared and darkness wrapped itself around me once again. The streetlights came into focus, and then the four gods were next to me, their expressions tainted with worry.

“Elyse, are you okay?” Poseidon grabbed my arm and helped me to my feet.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” I was perfectly fine, actually. “But what just happened? I thought he killed me with his lightning.”

“That wasn’t Zeus’s lightning,” Ares said, staring at Apollo, who nodded. “That was all you.”

“What do you mean?”

“No god has ever laid down their life for a human for an eternity. No one except Heracles. And he was the only god who was allowed to live on Earth without rules and regulations. And now, there’s you.”

My skin broke out in goosebumps. Had I really done it? Though part of me couldn’t help but wonder if Zeus had known all along, and in his usual way, had pushed and pushed until I’d done what came naturally to me. The reason why I had to remain on Earth.

So, had I figured out who I was and what I wanted? And the guys had all decided what they wanted, too.

Me. And you know what? I was a pretty good bet. I wanted me, too.

Chapter 10

Weeks Later

Now that I was allowed to stick around on Earth without the gods breathing down my neck about my decision, my life returned to normal. Except it also didn’t.

Somehow, by being willing to sacrifice myself for the humans, my power had reached a new level yet again. Was there an end to what I could unlock? I didn’t know, but for the first time in too long, not knowing didn’t scare me. It left me excited to discover what exactly I was capable of.

I didn’t know if I was immortal or not, either. There were still a lot of questions.

But I did have the guys with me. And I was happy with the life I’d chosen. Because I had known in that moment I’d challenged Zeus with exactly what I’d wanted—my humanity.

And it made saving the mortals every day okay. It turned out that being a goddess didn’t mean I was removed from the humans.

I couldn’t stop smiling and I beamed each time I remembered that the guys had stood up for me, that they had all been willing to lie down what they desired so that they could be with me. It was all about unity, about us being a united team. I was sure that it wasn’t just because of my declaration that I had defeated Zeus, sending him back to Mount Olympus. Though part of me still pondered if it had been a ploy on his part. But I didn’t care. I’d come through it because I’d had my gods at my back, and they’d been there for me.

I stood on a building in the middle of Chicago and for a moment I imagined wearing a cape like in the hero movies. I chuckled at the thought.

“What’s so funny?” Hades asked, suddenly appearing at my side.

I spun and smirked. “I might tell you tonight.”

“Is that a promise?” He closed the distance between us and collected me into his arms.

“You bet.” I still couldn’t believe how much my relationship with Hades had changed, how caring and attentive he was.

“Good, because I’ve reserved a table at a restaurant on a beach in Fiji.”

“Wow.” I’d always wanted to go there, and to hear Hades offer me a holiday other than the Underworld had me smiling so hard it hurt my cheeks.

He leaned in closer and cupped my head with two hands before kissing me. Gently at first, then passionately and fiery like he couldn’t get enough, and in all honesty, I wasn’t sure I could ever get enough of him or any of the gods I loved.

Hades broke his kiss, and my breath hitched all the way down to my lungs. “I’ll see you tonight, babe.”

And with those words, he puffed out of sight, leaving me burning up, my lips tingling, needing him more. He was such a tease.

“I’d say he’s smitten with you,” Heracles said, stepping up next to me.

I squealed and threw my arms around his neck. “What are you doing here?”

“I wanted to see for myself the woman who defied my dad,” he said. “I heard you were on fire.”

I laughed. “It felt like it, too.”

“You embraced a part of yourself that none of the gods could find,” Heracles said, his eyes smiling, his expression reminding me of my dad being so proud of me. “That’s saying something. I always knew you had greatness inside you.”

“That means the world to me,” I said.

“What does?” Heracles asked.

I looked at him for a moment before answering. “You believing in my family. You sticking around and teaching us until I could become what I am now.”

Heracles smiled. “Any time.”

A wave of magic traveled up from one of the streets below and interrupted our conversation. Heracles and I both turned our heads as if we were hounds picking up a scent.

“Duty calls,” I said. “Looks like X is sending up his hounds from Hell to taunt me.”

“He’s never going to forgive you for fucking up his plans.”

I shrugged. “I’m ready for his shit. It’s what I was born to do.”

“Let’s do this one together,” Heracles suggested. “And when we’re done, I want to tell you about this woman I met.”

“What?” I asked. “Oh my god!”

Heracles laughed. “First save the world. Then gossip.”

“You got it,” I said. “But you’re not getting away without telling me every little detail. Give me a name as an appetizer.”

“Rea,” Heracles said with a smile. “She’s Greek.”

“I wouldn’t imagine it any other way.”

Heracles stared out toward the faint lines of magic that pulsed toward us in waves.

“Together?” he asked.

“Together,” I said.

And we jumped.

Author’s Note

I hope you’ve enjoyed Hades’ Goddess. This story takes place after the Gods and Monsters series, with a small snippet into the life of Elyse and her four gods. I wanted to show how far she’d come and despite everything they’d all gone through, in the end, they all ended up closer and still in each other’s lives. If you haven’t read this series, I highly recommend jumping into Apollo Is Mine.

About Mila Young

Mila Young tackles everything with the zeal and bravado of the fairytale heroes she grew up reading about. She slays monsters, real and imaginary, like there's no tomorrow. By day she rocks a keyboard as a marketing extraordinaire. At night she battles with her might pen-sword, creating fairytale retellings, and sexy ever after tales. In her spare time, she loves pretending she's a mighty warrior, walks on the beach with her dogs, cuddling up with her cats, and devouring every fantasy tale she can get her pinkies on.

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Books By Mila Young

Gods and Monsters

Apollo Is Mine

Poseidon Is Mine

Ares Is Mine

Hades Is Mine

Haven Realm Series

Hunted (Little Red Riding Hood Retelling)

Cursed (Beauty and the Beast Retelling)

Entangled (Rapunzel Retelling)

Wicked Heat Series

Wicked Heat #1

Wicked Heat #2

Wicked Heat #3

Elemental Series

Taking Breath #1

Taking Breath #2

Fallen World Series Co-write with Mila Young

Bound

Broken

Beautiful Beasts Academy Series

Lions and Lies (FREE)

Manicures and Mayhem

Diamonds and Demons

Chapter 1

You don’t become a human by parts: an arm here, a knee there. It happens all at once. One moment I was perched next to Odin, clawed feet gripping the rocky ledge and every glossy black feather in order, and the next I was sprawling on an ass I’d never had before, flailing limbs now strangely long and bare, my head totally off-kilter.

The Allfather of the gods looked down on me with an arch of his thick gray-brown eyebrows and started to chuckle.

“Why, Muninn, whatever has gotten into you?”

Before I could answer, the same transformation came over my brother of sorts, Huginn, at Odin’s other side. His raven body, sleek and black as mine had been, shot up into a tall, gangly man in a black shirt and trousers. He stumbled back against the cliff face.

I braced my hands—hands, I had hands now—against the gritty stone and looked down at myself, struggling to focus my thoughts. I’d come out just as thin and pale as Huginn, wiry muscles standing out in my arms and my calves beneath the loose black dress that covered the rest of my human figure. Two small mounds of breasts gave a slight curve to its bodice. The fabric wasn’t half as shiny as my feathers had been. Even in it, I felt horribly naked.

The wind buffeted us, rippling the dress and licking under it over my human skin. It tossed strands of smooth black hair across my face. The smells of the battle raging on in the valley below us came duller to this new nose, but I wrinkled that nose all the same.

My tongue flicked out to taste the lips I hadn’t had until just a moment ago. “What…” My voice came out soft but a little hoarse, an echo of my caw in it. I’d never spoken to Odin from my throat before, only mind to mind.

The Allfather was outright laughing now, with a thump of his spear-turned-walking stick against the ground. His brown eye, the one not scarred over, twinkled with delight.

“Well,” he said in his deep dry voice, “it looks as if I’ve spent so much time in the realm of man that the essence of man—or woman, as the case may be—has rubbed off on the two of you. I can imagine you’ll be of even more use to me when you can shift from form to form.”

When we could shift—yes, damn it, I wanted to shift again. To shrink back into my feathers and stretch my wings at my sides.

I shoved myself onto my feet, swaying as I adjusted to new ways of keeping my balance. The clanging and shouts of the battle continued echoing up. But Odin was much more interested in watching Huginn and I for the moment.

My hands flexed and clenched. I sucked in a sharp breath of the blood-tinged air. My chest felt as if it were gripped by tight talons.

“How do I change back?” I croaked.

“However you changed in the first place, I expect,” Odin said.

But I hadn’t meant to change. I hadn’t done anything. I shifted my weight, twisted my arms, and could find no sense of how to shed this knobby, clumsy body I’d come into.

Odin stroked his silver-flecked beard. “Perhaps you simply need enough motivation,” he said in a teasing voice. With a sweep of his arm, he propelled a wave of air into me. It shoved me over the edge of our perch.

A cry broke from my throat as I plummeted toward the battle we’d come here to watch. My arms wheeled in the air, but no feathers sprouted from them. Swords flashed and muskets sparked in the chaos of bodies below. The ashy stink of burnt gunpowder filled my mouth.

Fly, damn it, fly. I had to fly.

I couldn’t.

The magic Odin had summoned cushioned my fall just enough that I smacked the ground and rolled with a shock of pain but no cracked bones. A cavalry man’s horse thundered past me. My groping hand brushed the gore on a fallen soldier’s eviscerated chest, and I shuddered.

The boom of a musket sounded right over my head. Someone groaned and gurgled. Bodies surged around me with flashes of metal and spurts of blood.

Terror squeezed my throat. I was one of those bodies now, a delicate-skinned human bound to the ground, the heart in my chest pumping blood just as easily spilled.

The jolt of panic shot straight through me—and my form contracted. I flung myself out of the fray in a burst of feathers. With a screech, I propelled myself up to Odin’s ledge as fast as my wings could flap, my raven’s heart still racing with a fear I’d never tasted before.

* * *

The town smelled. Every human town did, from dumped excrement and rotting food leavings. My human nose might not have been as sensitive to blood and gore, but tonight I found the putrid essence of mortal waste more offensive than I ever had before when I’d traveled through as a raven.

Maybe that displeasure wasn’t because of my sense of smell at all, but simply because my other senses seemed to dampen in this body. Normally I lived on a plane partway between the present and the past, memories seeping from every mind around me to mingle in a vast soup—one I could stir if I wished with a flutter of my wings, a jab of my beak. In my human form, the world of the present met me more solidly. The memories still drifted around me, but more faded, like wisps rather than a steady current.

The strangeness of it unnerved me, but Odin was still delighting in our newfound shapeshifting ability. He’d wanted Huginn and I to ramble around town in human form to see what we could glean from conversation instead of simply observing from a distance.

I scratched at an uneasy itch that crept across my shoulders and swallowed the last morsel of bread I’d scavenged—an act also significantly more difficult as a human being. Talking hadn’t been all that hard once I’d gotten used to my voice. I might have spent the many ages of my life before now as a bird in body, but my mind was as honed and complex as any human’s or god’s. The trouble had been in finding any conversation all that illuminating.

The people in this town talked either of the war or of their daily concerns: the food they were going to put on the table, the ache of their shoed feet. They remembered the march of soldiers and a peaceful time before, when they hadn’t needed to mutter about the war at all. None of them had given me any particularly thrilling stories to bring back to the Allfather.

I caught up with him in the town square, where he was devouring some sort of sandwich and nodding as Huginn gesticulated through his own account of whatever he’d learned. My fellow raven, the master of thought, had settled into his new form more quickly. But then, his business had always been the present—and the future. He must enjoy having it made even more concrete.

“Well, then, my raven of memory,” Odin said, beckoning me over. “What tales do you come bearing?”

“The same as always,” I said. “They fear the war, and it excites them. Some think back to times of greater comfort and others to those they’ve lost—with pain or with relief. A few remember battles long ago that they feel were either much less fraught or more. Humans are hardly consistent.”

“Such sour words.” The Allfather tipped his head to the side as he considered me. The brim of his broad hat shadowed his face, but it couldn’t dampen the gleam in his eye. “I’d almost think you were sulking, Muninn.”

I resisted the urge to grimace at him. This human face could certainly pull a wide range of expressions. “Why are we even here?” I demanded. “Why do we linger anywhere in Midgard so long, so often—often enough that our entire beings are starting to change?” I flicked my hand toward my body.

Odin still watched me. Could he see how much this morning’s tumble into the battle was still gnawing at my nerves?

“There’s much to learn from humankind as they and their civilizations grow,” he said. “They never stop changing. Walking among them, drinking the same air, tells me far more than simply watching them from my high seat above. Would you rather ramble around Asgard in the peace and quiet for the next hundred years?”

Yes, I rather would. Especially when my own memories rose up of how we’d spent most of the hundreds of years previous.

“It’s always the wars you seek out,” I said. “The battles and skirmishes and sieges. Weapons blasting and stabbing, blood and guts scattered all around. Suffering.” So much bloody suffering. My memories of Midgard were a long stretch of yelps and sobs and shrieks.

“War is one of my domains,” Odin said. “And I can learn a tremendous amount more from times of suffering than those of happiness. People can be anything when they’re happy. It’s when they’re frightened or in pain that their deepest essence rises to the surface.”

I did grimace at him then. “Or maybe Ragnarok gave you too much of a taste for destruction.”

Odin let out a huff, but he sounded less amused than he usually did when I spoke my mind. Maybe I’d had a little more on my mind to speak today than I usually did.

“I think we serve a great purpose here,” Huginn started, the damn ass-kisser, but Odin cut him off before he could get any further.

“There are worse places we could travel to, you know. The Allfather’s cloaked, broad-shouldered form loomed even taller as he gripped his spear. “It seems to me a little perspective may have been lost over the years. Now that my ravens are more adaptable, perhaps we should check the lay of the land in the other realms too. For a change of pace, if you’re that eager for one.”

My stomach dropped. I didn’t like the thread of darkness ringing through his voice. But he was already spreading his arms and summoning down the vast shimmering bridge that would take us back to Asgard and his great hall of doors.

“Of the nine realms, Midgard has always interested me the most,” Odin said as we strode across the bridge, his magic urging us faster. “Asgard, there’s nothing left to know of. The others I thought I’d explored thoroughly long ago. But it has been a long time, and Norns only know what may have changed. I should not neglect any of them.”

“Where would you have us go, Allfather?” Huginn asked with a bob of his head.

Odin frowned. “Let me think on it. Where should we start? What will my raven of memory truly appreciate?” That teasing gleam had come back into his eye.

It was full night in Asgard when we arrived. No one lingered in the shining courtyard to ask how our travels had been. Odin headed straight to Valhalla, the now empty hall of warriors. Huginn and I hurried along behind him.

I brought up the memory of the one time I’d shifted back, in the midst of the battle, but my body didn’t respond. I gritted my teeth. Why was this human body so stubborn? If I was investigating a realm I hadn’t been to in ages or possibly at all, I wanted to do it on wings at least to start.

Odin’s footsteps rang out down the long hall with its thick shadows. He strode straight to the end where the vast fireplace stood and waved open the door to the great tree that led to all the realms.

Yggdrasil stretched out on its side over a fathomless chasm. The shadows seeped into the crevices in its ridged bark. Ahead of us, one branch and then another veered off into the thicker darkness where the doorways waited.

We stepped out onto the branching path, our feet rasping over the rough bark. Odin marched on at the lead. Several paces along, he pointed to a branch that stretched out to the left. “Huginn, you can drop in on Niflheim. Explore and return to tell me what you’ve observed.”

“Yes, Allfather,” Huginn said, his eyes shiny with nervousness but his jaw set. He darted down the path and vanished through the maw of the doorway at its end.

I followed Odin past another branch and another. No matter how much I prodded at my body with my mind, it wouldn’t budge. Transform. Become a raven. My skin prickled, but nothing changed. I swallowed hard.

“Allfather—”

“Muninn,” he said briskly, and pointed to the right. “I’d like to hear what you make of the current state of Muspelheim. I feel I’ve avoided that realm far too long. Bring its memories back to me.”

My legs balked. “I think it would be better if I could first—”

He spun with a sharper flash of his eye. “You asked to leave Midgard. You asked to delve into something new. Now off with you.”

He gave me a shove like he had on the ledge that morning. I didn’t have time to let out more than a squeak of protest before a gust of magic swept me along the great tree’s branch and tossed me through the doorway at its end.

Chapter 2

I careened out into a space almost as dark as the one I’d left but streaked through with ruddy light. My human body sprawled on hands and knees against rocky ground so hot it singed my skin.

I didn’t even have time to scramble to my feet when a roar blasted my eardrums and my side. A punch of hot, putrid breath sent me tumbling head over heels toward the nearest ruddy glow.

Another stink filled my nose: molten lava. A stream of the pulsing magma wove through the rock just ahead of me, its heat wafting over me and crackling through my hair. I swallowed a yelp and hurled myself in the opposite direction, just as the creature that had roared at me pounced.

Claws raked across my shoulder, but I managed to spin to the side, out of the main force of the beast’s charge. Pain splintered through my arm and back.

I staggered, and the thing whirled on me. I could see it now: an immense sinewy dragon with scales that looked as if they were made out of chunks of rock glued together by still-glowing magma. Its eyes shone like red-hot embers, and they narrowed as they focused back on me.

It opened its mouth, revealing sharp crystal shards of teeth. Another acrid gush of breath seared toward me. I couldn’t help crying out as the heat lashed my skin.

I didn’t know where the hell this was or what was going on. The only thought that shone through my haze of panic was away. I had to get away.

I threw myself away from the dragon’s next swipe, my frantic gaze searching for the door I’d fallen through. I couldn’t find it amid the shifting shadows. The dragon lunged, claws screeching against the stone, and I leapt in the opposite direction. My heart thundered in my ears. Was there somewhere I could take shelter to gather my wits, anything to shield me…?

The dragon whipped toward me, and I didn’t dodge fast enough this time. Its foot slammed into my back, claws digging open new wounds and the impact slamming me into the ground. My chin knocked against the rock, and finally, like a miracle, my body realized that this particular form was not doing me any favors.

With a rippling that was both relieving and painful, I contracted into my raven self. The snap of the dragon’s teeth that would have taken off my human head closed around the air above me, and I took off in a mad flapping of my wings, so fast I left at least a few feathers behind me.

As soon as I soared high above the rocky terrain, a blast of hot air that had nothing to do with the dragon hurtled into me. It took all my strength to keep myself upright as I tried to dive out of it. But the dragon was leaping into the air from below, and the wind buffeted me from all sides. With my avian pulse rattling through my veins, I simply flapped my wings as hard as I could and sped off. Away. As long as I was away, I’d be safer.

I dodged a jutting spear of rock and a pool of magma that spurted flares of fire up toward the ashen sky. The tips of my wing feathers turned crisp as cinders. After a time, the dragon was nothing but a distant roar, and then nothing at all. But the wind kept whipping around me, smacking at me from the side when I least expected it, filling my throat with charred heat.

An ache dug into my back where my wounds had reformed on my raven body. My wings started to falter. I peered down at the dark gray stone and the maze of magma streams that cut through it, searching for somewhere to set down and gather myself.

A rough-hewn structure against a low cliff up ahead caught my eye. Blocks of stone had been stacked into a somewhat haphazard-looking building with a wide doorway. A strip of ragged cloth hung across the entrance. The house hardly looked bigger than a chicken coop, but at this point I wasn’t going to complain. I just hoped whoever was living in there was friendlier than the damned dragon.

The pain in my back stabbed deeper as I descended. My wing-beats stuttered. I crashed more than landed on the ground outside the hovel, and my body sprang back into human form.

Wonderful. I groaned as I pulled myself onto my knees. When I touched my shoulder, my fingers came back sticky and red.

At least I could talk to my potential host in this form. They might have seen an intruding raven as only vermin. Most mortal beings didn’t have quite the respect for my proper form that they really should.

I heaved myself to my feet and staggered forward. I had to clutch the side of the doorway as I eased the flap of cloth aside.

The interior was larger than I expected. The manmade structure I’d seen outside was only a fore-room that held an equally rough stone bench. It led into a cave that must have been a natural formation in the cliff. I eased forward over the uneven rock floor, my teeth clenched against the throbbing in my back.

“Hello?” I said. My voice came out in a faint croak. I tried to swallow and barely could. Did this place even have water? Surely the inhabitants didn’t drink the magma.

No one answered. I wavered and then pushed on into the cave.

After a few steps, a faint illumination caught my eye. A crystalline patch on the cave ceiling emitted a dull red glow. I could see by it, but it made the space look as if it were painted in blood. Very homey.

Notches had been carved into the stone walls, holding a few metal dishes and cutlery, some bundles of fabric, slabs of what looked and smelled like cured meat. At the back of one shallow alcove, water trickled in a thin stream over the pock-marked rock.

My throat screamed with need. Without a second thought, I threw myself at the trickle and lapped it from the rock until the dryness inside stopped burning. The water had a faintly metallic taste, not exactly enjoyable, but not awful either.

It hadn’t done anything for the agony in my back, though. I pressed onward, peering into a chamber I took to be a bedroom with a few blankets in a tangle on the floor, and another with a narrow crevice I gathered served as the lavatory from the stomach-turning whiff that reached my nose. I hurried past that one.

The cave narrowed under one of those gleaming crystals. The floor felt even rougher there. I hesitated, not sure whether I should go on.

A man’s wryly lilting voice carried from somewhere behind me. “Just invited yourself right in, did you?”

I whirled around and gasped at the pain that lanced through me at the sudden movement. A tall figure stood between two streaks of ruddy light, his face mostly hidden in shadow. He had his arms crossed over his lean chest and his head cocked to one side. His eyes, the glint of them that I could see, were fixed on me.

I found my voice through the pain. “I’m sorry. I called out to see if anyone was here… I was just looking for somewhere to rest.”

The young man took a step forward, and the light caught his features. Features that I could imagine the human girls I’d watched from time to time in Midgard swooning over—smooth tan skin, clear sky-blue eyes, golden-blond hair pulled back at the base of his neck. Except for the scar. A ragged maroon slash wrenched across the left side of his face from the tip of his eyebrow across his high cheekbone down to the thin lips that were currently pressed in a flat unreadable line.

He wasn’t a being of Midgard anyway. His coloring, the angles of his face, and the slight point to his ears told me he was a light elf, one of the ljosalfar from the realm of Alfheim.

Memories stirred in the air between us. A wonderland of a forest, crystal spires jutting up between the pale-barked trees. A group of teenaged elves stopping to picnic beneath one. A couple of them scrambling up the spire. A horrible crack, the splintered peak plummeting to gouge this man’s, then boy’s, youthful face. The pain radiated out of the past in a yawning chasm of agony.

Bright tan faces and shining flaxen hair all around. Eyes averting from the wreckage of his face. Murmurs that quieted as soon as he got near. Bitterness collecting on his tongue.

A cluster of elders at a doorway, stern-faced and stiff-shouldered. The man before me gave them a little wave, however long ago that was, and ducked through the passage into darkness and heat.

The pieces connected in my mind. He’d been banished. My tongue flew before I thought better of it. I wasn’t used to speaking to anyone but Odin, and I’d never held back from the Allfather.

“Cut by a rock, and they sent you away to a land of rocks,” I said. “Not the most sensitive people, are they?”

The man’s jaw twitched. His arms tensed where they were still folded in front of him. “Who are you?” he demanded, dropping his hands to his sides in fists. “You’re not from Alfheim. How do you know me?”

“I’m Odin’s raven,” I said automatically. Maybe it would have been better to keep that to myself too. This human tongue obviously needed more practice at holding itself.

The statement drew the light elf up short. “You don’t look much like a raven,” he said, a little of that dry tone returning. His gaze slid over me, and for the first time I recognized something else in his expression. He was looking at me like I’d seen men look at women in the towns and the cities of Midgard, with a hint of that heated sort of hunger.

Was this human body attractive by those standards? I found it difficult to judge. I wasn’t even sure what my face looked like. But despite the dulling pain in my back, his attention tugged an echo of the same heat to the surface of my skin.

I didn’t know what to make of that alien sensation, so I did my best to ignore it. “I can assure you this is not my better form,” I said, matching his dryness. “Muninn, the raven of memory, pleased to make your acquaintance.”

I plucked the corners of my dress and dipped in a mockery of the courtesy I’d witnessed from women with airs. That was the wrong move. At the motion, my wounds flared back into full agony. My balance wavered, and the air hissed as I sucked it through my clenched teeth.

“What—” The light elf stepped closer. His face turned sallow. “You’ve been cut up. Come on. I’m not going to leave you bleeding all over my house. Sit down and tell me what in Hel’s name you’re doing here.”

He took my arm, lithe fingers closing around my wrist, and a giddy quiver shot through my nerves at the contact. Odin and Huginn hadn’t touched me in my human body. I hadn’t known the simple act of placing skin against skin could have quite that much effect. Although maybe it didn’t usually when you had a body that’d been properly broken in.

“I’m Jerrik,” the elf said as he guided me back to the fore-room where I’d entered. “If your magic didn’t already tell you that. And I’d appreciate you staying out of my memories, Miss Raven.”

It wasn’t that I went into them. They came to me, like flitting fish. But it was easier to tune them out in this form, with this pain distracting me. I didn’t bother to correct his phrasing.

Jerrik eased me down on the bench in the fore-room and stood over me, his expression such a mix of emotions I couldn’t pick any of them apart. He rubbed his mouth. The bottom of his scar shifted with his lips. I had the urge to trace my fingers over it, to find out what that mottled tissue would feel like. To see what expression he’d make then.

“What in this realm ripped you up like that?” he asked, nodding to my shoulder. He pressed a wad of fabric he’d grabbed from one of his nooks against my back to staunch the bleeding.

“A dragon that looked as if it were made out of rock,” I said. “Like apparently everything in this wretched place. It happened to be lurking around right where I entered, and I couldn’t find my way out again. So I got away as quickly as I could and ended up here.”

“What are you doing here at all, if you’re one of Odin’s prized birds?”

The way he said that last bit, as if I’d been a pet—or worse, an ornament—made my hackles rise. “I serve the Allfather by being his eyes and ears where he can’t be. And whatever my usual physical nature might be, I’m far from bird-brained, so I’d appreciate the same respect you’d offer any other person. Odin wanted to know the current state of Muspelheim. From what I’ve seen, I’m quite prepared to declare it a horrid wasteland to which we should never again venture. I just have to return to the gate to Asgard to tell him so.”

“To the gate?” Jerrik said. “That might not be as easy as you’re talking about it.”

“Wonderful,” I said. “I don’t have a lot of choice in the matter, so I’ll make it work one way or another. If you could simply point me in the right direction…”

The light elf sounded as if he’d swallowed a guffaw. “In your condition? You won’t make it past the first river. I can do a half-assed job of bandaging you up, but this isn’t my forte. I’d better take you to Gunnar.”

“Gunnar?” I repeated.

Jerrik’s hand tucked around my elbow to help me up—a solid but gentle grip that sent a pleasant shiver up my arm. Damned human body. Surely the inhabitants of Midgard didn’t go around responding like this to every casual contact between them?

“Gunnar’s a—an acquaintance of mine,” he said. “He’s more the healing sort. If anyone around here can patch you up properly, it’s him.”

“And how far away is this Gunnar?”

“It’s a short walk. At least when no one involved is bleeding to death. Are you really going to argue about this? He might know more about the gates, besides.”

I couldn’t say I was really in any shape to face that dragon or its kin again, if they happened to be lurking around the gate to Asgard—or Midgard, I’d take that too. Gathering more information was hardly ever a bad idea. Odin had been right about that much.

“All right. Let’s get on with it then.” I followed Jerrik to the door.

My agreement definitely had nothing to do with the fact that every nerve in me protested at the idea of moving away from that firm but gentle touch. I wasn’t here to mix with mortals. I needed to get home.

If this was the way to do it, then I’d do it.

Chapter 3

I tried to keep my posture straight as we walked farther along the terrain beside the cliff, but the pain was starting to stiffen the muscles around my wounds. My feet stayed steady, but my shoulders hunched against the sensation.

The memories that drifted around Jerrik trailed with us. I didn’t reach out on purpose, since he’d expressed discomfort at the idea, but it was impossible not to catch glimpses. Mostly of that bright green-and-golden world he’d obviously spent his formative years in.

“Is this something they do a lot—the light elves?” I asked. “Tossing people into Muspelheim?”

Jerrik grimaced. “You haven’t been seeing or hearing very much if you don’t know that, Miss Raven. It’s not just the light elves. All the unearthly realms have been using this place as a dumping ground for centuries.”

Oh. I glanced around me. The place hardly appeared to be all that inhabited.

“Most of the discards don’t survive past the first few weeks,” the light elf added.

A different sort of shiver crawled over my skin. “We’ve mostly traveled in Midgard when we’re not at home,” I said. In recent centuries, anyway. It seemed Odin really had left the other realms to fend for themselves far too long.

Of course, I wasn’t sure he’d have intervened either way. He preferred to observe and consider. What the beings of all the realms did, he left up to them, for the most part.

“Lucky for you,” Jerrik said.

I licked my lips. They were getting dry again after just a few minutes in the hot breeze that never seemed to let up over this barren rocky landscape. “I didn’t realize light elves were quite that superficial. A face is still a face.”

“Even one that’s horrifying to look upon?” Jerrik said, but his lilting voice sounded more pained than playful in that moment. “I’ll admit my attitude may have been at least as much of the problem, at the point when they told me I’d better get out.”

He glanced at me sideways. Wondering exactly how much I’d seen? I had the feeling he was looking forward to being rid of me and going back to… whatever one did to pass the time in a place like this.

“Hmm,” I said, remembering Odin’s change in tune when I’d heckled him about his interest in Midgard. That might very well be what had gotten me sent here. “Some simply don’t appreciate what an acerbic attitude can bring to the table, do they?”

The light elf’s expression softened just slightly with a hint of amusement. “Had a lot of trouble with that yourself, have you?”

“As I said, I’m not bird-brained. I express myself quite thoroughly regardless of my current form.”

“And what a joy you are to be around.”

I looked at him sharply, but his voice had been amused too, not as cutting as I suspected it could have been. Almost as if he were making a joke with me, not at me.

“Here we are,” he said, before I could think of what to best say next. A hovel a lot like his own stood against the cliff up ahead.

This one also had a beat-up curtain in the doorway, although Gunnar’s was pulled to the side to let in the dull glow that emanated from the magma streams and fire pits. A tapping sound carried through it. As we approached, I made out a figure sitting just inside the doorway, big with a fall of wavy brown hair that just brushed his eyebrows.

“Gunnar!” Jerrik called out. “I’ve got a project for you.”

I might have bristled at being referred to as a project if Gunnar hadn’t stood up and ducked through the doorway then, with a wide and welcoming smile lighting his face. He was nearly as tall as Jerrik and much broader, muscles flexing in his bulky arms beneath the ragged sleeves of his shirt, but there was a softness to the slope of those muscles, to his movements, to that smile. Even his eyes were soft, despite being as gray as the rocks around us. The only part of him that didn’t fit was the hard angles of his square jaw.

The tapping must have come from the chisel he was holding in one hand. In his other, he gripped an object that looked halfway to becoming a bowl. I guessed I knew one way people passed the time in this dreadful realm.

“What do we have here?” he said in a warm rumble of a voice. Memories trickled from him as they had from Jerrik. I could tell without even peering at them too closely that he was a jotun—a giant. Jotunheim was one of the realms I had flown through now and then in more recent years. I knew those darkly forested hills, that sharp tang of pine.

“Odin’s raven, she says.” Jerrik nudged me forward with a light hand on my undamaged shoulder. “Guardian of memory. Unfortunately a dragon of the very real present attempted to turn her into dinner.”

I shot him a glare and bobbed my head to Gunnar. “The light elf said you might be able to encourage the wounds to heal faster.”

The giant’s eyes widened as he took in my bloody bandage. “I’ll do what I can. I don’t have proper training, but I’ve studied every healing text I could get my hands on.”

A giant who studied medicine? There wasn’t anything physically off to look at him, not like Jerrik’s scar, but he clearly wasn’t a typical example of his race.

He ushered us in and had me lie on a stone bench with a thin blanket as its only cushioning. At least it warmed the hard surface a little. I sprawled on it on my belly and winced as Gunnar pulled off the now-tacky makeshift bandage.

“You did a decent job stopping the bleeding,” he said to Jerrik, who’d propped himself against the wall.

The light elf made a noncommittal sound. “She was on the verge of dripping all over my pristine floors.” He didn’t look completely comfortable in the giant’s home, but he seemed hesitant to leave.

Gunnar shook his head as if bemused by Jerrik’s attitude and grabbed a bowl off a shelf. “This mineral paste should seal the cuts, numb the pain, and encourage the wounds to scab over faster,” he said. “It might sting a little going on.”

“Go at it,” I said. “It can’t possibly hurt worse than I’ve already felt in the last hour.”

He chuckled, but when he started to slather the stuff over the tears in my skin, it was with a touch as soft as the rest of him.

The paste did sting at first, a prickling itch that shot through my flesh, but after the first few passes all sensation in that area dulled. I became more conscious of the lean of Gunnar’s body next to mine, the undamaged skin his fingers brushed here and there. The warmth of his presence, so much more appealing than the heat outside.

A tingle raced through me and settled between my thighs, a spot I’d never needed to be aware of until now. Why did this damned body have to be so sensitive?

“There,” Gunnar said, straightening up. The low dip of his voice sent another tingle through me. He cleared his throat as I rolled onto my side. A faint flush had colored his cheeks. Then he averted his gaze, turning to rinse his hands in a bowl of water.

The fact that I wasn’t the only one affected by our brief intimacy relaxed me a little. He could hardly think it odd that I was feeling a little flushed when he was clearly experiencing the same thing.

I didn’t want to dwell on that aspect of this moment, though. My attention snagged on the memories stirring around us. Gunnar’s and Jerrik’s were mingling, but I could tell one from the other on a level below consciousness, like a taste in the back of my throat. Jerrik’s were sharp-edged and faintly bitter. Gunnar’s were foggily sweet with a hint of melancholy.

I pushed myself into a sitting position. The sensations of one and then another memory slipped past me. A group of giants surrounding Gunnar, shouting at him as if egging him on. Him cringing and covering his head. One of them thrusting a sword at him that he backed away from.

Another time, meandering through the woods, gathering plants—herbs—in a basket. One of his neighbors kicking the basket from his arm on his way back into town.

The comment popped out of my mouth unbidden: “You weren’t much of a giant, were you?”

Gunnar blinked at me, but he didn’t appear to be offended. “The raven of memory, is it?” he said. “Do you see my whole history just looking at me?”

“No,” I said. “It sloughs off you in little bits and pieces. But the most fraught moments are the heaviest. They tend to fall first.”

“I wasn’t much of a giant,” he agreed. “No taste for bloodshed. No interest in waging any wars against our kind or any other. No use to my people. So they tired of me. It’s all right. There are plenty I can help here.”

“Try to help,” Jerrik said.

“Better than not trying,” Gunnar said mildly, and Jerrik looked as if he’d swallowed a stone.

“So, you teach yourself healing and patch up random strangers.” I cocked my head. “I’ve seen plenty of people who make much worse use of their time. It’s a shame so many of them are out there while you’re stuck in this awful place.”

That last thought tumbled out before I’d even realized I was thinking it. But it was true. I didn’t have quite Odin’s skill at gleaning motives and morality, but the man before me was clearly a lot better than this realm deserved.

A little of Gunnar’s earlier flush came back. “I’ve made the best of what I have.”

Which was really the most un-giant-like thing he could have said. Modest, timid, and compassionate. How bizarre. “Your parents could have done better naming you,” I remarked.

Gunnar blinked again, and then he burst out laughing. “Yes, yes, they could have. I don’t have much love for guns.”

“And Miss Raven has a lively tongue,” Jerrik said, pushing himself off the wall. “Well, I suppose—”

“Knock, knock,” someone called from the entrance in a bright brash tenor. Jerrik’s mouth twisted.

Gunnar turned with a smile. “Svend,” he said. “Come in.”

Jerrik cut his gaze toward the giant. “Are you sure—” he started in a low voice, but the newcomer had already sauntered up to the doorway.

This young man stood with a slight bowing of his shoulders, but everything else about him exuded confidence. He nodded to Gunnar and Jerrik, raising his eyebrow at the latter, an easy grin on his face. His brown eyes, as bright as his voice had been, settled on me. He was shorter than the other two, but nearly as brawny as Gunnar, though on him the muscles looked sturdy rather than supple. A ragged fringe of black hair swept across his pale forehead.

So, we had a dark elf in our number too.

“I thought I saw you bringing over company,” he said. “And I happened to come across some apples this morning. It seemed like this might be a good occasion for them.”

He produced four small but perfectly red apples from a pouch dangling from his belt. Jerrik’s lips parted.

“Thank you,” Gunnar said, taking one.

My stomach pinched. As a being of Asgard, as immortal as the god I’d served, I didn’t need to eat all that often, but after the day I’d had, I could use a little replenishing now.

Svend’s gaze found mine again, his grin stretching a little farther as if just for me, and heat pooled lower in my belly. The apple. Focus on the apple, not this distracting body. If Gunnar thought the food the dark elf had brought was safe, I’d trust that.

I accepted one, and Jerrik begrudgingly took the third. Svend raised the last fruit to his own lips and took a bite. The movement of his lips against each other as he chewed made me want to squirm on the blanketed table. Dear Asgard, I could not wait to be in raven form again. Apparently all I needed to prompt the shift was to be terrified out of my skull. That should be fun to arrange—but perhaps not too hard in this place.

“So, you’re Svend,” I said, tipping my head to the right as I took in the dark elf. More memories unfurled around me with his arrival.

He didn’t wait for me to peek into them. “Your resident dark elf, at your service,” he said with a little dip at the waist. “Anything you want or need, I’ll find a way to provide it.” I suspected the gleam in his brilliant eyes was intentionally provocative. I shifted my weight, and the peaks of my breasts brushed the fabric of my dress with little sparks of friction that raised the nipples into points.

“For a price,” Jerrik muttered.

I dug my teeth into my apple. Tartly sweet juice flooded my tongue. That was a sensation I’d rather lose myself in. Impressions floated from Svend of caves even narrower and darker than the one we were in, the shuffling of bodies against each other—

“And what have you been tossed away for, my lady?” Svend said, drawing my attention back to the present. “It can’t be your lovely looks. Myself, I was too tall. No room for a dark elf to live or work if his head connects with the cave ceilings. Sadly, they weren’t willing to renovate the entire city on my behalf.” He spread his hands casually as if to say, What can you do?

I choked on a laugh and almost inhaled my next bite of apple into my lungs.

A light elf whose beauty had been marred. A giant lacking in violent impulses. And a dark elf squeezed out of his heritage of diminutiveness. Quite the trio we had here.

“Muninn, raven of memory,” I replied. “Or woman of memory, temporarily. And I wasn’t tossed away. I was sent by Odin on a scouting mission. I’ve seen enough. Now I’d like to get back to Asgard.”

I only noticed the jerk of Jerrik’s hand at that moment. His gaze had gone flat. “You really don’t know when to stop talking, do you, Miss Raven?”

My brow knit. Svend let out a sigh. “Asgard will take some doing. But it’s lucky for you I stopped by. My most frequent trade is information.” He beamed at Jerrik. “Some distrustful souls believe that makes me an informer. But I can be circumspect when the situation requires. I choose what to share with whom wisely.”

“Or by how much you can get by barter.”

“Oh,” I said. “I don’t have any money.”

The dark elf waved me off. “For a friend—or a lovely lady—I don’t worry about the price. It’s just good conversation.”

Gunnar was frowning. This was the first time he was hearing my full story too. “The gate to Asgard—The Blaze will have that as tightly guarded as the rest, won’t he?”

I glanced between them. “The Blaze?”

“A giant,” Svend said. He patted Gunnar on the arm. “Much more true to form than our excellent friend here. That’s the only name he’s given to anyone I know. He’s ruled over Muspelheim for as long as anyone I’ve spoken to has been around. Built a fortress of stone in the south to shut off all of the gates out of the realm. No one leaves without his permission.”

“When I arrived from Asgard, I didn’t see any fortress,” I said.

“Muspelheim’s gates have fractured,” Jerrik said. “The way in and the way out isn’t always connected these days.” At Svend’s amused look, he crossed his arms. “I do listen even when you ramble on for ages. Have to get my trade’s worth, don’t I?”

Fractured gates? I hadn’t even known that was possible. Had Odin?

“The gate back is still here,” Gunnar said reassuringly. “It just may be harder to get to.”

“Certainly harder.” Svend sank his teeth into his apple and chewed thoughtfully. “But hard doesn’t mean impossible. I personally believe very few things are impossible.”

“Other than you ever getting straight to the point?” Jerrik said.

“Even a preamble serves a purpose, my good ljosalfar,” Svend said. “Now, Muninn, I would think your best bet—”

A roar echoed down the hall of the cave, cutting off whatever he’d meant to say.

Chapter 4

I sprang off the table, every hair on my human body standing on end. With a thunderous crash, the walls of the cave shuddered around us. A crack split through the ceiling over our heads. Gunnar’s eyes widened. “Out!” he shouted.

The ground lurched beneath us as the four of us dashed for the entrance. Chunks fell from the ceiling to smash on the floor. I narrowly dodged one that would have clipped my shoulder. Outside, another roar reverberated through the air.

We’d just reached the fore-room when the stone blocks burst apart at the lash of some massive paw. I dove back into the shelter of the cave, but it wasn’t much shelter now. One of those rocky dragons was clinging to the cliff-face, heaving and wrenching at it, while another scattered the blocks that had made up the front of Gunnar’s home across the dark plain.

Svend had whipped a dagger from his belt, and Jerrik snatched up a thin shard of stone that could serve as a spear. Neither weapon looked likely to do much damage to those beasts.

The dragon on the ground spun to face us, its maw opening to emit a belch of searing air and flame. We scrambled back into a side room just as the burst of fire hissed past us.

Flames caught on the contents of Gunnar’s shelves. The cave around us shuddered again, more rubble tumbling around us as the cracks in the ceiling gaped.

I sucked in a breath, fighting to think around the pounding of my heart. The first time one of those dragons had attacked me, I’d been unprepared and uncertain, and wounded before I’d gotten my bearings. I might be small and soft compared to their immense bodies, but I had powers of my own.

I pushed away from the wall and ran for the ruin of the entrance. “Muninn!” Gunnar shouted. Footsteps thudded after me, but I didn’t wait. I had to do this fast, before the dragons devoured us alive.

The lower dragon snarled as I sprinted past it. The one on the cliff-face swiveled and launched itself after me. The air burned in my throat. Feathers and wings, I could use those now. But they didn’t emerge, so I made the best of what I had.

Shadows of memory drifted around the dragons when I reached for them. I whirled around and drank them in. Flickered images washed over me, and I caught on something I could use. I clapped my hands together, my body bracing, my mind narrowing to the finest details of that one past moment.

A herd of cattle wavered into being on the rocky terrain farther beyond the cliff. A rare herd one of the dragons had gotten to stalk and feast from in a long-ago memory drenched with joyous hunger. The smell of the cows’ meaty flesh wafted from their crowded bodies. At their nervous lowing, both of the dragons snapped to attention.

I swept my arm. The herd born from the dragon’s memories charged away in a stampede. The first dragon gave a hunting cry and sprang after them. The second one followed, gnashing its teeth.

Onward, onward, I thought, with one last shove toward my creations. They ran even faster, outpacing the dragons—but never so swiftly they’d vanish from sight. Then I sagged against the cliff-face.

The three guys had been running to my side. They slowed, staring after the dragons and the herd of cattle that had appeared to their eyes out of thin air.

“What in Hel’s name was that?” Jerrik said. His gaze jerked from the retreating dragons to me.

“I can do more than just see memories,” I said. “There’s an energy to them, a power. I can sculpt with it.”

“So, you’re an artist now?”

“She’s a magician!” Svend crowed. He grinned at me. “That was fantastic. You know, with that kind of skill, maybe you could make your way to the gates after all.”

I didn’t feel all that triumphant. Mostly I felt exhausted. It’d already been a trying day, and building a construct out of memories on the fly was rather draining. I swiped my hand over my face. “I’m glad to hear that.”

“Are you all right?” Gunnar asked in his low warm voice. When I nodded, he glanced back toward his home. Or what was left of it. Rocks were strewn all around the entrance, which was partly caved in. My gut pinched at the sight. I didn’t know how long he’d lived there, how much work he’d put into setting up everything that was now destroyed, but he simply said, “I’m glad we all made it out unharmed.”

“Awfully strange, two dragons randomly attacking a cave,” Jerrik said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen them act like that. Almost as if there was something they particularly wanted inside.”

“Jerrik,” Gunnar said.

The light elf scowled. “I’m just saying, when she took off, the dragons went straight after her. Suddenly they didn’t give a damn about your house anymore.”

They had come right after me. A chill crept over me despite the hot breeze. “Maybe the one I escaped on my way in held a grudge?” I said, but that didn’t seem like a full enough answer. How had it even known where to find me?

Svend tipped his head, looking into the distance. “I’ve heard The Blaze hates Asgardians—even more than he dislikes everyone else. Some of the monsters in this realm follow his orders. He might have told them to be extra vicious when it comes to anyone who enters from the realm of the gods.”

I rubbed my arms. Was some scent of Asgard clinging to me? I’d spent more time in Midgard than home in the last several centuries, but no one could ever completely shed their essence.

“They’ll be back then,” I said. “And maybe others. I can only divert them for so long. I’d better get on with finding that gate. You were going to tell me how you figured I could do that.”

“I did have a few thoughts,” Svend said. “That was before I knew you could make memories come to life.” He studied me with a look both awed and appraising. “The gates are beyond the walls of the giant’s fortress. Heavily guarded walls. But if you could distract the guards and The Blaze himself… All we’d need is a diversion, and then you could make a run for it.”

That sounded simple enough. I straightened up, pushing myself off the rock. With Gunnar’s treatment, the wounds on my back only stung a little. “I’ll take that plan. Now, where’s this fortress, and I’ll be out of your hair.” Before I brought even more destruction to what little these three still had.

“Well,” Svend said, “that journey could be a rather dangerous one if the monsters of Muspelheim are out for your blood. I have to tell you, as much of a living as I’ve managed to pull together here, I can’t say it’s the most enjoyable life. If I could travel to Midgard and find a place to settle there… Would you take a little company along the way, for whatever help I can provide?”

Gunnar stepped forward. “I’d want to make the attempt too. Almost anywhere would be a better life than here. I might not be much of a fighter, but I can carry anything that needs carrying. I can make sure your wounds continue to heal.”

He glanced at Jerrik. The light elf was still scowling. The shifting glow that emanated from the magma stream nearby deepened the shadows of his scar. He sighed.

“It seems we’re as likely to get killed in the attempt as gain our freedom,” he said. “But you know I’m not at all fond of this place. I’ll watch your back on the journey there if it gets me out of here, Miss Raven.”

Not exactly the most passionate pitch I’d ever heard, but I guess I couldn’t blame him for being noncommittal when he’d only just met me. Not to mention the small matter of bringing a couple of bloodthirsty dragons down on his head.

I hesitated under the weight of their gazes. I’d always conducted my travels alone—alone, or at Odin’s side, or perhaps with my fellow raven for a bit of company. That was what I was used to. These three… The way they looked at me, the way my body responded to them, it was a distraction of a different sort, one I hadn’t been prepared for.

Part of me was tempted to say I’d rather keep to my own, look after myself, take the directions and leave. I was already tied to the Allfather, and right now that connection felt more like a shackle than anything else.

But another part of me prickled with the awareness of how tender this new body was. How damned vulnerable to claws and flame. I didn’t know how to navigate it like my raven form in any way that counted.

The guys hadn’t penned me in. Even now, they were waiting for my answer, leaving it up to me. It was my decision where I went and who went with me, not orders I was following.

And I had to admit taking in Gunnar’s hopeful expression, Svend’s sly grin, even the skeptical wryness in Jerrik’s tone… Being in their presence had been enjoyable in a way I couldn’t say I’d ever experienced before. A different kind of company, one I owed no service to.

“Oh, all right,” I said. “I don’t see what it could hurt, anyway.”

“A stunning endorsement of your confidence in us,” Jerrik muttered, but his stance had relaxed a little.

Svend was beaming now. “Brilliant,” he said. “I know the most direct route to get there—which conveniently should also give us some shelter should dragons or any other creatures come calling. We’ll grab supplies and then take the tunnels.”

Chapter 5

The tunnels dipped down beneath the cliffs, far into the hard gray ground, splitting and weaving in every direction. Patches of glowing red crystal lit our way. Svend sauntered along confidently in the lead, seeming to know exactly which way to turn without a second’s hesitation. I followed with the smell of sulfur tickling my nose.

In most places, the floor of the tunnels was smooth, worn down by passing feet. Here and there, though, a particularly stubborn ridge had resisted. I caught one of my awkward human feet on one and stumbled.

Jerrik caught my arm to steady me. His fingers slid against my skin as he released me, and one of those distracting tingles raced through my chest.

“I’m still adjusting to this body,” I said, feeling the need to justify my clumsiness. “I only ever lived in raven form until yesterday.” At least, I assumed that was yesterday now. I was used to forgoing sleep now and then, but my head was starting to feel a bit muddled. Whether it was fatigue or the stress of this little excursion, it was hard to say.

“You look awfully grown up for an infant,” Jerrik remarked.

I rolled my eyes at him. “I’m eons older than you, elf. And I’ll live eons more.” I held out my hands, turning them as I studied them with a frown. “The human form has altogether too many parts.”

“Oh, but there are so many uses they can be put to,” Svend said from ahead of us in a singsong voice. Even though I could tell he was teasing, a flush coursed through me.

“Why don’t you slip back into your bird form then, Miss Raven?” Jerrik asked. “Like Freya with her falcon cloak, as I’ve heard it told.”

“I don’t have any cloak, as much as I wish I did,” I said. “I haven’t quite got the hang of the transitions yet. I only seem to shift when I’m in mortal danger.”

“That does sound inconvenient.”

I cut my gaze toward him, wondering if he was teasing now too, but his expression was mild. Almost friendly, for once, although he wasn’t looking at me right now but straight ahead. I had the unmarred side of his profile. His face seemed incomplete like that. Like someone else, someone I hadn’t actually met.

“I’m sorry,” I said.

He glanced at me then, giving me the full view. There. That was Jerrik. The rapt attention in his clear blue eyes brought a strange flutter into my pulse. His hand shifted on the strap of the cloth bag he’d grabbed from his home—small but apparently enough to carry his few possessions.

“Sorry for what?” he said warily.

“Where do I start? I barged into your house, bled on your floor, disrupted whatever you’d been up to before I showed up—and now I’ve got you trekking across the realm on a mad caper.”

Something shifted in his expression, like a shadow lifting. The set of his mouth softened. “I don’t have to be here on this trek. I wouldn’t be if I didn’t think I might get a much better life out of it. If getting this opportunity took a little blood on my floor, I suppose I’ll forgive you that.”

My lips twitched. I found myself smiling back at him. Ah. So this was what it felt like to exchange one of those fond glances I’d observed only from a distance before. It brought a glow into my chest that rivaled the crystals overhead.

Memories still drifted around all three of the men. The flavor of a couple settled on my tongue, flashes of images blinking by behind my eyes. The glow tightened, squeezing my heart.

“But you won’t go home. To Alfheim, I mean.”

Jerrik’s smile faded. “I can’t. They’d send me off again. I’m happy enough with Midgard.”

“You have people back there that you miss,” I said. Faces had swum by in those streaks of memory: an older man and woman who shared some of Jerrik’s features—his parents, I assumed. A teenaged girl who could have been a female version of him—a sister or a close cousin.

He shrugged, dropping his gaze. “I expect everyone in this place does, Miss Raven. Except someone like you who was sent on a temporary mission, not banished.”

He sounded so resigned it sent a spark of anger through me. “It’s cruel, shunting people they don’t approve of out into this place. You didn’t deserve this. None of you did.”

“You don’t need to rally on my behalf.”

“I’m just saying what I think.”

He paused, studying my face. “It really bothers you.”

“Why shouldn’t it?” I said. “I’ve seen enough callousness to recognize it when I see it. The world certainly doesn’t need more.” The endless battles stringing into endless wars… Would mortal kind ever be done with savaging each other?

But then, it wasn’t as if immortal kind were exempt from viciousness either.

“You worry that much about strangers and you’ll never find the end of it,” Jerrik said.

I met his gaze and held it. “You’re not a stranger anymore.” I exchanged more conversation with him than anyone other than Odin or Huginn by now.

For a second, we just looked at each other as we trudged on through the tunnel. Then Jerrik looked ahead again.

“Well, it’s not as simple as plain cruelty,” he said. “Muspelheim isn’t the only realm that’s become unstable, you know. All the lesser realms have been… deteriorating since Ragnarok shook their foundations. Asgard holds steady, I assume, and Midgard has always been the solid centerpiece, but the rest... Anything or anyone who throws off the balance can make the situation even worse. I don’t blame them for casting me off.”

Didn’t he? I thought I caught a note of something more fraught under that flat statement. But he changed the subject on me.

“And you—do you always go everywhere Odin sends you? He’s your master?”

That last word sent an uncomfortable shiver through me despite the warmth in the air. “I’ve served him because I chose to,” I said.

The truth was I couldn’t remember a time when I hadn’t. I wasn’t entirely sure what would happen if I tried to stop. Like most of the gods, Odin wasn’t all that good at taking no for an answer. Witness the fact that I was here at all, in this wretched form in this wretched realm.

“I suppose it’s an honor, serving the father of the gods,” Jerrik said. Again, I wasn’t completely sure he wasn’t jerking my chain.

“I’ve seen a lot, heard a lot.” But not everything I wanted to know right now. Curiosity niggled at me. “If the accident hadn’t happened,” I said. “If you’d been able to stay in Alfheim, what sort of life had you been planning there?”

Jerrik’s expression shuttered. “I told you to stay out of my memories, Miss Raven,” he said sharply, and picked up his pace enough to leave me at his heels.

I blinked at his back. The question had risen up because I hadn’t gleaned enough to know from the shreds I’d let myself take in. But clearly I’d hit a sore spot.

Gunnar, who’d been keeping pace just behind us, stepped forward to join me. “Don’t mind Jerrik,” he said quietly. “You can never tell with his moods. But it’ll lift again soon enough.”

“Are the two of you friends?” I asked. Jerrik had called the giant an acquaintance. They hadn’t behaved all that warmly toward each other.

Gunnar chuckled. “Of a sort. If you’re not trying to kill each other over a better cave or a bit of food in this place, that’s pretty friendly right there. Are you doing all right? Your cuts aren’t hurting you? If you start to tire out—”

“I’m fine,” I interrupted, shortly but softly. I didn’t need Gunnar’s concern, but it was touching all the same. I couldn’t actually remember anyone ever bothering to check in about my state of being before. “The dressing you put on the wounds seems to have done the trick. And I can walk a long while. I might not be used to this body, but I’m still just as strong.”

His gaze skimmed my body. “I can see that,” he said. A faint huskiness had crept into his voice that made my nipples pebble against the fabric of my dress.

Okay, now it was my turn to do some subject changing. “You obviously like tending to people’s health,” I said, a little too brightly. “Do you figure you’ll set yourself up as a doctor when you get to Midgard?”

A smile crossed Gunnar’s face. “Maybe something like that. I have to blend in, but if there’s any way I can help people somehow…” The smile faltered. “I’d like to make up for some of the chaos my people have caused. If it hadn’t been for the great war…”

His apparent guilt prickled at me. “Ragnarok was a long time ago,” I said. “And it all happened the way it was meant to. The gods played as much of a role as anyone.” Odin with his prophecies and scrying, watching everything and everyone fall into place. He never showed the slightest bit of guilt over the agony so many had gone through in that end that had become a new beginning.

“The jotun still have a taste for violence,” Gunnar said. A flicker of a memory brushed over me: a group of other giants jeering at him. Won’t even pick up a spear or an axe. What a defective you are.

My jaw clenched. I reached out instinctively and grasped his large hand in my much more slender one. “There’s nothing wrong with you, you know,” I said. “You’re not missing anything. You have something that the rest of them don’t.” A compassion an awful lot of other beings could have used more of too.

Gunnar’s head snapped around. He started at me for a second with those kind gray eyes. They suddenly looked stormy.

“Thank you,” he said.

“I just say what I see.”

“Well, then I’m glad you ended up here to see me.”

The moment seemed to swell between us with more intensity than I’d been prepared for. I slipped my hand from his with a bob of my head. When I fell back to walk on my own for a time, he let me.

My feet rasped against the rough stone. The light wavered brighter and darker as we passed each glowing crystal. My spirit itched to fly, to sweep straight through this place, but of course, my body refused to budge.

As soon as I made it back to my raven form again, I’d weld myself to it if I could.

A thicker wave of heat wafted over me. I looked up. A stark glow stood out in the floor several paces ahead: an underground channel funneling magma past us.

“Not a problem at all,” Svend said cheerfully as we gathered at the stream’s edge. “I’ve forded this one dozens of times. Here, Muninn, I believe ladies should go first.”

I snorted at that, but I let him take my hand. He helped me keep my balance as we eased down a small ridge in the side of the stream bed. A stone jutted in the middle of the searing liquid.

“Now, my family didn’t want to see me leave Nidavellir,” the dark elf said. He hopped onto the stone, still clasping my hand, and gave me a tug as I jumped to pull me over. “They talked about accommodations this, renovations that. But the rest of town protested, and you do have to consider the greater good. All that chipping away at the ceilings to make room for this gallant figure of mine could have taken its toll on the caves. And I wasn’t going to live with a permanent crick in my neck.”

With a hiss, a globby shape shot out of the magma at my leg. A yelp broke from my throat, but Svend didn’t even flinch. He kicked the lizard-like creature back into the flow of molten lava.

“Fire salamander,” he said. “For all we know, The Blaze has sent them after you too.” He punted away another that scrambled up the other side of the rock. “Shall we?”

He leapt to the far side of the stream where the edge protruded a little farther. I sprang after him in a hasty attempt to avoid any more of those monstrous salamanders.

My feet skidded on the smooth stone there. Svend yanked me to him, our chests colliding. My heart stuttered in the moment his arm held me against him before he was stepping back and giving me room.

“There,” he said, grinning. “Safe passage.” But at the same moment a wisp of the memories lingering around him tickled my notice. A woman’s sobs. Another voice, shouting. A distant rumble and a flash of steel.

“Do I have to ferry the two of you across?” Svend called back in a jaunty tone, disrupting my attention. I peered at him as he eased over to the edge in case Jerrik or Gunnar did need help.

That was what he did, wasn’t it? He chattered on as if he were being open, sparing me the need to consider the memories that clung to him, but it wasn’t the whole story. It was only the parts he wanted me to hear. He must be hoping I wouldn’t notice the rest if he kept up enough talk to cover it.

“There’s lodging I sometimes make use of not far from here,” he was saying now as the others joined us. “A few rooms, a stash of food. We’d better rest while we have the chance. It’s still a long hike to the fortress.”

And Norns only knew what we’d meet along the way.

Chapter 6

Svend’s “lodging” looked a lot like the caves that he and the others had used as their homes above. He’d shifted a few stones to open a passage and shown us a common room with a few low boulders as seats and the smaller rooms down a narrow sort-of hall, each doorway hung with a strip of cloth.

I’d claimed the room at the very end, with a blanket Svend had handed to me. The strain of the walk on these unfamiliar legs was starting to catch up with me, a dull ache prickling through my calves. I’d thought I’d curl up on the blanket and nod off the way I normally did so easily on a branch or a rooftop or sometimes even Odin’s shoulder.

But apparently this human body didn’t sleep as easily as a raven could either. I rolled from one side to the other, cushioning my head on my arm. My hair tickled the inside of my elbow. My dress shifted against my breasts. The friction of the fabric tingled through my nipples, and suddenly I was thinking about Svend’s arm around me, about Gunnar’s hand in mine, about the gleam in Jerrik’s striking eyes. Heat quivered under my skin.

I wet my lips. I was alone now, really alone and relatively uninjured, for the first time since I’d transformed into this odd encasing. Why shouldn’t I explore it a little? Maybe if I gave this body some of the stimulation it was apparently craving, it’d settle down and let me rest.

I squirmed onto my back. My dress moved against me again, and my intention only heightened the giddy energy that ran over my skin. I raised my hand to my chest and cupped my breast.

At first I only grazed the soft flesh lightly through the fabric, tracing the shape of it, the slope. Easing closer and closer to the peak that begged almost painfully for attention. I flicked my thumb over the nipple, and a jolt of pleasure shot through me. My breath quickened.

I’d never felt anything like that before. Maybe humans had one or two advantages over raven-kind.

The tingling was building between my thighs as well. As I circled my nipple with my thumb, drawing out the sensation, I let my other hand travel lower, over the rumpled folds of my dress, to what in this moment felt like the core of my being.

My fingers settled over the cleft between my legs. Even that light contact provoked a pulse of bliss. My breath caught with a gasp. Oh. Oh, yes, that was good.

I slid my hand lower in a gentle stroke, my eyelids fluttering and my lips parting as a heady wave of pleasure rolled through me.

“It’s more fun with company, you know.”

My hand snapped up at Jerrik’s dry voice. I shoved myself around to find him standing at the doorway, the curtain pushed to the side, a plate in his grasp. His eyes glimmered with a wanting so potent it echoed through me, stirring ripples of need. Then he jerked his gaze away.

“Sorry,” he said. “I was bringing your food, and I heard a sound—I’ll leave you to it.”

He bent to set down the plate. A question leapt up my throat and caught there. My heart thudded.

“Were you offering?”

Jerrik froze. He looked at me again. “What?”

“Were you offering?” I said, gratified to hear my voice come out even, if with that hoarseness I could never quite lose. “To be that company?”

He straightened up so fast he nearly knocked his head on the arch of the doorway. His jaw worked. “You wouldn’t want mine.”

I frowned, pushing myself to my feet to face him properly. “Why—”

A tendril of memory wavered by. My gaze followed it, and Jerrik stiffened even more than he already had. “Don’t.”

But I already was. I was seeing the girl that a Jerrik who couldn’t have been more than fifteen or sixteen had held and kissed and made gasp in the night. I was seeing her stare at his torn face, her lips clamped tight against a grimace of horror she couldn’t completely contain. The turn of her head, the swish of her hair, her back as she left him behind.

What a stupid, stupid girl.

I stepped toward Jerrik, and he winced. “No,” I said when he started to pull away. “Stay here.”

He let go of the curtain, letting it drift past his shoulders. His hand came down to brace against the doorway. “Muninn…”

I stopped in front of him and reached to touch his face. Not the perfectly chiseled side anyone would have called handsome. The side rent through with that ridged scar. Like one of the streams cutting through the landscape outside. A feature of his geography, as much him as the clear blue eyes and the leanly muscled chest just inches from me.

I traced my fingers down the edge of the scar like I’d wanted to the first time I’d seen him. Jerrik closed his eyes with a hitch of breath.

“I like it,” I said. “It doesn’t make you worse, only different. More interesting, if you ask me.”

My fingertips brushed the corner of his mouth. A strangled sound escaped Jerrik. Then he was tangling his fingers in my hair and pulling my lips to his.

He tasted tart and sweet like the apples we’d been eating earlier. The hot press of his mouth against mine set every nerve in my body jittering with delight. I’d never totally understood this mashing together of faces that humans appeared to be so fond of, but oh, the slide of his lips, the graze of his fingers over my scalp, the heated rush of this coming together—it was already ten times as much bliss as I’d found in my tentative explorations a few minutes ago.

I kissed him hungrily, probably as clumsily as this body did everything, but he didn’t seem to care. He groaned and kissed me back harder. His tongue flicked over the seam of my lips and delved past them when they parted. I gripped his shoulders, the rough fabric of his shirt, clinging on through the waves of sensation.

Jerrik tipped his head to release my mouth. His breath rasped. “You’re shaking,” he said in a low raw voice. “Are you—”

“With anticipation,” I said as another tremor ran through me. “With need. Don’t stop. Gods, don’t stop.”

He made a sound somewhere between a chuckle and another groan, and then he’d captured my lips again. With a few weaving steps, we reached the blanket I’d left on the floor. Jerrik tucked his arm around my back and lowered me onto it with him, leaning his weight to one side so he didn’t pin me.

I traced my fingers over his chest, the lines of those taut muscles, the shallow jagged indent where he was scarred there too. Jerrik eased his hand down my back and then up over my belly to the curve of my breasts. He stroked his thumb lightly over the peak, and my nipple hardened in an instant. I whimpered against his mouth.

He caressed and teased one side and then the other until I was panting between kisses. I arched into him with an impulse I’d never felt before but that this body came to instinctively. Wrenching up his shirt, I worked my hands over the heat of his chest skin to skin. He squeezed one nipple, and I gasped. My hips canted toward him again.

“Please.”

His breath stuttered against my mouth. “You want this?” he said. His fingers skimmed down over my side to the hem of my dress and eased it up my thigh. The glint in his eyes was both eager and awed.

“Yes,” I mumbled. “Yes—” His hand came to rest between my legs, and all I could do then was moan.

Jerrik reclaimed my mouth as he rubbed his hand gently against my sex. I rocked with him, every bit of friction sending pulses of pleasure through my entire body. A sharper swelling of bliss was building inside me, from depths I hadn’t known I had.

He curled one finger up inside me, and I shivered at the rush of delight. Another, plunging farther. My whimper was muffled by our kiss. His lips seared from my mouth to the crook of my jaw, the sensitive skin of my throat, as I trembled against him.

“You have no idea how much I want…” he murmured. “But Norns only know how long I’ll last, with you, like this. You deserve better for your first time. So this is just for you. I’ll take you all the way there.”

The heel of his hand rubbed against the base of my sex, where a little nub sent heady sparks radiating through my core. He added a third finger inside, filling me, stretching me. The faint burn of the pressure only sent my pleasure spiraling higher.

I kissed him wildly. My hands fluttered against him as if they’d turned back into wings, wanting to touch, to hold, not sure where to find purchase. There was no holding on in the wave of ecstasy rising through me. Jerrik’s fingers plunged even deeper, and the rush of sensation crashed over me, splintering in a burst of bliss.

I cried out, clinging to him, as the wave swept through me. My body clenched and then went slack. Echoes of that pleasure kept tingling through me while Jerrik bent to kiss me once more, so tenderly it made my heart ache.

As the haze in my head cleared, it occurred to me that on the occasions I’d stumbled on two humans engaged in this sort of activity—and hastily retreated—both parties had appeared to be getting equal pleasure from it. I eased my hand down Jerrik’s chest to the front of his pants. The hard bulge there and the breath Jerrik sucked in confirmed my suspicions. He hadn’t gotten any release yet.

“You don’t have to,” he said.

I cocked my head, raising an eyebrow at him as I tugged down his pants. “What if I want to?”

I wasn’t selfish. I didn’t know if I could give him back half the pleasure he’d brought me, but I could at the very least try. And I was rather curious to discover those new sensations too.

“Well, then—” His Adam’s apple bobbed when my fingers closed around the hard but silky length of his cock. “It’s been more than five years since I last… with anyone…”

“I spent eons without ever doing it,” I said. “Better late than never.”

He let out a laugh that turned choked as I stroked him up and down. A groan reverberated from his chest. I kissed him, and he returned it with a graze of teeth and a slick of his tongue. His hips bucked toward me. I gripped him more firmly, speeding up my rhythm, until he was trembling like I must have been before. I reveled in the feeling, in the control I was making him lose, in the corded erection so hard and smooth and hot against my palm.

“Muninn,” he murmured. “I’m—”

His voice cut off with a choked sound, his embrace around me tightening. His hips jerked, and a warm spurt of release spilled into my hand.

“Did I do all right?” I asked, not entirely sure what was normal. Should I have tried to extend his pleasure longer like he had mine?

Jerrik let out a guffaw and kissed me hard. “It was perfect,” he said.

We lay there for a few minutes without speaking, our breaths settling into a softer rhythm. I felt the hesitation in Jerrik before he opened his mouth. He bowed his head close to mine.

“It’s probably better if I leave you to get your rest. Sometimes I don’t sleep quietly.”

Was he worried I’d be offended? I kissed him softly and smiled. “Then go sleep. I’ll see you in the morning, won’t I?

He smiled back, his eyes shining. As he left me, I snuggled into the blanket. Any tension my body had been holding was gone now. My eyelids drifted shut, and I was out in an instant.

With sleep came dreams.

At first they were gauzy fragments, glimpses of clashing swords, of wind-whipped branches, of scudding clouds. Then I was over a battlefield again, like the one where I’d first transformed. Chilling rain whipped against my human skin. Blood and mud slopped together in the fray below. My gut turned in newfound horror.

Odin stood next to me, towering twice as high as he ever had in reality. His hand squeezed around my shoulder tight enough to make the bones throb. When he shook me, my jaw rattled.

“Raven of memory,” he bellowed. “Watch close. Listen hard. I want every drop of blood.”

He tossed me down into the chaos again. I tumbled head over feet. Feathers burst from my arms. I flapped, half bird, half woman, dodging the swing of swords and the jab of spears. Odin’s voice carried on behind me.

“Go, raven. Bring it all. I’m waiting.”

I spun around, and blood sprayed me from a slashed throat. No. I couldn’t do this. Not again. Not ever again.

Suddenly Odin was looming over me. His hand lashed out and clamped around my neck. His skin was scaled with stone like the dragons, his eyes glowing just as red as theirs. The press of his thumb cut off my air.

“You do what I tell you,” he thundered. “You serve me.”

I choked and sputtered and flailed. Wrenching against him, I managed to slam my elbow against his wrist. His grip released. I hurtled away, scrambling, flapping, toward the pale green-gold light that shone across a quiet field just beyond the battle. If I could just make it—

A hand closed around my ankle and yanked me back. I flinched awake with a gasp.

The cave room was dark and still. No one there but me. The thumping of my heart started to ease. Just a dream. Just a dream.

I could still taste the iron of blood on my tongue.

I burrowed deeper under the blanket, but it was a long time before I found my way back to sleep.

Chapter 7

When I slipped into the common room the next morning, Svend was the only other one up, sitting on one of the stone seats and chewing on a strip of dried meat. He grinned at me and nodded to a platter on the central stone that held more meat and hunks of hard-looking bread.

“This is the best I can offer for breakfast. But I’m guessing you’d better eat something. You didn’t have much for dinner, did you?”

A playful gleam danced in his bright brown eyes. Had he heard Jerrik and me together last night?

A flush crept through me, but it wasn’t exactly uncomfortable. I might not love this new body, but I could admit it was very good for some things. Things brought back by the look Svend was giving me, with a tingle of a different sort of hunger through my chest and low in my belly.

Surely humans weren’t always insatiable. They seemed to manage to do rather a lot of things other than pleasure each other, despite all the pleasure these bodies were capable of. Maybe it was simply that the body was so new to me, those aspects so unfamiliar and exciting—or maybe, as I’d suggested to Jerrik, I’d had eons of desire built up without even realizing it before.

I sat on the stone next to Svend’s and picked up a piece of bread. He’d smeared a little butter on them that cut the dryness some.

“I pass through the tunnels all the time,” he said in his usual chattering way as I chewed. “This is one of my regular way stations. Everyone in the realm wants something, but an awful lot of them can’t be bothered to figure out how to get whatever that is. It’s a busy life, being a tradesman, but it means I can have just about everything.”

Did he know how his casual rambling drew my attention from the memories that shrouded him? He might simply be in the habit of talking like this with everyone. Answering any questions he thought they might have the way he wanted to, before they had a chance to frame the issue any differently. Deciding how to put his own life on offer.

“Were you a trader in Nidavellir?” I asked. “Before you had to leave?”

“Ah, no, we all had pretty much the same there, so the demand wasn’t quite the same. I come from a proud family of lichen farmers. You know, I always thought the stuff was dull, but now that I haven’t had a bite of it in years, I’ve got to say I miss it.”

His family. Another wisp of memory drifting from him caught my attention. The crying woman—barely as tall as Svend’s chest, fingers black-tipped, hands at her face. No, no, don’t let them. His mother, I thought, with an instinctive certainty.

“They didn’t want you to leave,” I said. “Your parents.”

Svend’s mouth snapped shut. His grin turned crooked. “Raven of memory,” he said. “The past is your business, isn’t it? I try not to think about that time.”

“It doesn’t matter what you think about,” I told him. “Your past goes with you anyway. It clings to you like leaves to an autumn tree, but there’s always more with each one shed.”

“Well, there’s a pretty picture. You must get bored, all that history whirling around you all the time.”

His tone was jaunty, but I had the feeling he was trying to distract me again. I wasn’t going to be diverted.

“No.” I cocked my head as I studied him. “There’s always something interesting. But you don’t like that, do you? Some of the interesting parts you’d rather keep to yourself.”

His handsome face went still. He managed to hold his smile. “I’d expect we all have things like that.”

“I don’t,” I said honestly. “What is it about your banishment you’re talking around? Is there something— Jerrik thinks you might have hurt people somehow.”

The smile disappeared completely. Svend shoved his toe against the central stone. “Jerrik thinks the worst of everyone,” he muttered. “Look, what happened with my family has nothing to do with that. He doesn’t know. My parents were ready to fight for me. To protest to the authorities that I should be allowed to stay, that accommodations should be made—they were going to make such a fuss they’d get themselves banished too. So I told them I wanted to go. I told them I was tired of living in that dingy cave and of their fussing over me, and that I was looking forward to being rid of it.”

My stomach dropped. It took an effort to swallow the last of my bread. “You left them thinking you hated them.”

“It was the only way to make sure they didn’t try to stop the banishment from happening, didn’t try to bring me back—didn’t meet the same fate.” He sighed, running his hand through his short black hair, his gaze trained on the ground. “I was convincing. I’m very good with words, you know.”

“A very talented individual,” I said.

He looked at me again, the corner of his mouth quirking back up at a bittersweet angle. “As for Jerrik… There was another who lived near the three of us. A troll, from Niflheim. He kept to himself—he’d done something that angered The Blaze, and he knew the giant was looking for him.”

Svend paused. His voice dropped so low it was almost a whisper. “I could have earned a lot if I’d told where he was. But I didn’t. Jerrik thinks I did, because three of The Blaze’s guards came to gather him one day. The truth is, Gunnar let it slip, by accident. He mentioned the troll in passing to another cast-out who’d needed his foot patched up after a burn. It was three days later the guards came. I don’t think he’s ever realized.”

The memory of the moment breezed past me with the words. Gunnar bandaging the foot of a wizened woman. A remark about the troll next door falling from his mouth. The woman perking up just slightly at the mention. Svend, who’d brought her there for help, tensing a little inside. Hoping he was reading her reaction wrong.

And then the guards, the shouting, the clash of weapons…

I shook those fragments of the past away, my brow knitting. “Why don’t you tell Jerrik?”

Svend’s lips twisted. “Then he’d be angry at Gunnar. And Gunnar would hear about it, and I know how horribly guilty he’d feel. Jerrik already didn’t like me. It’s easier, leaving things like this.”

Easier for everyone except him. Svend had seemed all charm and brightness, but there was a sadness to him too, underneath. A willingness to sacrifice that he extended automatically to everyone he cared about even a little.

My hand moved as if of its own accord, rising to touch his cheek. His whole body went still, but he held my gaze with a hint of his former smile. “You’d better not be pitying me now. If there’s anything I won’t stand for, it’s that.”

“No pity,” I said. Only a pull to be closer to him, to soak up that goodness in him as if I could become a part of it too. I leaned in and caught his lips with mine.

I didn’t have much practice at initiating kisses yet, but I appeared to have done a decent job of it. Svend came alive at once, cupping my cheek and tilting my head so our mouths could meet even more deeply, his breath mingling hot with mine.

The tingling I’d felt before raced all through my body. He kissed differently than Jerrik, more gently and yet with more certainty at the same time. I wasn’t sure I liked one more than the other, but the fact that there were even more sensations to discover sent a thrill to my core.

I scooted to the edge of my seat so my bare knees pressed against his leg, seeking the warmth of his body. Svend’s arm came around me—

“What in Hel’s name!?”

There was nothing wry in Jerrik’s voice as it crackled through the room. I flinched, breaking the kiss. My hand stayed on Svend’s arm as we both turned to look toward the hall.

Jerrik had emerged from the room where he must have slept. Gunnar hovered right behind him, looking pained. Jerrik… His face had flushed red and the gleam in his clear blue eyes felt dangerous.

His hands fisted at his sides. He drew in a long ragged breath. “What are you doing with her?” he demanded. His gaze jerked to me. “What are you doing with him?”

“I was kissing him,” I said, and blinked. Oh. “Did you think, because of last night—” Something in me bristled in resistance. My tone turned sharp. “What we did doesn’t mean I belong to you. If I’d known you’d think it would, I wouldn’t have done anything.”

Jerrik stared back at me. The anger in his stance deflated slightly. “I didn’t mean that. I know I don’t own you. But normally, when two people…” He motioned vaguely between us. Gunnar shifted behind him, his arms folded awkwardly.

My hackles came down a little in turn. “This isn’t exactly a normal situation, is it?” I said. “And I’m not exactly a person. In another day or two, we’ll be going our separate ways anyway, won’t we?”

“I suppose,” he said. He didn’t sound as if he liked the idea. “I still— It meant something to me.”

“It meant something to me too. It meant a lot.” I paused, taking in the emotions churning inside me. “I like how I feel when I’m with all of you. I want to feel… everything. To feel all the things I never could before, while I have this chance. But you don’t have to be a part of that. Either of you.” I caught Gunnar’s eye for a moment so he’d know I welcomed him too. “As much as I hope you will.”

“You want all of us?” the giant said, with the huskiness that had affected me so quickly yesterday.

I licked my lips. Every nerve in my body screamed Yes! Preferably soon. Preferably now.

“Very much,” I said.

Svend had sat quietly through the discussion so far. Now he stroked his hand lightly up and down my side. “I can share. Whatever you want, lovely lady.”

Jerrik wavered, but the hunger I’d seen last night had lit in his eyes. “But him… You don’t know him.”

“Neither do you.” I swallowed down Svend’s secret, but it couldn’t hurt anyone to say this much. “You don’t believe him? Believe me. I’ve seen his memories for myself. He’s never hurt anyone, not the way you think.”

Jerrik blinked. A flash of regret crossed his face. “I—”

“It doesn’t matter now,” Svend said. “No resentment here. Shall we give the lady what she wants while we have this moment?”

I held out my hand. Gunnar approached us. Jerrik exhaled in a rush.

“You have no idea how hard you are to say no to, Miss Raven.”

“Then don’t say no.”

He hesitated only a second longer. Then he came too.

“Let’s take it slow,” I said as they circled me. Now that I had a taste, I wasn’t looking to rush. “I want to savor this.”

“Just as we will,” Svend murmured, and tugged my mouth back to his. Gunnar knelt behind me, his broad hands skimming my shoulders and trailing down my sides. Jerrik sat by my stone and pressed his lips to my knee, his thumb tracing a lazy teasing circle on my inner thigh just above it.

I didn’t know what to do with all that warmth, all those touches, all around me. I broke from Svend’s kiss and pulled Gunnar’s head to mine to discover what he would taste like. As his the giant’s musky scent filled my lungs, the dark elf slid his hand across my chest, testing my nipples with soft flicks of his fingers. I whimpered, and suddenly slow didn’t seem like such a good idea anymore.

Jerrik’s kisses moved from my knee to my wrist and traveled up my arm. Gunnar reached around to stroke one of my breasts. Svend nibbled my shoulder and dragged the sleeve of my dress down, down, until the neckline jumped over the peaks of my chest with a lance of pleasure. I moaned as the giant fondled one of those small mounds skin to skin and the dark elf lowered his head to suck my other nipple into his hot mouth.

Gunnar released my mouth to kiss my neck, his lips massaging the sensitive flesh in time with the swivel of his thumb over my breast. Jerrik rose up to claim my lips. His hand stayed on my leg, still drawing those teasing patterns on my skin, easing higher inch by inch.

I hadn’t thought anything could feel better than the stroke of Jerrik’s hands last night, but the wet heat of Svend’s mouth on my breast and the flick of his tongue was another realm altogether. A whimper worked from my throat as he grazed his teeth against the nipple. It turned into a moan of protest when he drew back. But he was only sinking lower.

The light elf eased to the side as his darker companion dropped to his knees between my legs. Svend kissed the skin newly sensitized by Jerrik’s touch. Jerrik yanked my dress even higher, all the way to my hips, like an offering, and then he was bringing his mouth to the breast Gunnar had just released. The giant kissed my mouth, caressing me on the other side now.

Svend traced a path up my thigh with his lips until his breath spilled over my core. I was trembling with wanting now, my fingers clenched tight in Gunnar’s soft chestnut curls, in Jerrik’s familiar shirt. Svend slid me just a little forward, and then he pressed his mouth against the neediest part of me.

I cried out, my hips bucking of their own accord. Svend’s tongue slicked over that nub of pleasure and then down across my opening. Bliss sizzled through my veins. So much I couldn’t bear not to give some back.

I pushed Jerrik upright while my hand slid down his chest to wrench at his trousers. As his cock sprang free I turned my head and licked the salty liquid beading at its tip. Jerrik groaned. Svend suckled me harder, his tongue dipping right inside me, and I arched right off the stone with a gasp.

Jerrik’s cock still stood at attention, waiting for me. I closed my mouth around the head. The light elf’s breath stuttered. His hips started to sway in a needy rhythm as I took him deeper, my tongue lapping up the salty sweet taste of him. The pulse of him in my mouth and Svend’s mouth against my core came together in perfect harmony.

As I found that rhythm, I reached for Gunnar. My giant was still kneeling beside me, heightening the pleasure radiating through me with each stroke of my breasts. He shifted closer with a rough rumble of encouragement as I groped at his pants. My hand dipped inside and closed around his erection, just as hard but thicker than Jerrik’s. I gripped it hard and pumped it. Gunnar’s head lowered next to mine, kissing my earlobe, the corner of my jaw. His breath came ragged.

That heady swell of pleasure was filling me again. My hips rocked, riding Svend’s mouth. He was devouring me, leaving every nerve in my body quivering for more, and more, and—

I came with a gasp, the release shuddering through me from head to toe in a wave of bliss. My lips closed tight around Jerrik’s cock, and a second later he was following me, filling my mouth with a salty flood. Gunnar groaned. He squeezed my breast and brought my head back around to kiss me, regardless of Jerrik’s taste still on my lips. His cock twitched in my hand as I led him over the edge to his own release.

Svend nuzzled my thigh before straightening up. The heat in his bright eyes sent a fresh quiver of anticipation through me. But before I could find out what else he might have planned, the ground tremored in a way that wasn’t pleasant at all. The smile dropped from the dark elf’s face.

“As much as I hate to say this,” he said, “that means we’d better get going. Now, and fast.”

Chapter 8

We all wrenched our clothes into some sort of order and hurried after Svend out of the lodging. My skin was flushed, my nerves still giddy from the passion we’d just shared, but another rumble from far down the tunnels was enough to chill that heat right out of me. A sound like the distant scrabbling of sharp claws carried to us.

“Come on!” Svend said. He tugged my arm in the opposite direction, and the four of us ran. The dark elf led the way, ducking down one side passage and veering the other way at the next split, following the maze of caves without hesitation. I hoped that meant he knew where in Hel’s name we were going.

The scrabbling sound got louder. A thick smoky smell wafted over us, the sulfur of the air above mixed with a stench like the dragon’s breath. I shuddered and pushed my human legs faster, wishing for the speed my wings could have given me.

Svend didn’t falter. He pointed to a low opening in the wall of the tunnel ahead of us and dropped down to slide through it as if he’d made an escape like this a hundred times. I dashed after him, pushing myself through the cramped space on my hands and knees.

The walls shook, and my pulse tripped with the fear that the rock at my back would collapse on us. But we made it through to another tunnel on the other side, grit-smudged and panting but uncrushed. With a grunt, Gunnar squeezed his bulky shoulders out last.

“This way,” Svend said in a low voice. We hustled after him through another few turns, until the stink and the scrabbling behind us had faded away. Finally, he stopped. He leaned against the tunnel wall to catch his breath. I swiped my hand through the sweat on my forehead.

“What was that coming after us?” I said.

“I don’t know for sure,” Svend said. “I just know it wasn’t anything we wanted to tangle with.”

More creatures out to destroy any hint of Asgard from the place, I guessed. A shudder ran through me.

“How far off track have we gotten now?” Jerrik asked, glancing around with a skeptical expression.

“Not really at all,” Svend said, the corners of his lips curving up. “You could almost say we’ve taken a short cut. If we get moving, we should see the fortress in just a few hours.”

Gunnar took my hand with an affectionate squeeze. It sent a softer warmth through me. I twined my fingers with his, and we set off for our ultimate destination.

Even underground, the landscape changed as we approached the fortress of the giant who called himself The Blaze. The patches of crystal appeared more frequently, flooding us with an even starker red glow. The light shifted through them as if they were reflecting a flow of magma above. With them came a sharper heat that kept sweat beading on my skin. A hot metallic odor rose around us, as if we were walking into a blacksmith’s forge.

“Here,” Svend said. The tunnel split, the branch he took us down narrowing and slanting upward. It twisted into a spiral, up and up, the floor tilting so much my feet skidded here and there. Gunnar walked behind me, his brawny form ready to steady me.

“I assume we don’t just walk up to the fortress door and knock,” Jerrik muttered.

Svend chuckled. “No. We’re here to get a nice overview of what we’re dealing with.”

We finally scrambled out to find ourselves not on the regular ground but high on a cliff overlooking most of the rocky terrain. I didn’t have to ask where the fortress was. Tall walls of jutting boulders surrounded an even taller building that looked like a hill constructed out of stone slabs half melted together. The entire structure sprawled the length and width of a small village. Pits of fire spurted flames at its base.

A moat of magma surrounded the outer wall. Dark creatures splashed in its steaming contents. A rock dragon sprawled across one end of the fortress, its eyes closed—for now.

I swallowed thickly. “The gates out of Muspelheim are all in there?”

Svend nodded. “The Blaze built the fortress to encompass all of them. It’s not as if he’d need a home half that size otherwise. For now it houses his ‘pets’ and all the stragglers he’s brought under his sway to act as guards—or torturers, as he sees fit.”

What a lovely fellow. I eased to the edge of the cliff, peering down into the stretch of cracked stone that lay like a courtyard inside the fortress’s walls. “And he just sits around in there all day?”

“He doesn’t like to leave his throne room,” Svend said. “But he enjoys giving the impression that he’s watching over everything out here, too. You see those statues at the corners of the walls? I’ve never laid eyes on the giant himself, but I’ve been told they’re a good likeness.”

I hadn’t noticed the statues before. I bent down, squinting at the one closest to us. The boulder at the corner had been carved by someone with an expert hand, bringing out the lines of a hulking form, a bearded face with a protruding brow…

My breath caught in my throat. My fingers curled against the stone I was kneeling on as if searching for more purchase.

Jerrik studied me. “What, Miss Raven?”

“I know him,” I said in a distant voice. Distant because my own memories were welling up around me, so swiftly I almost felt I would drown.

That last battle during Ragnarok. The shouts and screams of gods and giants. Whirling darkness, flashing blades. Spittle and blood. The immense wolf rising up for Odin and Huginn and I, jaws gaping wide, and only a burst of feathers saving me from being snapped up in that maw along with the Allfather.

I’d spun around to see a darkly bearded giant ramming his blazing sword into Freyr’s chest. As the god fell, the giant whipped around, and more fire seared from his blade. Flames hissed across the whole great plain, consuming everything in their path, lashing up to swallow me in a blink of agony.

And then we’d woken after a time in the numbing dark to Asgard and its people reborn. To a world wiped clean of the rot Odin had seen spreading through it, ready to begin again.

“That’s Surt,” I said. “The giant who killed Freyr. The giant who set all of Asgard burning at the end of Ragnarok. I’d thought the flames had consumed him too.”

Maybe they had. Maybe he’d been reborn as well.

Did Odin know? Did he realize one of Asgard’s greatest enemies had been lurking down here, as immortal as us, for all this time, acting as tyrant over Muspelheim’s outcast inhabitants?

Did he know the blazing giant had locked away the gates? Had he sent me here with the full awareness that I’d have to face Surt to find my way home?

The questions knotted through my chest. Why had the Allfather really sent me here so unprepared? Was this some kind of sick test?

Or maybe it hadn’t even occurred to him how battered this world would leave me, to bring him whatever information it was he’d been looking for.

I straightened up, my heart heavy. At least I knew who I was dealing with now. I knew Surt had memories I could exploit to our advantage. From there it would just be past the steel doorway set in that stone wall, into the fortress, through the gate that would lead me home.

As I stepped back, the breeze shifted around us, picking up to a full-out wind. A wind that must have gusted straight to the dragon sleeping coiled on its master’s home. The glowing red eyes opened. Its massive head swung toward us.

With a hiccup of my pulse, I spun around to run for the tunnels—and caught sight of a second dragon diving straight toward us.

Jerrik gave a shout, a split-second too late. Flames exploded from the beast’s throat. I threw myself to the side, but the fire blasted over me. It might have cooked me alive if Gunnar hadn’t lunged after me, shielding my body with his bulk. A pained sound escaped his lips as the flames crackled over his arm and side.

One of the dragons roared. Claws screeched against the rock. Svend grunted and let out a hiss through his teeth. Jerrik grabbed my arm and Gunnar’s hand, heaving us in the direction of safety. No shadows had ever looked so welcoming as the ones in that open tunnel.

Svend spun around, tossing something at the dragons. A bit of meat from his pack. One of them snapped at it, and he darted for the tunnels, gesturing for us to follow him. He staggered a little. Blood was seeping down his leg through his trousers.

Through the thundering of my pulse, I managed to focus my mind. To catch a strand of memory from one of the dragons and cast it down on the terrain below us. The dragon’s swung around, but they didn’t race after the prey I’d conjured like they had before. I’d only diverted them for a moment.

I bolted for the tunnels, one hand clamped around Gunnar’s wrist, the other clasped in Jerrik’s. We stumbled after Svend into the darkness, just as another flare of fire sizzled after us. Gunnar’s burnt arm brushed the wall of the narrow passage, and he groaned.

Down the first two spirals, Svend turned, his gaze searching wildly. The instant it met mine, he tugged me into his arms. “Lovely lady,” he murmured. “You’re all right. We’ll get you to that gate yet.”

I leaned into him, but a cool trickle of doubt pooled in my stomach, thinking of Surt, of Odin’s mission, of my whole sorry life before now.

Everything I’d done had been to serve someone else. To serve the Allfather. To serve Asgard. I’d wanted the three men who were here with me; there was no question about that. But how much had they wanted me?

How much had the effort they’d put in, the passion they’d shown me, the risks they’d taken to protect me been simply because I was the one tool they’d found that might get them out of this wretched realm?

Maybe it shouldn’t have mattered. Why should anyone bother with me except where I could be of use?

But right then the thought stabbed through me more sharply than any dagger could have.

Chapter 9

We staggered down the rest of the cliff passage into the wider tunnels, leaving the dragons’ roars behind. Gunnar had left the pack he’d brought at the base of the spiral path. He hefted it with a wince.

“Over here,” Svend said. “There’s a spot where we can sit out of the way, get ourselves patched up. Decide where we go from this.”

He hurried us through a couple of winding tunnels to a slab of rock leaning against the wall. At his careful push, it revealed a thin opening into a room with a stone bench and a single crystal beaming overhead. When we’d squeezed in, he tugged the slab shut again using a groove in its side.

Gunnar sank onto the bench. I winced when I looked at him. Half of his tunic was charred, and much of the skin beneath was mottled and angry pink. But his gaze had gone to my legs.

“You’re bleeding,” he said.

The air currents brushed my knees with a faint sting I hadn’t noticed before. I’d scraped them when I’d tried to leap out of the way of that blast of fire. A drop of blood seeped down my calf from one. They didn’t look a tenth as awful as Gunnar’s burns.

“Never mind about that,” I said. “What have you got for broiled giant?”

He managed a rough chuckle and dug into his bag. “If you patch these dried leaves on the burns, and then glue them down with this salve, that should heal them soon enough. And here’s the mineral paste for your cuts. And Svend’s.” He glanced past me to the dark elf.

The slight tilt to Svend’s stance was the only sign he was feeling the pain of the gouge on his calf. “I can look after you first,” he said to me.

I grimaced at him. “Fix your leg. I’m fine.”

I picked up the packet of leaves Gunnar had indicated. He tugged off the remains of his shirt, putting the rest of his gentle brawn on full display. I started setting the leaves on the raw skin of his shoulder and back as gently as I could. Jerrik picked up the pot of salve and smeared it on as I went. The thick lotion hardened over the leaves with a sheen like the inside of a seashell.

“Did you manage to get out of there unharmed?” I asked the light elf.

“Relatively speaking,” he said. He held up his left hand, showing a thin cut across the last two fingers where a dragon claw must have nicked him. “Nothing a quick bandaging won’t fix.”

Gunnar sighed as we finished the job, the burns now hidden beneath the shell of the salve. He glanced at his shirt and seemed to decide it wasn’t worth trying to repair.

Svend had just finished bandaging his own cut. He knelt at my feet, the brush of his fingers as he tended to my knees bringing back a whisper of the pleasure I’d felt with him in a similar position just a few hours ago.

Gunnar rested his hand on my waist, but suddenly his touch felt more like pressure than affection. All the dark thoughts that had flooded my head as we’d fled the dragons came back.

They were going to ask how I could get them through that fortress now. How soon they could win back their freedom. My throat tightened.

Then Gunnar said, in his soft rumble of a voice, “You should go without us, Muninn.”

I whirled to face him. He gazed back at me, his gaze tender and solemn at the same time. A different sort of wrenching filled my chest. “What are you talking about?”

“It won’t be just the dragons you have to contend with to get us to the fortress and through it,” he said. “There’s The Blaze—Surt, if that’s his real name—and his guards and Hel only knows what other monsters he keeps in the place. We have no real way of fighting most of them. That mess on the clifftop just now proves it. You have your power on your side. You can make it through. But you might not if you have the rest of us holding you back.”

“You stopped me from getting burnt to a crisp,” I said.

“We were taken by surprise,” Jerrik said. “When you go this time, you’ll be prepared. You’ll have your magic at the ready.” His jaw worked. “Gunnar is right. Your chances are better on your own. I don’t want to drag you down. You don’t deserve to be stuck in this place—or to face whatever Surt would do to you if he finds out where you’re from.”

“You don’t deserve to be stuck here either,” I protested, but Svend was already straightening up, bringing his hand to my cheek.

“You’ve been a little spot of brightness in this dim realm,” he said. “I won’t see that squashed out because of me. You tell us what we can do to help, and we’ll do it—so you can get home.”

Gunnar and Jerrik nodded. My heart squeezed. They weren’t like Odin, just looking for how I could serve them. Of course they weren’t. These weren’t gods but men—men who cared for me more than I’d thought anyone could.

Until recently, I hadn’t thought it mattered. But now…

“No,” I said roughly, looking from one to the next as Svend let his hand drop. “I’m not leaving without you. I’ve been a bright spot in your lives? You’ve been the only real brightness in mine in centuries. The only happiness I could really call mine.”

“Muninn,” Jerrik started.

I shook my head. “No argument. If you won’t come with me, then I’m staying here.”

There wasn’t much they could say to that. My gaze drifted toward the doorway, my mind tracing the twists and turns we’d have to make to reach the surface again. Remembering the looming fortress which would look so much more imposing from the ground. The roar of the dragons, the stench of their breath.

A shiver ran through me. I might be immortal in a way, but I could still die as much as any being of Asgard could. And the three men with me were full mortal.

“You’re right that it’s going to be hard, though,” I said. “I wish…” I clenched my hands. “I wish I could be more sure of myself. I still don’t feel this body is totally mine, completely under my control. I can’t even transform back into my usual self. If I had that control, if I knew my powers would work exactly the way I intended them to…”

Gunnar’s fingers trailed down my back, bringing a rush of warmth into my skin. “That power must still be in you,” he said. “When do you feel it the most? What’s made you more comfortable in this form?”

The honest answer spilled from my lips. “Having you touch me like that.”

His breath caught. He turned me toward him and cupped my face to bring my mouth to his. The kiss was so yearning it sent a flutter through my chest. A now familiar hunger lit low in my belly.

“Take control, then,” the giant murmured against my lips. “Take me, Muninn. However you want me.”

In that moment, no invitation had ever sounded so enticing. I teased my fingers into his thick hair and kissed him harder. His arm came around my waist, hugging me to him, but the planes of his bare chest felt too distant. I broke the kiss just long enough to yank off my dress. Then I stepped back into his arms with a pleased hum at the sensation of my naked breasts pressing against him.

Jerrik and Svend watched us, their breaths gone ragged with their own arousal. My awareness of their hungry gazes stoked the flames of desire inside me. I climbed onto the bench, straddling Gunnar, twining my tongue with his as we fell into another kiss. Yes. Every shiver, every tingle—they all belonged to me. This body that contained them was part of who I was now.

I’d be damned if I ever let anyone take it away from me.

Gunnar raised his hands to fondle my breasts. Each caress of his fingers sent deeper waves of pleasure coursing through my chest. I rocked on his lap, against the hard bulge of his erection straining at his pants. His kisses turned wilder, though no less tender.

I knew what I wanted. I wanted to be filled in a way I never had been before. To feel how this body could take in another’s in a way that could bring us even more bliss than I’d already found.

At my light shove, Gunnar lay back on the bench, propping himself up with his good shoulder. I yanked down his pants and underclothes. His cock sprang free, gloriously hard and erect. I leaned over him, letting my sex slide against the length of it. The giant groaned and tugged my mouth to his for another kiss, even wilder than before.

My wetness slicked over his hard length. This body was more than ready. Gripping him for a moment, I eased myself down. A whimper broke from my throat as I took him deeper and deeper. Pleasure trembled all through my nerves. Oh, dear gods, how had I lived for so long without ever knowing bliss like this was possible?

I pushed myself upright again, squeezing my hips, riding him with each pulse up and down. Gunnar clutched my thigh. His other hand skimmed up me to tweak my nipples again, his face flushed with need. I ran my fingers over his solid chest, soaking up the feel of him. Giving myself over to the frantic burn of ecstasy.

I sank deeper onto him, and he hit a spot inside me no one had ever touched before. My limbs shuddered, and then I was coming, coming so hard a gasp wrenched out of me and my head seemed to float up toward the ceiling on the cresting of pleasure.

“Muninn,” Gunnar said hoarsely. His grip on my thigh tightened, and he filled me even more with a gush of liquid heat.

I rocked to a stop over him, my chest heaving. I felt so good, but it still wasn’t enough. I needed more.

I kissed Gunnar softly and eased off of him. Watching me, he must have guessed what I intended. He stroked his hand over my hair and stood up from the bench.

My gaze found Svend next. Lust and longing danced in his bright brown eyes. I held out my hand to him. “Take me.”

He didn’t need me to make the request twice. In an instant, he was leaning over me, tipping me back on the bench. The hard stone braced me. I teased my fingers down his front and cupped his groin, finding him just as hard.

The dark elf’s breath stuttered. “Lovely lady,” he murmured, and dipped his head for a searing kiss. It went on and on as I fumbled with his trousers and his hand slid down my body to caress the little nub between my legs. It was so sensitive now that I cried out into his mouth the second his thumb flicked over it, shot through with a bolt of pleasure.

Svend paused just long enough to haul off his shirt. The sight of those sculpted muscles made my mouth water. I splayed my thighs around him, urging him onward, and he plunged inside me.

“Oh gods,” he said with a choked sound. “You can’t imagine how good you feel.”

A giggle tumbled out of me. “I can. I’m feeling it.” The giggle turned into a moan as he swiveled his hips, stretching me in heady new ways. This was my body, soaring on pleasure. This was my body, welcoming him, singing with sensation at every thrust.

Svend slipped his hand between us to rub that blissful spot just above my core as he bucked into me even faster, and I spiraled off into ecstasy again. My eyes rolled back with a flash of sparks.

“So good. So damned good,” Svend was murmuring, and it was. It was. Even more so when I felt him join me, spilling himself with a groan.

Every bit of me was quivering with fulfilled need, but I wasn’t done yet. As Svend sat up, I pushed myself upright with him. My eyes locked with Jerrik’s. He wet his lips, and his mouth curved into a wry grin.

“Shall we take each other, Miss Raven?” he said.

“Please,” I said. I stood up as he stepped forward, and our mouths collided.

His tongue slicked across my lips. He grasped me by the waist and swung us around to brace me against the wall. The heat of his body soaked into me from head to toe. I ground myself against his erection, and he let out a stuttered chuckle. Then he was kissing me again, deeply and desperately, as we yanked at his pants together.

He grazed the tip of his cock over my sex, so teasingly I whimpered. I clutched his shoulders, but he dipped his head and lifted my breast to catch it in his mouth. A full moan rippled out of me as he worked his tongue over the nipple, rocking against me but not quite penetrating me at the same time.

I tangled my fingers in his hair, strands spilling from his ponytail, and tugged his lips back to mine. My other hand covered his around his erection. We guided his cock into me together.

Another release was building inside me, swift and shimmering. I bucked against Jerrik, and he met me with each thrust. As one hand held onto my hip to steady me, his other traveled over the tender skin of my neck, my breasts, my ass. I pressed into his touch. My body, that they all took such pleasure in. My body, that responded with such pleasure in turn. A different kind of flying.

With that thought, I came once more, with a gasp and a crash of pleasure that lifted me off the wall. Jerrik plunged even deeper into me and reached his release at the same time. He leaned in, tilting his head to claim another kiss.

Every inch of my body was humming with satisfaction now. Satisfaction and a sense of presence I hadn’t felt before. Mine, all mine—these arms, these legs, the naked skin that covered them.

I tipped back my face as Jerrik eased away from me. My eyes slid closed, and a new fluttering emerged in my belly, rising through my chest. I was this human, this woman three men had just adored. And I was a raven too.

I contracted into my feathered form in a snap, with a triumphant cry. My wings flapped automatically. I soared up to the cave room’s ceiling, my avian senses tasting the currents of the air, finding a crevice my human eyes hadn’t even noticed. I flung myself up through it.

Up, up, and out into the red glow of the fiery realm. My wings unfurled completely. The feel of that tepid wind buffeting my feathered body was everything I’d been longing for. I let it pull me up toward the gray sky and whirled in a loop. I was myself again. I was where I belonged.

And yet not. Before I’d even finished my first loop, my heart was tugging me back downward.

Part of me belonged on my feet on the ground now. Part of me felt just as much longing for the men down below as I’d once longed for my wings.

I folded them close to my body and dove. The air warbled past me as I shot down through the dark crevice, into the room where I’d lost myself to pleasure and found myself in it too.

I shifted purposefully this time, my human legs springing out in time to catch me firmly on the stone floor. My dress drifted back into place against my skin as if I’d never shed it. Well, that was convenient.

The three guys were staring at me. Perhaps hearing a person was a raven was a little different from seeing that person actually transform into one.

“I’m back,” I said tentatively.

The sound of my voice stirred them from their daze. “You’re lovely in every form, Muninn,” Svend said, blinking.

Gunnar nodded, his expression awed.

Jerrik grasped my hand and pulled me to him. “I wasn’t quite done with you yet,” he said in his familiar wry tone, and kissed me again, so thoroughly I tingled right through to the tips of my fingers.

When he stepped back, I looked around at all of them. Excitement and nervousness jittered through me. It was still going to be a difficult, dangerous task, making it to the gates. But I was ready.

“What are we waiting for?” I said. “Let’s storm that fortress.”

Chapter 10

The heat from the magma moat wafted over my feathers as I wheeled over the fortress wall. I just needed to be close enough to catch a taste of Surt’s memories. To conjure a sight that would draw him and his guards out and away from the gates so my lovers could slip in.

Plenty of wisps drifted from within the fortress walls. The blazing giant wasn’t the only one inside. I tasted blood, smelled fear. Lashes of whips, the press of searing blades. The wrench of a pike through some hapless soul’s gut, the wielder both horrified and relieved to be the one delivering rather than receiving the blow.

Finally, I caught a glimpse that felt familiar. The shining halls of Asgard cast in shadows and lashed by flames. The sweep of a sword tinged with fire before it slammed into Freyr’s gut. A hollow laugh as the god collapsed.

I focused on the burnt iron flavor of that recollection, reaching for more from the same source. Images flitted past me: the thundering charge of giants, the final rush of flames. Then, earlier, Surt’s voice ringing out as he called thousands of his fellow giants to storm Asgard, pride glowing through him at the sight of them all marching to his call.

Hmm. I might be able to make use of that.

The dragon was sleeping on the fortress roof again. I took care not to circle close enough to disturb it. I swooped back over the wall and landed on the jagged heap of stones my three companions were taking shelter behind, just a few paces from the moat.

“Did you get what you need?” Gunnar murmured.

I nodded with a bob of my raven head. I didn’t want to risk shifting back into human form to talk with them properly. They trusted I’d get this job done. And I needed to do it quick, before any of Surt’s minions caught a whiff of my Asgardian nature.

Hopping around on the stone, I fixed my gaze on the rocky plain beyond the moat in front of the wall’s looming door. As my body clenched with effort, one and then another and then another figure shimmered into being: an army of giants nearly as vast as the one Surt had summoned all that time ago.

Except this army had a god leading the charge. Freyr, god of prosperity in all its forms, raised his shining golden head and pointed a sword toward the fortress. His light tenor, conjured from both my own memories and Surt’s, pealed out across the plain.

“Oh, giant! I have come to pay back to you the blow you dealt to me. Even your people are eager to see you fall now.”

The dragon stirred on the rooftop. Movement darted along the fortress walls. Guards, I assumed, running to inform their master what was happening. Below me, Jerrik’s jaw had gone slack, staring at my creation. Svend chuckled roughly under his breath.

“That’s some power, my lovely feathered one.”

I ruffled my wings. I didn’t need their compliments—I needed them ready to run. Jerrik caught my eye and tipped his head. The three of them waited, muscles tensed.

Surt couldn’t resist this draw. I’d suspected he’d have to confirm with his own eyes that the reports were true. The great door yawned open into a bridge across the moat.

A giant who really was gigantic in form and presence strode into the doorway, flanked by a troop of figures of varying heights and shapes—his army drawn from the outcasts banished to this realm. Surt’s beard whipped in a gust of wind, gray as steel now. His narrowed eyes were equally hard. He held the immense sword I remembered from all those centuries ago, a gleam of flame already dancing along its length.

“You dare challenge me on my own ground?” he bellowed. “Brethren, you can’t really be helping this pale shade of a god.”

The rows of giants I’d summoned stayed still and silent. I cocked my head, and Freyr smirked.

Surt bristled. “You’ll regret your arrogance.”

He waved his arm, and a horde of creatures swept forward at his call. The dragon swooped down from the rooftop with a roar. Black spidery creatures as tall as my human shoulders scrambled down the stone walls, pincers gleaming sharp. Vast lizards ten times the size of the salamanders that had leapt at me in the tunnels came squirming out of the moat. Even under my feathers, my skin started to crawl.

What I’d done might not be enough. And if this mob caught hold of us…

The dragon’s flames rippled over my creations. The other beasts hurtled into their midst. I let the figures stir with the flickers of memory still lingering in the air, raising fists, swinging hammers and spears. But dozens burst into dust, shaking too hard for my concentration to hold them. Only Freyr stood steady, completely unwavering. He was the key.

Surt frowned at the sight before him. He gestured to his guards and marched forward, sword held at the ready. “What mischief are you making here?” he snapped. “If you want to fight, fight. I won’t stand for being taunted with illusions.”

Their boots clanged over the bridge—and off it. As they strode across the plain to meet the supposed Freyr, I let out a faint caw to the three men below me. This was our chance.

I pushed off, and the guys leapt from behind the heap of rocks at the same time. We raced on wings and feet along the edge of the moat to the bridge. Surt was still yelling at Freyr, but I couldn’t hear the words over the wind hissing past me. As long as my Freyr held long enough, kept him distracted long enough…

I dove through the doorway into the fortress’s courtyard. Jerrik, Gunnar, and Svend dashed after me. “Inside,” Svend said, waving to the looming building. “I think the gates are inside.”

He wrenched open the nearest door in that mountainous structure—and someone shouted from a window. Damn. I cawed at my lovers to hurry and flew into the fortress with all the speed my wings could give me.

We threw ourselves down a hall and spilled out into a domed room where the air reverberated with a faint hum. The power I could sense radiated from the far end. Another door, locked, stood between us and our goal.

Gunnar gritted his teeth and took a run at it. It shook with the slam of his shoulder. Svend held up his hand, and they charged together. The lock snapped. We burst through.

The room on the other side was long and narrow with a ceiling far above our heads. Patches of darkness shimmered against the smooth stone of the far wall. I could taste them now—the gates. Alfheim lay right in front of us, Asgard to the left of it, Midgard farther to the right.

I shifted into human form in a blink, the change coming over me as naturally as breathing now. “That one leads to Midgard,” I said, pointing. “The second one—”

The door slammed open behind us. One of those spidery creatures tackled me to the ground. My still-healing shoulder smacked the ground so hard I couldn’t bite back a groan.

No, no, no. More of them fell on the men, pinning each of my lovers to the ground.

Guards circled us, weapons drawn. I thrashed against the beast’s hold, but I couldn’t move my limbs more than an inch beneath its arched legs. Spittle dribbled down its pincers. My chest clenched.

This was it. I’d failed. My lovers were going to die because of that failure.

The ground trembled with Surt’s heavy footsteps. He emerged through the doorway, his gaze so fierce his eyes seemed to hold the same fire as his sword. The sword he was still clutching. He pointed it at Gunnar, the nearest of the guys.

“What in Hel’s name is the meaning of this treacherous magic? You’ll answer me now or die.”

“It was me!” I burst out in a voice little more than a squawk. “My magic. My plan. You want answers, you deal with me.”

I was probably only sparing the others pain for a moment. But the blazing giant swiveled toward me. He took in my wiry form with a look of obvious disbelief.

“You?” Then his lips curled into a grimace. “You’re of Asgard.”

He raised his sword, and in a blink I saw he didn’t care about answers now. He’d slay me first, and then my lovers, rather than let us speak.

But I also saw, roiling around him like a storm cloud, a memory I hadn’t gleaned before from that greater distance.

A face I knew nearly as well as my own feathers glowered at a different Surt, longer ago, when that beard was still brown and that face less grizzled. You like your flames so well, Odin boomed, I know just the place for you to find a new home. You served your purpose, blazing one.

A wallop of hot air and a splitting pain down Surt’s spine as the Allfather had hurled the giant down into Muspelheim. A stab of vengeful fury all through the giant’s chest.

In that instant, that remembered fury lit an angry flame in my own heart. This was all Odin’s fault. The torment Surt had inflicted on this horrid realm’s survivors. The wounds and battering I’d taken since I’d arrived here. This moment, right now, when I might lose my life and my men theirs for a desire so simple as to find a proper home.

What did the Allfather care, if it all served his purpose? I’d been loyal to him for so long, never lived for myself until this past day, and this was the wretched gift he’d given me in return.

People can be anything when they’re happy, he’d said. It’s when they’re frightened or in pain that their deepest essence rises to the surface. So right he’d been.

And my deepest essence did not belong to him.

Surt’s arms tensed to deliver the fatal blow.

“You don’t want to do that,” I spat out. “I can give you Odin.”

The giant paused. He stared at me with his smoldering eyes. “What are you talking about? Speak fast, or you’ll lose my patience.”

The words tumbled out of me as swiftly as I could gather them. “He’s the one you really want, isn’t he? You played the role he needed you for, and he repaid you by banishing you to this stinking realm. You can pay him back in kind. I can help you. Don’t you know me, Surt? Don’t you know how I called forth the people of your memories? Should I put my black feathers back on?”

Surt’s jaw twitched, his eyes widening just slightly. “The raven of memory.”

“He thinks I still serve him,” I said. “You let us go through into Midgard, and I’ll deliver the Allfather to you.”

“And why should I trust your word?” the giant said, but longing threaded through his voice. He wanted to trust me. He wanted to believe his greatest desire could come true.

“I can vow it to you,” I said. “Like all the things of the realms vowed to Frigg they wouldn’t hurt her son Baldur, except the mistletoe. You’ve heard that tale by now, haven’t you? A vow of Asgard can’t be broken.”

Surt shifted his weight from one foot to the other, studying me. He lowered his sword. “Why would you do this, raven?” he asked.

“I value my life more than his,” I said. “We both gave him more than he deserved, didn’t we?”

Something in my tone must have completely convinced him. He jerked his chin at the spider-thing, and it clambered off of me. I stood up, rubbing my pinched wrists.

“All right then,” Surt said. “Let’s hear your vow.”

I looked him straight in the eyes. There was no conjuring around this, no pretending it. He would feel whether I spoke the words true. All the conviction I had in me collected in my throat.

“If you let me and my three companions pass through the gate of our choosing, I, Muninn, raven of memory, will see that you take the Allfather as your prisoner to do with as you please. I swear it by all the realms and by my soul.”

My voice echoed off the high ceiling. The blazing giant grinned. He swept his sword arm toward the other creatures, and they eased off my lovers. The guards stepped back to the wall.

“Go then, Muninn, raven of memory,” Surt said, his voice as scorching as the magma in his moat. “I look forward to our next meeting.”

I glanced at the gate to Asgard, but only for a second. The guys were getting to their feet. I crossed the stone floor to them in a few brisk strides, wrapping my arm around Jerrik’s waist, Svend’s elbow, leaning my head toward Gunnar’s chest. They surrounded me with warmth and the bright mortal smell of them.

“You didn’t have to do that,” Svend murmured.

“I did,” I said. “Now let’s go.”

Jerrik’s embrace tightened. “This is good-bye, then?”

I blinked at him. Hadn’t he realized yet?

“I’m coming with you,” I said. “I’m coming to Midgard.” I paused. A lump swelled in my throat. “I know you might tire of me, or of each other, or I of you, but… not yet. And I want to have what we have for as long as it’s going to last.” I could make new memories of that place, ones with laughter and sighs instead of shouts and clattering, ones of peace and pleasure.

“Muninn,” Gunnar said in a rasp, and they were all hugging me to them at once. I closed my eyes. Right then, I could believe that mortality meant nothing. That what we’d shared in the last day was only the beginning of a long, long happiness.

I tugged them with me toward the gate to the realm of humans. With hands clasped, we leapt into the dark together.

Chapter 11

I held my breath as I led my lovers toward the home I’d built. The property with its little brick cottage lay off in a quiet part of the countryside no one much passed by, but that suited us fine. I just wasn’t sure what they’d make of the refinements I’d brought to life.

Jerrik noticed first. He stopped in his tracks on the packed dirt path through the meadows, staring at the stretch of trees beyond the cottage’s sloped roof. “That patch of forest wasn’t there before,” he said. “It looks… It looks like the woods near my childhood home.”

“Where you had many happy memories,” I said quietly.

He glanced at me, and understanding lit in his eyes. Without another word, he tipped up my chin to offer me a kiss.

Gunnar exclaimed next, at the burgling stream a small wooden bridge led us over. “I used to walk along a stream just like this, back in Jotunheim…” A smile crossed his face. He squeezed my hand with a buoyant laugh.

When we reached the cottage, Svend hesitated, his hand lingering over the stone bench set up out front. “Where I used to sit with my little sister and tell her stories,” he said. He swallowed audibly. His eyes shimmered as he looked at me. “Muninn, you’re a wonder.”

I found myself grinning back at all of them. “No, all of you are. I could only build what you’ve given me.”

Their breaths caught as we stepped inside. I’d incorporated every detail from every fond memory I’d gleaned over the last few days, arranging them in what looked to me to be some semblance of cohesion. Gunnar took it all in and swept me around before wrapping me in his arms.

“It’s beautiful,” he said. “Almost as beautiful as you.”

A few additions I’d constructed for practical reasons more than sentiment. My favorite of those was a broad cushioned couch more than big enough for the four of us to sprawl comfortably on, which filled one end of the living room. We settled there, me nestled between the three men who would have made any space feel like home to me now.

Of course it was Jerrik who broke the joy of the moment. “How long do we have?” he said, brushing his fingers over my hair as I rested my head on his lap. “Until you have to bring Odin back to Muspelheim?”

Gunnar stirred by my feet. “Are you really going to fulfill that vow?”

“I have to,” I said. “I’m bound by it. But… I didn’t give him any timeline. I never said I’d deliver Odin soon. So I expect it’ll take me a good long while.”

Svend smiled slyly. “Perhaps forever.”

“Perhaps,” I said, but I didn’t really believe it. A sharp ache still pierced my chest when I thought of the god I’d served for so long. Of the horrors he’d subjected me to without any apparent care. Of the brutality he’d abandoned so many in the nine realms to.

I snuggled a little closer to my lovers, but my jaw had set. I wasn’t going to sacrifice one second of the happiness I’d found with these three, not as long as I had them. But after that…

“Perhaps it’s time the Allfather found out what it’s like to fall.”

The End

* * *

How does Muninn take her vengeance? Find out in the first book in the Their Dark Valkyrie series, Claimed by Gods:

http://smarturl.it/ClaimedbyGods

* * *

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About Eva Chase

Eva Chase lives in Canada with her family. She loves stories both swoony and supernatural, and strong women and the men who appreciate them. Along with the Their Dark Valkyrie series, she is the author of the Witch’s Consorts series, the Dragon Shifter’s Mates series, the Demons of Fame Romance series, the Legends Reborn trilogy, and the Alpha Project Psychic Romance series.

Read More from Eva Chase:

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On Death’s Wings

MYTHOMORPHOSES
by Joely Sue Burkhart

I woke in a pile of corpses with no memory of who I am or what happened.

Contaminated by a virulent alien virus, people are either dying or turning into twisted shapeshifters that make werewolves look like teddy bears. I don’t know if I can trust the two aliens who pull me out of the mass grave. More, I don’t know if they can trust me. Not when I can’t remember anything.

We live—while the rest of the world dies around us, turning Earth into a rotting graveyard. What more fitting names could we give ourselves than Thanatos, Hades, and Kharon?

I’m Thanatos. Dead—but alive—and determined to discover who—or what—I am.

Welcome to the Underworld.

Created with Vellum

Copyright © 2019 by Joely Sue Burkhart

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Created with Vellum

For my Beloved Sis.

Thank you to my comma warriors and beta readers:

Sherri Meyer, Stephanie Cunningham, Lydia Simone,

Bibiane Lybæk, Kaila Duff, and Jennifer Swan

Chapter 1

Waking up was like razor blades shearing off my eyelids. I blinked away the pain, trying to remember where I was. I couldn’t see anything.

The smell of something rank filled my nostrils, making me gag. I’d never smelled anything so wretched before.

I tried to lift my arm, but I was pinned. I couldn’t even feel my fingers.

Panic ripped through me in a hot flash of terror. What happened? Where am I?

I could taste that smell. Death. On my tongue.

Bile bubbled up but I swallowed it down, determined not to add yet another horrible smell to the mix of sewage and rotting flesh.

“Help!” At least my voice worked, though it sounded like more of a croak than an understandable word.

I focused on my body, trying to categorize what I could feel. I could wiggle my toes. I wasn’t paralyzed. My chest felt so heavy. I could barely draw in a breath. Maybe I had pneumonia. But why the fuck couldn’t I see?

A muffled voice filtered down to me. I couldn’t understand the words, but I could tell it was a man.

“Help! Down here!”

The voice came again. Closer. A foreign language, I thought, but not one that I recognized.

“Please!” I screamed harder, even though my throat ached with strain. “I’m here!”

Something shifted above me. I could feel things moving incrementally. Scant more light. A little less weight on my chest.

“Hold on,” the voice said in English this time. I couldn’t place his accent. His voice was gruff and low, but it was the most beautiful sound in the world.

I wasn’t alone. I wasn’t going to die here. Yet.

The darkness lightened another shade. A crack appeared. Blue sky above. Sunlight.

A face. Thick, dark glasses covered his eyes, giving him a bug-like appearance.

I would have wept with relief, if there’d been any moisture left in my body. Even if he wasn’t human.

He was one of two alien species who’d come to Earth—months or years ago. I couldn’t remember when they’d arrived, though I’d seen constant news coverage of their ship’s shocking appearance. I couldn’t remember where I’d seen the shows, or what I’d been doing at the time.

I couldn’t remember my name or what had put me at the bottom of this stinking pile of refuse, but my mind fired fact after fact at me, lightning fast.

He was a Thracian. He wore the thick glasses to protect his sensitive eyes from our sun’s powerful rays. His otherwise human appearance was misleading. He was a shapeshifter species. Supposedly a winged dragon-like creature with fur rather than scales, but I’d never seen one in person. At least I didn’t think I had. I couldn’t picture the animal-like form in my mind, though I recognized the special glasses.

But why couldn’t I remember my name? Had I suffered a serious head injury?

He tossed something aside with a heavy grunt. “Almost there. Fuck, human. Who’d you piss off to end up buried alive? Or are you just looking for your keys?”

I blinked up at him. Buried? I was buried?

The smell.

I swallowed. Hard. Willed my eyes not to look anywhere but the man’s face. I didn’t want to see what he was tossing aside to free me. He didn’t have a shovel. So it wasn’t dirt. And if I was buried…

Another male spoke somewhere out of my sight. His voice sounded like music. If I closed my eyes, I could float away on the complex symphony in each tone.

Another alien, this one a Nyxosi. With their graceful, slender forms, the media had dubbed them elves for their beauty and musical voices. The two species had arrived together. That was important, but I didn’t know why. My brain… hiccuped, rattling like an engine skipping gears.

Buried. Alive.

How? Why? What the fuck had happened?

In desperation, I focused on him, letting the gentle melody of his voice soothe me, even though I had no idea what he said. I brought up all the facts I could remember about their species. Unfortunately, it wasn’t much. But it was better than thinking about the body-sized shapes the first alien tossed over his shoulder.

There’d been five ships, but only one had come to the US. The President had spoken on television several times to assure the public that everything was under control. Our visitors meant us no harm. They weren’t here to obliterate us. And they hadn’t. I remembered that much. They’d started dying first.

How do I know that?

Another low grunt drew my attention back to the alien. He was closer now. Leaning down over me as he heaved another body aside.

Oh god. Oh fuck. A body. I could see the tattered, stained clothes. Blue shirt. Long blonde hair. The red on her lips wasn’t lipstick. Vicious teeth—way too many to fit inside her mouth—glinted in the sunlight. Razor sharp canines lined up like ivory swords.

“Hey,” the alien growled. “Don’t look at that. Look at me. What’s your name?”

I focused on him, his face only a few feet away now. His ebony skin gleamed in the sunlight. No hair. Just the round shape of his head. The strange goggle sunglasses. Black shirt, too tight across the shoulders, like it’d shrunk. Or he’d borrowed it.

I refused to consider it might have been stripped off a dead body.

“My name’s Kharon,” he repeated. “What’s yours?”

Kharon… “Like from Greek mythology?”

He grinned and heaved another body aside. “Yeah, that’s right. It seemed fitting since he’s a ferryman. You humans couldn’t pronounce my real name.”

“You’re my navigator.” Even in English, the other alien’s voice rang with musical tones and bells. “Not a ferryman.”

“Same difference. So what’s your name, human?”

“I don’t know.”

“What’s the last thing you remember?”

I closed my eyes, reaching back… trying to remember anything. But it was blank. Not even a hint or a foggy area. My memories were gone, wiped clean like an empty, brand-new whiteboard without a single streak or shadowed letter to decipher.

“All I remember is waking up here.”

Wherever here is.

With a low grunt, he threw another heavy body aside and squatted down closer, giving me a quick once over. Then he offered his hand. “Let’s go.”

I lifted my right hand up and grabbed his. At least I could move. I couldn’t feel his skin against mine, but I felt the firmness of his grip as he squeezed my fingers.

“Wait,” the other alien said. “What if she’s injured?”

“She doesn’t look hurt.” Though he did pause and give me another once-over. “What say you, human? Do you want Hades to climb down here and give you a checkup first? Or would you rather get the fuck out of this graveyard?”

Of course the other one was Hades. I had to snicker. It was better than running screaming like a madwoman. “Get me the fuck out of here.”

Kharon grinned and hauled me up effortlessly, tossing me over his shoulder. “Close your eyes, human. Don’t look. Unless you want nightmares to keep you up the rest of your short, fucked-up life.”

I had to look. I couldn’t help it.

I had to know what I’d come from. Maybe there was a clue. Something that would remind me of who I was.

But then I looked, and I wished to god I hadn’t.

Dead. Bodies. Everywhere.

I stared in horror as he clamped his arm around my hips, keeping me locked firmly in place, and started climbing.

Up bodies.

A mass grave.

Actually, just a mangled pile of corpses with no rhyme or reason. None of us had been truly buried, just tossed into a ravine like so much rubbish. The pile stretched down behind us as far as I could see. An endless pile of the dead.

I couldn’t even begin to assess how many bodies. Not all of them looked human, either. Not after contracting the virus that had decimated the visiting aliens before we could develop a vaccine.

Then it had jumped to us.

How do I know this? Am I doctor? A scientist? But how did I get here?

Facts and data waited in my head. I even knew mortality rates once the mutated virus jumped back to the human population.

The survival rate had dropped to five percent once exposed. Literally just being in the same room with the virus had been deadly.

After infection…

Nobody survived. Not one.

For all I knew, I was the last human in America. On Earth. I had no idea.

How? How am I still alive?

Maybe I hadn’t been exposed.

A sound escaped my lips. Raw, jagged laugher. I’d just been buried beneath several feet of exposure.

“I told you not to fucking look.” Kharon heaved us up the last few feet and let me slide down to the ground beside him.

I couldn’t stop looking, my mind trying to comprehend. To count the bodies. Hundreds? Thousands? More?

“Do you know this place?” The other alien asked.

Even here, staring at what might be the largest mass grave ever to be used on Earth, I couldn’t resist the melodious tones of his voice. I glanced up at him, wordlessly trying to convey my horror and shock.

His long silver hair glinted in the sunlight like real metal, though it floated around his shoulders. His slight frame and delicate features definitely resembled an elf. He wore the same large sunglasses and dark clothing, though his sleeves were long to fully cover him. Actually, the only bit of skin exposed was his face. His cheekbones were angled and sharp, giving his face a triangular shape, though it didn’t detract from his beauty.

“She needs clothing.”

Until he said it, I didn’t realize I was naked. Honestly, I didn’t even know that I was female. I looked down at myself as if I’d never seen my body before.

Because I hadn’t. At least… not that I could remember.

I was slightly chubby and unfortunately pale, like I’d never gone outside in my life or done anything but push pencils or sit in a cubicle somewhere. I could already feel the sun heating up my skin. I’d have a terrible sunburn to rival the aliens’ delicate skin if I wasn’t careful.

But I had no memory of ever being outside. Had I never gone to a lake or a beach, where I’d needed sunscreen before? “Why can’t I remember anything?”

Kharon dug around in a pack and threw some clothes into my lap. “Shock. Trauma. Give yourself some time, Eve.”

Dragging on the pants, I grumbled beneath my breath. “I’m not Eve.” The pants were huge, but at least I could cinch up the drawstring to keep them from sliding off. The T-shirt smelled surprisingly good, though strange and vaguely furry, as if a cat had used it for a pillow. “Eve was the first woman. I’m surely not the last. Am I? Have you seen other humans?”

“Not a one,” Kharon replied. I glanced up at him, relieved to see he’d turned around to give me some privacy. So had his friend. Chivalry wasn’t dead, even if the rest of the human race was.

I looked down at the chasm again and shuddered.

I had been buried alive beneath people who’d contracted a horrible alien virus that had killed them. Even now, that virus had to be attacking my cells. There was no way that I couldn’t be contagious.

I was dying. I just didn’t know it yet.

I dragged my gaze away from the pile of dead and searched the horizon. Mountains rose in the distance. We were in dry, arid foothills, but nothing seemed familiar. It could be South Dakota or Arizona or New Mexico. Or maybe even Utah or Montana. I had no idea.

I shaded my eyes against the sun, looking for any sign of life. Lights from a city. A landmark. Anything that I might recognize.

But not even buzzards wheeled above this gigantic pile of dead.

I wanted to cry. I wanted to wail and pound my fists on the dirt and throw my head back and scream with rage at the unfairness. The cruelty. So many dead. So much suffering. I couldn’t even wrap my mind around it.

Even though I was alive, I felt like I’d swallowed a ticking bomb. Any minute, I’d start feeling the effects of the virus.

I’d die. It was inevitable. I’d seen enough to know.

Even if I didn’t know where.

Clenching my jaws, I turned away from the gorge. “Why did you risk exposure to pull me out of there?”

Kharon snorted. “Risk exposure? Really? Like being stranded on this fucking nightmare of a planet isn’t already exposure?”

“I sensed your life force,” Hades said. “In a place where nothing else is alive. Of course we had to investigate it. What would you prefer for us to call you?”

I waited for some indication of my real name to filter up into my mind. Sally? Rebecca? Heather?

Nothing.

Hades. Kharon. They’d chosen names that were associated with the underworld. They’d pulled me from death. So it was only fitting that I choose a similar name.

“Thanatos.”

Kharon smirked. “That’s more like it, though I like Eve too.”

I shrugged. “Eve Thanatos, then. I don’t really care. Where are we headed?”

The two aliens looked at each other a moment, some silent communication passing between them that spoke of a long friendship.

I got it. They didn’t know how much to tell me. Whether they could trust me.

I wouldn’t trust a person who was magically alive in a pile of dead bodies either.

Chapter 2

We walked until my feet were bleeding. I didn’t care. I didn’t feel it. I didn’t feel anything. Even the sunburn on my cheeks and lower arms didn’t hurt, though now I understood why Hades wore long sleeves and kept a hood up over his face.

Mile after mile, I kept trudging along, searching for anything familiar. Dust. Thin, scraggly grass and weeds. A low windblown shrub. A rusted-out car.

Wait, a car.

I scanned the front bumper, but there wasn’t a license plate. Racing around to the trunk, I found a bent scrap of metal attached by one rusted screw. I had to swipe off the thick layer of dust to read it.

“Missouri? That doesn’t make any sense.”

Kharon shoved the partially opened door wider and leaned in to rummage for anything salvageable. “Why not?”

“This isn’t Missouri.”

“That’s one of your states, right?” Hades asked. “Is this Missouri someplace you know?”

I turned slowly, scanning the countryside again. “When I think of Missouri, it’s not desert like this. Or rocky, steep mountains. Maybe it was a tourist’s car. There could be a hundred reasons a car from Missouri is here in the middle of nowhere.”

Kharon grunted, leaning over the backseat. “Nothing here, skyr.”

I didn’t know what skyr meant, but it sounded like a title, not a name. Hades replied in a musical string of words that made no sense to me.

They didn’t trust me.

Again, not that I could blame them. I didn’t trust me either.

Someone had tried to pry the trunk of the car open. The edge was dented, though the lock still held. There could be something inside. Maybe some water.

Yeah. My body liked that idea. My lips had cracked and my tongue felt like a wad of cotton.

I slipped my fingers into the crack and pulled. The metal gave with a vicious screech and I threw the trunk lid up. Something was here. I could smell it. I shoved the spare tire aside and found a backpack. There was food inside. I fucking knew it. Chocolate. Nuts. Caramel. Heaven on earth.

Some idiot had left a candy bar in this rusted old car.

I flopped down on the ground and dug around in the backpack until I hit the jackpot. I tore into that candy bar like a starving animal.

Oh. My. God.

Chocolate had never tasted so fucking good. My mouth filled with drool with the first bite.

I glanced up and both men were staring at me.

Oops. I broke off half and held it up to Hades. “Sorry,” I said around a mouthful of chocolate. “I’ll share.”

He shook his head slowly, pushing the hood back off his head. “You don’t even realize what you did.”

I glanced over at Kharon, who had given up on searching the car. He’d taken his glasses off, revealing golden eyes that flashed in the growing darkness. “I don’t know what the fuck you are, Thanatos, but you’re as human as I am.”

My hand fell down in my lap. “I really am sorry. I don’t mind sharing. You saved me. I should have let you have some first, but I didn’t realize how hungry I am.” Then his words sank in and I scowled at him. “I’m human. You’re the aliens.”

Kharon came closer and squatted down between me and Hades. “You ripped that trunk open.”

I shrugged, not sure why that was a big deal.

“Didn’t you hear the metal tearing? It was still locked, but you opened it like it was nothing. A human couldn’t do that.”

“It was rusted.” My voice rose in pitch. I hated sounding defensive and scared, but maybe he was right. I hated not knowing what had happened to me.

Maybe I wasn’t human. Maybe I was an android.

The more I thought about it, the more it made a weird kind of sense. Why else would I be relatively unscathed in a mass grave? I couldn’t feel anything. I recognized that my bare feet had been torn up by rocks and sticks all afternoon, but I didn’t actually feel pain.

Aliens had visited us. Why couldn’t we have androids that were so well-made that it might think it was human?

I registered Hades’s musical voice, and Kharon’s deep, growly reply, but I couldn’t understand the words. I didn’t think they were speaking in their language again. I just couldn’t make myself focus on their words to understand.

Kharon growled out a sharp reply and then pushed up to stride away.

I fully expected Hades to follow him.

“Thanks,” I mumbled, unwilling to look up and see the doubt and suspicion that would be on his face. Numbly, I carefully wrapped the last half of the candy bar and stuck it back in the bag. “I mean it. You didn’t have to pull me out of that pile. I understand.”

He sat beside me, making me twitch with surprise. “What do you understand?”

Relief welled up inside me, making me sniffle. My throat ached. I rubbed my chest absently, trying to ease the band tightening around my ribs. They’re not leaving me alone. Yet. “You should leave. Get away from here. You don’t know me.”

“You don’t know you,” Hades replied mildly. “Where else would we go?”

I made myself breathe. In. Out. Even though it would be easier to lie back, look up at the darkening sky, and just stop.

Stop breathing. Stop walking. Stop trying to come up with explanations and reasons for why I was still alive when everyone else was dead.

“Home?” I said it hesitantly, surprised at a surge of emotion inside me. Not yearning or homesickness, but a black wave of what I could only call rage. “You could go home.”

He made a low sound that rang like a sweet, clear bell. It took me a moment to realize he’d laughed. It was a mesmerizing sound, even though I could hear darker notes like blots of ink.

“How can we, when we can’t locate our ships?”

“Wait, what? What happened to them?”

He drew his knees up and braced his chin on crossed forearms, staring off into the thickening shadows. “We split into groups once we arrived. Some remained with the ships, while others went as ambassadors to your people, so we could share information and learn more about your planet. I was one of the first ambassadors, and thus one of the first to experience your unfortunate virus. Once the epidemic broke out, we were quarantined.”

A flash of white filled my mind. A white room. Stainless steel tables. White curtains. Biohazard suits and masks.

Me. Looking out of plexiglass.

It’d been a fucking case of measles that started it all. One ignorant, self-righteous parent who’d refused to vaccinate their snot-nosed kid. They’d come to see the aliens as they passed on the street. With cameras clicking nonstop, one of the aliens had bent down to speak to the child. A friendly gesture. A show of good faith.

The kid and the alien had made a great photo op. The resulting rash and fever had not made the news rounds.

Not until people started dying. And worse, mutating.

“For our own safety, of course,” he continued. Though his voice was still soft and gentle, I could hear the bitterness. “I suppose that quarantine saved us, if nothing else, from the rioting humans who blamed the pandemic on us. Though your medical techniques were barbaric torture, we did survive, while so many others of my people died.”

“The vaccine.”

His head whipped around, silver hair fluttering about his shoulders like delicate wings. He didn’t physically touch me, but I felt… something. My skin prickled with goosebumps, even though I hadn’t sweated in the grueling sun today. “You remember.”

I fought not to drop my gaze. I couldn’t see his eyes, but he radiated intensity. The beautiful elf with the musical voice suddenly had me locked in a vise.

“A white room,” I whispered hoarsely. “I was there. I guess I was a scientist or doctor of some kind. I don’t know what we did… but I saw the room.”

Slowly, he reached up and removed his protective eyewear to reveal gleaming mercurial eyes that shifted with all the colors of the rainbow like oil splashed on pavement. “You—speaking generically of the team of human scientists—called us patients zero. You used us to develop a vaccine since we had survived. But it was too late for my people, and too late for most of yours. By the time Kharon and I found our way to freedom, we were unable to locate any of the ships that had brought us here. Evidently, they were confiscated or destroyed.”

I swallowed hard. “But some did survive?”

He grimaced, lifting his shoulders in an elegant shrug. “If you can call this survival.”

“And no,” Kharon’s voice echoed from the darkness. I could barely see his shadow prowling around the perimeter. “You’re not a fucking android. You’re a stinking human.”

“How did you know I was thinking that?” I retorted. “I didn’t say it aloud. Besides, how can you be certain? I mean, I didn’t know aliens existed. Why not an android?”

He let out a barking laugh as he came closer. “Because you stink. Literally. I could smell you for miles. No computerized machine could duplicate that stench. If you don’t want us to know your thoughts, then you shouldn’t broadcast them so loudly.”

I opened my mouth. Shut it. I didn’t think I was broadcasting my thoughts… but maybe the aliens were telepathic?

“Build a tower in your mind,” Hades said. “Shelter within the peace and quiet inside those walls. Then your thoughts will remain your own.”

Kharon dropped down behind Hades and stretched out flat on his back, arms crossed beneath his head. “All clear for now. I didn’t sense anything but us for miles and miles.”

I started stacking bricks in my head, but it took forever. I finally imagined thick steel walls that snapped shut around me, blocking out the world.

“Ahhh,” Hades whispered as he dropped back to rest his head on Kharon’s lap. “Thank you. That’s ever so much better.”

Staring at them, I was thankful I’d figured out the tower wall before he’d laid back on the other man like that. It was so casual. So…

Beautiful.

It wasn’t sexual, though I could see them together in that way too. Hades rolled over slightly, pillowing his cheek on the other man’s thigh as he looked at me.

Had they found solace in each other before the pandemic? Or only as a result of being stranded here and surviving hell on earth? I didn’t feel like I had the right to ask such a probing question of them.

“So there are things still alive out there in the night?”

Kharon grunted with disgust. “Alive is debatable.”

“Yes,” Hades added. “Contaminants still roam the countryside.”

I huddled in on myself. That word carried several layers of meaning. Contagious humans. People who’d contracted the virus—and their DNA was now compromised by the alien DNA the virus had picked up as it mutated.

As they mutated into something… not human. Before dying a horrible, painful death.

I couldn’t remember much of the details about the vaccinations and studies we must have done in that white laboratory, but I knew that once the virus had a foothold in its host…

Death was imminent.

I wouldn’t mind dying. I’d actually prefer a quick death rather than suffering the virus. Maybe I could find a gun somewhere before…

How long did I have? A few days? A week? I didn’t know. The virus had gone through several mutations, each time becoming more efficient.

I felt my forehead, trying to tell if I had a fever yet.

“You don’t have any symptoms.” Hades’s soft voice wrapped me up in a gentle lullaby. “Get some rest.”

Throat aching, I laid on my side facing them, but curled up tight in a ball.

Kharon’s eyes flashed golden in the darkness and I felt a sharp nudge in my mind.

:Yes.:

I blinked, searching his face. His mouth hadn’t moved.

:If it becomes necessary, I’ll kill you when it’s time. Clean. Quick. Easy.:

Relief welled inside me. I closed my eyes and let the soft notes of his friend’s voice lull me to sleep.

Chapter 3

A vivid dream illuminated the night with strange colors. Deep purple. Flares of liquid silver. Crashes like thunder. Explosions. The snarls and howls of beasts.

It took me a moment to realize it wasn’t a dream at all.

I lurched to my feet and staggered over to crouch behind the rusted-out car. My heart pounded, my ears ringing with the noise and clamor. Something wasn’t right. My vision swam. My hands trembled. Maybe fear.

Or maybe the first stages of the virus were setting in.

Which only made my hands tremble harder.

I didn’t have a weapon. Fuck, I didn’t even have shoes. I couldn’t run far.

Peeking out around the rear of the car, I tried to see what was happening. Hades and Kharon were both gone. The next flash illuminated a pack of snarling, tangled animals. It sounded like fighting wolves, but the shapes were much larger. Grizzly bears? In the desert? That didn’t make sense.

Another silver flash lit up the sky, drawing my attention to its source.

Hades. On the slight rise back the way we’d come from the gorge, he stood illuminated against the night sky. Head thrown back and arms outstretched.

Silver light rolled from him. I didn’t know what kind of weapon he had, but it was badass. The energy sliced into the howling beasts and one of them yelped. Another. One of the creatures pulled back. Monstrous teeth bared in a vicious grin, it looked at me with an unholy glee that made me shrink and duck down behind the car.

My mind reeled, unable to reconcile what I’d seen. The teeth and jaws had definitely been wolflike, but the eyes…

Were very human.

The fur was patchy across the face, revealing human-like cheeks and a sloped brow. Longer fur around the top of the head could have once been hair. It moved with a strange lurching gait completely unlike a natural wolf.

Like a cartoon werewolf. A person, in a wolf suit.

My stomach quivered. The chocolate bar I’d scarfed earlier rumbled around like I was going to spew, but my starved body refused to give up those precious calories.

The virus had done that to a person.

It was doing it to me. This very moment, my cells were transforming. Mutating. My DNA was combining with alien DNA.

I was becoming a monster.

Shivering, I made myself peek back over the trunk. I had to look. I had to know what I was becoming.

In the darkness, I couldn’t see anything. Hades had stopped lighting up the night with his silver, though I could still hear the howling and the occasional yelp of pain. Who was winning? How many had attacked? Where was Kharon?

Then it dawned on me.

One of those shifted animals had to be the other alien. One Thracian, against a mass of six or seven enraged monsters. Maybe more.

Another pulse of liquid moonlight poured over the snarling fight. It was weaker, as if Hades’ weapon was almost out of juice, but it was enough for me to get a better count. It was bad. Ten. Maybe more.

The man who’d pulled me out of a mass grave was in that biting, clawing pile. Ten to one. Even with Hades trying to help him, he was losing.

They needed help.

I felt around on the ground, trying to find something to use as a weapon. A stick. Anything. Someone had tried to break into that trunk earlier… There. My fingers wrapped around cold steel. A crowbar. It was better than nothing.

Keeping low, I raced closer, trying to decide how I could help. A simple distraction wouldn’t be enough. I had to get all the beasts to focus on me so Kharon could at least escape.

I was dying anyway. I might as well make myself useful.

“Hey!” I yelled, wincing at the raw sound. My throat and mouth were so dry. Just moving my lips made them crack and bleed. “Get out of there, you mangy beasts! Leave him alone!”

The snarls changed to high-pitched yips that made me think of hyenas. Of course, the fuckers were laughing at me. The stupid, helpless woman. A hapless human with no shoes, no food or water, no shelter. No weapon but a crowbar.

Rage pulsed in me.

I hated feeling helpless. But more, I hated feeling useless.

A sound rolled out of my chest that scared the shit out of me. A bellow of fury that no human throat would ever make. I charged forward, swinging the crowbar left and right. Blindly. Wildly. I couldn’t see much in the darkness, but I could hear their panting breaths. I could smell them. A sharp, dangerous musk that no natural animal would have. That scent made the hairs quiver on my nape.

I need light. I need to see!

Brilliant blue light swept across the ground, illuminating the closest beast. I swung the crowbar with all my strength at its head. All my rage. All my fear. The senseless unfairness of billions of people suffering and dying. The horror of waking in a mass grave. All of it.

My arm thudded, the crowbar digging into my palm. Dark, wet fluid splashed me. Bone crunched. The high-pitched yip turned to a squeal of pain. A warning to the others as its head caved in.

I staggered off balance, overpowered by the might of my swing. Something fiery hot raked over my ribs. Whirling toward it, I pushed more power into the crowbar arcing through the air and connected with another body. Another heavy thud. A strangled howl of pain.

I lifted the crowbar again, cocked over my shoulder like a baseball bat.

I definitely had their attention, though three or four of them still had Kharon down on the ground. He was bigger than all of them, but they’d pinned his wings, trapping him. Wings. Holy fuck. They battered against the ground, trying to break free. So at least I knew he wasn’t dead yet.

“What the fuck are you?” The nearest beast asked in a garbled voice like metal shrieking on a chalkboard.

This wolf-monster had once been human. He still possessed enough intelligence to communicate and speak, despite the mutations in his body.

Something flipped in my mind. A light turned on, illuminating a corridor lined with three-ring binders. Years of research.

My research.

“You’re nearing stage four,” I said calmly. “It’s impressive that you’ve managed to retain your speech for so long. Most subjects lose that ability during stage three.”

As if he didn’t have vicious claws and teeth that could tear me in half, I stepped closer to him and looked into his eyes. “Interesting. Your pupils have enlarged considerably. Are you mostly nocturnal? Or have you adjusted to daylight, unlike our alien friends?”

“Sun. Hurts.” He shook his head up and down vigorously. “Still go.”

More of the beasts edged closer to me, away from Kharon. Perfect. Though he was still down on the ground. I didn’t turn my head and look for Hades, but I could only hope he was smart enough to figure out that I was trying to make a crude diversion.

:I am.: His musical voice tinkled in my head. :You forgot your shields.:

:Sorry. Get him out of here.:

:What about you?:

Ignoring him, I focused on the beast crouched before me. Even hunched over on all fours, he towered over me a foot or more. His shaggy, misshapen head ducked down closer, making my heart leap up in my throat. But I kept talking in my calm doctor’s voice.

“Your pulse is quite rapid. Are you feverish? It feels like your body temperature has risen at least three or four degrees. I wish I had my medical equipment to run some tests. Do you know when you contracted the virus? How long have you been in stage four?”

The beast reared up on his hind legs and roared. “No tests!”

I shrank back a step before I caught myself. If he was mostly animal now, then I couldn’t risk showing any fear. Not until the aliens slipped away. Two of the beasts still had Kharon pinned on the ground. One on each of his wings. :Are you alright?:

He huffed out a disgusted groan. :I’m afraid my pride is in tatters, but I can port us to safety.:

I had no idea what that meant, but with a snarling, slobbering beast glaring with red beady eyes, I didn’t ask for an explanation. “No tests, no tests,” I said soothingly, lifting my hands. “I only want to help. Did you see some doctors before?”

“Cage,” he growled, shaking his head back and forth. “Bad.”

“How long ago? Do you know where you were?”

“City.”

Hope soared inside me. A city—with people. Scientists. Maybe we hadn’t lost everything yet. If he’d been in a cage before reaching stage four… that could have been recently. I still had too many gaping holes in my memory to pull up all the statistics on the virus yet, but I knew it acted quickly. “Which city? Are there still people there? People who aren’t sick?”

“Dead.”

That quickly, he destroyed my hope that somewhere, civilization still existed.

:Come closer to us,: Hades whispered in my mind.

I shook my head slightly. :That’s not how diversions work.:

:It’s not a diversion. It’s an escape.:

“Why were you hurting my friend?” I asked the beast.

“N…” He grimaced, showing a dark maw of ginormous stained teeth. “Na…”

Growling with frustration, he snapped at my face. I gritted my teeth, refusing to back down. If I showed fear…

Instead of being buried beneath dead bodies, I’d be at the bottom of a snarling pile of monsters.

Silver suddenly flooded the space in front of me, searing my eyeballs. The monsters howled with pain. Something grabbed me. I didn’t realize it was Kharon—back in his human form—until he growled out, “Navigator, motherfuckers.”

And then the world fell away from my feet.

Chapter 4

Time stopped. Here, in this perfect moment, nothing mattered.

I stood in the eye of a hurricane, only it wasn’t winds circling around me. I caught glimpses of places, even other planets. Red skies, purple waters, giant green trees… mixed with deserts and ice, burned out cities and shimmering oceans. I had a sense of entire worlds so far away that my mind couldn’t even comprehend the distance. Time seemed stretched out before me, a road to travel. Go forward in time. Go back.

Infinite possibilities.

Futures. Pasts. Lives that didn’t—couldn’t—exist in my current plane. It was like standing in a funhouse and seeing myself projected hundreds of thousands of times, over and over, with slightly different mirrors. Only instead of taking my image and distorting it, these mirrors were openings.

:Parallel universes.: Kharon’s distinctive low, rough voice was already familiar, even in my head. :Gateways to the unknown. Maybe one’ll dump us into a boiling lake of acid on a distant planet with an unbreathable atmosphere. Or maybe just a cave in the mountains that’s relatively safe.: He huffed out a laugh. :Only the navigator knows which door to use. But you’d better have enough juice to hold the door open, or it’ll suck you into an endless black hole.:

I’d only known him and his friend a few hours, but I held on to his voice like a life preserver in a raging sea.

He’d been willing to dig through a stinking pile of infected, mutated corpses to save a stranger. That sealed it forever for me. I could trust that he wouldn’t turn his back on me when things got bad, because what could be worse than that mass graveyard? He’d already braved that and told a joke while doing it.

I couldn’t see Hades, but I felt him in the void. Pure silver light and music, against leathery wings and fur.

Something else was here with us. It bled a deep indigo light around me, flowing between iridescent purple and blue. For some reason, it reminded me of wings. Not Kharon’s dragon-like wings though.

:Like I said before,: Kharon drawled. :I don’t know what the fuck you are, but you aren’t human. No human has ever stood in the Spiral. Let alone radiated a power signature like a Nyxosi.:

My mind ground and skipped like a junky, rusted-out jalopy. :What are you talking about? Me? That light is me?:

:It’s beautiful,: Hades whispered like a wind chime. :I’ve never seen this aura color before.: His silver flowed closer, and I could feel it gliding through the indigo light.

As if that light was an extension of my body.

My knees trembled. I clenched my jaws, fighting back a sob or a scream or a plea. I wasn’t sure which. My mind buzzed with static, too fast. Too high-pitched. A generator approaching a red-line explosion.

I was in the white room again.

But it was different. Colder. The light was so damned bright. Tears kept leaking from my eyes, even when I kept them squeezed shut. I was so cold. I was going to shatter my teeth if they kept chattering so hard.

The light shifted away, letting me see through watery eyes. It took me a moment to realize I was on my back.

I was on the table. Looking up at the doctor. I couldn’t see his face, but I knew him. His name was right there… slightly out of reach. I knew him well. Someone I trusted.

Then why did my stomach clench so hard? Why did I fight the straps holding me down?

Because I would rip off his face with my teeth if I could.

Falling. The whirling hurricane swept me away into a roaring deluge. I windmilled and tumbled, sliding ever further into infinite space. A black hole had me. I was lost forever.

But… I gritted my teeth, straining to right myself. I can’t. Fail. Not until I’ve had my revenge.

I had no idea why it was so important to me.

Only that I couldn’t give up. Not yet.

Something warm caught me. Soft fur. Kharon. He smelled like leather.

:And you smell like a fucking corpse,: he growled in my head.

I didn’t even care. I didn’t have the energy. With his warmth wrapped around me, I couldn’t seem to open my eyes. I couldn’t lift my head. I had no idea where we were going. What had happened? What the fuck was the Spiral thing he mentioned? The aura?

The blue light had seemed a part of me. I didn’t know what that meant.

He shifted me and something else filled my nose. I inhaled deeply, trying to place the scent. It was familiar, but foreign. It triggered a reaction deep inside me, as if I’d smelled it before, even though I’d never met Hades until they’d pulled me from the grave. So how could I recognize his scent?

He smelled… woodsy. Like a man’s typical aftershave, but no tree scent that I’d ever smelled before. It was musky, spicy, but also herbal and fresh. I really had no idea what it was, other than he smelled good, as good as his friend.

I finally managed to crack my eyes open, somehow surprised to see that we still stood in the center of the swirling worlds. The way my stomach had dropped and my head had spun, I had been falling. I was sure of it.

Hades held me in his arms, while Kharon manipulated the spinning worlds. Hands up, palms out, he worked his hands in front of him, pulling the mirrors closer and then sending them away. I wasn’t sure what he was looking for, but finally he let out a low grunt of satisfaction and turned to face us.

:Take my hand, Thanatos. See through my eyes so you know what you’re capable of.:

I laid my fingers against his.

The spiral of worlds suddenly stilled, frozen in place. The mirror shimmered before us, large enough to step through. I couldn’t see much but a dark interior on the other side, but as Hades stepped closer to it, the mixture of silver and blue light bled into the space, illuminating rock walls.

:This place is only known to me,: Kharon said. :It’s where we’ve been hiding out since we escaped MedCorp.:

That name made my stomach heave and my skin crawl.

:Now you know where it is,: he continued. :You know how to get there from anyplace in the universe. The door is open to you.:

:How? I don’t understand.:

Squeezing my hand, he stepped through the mirror, Hades carrying me right beside him. :You’re a navigator too.:

:With a Nyxosi power signature,: Hades added. :A human with both alien powers.:

The world snapped into place around us, though my mind lagged, stuck back in that whirling hurricane. For a moment, I existed in two places. There… and this distance place. It felt like hundreds of miles stretched between, while my brain struggled to reconcile the two.

Kharon grunted, a soft growl that echoed in the cavern. “Somebody cooked up a human mixed with not one but two alien species’ DNA. No need to guess who.”

My head swam. I wanted to vomit again. I couldn’t breathe.

Bodies were stacked on me again. Miles and miles of dead.

And I was at the bottom.

MedCorp. I had been there. I had been their lead scientist. All the tests and trials and simulated recombinants.

I had been there. I had fucking led the vaccination trials.

Me.

Chapter 5

Sick and weak, I faded in and out over the next few hours. Days. I wasn’t sure.

I tried to tell them. Warn them.

I was guilty.

I was a monster, worse than any of those poor unfortunate creatures who’d attacked Kharon. But I could only manage incoherent mumbles.

I still couldn’t remember everything, but I knew that I had been at the heart of MedCorp’s research. How I had been contaminated and left for dead in that mass grave, I had no idea.

I carried something inside me that was even worse than the pandemic virus that had decimated Earth’s population. For all I knew, I was still contagious. I could be the equivalent of Typhoid Mary, sent out into the few last stragglers trying to carve out a place of safety in a savage world of contaminated human shifters who were losing their humanity day by day. I carried a ticking bomb inside me. A cocktail virus of alien DNA.

If Hades and Kharon contracted this new strain from me…

I woke from a fever dream, drenched in sweat. So weak I could barely turn my head. I was still changing. Hyper-aware, I could feel cells firing up inside me. Others dying. Killed and devoured by the virus ravaging my body.

I had to get away from them. Before I killed the two people who’d saved me.

It took all my strength to roll over. Panting softly, I lay there in the darkness, listening. My senses were heightened. I could feel body heat radiating to my left. I turned my head slightly, and in the darkness, I could see the heat flaring up from the two men’s sleeping bodies. It was like I’d put on thermal-imaging goggles. Kharon ran hotter than the other man, bright red and orange against purple blue. They were wrapped together, legs entwined. Hades’ head was on the other man’s chest, his hair spilled out like a silken blanket.

Looking at them made my throat tighten. Tears burned my eyes. They were so fucking beautiful. They’d risked everything to drag me up out of that gorge.

If they knew what I was… what I had done…

A sob escaped my cracked lips.

I have to get away. Before it’s too late.

I inched forward on my stomach. My arms trembled, so I didn’t try to push up on my hands and knees. It was pitch dark. No strange blue power. Maybe I’d hallucinated the whole thing.

I don’t know how long I slowly made my way across the rock floor. Long enough that sweat dried. I started to shiver again. Pausing a moment, I laid my cheek against the cool stone and rested.

“Hey.” Hades gently swiped hair off my face. “Where are you going?”

“Away,” I croaked. “I have. To go.”

He rolled me over and cradled my head, so Kharon could tip a slender cylinder to my lips. “We’ll help you.”

Water. Sweet and pure and good. I hadn’t seen any fountains, rivers, or drinking faucets anywhere, so I knew it had to be a precious commodity. I tried to take only a few swallows, but it was so good. Better than any medicine. I instantly felt better, enough to sit up without much help. I looked back where we’d been sleeping and wanted to scream with frustration.

I’d only managed to make it a couple of feet away.

“I’m sorry,” Hades said. “We should have given you water immediately. Drink more. We have plenty.”

I glanced about doubtfully at the cave. I couldn’t see much other than their heat signatures. While I was grateful for shelter, I didn’t imagine they had many resources here.

“For fuck’s sake, Thanatos.” Kharon pressed the cylinder into my hand. “Drink the whole fucking thing. I can port us anywhere on your miserable planet in a heartbeat.”

“That’s not entirely true,” Hades replied. “Besides, we have a perfectly good spring at the rear of the cavern. There’s no need to port anywhere right now. I won’t have you tax yourself needlessly.”

I took another sip of the water and held it in my mouth, moistening my lips. I could feel my cells expanding like thirsty little sponges. In the darkness, my other senses came to life. My nose wrinkled at the wretched smell rising from my skin. I caught myself closing my eyes, thinking fondly of a bubble bath and a glass of wine.

Those days were long gone. For all of us.

Hades cupped his hands in his lap and a small silver ball started to glow, illuminating his and Kharon’s faces. My heat-seeking vision immediately switched back to normal.

My stomach clenched. Everything was spinning out of control, faster and faster. I couldn’t even control the way my own fucking eyes worked.

Humans didn’t see heat. Humans didn’t radiate indigo light. Or stand in a swirling tornado of alternate worlds.

What am I?

You already know, the voice replied in my head.

I swallowed the sip of water and met Hades’ gaze. “I used to work for MedCorp.”

His head cocked slightly. “I surmised as much.”

“I don’t know what happened, but I was a scientist. I was conducting major research. I very well could have been on the main team researching the pandemic from the beginning. When I was talking to the contaminant, I saw a hallway loaded with my research. It could have been years’ worth.”

“More likely, a shit ton of cases,” Kharon drawled. “It’s only been three of your years since we arrived.”

That didn’t seem like much time, but I didn’t need to run a computer-generated impact study to know what a virulent virus could do in a month. Let alone three years.

Civilization as we knew it had forever changed in such a short time span.

“Are there any cities left?” I whispered hoarsely. “Did the vaccine work?”

“There are cities and the vaccine did work.” But the grim slant of Hades’ mouth told me it wasn’t good news. “The vaccine wasn’t made widely available, and only the very wealthy could afford to purchase it.”

“The rich. The beautiful. The famous.” Kharon grunted with disgust. “MedCorp decided who lived or died, and then started building biodome cities to house their perfect survivors. Everybody else was left to fend for themselves.”

My stomach pitched queasily. “How many died?”

“If you count the contaminants still roaming the countryside? Billions.”

Bile burned my throat. Every fiber of my being recoiled in helpless horror.

Doctors dedicated their lives to saving people. Medicine was created for the common good. For everybody.

Medical care wasn’t something sold off to the highest bidder.

The thought that the world’s trillionaires sat in some distant, safe sanctuary while the world dissolved in chaos around them made me so furiously ill that I almost started frothing at the mouth. My skin tingled like a million fire ants marched up and down my body.

And indigo light flared around me.

I closed my eyes, but I could still see the contaminated people. Twisted by the virus. Losing their humanity. Slowly turning into ravenous beasts, killing each other.

“High emotion brings out your power,” Hades said calmly. “You don't know what you're capable of yet, so try to keep your emotions in check.”

I made myself count to four as I breathed in and out. “What am I capable of?”

Kharon and Hades stared at each other a moment, as if silently arguing. I didn't sense or hear their words in my head this time, but I could almost feel them, like a tickle in the back of my mind.

Evidently Kharon won. Grinning, he seized my hand and dragged me up to my feet as he stood. “There’s one sure way to find out.”

Chapter 6

Kharon led me deeper into the back of the cave. I wasn't sure how far it went, but I felt a heavy sensation above, as if we were miles beneath the surface. The darkness was absolute, yet I could still see. My eyes adjusted effortlessly, following the red-hot glow of Kharon’s body temperature.

I smelled water. Lots of it.

“The upper spring is for drinking.” He pointed to the right, where the cool blue of the tunnel continued to wind beneath the earth’s surface. “It’s colder and tastes better. This water is a bit sulfurous for my taste but it’s fine for bathing.”

He didn’t have to tell me twice. I stripped off the borrowed clothes without hesitation. The pool shimmered slightly purple, warmer than the air. Not exactly hot-tub warm, but it felt so incredible on my skin that I couldn’t help but sigh.

I could feel my skin drinking up the water as it gently leached some of the sunburn heat out.

Kharon dug in his pack and tossed me a flat bar of soap. I scrubbed myself head to toe until I was raw, but I could still smell death clinging to my body. I’d probably never get that stench out of my nose.

I was rinsing my hair after a second wash when the two aliens joined me in the water. I kept a wary eye on them, but other than holding out a hand for the soap, neither of them tried to touch me or even looked at me.

They were too busy taking care of each other.

Kharon’s red-hot lips pressed to the cooler blue-tinged skin of the other alien’s neck, leaving warming trails of green. Across his shoulders. Down his pecs.

“Lie back, skyr,” Kharon whispered. “I’ve got you.”

Hades turned his head toward me as he leaned back into Kharon’s waiting hands. “My energy is running low. The blasts I fired trying to get the contaminants off him drained me, and then he needed a little extra juice to bring us all here.”

I dropped lower in the water up to my chin. “What does skyr mean?”

Kharon knelt in the water, his arms cradling the other man’s floating body. “Prince or lord.”

Holy shit. Hades was an actual royal personage? What would his people do when they realized what had happened to the explorers they’d sent to Earth? Maybe they would exterminate us after all.

“The navigator sees and opens the gates,” Kharon continued. “But my energy fizzles out after a single trip and it takes forever to recover. But with him feeding me energy, we can go further and quicker.”

My brain buzzed with a thousand questions. Were all of Hades’ kind considered princes by Kharon’s? Did they power the ship with that same kind of energy? If Kharon could see the multitude of worlds waiting in the Spiral, why didn’t they just leave? Why stay here?

“Power, Thanatos.” Hades floated closer, his silver hair tickling my arm. “Neither of us have enough juice to make a port that far. And no, not all Nyxosi are skyr. Only the true royals carry that title, though Kharon forgets that our queen effectively disinherited me by sending me here.”

Oops, I forgot my shields again. I grimaced, shaking my head at him. “Telepathic aliens are damned inconvenient.”

Kharon grinned, a show of teeth. “You ought to be the telepathic alien dealing with human cockroaches.”

I winced, but he had a point.

“Peace, my drakon,” Hades chided. “She means no harm, and she may be part of the answer we’ve been seeking.”

I tensed, unsure and suddenly very suspicious. “I carry a cocktail of DNA soup inside me and I don’t know how that happened. I’ll probably contaminate you both with a new strain.”

Even flat on his back in the water, Hades managed to shrug elegantly. “Probably. We were dead as soon as the Megaskyr sent us to your planet, though she expected her assassin to take care of the deed rather than a human virus.”

He managed to flip my suspicion back to curiosity. “Is the Megaskyr your queen that you mentioned? Is she your mother? Why would she try to assassinate you?”

He shuddered, sending a ripple of water cascading over my arms. “Not my mother, thankfully, but yes, she is the Nyxosi supreme ruler. She wanted me dead for many reasons, both political and personal.”

“Fuck, Thanatos,” Kharon growled. “Do you really want us to give you a complete Nyxosi history lesson, or would you rather see what kind of latent powers lie beneath that tantalizing human form?”

My eyes widened.

Me? Tantalizing? She of the pasty office skin and pudgy figure? Yeah, right.

I choked on a laugh. “I don’t even know my name, but one thing I know beyond a shadow of a doubt is that I’m not tantalizing in any way, shape, or form.”

Hades dipped his knees down to the ground and straightened so he could look me in the eye. His silver hair still glinted like metal even though it was wet. Long sparkling strands coiled around his neck and shoulders. His skin seemed translucent and delicate, though maybe that was just my heat-enhanced vision. I could see the lingering spots on his neck where Kharon had kissed his throat. Only now those spots were more yellow, because the rest of his skin had heated to green.

“You don’t even know what you are, do you?” Ever so softly, he coiled a strand of my very plain and boring brown hair around his index finger. “Why do you think we called you Eve as soon as we found you?”

Oh. Heat flooded my face, and I averted my gaze. “Sure, yeah. The last female alive suddenly becomes the first again. I guess anything would be attractive then.”

Kharon growled again and surged toward me.

I didn’t think. I reacted. I whirled in the water, wet hair whipping my face. I dodged slightly aside to avoid his attack, but then used my momentum to thump him so hard in the back that he belly flopped in the water. But I didn’t stop there. On his back, knees hard in his kidneys, I wrapped my forearm around his throat and held his head beneath the water. Thrashing, he rolled like a crocodile, taking me under with him. I kept my thighs wrapped around his waist and tightened my grip on his throat, determined to ride him to unconsciousness.

Silver power flowed around me, coiling around me like Hades’ hair. I shivered, my skin prickling, even underwater. I could feel the stroke of his energy crackling along my skin. A promise, not a threat. He made it very clear that he could use that power to haul me off his friend if need be. Though he’d much rather…

I didn’t know. And that’s what made me release Kharon. Curiosity, again. I wanted to know what he could do with that power.

What I could do. Because now that he’d touched me with his energy, indigo blazed around me, lighting up the underground cavern.

Slinging water like a dog, Kharon rose up out of the water and snatched me up against him. I thought he’d be pissed. Maybe yell at me. Curse me. Flatten me with one of those big fists.

Instead, he crushed my mouth beneath his.

And suddenly, all I could think about was sex. Reckless, passionate abandon. The world had ended. Almost everyone was dead. My life was over. We would likely die. Tomorrow, in hours, a week… I had no idea.

But if I could fuck him, and then his friend, and then probably them both again and again—

Kharon’s chest rumbled against mine and he lifted his head. “That’s more like it, Thanatos.”

My cheeks blazed with embarrassment. Shields, again. But at least I wasn’t beating myself up for my rather lackluster appearance. They wanted me, at least for now. I might as well enjoy them before we died.

Hades slipped up behind me, his skin wet and cool against mine. A stark contrast to the furnace blazing in Kharon. “The quickest way for me to refuel is through sex. The more we touch, and the more pleasure we have, the better. There are other ways to re-energize…”

Kharon let out a low chuckle. “But why waste time eating and sleeping for weeks when a good fuck is all you need?”

“That’s why Nyxosi and Thracians work so well together. He needs more power to travel. I can give that power, but I need to be refueled. So together, we make quite a team.”

“And fuck a lot.”

I tried to build the stone walls in my head, but I couldn’t concentrate. Not with them both pressed against me. I was comfortable with sex. I knew that. But had I ever had sex with two men before? Let alone aliens.

I had no idea. No memory sparked in the dark recesses of my mind.

“But there are limits to the amount of pleasure that two males can raise together, though granted, Kharon is an impressive specimen. With a female in the mix…” Hades’ breath skated over my ear and every muscle in my body clenched. Hard.

It was a good thing my vision had switched back to normal once his power had risen. Because I was sure that I gleamed liked white-hot supernova.

Maybe it was a side effect of the virus mutation I carried. It gave me a vivid indigo power signature… and an equally powerful libido. It’d be easy to blame the alien DNA I’d picked up for my elevated desire, for relative strangers who just happened to also be aliens, no less, but I was pretty sure I’d feel like this whether I carried a virus or not.

Life as I’d known it was over. We were all about to die, but right now, in this place, we were safe. Why the fuck would we not take solace in each other, just for a little while?

I leaned in and sucked on Kharon’s bottom lip, digging my teeth in slightly before letting go with a pop. “Do you have any strange alien customs I should know about?”

“All kinds,” he replied with a wink. “But we’ll take it easy on you to start.”

Chapter 7

Kharon closed his hands around my waist, easily lifting me off my feet and turning me around to face his friend.

Looking deeply into my eyes, Hades bent down so our noses almost touched. “Do you trust us? Really trust us? Because I am going to feed on you. You’ll feel me pulling on and draining your energy, even if I’m not touching you. I’m going to wallow in the pleasure Kharon gives you. I’m going to drown in it, breathing in your pleasure until I can’t hold any more. And then, if you wish, I’ll take a turn while Kharon rests. But if you’re afraid…”

I reached up and combed my fingers through his hair. The silken strands clung to my fingers as if they were alive. “I’m not afraid. You pulled me out of an early grave and brought me to a place of safety. Why wouldn’t I trust you?”

“Because I’m alien. Not just as a species, but in all aspects of life as you know it. I could accidentally drain you too deeply and you won’t be able to recover, especially since you were human. But I’ll do everything I can to control myself and minimize that risk. It’s just so unexpected to find someone with Nyxosi power, whom I can trust…”

His words sparked my curiosity again. “So there are Nyxosi still alive that you don’t trust?”

Kharon groaned and nipped my ear. “Fuck you, Hades. Will you quit giving her ideas and let us get down to business?”

“I do have one concern, though,” I said, watching the way Hades’ eyes flickered like prisms, catching our combined glows and sparkling like crystal gems. “Well, perhaps more of a request than a concern.”

“Ask and it shall be done, if it’s at all in the realm of my ability to do so.”

I laid my palm on his chest and lightly stroked my fingers over the planes of his upper body. His skin was velvety soft, his frame slender, but not frail. I tried to find his heartbeat, but his anatomy must be different. Or maybe his heart beat slower and fainter, so I couldn’t sense it without equipment. How many degrees cooler was his body temperature?

My brain kept throwing up question after question. But with Kharon’s heat against my back, and his powerful hands spread wide on my waist and hips, not even anatomical differences in our species could distract me.

“Instead of taking turns, I’d rather have you both at once.”

His eyes went dead and dark, as if a black hole spread in his gaze rather than the crystal prisms. Worried, I started to open my mouth to say never mind. Evidently, I’d insulted him. Gravely.

Kharon laughed, releasing a deep chuckle that vibrated against my back and rang in the cavern.

“What’s so funny?”

Still chuckling, he dropped his chin against my shoulder. “One way or another, we’re going to teach you to keep your shields up, Thanatos. You didn’t insult our skyr. You fucking turned him on even more than you already did just by being here.”

“I did?”

My gaze wanted to roam down Hades’ body and check out his package, but I was pretty sure that would be rude.

This time, even Hades quirked his lips. “It’s never rude to evaluate a potential partner’s paraphernalia to make sure they’re acceptable. Though I assure you, neither Kharon or I are lacking in that regard.”

To emphasize his words, Kharon stepped closer, tucking my ass back against his groin. And yeah, hello, he was very VERY happy to see me. Like freakishly happy. I was almost afraid to see…

Kharon guffawed again, which made the tips of my ears crisp with embarrassment.

So yeah, I dropped my gaze to Hades’ dick, which was just as elegant as the rest of him. Somewhat more slender than Kharon’s felt against my ass, but plenty long to fill me up and then some.

Eyes still dark and heavy, Hades tipped his head back, shaking his shining hair back over his shoulders. Every inch the princely alien elf. “Let’s get out of the water.”

Immediately, Kharon swept me up in his arms and carried me out of the pool. Turning in his embrace, I kissed his throat and smoothed my hands over his shoulders. He was built thicker and shorter than Hades, his muscles bulging with explosive, animalistic power. He was hairier too, though not excessively so. I breathed in his scent and my stomach flip-flopped.

He’d given me his shirt to wear earlier. I recognized that musky animal scent.

He gripped my nape, spreading his fingers wide to palm my head. “I wanted to mark you with my scent from the first moment I saw you. Even buried beneath corpses and smeared with filth.”

Throat aching, I stared up into his eyes as he lowered me back in the blankets. This time, on his and Hades’ side of the cave. “Why?”

He stretched out beside me and drew me up onto his chest. Keeping a firm grip on my head, he didn’t let me sit upright, but kept me close to him as Hades came down against my back.

I shivered between them. Sensation poured over me. The rasp of Kharon’s body hair. The gleaming coolness of Hades’ velvety skin. The glide of his hair like silk on my back. The tingling flow of his energy lapping against mine.

Finally, it dawned on me. I was actually feeling again. I could feel them both. Touching me. Overloading my senses.

Kharon growled. “Because when you find something beautiful and precious amongst the death and horror, you take it. You fucking cup it in your hands like a delicate butterfly with paper-thin wings, and you shelter it. You keep it safe.”

Hades rubbed against me, his dick sliding effortlessly between my cheeks. I could feel the coolness of his skin, but also a slicker sensation, as if he secreted some kind of oil instead of pre-cum. The analytical side of my brain recognized and appreciated such an alien trait. The animal side of my brain burned with lust, as if that secretion was an aphrodisiac that inflamed my senses.

Their scents rose stronger and hotter with their desire, inflaming me. Leather and fur. Woodsy green spice. Thick muscle beneath me. Silken hair trailing like a curtain. Long, elegant fingers gliding over my skin. Demanding fingers pulling my lips back down to Kharon’s. Hands. Too many hands. So wonderful.

Still gripping the back of my head, he slowly pushed inside me. My body instinctively arched, grinding my clit against his thick shaft as he teased me, ever so slowly. Hades hummed softly against my ear, a sweet melody that broke goosebumps down my arms. I dug my fingers into the thick muscle running down Kharon’s shoulders, fighting to contain my need.

I’d never felt like this. So out of control. Desperate. I wanted to sink my teeth into that thick slab of muscle and grind against him until we both shouted with release.

“Fuuuuuuck,” Kharon muttered against my lips. “Get ready.”

I wasn’t sure if he was speaking to me or his friend as he pulled my head down against his shoulder.

Yes. Muscle against my mouth. Scorching hot skin. I sank my teeth into that rock-hard muscle, gripping him tighter. Marking him with my teeth. Deeper, nearly breaking his skin. I wanted to leave an impression of my teeth on him like a tattoo.

Hips jerking upward, he roared with release. Surprised, I started to pull back. I’d never imagined in a million years that a simple love bite would make him come. But he gripped my head tighter against him, refusing to let me lift my mouth from his skin. And he tasted so fucking good. Better than chocolate, his essence melting on my tongue and sliding down my throat.

I could taste his musky scent, as if he’d spurted into my mouth. He moved inside me, and it was like his winged beast had crawled into me, winding through my organs and tickling my bones. I could feel him everywhere. The brush of wings and fur where he couldn’t possibly touch.

Fireworks exploded in my entire body, setting off a cascading meltdown. Nerves fired up, screaming with sensation. His dick expanded inside me, pumping me full of semen, but he didn’t relent. His erection didn’t fade.

It only grew with his release.

Bigger. Thicker. Harder.

I couldn’t. Think. Or breathe. He filled me completely, pushing deeper into my womb, though I knew that was impossible. I shattered against him. My brain completely overloaded. All I could do was pant and writhe on top of him, impaled by his impossible erection that gave me no quarter.

Hades groaned against my ear and inhaled a deep, shaking breath as if he could taste my pleasure. Face buried against Kharon’s shoulder, I couldn’t see, but I felt the sudden dip in my energy. Hades breathed me in, taking the flaring indigo power into his body.

My stomach dropped like I’d jumped off a cliff. My head buzzed, ears ringing with alarm. For a moment, yeah, I was fucking terrified. My first instinct was to rip someone’s head off. Fight. Roar. Bite. I had to protect myself before I was too weak. Before I died.

Kharon took the brunt of that instinct. My jaws clamped down harder on his shoulder, my teeth tearing at the thick muscle desperately.

Luckily, he loved it. He arched up beneath me, driving deeper inside me. I came again, or maybe it was the same climax reaching a new, dangerous level. My heartbeat thudded in my skull like a jackhammer and I tasted copper in my mouth. My blood. Kharon’s. I wasn’t sure. If he wasn’t already contaminated…

:He’s fine,: Hades whispered in my head. :I’m fine. We already lived through hell and are still here. So are you, Thanatos.:

With his touch in my head, the sinking feeling bottomed out. My heartbeat steadied. I was alright. I was better than alright. Pleasure still hummed through my body, lighting up my nerves, but even more, I could feel what my climax was doing for Hades. He drank me in just as he’d promised. The stroke and glide of flesh. The heavy throb of my clit. The involuntary clench of my muscles around the massive dick inside me. He pulled every sensation from me, savoring my desire. Kharon’s cum. The sweat of our bodies. The quiver of every muscle.

Suddenly, I was inside Hades, sliding through his mind like an indigo river. A giant tree rose like a sentinel, towering above regular-sized trees that carpeted the hills. The large tree’s trunk and limbs were dotted with glowing lights that looked like fireflies. It took me a moment to realize they were actually windows. An entire city gleamed inside the giant tree, glowing with soft, warm light.

His heart ached every time he thought of that tree. Which was exactly why it was rooted so deeply inside him.

In a hushed whisper, I asked, :Is that your homeland?:

He didn’t throw up thick walls to keep me out. He didn’t backpedal or shut down. His silver power spilled down the giant trunk, lighting up leaves that shimmered like jewels. :Yes. My family’s house and all our people. Lost before I ever stepped foot on your planet.:

:Why? What happened?:

The tree caught fire. Screams and pleas for mercy echoed in his mind. Voices that shredded him. People he’d loved, that he’d been powerless to save. :The Megaskyr happened. She punished them for my failure.:

Flames died down inside him, leaving a burned-out hull. Ash fell from the sky, the forest ruined and blackened in all directions.

Hades walked that scarred landscape, pausing to look back over his shoulder. Offering his hand, he smiled at me, silver hair falling about his shoulders. He wore soft pastel robes that changed colors like his eyes, swirling from mercurial silver to pink and blue and purple. :Now, look what you have wrought.:

I threaded my fingers through his. Bits of green shot up from the ground. Tender grass and trees, growing much too quickly to be real.

None of this was real. I knew that on some level. But it was beautiful just the same.

He turned, his free hand palm up. A delicate butterfly fluttered its wings, as if it had just crawled out of its chrysalis and didn’t know how to fly yet. There were white dots on its blue wings. Narrowing my eyes, I looked closer. Not dots. Skulls.

:You claimed my drakon and marked him as your mate. I ask that you take me, too. Please. I’ll do anything you ask.:

I asked him the same question I’d asked his friend. :Why? Why me?:

The butterfly flew from his hand, catching my attention. Its brilliant blue wings sparkled like stained glass shining in the sunlight. I watched as it danced upward, catching the breeze that sent his hair sliding against my cheek. The butterfly flew straight toward the devastated tree, and when it landed on the charred wood, a geyser of indigo shot upward. A massive amount of power that restored the tree. Instantly.

:With you at my side, I can reclaim all my family has lost.:

:But how?:

:You’re a sarissa, what we skyrs call a spear. You’re a natural weapon, because you magnify power. I’ve never been so strong after a single feeding, and we’ve only just begun to explore each other. With Kharon’s navigation, my skyr power, and your spear, we will actually be able to power the ship once we find it. We can return to Nyxos.: He tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear, his fingers gentle on my cheek. :Or we can stay here and clean up your planet. Save as many as we can. It’s your choice.:

I didn’t like the idea of being a spear or weapon. Something that was used. Held in someone else’s hand and thrown at their direction.

At his direction.

I didn’t know much about who I’d been before I woke up at the bottom of a mass grave. Maybe the old me would have been perfectly happy to be used to rebuild his home and whatever else he wanted. Like topple the Megaskyr from her throne, since she’d destroyed his family’s tree.

But I liked that he didn’t try to sway me one way or the other. He gave me the choice. Though I could feel the subtle weave of his silver power flowing against me. The gentleness of his fingers on my cheek. The glide of silken hair on my shoulder. I wasn’t naive.

Everything he did had a purpose. Down to the way he’d allowed me to see past his shields in the first place.

This was a dangerous man. A man who recognized that being vulnerable and open was sometimes the greatest attack of all. Or the greatest lure.

:You don’t have to decide now. We have time.:

Though I heard the kernel of doubt in his words. Did we? How long until I died from the horrible virus speeding through my cells? Sure, I had this magical indigo power now… but how long would it last before I entered stage two? Or before I lost the ability to even speak?

Fingers tangled in my hair and jerked my face up.

The vision Hades had shared with me dissolved in a rush. I stared into Kharon’s gleaming golden eyes, his mouth a hard, vicious slant. Hand fisted in my hair, he gave me a little shake. Pulling my hair, making my eyes burn.

Small pain. A show of dominance. It lit the fire in my blood all over again, reminding me of his cock buried deep inside me, still swollen and hard.

“Do you have any idea how fucking rude it is to disappear off into la-la land while a drakon is trying to fuck your brains out?”

I tried to laugh, but it came out a moan instead. I couldn’t laugh with so much dick inside me. “It’s his fault.”

“I take full blame, my drakon.” Hades chuckled, a musical dance of wicked tones that made me shiver. And groan. And sweat. Every nerve ending shrieking with sensation as Kharon thudded inside me. “Allow me to make it up to you. To both of you.”

He pushed against my asshole and my lungs seized. My brain froze.

Kharon twisted his fingers in my hair until I blinked and focused on his face.

“I’d better be bleeding from a dozen scratches and bites by the time he’s fully inside you.”

Chapter 8

Surely I couldn’t hold any more.

Kharon was so thick and hard inside me that I couldn’t breathe. With Hades pushing his way inside me too…

I dug my fingers into Kharon’s chest. I smelled his blood, but I couldn’t stop clawing at him, holding on for dear life. Goosebumps flared down my arms, making me shiver, which only sent another ripple of pleasure shimmering along my nerves.

So much pressure. So full. My jaws ached with the need to bite. I wanted one of them in my mouth. Not a dick, because I was afraid I’d seriously hurt them. I just wanted to feel them in my mouth and taste their skin on my tongue. A strange urge that I never remembered feeling before. A side effect of the virus? Or did I just have a biting kink that I couldn’t remember?

Or, more likely, was this an element of Kharon’s species coming out to play in my infected DNA?

Pinned between them, I could only gasp and shudder and hope to god I didn’t die when they came inside me.

Locking his forearm around my throat, Hades pulled me up so we both sat astride the other man’s hips. “Look.”

For the first time, his voice growled with deeper bass undertones closer to Kharon’s. I forced my eyes open, wincing at the brightness. Silver and blue gleamed in the cave, illuminating everything so well that I could see as clearly as broad daylight. The power swept around us, a tornado of swirling, colorful flows.

No. Wings. Not feathers, though. The blue power swept along my arms and shoulders like a second skin, as transparent as fine, delicate silk. Curtains blowing in the wind—or gossamer butterfly wings.

“This is your power, manifesting from your spirit. Your true heart and soul. When I sensed your life force today at the gorge of bodies, I saw the butterfly in you. Death on your wings—but beautiful in the midst of the death. You are truly Thanatos.”

“So fucking beautiful,” Kharon whispered. “Fly for us, Thanatos.”

Hades nudged deeper inside me. Everything inside me stretched, hovering at the very edge of a treacherous precipice. One false move…

Gripping my thighs, Kharon pushed up beneath me. And I fell. The ground rolled away. Wind swept around me. Hair in my face, blinding me. Silver hair, silver power. I felt Hades’ arms around me. Kharon’s powerful body lunging beneath me, and suddenly, I wasn’t falling, but soaring. My skin caught blue fire. I screamed as power rolled from me, an indigo hurricane that devastated everything in its path.

I had a moment to fear that I’d slipped my skin and turned into one of the half-animal contaminants. I didn’t want to hurt them. Kill them.

Hades plunged deeper inside me on a low cry of release and I could taste his scent on my tongue. Silver power flowed inside me, a deluge that swept through me and into Kharon.

He roared and bucked beneath me, pushing me ever higher.

While Hades drank us down like a man dying of thirst.

I must have passed out, or at least lost some time. Crushed between them, Kharon’s chest against my cheek. Hades’ hair in my face. Both of them still breathing hard.

“Fucking hell.” Kharon groaned. “If I could walk, I think I could open a gate to Nyxos without a ship. That’s how much power I feel simmering inside me.”

Hades released a soft humming tone that rippled in the air between us. “We can’t risk it. Even if you could port us that far without killing yourself, we need the ship as a bargaining chip. I’m fully restored. No, I take that back. I’m stronger than ever. I will be able to find the ship now. I’m sure of it.”

He kissed my shoulder. “All thanks to you.”

I had so many questions. I wanted to know everything about his past, why the Megaskyr had destroyed his tree, why they’d come to Earth in the first place.

But more…

I wanted to know who’d been experimenting on me. Who’d contaminated me? Why would they do such a thing?

And what the fuck was going to happen to me? How long would I live?

Hades cupped my cheek and turned my face toward him. “You’re not going to die.”

I swallowed hard. “How do you know?”

“Because I won’t allow it. I’ll use every drop of this power to save you first.”

Kharon tucked me closer, wrapping himself around me so I was covered in his scent and surrounded by a protective wall of muscle. “You thought you were dead today. Buried in a mass grave, lost in darkness. But maybe you were simply changing, Thanatos. Somebody planted you in that darkness, but you changed. You lived. Now there’s only one thing left for you to do.”

“Fly,” Hades whispered against my temple.

I closed my eyes, slowly slipping back into darkness. But this time I wasn’t afraid. Not with them holding me. “And kill whoever did this to me.”

About Joely Sue Burkhart

Joely Sue Burkhart has always loved heroes who hide behind a mask, the darker and more dangerous the better. Whether cool, sophisticated billionaire, brutal bloodthirsty assassin, or simply a man tortured by his own needs, they all wear masks to protect themselves. Once they finally give you a peek into the passionate, twisted secrets they’re hiding, they always fall hard and fast. Dare to look beneath the mask and find love in the shadows.

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Chapter 1

Sage

My feet landed silently on the tiled stone floor. The soft soles of my shoes were worth their weight in gold sometimes. As quietly as possible I crept around the hallway, keeping to the carpet where I was able so that my footfalls were muffled even more. No one was around, which wasn't surprising considering that it was about three in the morning, but I could never be too careful, at least when it came to this.

The open door at the end of the hallway made my stomach twist with foreboding. I hoped he was happy, that he wasn't going to be upset with me. There was no way to know without going in and finding out though. I just wasn't looking forward to it.

A warm glow emanated from the room. It would have been comforting if it wasn’t deceiving. I knew the occupant was as cold as ice. He was my keeper, my controller, the finger that pulled the trigger. And I was the gun. He took his role very seriously. I would have admired had I not found everything about him repulsive.

I found the cold, detached part inside myself, which wasn't hard since it was most of me, and let it rise to the surface as I stuffed that weak, open-hearted version of me down deep where he couldn't reach it. He wanted me vulnerable, feminine, warm, and malleable. I wouldn't give him those things, couldn't. I may have to do his bidding, my body and life may be his, but my soul and mind weren't and never would be. He knew that as well as I did.

My gaze sought him through the crack between the door and the wall in his office. I couldn't see him immediately, so I crept around the door to his office knowing that he would be too absorbed in work to notice. I almost made it all the way to his desk before he looked up and saw me. One of these days I'd get the drop on him, and when I did he'd... No, I couldn't think like that. I had a sentence to serve, a debt to clear, and the only way to do that was through Thurston.

"Welcome back, little flower. How was your client tonight?" he asked as he steepled his fingers under his chin.

"He met his fate with less dignity than a turnip, but the mission was a success."

"Good. I'm sure when I pass along the news Father will be happy. Are you ready to tell me about it?" he asked, loosening his tie.

My stomach rolled. No. I wasn't. Strange how I could kill a man, or woman for that matter, and not be as disturbed as coming back and reliving this ritual over and over again.

"Whatever you want, Sir." I wanted to vomit, but the words sounded nonchalant and betrayed none of the emotion I felt inside as I desperately tried to shove it down once again. He couldn't know how I felt, what I thought. He could never know, or he would kill me.

"Good girl. Why don't you go and get in position?"

I nodded my head and began to peel off my jacket. When I reached for my top he said, "No, leave it on, just unzip," just like he always did when I was fresh from an assignment. I swallowed and pulled the zipper that ran down front toward the base, far enough so that he could touch what he wanted, but not far enough that the top would come loose.

My hands went to the buckle on my holster and unclipped it so I could take it off. I laid it on the table in front of me, exactly how he liked, and pulled the weapon I'd used for the night from its holster. The garrote wire still had blood on it as required. I unrolled it and laid it out above all the other weapons.

Next was my pants. In movies assassins always wore leather or latex or something similar, but I'd found that to be too noisy. I preferred a simple black skinny jean, or if jeans wouldn't work, black leggings. They both allowed for a greater range of motion and were quieter than any of the leather pants I'd ever worn. I pulled them down enough to reveal the black G-string I wore underneath. I left that in place as required and bent over the table.

I felt him behind me a moment later. "Oh the garrote, interesting choice. Tell me what happened."

"I had been following the assignment for the last week," I began as his fingers found my pussy. They were wet, they needed to be because I certainly wasn't. He moved my G-string aside as he worked the moisture over my folds and I felt the tip of him press against me. I had to pause and hold my breath as he pushed inside.

"Don't stop," he breathed as he began thrusting in and out of me. His hand fisted, holding a hunk of my hair, pulling my head up so I had no choice but to look at the tools of my trade.

"He liked to go to bed around nine, but always stopped at the kitchen first for a glass of milk and a cookie. His housekeeper would always set out an empty glass and a plate with a macadamia nut cookie on it. When she left for the evening I caught the door and slipped inside. I moved to the kitchen, which was just off the back entryway that she used, and waited in the corner shadow. Within an hour or so he came down for his customary drink and treat. Ugh." I didn't mean for the noise to escape, but Thurston was yanking on my hair so hard that it had stretched my throat out to the point that talking hurt. Couple that with trying to tell a story with his dick ramming into me and it made keeping the odd sound in difficult. Sometimes he enjoyed them, sometimes he didn't.

"Finish the fucking story," he ground out while I still tried to catch my breath from the way he was bending me backward.

"By the time he opened the fridge to get the milk I was already behind him. He had no idea I was there. I looped the garrote wire around his neck. Before he could scream or make a noise I pulled it tight, letting it cut into his flesh. His hands scratched at it, trying to gain leverage, which was unsuccessful and a waste of his energy. The blood dribbled down at first, oozing from the wound until it cut deeper, then it flowed freely over his chest. When I felt the wire connect with his spinal cord I released my hold and withdrew the wire. He slumped to the floor having lost control of his body. I flipped him over and leaned him up against the cupboard. Lastly, I swiped my finger through the blood and drew a smile on his face with it as requested in the assignment notes. I left by the same door and went to the nearest Family restaurant where I changed in the bathroom and exited through the kitchen. I then came home to you."

"Tell me about the blood," he hissed. He was close, so that was something. Sometimes I wondered if he even enjoyed this, I knew I didn't, and he knew I didn't, but it was all part of the ritual he'd created for me to repay my debt.

"It was thick at first, sliding down his neck in a slow dribble and then it gushed like a waterfall, spraying over the cabinets and fridge until there wasn't enough pressure for it to spray anymore." I knew what he was waiting for, so I gave it to him. "When I dipped my finger in it to draw the smile it was still warm."

He thrust into me one last time and I felt his body twitch within me. I thanked the stars that he came relatively fast and that his dick wasn't big, because if it had been I wouldn't have been able to keep talking through it, I knew that much. When he pulled out of me I felt his cum drip down and although I wanted to shudder and wipe it away I couldn't, not until he'd given me permission to do so.

I was left standing there for a few minutes and my revulsion with my life only grew.  When my uncle had sold me to the Family I'd thought my life was over, but I was wrong. My life officially ended when I had to start repaying the debt I'd accrued from them taking care of me while I grew up. When I turned eighteen everything changed. I was given my first assignment and Thurston explained how every assignment would go.

"You can clean up now. Don't make a mess on the carpet or I'll have to charge you to have it cleaned."

I slid off the table and pulled my pants up in one smooth motion. I knew I hadn't made a mess because I could feel it soaking through the denim. That being said, I still double checked the floor just in case. I redressed as quickly as possible eager to get out of there and into a scalding hot shower. Once I’d slipped my jacket back on I turned to face him, waiting to be dismissed. He was completely dressed once more and was in the middle of combing his dark brown hair back into place when my eyes locked on to him. Sweat glistened on his forehead and there was a slightly dazed look to him as he got himself back under control.

He cleared his throat. "You have the opportunity to take a vacation as required by Family rules. I know you usually work through them, but I am required to offer it to you. You have two weeks for this new year. Would you like to use them?"

I'd forgotten that my birthday was coming up. It was six years since I'd started working for them, since my eighteenth birthday, and I had at least one assignment a week. I never took him up on the vacation because it would only delay me being free of my Family ties. Looking at Thurston, I could tell that he assumed I was going to say no and had already mentally dismissed me and moved on to whatever pressing task kept him up all hours of the night.

"Yes," I said.

He looked up at me, quirking an eyebrow. "Your vacation starts at midnight. I expect you back here at midnight two weeks from today. I will have an assignment waiting for you, little flower." He smiled at me then and my stomach twisted in on itself.

"Understood, Sir."

"Very well, you're dismissed. Turn your weapons in to Gavin so he can clean them while you're on vacation."

"Yes, Sir."

I turned and walked out, heading down the hall to the weapon master's office. He was never there. In fact, I'd only seen him three times in six years. The man had a drop box and a pick-up station. I grabbed the paper bag and put most of my weapons in. I always held one or two back, just in case. After scrawling my name across the top I shoved it into the drop box and headed straight to my room.

The complex I lived in was large and there were others like me, other assassins both men and women. We each had our own preferred method of execution if it wasn't specified in the assignment and we each had our own handler. I was the lucky girl who got to experience Thurston every week. I discovered early on that he found pleasure in the bloodier executions and so that became my modus operandi. Anything to make him finish faster.

My room was a decent size, large enough to be luxurious but not so large they charged me extra for it. I was one of their best assassins so I did get some perks. The blinds were shut and it was dark, but my warm yellow night light glowed in the corner, just the way I liked it.

Quickly I stripped, threw my clothing into the hamper, and headed into my private shower. I had to pay more for a room with a private bathroom but the last thing I wanted to do was scrub the cum away while someone else was jamming to music in the next stall. It might extend my sentence but to me it was worth every theoretical penny.

As I waited for the water to warm I looked in the mirror. My roots were starting to show so I needed to get that fixed. The one thing that I couldn't stand was seeing my hair be the same blond color as Thurston's, which was why it was a lilac color now. It had been blue for a while, but I figured there was enough blue in my life and I couldn't do red, not with Thurston's love of blood. Lilac became my calling card. Every Family restaurant and business knew that if someone walked in with lilac hair like they owned the place to just let them do whatever they wanted, which meant that I could use any of them as pit stops after assignments.

Steam was billowing out from behind the shower curtain by the time I stepped under the spray. It was so hot it felt like it was burning, but I didn't care. I'd gladly burn myself to get the scent of him off my body. Once I had acclimated to it I began to scrub and let my mind wander. What the hell was I going to do for two weeks with no work?

Chapter 2

Lysander

The club was my favorite place. It didn't matter which one, they were all similar enough to me. They dripped with lust and raw erotic energy. My specialty. Sure, I could do full on real deal love stuff, but the erotic stuff was so much easier. Just a couple touches, no bow and arrow needed.

Maddox and Ezio were at the bar while I worked the room. Weaving through the crowd was easy as I felt more alive in the press of bodies than I did at any other moment or place. It was where my energy sprang to life and my heritage celebrated the fact that most of these people were going to get laid tonight because of me. My touch pushed the spark of attraction into full on lust for them, enough so that many couples would disappear into the bathrooms and fuck right there at the club.

My twin Alistair was different though. He was all about the romance. His touch would fan the flames of attraction for sure, but they would be more likely to go home and talk all night long which was kinda boring to me. I was more about the here and now than the future though, so that didn't exactly surprise anyone.

As I finished my loop I went to join my brothers. They had an ice-cold beer and a shot of tequila waiting for me, not that I needed either of them. The high from all the lust was enough to make my head spin as it was. Still, I grabbed the shot and downed it in one go before snatching the longneck and taking a deep pull. Alistair caught up with us a few moments later having matched any soul mates that were in the crowd. He didn't have a shot, just a frosty beer waiting for him.

I watched as he took a swig, ever so slightly jealous of the serene look on his face. He was as close to a natural born cupid as someone could get. He still had to work with us though. We succeeded or failed as a unit. My gaze ran back over the crowd as I took another drink from the amber bottle. As much as I was enjoying the night and the energy that I was feeding from, there was something off, like one thing didn't match the others, but I wasn't sure what it was.

"Everyone all juiced up?" Maddox asked as he sipped on his Moscow Mule. I couldn't stand the stuff. Ginger beer? No, thank you.

"Everyone on that dance floor is going to have a good night," I said with a grin because although it was true, none of them knew it yet, which made me feel a little like Santa Clause.

"Any singles?" Lysander asked, scanning the crowd.

"They're all single, bud. It's just whether you want first go or sloppy seconds," I replied.

"That's a big no on sloppy seconds." He snorted.

I felt that tingle again, the sensation that something wasn't quite right. "Do any of you feel that?"

They stood quietly for a moment, knowing that I wouldn't bring something up if I didn't think there was something off. Their eyes glazed over as their other senses reached out into the crowd. I knew I wasn't imagining things, but I wasn't sure if what I was picking up on was what we were looking for.

"It's here," Maddox said.

"I feel it, too," Ezio added.

"Glad I'm not the only one. Did either of you sense where?" They both shook their heads. "I guess we better head into the fray then."

"You sure you want to do this here?" Ezio asked.

"We could always just follow the sensation," Maddox said, taking Ezio's side, as normal.

"No, we should at least try and get eyes on who our target is, before we track them," I said. I wasn't the leader of our little group, but I was the one that hated wearing training wheels the most. If we wanted to get our wings, bows, and arrows, and to actually be cupids then we needed to get this taken care of. The faster it was done the faster we'd be out on our own and truly independent.

They reluctantly agreed and finished their drinks. The four of us drifted into the crowd and I flung my senses wide as I tried to track down the pinpoint of cold in a wave of heat. It should be easy, but the heat was so overwhelming that it often hid the cold.

I tried to move to the music so I didn't stick out like a sore thumb, but it was hard when I was concentrating on something else. Suddenly an ass was rubbing against my leg. The lust rolling off the woman who was dancing on me was enough for me to drown in. I tried to breathe around it, but my hands seemed to have a mind of their own as they found her curves and directed her on exactly where she should be shaking her ass.

It was only the tingle of awareness that saved me from losing myself in the woman dancing with me in that moment. A flash of light off purple hair drew my attention and I watched as my brothers seemed to locate her moments after I did. My hands slipped away from the woman in front of me and I distanced myself, using the crowd as a barrier. Any other night and I would have taken her in the back and fucked her brains out until she was screaming my name, but tonight I was here on business, and I couldn't ignore that.

I edged closer to the lavender-haired woman and felt the sensation of something being off growing steadily as the distance between us decreased. Her hair shimmered in the light like an amethyst geode. Lasers cut through the fog that was being blown out over the dance floor and the crowd went wild. Hands and arms were in the air, while people cheered, but not the woman I was focused on. She seemed to dance to her own beat and not follow everyone else. That being said, her beat was still in time with the rest of the music.

The silver halter top she was wearing was backless, showing off a body that was more than just in shape. She was strong, her muscles were well defined, and she looked like she could kick plenty of ass if she needed to based on her arms. Thick, chunky bracelets swung on her wrists, and as she spun I saw a long necklace that almost hid the fact that her shirt was open in the middle down to her belly button. There was plenty of fabric there, it just hung loosely between her breasts, highlighting them to perfection.

Below the eye-popping top was a black leather mini skirt and over the knee leather boots. She was showing enough skin to get my mouth watering, without looking like she was trying. In fact, the longer I watched her the more I was convinced that she wasn't even aware of my presence which was unusual to say the least. Sometimes I felt like the phrase 'get more bees with honey' was invented for me, except I had no choice but to be honey.

My love was an addiction for human women. If I slept with them more than a handful of times, then it got ugly, real fast. Jealousy, paranoia, and delusional thoughts were just the beginning. After that it went downhill to the point that I had to ask for help and get the woman's memory wiped. Not a good look when I'm trying to convince the higher ups to let me handle this whole love business by myself, well, myself and my siblings.

I edged closer to the woman, her body swaying with the music and her hair sparkling in the lights made it impossible to keep my distance. My brothers glared at me, but I couldn't be bothered to care. Lust wasn't flooding my senses when I was around her which was weird but nice. I took a deep breath and felt clear headed for the first time since we'd walked in the club tonight. When my eyes refocused on her it was like I was seeing her for the first time all over again. All the details I’d missed before, the icy blue eyes that caught mine, the pouty lips with a perfect cupid's bow under a pert button nose, the slight grin that spread over her face as she saw me, it all came to the fore. She was all I could see.

My hand came out of its own accord and took hers, pressing a quick kiss to her knuckles before spinning her and pulling her back tight against me. Her ass rubbed against my jeans and for the first time in a long time I felt my blood warm. My hands dipped down onto her hips and relished in the smooth curve of her waist beneath her shirt. When I fucked women it was usually just because I was bored, not because they particularly inspired anything within me. This woman though... she was different.

When her head whipped back to look at me I was surprised but then she looked forward again before looking back, like she was comparing me with someone. My focus drifted up off her form, which took more effort than I would care to admit, but as soon as my gaze landed ahead of me I could understand why.

Alistair.

It wasn't that I disliked my twin, just that he was always there. I fought back my sigh of frustration as the crowd parted for him and within moments he was in front of me and the lavender-haired nymph. I knew we looked alike, we were twins, but we weren't identical. His hair was lighter and he didn't have the freckles or the eyes that I did. I was supposed to look more like my mother, but I had no idea if that was true or not. It wasn't like we grew up with her around.

As my brother started swaying with the woman, I watched the same realization hit him that had hit me. She was a dead zone for all the emotions and needs swirling through the club. Part of me never wanted to leave this bubble, while part of me was wondering what the reach of the bubble was. And the rest of me? Well, that was focused on the feeling of her body in my hands.

The beat shifted and she spun between us, pushing her ass into Alistair while her hands pressed against my chest, leaving cold in their wake. It wasn't the kind of cold that was from poor circulation or the temperature being too low. This cold was something that went soul deep.

My eyes found hers and the gray-blue orbs pierced me deeper than I expected. She was closed off to the very depths of her being. In that moment I knew that we'd found our target, what we had been looking for for too long. This woman would put up a fight against love, that much was clear, but I also got the feeling it wasn't because she didn't want it, but because she didn't understand it. A lack of understanding was something I could work with.

I trailed my fingers up her neck and she shivered against my touch, but the anticipation and excitement I expected never showed up in her eyes. The depth to which she was closed off was astounding, and I knew it would take all of mine and my brothers’ powers as cupids-in-training to reach her and convince her that not only was love real, but it was worth her time.

Her hands pulled on my shoulders and I bent toward her lusciousness without hesitation. A surprisingly husky voice met my ears as she said, "I've always wanted to have a threesome with twins." I jerked back, afraid that my touch had accidentally set off something within her, but she lacked the telltale glow that anyone touched by a cupid would have. All I saw when I looked her over was a wicked smile and mischievousness sparking in her eyes.

Chapter 3

Sage

I meant what I said, I had always wanted to have a threesome with twins. The fact that these twins were redheads? Double bonus. I had always thought that the flame colored hair some people had was gorgeous. Mine was naturally a dirty, dishwater blonde, nothing nearly as exciting unless I dyed it. I'd been on a lavender kick for the last couple of years although I was starting to feel like I should switch it up.

The look the first guy I'd been dancing with was giving me was one of confused excitement which amused me. It wasn't often that I had time to myself, but when I did, I used it to find what little pleasure I could. Thurston might have taken my virginity in every sense of the word, but he wasn't the only man who had experienced my body. Even though this was the first actual vacation I'd taken that didn't mean I never did anything with my free time. I doubted the asshole knew or cared what I did on my own time, but I wouldn't put it past him to throw a fit if he ever found out.

Between assignments I often found myself at one club or another, losing myself to the music and the heat of the crowd. It was intoxicating and, considering I didn't drink, it was as out of control as I ever got. The one thing I kept falling for was the promise of pleasure from whoever I was dancing with. My time with the man or woman of my choice for the evening was always pleasurable but it never satisfied the craving I had deep within me, like an itch I couldn't scratch. Maybe twins would do the trick though?

The twins weren't identical, that much was obvious since twin two had freckles over every inch of exposed skin, including his face, along with a short beard. His skin was the pale color of most redheads, but with the lights of the club it made his freckles somehow look like he was flecked with gold, an effect that was only intensified by the strange luminous amber color of his eyes. Twin one on the other hand didn't have a freckle in sight and had icy blue eyes that matched my own, along with the ivory tone of his skin. His hair had a brighter color to it than his brothers, more of an orange red than an auburn red, but they had the same nose and face shape.

I slipped my hand up the guy's chest and behind his neck, feeling the taut, well-formed muscles on his body, before pulling him down into a kiss. His lips weren't overly plush, but they were strong and as his hands wrapped around me, bending me into him, he took the kiss and ran with it. By the time we broke for air I was ready to mount him right there on the dance floor.

When I was spun around to face twin two, I was still catching my breath when he leaned in and kissed me. I made sure he knew he was welcome, although it was a very bold move. His lips were softer and plumper than his brother's, but no less strong in the way he was kissing me. Desire coursed through me and I was left wanting nothing more than a night of seduction caught between these two.

"Want to get out of here?" twin one asked in my ear while twin two nipped at my lower lip.

My eyes popped open and I nodded. The two of them watched me like I might get scared off or something. What they didn't know was that the skull pendant necklace I was wearing could turn into a whip at a moment's notice, and my earrings could easily become a garrote.

"We've got a room at a hotel not far from here," twin two said as he looked down at me with those captivating eyes. He had a tenderness about him that his brother didn't have, a contrast I appreciated.

"Lead on," I yelled over the music so they could both hear me.

I hadn't expected them both to look over to the corner of the club where I saw two guys watching us. One of them looked like a Greek god, with his long, wavy brown hair and pouty lips. He could have been DaVinci’s inspiration for David. The other looked like a weapon; his Asian heritage shone proudly through his features and his jet-black hair looked silky in the club’s lights. When the twins each raised a hand and waved I figured they must all be friends. Of course, the hot ones always flock together.

Before I could ask if they were okay leaving their friends the three of us were moving toward the exit and anticipation was flooding my chest. Twin one had a firm, warm grip on my hand and I knew twin two was just behind me.

"So, what's your name?" Twin one asked.

"Sage, but we don't have to do the small talk thing."

"I like the small talk thing," twin two said.

When I glanced over at him, hungry eyes met mine before scanning up and down my body. "Well then, what's your name?" I asked, somewhat surprised that this wasn't just a quick fuck in the back of the bar.

"I’m Lysander, and that's Alistair," he said gesturing to the twin whose face was covered in freckles.

"Nice to meet you both," I said with a grin as I shook my head. The warmth that washed over me as I walked between the two of them was enough to make me feel as though I was overheating.

"You come here often?" Alistair asked.

"Every once in a while when I have some time off," I replied.

"I haven't seen you before," Lysander said, his voice low and rumbly.

"Then you must not have been paying attention," I countered with a grin hoping that they would talk more just so I could hear their voices. They were nothing like Thurston, his voice was low and smooth like it had been trained to sound a certain way, but these two sounded like sex on legs.

"Oh, I would have noticed you," Lysander said, but there was something deeper in his tone that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. My instincts were all over the place with these two.

Suddenly, I wished I had worn one of my wigs out and tucked the lavender hair away. It was too late now, and I knew I could take both of them if I needed to. Years of a variety of martial arts training, not to mention boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, and anything else that would give me an edge in my fighting abilities, were all under my belt and I knew how to take on opponents twice my size and win. There were very few people who could take me down in hand-to-hand combat, so I wasn't nervous about that. Something didn't feel quite right though.

We were already around the corner and heading toward the hotel that I figured was where they were staying. There wasn't a lot to do in this specific few blocks area except party. It was club after club and bar after bar, like a college town, but without the sports. The only hotel within a mile or so was the one we were walking into.

I'd had my fair share of assignments where the targets were staying there, so I knew the place well. I just hoped they weren't staying in a room where I'd completed an assignment before. I wasn't sure I'd be able to have sex with the memory of executing someone in the bathroom or something, and that would be a shame, because redheaded twins? It felt like I'd hit the holy grail of one-night stands. I wasn't much of a giggler, and I hardly ever smiled, but that thought made a big grin spread over my face.

They swiped a card over the door and it opened into one of the nicer, suite-style rooms. My eyes cataloged everything as soon as I had the opportunity to look past Lysander. There was no luggage visible, which was odd for young guys, but maybe their mothers raised them right and they actually hung their clothes up or something. There were almost no signs of anyone having stayed there at all.

Alistair lunged forward and jumped onto the bed, so he was lying down on his back staring up at the ceiling for a split second before rolling onto his side and giving me a look that screamed lust and hunger. I smiled seductively at him and he bit down on his lower lip which made my body come to life.

"Want a drink?" Lysander asked as he walked over to the fridge.

"Just some water would be great," I said feeling awkward.

"So you live around here?" Alistair asked.

"Somewhat. You?"

"Somewhat," he grinned knowingly at me before continuing, "but we thought our buddies needed a night out."

"You seem agitated, sweetness, you okay?" Lysander asked as he handed me a bottle of water from the mini fridge.

"Told you, I'm no good with small talk."

"Is it so wrong for us to want to get to know you?" Alistair asked.

"I mean, is there a point? It's not like this can be anything more than a one-night stand." I was losing the vibe I'd had from the club and it was starting to bring me down, to bring the shields down and put my mental armor back in place.

"I have never seen anyone as closed off as you. It's fascinating, really," Alistair said as he looked up at me from the bed.

"You don't even know me. Maybe this was a bad idea. I thought you were the holy grail of hookups but I should have known you were too good to be true." I turned to leave and found Lysander blocking my exit. If he wanted to be taken down a peg or two I'd be happy to do that.

His hands popped up in a gesture of surrender. "Sweetness, we just aren't used to girls who want to get down and dirty. Most of them want to be wined and dined and the ones who do hook up with us always seem to have a quota of knowledge to meet before they'll actually do anything. You're a breath of fresh air, that's all. Come and hang out, or do you want me to just kiss you?"

"Latter please," I replied. In my head I knew that if he didn't follow through and still wanted to do get to know me bullshit then I'd walk, even if it meant putting him down to get out the door, not that I really thought either of them would try to trap me. They were almost college bro-ish, but I had noticed there was a level of sophistication and worldliness there that I hadn't been expecting.

Without hesitation Lysander stepped forward and slipped one hand around my waist and the other up into my hair. He tilted my head just right so that when he kissed me he could claim my mouth completely. I opened for him without protest and his tongue swept in, exploring my mouth as though he was trying to memorize the feel of it.

Hands surrounded me as he walked me back toward the bed. It took me a second but I realized that it was more than just Lysander touching me. A thrill went through me about what the rest of the night might contain. Usually dudes were weird about a two-men-and-one-lady threesome, but these guys seemed into it, and that only revved my engine even hotter. As I was picked up and placed onto the bed, I found myself sitting on Alistair's lap, his erection pressing against my butt, with my legs wrapped around Lysander's hips, holding him close to me while he only seemed to intensify the kiss. My body melted into theirs and I knew I'd made a good decision when I didn't leave.

Chapter 4

Alistair

Sage was all lean muscle and power as she sat on my lap. There was just enough curve to make my mind reel at how sexy she was. I expected her to smell a little sweaty from all the dancing she'd been doing at the club, but she didn't. Instead there was something almost sweet about her scent as I buried my nose in her hair.

Lysander disappeared from view and I heard the zipper come down on one of Sage's boots. While he worked on ridding her of her footwear I pushed her hair to one side and kissed her neck. Her skin was pale and soft and as my stubble scratched against her skin she arched back into me, her firm ass pressing against my cock in a way that made me wish we had gotten naked before we made it onto the bed.

My hands ran over her taut stomach and up over her plump breasts, while I rained kisses on every inch of exposed skin I could find. The sound of Sage slowly becoming breathless and panting while my brother stripped her made my cock as hard as rock. Ly's fingers tugged on her skirt, and I slid my hands into the waistband so I was cupping her ass and lifted her off my lap just enough so that he could get it off her.

The sumptuous globes of her perky behind fit perfectly in my palms as I kneaded them until she was free of her skirt. The thong that she was wearing only proved to drive me more insane with lust. If I didn't know better I'd swear my brother was doling out his cupid powers, but I knew for a fact that cupid powers didn't always work on other cupids, the fates made us hinky that way.

Sage's skin was like silk against my rough hands, and I hoped she didn't mind. When Ly went to pull off her shirt, she lifted her arms and I followed the progress of the material upward with my hands as I lay back on the bed. Her sexy peach of an ass rested perfectly against me, with the black lace of her thong creating a small T shape, while the black lace of her bra was the only other line marring her body.

There wasn't a mark on her, not a scar, not a freckle, not a tattoo or piercing. My gaze greedily traveled over her again and again as though I could memorize the sight of her. The only thing I could think about though, was what it would feel like to have her lavender hair splayed across my belly while she took my cock in her mouth. And what a pretty mouth it was.

Before Lysander could do anything else she popped up off my lap and strode toward the mini fridge, grabbing another bottle of water while we just watched her parade around in her sexy black lace underwear.

"Are you two going to join me or am I just fucking myself tonight?" Sage asked sweetly before taking a long drink of water.

Lysander looked over at me and the two of us began stripping.

"Slower," she said, her already raspy voice husky with need.

I followed her command, not taking my eyes off her for a moment while I toed my shoes off, before peeling my shirt off, followed by my belt, and finally shucking my jeans to the floor. My boxers stayed put, although there wasn't much hiding the massive boner I was sporting. Her eyes roamed first my body then Lysander's since apparently I got undressed faster. I was trying to be slow, I guess I was just too eager.

With one hand she reached behind her back and unhooked her bra letting it fall open before shrugging out of the straps. Her breasts were heavy with pink nipples that seemed to point straight at me. Gods, I wanted them in my mouth. I was practically drooling like a thirteen-year-old looking at an underwear catalog. When she bent at the waist and pulled her panties down I watched as her breasts swung forward pointing to the floor before going back to their resting place as she straightened.

Two condoms had appeared from somewhere, I had no clue where, but she tossed them at both of us as she walked past. We just stared as she crawled onto the bed, giving us both a show of her ass swaying back and forth along with the plump lips of her pussy peeking out from between the apex of her thighs as she moved.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Come and get me," she said, all but purring the words at us.

My boxers were off as I stepped forward. I would put the condom on, but not yet, first I wanted to feel those rose-colored lips locked around the head of my cock. Lysander and I had shared enough women that we often moved together in mirrored actions of one another. It probably had something to do with the weird twin connection as well.

"Do you want to taste her first or should I?" Ly asked as he crawled across the bed toward our prey.

"All yours brother," I said, my voice a low growl as desire rode my body hard.

"Flip over for me. Show me that sweet pussy," Ly said.

Sage obeyed with a grin. Her ass stuck high in the air as she spread her legs baring all those lush creases and moisture slicked folds to the two of us. While Lysander prepared to dive in I moved past her ass with one goal in mind, her mouth.

"Think you can handle us both at the same time, sweetness?" I asked, as her eyes became dazed at whatever Lysander was doing.

Within seconds she was back to herself and looking at me as I sat in front of her. "You say that like it's a challenge," she almost whispered at me before reaching out and running her dexterous fingers over my cock. "Come down here where I can taste you better."

Who would say no to an order like that?

* * *

Sage

Alistair's thick cock stood proudly from his groin, like a monument, as he looked down at me with heavily lidded eyes. His fiery red pubic hair was trimmed close to the skin which made my job a lot easier. There was nothing worse than picking hair out of your mouth in front of a stranger. Without breaking eye contact I lowered my mouth onto his oddly attractive cock and relished the salty taste of his skin for a moment before I started working him.

Just as I did, Lysander thrust two fingers into me making me moan around his brother's cock. While I appreciated foreplay, it wasn't my favorite. My motor was running and I was ready to go. That meant I wanted cocks in me, especially since I couldn't orgasm with a guy. I'd had maybe ten orgasms in my life total and they were what I'd heard people refer to as 'utility jacks' where it wasn't so much about the pleasure, but about getting the feeling out of my system.

Finally, after my jaw was starting to get sore, I lifted my head and said, "I need at least one of you inside me soon or I'm going to lose it."

"As my lady commands," Lysander said from behind me. I heard the rip of the condom wrapper a moment before I felt the blunt head of his cock nudge at my entrance.

I was on my hands and knees when he pushed into me, making me sigh with contentment as I finally was starting to be able to scratch the itch I'd had since before I came out tonight. Everything was buzzing and when I opened my eyes I saw Alistair's cock in front of my face again.

"You got a little more in you, sugar?" he asked putting on a fake Southern drawl.

I greedily sucked on his cock taking it as deep as I could. When his hand fisted in my hair and his brother's hands squeezed my hips as he began to pound into me, I was in heaven. I barely even had to move; the momentum from Lysander was enough that he was moving me up and down on Alistair's cock. What I hadn't expected was the reach around from either of them. Lysander's long, nimble fingers were circling my clit, getting ever closer, while Alistair's fingers could just about reach my nipples, at least enough to flick over the taut peaks and make me twitch with need.

We stayed like that for a while, and I just enjoyed the feeling of them filling me from both ends, but what I really wanted was them both fucking me at the same time. When I pulled away from Alistair's cock I managed to get one word out between Lysander's thrusts. "Flip."

They both paused and Lysander withdrew leaving me feeling emptier than I would like. I spun in a circle to face Lysander before turning slightly and asking Alistair over my shoulder, "How do you feel about anal?"

"Who are you?" he asked with wide eyes.

"Just a girl who has always wanted to fuck twins," I said with a grin before facing front once more.

Lysander had the more traditional red hair that had an orangish tint to it which matched the small patch of chest hair and the trail leading down from his belly button. Just like his brother he was well groomed, but the hair was much brighter in color. "You good with this?" I asked.

"I prefer pussy to ass if that's what you’re asking," he all but grunted at me.

"Not quite, but I figured you'd have spoken up by now if you had a problem sharing with your brother."

"He gets what he likes, and I get what I like, which is that sweet fucking pussy of yours and these gorgeous tits bouncing in my face." He looked like he wanted to eat me whole, and in that moment I might have just let him.

The rip of a condom wrapper brought me back to the present instead of missing the glorious opportunity in front of me.

"You sure you’re ready for this? We haven't warmed you up at all," Alistair said from behind me his hands running up and down my sides before squeezing my ass and spreading my cheeks. His fingers thrust into my pussy, working me until I was leaning on Lysander for support while he grinned down at me. When he withdrew his fingers, Alistair smeared my wetness all over my rosebud, working it looser and looser until I felt the head of his cock take the place of his fingers.

I wasn't sure when but at some point Alistair moved into a kneeling position behind me that was almost like he was sitting but a bit higher. It meant that it only took a few slow thrusts for him to sheath himself inside me. A moan of pleasure made it past my lips and that was when Lysander pushed me back so I was resting against Alistair's chest.

The darker twin wrapped his hands around my thighs pulling me off the bed and tilting my pelvis forward ever so slightly for his brother to have easier access. I looped an arm around each of them, which was a little awkward but made me feel more secure since I couldn't put my feet down. When Lysander thrust into me it was one long stroke of his cock all the way to the hilt.

They both paused, letting me acclimate to the sensation of the two of them inside me before they started moving. It was such an odd feeling, having both holes filled by some generously proportioned cocks, but I loved it. I loved the fullness, the feeling of such a thin wall of muscle separating the two while they moved against one another within me. Soon enough they had established a rhythm that left me panting for more and making small needy noises when I had enough breath to do so.

Lysander didn't waste the opportunity to play with my tits either. He cupped them and ran his fingers over my nipples until I was mumbling nonsensical syllables as they worked me into a sweaty mess like I'd never been before, at least not from sex. When I felt a hand slip between us and make its way to my clit I wanted to groan. Yes, it felt amazing, but if they were waiting for me to come, we were going to be there a long ass time.

"Don't, just fuck me," I managed to get out.

"As you wish," Alistair said with a growl from behind me.

As though I had finally given them free reign to do what they needed to, both of them picked up the pace, which I honestly hadn't thought possible, until I was just a bundle of sensation between them as they lost themselves to their own needs.

"Shit," Alistair whispered, and I heard his voice tighten. His whole body froze, one of his hands coming to rest on my hip as he came first. His brother wasn't too far behind as he gripped my shoulder and jerked further into me than ever before. I could swear he'd hit my cervix at the end there, but I didn't care. I felt amazing, like I'd just had the best workout of my life.

We all froze for a moment as they both pulsed within me, groaning a little as their orgasms finished. The three of us collapsed on the bed for a moment before Lysander popped up and ran into the bathroom only to return with tissues or toilet paper or something that he offered to me. I took it with a smile, unsure if anyone I'd ever slept with had done that before. Thurston certainly hadn't. Not that I wanted to think about him in that moment.

My gaze traveled first to one brother then the other. They were both completely blissed out as we all lay on the bed panting. I may not have had an orgasm, but I certainly got what I wanted out of the experience.

Twins? Check. Red head? Double check. Two items to check off my bucket list. The rest, like independence and having agency, were going to be harder to check off. I pushed that thought away though. I wasn't going to let it ruin what had just happened.

Chapter 5

Sage

Inch by stealthy inch I eased off the bed, leaving the twins sleeping and making my getaway before the awkward small talk of the morning hit. Last night had blown my mind in more ways than one. I was almost tempted to leave a note with my number, but that would be careless, and be more complicated than I could deal with.

I bit my lip as I looked at the two of them sprawled over the bed. Alistair was lying on his stomach, displaying the strong muscles and freckled skin on his back, while Lysander was stretched out on his back, the sheet barely concealing his manhood as it rode low over his hips. They really were the holy grail of hookups, and I was too selfish to completely pass up a repeat performance.

Decision made, I grabbed one of their phones. Alistair's was locked, but Lysander's wasn't. I texted a very specific code to a number that only I knew. The website link pinged back almost immediately. I downloaded the file and watched as it erased the text and any evidence of its existence. They would never know it was there, but now I'd be able to find them whenever I wanted. A little stalkerish, but why would an assassin let something like that stop them?

I scooped up my clothes and pulled them on before heading out and letting the door shut without a sound behind me. The hour was early enough that the hotel was empty, and as I scurried down the hallway I heard a few alarm clocks going off in a variety of rooms. Unlike me, though, most of those people probably either had an early flight or liked to get a workout in before they started the day. I just wanted to get the hell out of dodge before either of the twins woke up and tried to track me down. As tempting as a morning threesome would be, I couldn't do something like that and risk enjoying it too much.

By the time I was back at the compound it was a little later, and I had to be careful to avoid other residents so that I could make it to my room in the same clothes I had left in the night before without anyone seeing me. No one would confront me about it, I knew that, but I also knew that word would make its way back to Thurston and then he'd go into one of his rages. We'd fight and he'd probably add time or damages on to my tab, which was something I definitely didn’t want.

Fortunately, most people tended to want to avoid the others. We were all there to pay back debts, and we weren't allowed to talk to each other about our past lives or our cases, so it was easier, at least for me, to just keep to myself. There were rumors that if any of us grew too close and became friends, or worse, lovers, then the Family would send one after the other. I wouldn't kill someone I cared about. It was a line I refused to cross, something I couldn't let myself do, so I stayed away from everyone. It was that simple act, plus my mad sneaking skills that made it possible to get to my room undetected.

As soon as I was safe behind my closed door I stripped out of the outfit and shoved it into the laundry basket before taking a long, skin-meltingly-hot shower. For once I didn't feel as disgusted with myself as I sometimes did after my little adventures with other humans. I wasn't sure whether it was because they had actually treated me like another human being and not just something they got to fuck, or whether it was because of how good the sex was. Maybe I was going soft? Had I caught feelings? Not after one night, surely. It was just damn good sex, that's all.

After I stepped out of the shower, I cleaned off the mirror and began to towel off. I evaluated my body, as I did after every shower, noting any wounds, bruises, or new scars that had appeared so I could track any damage done to my body. I also kept an eye out for freckles, hoping one would pop up sometime so I wasn't just all plain skin. If I could I'd get tattoos, but the Family would never allow me to do something that so easily could identify my body or blow my cover.

The last thing I expected to find was a weird glowing handprint smack on my left butt cheek, curving around my hip and another on my right shoulder. I rubbed my towel over first one then the other, trying to get them off, but neither of them moved. They did change though. As soon as they were dry they seemed to lose the shimmering property they'd had a moment ago. Now, each of them looked more like a burn, but old ones, not fresh.

My heart pounded in my chest. Where the hell had they come from and what had caused it? Worst of all, what was Thurston going to do to me if I couldn't get rid of them before my vacation was over. The skin felt sore as I ran my fingertips over the mark on my shoulder, and I knew, based on my own hand size, that it wasn't my print.

Since I hadn't had it before last night, that could only mean that it belonged to either Lysander or Alistair, or both since there were two of them. Suddenly I wasn't feeling so crazy about putting my tracking program on Lysander's phone. If they were going to mark me somehow, then they were going to have to undo it, because whether or not they knew it they had just messed with the property of one of the most powerful families in the country, possibly in the world.

I took a few deep breaths and calmed myself down before getting dressed. There was only one thing for me to do, and that was confront them which put me back in work mode even though I was on a supposed vacation. I sat on the edge of my bed and launched the app on my phone to activate the tracker.

They were already gone from the hotel and were across town in a very densely populated area. I didn't spend too much time over that way my targets usually seemed to live in either the crappier parts of town or the super wealthy parts. I had even been sent abroad for a couple of assignments, but it always took longer than Thurston liked for me to be familiar enough with the city to complete my assignment.

The tracker was easy to start and follow. It was everything I ever wanted in an app, but then it should be since I'd built it from scratch. My well-worn jeans slipped over my skin before I put on my work shoes, the ones that were almost silent, along with a better bra and tank top, before digging out my secret stash of knives and strapping them to my back. Once I added a jacket I was ready to go. Something had me hesitating as I went to open the door. I was recognizable to them like this.

Without slowing down I turned and went into my closet, grabbed a wig, and secured it in place within a matter of moments. I had done this many times before, so it was a practiced skill. The ebony bob gave me a harder edge than my lavender hair, which was exactly what I needed to confront these guys.

I remained blessedly undisturbed as I made my way out of the compound and into the city. As I followed my path to the little green dot I grabbed a coffee and the rare treat of a cheese Danish. The flaky pastry and sweet cream cheese had been warmed through to perfection and I had my own little Breakfast at Tiffany's moment, except not as elegant and much more kickass. I walked down the small street that was filled with artsy little stores selling everything from handmade jewelry and bath products to top of the line electronics. My roaming attention traveled over each window, not only taking in the products that were on display, but the reflections as well.

I wanted to make sure no one was following me, not that anyone would have a reason to, but Thurston could be a tad bit obsessive when he wanted to be. Which happened to be the understatement of the year. If I were honest with myself, I wouldn't be surprised if he was tracking me somehow which was why I had to make this trip look as natural as possible.

Each step I took closer to seeing the twins again made me feel weird. I was excited and nervous, but also pissed and ready to take it out of their hides. I didn't know if they'd done this on purpose or what, but they needed to fix it and fast. If they didn't then my whole vacation was going to be ruined searching for a way to rid myself of these marks.

Within an hour or so I was approaching their location. The apartment block was fortunately next to a small park where there was a frisbee golf basket, a beach volleyball area which looked gross and muddy, and a rusty swing set that hadn't seen much use in a while. I dallied there for a bit while I inconspicuously assessed the building.

There was one front entrance which was locked and required a key or to know someone in the building that could buzz you in. All that was needed on my part was a little patience for someone unobservant that I could follow into the building. There appeared to be four floors, with at least one apartment on each side. I could see a fire escape clinging to the back side of the building. It looked too precarious for me to have faith in it to support anyone's weight.

I barely had to wait at all until someone who fit the profile I was looking for approached the building. With a few quick steps I was behind the woman who was looking at her phone while carrying an armful of grocery bags, and also struggling to find her key.

"Want me to hold those for you?" I asked. It was a calculated risk. Announcing my presence might make me more exposed and vulnerable to someone remembering me, but it was that or watch her suffer trying to find her key. An offer of help and the sickly-sweet smile I plastered on my face would ensure that she accepted my presence with ease and would get me in the building faster than awkwardly waiting for her.

She spun around, surprised that someone had been behind her. "Ugh, thanks, that's so nice of you," she said as she unloaded her grocery bags onto me.

"Anytime," I replied as I patiently waited for her to unlock the door.

Once we were both in I handed the grocery bags back to her and made my way upstairs since she was heading down the hall on the first floor. The beige walls and burgundy carpet were in decent condition and the stairs I was climbing made the place feel homier than most apartment buildings since they had carpet and weren't just cement and metal.

I worked my way from the top down until my marker was the closest it had been to the green dot on the screen. They were in the front room of the apartment on the second floor on the left side. The apartments were bigger than the brick facade made it look like they would be from the outside.

After I took a deep breath I knocked on the door, noting the number, 2A, in case I needed to come back at a later date. I kept my head turned to the side and down so they wouldn't be able to see me clearly through the peephole. When I felt someone on the other side of the door I had to fight the urge to turn toward them.

A moment later the door opened and one of the guys from the club that wasn't one of the twins was standing in front of me. "Can I help you?" His voice was deep and smooth like a rich cheesecake. Great, now I was thinking about cheesecake, I knew I shouldn't have had that Danish.

"Hi, I need to speak with Alistair or Lysander please," I said, figuring it was better to start off polite than to just start kicking ass and taking names which is what I wanted to do. Two red heads of hair popped into my line of sight behind the guy at the door and I was glad I'd worn one of my wigs. Looking like myself would have probably made them freak out as soon as they saw me, whereas this way I could at least get my foot in the door.

Chapter 6

Maddox

The woman standing at our doorstep was the same one from the club that the brothers took back to a hotel, but she looked different. She didn't want us, or probably just them, to recognize her for some reason. I wasn't sure if that meant that the sex was that bad or that good that she had to come after them about it. Not that we hadn't wanted to find her, after all she was our challenge.

"You going to let her in, Mads?" Lysander asked from behind me.

I backed up and opened the door wide, watching curiously as this woman who had looked like an ethereal creature the night before moved past me looking more like Kate Beckinsale from the movie Underworld. She was hot as hell, there was no denying that. Part of me was jealous of the brothers; they always got the attention. Sex and soul mates. Those were their specialties, what most people spent a good chunk of their lives taking part in or searching for. Ezio and I, on the other hand, specialized in the familial type of love and the friendship type of love.

"It's a pleasure to see you again, Sage," Alistair said as he approached the woman.

Her head cocked to the side at his words, like she was surprised at the way they recognized her but didn't really want to show it. That or she was debating how to kill them. I wasn't particularly worried which one it was since we were cupids after all.

"How did you..." She took her sunglasses and wig off, letting her lavender hair spill down her back.

"Your aura?" Alistair mumbled while waving his hand in the air.

"You guys into all that new age stuff?" she asked, her head tilted ever so slightly to the side once more.

"Some more than others," Ezio said as he came in from the kitchen carrying two cups of coffee.

I reached for the other one, but he walked straight past me and offered it to Sage, who accepted it with a smile. "I don't think I got chance to meet you two last night. I'm Sage," she said as she most likely melted into Ezio's brown eyes, before looking around him to me. I was honestly surprised she remembered I was there. Women had a tendency to fall hard and fast for him. I had always thought it was something to do with the Greek god/hero vibe he had going on with his olive skin, long wavy hair, and pouty lips. The guy was hot enough to make me feel insecure, and I had always thought I was decently attractive.

"I'm Ezio and that's Maddox," he said gesturing over his shoulder with his now free hand.

"So how did you find us?" I asked before we could get sidetracked. As far as we had known the twins woke up to an empty bed this morning and no sign of their lady lover, but now she showed up at our apartment door? Red flags and alarms were gearing up to blare in my head based on her response.

"Oh, I put a tracker on Lysander's phone this morning," she said nonchalantly before turning to the twin whose phone she used. "You should really keep that thing locked like your brother's. I mean it wouldn't have really stopped me, but it was way too easy with your phone."

"What?" Lysander asked, confusion and awe battling it out on his face while his twin just scowled.

"Your phone was easy to access because you have no sense of security with it. I put a tracking program on it while you were sleeping. Then when I found this after my shower, I used it to find you so I could get some answers. So, who wants to tell me what's going on?" she said as she pulled the collar of her jacket wide open, baring part of her shoulder to us. Thick, red, raised areas covered her skin. It looked like she'd been burned, which wasn't a good thing in anyone's book, but we couldn't help it. When she didn't get a response, she said, "Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?"

With a huff she stomped past us and went into the kitchen. I watched with amusement as I wondered what the hell was actually going on. The tap in the sink ran for a moment and she came back out with her shoulder wet and the burn mark had changed. It glowed and shimmered in the light.

She had taken off the jacket and was standing there in a tiny tank top that made her breasts the center of attention, and I was definitely not complaining about that. The only thing that was distracting me from the sight in front of me was the stuttering coming from Lysander. When I couldn't stand it anymore, I turned to him and said, "What's wrong?"

"That's the mate mark. Don't you ever listen?" Alistair hissed at me.

"The fuck?" Sage asked as she pulled her jacket back on like a shield.

Lysander groaned and went to the liquor cabinet and poured himself a drink. Two fingers of bourbon most likely. When he turned around he handed a drink to his brother, tequila, and had poured another one for himself. "Drink?" he asked Sage, while we all migrated toward the couches and sat down. I had a feeling that this was a conversation we all needed to be a part of although Ezio looked like he'd rather be watching paint dry. As I watched the other man his eyes kept flicking to Sage. He didn't want to appear interested, especially if the brothers were, but one thing we were all forgetting was that Sage was our mark.

We had been sent here as our final challenge before we got our wings as cupids. One of Eros's flunkies had assigned us this area and said we would know the target when we saw them because they would be so closed off to love that it would feel like a vacuum which is exactly what I felt when I'd seen Sage at the club. She had been there alone, been dancing alone, and had left with two men she'd barely exchanged two words with, so she clearly wasn't looking for anything serious from them. It made the mate mark that much more ironic.

"When we find our mates they are marked so that other cupids know they are taken," Ezio said as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.

My jaw dropped and I just stared at him. Was the man really that oblivious?

"Cupids?" Sage asked, one eyebrow quirked to match the tone of her question.

We. Were. Fucked.

All because Ezio had to open his damn mouth. Rule number one of being a cupid? Don't let anyone find out what you are. Rule number two? Don't fall for your mark. Rule number three? Don't let your mark fall for you. So far we had managed to break two of the three rules in less than twenty-four hours. At this rate we'd be back on provisional duties where we weren't even allowed to use our powers before the end of the week.

Lysander, Alistair, and I all glared at Ezio. He opened this can of worms, and he could damn well finish it. He stared back at us as though he had no idea what he'd just done. "You didn't tell her?" he murmured, the penny finally dropping as he realized he'd just stepped in the biggest pile of shit possible.

"Not so much. You know, we were trying to be good boys and follow the rules and all," Lysander snarked clearly unhappy with Ezio's overshare moment.

"Oh," he said quietly as he ran a hand through his hair only to get stuck when he hit his man-bun.

"Someone tell me what's going on, or I'm going to start getting really pissed off, and trust me, you wouldn't like me like that," Sage said. The thunder on her face illustrated the point perfectly. I got the feeling she wasn't quick to anger, she seemed to have more control over her emotions than that, but that didn't mean that she was going to sit back and put up with all of our bullshit.

Alistair sighed and responded. "You might not know it, in fact, you probably don't, but there are supernatural beings that coexist alongside humans in this world."

Her brow furrowed, but she didn't freak out which was a good sign.

When she didn't respond, Alistair continued, "We are descendants of Eros and Psyche, a few generations removed, which is why we look so different."

"Prove it." Sage crossed her arms over her chest and gave us each the full force of her skeptical look, which I had to say was pretty damn sexy.

"You'll flip out and I don't want to deal with that," Alistair hedged. The man just didn't want to show her what we were working with. I got it, I just didn't care as much as he did. It didn't matter what happened now, Sage was officially a liability and needed to be managed.

I rolled my shoulders and stretched my arms, letting the ethereal sheer wings out from their hiding spot, and I relaxed the glamour that covered me from head to toe. When I cleared my throat Sage looked over. Her blue eyes widened and her lips formed a perfect, somehow still pouty, o shape.

"When we finish our final challenge our wings will become solid and we will actually be able to use them. Right now they are more of an indicator of what's to come," I said.

"Why? Are you in Cupid College or something?" she asked as her eyes kept darting over my shoulder to my wings.

"Basically, yeah. We each have our own talents, and we have to make sure we know how and when to use them to the greatest effect so that people keep falling in love. Not just romantically either, but so mothers and fathers love their children, so people love their friends. It’s all out there for a cupid to play with, and there are enough of us around that it's not a crisis, but that doesn't mean we can relax. Cupids have to train and be ready for their challenge whenever another cupid is out of commission."

"Do you each have a handler? Or do you work more as a unit?" she asked.

The questions this woman asked were not normal. Not that we had ever done this kind of thing before, but still. A handler? "We work as a unit until told otherwise."

"So you're all related?"

“Loosely.” I nodded.

"You should be freaking out," Lysander hedged as he watched Sage. I fully agreed with him; something was off about this woman.

"I've seen enough in my time to know that humans aren't alone out there."

"In your time," Ezio scoffed. "What are you? Twenty-one?"

I knew he guessed that age because it was the minimum to get into the club we had been in last night, at least unless she had a good fake ID. She didn't look that young to me though, there was a tiredness about her, like she had seen too much already.

"I'm twenty-five. Not that it matters."

"And what have you seen in your long years on this planet?" Ezio asked. There was a bee in his bonnet about something, I just couldn't figure out what it was. He'd been pleasant when Sage first came in, had even given her my coffee. Now though, it felt like there was a sharper edge between them, something I'd have to talk to him about later. Our Italian brother didn't get bent out of shape about nothing. In fact, he was usually one of the most relaxed people I knew.

Sage glared up at Ezio, who was leaning against the edge of the other couch. In a blink she'd launched herself from her seat and was pressed against him, a blade to his throat. "What is it that they say? It's not the years in your life, but the life in your years? Trust me when I say that my life is no walk in the park, lover boy."

"Where the fuck did you get a knife from?" Lysander asked as he pushed his hair out of his face.

"I'm always armed," Sage said simply, as though that should answer all our questions instead of making more.

"Who the fuck are you?" Alistair asked, his eyebrows pinched in concern.

"Why should I tell you?" Sage challenged.

"Because we just told you our most closely guarded secret, we fucked you senseless, and apparently the fates have a sick sense of humor because you’re our mate," Lysander replied, his Adam's apple bobbing against the blade which bit into his skin just enough to draw blood.

I sighed and said, "Can you at least put the blade away so we can talk without you accidentally slicing into our brother's jugular?"

"If I slice into his throat, there will be nothing accidental about it," she said as she looked over at me.

I could practically feel the chill roll over my skin. This woman didn't have an ounce of love in her life which was something we needed to fix not only to complete our challenge, but to prove to her that she was in fact Lysander and Alistair's mate.

Chapter 7

Sage

Rage was bubbling inside me. Mate. Who used that kind of word? Lovers? Sure. Friends? Definitely, well, people other than me anyway. No one talked like these guys though, and I certainly wasn't the mate of two guys I'd had a one-night stand with.

I pulled the blade away from Lysander's throat and returned it to its holster on my back, where it sat snugly with its brethren, before moving to sit on the couch. "I'm a girl who was forced to develop a love for knives," I said trying to skirt around around what they were really asking.

"Why?" Alistair asked as he stared down at me, arms folded over his impressive chest. My mind flashed with the image of him under me as I rode him the night before and I had to fight to stop myself from blushing.

"Just tell us what's going on. Maybe we can help?" Lysander suggested, while Ezio and Maddox just watched me with eagle eyes. I was surprised that the man I had just threatened was the one who offered help. It made me uncomfortable. A large part of me wanted to run and hide from this strange intimacy that was between us, but the niggling voice in the back of my head kept asking, what if they could help? The four of them watched me as my internal debate waged. My teeth pulled at the inside of my bottom lip. Finally, I blurted, "I'm working off my parents’ debts as an assassin."

Maddox, Lysander, and Ezio all sat down a little too quickly. I knew it was probably the last thing they had expected me to say, but I couldn't help that.

"You're an assassin?" Alistair chuckled. "Yeah, and I'm the Hulk."

"I'm serious."

"Um hum. Good try, sweetheart, but let's hear what's really going on," Alistair snarked.

I was out of my seat and moving before he'd even processed what I was doing. I flipped, yes, it was an unnecessary flip just to show off, over the coffee table and struck him in the side of the jaw with one hand while the other pulled one of my favorite garrote wires from my belt buckle. Before he could start to fight back I was swooping behind him, pinning him as I pulled the wire around his neck. The wire handles were perfectly molded to my hands after years of use and were as reliable as any of my blades.

"What were you saying?" I asked sweetly in his ear. My foot was digging into his calf and my knee was in his back while his hands scrabbled against the cord around his neck. I would never hurt someone I wasn't supposed to, but that didn't mean that I wasn't above a demonstration. After all, why should the only people who see my years of training be the people who are about to die? Or Family members, but I didn't like to think about that.

"Let him up," Lysander said, his voice low and quiet, cutting through the noise of Alistair's heavy breathing and the shuffle of Ezio's feet. Maddox hadn't moved. Evidently, he was the only one with any sanity. After all, an assassin is just the bullet; someone else has to pull the trigger, and no one had, or would, until my vacation was over.

I did as the other twin asked and Alistair coughed a bit and rubbed his neck, but I knew I hadn't drawn blood or even hurt him that badly. The man was just being dramatic. The tension in the room ratcheted down once I released him, and all four of them stared at me.

"Fuck, you really are an assassin," Alistair said between melodramatic coughs.

"I am." I wound the garrote wire back up and slid it into its storage space in my belt buckle.

After a moment's pause they all started talking over each other. Alistair asked, "Why?"

"I don't know why you didn't believe her," Maddox grumbled.

"Who do you work for?" Ezio asked.

"Is that why you're so cold?" Lysander wondered.

I groaned and fell back into the armchair behind me. I should have known it would only make more questions. Most people would be scared of an assassin, but not these guys. Being supernatural always made people think they were invincible when they weren't. I should know, I've killed more than my fair share of creatures as well as humans. No one is as invincible as they think they are.

With a sigh I raised one hand putting fingers down as I answered their questions. "First off, I'm not cold, I'm practical. Secondly, I can't tell you who I work for. Thirdly, I don't have a choice, and fourthly, thanks for believing me, Maddox." By the time I was finished the only finger left up was my middle finger. "Well, look at that." I grinned before folding my middle finger down into the fist I'd made and dropping it onto my lap.

"You are cold, you just can't see it yet, but we can help with that, can't we boys?" Lysander looked between his brothers or half-brothers or whatever they were and grinned.

"It's our job to help you with that, Sage, so I hope you'll let us. It will make it go easier and faster for all of us," Ezio said.

"I'm not sure I understand," I said cautiously.

"You are our final challenge. We knew that when we met at the club. All we need to do is open you up to each kind of love and we will get our wings. Should be easy considering these two are your soul mates," Maddox said from his spot on the other couch.

"How do you know it was me? There were hundreds of people there last night. It could be any of them."

"As cupids we can tell when someone is closed off from love, like a cold draft in a warm room. And you, honey? You're a blizzard in the middle of a Florida July," Maddox continued.

He seemed to be the most reasonable of the bunch and I wondered why that was, maybe his specialty? Maybe he was just driven more by his goals than his libido? Who knows?

"Well, as an assassin it's helpful not to feel mushy all the time. You think I can afford to love?" I scoffed before continuing. "I can't afford to show any weakness. None. The moment I do it will be taken advantage of, like someone hitting an open wound. I need to serve my time and do it as quickly as possible. I don't take sick days. I don't take vacations, or didn't until now, and that has done nothing but serve me well. I am careful to a fault not to add to my balance so I have to serve more time. The only thing that matters to me is paying it down and getting out of their clutches."

"And what happens after that?" Ezio asked.

"Then I'm free and I can do whatever I want, and I never have to kill anyone ever again," I said with a sigh as my dream flowed through my mind. I'd move to a non-extradition country and live on the beach with the small amount of cash I had. Maybe I'd make necklaces and sell them to tourists or something. It didn't matter so long as I wasn't stuck with the Family for the rest of my life.

"How are you going to support yourself?" Maddox asked.

Suddenly, I didn't like how reasonable he was. "I don't have to justify anything to you lot. I'm just trying to survive the next few years, then once I have my freedom maybe I'll let myself fall in love, but until that point it's not going to happen."

"You're right. You don't have to justify anything to us. Do you justify it to the people you kill?" Ezio asked.

"I'm just a weapon. I don't make the decision. Look, all I want to know is how to get rid of this handprint. That's it. If I don't before my vacation is over then it is very likely that it will piss my handler off, and that is not something I can afford," I said trying to steer the conversation back to the reason I showed up.

"The mark is permanent," Alistair said quietly.

"It's a privilege for a cupid to find their soul mate. It's something that's incredibly rare," Lysander added.

"I don't care. It's not something I can fit in my life right now, and if I don't get this mark off then I'm going to be punished, so thanks for that." My anger whipped about within me like a storm.

"What if we help you get out of your contract?" Maddox asked.

Everyone stilled and I could have heard a pin drop within the room. I eyed Maddox, unsure what to say. "Explain."

Maddox ran a hand through his inky black hair as he said, "We are supernatural, with supernatural friends and resources. There must be something we can do to get you out of killing people for a living. What happens if we take out your handler?"

"I get a new one."

"Witness protection?” Alistair asked.

"You don't understand how powerful my employers are. They have people in every organization in the country. They control police, state troopers, FBI agents, CIA agents, NSA agents, and any other acronym agency that's out there. Not to mention judges and lawyers. They are insidious and everywhere."

"How many others are there like you?" Ezio asked.

I exhaled sharply. "I don't know. In the compound I live in probably 20, each with their own specialty and caseload."

"Do you have any friends?" Alistair asked quietly.

"I don't see how that's important." I could hear the defensive tone in my own voice and it made me cringe internally.

"That's a no if I ever heard one," Lysander replied.

"Friends are liabilities. They are pressure points that can be squeezed and manipulated to get me to do something I don't want to do. There is a reason I have isolated myself, and if you think I enjoy this then you are sorely mistaken."

"What if we help you take down your employers?" Maddox asked.

He was a dark horse, and I appreciated that. The idea sent a chill down my spine. Was it even possible? I knew escaping them wasn't, there was too much evidence of it failing for others, especially when I was one of the people sent to hunt them down. "You shouldn't even vocalize something like that," I said, my voice dropping to a whisper.

"Tell me something," Lysander said, pausing until I was looking at him. "Do you believe in soul mates?"

"Ugh. Not this again!"

"Just answer the question." Alistair said as he pinched the bridge of his nose, as though I was the infuriating one. Ha!

I opened my mouth to answer but before I could get a syllable out Lysander jumped in and said, "Really think about it, please."

So I did. I sat and thought for a few minutes while the guys all played with their phones and whatnot. Finally, I answered, "Yes, I do." My voice was faint to my own ears. This kind of thing was not something I was comfortable thinking about.

"And is it so far beyond belief that we, cupids, descendants of Eros and Psyche, might be your soul mates?" Alistair asked.

"All because of a hand print?" I asked, desperately trying to wrap my brain around it.

"That's what the gods decided to do for us. I don't know a better way to explain it," Lysander said.

"Maddox had a solid idea. If you can't run away or get out of your contract, then I think we should help you take them down. I mean think about all the other souls that are being held back from finding their mates, finding their family, even friends because of these people," Ezio said.

"You make is sound simple and easy, but it would basically be like taking down the government," I huffed, exasperated by their unwillingness to understand this concept.

"Revolutions happen. Maybe you’re the fire starter for this one. Either way, I think the fates set us on this path for a reason. I don't believe meeting you at the club last night was a coincidence, not when we were sent to this territory weeks ago. The fact that you guys are mates as well? It just cements this whole thing in my head." Maddox shrugged.

I sighed. This conversation seemed half dream, half nightmare. It was everything I wanted but had been too scared to consider, to even think about, let alone act on. Now, with their help, it might just be possible, and that scared me even more.

Chapter 8

Ezio

"I can hunt them. They've trained me to find anyone, anywhere, I can use that against them. Especially if I have supernatural help," Sage said quietly, her blue eyes flashing up to mine as she spoke before also looking at each of my brothers. Her eyes were captivating, a true sky blue that made me want to lie in a field and watch clouds go by. Not that I ever did that shit, but still. She was like a perfect summer day, just waiting for the chance to arrive. The trouble was she seemed to be stuck in the winter of her life right now.

"Consider us at your service," I said. The truth was, I didn't want to lose the connection we had with her, and if that meant pulling out the big guns and grinding these fuckers to ash then so be it. Soul mates weren't given out lightly by the fates, especially not to supernatural beings, so the fact that she bore both Lysander's and Alistair's mark was tempting. We were a unit, always had been, always would be, so that left one question in my mind. Was she my soul mate too? And for that matter, was she Maddox's soul mate?

Murmurs of agreement sounded around me as my thoughts continued to speed into the future. I might not be a cupid of soul mates or bed partners, but I craved a love of my own more deeply than I had ever expressed to my brothers. Now that the potential for it was sitting in front of me, looking like an assassin extra from a John Wick movie, I couldn't resist the lure of the dream.

"Okay, so we spend your vacation time tracking and taking out high ranking members of your employer, then once your free of them, we see if this soul mate stuff is for real?" Lysander proposed.

"What if she doesn't fall in love with you?" Maddox asked.

"Then we track down the fates and ask them what the fuck is going on," Alistair added. "I don't know about you, Sage, but the sex that we had was probably the best of my life, and that was without you being emotionally invested. Can you imagine what it would be like if you actually gave a shit about us?"

I expected her to blush at his comment, but she didn't. The coldness that we felt coming from her was going to take a long time to work through and I, for one, was excited to see what was at the other end. Sage looked over at Alistair and said, "I've never had sex with someone I care about, so I have no idea what it's like, to be honest."

"Never?" Lysander asked, his eyes wide with surprise.

"No. My handler is technically the only person I'm supposed to sleep with, since he demands it, but when I go out and dance I usually go home with someone, because I can't stand him being the only one to touch me."

"He'll never touch you again, sweetheart, that's a promise." Lysander's voice was low and threatening.

"If I want information then I might have to let him," Sage said, although she sounded as though she felt sick at the thought.

"You don't have to do anything you don't want to. Not anymore. We are willing to protect you, fight for and with you, if you will let us." I spoke softly, trying to soothe the disgust that was so clearly rolling through her.

Sage barked a laugh, but there was no mirth behind it. "Fighting is more my area of expertise, not yours."

"Just because we're cupids doesn't mean we aren't knowledgeable in combat," Maddox calmly replied.

"Okay, so what have you trained in?" Sage cast critical eyes over all four of us as though she was evaluating our skill levels just from our bodies. Judging from her expression, while she appreciated what she saw, she didn't seem to think we were up to the task.

"Judo, aikido, kickboxing, Muay Thai, among others." Lysander crossed his arms over his chest, clearly unused to women questioning his physical prowess.

"Good starters. I'll have to see you move before I'm willing to fight with you, but if you aren't up to it then I'll train you myself. You might not want to be my soul mate after that, but if we are going to stand any chance of taking down the Family then you need to be on point with stealth as well as brute force."

I watched Sage as she spoke and she clearly had a teaching bent to her personality. Match that with her hair and stunning eyes and I'd let her teach me anything she wanted. Hell, she could teach me how to knit and I'd sit through it just to spend time with her. It made me envious that I wasn't the one to go home with her the night before, but if I'd learned anything after my years of working my way up through the cupid ranks with my brothers it was that women loved twins.

"Agreed," I said as I extended my hand to Sage. She took it, her hand fitting delicately inside my own. I felt the charge of her energy run through me. It was as cold as ice but as powerful as lightning and gods if that didn't make me want her all the more.

"Agreed," Maddox said, copying me, except he extended the opposite hand to mine. He and Sage shook on it and I saw his eyes widen fractionally as her energy hit him like a thunderbolt. I wanted to grin at him, but I knew our more serious brother wouldn't appreciate it in this situation. Lysander and Alistair shook her hands as well and just like that a pact was formed.

"From now on we fight together. We bring them down, we free everyone we can, but most importantly we will set you free, no matter what," Maddox said. It sounded like an announcement, the kind of thing you see in movies when the captain addresses the crew before the final battle. The difference was we were only just beginning.

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About Helen Scott

Helen Scott lives in the Chicago area with her wonderful husband and furry, four-legged kids. She spends way too much time with her nose in a book and isn’t sorry about it. When not reading or writing, Helen can be found absorbed in one video game or another or crocheting her heart out.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank you most of all, as the reader, for giving me a chance to entertain you and invite you into my world. Thank you so much. I hope you enjoyed it! A big thank you to my cover designer, Natasha Snow, for helping me bring this book to life and to my editor, Ms. Correct All’s, for making sure that the readers get the best possible version of the book.

Thank you to my family for helping me pursue my dream and putting up with my wandering mind. Last, but not least, thank you to my husband for pushing me to share my stories with the world. Thanks for putting up with me every day, babe. You’re amazing!

Copyright

Cupid’s Kiss

Cupid’s Heart Book One

Copyright © 2019 by Helen Scott

Cover Design © Natasha Snow

Editing by Ms. Correct All’s Editing and Proofreading Services

All rights reserved.

This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author, except for the brief use of quotations in a book review.

This book is intended for adults only. The sexual activities represented in this book are a work of fiction intended for adults. This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are used fictitiously by the author. Any resemblance to actual places, events, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Valhalla Bound © 2019 Embrace the Fantasy Publishing, LLC

All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

Warning: the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

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About the Book

Ashleigh has a 10-year-plan. Graduate college. Get a job as a photojournalist. Travel the world.

Dying was not part of the plan.

Thrust into Valhalla, Ashleigh is faced with more challenges and temptations than ever before. Three of which are gods.

Chapter 1

My head was two seconds from exploding. It was finals week at Boston University, and I had been cramming for every test on my schedule for hours on end.

If I wasn’t sleeping—which didn’t happen much lately anyway—I was chugging away at my books. My friends weren’t too worried since they were the exact same way. We were all hiding out, either in our room or at the library, trying to absorb as much information as possible in a short amount of time.

Not the most effective way of studying, but some of us didn’t have the pleasure of being geniuses. Some people absorbed information and kept it. Me? I had to have a leak somewhere, because I couldn’t remember what I had for breakfast, let alone who wrote the Gettysburg Address. Abraham Lincoln, thank you very much.

“Hey, Ashleigh.” My roommate, Beverly, bumped my shoulder, making my pen skitter across my notes.

I shot a glare her way. “Hey, watch it.”

“Sorry.” She collapsed in the chair next to me, her apology genuine. She, like the rest of the students, knew the seriousness of passing these finals. So, it saved me from going off on her. Beverly folded her legs under her and glanced over my book. “How much more do you have today?”

I sighed and reached up to adjust my messy bun of midnight, crimson hair. My natural color was blonde, but rarely will you see me actually sporting it. “I have the rest of my history notes to go over and then the mythology class.”

Beverly snorted. “Like you don’t know all of the stories already.”

I lifted a shoulder and dropped it, pushing my glasses up my nose. “I still like to refresh, just in case. You know Professor Michaelson. She likes to throw you a curveball and put the most minute detail in her tests.”

Letting out a long sound of disgust, Bev leaned back in her chair. “Don’t I know it. I had her for English Lit one year.” She shuddered. “Worst semester of my life.”

We giggled together for a moment until the librarian shushed us.

Pantomiming zipping my lips, I turned back to Bev. “So, what’s up? You didn’t come to this soul-sucking cesspool just to check up on me, did you?”

Bev shoved a hand through her short, brown hair and her even darker eyes crinkled at the edges. “Of course not. I came to see if you wanted to go to this rager tonight.”

I snorted and picked up my book, hugging it closer to my chest. “I don’t have time.”

“Of course you do.” Bev pulled the book out of my hands, snapping it shut with a loud clap as I cried out.

“Give it back.”

“No.” She shook her head. “It’s eight on a Friday night. Your last final is on Monday. You have plenty of time to kill yourself this weekend. You can spend a few hours having fun.”

“I’m not going to waste my free time getting drunk with a bunch of meatheads.” I grabbed for my book, but she held it out of my reach. My eyes narrowing, I shot a hand out and poked her under the arm where I knew she was ticklish.

It worked!

Bev dropped her arm and my book, allowing me to grab it from her greedy clutches and slide it back in front of me. My roommate pouted but didn’t grab for the book again. Instead, she picked up one of my pencils and tapped it on the table.

“Look, I don’t want to hang out with those meatheads either, but Miranda’s part of the sorority that is cohosting it. I can’t really not go,” Bev explained with a small shrug.

Miranda was Bev’s girlfriend. While Bev was more like me—bookish, and more likely to be hanging in our room than out getting trashed and hooking up—Miranda was a go-getter, a cheerleader, and an all-around party girl. How the two of them hooked up I still didn’t know, but they’re happy, and that makes me happy for them.

I stared at my roommate for a second then sighed, and threw my head back before grumbling, “Fine. Half an hour.”

Bev grinned and pointed the pencil at me. “Two hours.”

I shook my head and grimaced. “No way. I’ll want to be curled up in bed and dead to the world before midnight. Thank you very much.”

My roommate let out a dramatic sigh, and then uncurled her legs from under her as she stood. “Fine. You win. One hour. But you have to take a damn shower.” She leaned in and sniffed me before pinching her nose. “Because you are getting ripe, bitch.”

I opened my mouth, but she cut me off. “And no dry shampoo. An actual shower. With water and everything.” I clamped my mouth shut and grumbled under my breath. What could I say? I liked my dry shampoo. It kept my color brighter longer, and it was just so much easier. A few spritzes and you’re ready to go!

“Alright, I guess.”

Bev helped me pack up my stuff, and we headed back to our dorm. Boston University was a pretty good-sized campus with large, red brick buildings mixed with a few modern pieces. But most importantly, it had one of the best photography journalism programs in the country. It was my lifelong dream to travel around the world and take shots of all the historical events as they happened.

What better way to record history than to be there? Right in the muck of things. One of my favorite photographs was one from 1940, where a little girl clutched her doll close to her while sitting in the remnants that had once been her home. The raw emotion there, which the photographer captured during that perilous time, really touched me. I wanted to cause that same reaction in someone else someday.

“Okay.” Bev stopped us in front of our hallway. “You go shower, and I’ll pick out something for you to wear.”

“Uh, I don’t know about that.” I arched a brow at her. “Last time I let you dress me, I looked like a runner-up at RuPaul’s Drag Show.”

“Hey, I still stand behind that sequined dress. It was hot.” She pointed a finger at me with a wink.

I rolled my eyes. “Hot or not, I couldn’t stand in one place too long without a frat boy wanting to motorboat my boobs.”

Bev made a honking motion at my chest. “Well, they are fabulous. If my honkers were that big, then I would be flaunting them every night.” She frowned down at her own A-cup boobs and tried to push them together to make some semblance of cleavage before sighing. “Oh well, I just have to live vicariously through you.”

“What about Miranda?” I cocked my head to the side. “She’s got boobs too.”

“But those are her boobs. It’s not the same.” Bev shook her head as I laughed. “Now go shower, you’re starting to smell like the potheads up on the fourth floor.”

“I’m going. I’m going.” I waved her off, and she popped me on the ass as I walked away. Giggling, I waved a finger at her. “Hey, hands off the merchandise or I’ll tell Miranda.”

“Oooh, please do! Jealousy sex is so much better than regular, old lesbian sex.” Bev waggled her brows at me.

“Isn’t it always lesbian sex?” I asked, walking backward down the hallway.

Bev shrugged. “Yeah, but this way she does all the work.”

I shook my head and laughed at her. “That sounds like true love to me.”

Chapter 2

The volume of the music in the frat house was record level high tonight. The floor vibrated with every beat of the song blasting through the speakers. How anyone could hear themselves think, let alone talk to their friends, was beyond me. Honestly, I was surprised that the cops hadn’t been called already.

“Isn’t this great?” Miranda yelled at me with a big grin, as she handed me a red solo cup.

I took it graciously and sniffed it. Beer. Gross. Pretending to drink from it, I nodded my head at the perky brunette.

Miranda didn’t really notice my lack of enthusiasm. She was too focused on making sure Bev paid attention to her and her tiny pink dress, which barely covered her ass. She was one step away from flashing the whole room, and I think she half wished it’d happen.

Thankfully, tonight Bev had taken mercy on me and picked out a pair of tight jeans and a lacy camisole that, while wasn’t as slutty on most people, looked obscene with my double D’s. Most of the time guys at least pretended to be checking out your whole package, but tonight, in this top, they were zeroing in on my cleavage like they were Winnie the Pooh and my chest was the pot of honey. I didn’t want to even know what they had running through their mind.

“Come on.” Miranda grabbed Bev’s arm and dragged her to the dance floor. Bev gave me an apologetic look before letting her girlfriend take her away.

I sighed. Fuck. My eyes scanned the room, either looking for an escape plan or someone I knew. It was really up in the air right now. I’d promised Bev one hour, but I’d only been here for five minutes, and I was ready to leave.

After a few moments, I decided to at least see if there was something other than beer around here. If I was going to drink, I’d at least like to drink something that didn’t taste like goat piss.

I pushed through the crowd and almost had a drink thrown on my shirt on my way, but I dodged it at the last second. Grumbling and developing a headache, I made it to the kitchen in one piece. Unfortunately, the person who was in the kitchen made me want to turn right around and leave it.

“Ash!” Christopher Turner called out, before I could duck out unseen. “Hey, wait up. You’re not leaving, are you?”

I paused mid-turn and spun back around with a weak smile. “Uh, yeah. This isn’t really my scene, you know.” I shrugged and held up my cup with a wrinkle of my nose.

Christopher Turner, Chris for short, was my ex-boyfriend from high school. He had dirty blond hair, baby blue eyes, and a panty-melting smile. We dated all four years and then when we got to the end of high school, he wanted to take it to the next level. You know, get married and have kids, the whole nine yards. He was ready to start forever.

Except, I wasn’t.

I wanted to see the world, have a career, enjoy being independent and away from my controlling family for a while before I settled down. Kids and marriage were not in the ten-year plan. It tore me apart to break up with him, but we just wanted different things.

Before we broke up, we had planned on going to Boston University together, which made it even harder for us to split. We still saw each other around campus and occasionally, like now, at parties. It was usually awkward and so full of tension that I would leave with some kind of excuse, but lately, Chris had been seeking me out more.

I’d see him in the library. At the mess hall. And every single party I happen to actually go to. It made me wonder if he was getting inside information from Bev. I wouldn’t put it past that busybody to try and push us back together. She’d been there all those months I cried over him. Four years later, and we were still roommates and on the verge of graduating. Bev means well, but she just didn’t understand why I wouldn’t want what Chris was offering.

“Here.” Chris hurried to take my cup, and then replaced it with another one. “You shouldn’t have to drink that shit.”

I sniffed the contents of the cup he gave me and then took a tentative sip. Peach schnapps. “Thanks.” I gave him a suspicious look. Did he bring a bottle of my favorite drink to a rager? I glanced around, trying to see the bottle, but couldn’t make it out amongst the others.

“You’re welcome.” Chris beamed down at me with those pretty blue eyes. They shot straight into my soul and made my heart, as well as other parts, ache for him. Chris had been my first and last boyfriend, which meant I’d only ever been with him.

I know, I know. I was in college. I was supposed to experiment. Play the field. But I couldn’t bring myself to get involved with someone else when I was so career-focused right now. Even if it was for one night. I had always believed sex had to mean something and drunken one-night stands had never been my idea of a good time.

I’ll keep my batteries and my pride, thank you very much.

“So...” Chris drew out, taking a drink of his own cup. His hand was shoved in the pocket of his jeans that I knew would hug his gorgeous ass like a glove if he turned around. The t-shirt he was wearing had the frat house’s symbols on it and barely fit his muscular form.

While I had gone to Boston University for photojournalism, Chris came on a football scholarship. He wasn’t an idiot by any means—his business tycoon dad wouldn’t allow it—but he did care a lot about fitness. And I, and the rest of the student body, thanked him for it.

“So,” I sipped from my cup and avoided his gaze, “how are your finals?”

“Good. Good.” He bobbed his head and then sighed. “This is hard isn’t it?”

I grimaced. “Yeah.”

He dragged a hand through his hair and lifted his shoulder. “It didn’t use to be. In high school we were—”

I cut him off. “Please don’t. We’re not in high school anymore. And we’re not those same kids either.”

“Yeah but,” he tried again, but I knew where he was going and I just didn’t want to hear it. My heart couldn’t take it.

“No buts.” I shook my head. “We can’t rehash this again, it won’t change. My answer hasn’t changed.”

“But I have,” Chris cried out, drawing the attention of a few partygoers who came to get a refill. He lowered his voice and stepped in close to me. “I mean, I understand what you want now. I didn’t before and I thought we only had one option, but we have so many options right now.” He grabbed my free hand and held it tight. “We can go see the world together. We don’t have to get married. Not right now, or ever. Not if you don’t want to.”

There was so much hopefulness in his voice that I wanted to say yes. I wanted to tell him to let’s give it another shot, just so I didn’t have to disappoint him and break his heart all over again. But I couldn’t, because I wasn’t sure he actually meant it and I couldn’t do it again.

I swallowed back the words and withdrew my hand from his. Ducking my head down, I stepped backward and mumbled, “Bathroom.”

Chris called after me as I rushed through the throng of people and hunted down the bathroom. I should have just left the party, but I wasn’t really thinking that clearly. I could hear Chris following me, but I ignored him.

Unfortunately, everyone knew that if you needed to go to the bathroom at something like this then you better learn to hold it. The line wrapped around the hallway and didn’t look like it was moving at all. Chris was closing in on me so I turned right and pounded up the stairs rather than waiting in line where he could corner me.

I shoved past couples making out and darted into the game room. There were a few people here playing pool, but not as many as downstairs. A guy at the pool table was lining up his shot, and I glanced back to see if Chris had followed me. The next thing I heard was someone shouting, “Watch out!” And then I felt a sharp pain before everything went black.

Chapter 3

Cold. My body ached. I couldn’t feel my toes. I felt like I’d gone up against the Boston U’s football team and lost. Badly.

Groaning, I rolled over onto my side and pushed up. The ground was freezing beneath my fingers, and I quickly snatched my hand back as my eyes creaked open. When they came in contact with a dimly lit cavern, my eyelids shot up.

Where the hell was I?

My head swiveled around, searching back and forth, as I tried to recall how I’d gotten here. I’d been at the frat party, right? I certainly hadn’t been in a cave.

As I inched to my feet, I wrapped my arms around my bare shoulders and shivered. I remembered running from Chris and his never-ending puppy dog eyes, and then the guys playing pool. Someone shouted at me. Pain.

I winced. My hand went up to the side of my head, where a phantom pain still lingered, but I didn’t feel a wound and no blood came away on my fingers. My hand. I flipped it over and back again. My nails had been painted bright green before, and now they’re not.

My eyes glanced down at my body, and I let out a little shocked, “Eep.” The jeans and camisole I’d worn before were gone, and in their place was a white gown made of some thick, coarse material. It clung to my curves, and my breasts, which had no bra, were even more obscenely displayed than before. However, the worst of it all was my midnight, red hair. The hair I’d spent months on trying to keep its bright and vibrant color, had transformed back into the drab blonde I’d been born with.

“No,” I groaned, lifting the blonde strands up. “No. No. No!”

“Yes, yes. You’re dead. It’s quite horrible, isn’t it?” a mocking voice called from somewhere in the cave.

My head jerked up, and I searched for the owner of the voice, but didn’t see anyone. “Who’s there?” I asked, thankful my voice didn’t shake. “What do you mean I’m dead?”

“Oh, yes. Quite dead. But I thought you knew that?” The decidedly male voice paused. “Or isn’t that why you were freaking out?”

I narrowed my gaze at the spot in the cave where I had deciphered the voice was coming from. I couldn’t see anyone, although I’d tried my best. I knew something was there. “I wasn’t freaking out about dying, but we’ll get back to that later. I was freaking out cause my hair—the hair I’d spent months getting the perfect shade of red—is ruined.”

The male hummed with interest. “Well, that is easily remedied.”

My head tingled, and then the blonde hair in my hands began to bleed. Or rather change into the red I’d once had before. I gaped at it as the color slid up my head, until I could only assume my hair was now the color it was before.

“Huh, you’re right. It does look better that way.” The voice was closer now, and I glanced up from my newly colored hair to the man who had stepped out of the shadows. Ebony hair swept the shoulders of the handsome man, who had a sharp nose and an even sharper chin. His wiry frame was covered in green and black robes with a gold lining. He wore black pants and a greyish, green armor beneath. What really stood out, besides his jet-black eyes, was the golden, horned helmet on his head.

My mouth fell open. Bev hadn’t been joking when she said I knew the myths backward and forward. Most of all, I knew Norse mythology or, more specifically, the gods. And if I was actually dead and not dreaming, Loki, the God of Mischief, was standing right in front of me. And if that was the case, then I wasn’t in the frat house anymore. I wasn’t even on earth anymore. I was in Valhalla. Land of the Gods.

“You don’t look surprised.” Loki approached me with steady steps. His black boots made no sound on the cavern floor, nor did his long, golden staff. He circled around me with surveying eyes, making me feel like he was undressing me as he moved.

I lifted and dropped a shoulder. “I don’t surprise easily. Besides, I know you.”

“You do?” Loki seemed taken aback with a grin that made dimples show in his cheeks. Swoon.

“You’re Loki.” I lifted my chin and met his laughing gaze with my blue-green eyes.

“Well, my fair maiden. If you know me, then perhaps you will do me the good honor of knowing you.” He gave me a mocking bow, holding a hand out toward me. I wasn’t sure if he expected me to take it or if he was just being dramatic. He was the God of Mischief for a reason.

“Uh, Ashleigh Hartsock.” I placed my hand in his, and he wrapped his long, slender fingers around it and pulled me toward him with a surprised, “Eek.”

Pressing his lips to the top of my knuckles, Loki peered deep into my eyes. “Well, Ashleigh Hartsock, I am beyond honored and surprised to find someone as lovely as you in my cavern.”

My eyes widened. “Your cavern? I thought I was in Valhalla?”

“You are,” Loki started and then rolled his eyes, “technically, but it’s the outskirts.” His brows furrowed as he tried to figure something out. “Usually, you would have appeared at the gates, and Odin himself would have welcomed you into your new life. I’m not sure why you are here instead.”

I tried not to show him how freaked out I was as he contemplated what to do with me. Not only was I dead, but I also ended up in the wrong place. Story of my life.

“Well, maybe I’m not dead. Perhaps I’m dreaming. Or having one of those...” I struggled for the word as Loki locked those dazzling eyes on me again. “Near death experiences.”

“Hmm, perhaps. However, until such a time that you, fair maiden, awakens, you’re my guest.” He wrapped his arm around my waist and urged me forward. “Come, let’s leave this dreary place.”

Chapter 4

I should have been petrified. Scared out of my fucking mind. However, for some reason with Loki’s arm around me, and his cultured voice chitchatting away in my ear as we moved through the cavern and out into a large lasciviously furnished room, I didn’t have a single reason to panic.

“Is this where you live?” I asked, stopping to stare in awe. The walls and ceiling were covered in gold and stag horns. The furniture was full of fluffy pillows of greens and blacks, while the floor had marble tiles. It had a few animal fur carpets tactfully laid out beneath tables and sitting areas.

“Yes,” Loki drawled with a sort of bored look. “It’s not the palace, by any means, but it suits my needs just fine.”

We stopped at a couch, and I sat down, angling my head toward him. “And what are those needs?”

Loki twisted his wrist in the air and his staff disappeared, and in its place was a tray of cheeses, bread, and grapes. “Why, entertaining beautiful women, such as yourself of course.” I flushed at the way his eye roamed over me, a bit flattered that a god would be interested in me. I’d never been overly confident, but I wasn’t a seething ball of self-loathing either. In high school I had a hard time eating in front of guys. Even when I was with Chris, I kept my munching to a minimum. However, now that I was in college, I really didn’t give a flying fuck what anyone thought. A plate of ribs? Hell, yes. Chug an energy drink in one breath? Bring it on!

Still, the attention Loki gave me was different than any of the human men I’d ever met. He looked at me like he actually saw me, and not what he wanted to see. It felt good, to say the least.

A pair of goblets appeared on the glass table, which had antlers for legs. Loki picked one up and offered it to me. Like at the party, I sniffed the contents.

Loki laughed as I grimaced and tried to hand it back. “Not to your taste?” He waved a hand over the top and pushed it back toward me. “How about now?”

I took a tentative sip and the sweet liquid hit my tongue, warming me from the inside and out. I let out a low moan without meaning to, and my eyes closed briefly before opening again to see Loki watching me.

“What?” I tucked my hair behind my ear, and my lashes fluttered.

Loki moved closer to me on the couch, with one leg hanging down while the other was folded under him. “You humans never cease to surprise me. You’re always so genuine with your reactions. You rarely hide the fact that you want nothing more than to pounce on each other and fuck like rabbits.”

I choked on the mouthful of liquid. Coughing, I sat the cup on the coffee table and blinked at him. “What?”

Loki smirked. “My apologies. I let my words get away from me at times.”

I shook my head, a blush staining my cheeks. “No, it’s fine, just unexpected. I suppose, in a way, you’re right. Most of our kind only care about two things, fucking and winning. A lot of times it’s the same thing.”

I startled as Loki threw his head back and laughed, and the movement of the line of his throat bobbing up and down entranced me. Still chuckling, Loki removed his helmet and sat it on the couch behind him. “I like you, Ashleigh.”

Licking my lips, I peered up at him through my lashes. “I like you too.” And I did. I’d only just met the god, but in that small span of time, he’d surprised me, made me laugh, and turned me on. Three things no one other than Chris had ever done. Some might get one or the other, maybe even two out of the three, but never the trifecta.

Fuck a duck. I was in trouble.

Loki took my hands and urged me forward until our faces were close to one another. “Then stay here with me. Don’t go back to the human world or to Odin. Whichever the case may be.” His eyes softened as he continued to plead with me. “You could live here with me, and you’d be happy.” His hand came up and cupped my cheek, and I found my eyelids fluttering closed on their own accord.

Loki’s mouth brushed against mine at first, and then when my gasp caused my lips to part, he captured my mouth fully. His tongue swept in and tasted every inch of my cavernous hole, making me beg for more. Before I knew it, I had climbed onto his lap and straddled the god. Our lower halves were pressed against one another, and I could feel his need hard and warm beneath me. Unfortunately, the armor on his upper half was just as hard, but not as pleasant.

“Uh...” I trailed off, my hands going to the solid material of his chest piece. “Does this thing come off?”

Loki smirked lazily. “Of course it does.”

With a snap of his fingers his shirt and robe were gone, leaving my fingers against the hot expanse of his chest. My hands moved over his pecs and along his abs, enjoying the way he sucked in a breath when I got too close to the edge of his pants. Teasing my way back up to his chest, I slid my hands around his neck and played with the length of his hair.

I leaned back and pressed my mouth to his thin lips, pulling the bottom one into my mouth before nipping at it. Loki let out a breathy chuckle as his hands captured my hips. While I was busy torturing his mouth, he used his grip on my hips to rock me against him, making the simple white dress I wore ride up my legs. Our centers pressed against one another as we undulated our hips. Moans and gasps of pleasure were all I could hear in the large room as I searched for my release.

It was just as I gasped out and threw my head back that the door to the room opened, and two large men appeared. Seeing them upside down, I still knew who they were, and I scrambled to stand to my feet.

Thor, the God of Thunder, with his lightning blue eyes and blond hair that brushed his chest, and covered his chin and lip, filled the room with his presence. His red and gold armor flashed in the light and clung to his muscles. Mjolnir was clutched in one hand, and his eyes moved to me and widened slightly before narrowing. “Loki, what are you doing with this human female?”

Loki appeared near a column by the door, completely dressed and nonchalant. My eyes went to the Loki still sitting next to me. What the fuck? “Just having a bit of fun. It’s not every day a human shows up in my cavern.” He grinned deliciously at me before winking.

While the one who had been sitting by me gave me a small smile before disappearing. Fuck a duck. Had he really been here or was it an illusion? My face was hot from the throbbing of my still sensitive clit and my anger.

“Humans are not your playthings.” Thor snapped before turning back to me with a softer, apologetic look. “My apologies. Loki is mischievous to be sure, but he means no harm. At least, he better not.” Thor shot Loki a glare.

Loki held his hands up, grinning, and turned to me. “Did I hurt you, Ashleigh?”

I wanted to say yes, just because he had tricked me, but I also wasn’t a liar and didn’t want to lie to a god. Who knew what their powers actually were? To the almighty Thor—fangirl squeal—I said, “No, he didn’t.” I crossed my arms over my chest and stood. “However, I would like to leave now. I’m not supposed to be here.”

“That’s right, you’re not, lass,” Baldr, the God of Light, growled as he barreled past Thor and reached for me. Taller and thicker than Thor, he wore blue and gold armor, but didn’t carry a weapon. His beard was braided and hung almost to his belly button. His eyes locked onto me, a grey that made my knees weak. “They’re waiting for you in the great hall. Odin has all his soldier’s out looking for you.”

“M-me? Why?” I let him grab my arm and pull me toward the door. “I’m a nobody.”

Baldr snorted. “You’re in Valhalla, woman. Nobody here is a nobody.”

Chapter 5

“Hold on a second.” I pulled my arm from the burly god and scowled. “What do you mean nobody in Valhalla is a nobody? I don’t even know why I’m here. This place is for warriors not...not bookwormish little nobodies.”

Thor and Loki brought up the train of our little group and stopped behind me. I bumped into Loki during my tirade and spun around, my heart beating rapidly in my chest.

Wait, how do I have a heartbeat? I’m dead right? Shouldn’t I be incorporeal or something?

Baldr gave a long and weary sigh before dragging a hand down his braided beard. “You, lass, are not a nobody. Not if Odin deemed you worthy enough to join our army of warriors.”

I sputtered at the words. “Warriors? Army?” My eyes skittered around at the three of them. “I can’t fight.”

Thor swirled his hammer beside him and arched a brow. “Not all warriors are meant for battle. Some need brains.” His dimples showed through as he grinned at me, and even through my panic I wanted to swoon.

Hey, these guys were my fantasy gods. They were the ones I dreamed about. Studied on end. And okay, so maybe I wrote some fanfiction at one point because, come on, who didn’t want to get with a god?

Still, Thor’s assurance that I wouldn’t be fighting settled some of my nerves. I could throw down in a girl fight if I had to, but I didn’t know the hilt from the, well, pointy end. Whatever you called it.

“Where are we going?” I questioned when they started to walk again without waiting for me to be ready. “Loki said I wasn’t even dead. Just having a near death experience.” I shot a glower at the trickster god, still upset that he played me.

“Loki did, did he?” Thor chuckled and clamped a hand on my shoulder. “Well, lass, I’m sorry to tell you that Loki was just messing with you. You are truly and permanently dead.”

I gawked at his lack of tact, and then tried to comprehend what he was saying. I’m dead. I’m not asleep somewhere in a coma waiting to wake up from this dream?

Oh God. My parents are probably freaking out. Oh, Bev. She’ll have to get a new roommate. And...Chris. I didn’t know why my mind went to him, but I brushed it away. I was dead and there was no point in hanging on to what could have been.

“Come now, Ashleigh. Don’t look so glum.” Thor kept his arm on my shoulder, squeezing me close. “Your new life awaits you.” He pointed Mjolnir toward the pathway we were heading down. We had exited Loki’s home and were on a cobblestone path in the middle of a bunch of tall and leafy trees. There were shields, of all ages, lined up along the path. There were medieval ones with rampant lions. Wooden ones with arrows still embedded into their surfaces. Even ones made of bronze and stone. They really were collecting warriors from all over the world and different timelines.

“Ashleigh.” Loki came up beside me, and I turned my head to glance at him underneath Thor’s arm. “I know we got off on the wrong foot.”

I snorted.

“But I really did mean what I said.” He lowered his voice and eyeballed Thor before continuing, “I only used an illusion because I wanted to see how you’d respond to me. If I’d known you were so...knowledgeable of our kind, I’d never—”

I rolled my eyes and cut him off. “Yes, you would have. That’s your MO. But apology accepted.” I couldn’t really fault the God of Mischief for being...well...mischievous, now could I? And besides, I had been into it. I was just happy to know I wasn’t the only one. If he’d only been doing it to humiliate me, then that would have been another story.

Content with my words, Loki continued to walk beside me as the other two Asgardians escorted me toward a large palace structure, covered in glass and gold. It shone brightly in the faux sun, and I had to put my hand up to see around the glare.

“Ashleigh Hartsock.” Baldr grinned as we stopped at a long bridge before the palace. “Welcome to Valhalla!”

Chapter 6

I felt like a gaping, guppy fish. I couldn’t keep my mouth closed for one second.

I’d read about Valhalla, but nothing compared to seeing it in real life. Large stone statues loomed over the people—I mean warriors—moving around as if they had no care in the world. Which, I mean we’re dead, so I would imagine they wouldn’t.

“Where are we going now? To Odin?” I asked, my eyes trying to take in everything around me.

Baldr laughed a big belly laugh. “Oh, no lass. You are not fit to meet the great Odin as you are.”

I glanced down at my simple white dress and grimaced. “No, I suppose not.”

“Do not worry, Ashleigh.” Thor leaned in close and tipped my chin up to meet his gaze. “We will make sure your lovely body is covered in the finest silks and armor of the kingdom.”

I flushed with warmth at his praise, wondering how I attracted so much more attention from the gods than the guys back home.

“After you’ve been properly fitted, you will meet Odin,” Loki explained. He was so close his hand brushed mine as we walked.

I smiled shyly up at him, and the smile I received in return reminded me of his kisses. Illusion or not, they still felt real to me, and my body was happy to remind me of it.

Loki took my hand in his, and I squeezed it.

“Then,” Thor belted out, making me jump and release Loki’s hand, “we will feast on wild boar and make merry.” He wagged his brows in my direction, and I had a feeling he meant more with those words than just a party.

What did it matter if Thor was into me? Or Loki, for that matter? I was dead. No one I knew was here, or at least I didn’t think so. But I had a hard time seeing my nana or grandfather in Valhalla.

“Here we are.” Baldr gestured toward a large door made of wood, which had depictions of a great battle etched into it. He pushed the door open and inside were several women talking over a pile of clothing. The moment they noticed the four of us, they scattered and came together to form a line. Four of them stood side by side with their eyes down and their hands behind their back.

Thor ushered me toward them with an eye-crinkling smile. “These ladies will outfit you for your audience with my father.”

One of the ladies stepped forward. She had long brown hair that was braided in several parts and a floor-length purple dress. “I am Aida, I would be honored to dress your lady.”

Thor opened his mouth to answer for me, but I pushed out from under his arm and stepped in front of them. “I’m Ashleigh.” I offered her my hand, which she took reluctantly, shooting a look at the gods behind me. “And I’m nobody’s lady.”

Baldr barked a laugh behind me. “I like this one.”

“You like all women. Not just the feisty ones,” Thor added with a chuckle. “But yes, she does have a certain charm about her, doesn’t she?” I glanced back at Thor to see his eyes on me. They were full of humor and desire, a heady mixture for any mortal woman to bear.

“Well, we’ll let you ladies handle the finer points.” Baldr smiled through his bushy beard as he backed up toward the door. “We have a few things to take care of, but we’ll be back to escort you to our father.”

Thor followed Baldr to the door, but Loki stayed where he was, making Thor call out, “Loki, are you coming?”

Loki threw himself into a nearby chair and laced his hands behind his head, watching me with those intense eyes of his. “No, I don’t think I will. I’m perfectly happy here.”

I grinned at him despite myself, and then giggled when Thor marched over and grabbed him by the back of the robe. “Up you go, let the ladies have their peace. You can continue sniffing after the human when she is dressed.”

Loki winked at me but let himself be ushered out of the room.

With a dreamy sigh, I twisted back around to the women. “So, please tell me you have something that’s less,” I waved my hands at my unrestrained breasts, “freeing?”

Aida chuckled and looped her arm in mine, drawing me over to the pile of clothing they had laid out. “Just leave it all to us. We’ll have you looking fit for a god, and maybe you will even snag yourself one.”

“Or three,” one of the other women called out, making them all burst into laughter. Well, won’t this be interesting?

Chapter 7

Once I was dressed and ready as I’d ever be to be presented to Odin, the women who had assisted me led me out of the room and into the hallway. I was surprised to see all three gods waiting for me there.

Thor and Baldr were talking in low voices, while Loki was amusing himself by tossing a gold metal ball up and down in the air. However, the moment the door opened, they stopped what they were doing and turned to me. “Oh, lass.” Thor’s eyes scanned up and down my form. “If there were any doubt of your beauty before, there wouldn’t be any now.”

I flushed and glanced down at the deep purple gown the ladies had dressed me in. It was pinned at the shoulders and had gold lining the edges. A darker purple, corset type piece wrapped around my waist and held my breast in place. It gave me a lot of cleavage, but at least they weren’t about to pop out of my dress like before.

Loki approached me and reached a slender hand out to pick up a lock of my red hair, which had been twisted and braided up on top of my head. “A vision, if I’d ever seen one,” Loki murmured, making me blush fiercely.

“Yes, yes, the lass is beautiful, and all that poetic nonsense. Let’s go.” Baldr jerked his head toward the hallway, appearing a bit more anxious to get going than before. “We’ve wasted enough time. Odin will be beside himself to see her.”

At the mention of Odin, all of my nerves came back with a vengeance. I was about to meet the head god. The Odin. It was like a dream come true, or a nightmare, depending on how you looked at it.

Loki took my hand and tucked it into the crook of his arm, pulling me close. “Come, you have nothing to fear. Let us get these official things over with so we can retire to more pleasurable activities.” His words were low and husky, reminding me of when I rocked my hips against his hardened length.

A delicious shiver ran through me. I had a hard time focusing on the scenery around us as we moved toward the throne room, and not on the way Loki’s fingers stroked my hand.

“Ah, here we are.” Baldr threw the large, double doors open and marched us inside without a care in the world, but my footsteps slowed as my panic began to rise.

“Shhh.” Loki held my hand tightly, leaning his head close to mine to whisper against my ear. “You’re going to be fine. I promise.”

I arched a brow at him. “And why should I trust a trickster?”

Thor threw his head back and laughed. “She has a point.”

Loki glared at Thor before turning back to me. “Because I want to keep you here and I won’t let Odin, or anyone else for that matter, take you away.”

I didn’t know why he thought anyone would take me away, but I let him think he had calmed my nerves when really, I was just as anxious as before. There weren’t many people in the throne room, mainly just a servant or two passing through. Other than that, guards were standing by the doors we entered, and then there were a few more on either side of a golden throne at the top of a set of stairs.

On the throne sat a man—no, a god—with white hair and a long, scraggly beard filled with tiny braids. His single, piercing blue eye seemed to see everything and made my insides clench with fear. A golden circlet sat on his head, matching the gold and white of his armor and cape. When we approached, he waved the guards off and stood from his throne.

“My sons,” he greeted with a kind smile, and then nodded to Loki. “Loki.”

Loki inclined his head in return, but none of them bowed. Baldr and Thor rushed the stairs and hugged their father while I stood behind with Loki at my side. My fingers bit into Loki’s arm as Odin’s all-seeing eye moved from his sons to me.

“And who is this?” Odin asked in a cultured and wise voice. He moved around his sons and down the stairs to stand before me. “What is your name, child?”

I licked my lips and glanced up at Loki. He gave me an encouraging nod. Clearing my throat, I stated, “Ashleigh Hartsock, sir. I mean, your majesty, your godliness?” I tried again, not sure what to call the god before me.

Odin chuckled, his eyes crinkling at the sides. “Odin is fine, child.” He paused for a moment, and then lifted a hand in the air. “Ah, I remember now. You’re that human in the coma.”

“Coma?” I gaped at him, not sure I was hearing him right.

Lacing his fingers behind his back, he inclined his head sadly. “Quite right. You are here because your body is so close to death that you have broken through the veil. It’s not surprising you ended up in Loki’s territory rather than at the gates.”

“I’m sorry, I don’t understand.” I glanced between the four of them. “So, I’m not dead?”

“Not yet,” Odin answered morosely.

“But I will? Die, I mean,” I squeaked out, suddenly conflicted by all of it.

Before Odin could explain, Baldr threw an arm around Thor’s shoulder and grinned. “Oh, to be sure, if you aren’t now then you will be soon. Not many come out of comas like yours.”

“Baldr.” Thor scowled at his brother. “Have some sympathy for the lass. She might still yet pull through.”

“Yes, she might,” Odin commented, interrupting their argument, and then addressed me. “You should enjoy your time here while you can, for if or when you are sent back.” He turned to his sons and with a pointed look, ordered, “You two help Loki make sure Lady Hartsock is comfortable until that time comes.” Odin returned to me with a soft expression. “We want you well acquainted for your new life here as the royal adviser.”

“Royal adviser?” Loki gaped at me, and then looked back to Odin. “Are you certain? It’s her?”

Odin nodded. “Quite. Now, off with you. The feast will begin soon. You won’t want to miss it.”

Royal adviser? Wow, that’s a big job. I didn’t know what I did to earn such a title, but I couldn’t help feeling happy about it. However, the prospect of not knowing if I was alive or dead was a bit disconcerting.

“Well, you heard him, lass.” Thor threw his arm around my shoulders, knocking me out of Loki’s embrace. “Let us feast until your fate has been sealed.”

Loki rolled his eyes. “As always, Thor, you have such a way with words.”

As we made our way out of the throne room, I had to agree. Life or death. Which one would it be? And would I be happy with the outcome?

Chapter 8

The great hall, where the feast was held, was exactly as it sounded—great. There were long tables filling the high-ceilinged room. The tables were covered in food, so much so that I wondered how they were ever going to eat it all. Unfortunately, I didn’t have much of an appetite after what I’d just learned.

When you were told that you could die at any moment, it kind of put a damper on anything else. Before, when I’d thought I was already dead, I had been fine. I’d accepted my fate and was ready to move on. But now…now it was like I was hanging in the balance. Not alive and not dead. Just waiting...for something. I couldn’t help but wonder what could cause me to tip the scale from one side to the other.

Even if I could though, which way would I choose?

Alive. I knew what was waiting for me there. School, my family, my friends, and...maybe even Chris?

Dead though…I glanced around the table where Baldr was telling a riveting story to the table like his life depended on it. Everyone laughed when he pulled his dagger from his belt and stabbed it into a small bird, holding it up like a trophy.

Thor was chuckling at my side, his hands busy with eating as he drank as much ale as he could. Every once in a while he’d give me a dimple-filled smile that made my insides melt, and I’d have to bury my face in my cup lest I embarrass myself.

Loki, however, was quiet beside me. His dark eyes took in everything like I did while he ate from his plate and drank from his cup. When those penetrating eyes swung around to meet mine, I flushed. His hand slid into my lap and he squeezed my thigh.

I squirmed in my seat.

“Ashleigh,” Thor murmured in my ear, his larger hand landing on my other thigh. “Why don’t we take this party elsewhere so we can get to know you...better?”

I looked up into those bright blue eyes and found myself drowning in them. Before I could think too much about it, I nodded.

At my consent, Thor stood and lifted me from my seat. Loki followed behind us as we made our way out a side door and into a sitting area. There were several couches here, and even more food and drinks.

Gods sure liked to indulge. I guess when you’re dead, there wasn’t any worry about getting fat or too drunk.

Thor sat me down on one of the couches, taking the seat next to me. Loki lounged on a seat across from us, his eyes watching on our every move. I opened my mouth to speak, but Baldr appeared in the doorway in a rush.

“Have I missed anything?” He collapsed on the couch next to me, sandwiching me between the two blond gods.

“We were just getting started.” Thor smiled and brushed his fingers along my jawline, leaving a tingling trail in its wake.

“Starting what?” I asked, my voice low and breathless.

Baldr’s hands came up behind me and rubbed my shoulders, brushing his large fingers along my neck and back. His breath was hot on my neck as he moved in close. “We want to get to know you, lass.”

I wet my lips and tried not to moan when Baldr found a rather tight muscle. How did I even have stress if I was dead? Wasn’t Valhalla supposed to be where I would be worry free?

“You may leave before the end of the night,” Thor continued, his thumb brushing along my lower lip. “We would be poor hosts indeed if we didn’t make sure you thoroughly enjoyed yourself and all that Valhalla has to offer.”

I blushed fiercely as my eyes blinked open to meet Thor’s heated blue gaze. “And are you part of that?”

Thor chuckled. “Well, of course, as Odin’s favorite son—” Baldr snorted, but Thor continued anyway, “I have to be sure you are,” his other hand slid along the smooth fabric of my dress, pushing the edge of it up, “thoroughly, enjoyed.”

“Enough talk,” Baldr grumbled, placing his hands on my hips. He pulled me back until I fell into his lap. My butt rubbed against the thickness beneath me as Baldr’s lips found the junction of my neck and shoulder.

My eyes rolled back in my head. Baldr might be tactless, but he sure knew how to use his mouth. When his large, warm hand cupped my breast over my dress, I pulled away. “Hold on a second. Hold on,” I huffed, and licked my lips, my mouth suddenly dry.

“What is it, lass?” Baldr inquired, as his fingers plucked at my nipple, making me gasp as heat pooled between my thighs.

I pushed his hand away. “I just...this is all moving so fast. I just found out I’m dead or, well, not dead. I don’t know.” I shook my head. “And now all three of you want to...get to know me?” I used air quotes with it. “Do you want to,” I cleared my throat, trying to get the nerve to say it, “share me?”

Loki was the one to answer. “Of course we do.” My eyes shot to the mischief god where he had one leg crossed over the other, doing nothing to hide the noticeable bulge in his pants. “How could one of us be enough to keep you satisfied? You’re obviously far superior to other human women if you’re going to be the new royal adviser.”

“So, that’s what this is about?” I moved out of Baldr’s lap, crossing my arms over my chest with a scowl. “You just want to be able to say you banged the new adviser?”

Thor scoffed. “Of course not. There’s no glory in mating with a human who doesn’t have half a brain cell in their head. Being the royal adviser means our father seeks out your opinion above our own. If anything, we are beneath you.”

I dropped my arms, and my irritation lessened. “Oh, but still, it’s a bit weird, isn’t it? Do you usually share women?”

The three gods exchanged a look and then shrugged.

“It’s not something we often do, but we have been known to team up when the woman is right.” Baldr winked at me before grabbing my arm. He dragged me back into his lap, and I let him.

Baldr’s mouth returned to my neck, with both hands cupping my breasts now, and I gasped, arching into his touch. “But what about me?”

“What about it?” Thor unhooked the strap of the opposite side of my dress. He placed open-mouthed kisses on my shoulder and down my arm until he got to my hand. He sucked my finger into his mouth, and I felt the pull of his lips somewhere completely different, making me cry out in pleasure.

As I tried to get a grasp on what I wanted to say, I stuttered, “I mean, uh, fuck, I don’t usually do this with other men, let alone at the same time. Ah, right there.” I moaned and leaned into their ministrations. Baldr had his hand up my dress now, and both sides of the top half had been released, baring my breasts to the room.

Loki made a strained sound that had me opening my eyes. He was no longer just sitting. He had his cock out and was stroking it up and down as he watched the two gods fondle and kiss me. My mouth dried at the sight and I licked my lips. Loki’s eyes darted down to the movement, and so I did it again. Then, feeling brave, I pulled away from the two gods who groaned in displeasure and crawled across the floor to kneel before the trickster god. He watched me with dark eyes as I replaced his hand with mine. Locking my gaze on his, I lowered my mouth to the engorged tip. I licked and swirled and swallowed until his fingers tangled into my hair, and his hips jerked up against me.

“Fuck, Ashleigh,” Loki gasped, and I grinned around his cock, feeling pretty proud of myself. I had about a two-second warning before Loki tensed and his release filled my mouth. I swallowed it as well as I could, before sitting back and sliding my tongue suggestively along my lips.

“And you thought she wouldn’t be into it.” Thor barked with laughter before growling, “My turn. Come here, lovely. I want to taste you before the night is through.”

Chapter 9

I spent all my time in Valhalla with the three gods who had taken over my body and soul. I spent my days walking alongside at least one of them as they told me the histories and great stories of old. Then, at night, I would lay in their arms. We would kiss and fuck with no care for tomorrow.

But I knew it was coming.

Odin, though he told me I was to be one of his royal advisers, had yet to ask me to advise him on anything. I was pretty sure, like me, he was waiting to see if I would live or die. However, as the days went by, I found myself not wanting to go back.

“Let’s stay here forever,” I sighed, sagging into Thor’s bare chest. Loki had my other end across his lap, with a sheet barely covering his naked body from my gaze.

“We could,” Thor agreed and leaned to down to kiss me, “but what would we do for food?”

“You would think with your stomach when such bountiful fruit was laid before you?” Loki chuckled, sliding his hand up my thigh to cup my heat.

My lips parted, and I arched my hips up into his hand. Thor cupped my breast, rolling my nipple between his thumb and forefinger as he spoke, “I do not deny the woman before us, I simply state a fact. If we want to spend our day lounging around in bed, exerting momentous amounts of energy,” he winked down at me before pulling my nipple tight enough to make me cry out, “then we must have sustenance.”

“I disagree.” Loki leaned forward, his long slender fingers dipping inside of me as his mouth trailed along my thigh. “I have all that I could ever possibly want…right…here.” He ended each word with a kiss to my thigh before his mouth replaced his hand on my aching core.

Thor snorted. “Ashleigh’s pussy is made from the nectar of the gods, this is true, but the poor lass won’t be able to walk, let alone advise my father, if we do not feed her from time to time.”

Loki muttered something against my skin that made me moan as his breath tickled my clit.

I could hardly hear what they were saying through the pounding in my ears. Why did they have to argue now? They could be doing so much more pleasant things with their mouths. Like Loki was.

“What are you two idiots blathering about now?” Baldr entered the bedroom, his eyes immediately going to my naked form. “And why are you even bothering to talk when that lovely lass is bare and soaking for a nice cock to fill her.”

“I’m with him,” I pointed out, and then threw my head back and gasped. Loki glanced up from my thighs with a smirk. “Less talking more...yeah, that. That right there.”

Thor and Loki chuckled—the latter causing me to moan from the vibrations. Baldr disrobed and climbed on to the bed with us. His hands went straight to my breasts, giving them as much love and attention as he could before kissing me on the mouth. I’d already figured Baldr was a boob guy. Thor was an ass guy. While Loki, Loki just wanted to wrap himself up in me and never let me go. I wasn’t conceited, he’d actually told me that last night.

My thoughts were interrupted by Baldr’s tongue plunging into my mouth. His fingers gripped my long, red hair and lifted me up toward him as he somehow removed Loki and settled his hips between my legs. I didn’t have any warning before Baldr pushed himself inside of me, stretching and filling me. I wrapped my legs around his waist and arched my hips against him.

I knew something was wrong before the guys did. I felt it in the pit of my stomach. A pulling sort of sensation.

At first, I thought Thor or Loki had started messing with me while Baldr was fucking me, but when I glanced down and didn’t see anything but Baldr’s gigantic cock sliding in and out of me, I felt sick.

“Are you alright, lass?” Baldr paused in his thrusts to cup the side of my face. “You’ve gone pale.”

“I...I…” I shook my head and pushed at him. I needed space. I couldn’t breathe. Something was in my throat. I fell off the bed and grabbed at my neck trying, with no luck, to get whatever it was that was choking me.

“What’s wrong with her?” Loki cried out and rushed to my side. He reached for me, but didn’t touch me as his hands hovered over me, with a helpless look on his face.

I wanted to tell him everything was okay, but I didn’t know that for sure. Could I die all over again?

“It’s her body,” Thor spoke up, coming up beside us. “It must be.” He knelt beside me and watched my face. “Can you feel it? What’s happening to you?”

I gasped and coughed trying to dislodge whatever was in my throat. I tried to nod but barely got one jerk of my head in before I felt a stabbing pain in my arm. Once more, I searched for the cause of it but found my skin unblemished.

“How do we stop it?” Baldr asked, still sitting on the bed as if he were afraid to come near me. “Is she going to die?”

Thor shook his head. “I do not think that’s what this is...” His words trailed off and sadness filled his eyes. “I think she’s feeling what’s happening to her body because she’s...fuck...” He pressed his fist to his forehead. “She’s waking up.”

“What?” Loki grabbed my shoulders and pulled me to him. “No, you can’t. Ashleigh, you have to fight it. You hear me?” He shook my shoulders slightly and panic covered his handsome face. “You have to stay. Don’t leave me.”

I didn’t want to leave him. Any of them. I wanted to stay right where I was, wrapped in their arms, loving on each other until Ragnarök came to take us all. I just wished I knew how to stop it.

“Loki,” Thor murmured, trying to pull the trickster god away from me. “You cannot make her stay. She’s human. If she still has a life to live out, we should let her. We can’t be selfish with her.” Thor’s blue eyes met mine, and my heart ached.

“No,” I croaked out. “I want to stay.”

“See, you heard her.” Loki pushed Thor away, trying to hold on to me tighter. “She should get to stay then. Why does she need to go back? What’s for her there?”

This time it was Baldr who answered. “A life. Family. Friends. There is a human man there waiting for her to marry him and have his babies. We could never give her those. Not here.” His tone was laced with regret. My eyes slung over to the large man. His lips were pressed into a fine line and all his boisterousness was gone from his face. I’d never seen him so serious before, and it scared me.

“Ah, lass. Do not look at me like that.” Baldr sighed and ran a hand over his beard. “I do not want you to go any more than Loki, but as my brother said, we cannot be selfish with you. Besides,” he offered me a lopsided grin, “we’ll be waiting for you when you die. Just like before.”

My gaze jerked from Baldr to the others who gave me solemn nods, agreeing with what the God of Light said. “Please, no,” I gasped out, my eyes burning with tears. “I...can’t...go.” I barely wheezed out the words before Thor reached out and touched my shoulder, giving me a little push.

Thor gave me an apologetic smile. “Sorry, lass. It’s time.”

Then I was falling. The last thing I heard was Loki screaming out, “No,” before everything went dark.

Chapter 10

When I got back from Valhalla, I was in the hospital with a massive headache. I blinked my eyes against the bright, hospital room lights to find Chris sleeping on the chair next to me, his hand wrapped around mine.

I clenched my hand in his and Chris shifted. He lifted his head and rubbed his eyes. When those eyes finally moved around to me, they widened, and he sat up straight in his seat, clapping his other hand on mine.

“Ashleigh, you’re awake.” He grinned, and then seemed conflicted. Chris’s blue eyes flickered from me to the door and back. “I should call the doctor.”

I nodded not trusting my voice. The meds they had in my arm were making my body heavy, but was doing nothing for my pounding head.

Before Chris could stand up, the door to my room opened. Bev and Miranda stepped into the room. Bev’s eyes immediately went to my open ones and widened. “Ashleigh! You’re awake!” She rushed to my side, grabbing my other hand in hers tightly.

Miranda mumbled something about getting the doctor before heading back out the door. Bev didn’t seem to notice.

“Oh my god, Ash. When they said you got hit in the head with a pool ball, I just wanted to rush to your side but there was so much blood, and you know how I am with blood…” She trailed off but then jumped back in. “But I wanted to be there by your side. I did. Thankfully, someone called 911, and we got you to the hospital.” Bev’s brows furrowed. “Sadly, for Alpha Phi Alpha, that meant the party was over, and they’re under probation. No more parties for the rest of the year. Which is totally okay. It’s fine. We’re all just happy you’re alive. When you didn’t wake up...” Her eyes watered and she squeezed my hand close, kissing my hand. “I thought I had lost you.”

I waited until she was done to try and speak. It was weird. My throat was dry, and it took me a few tries to get my words out. “Thank you.”

“Here.” Chris offered me a cup with a straw, allowing me to drink my fill before fluffing my pillow. I watched him with a curious frown. How long had he been here?

As if reading my mind, Bev jerked her head in his direction. “Chris hasn’t left your side for a second. They have to physically remove him from the room when they needed to change you.” She suddenly grinned. “Did you know they gave you a sponge bath? Was it as hot as they make it seem in the movies? Oh, wait.” Her grin dropped. “You probably didn’t realize anything that was happening, did you? Well, did you?”

I wasn’t paying her much attention, since my eyes were still on Chris. He’d been with me the whole time? For some reason, it made me sad and...guilty? I’d been in Valhalla, falling in love, and completely not thinking about anyone back home or how they felt about me being gone. Now that I was back, I didn’t know how I was supposed to feel.

“How long?” I asked in a low, hoarse voice. “How long was I out?”

Bev and Chris exchanged a look before Chris finally answered, “Two weeks.”

“They thought you might not recover,” Bev added, her voice full of emotion. “We thought we were going to lose you.”

Two weeks. I’d been gone for two weeks. It’d only been the span of a few days in Valhalla. Time worked differently it seemed. I wondered what the guys were doing now. Were they watching me? Were they weeping for me? A part of me hoped they weren’t. They sent me back for a reason, but if I wasn’t allowed to put my life on hold for them, they sure as hell couldn’t do it for me.

Loki would have had it the worst. He felt things so greatly that he hid it behind his jokes and tricks. I worried about him. When I was pulled through the veil, the expression on his face had been devastation. Heartbroken.

I knew then and there that I would have stayed for him, for all of them, had they given me a chance.

“Hey, Ash, you okay?” Bev waved a hand in front of my face, pulling me out of my thoughts.

“Huh?” I glanced to her, and then noticed Miranda and the doctor standing behind her. “Oh, yeah, just thinking my parents must be freaking out.”

“Oh, they’re here. Or they were.” Bev winced and then looked to the older man standing behind her. “Maybe you are better off explaining.”

“Hello, Ashleigh, I’m Doctor Miller.” He took Bev’s spot and began checking my vitals. I winced against the bright light he shone in my eyes. “Your vitals look good. By now the swelling on your brain has mostly healed. We’ll want to keep you for a few more days just to be sure.”

I nodded, but even that hurt my head. “My parents?”

“They were here when you first arrived, but when I told them it was best for you to stay here, they took turns sitting with this young man.” He pointed his pen at Chris, and then jotted some more stuff down on the clipboard in his hand.

“They just went home to grab some stuff and come back,” Bev explained, holding onto Miranda’s arm like a lifeline. “They’ll be so happy to see you awake.”

I gave her a weak smile.

“I don’t have to tell you how lucky you are,” Doctor Miller continued with a grave expression. “Many who have sustained an injury like yours didn’t come back. You must have someone on the other side who was looking out for you.”

My lips pressed tightly together. Doctor Miller didn’t know how close to the truth he was. I did have someone on the other side looking out for me. Three someones. No matter what they told me, I’d never forget them. Not Thor, with his carefree spirit. Or Baldr and his warm hugs. Not even Loki and his tricks. I knew the next few years would be the hardest for me, the waiting, but I was determined to keep my promise. I’d live my life for them and then, when the time came, I would return...to Valhalla.

Epilogue

64 years later

Chris died six months ago. Natural causes. Didn’t make it hurt any less.

I stayed around as long as I could. We had two children who had grown up and had children of their own. It was hard to lose Chris and even harder to lose my children and grandchildren.

The gods had been right. I did need to live my life. I knew now that if I had never actually lived my life, then I would have regretted it for the rest of my afterlife.

So, I did it.

I married Chris, but not until after we graduated from college and went around the world for a year. Then I got a job as a photojournalist in New York where Chris took up office with his father’s company.

Chris was the love of my life. My human one, anyway. We had sixty-four wonderful years together until he got sick.

Then, it was months of him slowly getting sicker and sicker. By the end, the gorgeous man I knew from high school was nothing more than a cold body on a slab. It broke my heart all over again.

I hadn’t hurt so much since I came back from Valhalla. I’d been so heartbroken after leaving the gods that it took months for me to finally crawl out from under my rock. But one person was always there for me.

Chris.

Every single day Chris would come by and see me. Some days I refused to see him. But he’d leave me flowers and my favorite coffee with Bev, and say he’d come back tomorrow.

Eventually, I gave in. I had showered, put on something other than my pajamas, and hunted Chris down.

I found him in the library asleep on top of his books. It was such a rare and adorable sight that I couldn’t bear to wake him. I took the seat across from him and waited for him to wake up.

When he did, I was waiting. He blinked his beautiful blue eyes at me and gave me a sleepy smile. “Hey.”

I smiled back. “Hey.”

And it was all downhill from there.

But today, today was the day I died. I could feel it. It was in my heart. In my bones. I was ready for it to be over.

At least, here on Earth. I wasn’t sure if the gods would follow through and actually be waiting for me on the other side, but I figured I couldn’t lose. Either I went to Valhalla and found them waiting, or I went where all other souls go and got to be with Chris. I couldn’t lose.

When I was coming to the end of my life, my family surrounded me. They cried and hugged me. Begged me not to go. I never felt so loved.

My breathing slowed, and I felt infinitely more tired. Like I could sleep forever.

When I blinked my eyes awake, I was no longer in my bed at home. The green and blues of Valhalla were laid out before me and I stood on strong legs. My aged, mortal body had shifted back to the time I had been here before.

Unlike last time, I didn’t find myself in Loki’s cavern. Disappointing as it may be, what greeted me was far better.

“Hello, woman!” Baldr lifted me off the ground and wrapped me in his arms. As I snuggled into his embrace, I inhaled his scent, the mixture of ale and sunlight, and I knew I was home.

“Stop hogging her,” Thor growled, making the ground rumble beneath our feet. Before I could blink, I was up and out of Baldr’s arms and surrounded by Thor. I sighed and leaned my head back to let him kiss me. The kiss sizzled all the way down to my toes. “Ashleigh, so wonderful to have you back. How did you enjoy Earth?”

I smiled. “It was bearable.”

Thor chuckled and sat me back on my feet. “Well, I would be remiss if I said we didn’t check up on you every once in a while and make sure you weren’t miserable without us.”

I giggled and shook my head. “Always.” I sighed and looked around for the third part of our party, but my mischief god was strangely absent. “Where’s Loki?”

Baldr and Thor exchanged an uncomfortable look. Then Thor scratched his chin. “Loki, well, he didn’t take your leaving as well as my brother and I did.”

Baldr snorted. “Speak for yourself. I was drinking my weight in ale to drown out the need to rush to the mortal realm and bring you back.”

Thor rolled his eyes. “Do not act as if you were the only one who missed her.” Thor turned his gaze back my way. “I slaughtered a whole horde for you.”

I grimaced. “Thanks.”

I waited for them to elaborate, to take me to Loki, but neither of them acted like they were ready to move. I threw my hands up in the air and sighed. “Where is he?”

“Oh, right.” Thor snapped his fingers, and we were suddenly in a stone basement filled with cells. A prison?

“Why is Loki down here?” I glanced around and took a step toward one of the doors.

“I wouldn’t go near there,” Baldr grabbed my arm, stopping me.

I shot Baldr a look before pulling my arm out of his grip. “What else can happen to me? I already died. Twice.”

The gods before me winced, and then shared a chuckle. It was Thor who stepped forward and motioned me over to one of the cells. There was a door with a little window that I had to push up on my toes just to see through.

The inside of the cell was dark, and even though I was dead and old woman, I didn’t suddenly get night vision. “Loki?” There was no answer. I sighed and tried the doorknob.

It was locked.

I turned to the two of them. “Keys?”

Thor rolled his eyes and handed over a set of keys he pulled out of—well, it looked like his ass, but I figured it was one of those fancy air pockets they had.

I grinned and took the keys. Once the door was unlocked, I peeked my head through. Still, the darkness kept me from seeing anything or anyone. I growled and rolled my eyes over to the gods. “A little light, please?”

Baldr smirked and used his fingers like a gun. Several candles lit in the room, lighting up the black, green, and gold bundle lying on the floor.

I inched toward it with a sinking feeling. “Loki?”

The bundle shifted. A groan came from it as I moved closer. I reached for him as I said his name again.

“Thor,” Loki groaned again. “Leave me alone. I’m not falling for it again.”

Falling for what? I gave Thor a curious look over my shoulder. Then knelt next to Loki. “Loki. It’s really me. I’m here.”

Loki chuckled and turned over to look at me. The look on his face was maniacal. He didn’t so much as blink at me. He fell back against the wall and pointed at me. “Ha. Ha. Good one. But not good enough.”

My heart ached seeing him like this. I couldn’t handle it anymore. I reached for him again, but he lashed out at me. His hand hit my chest, and I fell back onto my ass.

Thor and Baldr came barreling into the room, filling the tiny cell even more. Baldr picked me up with a glare. Watch it, you swine.”

Loki gaped at me. “You were supposed to disappear. Why didn’t you disappear?” He inched closer, his mouth open and his eyes wide, as if I were some kind of mythical being he was seeing for the first time.

I stayed still as the God of Mischief came toward me. His long, slender fingers found my face, and I leaned into his touch. “Loki.”

Both hands cupped my face now. “Ashleigh,” Loki breathed before his mouth covered mine. He pulled me into his arms and engulfed me in his kiss. I held on to him tightly, needing him as much as he needed me.

When we finally withdrew from each other, it was only because Thor and Baldr started complaining.

“Oh, Ashleigh,” Loki sighed, staring into my eyes. “When you left, my world fell apart. I thought I’d never see you again.”

I held on to his hands and grinned up at him. “I’m sorry I left you waiting. I’ll never leave you again.” I glanced toward Thor and Baldr. “None of you.”

Valhalla was my home, and so were the gods I fell in love with.

Indebted to the Vampires

A broken vase isn’t all this maid owed her masters.

Piper needed a job. Any job would do. But when the temp agency assigns her to clean the house of a bunch of snobby rich men, she isn’t sure it's worth it.

Stuck in a job she has no choice but to keep, Piper becomes even more indebted to her employers when she breaks a priceless vase.

However, her clumsiness is the least of Piper’s troubles. Her mysterious and dangerously tempting employers have a secret. One that they are willing to kill to keep. Will she be able to save her job? Let alone live through it?

Chasing Rabbits

Alice was wrong – Wonderland wasn’t so
wonderful after all.

Kat never expected to be back in her hometown, but when house sitting turns into a mad rabbit chase, Kat finds herself with a whole new set of problems.

A two headed bird with a Game of Thrones obsession, a party full of tea addicts, and a Cheshire Cat who could seduce the pants off her grandma? And if the citizens weren’t bad enough their prince was off his rocker.

This wasn’t your run of the mill Wonderland. This was the Fae world, where rules are rules, and some things are exactly as they seem.

Start the series!

Marked By Hell

The road to heaven is paved with Mary Wiles’ victims.

Los Angeles isn’t just a playground for those searching for a new start. It’s a darker and more dangerous place than they’ll ever know. But Mary’s not fooled.

With her hands full trying to play human while looking for a way back to heaven, Mary doesn’t have time to polish her halo let alone solve a murder case. But when she finds out demons are responsible, Mary just can’t help herself.

When Mary makes a mistake causing her best friend to be taken, she will have to make a choice: sacrifice an innocent for the chance to get her revenge or lose everything she has worked for. Mary starts to realize there is no clear path back to heaven without becoming tainted herself.

Start the series!

Until Midnight

They call them the Crimson Fold. High up in their castle they look down on my little world and wield a silent control. That is, until the invitations are sent out.

I never dreamed I’d be selected. They tell me it’s a privilege. I should be honored. But the fear in their eyes doesn’t lie.

If I refuse to go, my family will be shunned. If I go, my life and my body will no longer be mine. It’ll be theirs.

At midnight it will be over. At Midnight I’ll be his.

Start the series!

About Erin Bedford

Erin Bedford is an otaku, recovering coffee addict, and Legend of Zelda fanatic. Her brain is so full of stories that need to be told that she must get them out or explode into a million screaming chibis. Obsessed with fairy tales and bad boys, she hasn’t found a story she can’t twist to match her deviant mind full of innuendos, snarky humor, and dream guys.

On the outside, she’s a work from home mom and bookbinger. One the inside, she’s a thirteen-year-old boy screaming to get out and tell you the pervy joke they found online. As an ex-computer programmer, she dreams of one day combining her love for writing and college credits to make the ultimate video game!

Until then, when she’s not writing, Erin is devouring as many books as possible on her quest to have the biggest book gut of all time. She’s written over thirty books, ranging from paranormal romance, urban fantasy, and even scifi romance.

Also, third person is really weird when writing about yourself. Just putting that out there.

Come chat me up!

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This is work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright© Yumoyori Wilson, 2019

All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

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Prologue: The Land Of Luminus

"Little butterfly, where do you go. Little butterfly, make your way home. Fly free, fly far, be free and go home. Little butterfly, little butterfly, can I be like you? To be free and find a place to call home!"

I kept singing the song over and over again, skipping around through the little forest. It was silly for me to sing, but it helped me not be afraid of being alone in the forest. I was hiding from my older sisters, tired of being told what to do.

They never let me have fun, and it was really tiring. I wanted to have fun and play. Not go to class after class to learn how to be a goddess.

In my head, I wish I was never born to wield the power of eternity. When I became older, I'd have to carry the burden like many of our ancestors and have the fate of eternity rested on my shoulders.

I didn't see why it was fair. All I got to do was study and work. I barely got to sleep thanks to my mean sister, Sybil. My other sisters, I could handle, Ina and Eve. They always told our oldest sister I was but a kid and didn't understand the role I needed to play.

I did get it. Sometimes. I was important to a lot of people in the other planets and universes. I helped to make sure many people were able to live like me, but when do I get to enjoy life?

These little moments of skipping and playing by myself were the only breaks I got. I'd surely gone crazy if I didn't have them.

Finding a good place to sit, I lifted my midnight blue dress, lowering to the soft patch of grass that was in front of a huge tree.

I always loved this specific tree. It had pretty energy you could see with your eyes. It was also very lonely. I'd discovered it two years ago when I was five years old. I liked to call it she because it felt like a girl and not a boy.

She was lonely, having no one to talk to. It wasn't like she could talk to me either, but the bits of energy that left her brownish bark always seemed to glow extra strong when I arrived.

I'd sing and chat with her, telling all about my sisters and what they would do to me.

It wasn't like I didn't love my sisters, but Sybil was so mean. She'd constantly yell from the moment I woke up to the evening before dinner. The only time she wasn't yelling was when she was asleep.

She didn't do that a lot either.

My sister Eve was my favorite. She'd always hold me when I cried, and comfort me when I, too, was lonely. It was hard to be a goddess child when there were no other children who were gods or goddesses.

I wasn't allowed to play with the children of our universe, because I was important and couldn't get hurt. Sybil wanted my mind to be focused on my responsibility. Not on unnecessary things like friends.

Eve disapproved of her words, and in the quietness of my bedroom when I'd cry, she'd always sneak in and comfort me. I loved her for that.

Ina was in between. Sometimes she felt Sybil was doing too much scolding on the daily, but she did agree with her other times. She wasn't favorite, but not the least favorite. She was in between.

With a sigh just at the thought, I returned to singing while I rested my back against the trunk of the tree.

"Good evening, magical tree. How are you?"

I didn't expect her to answer, but a little breeze went by, making me giggle.

"That's good. I'm alright. A little sad, but that's why I'm here. Sybil is going to try and find me soon. I'm tired of studying. It's so boring." I lifted my little hands, staring at them and watching them begin to glow a gentle gold.

With a bit of concentration, golden butterflies that illuminated in my grasp began to flutter around and float around me. I giggled and laughed, loving how they fluttered around.

Returning to my song, I sang and sand, giggling and laughing as more butterflies danced to my tune and crowded around me and the loving tree.

This was one of my many magical gifts. I could create lots of wildlife, and what was even prettier was that they glowed and had a little magic of their own.

The butterflies that fluttered around me sprinkled glowing glitter around me, making me feel more energetic and happy then I was before.

Sybil said they were silly to have and weren't helpful, but I liked them. They cheered me up always and I hoped one day they would heal people of our kind.

We lived in a universe called Luminus. It was a universe that couldn't be seen by other planets. Only by special beings of magic who were able to travel between the universes.

The travelers were always fun to watch. I'd only ever gotten to see them perform twice, one with Eve and one with Ina who felt bad when I wouldn't stop crying.

They could do cool tricks and magic that I'd never seen before. I started playing with my magic when a tall woman made an elephant out of her magic. It was amazing, and she'd look so pretty doing it.

I wished to have what Eve was called grace. The woman had that and more. She was so pretty with long hair, and her dress had long sleeves that looked amazing when she twirled and danced. they would glide with her, making it seem like she was a goddess herself.

I looked up at her.

She hasn't come back, which makes me sad, but it was nice to be gifted with her beauty and talent. At least when I begged Eve to teach me how to dance like the woman, Sybil hadn't gotten mad.

When I reached eighteen, I'd have to do a ceremony, one where would solidify my ruling as a goddess and bound me to my role. That required me to dance and sing while holding a special fan that would turn into magical staffs if I did the ritual right.

Eve explained that in order to take my role, I'd have to wish to be the carrier of eternity. If I didn't feel right for the role, it wouldn't work. I couldn't tell her that I didn't want to do any of this. I couldn't see the people I was helping.

Being a goddess to me meant being stuck in our castle, only talking to my sisters and the few maids who weren't scared of talking to me in the off-chance Sybil will turn the corner and yell at them.

I'd be confined to the walls and doing my role for the rest of my life. I wouldn't even have my own prince charming. That was another thing that worried me.

I always wanted a prince. My sisters didn't have husbands. They had never dated before. It upset me that they would be alone, but I guess they had each other.

However, for me, I didn't have any sister that was close to my age. My three sisters were in their late twenties. I was only seven. The age gap made it hard to feel bonded with them, though Eve was pretty close.

To be in the world to fulfill a duty and not enjoy a moment of what life really is made me sad and only harder to decide if I wanted to do this.

Playing with my butterflies for a while. They began to disappear, the remaining hiding behind the tree. With a frown, I rose up and fixed my dress, wondering if Sybil had finally found me.

Waiting for her to appear, I was surprised to see three other men.

My mouth went open, staring at the three new individuals I've never seen before. They all wore similar clothes in red and gold, looking like weren't from our universe.

Their sight made me grin happily and skipped over to the guy in the middle who I assumed was the leader.

"Hello," I greeted.

The man grinned, kneeling down to be somewhere close to my height. "Good evening, princess. How are you?"

"I'm okay. How did you know I'm a princess?"

The man chuckled. "You look like a very nice princess," he replied. "That's how I knew,"

"That's nice," I replied with a wide smile. "What's your name?"

"I'm Ansiel," he greeted. "This one to my left is Alex, and the other is Allen. We're travelers and are here to perform in the square of Luminus. However, we're in a little trouble,"

"Why?" I asked.

"We seem to be lost and have no clue how to get to the square," Ansiel answered, the other two keeping quiet.

"I can show you?" I suggested with a smile. "The forest likes to play tricks on new people because it's funny," I giggled.

"That would be swell. We appreciate your help, princess," he praised.

"I'm Luna. Nice to meet you,"

"Good evening, Luna," Allen greeted.

"Thanks for your assistance, Princess Luna," Alex greeted.

I suddenly felt shy in front of them. Skipping over to the tree, I mumbled. "Let me say bye to my tree,"

Pressing my hands against the bark, I smiled brightly and looked up to the many branches of the tree.

"Bye, bye tree. I'll come back and keep you company next time I can run away from my sisters. I have to help these men get to the square. Be good,"

I patted the bark, feeling a little down that I had to leave the tree now.

"Aren't you a kind Princess," Glancing up, I could see the upside image of the man named Allen. "She is very happy you visit her,"

"Really?!" I squealed, jumping up and down. "She can hear me?"

"Yes, she can," Allen chuckled, kneeling down next to me and placing his hand on the bark. "And she says thank you for being her friend. It's really lonely here, but you coming to visit makes her happy, and she loves your butterflies,"

I giggled and clapped my hands. "I'm so happy!"

"Butterflies?" Alex wondered. "I'd like to see that. It's been a long time since I've seen any,"

"Can I show you all?" I asked, looking around at the three of them.

They smiled, and Ansiel nodded his head, kneeling down once more. "We'd love to see,"

I grinned and ran up to him. "I need your hand," I suggested.

"Okay," He offered his hand and I wrapped both of mine around them. I like them because they were nice and warm. Closing my eyes, I focused on the spell to make my butterflies, opening my eyes up to see them appear in the palm of his hand.

"Butterflies!" I cheered at my gold creations, watching them closely as they fluttered out of his hand and began to fly around us.

"Wow," His eyes seemed to glitter in happiness at my display. "Those butterflies are beautiful,"

"They can heal people, I think! They make me happy," I replied with a wide grin.

"I can feel it," Allen chuckled.

"I feel energized after our long trip," Alex nodded in approval.

I laughed in response, hopping up and down. "Yeah! To the square we go," Skipping away with the butterflies following, I led the three men to the square with ease.

It wasn't super late in the evening, though the sun was already gone, and the stars were twinkling brightly up in the sky.

A few adults who prepared the night market and restaurants waved to me, acknowledging my presence and greeted the newcomers. It wasn't unusual for us to have travelers, and everyone was super nice and welcoming.

"Here is the square," I cheered, putting my hands up.

"Thank you, Princess," Allen praised.

"Thank you, Princess Luna," Alex thanked.

I nodded and grinned, watching the two of them walk over to some of the adults who asked if they needed assistance.

"Are you going home now, Princess?" Ansiel questioned.

"Yes. My sister is probably looking for me," I pouted my lips, my shoulders slumping when I thought about it.

Ansiel knelt down and looked at me. "What's wrong?"

"My sister is a meanie. She doesn't like my butterflies," I whispered.

"I think they can do so much for other people. You shouldn't hide them," Ansiel comforted.

"Can you keep a secret?" I asked.

"Sure," he nodded his head.

"I'm supposed to help a lot of people. People not here but far away, but I don't want to. Not yet," I put my head down feeling bad.

"Well, you are but a child, Princess,"

"But my sister says I have to study and can't play with kids or do anything. I don't see why helping other people makes me happy," I gave him an upset look. "I don't know them,"

Ansiel put his hand on his chin. "But what if they know you?" he asked.

"How do they know me?" I gasped.

"Well," Ansiel got on his knees and continued. "What if you're a faraway Princess? Or better yet, a Goddess. All those people far away are looking up to you. They may be praying for your help, but they must wait till your old enough,"

"R-Really?" I blinked at him with wide eyes, never thinking about it that way. "They look up to me?"

"Well, I would believe so. Your studying, what does it help accomplish?"

"I'm studying to help people with my powers. To be a Goddess and help many many people...but it's boring, and my sister is really strict. I don't know these people...but I didn't think they looked up to me,"

"Well, when many people know a God or Goddess, they pray to them when their sad or having a hard time in life," Ansiel explained.

"Really? To me," I pointed to myself. "But I'm a kid. I don't hear them,"

"You don't hear them yet because you're still very young. When you're older, you'll be able to help them by giving them hope. You can't do that if you don't study, now can you?"

"No..." I looked down and thought about it. "I don't think so,"

He nodded but lifted my head so I could look into his blue eyes. "I know you don't know those people, but all this studying and working hard is worth it. For now, it won't look that way, but a lot of people will depend on you one day. It'll make you happy once you, yourself, can see all the happiness in their eyes. Just like how your butterflies made us very happy as you helped us find the square. Does making other people happy, make you want to help more?"

"Yes!" I grinned, "I'll study hard!"

"Good," He smirked. "If you do, I'll see if you can come to see our performance,"

"Really?!" I beamed.

"Mhm!" he nodded.

"Luna!"

I turned my head to see Eve and Sybil. Eve had a worried gaze while Sybil had an angry one. I frowned but didn't move from my place when they both walked over to us.

Ansiel rose up and stood in front of me, almost like a knight in shining armor. I looked up to him, not as focused on my sisters.

"Luna! How many times do I have t-" Sybil began to scold but Ansiel interrupted.

"Good Evening ladies. Is this helpful Princess in your care?"

Sybil glared at Ansiel, looking like she was about to snap at him, too. Eve glanced at Ansiel and slowly nodded. "I'm terribly sorry. Was our Luna bothering you?"

"Not at all. She was very helpful, actually. Me and my men were lost and she directed us all the way to the square. Very well behaved and mannered if you ask me. You don't see that in children of other universes.

My cheeks grew hot, and I shuffled over to Eve, feeling a little shy at his praise. I didn't receive it often, so when I did, I really liked it.

Eve smiled, giving Sybil a look when she was about to say something.

"I'm very happy that Luna was able to assist you. From your clothing, I'm going to assume you're a universe traveler?" Eve questioned.

"Yes. I am. I and my two other friends travel the universes to spread joy and love through entertainment. This is our first time coming to this universe, and we already have a good impression on it. We'd definitely love to invite the Princess and her guardians to our performance if you all have the time," Ansiel offered.

I looked up at Eve with big eyes, clenching her dress with all my might. "Eve? Can we go? I'll study really hard that day," I added the little bit in hopes that Sybil wouldn't use my studies as an excuse.

Eve looked at Sybil who still wore a frown, but when she didn't retaliate to the idea, Eve grinned and looked down at me.

"Seeing as you were super kind to help these men out, I think it's a nice reward for you to get to see them perform," she declared.

"Yes!" I cheered, hugging her leg. Ansiel smiled, lowering to his knee to be on my level once more.

"It's nice to be kind to others, isn't it? Sometimes, that leads you to an opportunity to claim a reward for your hard work," he whispered.

I nodded in return and offered his hand. "I'll see you at the performance, Princess,"

Instead of placing my hand in his, I gave him a hug. He chuckled and hugged me back.

"Your secret is safe with me, Princess," he whispered.

"Thank you, Ansiel," I whispered back.

He let go of me and rose up, his other two companions waiting for him nearby.

"I best be off," he winked at me and bowed his head to my sisters. "Study hard, Princess,"

"Okay! I will," I vowed and waved goodbye as he moved back to Alex and Allen who were waving at me.

We watched the three of them leave before Sybil spoke.

"You're lucky those men are honorable travelers. How many times do I have to tell you to not leave the castle at night," she scolded with venomous eyes.

I hide behind Eve who simply sighed. "Sybil. Stop. She's still a child and she studies all day and night. She'll never want to accept her role if you continue making this seem like a chore more than a role she should take on. She helped those men when she didn't have to. Be glad. With all the bickering and yelling, I'm not surprised Luna isn't just as mean and rude as you are," Eve took my hand and didn't wait for Sybil to defend herself, the two of us heading to the path home.

"Eve?"

"Yes, Luna?"

"I'll study hard," I whispered. "I wanna help more people like them,"

Even looked down and smiled, her green eyes twinkling with happiness. "I'm sure you will be able to, Luna. One day, many people will pray to you for guidance and longevity. I know Sybil is harsh, but deep down, she wants you to be the best you can be,"

"Okay," I replied, nodding my head. "I love you, Eve,"

"And I love you, Luna. One day, you'll be a kind Goddess who helps millions across the universes."

Our walk home was quiet, but it was a peaceful silence. It didn't matter since I wasn't in the mood to chat anymore.

All I could do was remember the three kind travelers who loved my butterflies.

The Ritual Of Luminus

~ELEVEN YEARS LATER~

"Again!"

I lowered my tired arms, feeling utterly exhausted. I'd been practicing this routine since dawn and now, as the sun began to descend in the horizon, I still hadn't nailed this ritual.

The spark that would glimmer at my hope to be the Goddess of millions simply wasn't present, either due to my pure exhaustion or because I was tired of hearing Sybil's shouting voice for twelve hours straight.

"Sybil. Maybe that's enough," Ina looked concerned for me, which wasn't often. The last time she had, I ended up vomiting lunch and spiking a fever that had me down for a week.

If only that opportunity would bring itself at this moment. It must have been in a pathetic situation to want to be sick versus practicing for another twelve hours tomorrow.

"She has to perfect the ritual. Many souls across the galaxy need the Goddess of Eternity, and she's acting like it's a joke,"

I would have responded to her comment, but that's how tired I was. If spending twelve hours a day dancing, practicing magic, studying, and ending it off with a four-hour ritual trial of me doing the same magic spells and dance moves was a joke, then my goodness. I'd like to see her do half of what I did.

Instead, she'd sat or paced around the entire time while screaming at me. That should have been considered her workout for the day.

"Sybil, this is getting ridiculous. She'll never obtain Goddess status like this," Eve walked into the room, looking irritated.

Deciding that this was my chance to rest, I locked my magic up, the golden fans in my hands burst into tiny butterflies that fluttered upward until disappeared altogether.

Sybil's vile glare only made me roll my eyes. "I can't do this anymore. I won't even have magic for this ritual if I keep going," I voiced.

My voice was like a croak, leaving a little worried I'd lose it altogether. It wasn't the first time I'd lost it working too hard on my vocals to sing the words of the first part of the ritual.

The ceremony was called the Ritual of Luminus. It was where the Goddess who was born with magic cloaked in gold, would sing, dance, and weave a spell to unlock her status and ascend her to her position as a Goddess.

Once the ritual was initiated, the Goddess soul would be rooted in the land, and the sole individual who held such role would be rooted to the universe for all eternity until the next Heir is born, raised, and completes the ritual once more.

Long story short. I was born to take over for the current Goddess of Eternity. No one knew where she lived now, some saying she hide in the depths of the forest to be one with nature and continue her role until the next individual took over.

Whenever I thought about it, I felt pity for her. Your entire existence devoted prayed to, and now she lived a life of solitude.

A part of me didn't want that for myself. I wanted to explore a little more, or at least, learn what love was.

All three of my sister had never loved a man, nor kissed one. It was a choice they had made, but I didn't follow the same values. I craved the feel of a man's touch or enjoy the tenderness of their lips.

I couldn't grasp how they could ignore their personal cravings, but they must have trained their body to do so. I, on the other hand, hadn't.

"She won't perfect anything when she's pale like that and can barely keep her magic from teetering," Eve voiced. "Give her a break,"

"No," Sybil shook her head. "She will conduct the ceremony this month,"

"Sybil sister. We've talked about this over and over. You can't force her to do the ceremony on your timeline. If she doesn't agree with her heart that she wants to do this, she'll never ascend to Goddess status," Ina explained.

Eve walked down the stairs of the large marble training room, heading to where I stood in the middle, versus Ina and Sybil who were off to the side.

"Look at her," Eve pointed at me. "Do you want her to pass out again?"

"I want her to ascend," Sybil huffed.

"She's not ready to ascend!" Eve groaned. "Since the day she was born, all you've done is constant drills of how she needs to ascend and be the Goddess she was born to be. Why would she want to help millions of souls when she's been drilled to do so? For the ritual to work, the host must want this more than anything. She must crave with her very soul for peace, tranquility, and power to be loved and prayed to when she ascends to Goddess status. Without those key aspects, she'll never be able to do the ritual,"

"We don't have time for that. She's eighteen!" "That's exactly my point!" Even shouted, causing Ina and me to flinch. "She's eighteen. Her whole life has been you yelling at her, saying how important her role is for many people across the universe. She's proved to you over and over again, that she's working hard, studying, practicing, and trying her best to be what you want her to achieve. That's not living, Sybil!"

"She's been born with a gift that will millions! Her purpose is to live for them!"

"No, it's not!" Eve screamed back.

I watched them continue to fight, the back and forth intensity of the matter made me a little nervous.

"Ina?" I looked over to her, seeing her worry was similar to mine.

"You two. That's enough," Ina did her best to be neutral.

"This is ludicrous," Even argued, crossing her arms over her chest. "If I was mentored by you my whole life, I'd never want to be a Goddess,"

"Thank goodness. No one needs someone who doesn't see the importance of all of this," Sybil spat.

"You don't see the value of this at all. You're only helping because YOU want out. You want to be able to move on with your life by whisking her off to her destiny. That way you can be free to do whatever you want," Eve revealed.

"Says who?"

"I heard you myself when you were drunk complaining to your girlfriends of what burden all of this is for you! No one told you to take this role, and yet you've not shown an inch of compassion! But wait till Luna does ascend and become the Goddess of Eternity. You'll boast about how it was thanks to you and your devotion for our Moon and stars. Put yourself on a pedestal and receive all the praise and adoration from the people when you've been nothing but horrible to Luna!"

"As if you're a good sister," she snapped.

"I'm ten times better than you! When Luna becomes a Goddess, she'll be stuck forever! That will be her role until the new heir of the role is born and raised by new sisters assigned to her. You haven't given Luna even a chance to enjoy the world. To live as a child, teen, and now as a young adult. I bet she has so many regrets right now, and she's yet to even experience what it was like to have friends or someone to love. You've isolated her into only working for YOUR freedom. Nothing else. Just admit you're selfish and move on. Don't be a hypocrite and lie to. my face," Eve raged.

The room was silent, but also spinning, making me wish I could sit down. I personally hated when my sisters fought, and though I tried to be as quiet and not interfere during their heated arguments.

I'd heard Sybil complain many times of having to deal with me. I was a burden to her, leaving me to wonder if I was the same burden to Ina and Eve.

It wasn't as though I'd asked for this destiny. Surely if I did, I wouldn't feel as though my life was never my own to live, breathe, and enjoy.

With a sigh, I turned away, begin to head to the large door.

"Luna?" Eve called out.

"I'm going to get some fresh air," I mumbled.

"We're not done," Sybil barked.

"No, we are," I stopped and turned to look at her, not caring about the intense disappointment that must have portrayed in my black eyes.

"No asked you to raise me. No one told you it was your sole duty. The person who took this responsibility is yourself. I'm not clueless anymore, Sybil. I've heard it countless of times how you hate having to teach me every day and how stupid I am. How could a born to be Goddess not grasp this, and that? If only she could hurry up and ascend. Then the burden would be lifted," I muttered, repeating her exact words out of many conversations.

I remember overhearing all her hurtful words in the late evenings when she'd drink and assume I was asleep in the bedroom next door. I was eighteen now. She didn't need to watch me anymore.

She could live her life. Boast and be praised by her friends for taking the role as my sister mentor for her to look good. I didn't care about all those things.

I just want to experience the world without all the burden and responsibility.

"Y-You don't-"

"Yeah, yeah. I don't know anything. I'm just an idiot who rather relax in nature or watch a performance out of the only evening you give me off every week. I'm just a simpleton because no matter the study decisions, the demonstrations, and the constant hours of training, I can do nothing to your high expectations. I get it, Sybil. I'll never reach your expectations, and honestly, at this point in time, I don't see me being anywhere close to reaching the Goddess of Eternity's expectations if they are as high as yours,"

Sybil held her tongue, staring at me like I was poison. I sighed and shook my head.

"You don't even feel a hint of pity for me. You care solely about your freedom. Now about the fact I've never gotten to play and enjoy what it means to be a friend with anyone. Nor have I enjoyed a man's affection. I barely get to live in the moment of those lovely plays and performances, and my constant routine is all revolved around being the Goddess and giving the rest of my eternity to that power. All when I've enjoyed not a spec of happiness. It's quite a pathetic life, don't you think? But alas, you're the one suffering,"

I turned away, heading up the remaining stairs. "I'm going for a walk. Don't bother making dinner for me. In fact, don't bother at all with any of this. You are free to leave your role as my apparent sister and teacher. Go enjoy the freedom you desperately want with the man you crush on and the friends you wish to hang out with. I'll figure this out myself," I declared.

"Luna," Eve whispered, but I began to walk away.

If I saw the sadness in eyes, I'd want to comfort her and apologize for laying the truth. I was tired of being screamed at and walked upon like a doormat.

If the universe wanted me to accept this role, I'd want a taste of all that I crave. Even a moment to explore my curiosities and see the beauty this one of many universes had to offer.

With tired legs and a sad heart, I made my way to the back exit of our large home, in hopes the universe would lead me somewhere close to the happiness I desperately crave for.

A Taste Of Another Destiny

Walking into the forest, I struggled to keep my eyes open. I yawn escaped me and I lifted my hand to cover my mouth.

My goal was to head to the same loving tree I'd visited for most of life. I actually called her Eternity, because I felt as though she'd been there before I existed. Not many, if any, came to visit the depths of the forest where she was like I did.

Surely, they couldn't sense her magic, but it disappointed me that such parts were ignored. The forest was thick but mesmerizing in its beauty, having wonderful wildlife that roamed freely in their habitat.

I'd seen a few animals, from bunnies to even a bear, but they never saw me as a threat. We respected one another in a shared environment, and I grew up enjoying that natural agreement amongst us.

Seeing the large base of Eternity insight made me smile, my legs stopping to give a brief moment to admire the Tree I'd visited since I could walk. Whether it be her energy that called to me or the peacefulness her sight delivered, I wish my magic could make her into a human being.

In my mind, I imagined us being the best of friends. All the times she'd listen to my sobs of frustration and the few times I'd tell her of my deep insecurities. She was the friend I'd wished was in my life.

The one who I leaned on because I had no one else to dump my problems to.

I began to walk again, wondering what my sisters were doing now. Surely, they were arguing amongst themselves, Eve doing her best to defend my predicament and Sybil ignore any of it. Ina, of course, would stay neutral, the position she general took depending on her mood.

Or whatever side appeared to be winning.

Reaching Eternity, I smiled and lifted my left hand up, closing my eyes and allowing the tiny bits of magic I had left in me to be free.

Butterflies full of light and power manifested in my hand, fluttering through the air and crowding around Eternity's branches.

I smiled weakly, loving how their luminous glow lightened up the many branches that stretched far and wide, demonstrating the growth of the aged tree.

Placing my hand on against the bark, I rested my forehead against it, closing my eyes for a long moment.

"Good evening, Eternity. How are you?"

Her energy was bright as always, and I could sense the vibrancy source run within her bark and down to the very roots that had spread beneath the surface.

A gentle warm breeze passed by, unnatural for the cool evening. I giggled quietly, feeling her loving response glide through me.

"It's good to see you. I know. It has been awhile,"

With all the training and the preparations Sybil had been doing for my Luminus ritual, I'd end each session with barely any energy, resorting in taking a quick shower, and sleeping to rejuvenate for the next day.

Getting an opportunity to have some fresh air felt impossible, but with today's events, I needed this more than anything.

That and the three travel performers, Allen, Alex, and Ansiel.

Since that eventful day eleven years ago, they had made Luminus one of their yearly stops. Every performance, I fought with all my might to see.

Last year, I snuck out just to witness it, not carrying about Sybil four how lecture of how irresponsible I was and that these performers couldn't stop my fate.

She was right. I had no hope in my fate changing. This was what I was born into and would be the duty I carried upon my shoulders for the rest of my existence.

However, as I grew older and wiser, I wanted to have some good memories to hold onto. I had all the bads, the ugly, and the miserable of what my childhood and teens had been.

I'm certain I had a mental catalog of every lecture I'd received since I was at least six of Sybil screaming, to the times Eve and Ina, too, were exhausted of my numerous attempts and disappointments.

All the sad memories I had to carry and not enough happy ones to balance it all out. To spend eternity in solitude would be difficult, and lonely. Couldn't I make a few good memories to keep me company?

This year, I'd hope to witness the Trio perform, especially with the constant reminder that my ritual would be happening this year.

However, thanks to Sybil, I'd missed it entirely. Maybe she'd caught on to what I wanted to do or more importantly, what I wished to say for many years.

I'd had a crush on Ansiel since that day I'd met him, watching as he stood proudly in my defense against my sisters without question.

Since that shining moment all those years ago, he'd been my little crush.

He wasn't the only one...

Oddly enough, Alex and Allen caught my attention once I got to meet them individually. All our interactions were short, whether it be a few short minutes to half an hour after their stunning performances.

Sybil despised them, giving me constant rants of how I idolized them like they were gods. I didn't idolize them.

I secretly wished to be with them. All three of them.

Those thoughts began to surface in my mind when I was sixteen, and the last two years they had grown stronger, blossoming into something I couldn't decipher just yet.

My crush for Ansiel was the strongest, but Allen and Alex didn't fall too far behind. All I knew was that Sybil had found out, or at least assumed I liked one of them.

The result? Making sure I missed this year's performance. There was no time for distractions, and that was what she ranked them. A waste of time in her very words.

Now they were probably gone, their journey to spread joy and happiness moving on from our universe, Luminus. I was still depressed about it, and it could be one of the many reasons why the ritual wasn't working.

I had built up enough confidence in myself to tell Ansiel my feelings. To let him know how I felt and my crush for more than ten years.

Our age difference didn't matter to me, as it didn't for many individuals of Luminus we lived triple the age of other specifies across the universe, and sometimes you connected with someone who was older or younger than you by ten to twenty years.

It was an acceptable standard, or that's what Even had explained. It was a shame that I couldn't ask about the chance of being with more than one person.

Or even three.

With a tired sigh, I closed my eyes, wondering what I should do. I was tempted to let this all go, to stay here and remain hidden until I faded away.

It was sad to wish for, but it would also give me a second chance at something else? If I stayed here, until my body gave up, what would happen?

Would I start again somewhere else? Or would I be in a land of darkness and let down those millions of individuals waiting for the day I ascended.

Something gentle rested on my shoulders, but I couldn't open my eyes anymore. I was never one to sleep standing, yet this seemed to be that prime moment.

"Luna?"

The voice was low yet tender. For a second, I wondered if it was Ansiel I was imagining. The thought lingered in my head, but I also realized it wouldn't matter. No one wanted to give me a shot at enjoying this universe before I'd be unable to.

All of this burden made me feel hopeless, especially when my body was as exhausted as I was now.

Would the universe take me now? Would it hear my tired plea?

Something ran through my long black hair, pressing my head into a firm surface.

"What has the evil woman done you this year, Prince Luna," the loving voice made my heart flutter, the familiarity of Ansiel's voice left me excited to see his face for himself.

My body, however, wasn't cooperating. It was tired from all the training from dawn. Now that I'd closed my eyes and let go for a swift second, it was time for me to sleep and not stay up.

My body was lifted up and began to sway side to side. There was no way for me to figure this out or wake up from my mid-dream. All I could do was allow myself to rest.

Eternity's warm energy was fading, but I felt no harm would come over me. The universe would protect me, just like this individual carrying me to who knew where.

I may have had no idea, but I trust them.

That was all I could do before my mind began to fade into a quiet slumber.

Goddess Of Eternity

When I opened my eyes, I expected to the familiar plain room I'd slept in for many years. Sybil was always against me doing anything with my room, but whenever I was now had gold walls that glistened in the moonlight.

The sheets beneath me were soft and silky, and I wasn't in my long, draped dress, but a nightgown of white satin.

My hair was up in what seemed like a bun, but I didn't remember putting it up that way. Or changing in general.

Sitting up, I noticed a single butterfly lifted off from where it was sitting on the night lamp, fluttering to where I was. It flew around my head and watched it with a wide smile.

Lifting my hand, I offered a finger for it to land on, and it did just that. The butterfly was similar to the ones I created, but instead of it being a golden color, this one was a mix of orange and red.

Its presence sent tingles a calm and a boost of energy through my fingertip and through the rest of my body. With an appreciative grin, I whispered, "Thank you, butterfly,"

It rose from my finger, only to land my nose. A giggle escaped me and I remained still for the glowing creature to have its explorative moment.

"You're awake."

I tried to see who was speaking with my eyes, not wanting to disturb the butterfly still on my nose, but I was definitely in the mindset to know who that voice belonged to.

"Ansiel?"

His footsteps sounded closer and there he was at the end of the bed. He had black pants and a red-sleeved tunic. His short blonde hair was combed back, and his blue eyes twinkled thanks to the moonlight that peered into the room.

"Looks like my magic likes you'" his smile sent a thrill through me like it did since I was sixteen. Being aware of how he made me feel was rather embarrassing, but also exciting.

It made me want to explore and test the waters, though deep down, I was afraid of his rejection. Glancing at the butterfly that was still on my nose made me cross-eyed, and Ansiel began to chuckle; the butterfly lifting from my nose and flying over to Ansiel and landing on top of his head.

"You look cute when you're well rested, Princess Luna,"

"Ansiel...how?" I looked around the room once more, unsure how we'd gotten here. I'd been in the forest, leaning against Eternity. How did I land up here?

"This is called The Tower of Meridium Luxus. It attached the Luminus Palace. It's a bit of a distance from your castle, Princess," Ansiel explained.

"You brought me all the way here? Aren't you worried about my sisters?" I felt a little giddy deep down, the thought of being away from home at this length already igniting my imagination.

All the possibilities this would bring. A night away from home. Away from Sybil's shouts, Eve's tender comfort, and Ina's precautious advice.

This was my chance. My opportunity to tell Ansiel. Tell him how I feel...but what if he doesn't accept my feelings?

"It was a rash decision, to be honest. Allen and Alex won't be here in the morning. I would have requested for their assistance and taking you back home, but you didn't look well. The clinics in the square wouldn't know how to deal with your magic, especially with a future Goddess. I decided to bring you here. It is a safe place and is warded. I'm pretty confident your sisters are unaware of this place as well. It's of sacred lands if you will. Only those who carry pure hearts can enter," he explained.

Walking to the side of the bed, he sat down and pressed his hand to my forehead.

"Ah. Much better," he looked beyond relieved. "I was worried you'd spike a fever."

"You care more about me than my own sisters," I muttered, glancing away as my cheeks grew hot from his affection.

"I've watched you grow from a child who carried a heart of gold to a woman, Princess Luna. I will always care about you,"

"Even when you'll never be able to see me again," My voice was tiny.

Ansiel leaned slightly over, allowing me to see his displacement with my statement.

"Why would we never see each other?"

"You know my role," I whispered, lifting my eyes to look into his. "What I'm destined to do,"

"And that destiny is supposed to be fulfilled so soon?" he questioned.

"Yes. I think so. Sybil says I have to do the ritual this year, but I've been struggling," I closed my eyes, deciding to vent. He was the one I was able to gain encouragement from all those years ago. Maybe he'd be able to do it again.

"I'm not ready, Ansiel," I looked directly into his blue eyes, showing every bit of my vulnerability as my eyes watered.

"I've experienced nothing, Ansiel. I've never had a true friend. Never explored past that tree you met me at eleven years ago. I don't even know what the people from these other universes look like, let alone what is over and beyond in my own home universe of Luminus. I've never heard or read of this tower and palace in the few books I do possess. I know little to none of this world," I swallowed the lump in my throat, taking a deep breath to try and compose myself.

"In my mind, I see our world as a vast place, with many avenues I've yet to step upon. Yet, here I am, eighteen with no experience in anything. I've not done any of the common things a child or teen would have. I've never even experienced what it's like to...be loved by another," I mumbled the last part, feeling my cheek blush as I glanced away.

"You have a crush on someone," he whispered.

"Yes. For awhile. A very long time," I mumbled. "I thought...I'd have more time, Ansiel. I wanted to be able to approach my crush...or well...crushes when I felt confident in myself," I looked back at him, feeling even more nervous at my confession, but the words were flowing out.

"When I was little, that time when you stood up for me against Sybil...I told myself that I'd work harder. I'd study and do my best in everything I did. Even if it meant a little less sleep. I've done everything my sisters have asked me to. Trained until I couldn't anymore. Yet, I feel like I've accomplished nothing,"

With a deep breath, I continued.

"Eleven years have passed, but I feel like the same little girl you found in the forest. The only difference is now I'm a woman. Why does it matter though? A woman who has no friends, or other family members to interact with. A woman who's never experienced what the feel of kiss is like. It's embarrassing to admit how little I've lived, and what hurts the most is I've run out of time,"

My lip trembled as a tear fell down my cheek. "I'm a burden to my sisters. I'm holding them back from living their lives. Everyone...aren't there because they want to be. They see this as a duty, nothing more, and that hurts, Ansiel. It hurts to wake up at dawn to know the people who are supposed to love you don't want to be there. It makes my heart sink that I've now run out of time and have to do a ritual that bounds me to the universe until the next person shows up. That can be months, years, centuries, it could be forever. I'm the future Goddess of Eternity after all,"

Lowering my head in defeat, I sighed. "But don't I get to enjoy a bit of happiness? Or am I destined to be sad forever?"

Silence lingered between us, and I let my tears fall, tired of fighting them any longer. "I want to experience what real love. To travel and the very people who will one day pray to for help and salvation. I want to feel my strong purpose, but I'll never be able to like this. I'll never grow being stuck in the care of my sisters. Whether their intentions are pure or not, I don't think I'll ever be able to do the ritual with their guidance." I realized quietly. "To see their disappointment in me would be enough to shatter whatever hope I had left. Without hope that I can do this, where does that leave me?"

Ansiel was quiet, and the orange-red butterfly moved from his head to land on my nose once more. With how sad I was, it still made me smile.

"Thanks, butterfly," I whispered.

"Princess Luna?" Ansiel's voice was full of affection. "For tonight, can I address you as Luna?"

"Okay," I whispered, the butterfly leaving my nose and flying over to sit on the lamp. I turned my gaze back to Ansiel.

Lifting his hands, he brushed away my tears and looked me right in the eye.

"Before you say any more, can I tell you a secret?"

His question brought the memories of that day, to be asked by the nobleman who loved my butterflies.

"Sure," I whispered. His eyes softened, something passing through them I didn't quite understand. My heart was beating rapidly against my chest, and my eyes grew wide when he inched closer until our lips finally touched.

The world went still as I stopped breathing, all my attention on the light touch of his lips. My very first kiss from the man I'd had a crush on for eleven years.

Did he know all along?

I had no clue what to do. To press my lips in return or to stay as still as I was now. The thought was short-lived, his lips leaving mine.

Staring at him in shock, I watched his pleased smile as he looked into my eyes.

"I've watched you grow, year after year, but it wasn't only during the times we performed,"

"It...wasn't?" I questioned, feeling confused.

He shook his head. "We are more than just performers, Luna. We are guardians sent to protect the Goddess of Eternity,"

"Protect? Me?" I couldn't believe it, but it didn't answer the questions that were flooding into my mind. "From what?"

"From those who are manipulating you. The ones who are desperate in need of you to complete the ritual," he revealed.

"What?" I was speechless. "You're referring to my sisters?"

"Sybil, yes, though your other sisters are just as guilty,"

"I'm not supposed to do the ritual?" Now I was simply lost, unsure what was true or false.

"Do you know who the previous Goddess of Eternity is?" Ansiel questioned, his thumb absentmindedly stroking my cheek.

"No. My sisters said they don't know where she is. No one knows,"

"I know," he whispered. "And so do you,"

"I do? Where?" I exclaimed, stunned that I'd known all this time. I tried to think of all the people in the square and marketplace. Was one of them the Goddess of Eternity in disguise?

"Where did we first meet?" he questioned, a glint of amusement flickered in his blue eyes. I frowned, the answer obvious.

"At the tree. I call her Eternity, but we met there. Are you saying the Goddess lives around there? No, wait. Beyond there?"

Ansiel had a smirk. "Why did you call her Eternity out of all the names you could give her?" he inquired, ignoring my questions.

"It felt right," I answered. A tree can live for eternity if given the love and care it needs from the world around it. As long as it's roots are in the soil, it can grow and last for as long as the universe permits," I voiced, remember all my studies regarding trees with magic.

Ansiel nodded in agreement. "Yes, but Eternity is not a normal magical tree,"

"She's not?" I questioned. "Then?"

"That is the Goddess of Eternity," he revealed.

Let's Start A Journey Together

"T-The Goddess of Eternity is actually a tree?" I gasped in shock. "That's horrible," I was already beginning to tear up, my eyesight growing blurry by the second.

Ansiel's eyes went wide, and he quickly spoke, "She chose to be in that form, Luna. Don't cry," he immediately comforted.

"She chose to be a tree?" I questioned, trying to hold back my tears and listen to what he had to say.

"The Goddess of Eternity has served her role for many centuries. She's taken it as her role for exactly that, all eternity," Ansiel stressed.

"Yes, I know that, but I'm supposed to take over, aren't I?"

Ansiel sighed and shook his head. "Luna. Your original duty is to travel to different universes and help spread the Goddess of Eternity's existence. You were blessed with a bit of Goddess' power to help raise the awareness of her presence. People don't merely pray to the Goddess of Eternity. Some have lost their way completely because the fewer people who kneel down and pray to her, the weaker she ends up becoming.

"What?" I whispered. "Then...if I had completed the ritual?"

"If you completed the ritual, the Goddess of Eternity would have died," he announced.

My jaw dropped as I stared at him. He carried on.

"The ritual would destroy the roots of the tree and drain the rest of the Goddess' power. Once she passed, those millions of people who do pray to her would suffer and Luminous itself would die altogether,"

I was left speechless, unable to comprehend what would have happened if I did complete the spell. I looked to him, unsure what to ask first.

"Why?" he whispered. When I nodded, he continued. "I believe Sybil wanted to gain Goddess of Eternity's power and use it for herself. We may slow in age, but we do age. What myself, Allen, and Alex believe is that Sybil wants to live forever. She wants the power to give her everlasting youth. We weren't sure at first, and we've been doing our best to try and watch everything she'd been trying to do, but with how the years have gone by and the stress on this ritual, we realized she was up to no good,"

"What do we do?" I questioned.

"Well, as of now, we have an advantage," he grinned. "They don't know where this place is, nor do they know where you currently are. They may assume your hiding for the night and will come back in the morning,"

"But I won't, right?"

He smirked. "If you don't want to. I won't force you to stay here, but now that we've revealed the truth, the choice is yours," he offered.

I already knew my answer, but this was the best time ever to reveal what I'd been holding back for years.

"Before I answer, can I tell you another secret?" I whispered. He nodded and gave me his full attention.

"I..." With a deep inhale, I gathered every bit of course to say the words. "I...like you." My voice sounded like a squeaky mouse.

Please don't reject me.

"I know."

My eyes grew wide and I stared at him as though he was crazy. "What?"

"I know," he assured me. "You like Alex and Allen as well?"

My face grew hot as I blinked back at him, realizing he was right on point.

"When?" I asked.

"For a while," he whispered with a small grin.

My face was burning up. "Why didn't you say something if you knew?!" I argued.

"We didn't want to interfere with your feelings," he smiled, releasing my face and rising up to turn and face me.

"Aren't you going to make me choose one of you?"

"Nope," Ansiel shrugged. "Allen, Alex, and I have been friends for a very long time. We've also come to care about you in return. It was first protectively, but as you grew, we began to realize we liked you a lot more than just a guardian and a princess,"

"All three of you like me," I couldn't believe. "Not only do you guys like me, but you're also my guardians, and I don't have to be bonded to the universe. I'll be able to travel? To see the other universes?"

Ansiel nodded his head. "With us, Luna, you are free to travel and go on any adventure you wish to journey on. We'll come and protect you. When you're ready and comfortable to explore more, we'd be honored to court you to emphasize our feelings."

I covered with my hands, not wanting him to see how cherry red I must have been. "E-Even if I want to explore? I've never been with anyone," I stuttered.

I felt his hands lay gently on mine, moving them away for him to see my flushed face.

"Anything, Luna. We can do whatever you wish," he concluded.

I didn't know where to start or how to feel. There were many emotions I was feeling all at once. I was definitely sure about one thing.

"In the morning, let's journey together. All four of us to spread the world of the Goddess of Eternity," I vowed.

"Sounds like a plan, Luna," he replied.

"And," I whispered, not wanting him to move away just yet. "One more thing,"

"Hmm?" he replied, his eyes telling me he already knew what I wanted.

"Can we kiss again?" I whispered.

"Yes, we can, Princess Luna," he whispered.

"Luna," I whispered, blushing slightly. "Just for tonight," I reminded.

He smirked, inching closer until our lips barely touched.

"Yes, Luna. Just for tonight."

Tomorrow we would embark on a new journey. One that would prove who was good and evil. There were far too many questions still lingering in my head, but I had hoped I'd find those answers along the way.

My main goal was to protect the Goddess of Eternity and spread her name across the universe.

TO BE CONTINUED.

About Yumoyori Wilson

Yumoyori Wilson is a full-time author who has a “slight” addiction to bubble tea.

She previously was a Pediatric Registered Nurse, working her night shifts away and reading her kindle during her breaks. She decided to take the chance at becoming an author and is now working on multiple projects in various genres, including Paranormal Romance, Urban Fantasy, Sci-Fi, and more.

She lives in Toronto, Ontario and loves to bother her lovely Mother (also known as her Queen) and has many projects and plans for her readers.

Author’s Note

I wrote this story in part because I am intrigued by origin stories and mythologies. They reveal so much of what a culture and society values.

Plus, it tickles me to know that most of the legends and myths we hold dear likely happened to some degree. In that respect, I wholly believe that we are the heroes of our own stories and love knowing that we all are just one step away from being legendary.

To that end, please note that this story takes place in a fictional realm.

I have borrowed from many Asian myths and twisted them with my own brand of darkly magical storytelling to create the world of Flame of the Phoenix.

None of the dynasties, geographies, people, or monsters are intended to be historically accurate.

If such fibbing offends you, please don’t read.

Chapter 1

Tenth Year of the Shang Dynasty Reign

Rainbow Forest, fifty kilometers outside of Lijiang Village

Xiulan

Ash fell among the scorched rainbow trees that once had bark the colors of a prismatic sunset. This forest was known for its colors. Now, the trees were charred, nothing but blackened husks of themselves.

I wrenched the dragon helmet from my head, grateful for the moment’s reprieve from wearing the armor that served as both protection and disguise. The fires were downwind of us, and so I took advantage of breathing in lungfuls of fresh air.

It was nice to smell something other than my fetid breath being recycled around me. The sweat on my brow cooled, helping me concentrate better.

The winds could change any moment. Because of that, I needed to be prepared to contain the fire on the off-chance the wind would violently change direction. It wouldn’t be the first time it happened.

Fire was necessary to keep the sickness at bay. A cure was rare, but that was only because most people didn’t linger long enough to fight off the disease. Only a few villages were able to report overcoming the wave of death that seemed to start the plague. It was sad to see that it had come all the way up here.

The Imperial Majesty's Dragon Guard were charged with keeping the fire line so that the raging flames from nearby villages would be contained. That was the official edict.

What the Council of Governors actually wanted was for the fires to remain well away from the Imperial City.

I wanted the same thing, of course. Though my father passed on to the spirit world, my mother still lived on as the wife of a loyal Dragon General, and so lived in the protection of the Imperial City. I would be there, too, and I tried to volunteer, but tending the sick and dying seemed a fruitless endeavor.

Why treat the symptom when I could treat the source of the disease?

That was why I volunteered to be an apprentice to the Dragon Guard for this short mission. Females were generally excluded from the army, but no one really checked the volunteers, grateful as they were for any helping hands. So, with a flourish script, I’d signed up as “Ky Lan” versus my actual name of “Xiulan,” which everyone knew.

I was named for the beautiful orchid that my father adored. Unfortunately, he treated me like one, too.

My parents indulged my whims at studying medicine and perhaps one day of being a medicine woman. Deep down, I knew they thought that knowing medicine would be a valuable skill for a wife and household manager that they expected me to be.

Just the thought of that kind of life made my skin feel tight and small around me. But, there would be no sense in shaming them if ever I was caught in my pretense, especially outside of the city’s walls.

Only men and women of low status needed to be outside of the walls.

It always killed the spark that lived inside of me to hear my parents say that. Especially since I nurtured this feeling inside of me that I was destined for more than being the dutiful wife of a high-ranking officer.

My mother held the opinion that my thoughts were tainted, and that if my father hadn’t spoiled me, I would be begging him to find me a suitable husband faster.

The thought made me cringe, my heart threatening to burst against the building anxiety.

Yet for all that I despised the cloistered life that my mother planned for me, I liked knowing that my mother and her extended family and friends were safe within the walls.

Soon, we could return home. We just needed to round up the nearby villagers so that they might have refuge while Lijiang would be repaired.

I found some privacy in the woods to fill my water bottle and soak a rag so that I could find some relief with all this heat.

"You should be more careful. You don't know who might be around."

Hayato’s cool voice drifted from behind me, and I turned to face him.

My brother was mere minutes older than me, but the way he acted you would have thought he was decades older. He had been serving in the Dragon Guard since he was able to walk, placed there once the old temple masters identified that he carried the dragon spirit. It was said that he was destined to serve in the Dragon Guard especially since our father enjoyed such illustrious ranks.

Serving would have been an honor for me, too. But, I had the unlucky fortune to be born female. I was cursed with the destiny to stay indoors and learn to play an instrument or sew a tapestry. My worth coming from idle things like being beautiful and bearing sons.

That was why when there was a chance for me to volunteer and serve side by side with the Dragon Guard, I took it. I had to disguise myself as a male to do so, but freedom from the destiny assigned to me was worth suppressing my femininity.

Hayato found out about my plans, of course. My brother always seemed like he had a sixth sense and could read minds. Whatever his opinions though, he continued to support me and champion me in anything. The only way that Hayato would agree to my scheme was that I had to promise that I would be by his side at all times.

I looked at him now, less respectfully than I ought to, but I managed to keep the tone of my voice neutral even though I wanted to be snippy. We teased each other constantly when we were in the safety of our own home, but out here, I was supposed to be a dutiful apprentice. "I made sure no one else was around."

Hayato nodded. "Come. We’ve been assigned to check on the eastern perimeter."

He left the woods without looking back to see that I would follow his instruction. To him, it would be a given, and he would be right about it.

I fastened the dragon helmet back on top of my head, making sure that every wisp of hair was tucked in.

I felt something watching me, gaze heavy that I wanted to turn around and confront whatever it was. But nothing was here.

"Ky Lan!"

That was my assumed name. I would have been annoyed being called for like this, but there was a bit of fear and urgency in my brother's tone.

I ran after where he had gone.

I stopped short, seeing my brother Hayato, with two other men openly staring straight ahead. There was no way that Hayato would have called me so urgently for nothing.

"What is it?" I asked breathless.

Before I could get an answer from the men who gathered, I saw something flickering in the edge of the clearing. Shadows, maybe?

There, emerging from the tree line, we found confirmation of what had happened in the sleepy village of Lijiang. What looked like shadows were shambling corpses.

Hayato gripped my upper arm. "Behind me."

He didn't have to ask me twice.

These people weren’t familiar to me, but enough of them carried items with symbols indicating from Lijiang village to let me know that they must have come from there.

We were too late to stop the spread of the infection before it hit the town, but we would make sure it wouldn’t spread any farther.

We each took up our swords and shields, and waited for the horde to come.

They were easily overpowered. Stiff-limbed, they walked slowly, sometimes hopped, and more often than not, fell over if they encountered an obstacle. It was more sad than scary. Hayato and I took up a system of raising a shield to stop them, while the other would strike one through the head.

Over and over we did this until finally, the horde from Lijiang were subdued.

We gathered the dead so that they would be prayed over and cremated.

One of the bodies looked familiar. His robes were different. They looked to be the pattern of the Imperial City.

Jun, the Captain of the Dragon Guard, peered at the hollowed-out face and body with an increasing sense of alarm. “I know this man,” he whispered in awe. “This is the Imperial Physician.”

I looked down at the ravaged corpse. His skin was gray and hung like worn out socks that lost their elastic. Even if I was a facial expert, I doubted I’d be able to recognize my own mother in this condition.

Trapped gases gave him a bloated appearance around his mouth and especially his gut, even though the man was usually pretty lean.

One of Captain Jun’s men spoke up. “What is the matter, General? If it is the Imperial Physician--”

“It is the Imperial Physician!” Captain Jun insisted.

The guard nodded as if his captain hadn’t interrupted him. “So, say it is the Imperial Physician. What does it matter? Shouldn’t he have been up here trying to save the people of His Imperial Majesty?”

“It seems that he’d been here for a while too, with his skin looking like that,” another guard chimed in.

Captain Jun leveled his gaze on his Dragon Guard. “Therein lies the problem, you see. The emperor had made that valiant recovery from the wasting sickness. The physician recorded the herbs and medicines that were used, and it was because of his findings and success that surrounding villages have sought help.”

The other guards shifted uncomfortably on their feet, confusion on their faces. “I still don’t understand, Captain.”

The guard might not have understood, but I did. The physician was supposed to be at the emperor’s side even at this very moment. The physician’s reports about the emperor’s slowly improving health updated this very morning. I said as much, though my voice trailed off as I became the center of attention.

I was grateful when someone else spoke up and I could just fade into the background.

“If you are sure that this is the imperial physician, and yet this...person...had been here for so long that he is wasted away into this state, then who has been tending the Emperor?”

Captain Jun’s face was pensive. “That is one of many questions that need answered.”

Chapter 2

Speculation about the physician and the emperor spread through the Dragon Guard as Captain Jun pushed on toward Lijiang village. Theories ranging from evil magic to shapeshifting to mistaken identity were bandied about.

Hayato rode close to me, separating himself from the others. Even though he was the rising star in his unit, he was a loner by preference. “So, what do you think is going on with the body?” I asked him.

He shrugged. “It doesn’t really matter anymore. Their spirits are at rest.”

We had ensured that every infected body was set ablaze, incense and prayers spoken over each one as they burned into ash. Captain Jun held onto the Imperial seal that had been hanging from the alleged physician’s body. “Oh, come one. Just one little theory?” I pressed him.

Sometimes he was a little too practical. He looked at me from the corner of his eye. “Fine. I believe that was the emperor’s physician and he had been sent here by the emperor’s medical team to die an anonymous death. No one expected that he would be found as a shambling corpse.”

Hayato’s words brought chills over my body. He did this a lot: speak with so much authority and confidence that anything he said seem like the unvarnished truth.

Or a hidden prophecy.

“And what is your theory about why anyone would do that?” I pressed him.

He smiled to himself. “Because the real emperor died a month ago and to ensure that the right of succession goes to the pregnant dowager empress’s unborn child, she is waiting until her son is born to announce that the emperor has unexpectedly died.”

I hushed him immediately. To even speak of the emperor’s demise was treason and punishable by death. It was no joking matter. “Man, remind me never to ask for your opinion again. I know you don’t like the dowager empress but you didn’t have to paint her as a kind of conniving and evil witch.”

He shrugged. “The truth is as plain as day no matter how much it is hidden or twisted by evil people. Regarding the dowager empress, I simply paint with the colors I’m given,” he said.

I shook my head. “And I suppose that she’s evil enough to concoct a plague in the empire to accidentally kill off her co-conspirators.”

Hayato grew pensive, eyes clouding over in thought as if he was taking this game seriously. “No, more like she is taking advantage of an opportunity, though killing off her co-conspirators would easily be something she would do. Smart, too. Fewer loose ends, the better.”

I chuckled. “Well if you ask me, the simplest solution is likely the truth: Captain Jun is mistaken and that wasn’t the physician.”

“Then how do you explain the Imperial seal? It’s not like they’re commonly passed around even among those who have access to it,” Hayato countered.

Tapping my finger against my chin, I tried to come up with a plausible explanation. Images and theories bubbled up from within me, until something seemed to hit me in the gut and spread like a seeping warmth throughout my torso before resting in my throat.

I opened my mouth and a river of words flowed from me. “Because he was sent as an envoy, and the seal proved that whatever he had to say was spoken from the Imperial throne.” I had tried to moderate the words, to hold them inside of me but I couldn’t. It was as if my throat would burn up. As I spoke, it was as if a glowing ember of truth lit up around my heart and exploded, unable and unwilling to be hidden.

Where did this come from? And why was I able to experience it?

My shocked gaze met Hayato’s. A small smile rested on his face. “Good. You’re learning to trust your instincts.” He nodded as if satisfied. Nudging his horse forward, he trotted on ahead as Captain Jun gave a signal to the Dragon Guard to proceed in formation, with volunteers such as myself bringing up the rear.

Hayato made his way back to me, face closed off and grim. I wanted to ask him what was wrong, but I received the answer to that question before I could ask it.

There was an overwhelming smell of death and decay that rolled down the mountain. My stomach seized up and clenched and it was all I could do to keep the meager contents of my stomach down.

We were downwind of something, and we all were desperate to get ourselves away from the smell. As we neared the village, the wind shifted just a little so at least the noxious odors were being carried away from us rather than at us.

What happened here?

A pile up of blood and gore saturated the earth. Slash marks tore up the sides of the walls, scoring deep into the wood. Lijiang was lucky that lumber was its main trade. If its walls were less secure, they would surely have fallen against whatever had wanted to get in.

Captain Jun hailed the guards at the gate but there was no answer. Finally, he worked open the pass-through gate that only guards knew existed, and with a few extra hands, got the gate open.

I’d expected a massacre. Evidence of war or battle. For the most part, the town just looked empty. Abandoned.

We saw some survivors, children mostly, who had been small enough to hide in tiny places. They were not the best witnesses to figure out what had happened.

There was another group of survivors on the roof of the water tower. The Captain hailed them and asked them to come down, promising that everything was fine. When the ragtag group finally assembled, it was comprised of under twenty people.

Captain Jun looked at the men in the group with particular disdain. As if they didn’t have the right to be afraid and hope to survive. I held my tongue. I understood that the villagers had just been trying to survive in the best way they could I didn’t blame them.

I saw the shambling corpses just down the mountainside. Those were likely these survivors’ friends, relatives, neighbors...it was hard enough for me to put them down. How much harder would it be for people to kill the ones they once loved? When they were actually people they knew?

The volunteer group were assigned to tend to the survivors, and we made plans to load up the cart for them to be escorted back toward the Imperial City. Unspoken was the desire to leave sooner rather than later.

An older woman stubbornly refused to leave, saying that her son’s spirit was taken away into the woods. Her voice wasn’t loud, but she spoke with enough persistence that she was heard. If they could bring him back then she would leave.

“Who is that woman facing off against the captain?” I whispered to the Dragon Guard’s newest rookie.

Han, just as transfixed at the sight, didn’t look at me when he answered. “That is the grand madam of the village. Her son was the governor here. She is waiting for his spirit to return or something.”

I couldn’t hear what the woman said, but the captain’s voice grew impatient. He wasn’t quite shouting—the decorum to be respectful to elders was ingrained in all of us—but it was clear that he was reaching a breaking point.

If he started something now, in front of these survivors, there would be a divide, and that would make it harder for them to listen to orders if needed.

The Captain rolled his eyes. “Ma’am, we don’t have time for this. And your stubbornness is endangering the lives of all these people.”

I’d seen that resolve in the woman’s eyes before. It was the look that my mother sometimes got when she had had enough of my father’s demands. It mirrored the feeling that I had in carrying this fire inside of me that no one wanted to acknowledge.

Without asking for permission, I spoke to the woman directly. “Old mother,” I intoned with the highest respect. “What is it that you need before you are able to leave your home?”

Maybe it was because I was close to her or maybe she just had that perception that came with being a wise woman of great age, but her eyes sparkled when she addressed me. The Old Mother inclined forward at the waist in a shallow bow. “My son, Dae, the governor of this village, has yet to return. I will not leave until he returns or until his bones return so that I might give him a proper burial.”

Well, at least the Old Mother was ready to acknowledge the possibility that her son could be dead.

I tried to be gentle in my reasoning with her. “What if we are unable to find your son? Or, what if we find him and were unable to carry back his bones. What is it that you need that would convince you that your son’s spirit is at rest?”

Her eyes misted over so that they looked gray and distant. It was as if she aged many years before my eyes.

“My son wore a jade amulet that had been the symbol of this village for many generations. It carries the hope and spirit of this forest and holds the key to our future. If you were to bring that back to me, I would know that my son’s spirit is at rest. He would die before it was taken from him.”

I nodded in understanding. If we somehow found the son, either dead or alive or someplace in between, as long as we returned the jade amulet to her, she would be satisfied.

“When was the last time you saw him?” I asked her.

“He left to secure the borders of the village against the Hungry Ghosts.”

Hungry ghosts? Was that what she called the infected? The Old Mothers tended to be such a superstitious lot. I scoured my memories. “We saw a group of them just south of here. I do not remember seeing someone with your son’s description.” Despite my bad news, she remained undaunted.

“Nor would you, since he did not travel that way. He would be there,” she pointed. “My son was headed up the mountain.” She pointed in the opposite direction from where we came.

Understanding dawned on me then. I had assumed that she meant that her son, Dae, was caught outside of the village walls, and was somehow became part of the infected. The Old Mother insisted that he had gone in the opposite direction, presumably to secure the borders of the village.

I took a surreptitious glance around. The walls of the village were strong, a symbol of prosperity and wealth. Not surprising since Lijiang enjoyed a close partnership with the Imperial City.

This would be a great village to settle in, plagues and death aside.

Hayato made a sound that was a mix between disbelief and disgust. I looked at him curiously, but he just signaled that he would explain later. I couldn’t wait to hear his thoughts.

“Please ma’am, continue,” I said. “You believe he went up the mountain? For what purpose would he leave behind his village?”

“My son Dae did not abandon us, if that is what you mean.” She was amused and not indignant, which was a relief. “He was on his way toward the Temple that rests in the forest. When the village was overrun, the signal lights and bells were destroyed, and there wouldn’t be a way to signal to them that anything was the matter.”

“My apologies, Old Mother, but why would your son go to the temple at a time of such danger?”

“Because that is exactly why the temple was created in the first place. The priests are able to combat the danger that comes from the evil spirits. They wield magic and are able to deliver rare potions and treatments. It was for these treatments that he risked his life for his people.”

My mother was like this, too. Always speaking of ghosts, evil forces, and supernatural feats as if everything was a legendary tale waiting to be told. Sometimes, it is worth honoring everyday actions as heroic. There was no reason to turn everything into destiny and myth.

Still, out of respect, I inclined my head to the Old Mother in a show of obeisance. “I see. In the chance that we do not encounter your son, or the jade amulet, would you be satisfied if we reached the temple you mentioned? If we make sure your son’s mission was accomplished, would you be satisfied?”

The Old Mother stood in silence for what seemed like a small eternity. The breeze from the mountains shifted the fetid odors away from the village, leaving only the fresh scents of a nearby mountain spring and young trees. Birdsong filled the air, and though the day had just started, it promised to be a beautiful one.

“There is a rare flowering herb that only grows around the temple. The priests cultivate it. The dried husks of the seeds look like small skulls. If you are unable to locate my son, or the jade amulet upon his neck, then bring me back a portion of that herb, and I will know that you have attained the temple when you return.”

I knew the herb that she mentioned. The physicians spoke of its value. It was said that it would bring a person back to life, even if they were in death’s grip. The problem was, it was also exceedingly rare. I’d only seen them in pictures when I studied medicines.

I caught the captain’s gaze. An herb like that would be valuable in and of itself. It would be a helpful herb for the guard to have on hand. It was also something that an Imperial Physician might have been charged by a dowager empress to fetch.

An understanding bloomed between the captain and me. He was willing to follow up the mountain to find this son of hers. “Thank you for answering Old Mother,” I said. “We will find your son, and bring you back the jade amulet or this herb you speak of.”

And, if we fortune was on our side, we would be able to bring her back all three.

Chapter 3

I grew up within the walls of the Imperial City.

That was the benefit of having a father who was a high-ranking officer in the Imperial Guard. The fact that my brother showcased the hallmarks of carrying a dragon’s spirit, thereby automatically ensuring he would be a Dragon Guard, raised the family status even more.

While Hayato’s dragon spirit was being cultivated as he learned to balance his energy and perfect his fighting stances, I was learning how to cook rice and sew cloth together.

Yet, my spirit warred within me, feeling trapped. I swore to my mother and father that I had a dragon spirit inside of me, too, just like Hayato, one that needed to soar.

But they wouldn't listen to me.

They kept telling me that I was wrong. The dragon spirits would only reside inside males, who were the ones strong enough to carry a dragon spirit inside of them.

My father had cupped my face in his hands. "Xiulan, don't worry about these things. You are my beautiful flower, and I will make sure that you will marry a great man, one that will provide for your every need."

My father had said things like that all my life. He meant to be loving and encouraging. Yet, the more he promised finding a great husband for me, the less I wanted to marry.

The only thing that made my childhood bearable was my brother. Whenever my parents encouraged me to pursue more feminine arts, he would always balance it out by teaching me what he had learned that day in the Dragon Temple.

My father thought that my brother was just proudly showing off his skills, and so never reprimanded him for teaching me what he had learned. Of course, it helped that Hayato could do no wrong in my parents' eyes.

I didn't begrudge him that favoritism. Hayato was easy to love, always willing to help. I repaid that kindness by taking each and every lesson he taught me seriously.

The first lesson being: Listen to your gut.

As we ventured up the mountainside, and deeper into the surrounding forest, I couldn’t help feel an overwhelming sense of foreboding. We shouldn’t be here. But, since we committed ourselves to this mission, there was no turning back without losing face.

Plus, the draw to discover what kind of a temple was capable of cultivating an herb that could save one from death was compelling.

Captain Jun had left a few Dragon Guard back in Lijiang. A good decision, too. There were several slash marks in trees. In some sections, there were areas where it looked like the trees were ripped open from the inside out.

If what had gouged at Lijiang’s fortified walls returned, at least there were trained guard ready to defend the survivors.

I crouched down to touch a destroyed tree; my hand came away with a gooey substance clinging to it. It wasn’t tree sap.

This didn’t look the handiwork of tree spirits that the old stories referred to. They were generally good, if not a little mischievous. Whoever--or whatever--tore through these trees were not benevolent at all.

We ranged through the forest, keeping an eye out for a potential trail Governor Dae would have used. By midday, we broke for lunch, and continued to push on.

None of the guard had been able to see any sign that Dae had traveled through here at all. It was a good thing that Captain Jun sensed that searching for the son would be fruitless, and that our goal was to get to the temple.

If we happen to encounter the Dae on the way there, so be it.

The sun was at its highest point in the day, burning through any lingering cloud and mist that lingered in the forest. That was how we were able to see the temple in the distance.

It was also the moment that a call echoed through the trees. A guard’s warning cry that mimicked birdsong. We converged on that guard.

In the middle of a clearing was the unfortunate body of Governor Dae, with a few others that must have accompanied him from his village.

* * *

A volunteer from Lijiang confirmed that the dead bodies were Governor Dae and his bodyguard. What was odd about them was how their hands were curled in on themselves as if locked in a seizure.

Captain Jun took the governor’s amulet from around his neck. And then something weird happened. Dae started groaning. It was a little breath of a sound, but he kept making it.

That to me meant that he was alive.

“Captain, what do we do?” One of the Dragon Guard asked.

“Help him of course. Place their bodies in the horse-drawn cart. Once we get to the temple, we can test out that herb that was worth dying for.”

We hauled the bodies on to the cart, stacking them as if they were lumber. Every now and again, one of the bodies would exhale or groan, and it was unsettling. They were alive, but for how long? And would they turn into shambling corpses as well?

As we drew closer to the temple, it seemed that the marks on the trees were significantly worse until there were whole portions that reminded me of a scarred battlefield.

“Captain,” a Dragon Guard called out. “Would it be better to have a small unit return Lijiang and get a head start on transporting the people to the Imperial City?”

I might not be handy with armed combat skills, but I knew fear when I heard it. I understood. I felt it too, walking through this forest. It gave the feeling of being watched. As if any moment there was a chance that something would jump out from the trees.

Captain Jun must have felt it, too, because he didn’t reprimand his guard for his nonsensical idea. “No, it would be dark soon, and it takes a full day to reach the city. Better to start in the morning when they could be safe inside the Lijiang’s walls one more night.”

Without saying it, Captain Jun had made his intention clear, too. He wanted to reach the temple soon because he planned on asking for hospitality for the night as well.

Maybe he had felt that creeping sensation that something watched us from the shadows in the middle of the full light of day. What would it be like to walk that forest at night?

Besides, we all could use the rest, seeing as though we had been up the night before containing fires, and pushed on through this day. There was wisdom there after all.

As the sun was well past its highest point the temple finally seemed to be coming closer. For the longest stretch, it seemed to be firmly far away in the distant horizon.

A general feeling of relief sighed throughout the group.

It was short-lived. As soon as the forest thinned, we past more gnarled and hollowed trees, and more often than not, they were marked with strange marks and carved sigils.

I finally asked one of the guides from Lijiang where the symbols came from or what he meant.

He was barely a man, looking more like a skittish boy, but when I asked, he eagerly told me a tale.

“Well, my grandpa told me that there once was a man who had worked for a power-hungry war general. He was a magician that wielded great power. He would be able to turn into smoke and take over your mind. The war general used this magician to as his secret weapon to win countless wars. One day, the magician conjured up Yaomo, a demon more than he could handle, and so was killed by his own devices. Unfortunately, the portal he created to call the creatures forth were left to run wild.

Priests from afar came to combat the evil and were able to hold them at bay. That was why the temple was built: so, the priests would continue their vigil and fight the evil if it ever returns.”

The young man smiled as he finished his story, seemingly proud that he remembered the story that his grandfather had told him.

I wondered how much truth was in it. Because if these so-called priests were supposed to be standing vigil against evil, they were failing. Hard.

A nearby village was nearly destroyed by a ravening horde and they couldn’t be bothered to come out of their temple seclusion.

And the governor himself died before he was able to ask for help.

That kind of callousness infuriated me.

The booming barks of what sounded to be a large dog echoed through the valley. The horses whinnied in response. Hayato closed in next to me. We waited, and since we didn’t seem to be under attack by a large dog, we continued on despite the warning.

The sun descended behind the trees and the day cooled as night began to take over. Since the moon was still hidden, it would be an especially dark night. I didn’t feel like being caught in the forest when full night fell.

It would be difficult to see an infected person nearby in the dark. They were easy enough to fend off, but not when you were caught unaware.

The booming barks took on the quality of a thunderclap the closer to the temple we came. The sight of it, looming ever closer, buoyed our spirits and caused us to pick up our pace.

We were finally at the outer perimeter of the temple the gates nearly invisible among the endless black wall when a frisson of energy lifted the hair from my skin.

The horses bucked and high-stepped as if they wanted to leave. The captain hopped off his horse, soothing him as he did before handing the horse’s reins to his apprentice.

Captain Jun marched over to the gong that hung above the gate and banged on it with the provided stick. The barks finally died down, which was strange. I would have thought that now that there were people at the gate, there would be even more growls and barks.

The orangey-purple light of dusk lingered among the trees. It was by that light that I first noticed that the shadows I’d seen as we traveled in were not a figment of my imagination. They were there, but they didn’t belong out there.

The way the waning sunlight hit the trees in the forest, it should have cast shadows back and away from the temple. Instead, the shadows were still, black smudges that lingered around the outlines of trees.

As I narrowed my eyes, light glinted on something that looked like lengthening claws.

It was at that moment, that the thunderous barks resumed.

For the first time in a long time, I was scared. Fear climbed up from my stomach to grip around my lungs and squeeze. I couldn’t breathe.

Hayato laid a hand between my shoulder blades, and immediately I felt better. “You’re fine, Ky Lan. There is no reason to panic.”

Just being reminded of my pretend name allowed me to swallow down that fear and freed me to breathe. I was supposed to be a young man volunteering with the Dragon Guard. Only hopefuls would be in my position, those who would one day serve as a Dragon Guard.

Giving into fear would not help me remain disguised.

“Thank you,” I said. “I’m better, but there’s something out there. It’s like a tiger crouching low, readying itself to pounce.”

“I feel the same way.”

The captain banged on the bell in earnest now, adding a percussive rhythm in the air. Whoever manned the temple better open the gates soon.

Whatever lingered in the shadows of the forest began to seethe.

I didn’t care that I looked scared. I went to the door at the gate and started pounding on it with my bare hand. “Is anyone there?” I yelled.

The rest of the group joined me in banging against the door. I saw the flicker of movement from above. It looked like the outline of a person. Were there guards stationed above us, willingly ignoring our presence?

I grew angry. I marched away from the door as the others continued to knock on it and bang. I moved so that I was able to see who might be on the parapet above.

“Hey! You! I know you can see me and I know you can hear us! Open this gate!”

The tightness that had squeezed my lungs expanded and bloomed outward instead. It was almost the feeling of lightning, that staticky charge that built up around storms. A blanketing silence flowed over me after I gave my command, almost as if I’d plugged my ears.

Hayato looked at me in alarm, and for a moment, I thought there was something wrong with me. I glanced down, and saw that a white outline of a bubble surrounded me. Crackling lightning surged over the surface of the bubble.

I was too shocked to be fearful, trying to figure out what was going on. Raised voices brought me back into myself. A blur of shadows arced over me, and Hayato’s sword rang out as it clashed against claws that were easily the length of my arm.

I screamed in response screwing my eyes shut, and it was almost as if time froze for me as I waited for a death strike that never came.

Slowly, I forced myself to open my eyes. I gazed at the men who were pressed against the gates, varying degrees of shock and fear ranged over them.

Hayato’s face was calm, a mask of grim determination as he faced my would-be attacker — a monstrous creature with longer forelegs than hind legs, stretched out in its attacking strike. Hayato’s sword had a lock on its claws, but the creature’s other paw, aimed to cut both of us down, was ready to land.

I felt flames surging from within me. It was this heat, this spark, that I’d called my dragon spirit. It was what my own parents denied that I had.

As I embraced the fire in my soul, though, I knew that dragon was not its name.

Whatever it was, I accepted its presence, and felt it fill me, almost as if it would stretch my skin apart. I didn’t know what to do.

Let go, a voice whispered inside me.

I didn’t know how, and I didn’t want to do the wrong thing. In front of me, the monster’s claws inched perilously closer to Hayato’s middle.

Let go, the voice insisted.

I did the only thing I do locked in place as I was. I stopped resisting the heat that I felt surging through my veins. I leaned into it, relaxing my muscles and allowed it to take over.

White hot pain shot up my spine as fire spread from my splayed fingers. I tried for calm, for focusing on anything other than the pain, but it overwhelmed me.

I let out a fiery scream.

Chapter 4

In an instant, the world around me blanked out into a glorious white.

And then, all that white energy pushed outward and slammed into the monster. It let out a roar that raised the hackles on my neck as it was hurled back into the forest. Trees went down, easily broken in half as if they were matchsticks.

Hayato laid a hand on my shoulder. “Are you okay, did it get you?”

Before I could answer, I saw another dark blur leaving the forest. Hayato responded to the look on my face as much as to the danger, and he whirled with his sword again and successfully ducked under swiping claws while his blade sparked against something metallic.

Body armor? On a monster?

As Hayato faced it, the metal wasn’t something the creature wore; it was part of the creature itself.

How are we supposed to pierce metallic hide?

Hayato was quick, ducking and flipping as he landed a flurry of sword strikes along the monster, looking for an opening or weakness of some kind. But, the monster only needed one lucky strike to tear Hayato’s flesh into ribbons.

The pressure in my gut grew again, but this time I wasn’t afraid of it and welcomed the bloom of energy, eager to see what it could do. I blew out the energy toward the creature that was slashing at my brother.

The field was weaker than the other that grew from me, but it was still effective. The monster was knocked onto its back, its multi-jointed legs flailing as it sought to gain purchase.

Hayato didn’t pause. He pressed his advantage and vaulted in the air, sword positioned to thrust down at the monster’s exposed underbelly.

Then, multiple things happened at once.

The monster’s tail arced up from underneath its body, a needle-like stinger aiming for Hayato’s middle.

A dark blur flowed over the temple’s walls, and knocked into Hayato.

I screamed as Hayato fell, the sound raw and harsh even to my own ears.

Energy welled up inside of me, an electrical current that was both hot and itchy on my skin. I welcomed it, demanded it to work for me, and forced it out once more.

As my vision narrowed into two pinpoints of light, I saw the energy land right on top of the monster’s exposed body, crushing it to gory bits.

I fought for consciousness, fought for feeling, anything, just so I could see if Hayato was safe.

Like the other deep desires, I wished for in my short life, I was denied and darkness threatened to wash over me.

“Don’t worry, Queen. I have you.” Strong hands anchored me to consciousness.

I didn’t know who that voice was talking to, but it surely couldn’t have been me. I was no queen. I was barely the same rank as a lady of the Imperial court.

Whatever status I had was through my father or brother.

A man had appeared beside me, and was now taking off his glove. Then, he covered my hand with his, and the warmth that flowed through him made me feel better. It was amazing how well I felt, as if I drinking a hot cup of tea on a cold wintry day. I could almost feel it filling me up bit by bit.

“There you are, my queen. That’s it. Take as much as you need.”

I heard his words but didn’t quite comprehend the meaning of what he said. My limbs felt weightless and free as if I floated along atop an ocean and was bobbing in the waves.

Finally, the darkness receded from my vision and I was able to see clearly once more. The man before me was dressed all in black, from the top of his head down to his toes. His head wrap had a hooded flap that covered his eye area completely.

The only reason I could tell he was human at all was the hand on top of mine.

His fingers were really smooth and elegant.

“You must have mistaken me for someone else. I’m no queen.” I would have asserted my disguise: that I was a man not a woman, let alone a queen.

But being this close to me, I could almost feel the intensity of his gaze. His eyes were so sharp, he knew exactly who was in front of him. It was as if he could see and scour my very soul.

“You may not have been queen before this moment. But you are one now. Come on, let’s go see to your guard. We have one shot at this.”

“One shot at what?” I asked, my head still groggy.

Despite the mask he wore, I could almost see him smile at me. “You’ll see.”

Chapter 5

“Where do you think you’re going with her?” Captain Jun’s indignant voice rang out as he marched to where we now stood. “And Xiulan, I cannot believe that you had been subjected to these horrors this entire time. Your father would be so angry to know that this was how you lived out your legacy.”

I felt my cheeks flame, but said nothing. My father would have been crushed knowing that not only had I been outside of the Imperial City virtually unprotected, but also because I had been found out. The shame upon my family would be grievous

The man in black stopped to assess Captain Jun. “Me? I’m keeping her safe.” Then, the man in black extended his hand toward me. I placed my hand in his, more as a reflex rather than intention. Immediately, another wave of calm flowed into me.

It felt good not to worry about what others thought about me. Sometimes others’ approval muddled up what I knew deep down inside. It was really annoying and made things so much harder.

“If you truly want her to be safe, you would have opened the gates.” Captain Jun bit off every little syllable.

The man in black surged in front me and put his face in Captain Jun’s. “We cannot open the gates when any of those things are present. We would risk destroying the foundations of the world.”

I didn’t know if it was the melodramatic words or if Captain Jun could feel the anger rolling off this man as I could, but he remained silent.

“We will leave now, retrieve her other guard, and see about cutting off the creature before it reports back to its nest that the Phoenix Queen has arrived. If you want to be helpful, why don’t you set fire to those walking disease bags before they infect the entire mountainside.” The man in black stormed away from Captain Jun, taking my hand in his.

As if we hadn’t been interrupted, his entire tone of voice and demeanor changed back to what it was before. “Come on.”

“Where we going?” The man in black tugged me along after him. It felt as if we were floating along without a care, yet when I viewed the scenery, it all went by in a blur. “Wait a minute. You were that blur that came from the temple? How was that you, and how are you doing this now?”

“I’m sure Master Wu would tell you all sorts of in-depth mumbo jumbo about the nature of the universe and all that. The reality is, my powers are just an extension of who I am. So, all this running? Just how I go places.”

I sneaked a peek back, and saw that the temple receded into the backroom. We had spent all day to get there, and here we were, running away again.

“To answer your other question, we’re meeting up with others to finish what we started. The monsters thought you and your guard would have been an easy breakfast before full night descended. You showed them, didn’t you! One of them you crushed, but the other one was just dazed. It’s making its way back to its hive. We need to get to it first beforehand.”

I brushed leaves and twigs from my face. “And Hayato?”

“Your guard?”

“Well, brother, but I guess my guard.”

“Brother? Even better!” Something seemed to switch inside of him and he surged ahead even faster. “He’s with the other temple guards. Sorry, when I knocked him away from the stinger, I teleported him as far away as I could. For safety.”

Somehow, I didn’t quite believe that reason, but I let it go because we slowed down at the edge of the forest. “Where are we?” I asked. I lingered where there were still green and lush trees. The other side was a barren landscape with craggy rocks and blackened spires. It looked to be an alien landscape devoid of life.

I didn’t want to step foot there. It felt as if I’d be sucked into another dimension.

“Xiulan!” Hayato rushed toward me and hugged me to him. Only then did I realize that the breastplate and helmet of my dragon armor was beyond repair; bits and pieces were warped and melted.

He helped me shrug out of them so that I was at least comfortable. When I was left in just my linen robe, I felt self-conscious without the camouflage of the gear.

“What happened to you?” I asked him. I wanted to hear from his perspective.

“One moment I was about to strike that creature down, and the next, I was knocked out here and told to stay until the other guard arrived. I’d be needed. And then a moment later, here you are.”

“Other guard?” I shifted my gaze to the man in black.

He bowed with a flourish. “Yes, my queen, they shall by arriving about now.”

One by one, puffs of smoke appeared before my eyes, and when the smoke disappeared, another man in black would arrive until there were five total.

When the appeared, Hayato pivoted so that he was between them and me. “Thank you for helping us overcome that creature. But why have you brought us here?”

Hayato was worried, but if they had wanted to kill us they wouldn’t need all this pomp. They would have let the creatures get us straight away.

“Thanks to you, we have the opportunity to have an advantage over one of the monsters. We’d never been able to find their hive’s entrance, but here we are!”

He pointed to a twisted formation of earthen spires reaching toward the sky. It made my skin crawl to even look at it.

“And what do you expect us to do?” I said.

“Well really what we need is from you, Your Majesty.”

Hayato raised a brow at me while I tried to explain that I didn’t request that title from them. “Tell me how she can be more helpful than me in fighting a monstrous horde.” He tried to sound lighthearted, but I knew my brother. He was taunting.

“Simple. The phoenix spirit chose to reside in Her Majesty’s heart. The balance that she creates will be the focus for our combined powers in order to seal the gates that leads them into our world.”

“World? Balance? Phoenix spirit? This is all outrageous!” I sought support from Hayato. “Tell them this is crazy.”

Instead of the guffaws of laughter I’d expected or a shared look of amusement, Hayato was serious. He rubbed his chin pensively, as if trying to measure the weight of the man in black’s word. “I can see this being true.”

I whirled around, shocked. “What? You can see this being true? How? What actual facts can you possibly have to agree with someone we literally just met.”

“The fact that we both faced a creature that was three times the size of a bear with metallic-like skin and claws. The fact that when I thought I was surely dead, you burst into flames and pushed it away from me with claws made of fire.” He lowered himself so that his forehead rested against mine. “Those are facts. But that is not the reason I trust him. It is the fact that he sees your worth when you are blinded to it.”

I huffed and crossed my arms. Hayato was very rarely sentimental so when he was, I didn’t know what to do about it. “Well, if you’re going to be picky about it, I guess I can see your point,” I muttered.

Hayato laughed and hugged me lightly before letting me go. Then turned to the first man in black. “If we are going to work together to seal off the entrance to their world, then we should see each other,” he suggested.

“Agreed.” The first man took off his cowl, and the others followed suit. Black spiky hair was plastered to his scalp, which he fluffed up again. And when he looked at me, he had the most startling gray eyes.

That wasn’t normal.

He bowed at the waist. “It is a pleasure to serve, Your Majesty. You may call me Li.”

One by one, they each introduced themselves to me. I tried to remember their names as they introduced themselves.

Reo and Kaito came from the same clan, and both had streaming hair that moved around their body like a river. Reo had blue hair while Kaito’s was more teal.

Sora had black spiky hair just like Li, except his eyes swirled blue like a spring day.

Zhang was a powerhouse with a shaved head and jade green eyes that were startling next to his tanned complexion.

I sighed deeply, letting the details soak into my mind. “I apologize in advance if I forget your names.”

Li smiled, and I just noticed the gray that limned the black of his eyes. “Don’t worry, Your Majesty. There are more of us than there are of you. If it helps you could always number us one to five?”

“As long as you’re One, is that it?” Zhang said.

“I don’t see how that’s easier. She would still need to attach a word to a person, and clearly if we are all going to be called One, that would be even more confusing.”

I giggled at their banter. I wasn’t used to being in the company of male companions. “Is it just the five of you living at the temple? It seemed so big for such a small contingent?”

“Oh, there’s more, but most of the other guard rotate in. Think of the temple as one outpost of many.”

“I see. And was there a master you said?”

This was the first sign of tension between the group. “Yes well, there is a master. But he’s pretty hands off regarding our training,” Li explained.

Training? Now that I thought about, being a priest is probably not that different from any other profession, especially since it seemed like they specialized in monster slaying.

“So, what did you need me to do? I fear that when the sun sets, they would be harder to kill.”

“Yeah, about that,” Li started. “The monsters would be harder to kill as there would be more of them, but that’s what we need.”

“We need for a lot of them to come out of their hive so that we destroy them now while they’re the least prepared. That way, we hit them hard, and they will stay away for at least a few more millennia.”

I was dumbfounded. “You mean this has happened before?”

“It’s a cycle, kind of like insects. We’ve never been able to find their queen. But, this way we can take out a lot of their armies and seal off an entrance. That will definitely set them back a few generations. They’re persistent since our world is full of magic for their sustenance.”

My mind was reeling. A hive of these creatures. I nearly expended all the energy I had in my entire body and it was just for two of these things.

“I don’t know how I can help you, though. What I did earlier was the first time I’d been able to do anything like that. It was luck, reflex even.” I played with the cuffs of my robe, not wanting to be a disappointment.

“You don’t need to do anything. Being a focus for our powers is nothing but focusing your mind toward the object in question. In our case, the empty space between those two spires,” Li pointed out the space he meant in the distance.

“So, I’m to just sit and stare?”

“And think murderous thoughts,” he added with a glinting smile.

I burst out laughing to release the tension. “Well, if that’s all, then why not?”

A crack of lightning exploded at the ground near my feet. It made me jump and Hayato drew his sword. When I looked up, a compact man appeared with high cheekbones, long beard, and wiry, silver strands of his hair standing up on end.

“Hello?” I greeted. Hayato was back to standing in front of me in protection while at the same time I felt someone at my back. Or rather two someones. Reo and Kaito stood behind me as if they had been doing this for years.

Instead of a response, the man rounded on Li. “I knew you were going to be here. Haven’t we had enough injury? Do I need to personally insult you, too, in order for me to get it through your thick skull: This is a crazy plan? You cannot win.”

“Master Wu, you say we cannot win, but Xiulan the Phoenix Queen has arrived. Tell me that that’s not auspicious. Just as we need the most focus to harness and direct our powers, here she arrives.”

Master Wu looked around as if finding me was so difficult among the other men. I didn’t know what that said about me. I thought to help him out with a wave. “Hi again.”

He started at my feet, and then met my gaze. I didn’t know what he saw there, but he nodded. “All right, well, this changes things.”

* * *

Li’s plan was pretty simple. They would create a circle of protection from which I will be standing with Hayato and Master Wu. While I was concentrating on the wall, I would be automatically drawing their energies together inside of myself in order to pummel it against gate.

Seemed easy enough.

“The substance that looks like earth, isn’t. Wherever they came from is seeping into this place. It’s nearly impossible to destroy, or if it does crumble the result is minimal. It wouldn’t even come close to the avalanche we need. The metal of their hide was our clue. We don’t need to crush or pulverize it. We just needed to get something hot enough to melt it.”

My heart bloomed. “Like phoenix fire,” I said softly.

“Like phoenix fire,” Li agreed. “Come. Let’s get started.

The night covered us well. It was like the stars knew that this valley didn’t belong to our world and so chose not to shine into it. The darkness was oppressive. “I’m surprised that there aren’t any of them here?” I asked.

“This is actually the safest point at this time,” Master Wu answered. “The rest of the scouts are actually hunting the forest grounds now. It’s when they return from feeding that we’d have to worry about. Hopefully at that point there’ll be so much fire, that it wouldn’t matter. Come child, time to get in the circle and construct some meditative focus points for you.”

Master Wu walked a seven-point circle and activated the glyphs. They glowed red. “Get comfortable, girl. Time to get rid of distractions so you can focus.”

“When will I learn what it is I need to be doing?”

“Right now. Doing this.”

Oh. I sat in a lotus position, getting as comfortable as I could sitting on alien soil in a magic ring while I breathed myself into a weapon for these men.

“You worry too much on things you can’t control, Xiulan,” Hayato said. “I have already seen you manifest a phoenix. You can do what they ask of you. Think of it as saving the world.

“Well, if we destroy a horde of monsters, I think that is literally saving the world.”

Hayato sat by my side. I studied his profile, at how his long hair gently floated in the air. “If you want to ask me a question, I suggest you do so now before the killing begins.”

“How do you do that? Know what I want to say before I say them?”

Hayato smiled. “Well something tells me that you won’t believe me when I say magic, so let’s go with habit. You worry a lot so you have a habit of asking a ton of questions.”

“Ugh, why do you put up with me?” I complained. I clapped a palm over my month. There I go again, asking questions. Seriously, how does he put up with me.

Laughing, Hayato said, “Because you’re my sister, that’s why. That is the only reason I need.”

I was humbled by that. “I will follow you into the mouth of hell, you know that?” I said.

“I’d hope that I’d do a better job navigating us away from hell.”

We both laughed even as the temple guards approached. They looked as ready as they’ll ever be. “Hey guys, are you all warmed up and ready to go?”

They nodded. “Yes, there’s just one last thing we need.”

“And what’s that?”

“A kiss.”

Hayato surge to his feet his sword at Li’s next. “I would hate to have to kill the person who saved my life.”

“Relax, it’s not like that. Just a little kiss to get the bond starting.”

“You don’t need a kiss for that, just a flesh exchange. A simple handshake would make that happen.”

“We all know that the more intimate the flesh exchange, the stronger the bonds.”

Lightning seemed to gather around the men. “Say ‘intimate’ referring to my sister again, and I start cutting parts of your body.”

I stood up. “Okay, let’s calm down. It’s not like they’re suggesting anything inappropriate. Just a kiss to get our bonds started so I can transfer their energies about. Doesn’t sound too egregious, Hayato.”

Li smirked up at my brother who glowered in response.

“Okay, who’s first?” I asked. I couldn’t wait to see his reaction.

Li’s face lit up. “That would be me!”

I stuck my hand out to him, which he took. Then he looked curiously at me. “You said a kiss,” I said. “You may kiss my hand.”

He laughed and his entire face lit up. “You are exactly what we need,” he said, before planting a kiss on the back of my hand.

One after the other the rest took their turn.

I had meant it to be innocent, but with each one, I got more and more breathless. I sat down heavily, trying to get back to that moment of clear focus again.

Master Wu snorted, muttering something about youth under his breath.

The five temple priests fanned out in front of our circle that held Hayato, Master Wu, and me. “Shouldn’t they be inside of the circle, Master Wu?”

“Not for what they want to do, child. Now focus and be in tune with your spirit.”

I wanted to say something else, but the image of the monsters flashed in my mind. That was right. I had to be reminded of what it was that I wanted to get rid of.

So, as I breathed and counted backward from ten to gain my focal point, the men started rustling about. I peeked through my eyelids and they were shirtless. Each and every one of them had vibrant tattoos of dancing dragons all over their skin.

One minute, they were men, and the next shadows and lightning seemed to ripple and flow over them until five dragons flew into the air.

I pushed my sense of wonder and joy out to them so they all knew how amazing I thought their display of magic was.

One day, I shall teach you, my queen.

That voice inside of my head. It had the feel of Li in there, though I was totally guessing. How is this possible? I asked him.

Magic.

I gave an unladylike snort.

Master Wu tsked. “Focus, Xiulan.”

I coughed primly even as Hayato laughed at me, too. I focused on the counts of my breath, in and out. The longer I sat here, the more I was able to see threads sparkle and glow in my mind’s eye.

And from one breath to the next, the night exploded with dragon fire.

Unearthly cries and howls answered the assault. My heart bloomed, feeling like they are doing exactly what they needed to get done.

“They’re doing it, Xiulan. Keep your eyes closed if you need to, but know that they are doing it. The monsters are dying even as they are leaving their hive.”

This made me feel so good. This was exactly what I wanted. This kind of work, where something that I could do made a unique impact.

A rumbling started beneath us. I tried to maintain my concentration, but clods of earth exploded around us, destroying one of the glyphs.

“Run!” Master Wu shouted.

Hayato dragged me up just as the ground where our circle had been collapsed down into a sinkhole. We ran as fast as we could but we were losing ground faster than we could run across it.

Fear swelled in my heart, knowing that the monsters would overrun us soon.

A dragon swooped down plucked some of the monsters in our path and bowled them into their brethren.

Another dragon carried all three of us up from the valley just as the ground crumbled away completely.

What I stared at chilled me to the core. This wasn’t just a network of tunnels. This was literally a hive that was seeping and expanding into this world. They were all clustered together like insects--like roaches--and for a moment they stood transfixed in their respective honeycomb hive.

The next second, the monsters moved as one to exit hell and push their way through into Earth.

Li the dragon pumped his wings faster just so we could get in front of the horde.

We would need huge protective circles to be effective against all these monsters, and circles that large would take time. Master Wu’s seven-point circle took a few minutes just by itself.

“I’m sorry Master Wu, I didn’t mean to be a failure.”

“You’re not a failure child. You have raw power that hasn’t even been tested yet. I will do everything I can to train you. Trust me. We just need to survive the night, and trust our instincts.”

Chapter 6

The few minutes’ head start was all that we needed to get far enough away from the monsters to regroup. Zhang was the first to find a clearing and start walking his protective circle. The others joined as they landed and shifted from dragon back to human form.

Li dropped us off first in what would have been the middle of the circle before landing last. He shifted as he walked into the circle.

Zhang just had enough time to throw down his last sigil when the monsters caught up to us and threw themselves on the circle. They rebounded off the shields spectacularly.

“Whoa,” I said. “How did you do that?”

“I was counting on them to try to use brute force to get to us. Good thing they don’t understand mechanics.” Zhang smiled, rolling his shoulders as if it had been a physical fight.

What did I know, though? Maybe there were physical implications even in a magical battle.

“Magic is about balance, Your Majesty,” Li started. “And knowing that physical rules still apply when you run headlong into a barrier, whether that barrier is an auric shield or a brick wall. You run into a brick wall, you’re gonna bounce back with the same force you slammed into it.”

Of course, that made sense. It was just the idea of metaphysical or magical forces that was hard for me to wrap my head around.

I tucked that away for further knowledge.

While Li had been educating me, Zhang had taken the opportunity to create another shield circle outside of the one already made while Sora made a ring of protective sigils on the inside of the circle.

Sora met my questioning gaze as he did so. “It’s best to get as much of these up as we can, while we have the room.”

He was right, of course, because the next moment, the legion of monsters swarmed around our little circle of light.

Some ventured off toward the temple and sniffed around the shields there. The outer wards charged and then released arcs of lightning at the few that were within firing distance.

At least the temple was safe for now, but all these monsters from the deeps would cause lasting damage even with just one night. They were easily multiplied, and if unleashed, they would be unstoppable. Easily taking over the valley and possibly beyond.

The thought of these creatures ruling this world chilled me to the core.

Master Wu was arranging his spell-casting as well, and I felt like I was being useless. “Master Wu, what should I do? I feel like I need to do something.”

He looked at me with his ancient wisdom and smiled despite the desperate hour. “It is exactly when you feel the need to do something that you should do nothing.”

What?! The countryside will soon be overrun with ravening creatures and he wants me to do nothing?

I said as much, trying to make my tone of voice as respectful as possible.

Instead of answering me, he commanded me to sit.

And so, I sat.

“Concentrate on finding your inner self and spirit. You have done well focus the energies of others. Now you must find and channel your own.”

“But—”

He snapped his fingers. “Find your spirit.” He didn’t seem to be open to anymore argument from me.

Without another word, he took an ancient text with elaborate sigils on it and hurled it at a leaping monster. Ribbons of inky blackness wrapped around the fiend, seemingly swallowing it up and any other monster that happened to touch it as well.

Five monsters gone with one page.

Damn.

Master Wu snapped his finger at me. “Your spirit!”

I swallowed a grumble, and allowed myself to find that fire inside of me. What I had always called my dragon spirit.

Something like an oily blackness spilled over the other monsters. It was something that looked like it was wearing a human’s skin and animating it. And then I saw the gold seal of the Imperial court hanging from its neck. It was the magician, or rather the magician’s body. It had been taken over by the Yaomo, the demon he had called up long ago.

That creepy story had been real.

Yaomo’s expressions through the broken flesh of the magician was more frightening than anything else I’d seem. He still carried the magician’s seal around his neck—a gold disc with an emblem of protection.

The fact that he wore it was an irony that I couldn’t overlook. Whatever intentions the magician had, he had been working under the orders of his general, who was now the emperor. Housing a demon was not a fate I would wish on anyone.

If it was the last thing I did, I would destroy that Yaomo. First, I’d need to get rid of all these monsters.

The monsters swiped at the sigils of protection almost as quickly as the men were able to create them. Yaomo spurred on the monsters, spitting out a string of guttural sounds that I could only guess were commands.

He was the type of leader that led from behind. Coward.

Every now and again, Master Wu would throw spells into the fray and take out dozens of monsters. It was an endless sea of them, yet we were trying to contain them here, with their attention on us.

Hopefully, with Yaomo directing their attention on us, they would be compelled to stay here and not find their way into the rest of the world.

The layers of shields were weakening. I tried my best to redirect the power flow between the guards but it was still not enough.

There were simply too many monsters willing to sacrifice themselves. Every time they hit the shield, it was like a psychic blow.

At this rate, we wouldn’t last past dawn. Though the monsters retreated during the day, the sun would still be too weak until well past dawn.

They had plenty of reserves while ours were being drained.

Find your spirit.

If Master Wu said I needed to find my spirit, then it should be findable.

One of the guards, Reo, dropped completely tapped out.

Kaito and Sora would be next.

Something peeked over the mountains. And though it looked like the fiery rays of the sun.

Hope bloomed inside of me, and with it, there was a familiar spark that I had been looking for all along. I nurtured this dim light, fed it the rage and injustice I felt at seeing the guards weakening, at the demon’s lust for more power, at the conspiracy theory that the Imperial Court knew about this valley but kept it secret.

All of these things and more, I fed to this dim light and with a final push of my power, all that I had to give, I opened myself to the spirit that had been inside of me all along.

Heat coursed through my veins, igniting every part of me, down to the molecule.

It was as if I was everywhere at once, seeing everything at once. I was the people huddled in the temple. I was the men who were determined to protect me with their lives. I was in the sky, seeing the monsters flowing up from the deeps.

In that one still moment, I found peace and contentment that I had finally seen what I knew to be true all along. My spirit, bright and soaring, unbound by the restriction of others.

I let the tears stream down my face and realized how freeing it was to let go. I didn’t need to control it, I just needed to direct my will and trust it would be used as needed.

“I surrender,” I whispered.

The Monster’s face twisted with glee when he heard my words. My guard, connected to me as they were now, trusted me even though my words confused them.

It didn’t matter. The words were more for me than for anyone else anyway.

I raised my arms in the air, and from my palms, brilliant light unfurled.

What started as a wicking flame became an expanding fireball.

The nearest ring of monsters was incinerated by the flames I produced. It gave the guard more time to layer ring upon ring of protective sigils and glyphs. I focused my will again, drawing on a reserve of energy that I hadn’t known was available to me.

This time, I let the fireball expand and take shape before releasing it. It grew in size and shape until it became a phoenix in truth. Its wings spread across the valley, casting light into the foul darkness. Fire rained down from the phoenix’s mouth, scorching all it touched until only ash remained.

I conjured up another phoenix. And then another. I didn’t stop until I shivered with cold. Despite the heat I unleashed, my fingers felt like ice and I couldn’t feel my feet.

“Enough, Xiulan.” Hayato’s voice called to me as if from some great distance.

I didn’t know how to stop. The monsters still shrieked in the distance and I needed to make sure that as many of them that were able to surface were destroyed. The army of phoenixes lit up the night sky as they poured white hot fire down upon the monsters until wave after wave of flames rolled like an ocean tide along the valley.

A touch more intimate than I have ever known seemed to touch straight into my soul.

My queen. You can stop. You have done enough. Li’s voice echoed inside of me.

How are you doing this? I asked him softly, afraid I was shouting.

I didn’t know how, but I felt him smile at me. You can speak as you normally would, and I will teach you more later. But for now, please rest. You have done enough.

I-I don’t know how to stop. I’ve let go and surrendered to my spirit.

That’s good. That’s what you need to keep going. But now it’s time for your spirit to be renewed in your flesh. Spirit and body need each other, no matter what certain monks will teach you.

I didn’t know what monks taught, so I wasn’t in on his joke. But I discovered that I desperately wanted to be.

I don’t know how. I admitted to him.

Let me help you. Trust me.

I do.

As soon as I said it, warmth flowed inside me. This was comforting and it felt like I was being carried. I opened my eyes and I was held in Li’s arms. I shivered against him and he crushed me even more against his body, draping.

I could feel my fingers and toes again. Even my nose had been cold. I nuzzled it against his neck; he didn’t complain.

“What now,” I asked. My voice croaked as if I’d been dehydrated for years.

“Now, you rest.” He pressed a kiss against my forehead, and it was like I was covered in a cocoon of blankets.

I only realized now, after I was no longer numb, that I was fraying in a way, and my energy was gushing out of me. Here in Li’s arms, I could almost feel the auric wounds I’d inflicted on myself knit together.

The cracks that had formed in the auric shield that placed around us sizzled with lightning as the cracks merged together once more before disappearing. They lit up like miniature fireworks each time, and I gasped at the sight.

“How did you do that?” I said in awe.

“Like I said, my queen. We will have time enough for your education.”

I was too tired to correct him. He really shouldn’t be calling me queen. That would be disrespectful, but a part of me glowed at the thought, so I indulged in it.

Besides, what would it hurt? It wasn’t like I was claiming the Imperial City as my own.

The phoenixes were still setting fire to the valley, but I could see that they were expending themselves to do it.

One by one, each phoenix was consumed its work.

In the distant horizon, dawn broke free and the sun’s radiance claimed the day once more.

Epilogue

I woke up and thought I was blind.

As I stiffened in panic, I realized that there was a cool cloth that covered my eyes and forehead.

“Hush, now. You’re fine.” The familiar voice worried me, especially since it sounded so near, almost as if it spoke from inside of me.

I could feel that I was laid out on a narrow cot or cushioned bench set low on the ground. The heat from Li next to me comforted me more than I cared to acknowledge. “Who’s there? Li?” I asked. “What’s happening? Why can’t I see?”

The compress lifted from my eyes. Everything was blurry, globs of light and dark everywhere. I could tell the difference between people and objects, but I still panicked that I my vision wasn’t clear. “Why can’t I see?” I whispered.

“Because you used up so much heat, that it boiled your optic nerves. Don’t worry, we’re healing you. You’ll be fine in no time.”

And as if his words became reality, the shapeless forms around me congealed, details filling in and coalescing until I could see as clearly as ever.

I wanted to sit up, but a firm hand kept me down. “It will be better if you rest just for a few more minutes.”

“But Hayato--” I started, fighting against the person’s hold. That was a mistake. A wave of nausea welled up from the pit of my stomach. I laid back down until the feeling went away. “The others. The Dragon Guard? The Villagers?”

“Safe. All of them. Thanks to you.”

I was grateful I was lying down. The emotional turmoil of knowing that we all survived the night shook me for a moment. I fought against the threat of tears, keeping them under control.

The cool cloth was pressed against my eyes once more, as if Li knew that I wouldn’t be comfortable shedding tears in public.

“Yeah, so you don’t have to worry about them, okay? Just worry about healing yourself.”

The next time I woke, my eyes opened of their own accord. That must have meant they healed and I was able to look at this person who knelt beside me.

I was unprepared for his presence. Li seemed to radiate light, as if from his very being. His eyes were liquid and large, with just a hint of gray that ringed the black of his iris.

I’d never been this close to a man before, at least not like this. There was a difference between working side by side with men who think you were also a man versus a man who knew she was a woman.

This fact shouldn’t change anything but I had a hard time believing that. All my life, being female gave me nothing but restriction and hardship. Why would anything make me think differently?

It made it more difficult that the man was handsome. I blamed his eyes. They were distracting.

“Why do I have the feeling that you’re happy but not because we survived?”

The enigmatic man smiled at me, which was probably his version of a charming smile. “Can’t I be happy that a precious life is saved?”

I raised my brow at that. And then I did the weirdest thing. I started giggling. “You’re silly,” I said before I could stop myself.

“Silly,” Li nodded. “I don’t mind being silly.” He winked at me.

I didn’t know if it was because I shivered under his gaze or if it was because I realized how cold I was? But I was suddenly aware that I laid on a cot in a simple cotton shift with my long black hair, tied in a braid, coiled around neck. When I realized what I looked like, and how much of my skin I was showing, I shrieked in response, diving for a blanket to cover me.

Immediately Li bolted to his feet, looking for the danger. The door to the room bursts open as well, with more men I didn’t know spilling inside.

Their faces blurred together as tears welled in my eyes at how embarrassing this all was. My gaze landed on the older man, who averted his eyes so that he bowed low at the waist. The others who entered with him also bowed to me.

“Good evening, Xiulan,” Master Wu said in kind greetings. “We didn’t mean to intrude. We thought there might have been an issue but I see that you are all right.”

“I apologize for troubling you. I was surprised, is all.”

The old man gave Li a suspicious look before turning his gaze back at me. “No need to explain at all. I can only imagine the surprise you experienced. Now, let us give you your privacy. All of us.” He said that pointedly to Li who ignored the look sheathing his sword. “Food is set out for you and the rest of the Dragon Guard. All are welcome to partake.”

As the other men filed out, Li gave me wink. I rounded my eyes in shock at his behavior while Master Wu glowered at him.

They shut the door without another word.

Only when I was alone did I give into my giggles. That Li was too much.

* * *

After the monsters were destroyed, and after Master Wu assessed the safety of the earth beneath our feet, it was declared that we would be able to leave the safety of the temple ground.

Captain Jun and his group of Dragon Guard, minus my brother Hayato, wait on horseback as the temple priests--who have decided to call themselves Phoenix Guard--Captain Jun led his contingent of Dragon Guard back to Lijiang village, the jade amulet in his hand and a wild story in his heart.

“What will you tell them, Captain?” I ask him on the morning of his departure.

“I’m unsure,” he admits. “I don’t like the idea of repeating a story where I didn’t lead in battle.” He wears a smile, but his eyes are tight and haunted. “But the Imperial Court needs to answer for their deceptions. The evil that they wrought in the world conjuring Yaomo. Manipulating the physician to create a resurrection draught. It’s all too much.” He shook his head, his rock-hard faith in his calling as a Dragon Guard put to the test. He met my gaze. “Are you sure that you want to stay here, Lady Xiulan? Would your father approve? Your mother?”

I no longer felt that old bitterness about wondering if I was good enough to win my parents’ approval.

I followed the line of energy that traveled from the nape of my neck and down toward my heart. That simmering heat that I now know is my phoenix spirit soared high and free inside of me. Attached to that phoenix were five dragons that circled around it.

“Yes, I’m sure,” I told him with a small smile. “Thank you for your concern Captain Jun. Please be at peace knowing that I approve of my decisions, and that is all that matters.”

The End

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Thank you for reading Flame of the Phoenix. The Phoenix Court will be featured in third book of the Brightling Court series, So Deep the Ocean. Watch for it here:

Elle Cross’s Amazon Book Page

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About the Author

Hi, I’m Elle Cross, and I write dark and magical stories. I live with my husband and the imaginary dog that we will one day adopt. I have a massive makeup collection and I’m grateful that, as a freelance makeup artist, I can justify buying even more.

When I’m not playing with color or characters, I can usually be found in the nearest diner or bubble tea shop trying to take the perfect picture of my drink while my husband rolls his eyes.

(Yes, we’re that couple. And, no, I don’t post my food pics on my Instagram feed.)

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