Page 2

Katana’s alabaster blonde hair draped around her like a cloak, and the fitted pearl silk gown hung to her ankles. She stood still as a statue, lips parted, staring back at Valeen as if she couldn’t trust her own eyes.

“Katana, is it you? Is it truly you?” Valeen’s voice was barely above a whisper. It could be deception, a shapeshifter, but somehow deep in her heart, she knew it was her. Something in her soul recognized her as familiar as her own shadow. Her heart started beating faster with excitement.

Katana’s face lit up with a beautiful smile. Oh, how she’d missed her sister’s smile. It was like coming home. Their bond was the only thing she’d never questioned in all her existence. She was the only person Valeen had ever fully trusted. Katana’s sun was the companion to her moon.

“Valeen. My dear sister. It is truly me.” Tears welled and Katana put her hands over her heart.

“I’d hate to interrupt this joyous occasion but am I mistaken or are these my nephews with the goddess of night?” The tenor voice was one that had haunted Valeen’s nightmares millennia ago, one she had not let bother her in as long.

Valeen tore her gaze away from Katana to the god she’d once driven the immortal killing weapon, Soulender, through. She’d stood over his body as he bled out on the floor of his bedroom and watched the life leave his eyes, watched him choke on the crimson that stained his lips. Some said that revenge never made a person feel better, but the satisfaction of watching that bastard die wasn’t revenge, it was justice—and it had felt good.

He turned his head and Valeen gasped, he was no longer the beautiful god he once was. Half his face was grotesque. The white of his skull was visible in places where his skin decayed. His flesh on that half was shriveled and rotted, even oozing around his eye. While the other side was lovely and whole, the opposition made him even more repulsive.

Synick’s fingers were stained black, soot smudged his face and sandy hair, his clothes were singed at the edges as if he’d fought his way through fire and ash to get here. The portal he’d come through made her believe he’d somehow crawled out of the underrealm, but he hadn’t gotten out whole.

Her mind still reeled at the both of them standing close, standing at all. Immortal weapons were not banishments like what had happened to her, Hel, and War, they killed the immortal soul so they could not return to the realms of the living. Confusion and wonder danced with a slow simmer of cold fury. How was it that they both stood here now? Valeen had killed other gods with Soulender, and they never returned.

Could Valeen’s magic have pulled Katana back to the land of the living? She had thought of her sister the moment the portal opened, and how her death was the domino that started everything…

It was Synick’s slow perusal down her form that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end and goosebumps pebble her flesh. Those same disgusting eyes that longed for her from afar, watched her with lust. The corner of the decayed side of his mouth lifted, reminding her of the vile words he murmured in dark corners.

This was no illusion.

“Well, you’re at least half dead.” Hel, the god of mischief and magic, her mate, all cool and darkness, gripped her arm and the whisper of his magic coiled around her. “And if you ever look at my wife like that again, Synick, I will carve your fucking eyes out.” Hel’s voice was low and venomous.

“Wife?” His single brow rose.

“Wife, mate, queen—Mine.”

“I don’t know what’s more surprising,” he glanced over at Katana, “seeing her alive again after I stuck an immortalsword through her belly or witnessing the betrayal of my most promising protege.”

The cool weight of Soulender appeared in Valeen’s palm. “Don’t look at her!” She wrapped her fingers around the hilt until her hand began to ache. “Look at me. I’m the one you always wanted and could never have.”

Katana stepped back slowly, terror widening her eyes, then she whirled and ran.

“Katana! Wait!” Valeen ripped free of Hel’s grasp and sprinted after her, boots flying over soft grass until a sizzling bolt of lightning lit up the night. She threw up her shield and was struck by a searing blast that swept her feet out from under her. Her shoulder hit the ground first, shooting pain through her arm, pain that drove her to her feet faster.

Synick glared with hate-filled brown eyes. “You think I’d let you walk away after you killed me and sent me to the underrealm to be tortured for eternity?” Ten creatures materialized from shadow, five on each side of him, men-like with rotting skin falling off their starved muscles, carrying stained bone-handled weapons, edges with a green gooey substance. Poison.

“You sent yourself there,” Hel said, and then everything exploded into chaos. The skeleton men charged with guttural war cries. Hel was already inches from Synick, the weight of his magic in the air. Valeen’s elven companions, Leif and Piper, clashed with the skeletons. Metal hit metal, roars through gritted teeth filled the night. Presco, her dragon right hand, half-shifted into his beast form, talons every bit as lethal as daggers to shred through bone, and Thane, the elf king she once thought she’d spend her life with, looked to her.

“Find my sister. Protect her. Please.” Valeen wanted to go after her, but she couldn’t leave Hel. Synick was a primordial god, as old as time, and even if Hel was powerful and feared, she would not risk losing him.

“Then you must make sure that nothing happens to them.” He threw a glance at Piper and Leif.

“I will.”

Thane pressed his lips together, held her blue eyes for a moment, then disappeared into the dark. She had to trust that he would find her and keep her safe.

Varlett, the dragon shifter she despised, and yet was forced into companionship with, ran in with talons slashing. She cut down three in a matter of moments… but the undead bodies reformed, pieces that had been cut off rolled back together and attached.

The monsters rose again.

Presco adjusted his glasses, taking a step back. “Regenerative like the gargoyles at the Treasury.”

Not again,she thought and searched for Hel. Panic shot through her—she couldn’t find him or Synick. “HEL!” She sprinted forward to where she last saw them locked in a fight. “Sever their heads and keep them separated!” she commanded the others.

Her mind reached out for him,Hel, where are you?Blood rushed in her ears like war drums, terror clawed its way through her. She could not lose him again.