Page 14 of Hell Fae Captive

From what I understood, my father no longer wanted to pay that price.

So he gave me up instead.

“Fuck,” I snapped, balling the contract in my hand.

The paper flattened itself in the next instant, some sort of dark magic restoring it to its true form. It must have been a fail-safe to keep fae from destroying their contracts.

I glared at my father’s signature, then noted the date.

My birthday.

“Wow, well, that certainly beats the grenade cake, Dad,” I said, tossing the paper onto the bed. “And all the other weaponized gifts you gave me over the years.”

I wasn’t really talking to him, because he couldn’t hear me here.In Hell. Where he’d subjected my soul to because of some fucking deal.

And now I was expected to compete in a series of bridal trials?

I walked back into the kitchen area to review the books the Warden had left on the table, my ire mounting by the second. Flipping through the top few, I noted that they were all about death and how to kill.Studying material for my fate.

“What the hell?” I demanded, shuffling through all the books and documents, searching for some explanation of the purpose of all this.

Bride trialswas a pretty straightforward concept, but a bride to whom? Lucifer? Another Hell Fae? The Warden?

I paused, considering Ajax.

Then I shook my head.No. Just because he was pretty didn’t mean I wanted tomarryhim. Besides, he was kind of a dick. Well, apart from the food thing, and whatever he’d done to my bed. And the tour hadn’t been horrible.

Although, he was the reason for my current predicament.

So yeah, no tothe Warden. He wasn’t even a Hell Fae, but a Midnight Fae. And while biting during sex might be hot, I wasn’t into the mating part of that equation.

“There has to be a way out of this,” I muttered as I spread the documents out over the kitchen table. “Think, think, think.”

I enjoyed legal issues, hence my political science undergraduate degree and pre-law status at the University of Florida.

Not that I would be going back there anytime soon.

Unless I found a loophole.

Ajax had claimed Lucifer’s deals were ironclad with no potential deviations. But the law could be very easily interpreted and manipulated by the right logical mind.

I went to the fridge to pour myself some juice—courtesy ofthe Wardenand his magic wand—and settled at the table to begin reading.

The books kept me occupied for several hours, each of them detailing various aspects of Hell Fae life.

There were creatures—all of which were deadly.

Plants unlike anything that existed in the human world.

And a lot of rules.

I focused on the latter the most, searching for information about how Lucifer conducted his deals and finding nothing of use. It was all about the local society and how Hell Fae operated in general. Nothing about agreements or recruiting unwilling participants into bridal games. Just a few notes on acceptance of all creature forms—whatever the fuckthatmeant—and the importance of mutual respect.

The rules listed were quite dull in nature. However, apparently, there was a dress code for going outside. The curfews I already knew about were detailed as well.

I skimmed the rest, not finding anything truly useful.

Tapping my fingers on the table, I decided another avenue was required.