Page 16 of Hell Fae King

Hell Fae Rule #13: Nothing Is What It Seems.

Hell Fae Rule #4: Don’t Trust Anyone.

Several other rules applied here, but I stopped reciting them as I reached Az’s prone form.

His skin was ice cold.

Dead.

No. No, that wasn’t possible. Az couldn’t die. He… he… I shook my head.No.

The air shimmered around me, causing me to fall into a defensive position over Az. I didn’t have a weapon to aid in said defense, but fuck if I cared. I’d fight until my last breath. Wield power. Pull on the Hell Fae Source if I had to. Whatever it took to?—

Ajax appeared, a glowing rock in his hand. The color instantly shifted to black, the jagged edges somewhat familiar.

The death stone, I realized, recognizing it. He’d shown me that rock back in the prison when I’d been his captive. Something about it being used to help prepare me for the Netherworld Kingdom trial.

That felt like a lifetime ago.

We’d never actually prepared for that trial, Vita having pulled me into a strange time loop that had stolen thirty days of my life. Then I’d been held for questioning, and life had been chaotic ever since.

Actually, my life had always been chaotic.

My time in the Hell Fae Realm had just been even more tumultuous.

Regardless, I had no idea what that death stone could do, yet I caught it reflexively as Ajax tossed it to me. The icy texture nearly had me dropping it, but a blanket of darkness swooped over us in the next instant, making me freeze.

Ajax cursed, his wand out and flaring with purple magic tinged with golden flares. He cast a spell I couldn’t hear, the roar of the incoming wind drowning out everything else.

Another portal?I wondered.

Cami!Melek shouted at me, his panic barely piercing the deadly quiet in my mind. I blinked, startled by his intrusion. It was like I’d been living underwater, the eerie calmness at odds with the insanity unfolding around me.

I… I’d been cut off from my mates.

How?I wondered, another blast of ice coating my insides.

Because it reminded me of being with my mother and Vivaxia. I hadn’t been able to reach my mates then either.

Glacial power blasted through the bar, blackening everything in sight.

Ajax yelled something I couldn’t hear, his words lost to the screaming void.

I covered my mouth, the sooty air making it hard to breathe. I couldn’t see either. Hell, I could barely feel.

But the rock sat heavily in my palm, the rigid texture grounding me in reality. Because it was real while everything else felt like a dream.

An eerie, freezing cold dream…

I shivered and closed my eyes.

Think, Cami,I told myself.Think.

My parents had always dropped me in fiery situations, never blizzard-like tundras. But the extremes were similar in a way, the intensity teetering on life and death.

This is the Netherworld Kingdom.Their power is based on souls, darkness, and the afterlife.

I hadn’t been here before, but I’d read up on it a little while learning about the Hell Fae Realm.