Page 26

CAMI

“ M elek ,” I breathed, urging him to fly faster, or to overcome this stupid spell and blink to Ajax’s side because my mate had just vanished underneath a mountain of monsters.

Or at least they were large enough to create a mountain from the dragon and two other large breeds of Nightmare Fae that had collapsed on top of him.

I had almost lost Az. I wasn’t about to go through this again with Ajax, too.

“I’m descending,” he promised me as my stomach turned from the drop. But it felt too slow, too stagnant as the campus stretched out over the broken horizon. “But we have to be careful, little angel. This is very likely a trap,” Melek warned me as he took his sweet time delving into the paradigm.

Vivaxia’s magic was everywhere, but so much of it was a harmless mirage. Some of the blocks had been real, preventing us from entering the paradigm, but once I felt Ajax’s pain, I knew where to look.

Typhos seemed unconcerned with the spell now that I had used my bond with Ajax to pull us beyond the wavering mirage that cloaked an otherwise delicate net. Or I had… siphoned a hole through it. I wasn’t entirely sure.

Either way, the Hell Fae King had taken the opportunity to address a problem in his kingdom. The air sizzled as his powerful form blazed through, his confidence creating literal flames as he crashed into the ground.

Rock and dirt sprayed into the air, but it was a calculated landing. Not a single pebble strayed my way, and when Melek landed, I scampered onto the ground and my fingers twitched at my hip for a blade.

Of course, none was there. I hadn’t exactly been weapons training a moment ago.

Keeping a weapon on me at all times had been my norm for many years.

Even when I’d attended classes at the university, I kept one out of sight for the occasional supernatural nuisance or whatever shit my father surprised me with.

But it seemed that ever since I had found myself wrapped in my destiny, I was constantly without a blade.

You don’t need a weapon, little angel, Melek assured me in my mind. You are one.

I glanced at Typhos when he said that, because I was a siphon designed to tap into his power.

And what a power it was.

The Hell Fae King parted the gathering of wild Nightmare Fae with a wave of his hand. I’d spotted at least six so far, and fires and chaos in the distance suggested there were more to contend with.

The creatures in his immediate vicinity keened and cowered in his presence as a strange flickering energy swelled over them like a tidal wave.

What is that?

All beasts in the Hell Fae Realm bowed to their king, even ones that had gone feral.

At least, that was what Typhos had expected. The initial shock of our arrival had disrupted them, but only momentarily.

That foreign energy snapped right back into place, and that was when they coiled.

“Cami!” Melek shouted, both out loud and inside my head as my soul heeded the panic in his voice. I crouched and ducked out of the way just as a wall of scaly flesh slammed into the ground where I had been standing a moment before.

Is that a dragon?

“Stop!” Typhos roared. The power behind the single word slammed into my chest, and my body wilted as if it wanted to obey, but the command hadn’t been for me.

The group of at least six Nightmare Fae, as well as a few Hell Fae types, simultaneously pounced on the Hell Fae King. He disappeared from view, but Hellfire spiraled into the sky in response. The heat swept upward, not actually aimed at any of the fae, but it served to spread them out.

He wasn’t hurting them. Only driving them back so we could better manage their numbers. While there weren’t exactly many of them, Nightmare Fae were… large.

But the Hell Fae King could handle a few beasts. This was his domain, after all.

Satisfied that Lucifer would be fine, my gaze tracked the broken ground, searching for the mate who had drawn me here, the one I still couldn’t feel at all.

Ajax.

I spotted him crumpled on the ground and covered in blood. My eyes widened as my chest constricted. I couldn’t feel him, but that didn’t mean?—

Pain splintered across my spine as a jagged claw raked its way through my flesh. A scream followed, but it wasn’t my own.

A Banshee slammed to a stop in front of me, her eyes wild and wrong.

Wait… not a Banshee, I thought, my brow furrowing.

A knifelike sensation pierced my ears, and I pushed the pain away as I struggled to see beyond the mask this creature wore.

Her shriek felt real and made my knees weak.

But it didn’t mean this was a true Banshee.

Dark souls were forced to wear Nightmare Fae forms, and that included access to some of those forms’ abilities.

Those abilities were defensive in nature.

The Nightmare Fae weren’t evil—quite the opposite, if I understood correctly—but this beast had a dark soul. Its cold, icy intentions didn’t match what I had learned so far of the species that Lucifer’s realm protected.

It made sense now as to why Lucifer had said there weren’t any unmated females accepted by his Source.

Because there weren’t many female Nightmare Fae in his realm, not real ones. They had been masked forms for dark souls to wear.

They sure look real, though.

The topless creature before me had scraggly hair and spindly wings with puffy down in the center arches, which were covered in spots, as well as long, twisted claws from otherwise human hands.

When I really studied her, I could see the true fae underneath. A twisted face on a fae boasting pointy ears and dull blue eyes shone through.

I didn’t know who she was, but she wasn’t one of Lucifer’s Nightmare Fae.

Her nostrils flared as she swept one foot in front of the other and slunk closer to me.

Then her head was gone a moment later, severed in a flash of gold as blood splattered over my face.

I flinched, then glanced at Melek, who held out a sword I hadn’t even seen him summon.

“Go to Ajax,” he said, his voice more serious than I’d ever heard it. He kept his gaze on the headless body as it crumpled to the ground.

“Melek—”

His multicolored eyes found mine. “I know. I heard your thoughts. That’s why I killed her before she…” His jaw flexed. “Go to the Warden. I’ll keep them at bay.”

I blinked. Melek hurting a creature seemed so unlike him. He was all sensuality and mischief.

But apparently he could be deadly, too. A finely honed blade at the right hand of the Hell Fae King.

“ Go, Cami, ” he said again, snapping me out of my thoughts.

Right. I took off toward Ajax, then slowed as I noticed the shimmering barrier around him. Is that a protection spell?

Yes, Az confirmed, my question clearly having been broadcast to my mates.

And is that a Siren? I wondered next.

No one responded to that.

But they didn’t have to.

Because my eyes confirmed the answer.

A similar barrier shimmered around the creature, only it seemed to be containing it in an enchanted pool of water.

One sweep of my eyes over its form told me why. There’s no darkness surrounding this beast . However, it appeared to be in pain, its milky eyes exuding a frantic kind of agony.

Panic , I recognized.

But it was safe.

I glanced at Ajax, in awe of his show of power. Not just his demonstration with the magical bubble, but his obvious deduction that this being wasn’t a dark soul.

Praise graced my thoughts.

Praise that instantly disappeared as I took in Ajax’s ashen state.

He looks…

I didn’t allow my mind to drift any further into speculation. But it was clear why Melek had urged me over here.

Although, I wasn’t sure what he expected me to do.

I wasn’t even sure what had happened.

Ajax , I whispered, moving toward him.

Only to be intercepted by yet another Nightmare Fae, this time a Centaur. Its graceful, arching antlers speared into the sky, and the ground thudded underneath his hooves.

However, what was most noticeable was the lack of a dark aura surrounding him.

He’s a good Nightmare Fae , I recognized.

Except his nostrils flared as he flexed his fists, his fury a palpable presence in the air.

Cami, Melek said.

I’ve got this, I promised him.

But Ajax ? —

The beast roared, cutting off whatever Melek had been about to say. The sound reminded me of the panic I’d seen in the Siren’s eyes.

Because he sounds agonized , I realized. Like he doesn’t want to be doing this… and has no choice.

I could see it in the way his hooves hesitated on the ground, like he was trying to keep himself from charging at me.

Frowning, I crept toward him like one would a wild animal.

He released a furious snarl, one that was definitely threatening. Yet he didn’t charge me.

That snarl lowered into a growl as I touched his torso. I wasn’t sure why I chose to approach him like this; it just… felt right.

Except, what I sensed beneath my palm didn’t feel right at all. His skin resembled ice.

The creature attempted to back up, but I followed him, intent on tracking the chilly strand of magic swirling around him.

Death, I thought, frowning. Only not.

It… it sort of reminded me of the energy I’d siphoned in the Netherworld Kingdom. Yet it was different, too.

Vivaxia, I thought. It’d been her manipulative spell I’d absorbed then. However, I’d ended up taking too much. I’d pulled in Nightmare Fae souls, too.

Innocents .

I couldn’t do that again.

But if her enchantments were claiming these fae, I had to do something. Because this magic didn’t belong here. It was wrong.

Very, very wrong…

I tried to delve deeper, to search for her specific strands of magic. The air hummed like a swarm of bees around me, causing all the hairs along my neck to stand on end.

But I had to find the strand… to… to fix this.

The Centaur growled again.

“I’m trying to help you,” I told him.

A flash of understanding lightened his gaze, followed by a chaotic glimmer that didn’t belong. A chaotic glimmer created by Vivaxia’s magic.

Almost there, I thought, untangling the invisible cords with my mind.