Page 6

CAMI

A Few Minutes Earlier

C haos.

Darkness.

Pain.

I couldn’t focus beyond Az’s agony, my soul demanding I go to him. Find him. Help him.

I clutched my head, not able to hear a word Melek or Typhos were saying to each other. My world revolved around Az. His mind was incoherent, his inability to tell me what was happening all the more concerning.

Take me to him! I shouted at no one in particular. I didn’t know how to ash or teleport or shadow or anything else. Whenever I’d done it in the past, it’d been without my consent.

Or by using Lucifer’s power, I realized.

“Don’t even think about it, Camillia,” the male in question growled next to my ear.

But his words escaped me on a passing wind, my instincts already engaging with the notion of flying. His furious shout echoed behind me, the heat of it chasing me into the darkness and vanishing as I landed inside a crypt.

Or… or not a crypt. A bar?

I swallowed, glancing around at the gothic interior.

Then froze at the nightmarish ball of black energy swirling before me. Not a Source, but… but fae .

Their auras matched the obsidian floor, their angry growls causing the hairs along my arms to stand on end.

“Rude,” someone muttered as a sword appeared, one that flickered with golden flames.

My lips parted as the weapon sliced through the air, gliding through the dark auras.

A trio of corpses fell to the ground, the energy swarm ceasing instantly and allowing me to see Az’s sprawled form.

I gasped and ran for him, only for the sword wielder to step into my path. “Plink.”

“What?” I breathed, not understanding that word.

“He’s talking to me,” a voice hissed from right behind me.

I whirled toward the newcomer, only to be halted with an arm around my waist. A broad chest met my back for a brief moment before I went spinning through the air.

“You’re ruining all my fun, Ghost,” the newcomer— Plink?— growled.

“And what fun is that?” the sword-wielding male replied, sounding bored. “Trying to kill the Hell Fae Commander? Or playing with his mate?”

“ Both ,” Plink snarled, his protruding jaw turning black to resemble ash.

Zombie , I thought in the next breath, gasping as his humanoid form took on the picture of death.

I wasn’t sure if it had been his hands on me or the one called Ghost. Right now, I hoped it was the latter.

Because it seemed Plink possessed dark magic, the kind that killed . Or that was how I interpreted the wisps of gray smoke swirling out from his blackened fingertips.

Ghost didn’t appear to be all that concerned, though.

He sheathed his sword and pulled out a dagger instead. “All right, Plink. Let’s dance.”

I jumped backward as the two men blurred into a deadly fog, their energy a chilling presence that shot ice through my veins.

Another presence soon joined them, causing my jaw to clench. I couldn’t see them so much as feel them, their auras riddled with malicious intent.

More are coming, my instincts told me. So many more…

A frigid breeze caressed my being, reminding me that all I wore was a short silky robe.

But a glance toward Az had me forgetting everything and focusing entirely on him.

He wasn’t moving.

Why isn’t he moving?

Maybe a minute or two had passed since my arrival, yet it felt like much longer.

He should be moving…

I skirted along the edge of the room, the obsidian booths to my left and the open floor to my right. Ghost’s sword was out again, the power flashing through the air as he fought the incoming horde of black spirits.

There are too many of them , I thought, my heart in my throat.

And I had no idea who this Ghost truly was. Friend or foe?

With the way he was protecting Az, I guessed the former. But that wasn’t a guarantee.

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.

So what’s the purpose of this rock? I wondered. Ajax had given it to me for a reason.

Before, it’d been about training.

Now, it was about surviving.

Energy engulfed me, a foreign spell clawing at my skin with icy sensations. I swatted at it, but that only sharpened the blades. I gasped, the pain unlike anything I’d ever felt as arctic liquid shot through my veins.

Literally , I realized. Or… or it feels…

My limbs seemed to freeze with icy precision, snuffing out my inner flame.

Just like Az , I thought. They chilled his Phoenix. Smothered his fire. And now… now they’re doing the same to me.

But as the frigid energy reached my fingers, it dissipated and the stone heated in my hand. I focused on the conflicting power, noting the way it countered the chill with warmth.

Except… except it wasn’t truly warm ; it was… absorbing .

I blinked, confused by that revelation. Yet I could feel the death stone pulling in the air around me, stirring some sort of enchantment inside that devoured the glacial power around it.

Like me, I registered in a heartbeat, my lips parting. The stone is a siphon. Or it functioned like one, anyway.

So how do I use it?

My fingers flexed around the sharp edges, the juxtaposition of cold and hot making me shiver and sweat at the same time.

Think, Cami, I told myself. It’s absorbing the chill like a flame consumes oxygen. And infernos burn hotter under the right circumstances…

Thus, with the right parameters, I should be able to intensify the stone’s siphoning ability.

I need to give it more oxygen…

Because the material—the energy— was already there, ready to be devoured.

I closed my eyes to focus on the parameters in the equation, trying to determine how to bolster the conditions and enhance the power.

Lucifer’s Source instantly opened itself to me, the beacon of energy ready and willing at my fingertips. I’d evaluate later why it was so easy to reach now. Just as I’d apologize to its owner later, too.

Az was what mattered at the moment.

Surely Lucifer would understand that.

Or want to kill me again, I thought bitterly. Well, fuck that.

These zombielike fae needed to burn , their icy presence overwhelming and deadly. And hurting Az .

I could feel it now—the blizzard swirling inside him and killing his inner fire.

He was nearing death, his flame almost extinguished. He might be immortal and capable of rebirth, but something about this felt… permanent .

No! I mentally shouted as furious vitality swam through me, Lucifer’s power a kiss to my senses that roared through my veins. I fell on top of Az, one hand still clutching the stone while my opposite palm went to his chest, right over his heart.

Then I used everything inside me to ignite the stone, forcing it to take more, to blaze hotter than before, to consume .

But I didn’t let the rock keep everything. Instead, I pulled some of that fiery energy into myself and out through my palm into Az. It was such a natural response, one I wasn’t even sure I could do, yet accomplished as easily as breathing.

A rerouting of power.

My body siphoning the vitality and redirecting it.

What I was created to do, I thought dizzily.

I’d been doing this for years without realizing what it had meant or how it had worked. But I was beginning to understand it now.

I’d done this with the portals—siphoning Lucifer’s Source and releasing it into the vortex. It’d been about fighting fire with fire then, but I’d absorbed the power and morphed it into what the situation had required.

Just like with the many infernos I put out over the years.

Rather than shove those memories away, I embraced them and used them as fuel for my current task— reviving Az .

Everything blurred around me, the fight no longer important. Our location a distant concern. All I cared about was channeling the warmth into my Commander. My mate .

Mmm, I like the possession I hear in your mind, little warrior, he replied, his voice a purr against my mind.

Az, I breathed.

What’s wrong? he demanded in the next instant. What’s… happening? That purr was gone, his flirtation melting into a wave of confusion that quickly morphed into anger. Fires.

His recollection of events ripped through his thoughts, fueling his fury. He’d been talking to Maliki, his half brother, about a favor when a trio of Death Fae had approached.

Then they’d attacked him.

Which had turned into a swarm of others piling on, the mixture of Death Fae and Corpse Fae powers creating a swarm of lethal energy.

They hadn’t all been in the bar, but channeling something from afar.

And he had no idea why it had happened.

But the why didn’t matter because he was pissed and regaining his strength with every second.

I could feel the vitality swirling around him, all of it bolstered by my own gift.

He had enough to thrive now, yet I couldn’t seem to stop, the power swimming through me with the force of a catastrophic hurricane.

I tried to pull away, to redirect the power, but I… I couldn’t. I was a slave to the energy connecting me and Az. A slave to the death stone .

I attempted to drop it. However, my fingers wouldn’t let go.

Az said my name, but it was lost to the torrential winds whipping through my mind. No. Not my mind. Against my ears.

I’d created some sort of power vacuum, the electric current unstoppable and charged by Lucifer’s Source.

He’s here, I realized, Lucifer’s ferocity hitting me like a freight train. Still, I couldn’t stop. I couldn’t pull away. I couldn’t move .

My name echoed from four male voices, all of them ones I knew deep within my soul. All of them connected to me in different ways. All of them my mates .

Except no. That… that wasn’t quite right.

I have three mates, not four , I thought dizzily. But I… I was enchanted by four souls.

Ajax.

Az.

Melek.

And Lucifer… through his Source . He had the strongest hold on me, his energy leashing me in a way that had me feeling wrapped up in a myriad of ropes.

Like Melek’s ribbons, I mused idly, the correlation one that nearly made me laugh.

But this wasn’t funny.

It was dangerous. Terrifying, even. I… I didn’t know where to go. How to process. What to?—

A mouth sealed over mine, air flooding my senses.

Another hand was at my throat, making it impossible to inhale.

“Let go,” a voice seethed against my ear.

I agreed with that assessment. Yes, let go. Because I couldn’t breathe. Everything was too dark. Too heavy. Too hot .

“ Camillia .” The deep tone reverberated through my being, demanding my submission. “ Let. Go .”