Page 120 of Hell Fae Warden

“I can help with that. Probably better than the book. We can pull some footage of the Nagas and the Unseelie, too. That’ll help you understand them a little more.”

Her expression told me she wasn’t sure if she wanted to understand them or not, but she moved her head in the affirmative anyway. “Okay. But can we start tomorrow? I think I’d like to just be us for a little longer first. If that’s okay.”

My lips curled. “I would like that, too.”

“Then we’ll reconvene Hell Fae tutoring tomorrow,” she murmured.

“Tomorrow,” I agreed, leaning toward her.

Then I kissed her because I could.

Because I wanted to.

Because it felt right.

And I lost myself to the present, as the future could wait until tomorrow.

CHAPTER28

CAMI

Two Days Later

“Hmm,”I hummed to myself, dreamily wandering into the kitchen in a pleasant haze of satisfaction while Ajax finished dressing for the day.

He’d spent the morning trying to distract me from today’s pending events, something I’d fully appreciated more than once. But now that I was standing in front of the espresso machine, reality started settling around me again.

The bride trials resume today. In the Marsh Lands.

From what I understood from Ajax, the Nagas and Unseelie primarily dominated the Marsh Lands. They were two very different types of Nightmare Fae, which meant there would likely be at least two sets of challenges, similar to the first round of trials with the Centaurs and the Minotaurs.

I nibbled my lip as I programmed the machine to pour me a normal cup of coffee.

“So if the source has already removed those with bad intentions, no one should die this time, right?” I’d asked Ajax yesterday.

He’d shaken his head. “Just because it wasn’t caught in the first trial doesn’t mean it won’t be caught now. There were over six hundred brides. That’s a lot of auras for the source to test.”

Which meant we might see some gruesome deaths on the live feed today.

I glanced at the big black screen, thinking about the various channels I’d discovered and the current feeds it was probably displaying.

How are the brides preparing?I wondered.How much do they know?

Ajax had said the sponsors could technically provide some warnings, maybe even say which kingdom and Nightmare Fae type to expect today. Because the whole purpose of a sponsor was to ensure the bride survived long enough to be chosen by a Hell Fae.

“It seems counterproductive for a sponsor to help their bride do well in the Nightmare Fae trial since that means he might lose her to another kingdom,” I’d said to Ajax. “Wouldn’t they be more inclined to try to help their candidate, I don’t know, cheat in some way?”

“That’s not how the Hell Fae and Nightmare Fae function,” he’d replied. “They support each other, even when technically competing. Besides, the whole purpose is to prove that this can work so that maybe Lucifer will host another bridal event in a millennium or so.”

“He plans to do this again?”

“Only if it proves worthwhile.”

I had translated that to mean that it depended on how many brides made the cut. While in the arena last month, it’d felt like at least half of the brides had perished. But apparently the casualties were under twenty as a whole with about sixty brides being taken to the Barren Lands for the Centaurs and Minotaurs.

Which left just under six hundred candidates on the playing board for today’s trial since Lucifer had started with six hundred and sixty-six total.

The machine beeped, telling me my coffee was ready. I picked it up and considered whether or not I wanted it black today. It seemed kind of appropriate, given what was about to happen.