Page 141 of Hell Fae Warden

Wait, what about the portal thing?

I tried to see through the dust, but it swirled around me like a sandstorm, confusing my senses.

Suddenly it felt as though I were wrapped up in a tornado of ash and embers, pure heat bathing my skin as something tugged at my chains.What the fuck?

I coughed, my hands automatically flailing around in an attempt to clear the debris, to be able tosee.

My stomach heaved, the sensation reminding me of when Melek had taken me to the palace the first time and leaving me uneasy.

I tried saying his name, but the torrent of atmospheric particles made it impossible to speak. I coughed again, burying my face in my hands as I struggled to decipher what was happening.

Then it all stopped, my body seeming to freeze on a murky floor. My nose crinkled as the ash blended with a new smell. Something sour and wet.

Did a water line break?

Do buildings in the Hell Fae Realm evenhavewater lines?

I brushed my nose, wanting to get rid of the acrid stench, but that only made it worse.

Because there was something mossy on my hand.

What the…?

Peering around me, the air cleared enough for me to confirm that I was no longer in my cage. Hell, I wasn’t even in the nightclub.

Is that sunlight?It seemed a little sickly as it battled with the dusty air, the dim rays fighting their way through the obscure sky. What few beams made it into the garden around me shattered when they hit an invisible wall, becoming broken rainbows that cast various colors over fairylike statues.

Uh, yeah, definitely not the fiery lights of Purgatory…

My fingers brushed the ground, only instead of touching something mossy this time, it was stone-like.No, not a stone. Another statue.

I blinked up at an Unseelie female, feeling dwarfed by it as I tried to process my current location.

In the Unseelie Court?

Inside their… what was it called? The Bridal Garden?

I frowned.Did I hit my head in the blast at the club? Am I dreaming?

Because that would certainly explain my random appearance here.

Yet it… it felt real.Looks real, too.

There were vines hanging all around me, their dark green limbs laden with blossoms that helped dispel some of the musky scent around me. This area almost seemed peaceful. Quiet.Beautiful.

The book I’d read on this region had claimed it’d once been a forest filled with life, and looking around, I could see that now. However, there were deadly influences here, too. Subtle little black stems indicating where life had ended.

And so much power,I marveled, sensing it all around me.

Lucifer manages all of this.

Every kingdom within his realm.

That’s a lot for one fae to maintain.

That didn’t make me like him, though. Not after everything he’d done to me today.

So where is he?I wondered.How did I end up here?