Page 5 of Hell Fae Warden

My nostrils flared and my lungs expanded on instinct as I drew in the familiar essence. Ajax’s magic was like nectar to me after our shared experience.

Dizziness swarmed over me in the next beat, suggesting I hadn’t been breathing properly. Given that the two powerful males had a chokehold on the oxygen in the room, that wasn’t surprising.

It took effort to draw another agonizing gulp of air once the pine started to wear off.

This room was suffocating. Everything about it felt wrong. As did this entire situation.

Not just the windowless walls caging me in or the splintered ropes that dug into my skin, but the cold energy that radiated from everywhere.

We definitely weren’t in the Human Realm.

And we weren’t in Lucifer’s territory, either.

My best guess? Ajax had taken us somewhere familiar to him. Which explained why Az had asked him how long we could stay here.

So we must be in the Midnight Fae Realm,I decided. Because that would be a familiar area to Ajax that he would know more about than Az.

And if we were in Ajax’s home territory, then we were likely near other Death Bloods.

Which would also explain the deadly chill.

Although, based on the pungent smell that Ajax’s pine-scented magic had finally expelled from my nose, it could also be a tomb.

Because this place reeked of death.

It wasn’t exactly a scent like one that came from flowers or incense, but rather a secondary sense that my instincts picked up on. Courtesy of my fae side, not my human one.

Regardless of the source, my instincts fired with wrongness.I shouldn’t be here.Weshouldn’t be here.

Az moved forward, returning my focus to his obsidian gaze and frying every thought in my mind. Because I was definitely staring at his beast more than the man.

He grazed the point of his knife up my exposed abdomen—not hard enough to bleed, just a subtle taunt to remind me how sharp it could be—and brought it up to rest at the knot directly over my heart.

I stopped breathing again.

“All right, little warrior. Now that you’ve had some time to think, how about you try answering my question again?” He ticked his head to the side in a birdlike gesture.

“I would if I could,” I admitted. “But I don’t know. Only a few hours have passed for me, not thirty days.”

He grunted and shook his head. “Is that the story you’re going with?”

“It’s not a story; it’s the truth.” Alas, there wasn’t a chance in Hell that these two would believe me. I could see it in their expressions.

Sure, we’d played around, shared a few orgasms. But that had changed nothing between us.

I was still a prisoner. A Hell Fae Bridal Candidate. Property of the Hell Fae King. And these two were his minions.

His Commander and his Warden.

The truth of my situation had me gritting my teeth.

I’d let these two males hypnotize me with their power and their sensuality. So much so that for a brief moment in time, I’d lost sight of what they really were—my captors.Quite possibly they’d also end up being my killers.

Which meant I needed to focus onescaping.

Oh, the irony. I’d been able to run away from the Hell Fae prison without actually meaning to, thus leading to this current predicament that I truly needed to get away from.

I would have laughed if I had enough oxygen in my lungs.