Page 17 of Queen of the Wicked (Afterlife #1)

Alessia

I zara had returned a day earlier from her mission without giving Alessia an explanation, insisting they immediately resume training.

She was standing in the middle of the ring like the fierce woman she was—a sword sheathed down her back with daggers strapped to both sides.

As much as Alessia wanted to protest a useless training session, she wasn’t going to comment when the woman was strapped with all kinds of weapons.

Her braids were held back with a headwrap, keeping them out of her face. Whatever she had planned for them to do today, she meant business.

“Why all the blades?” Alessia asked, stopping a few feet away from her.

Izara smiled and began to circle her like she was prey. “I’ve found your weakness. Or rather, Catalina found your weakness. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before. Join us, Erebos.”

Oh, no.

Alessia’s cheeks burned as the incredibly tall, handsome man emerged from the shadows behind them. She refused to look him in the eyes. Not after what he had shown her last night at dinner.

Of all people she had to lust after, it had to be him? Arrogant, selfish, rude… Ugh. Erebos would never know how much he got to her. But wait. If she was projecting right now…

Erebos wore a cocky smile as he approached her.

We are learning mind shields TODAY! she mentally yelled.

“This won’t work,” Alessia said aloud. She shifted nervously on her feet just being in the mere presence of the man looming over her.

“It can never hurt to try. And these …” Izara tapped the daggers at her sides.

“Are in case something goes horribly wrong. You may begin, Erebos.” Walking to the edge of the ring, she left both of them to stand alone together.

“Remember, Alessia, do not be afraid of it. Wrap it around its throat and control it. You are the one who possesses it. You are the one who tells it what to do.”

“I don’t know if I agree with this plan,” Erebos muttered, staring directly into Alessia’s eyes.

“Do you have another suggestion?” Izara snapped. “With what little time we have?”

Alessia whipped her head toward her. “Time until what ?”

Erebos sighed and straightened his posture, looking ever so regal in his simple tunic and black pants.

His curls were left unruly again, and with the way his tunic clung to him, Alessia had a perfect view of his broad shoulders and muscled chest. “I’m sorry Catalina made you uncomfortable, but she is my lover.

I couldn’t refuse her interruption at dinner. ”

“You’re lying,” Alessia replied, eyeing the red aura around him.

“The power isn’t always accurate,” Erebos said with a seemingly careless shrug. “Sometimes your desires can manipulate it. Make you see what you want to see.”

The wind sent a chill over her skin, and that power inside her began to rumble.

She pushed a loose strand of hair from her ponytail behind her ear and took a deep breath, attempting to calm the raging fire inside of her.

How was she supposed to know what the truth was?

She had never been in this realm. Perhaps what he claimed was true.

“How long has she been your lover?” Alessia gritted her teeth, hardly able to say it. Her body trembled with rage.

“Years. I take her to bed almost every night.”

Staring into his eyes, she hated that she was becoming familiar with deciphering his emotions.

The onyx storm raging back at her felt like a major contradiction to the words spilling from his tongue, but what if her intuition was wrong?

What if the agony reflected in his gaze was only another tactic to ignite her power?

“Good, Alessia.” Izara took a step closer, nodding in approval at whatever it was she saw. “Take control of it.”

“She’s going to hurt someone,” Erebos hissed.

“Not if the person she wants to hurt isn’t here . Continue, Erebos.”

“Izara, I?— ”

“Erebos,” she replied sharply. “If you want any chance of tomorrow going smoothly, you will do this.”

Alessia’s vision began to blur, honing in on Erebos and Erebos only. She wanted to take control of whatever hummed inside of her, a foreign person she didn’t know. Didn’t want to know.

Erebos cleared his throat, the redness around his body flaring, extending a whole inch around him. “I take her to bed and run my hands up her thigh… Then I…I sink to my knees before her and…”

“Stop talking,” Alessia seethed, but the voice that came out of her wasn’t hers. The foreign person, the otherworldly voice, was in its place. The power was crawling up her throat, whispering in her ear, Let me out, let me out, let me out.

“I kiss her inner thighs, run my tongue along her sensitive skin, and I relish in the pleasure it gives her. How her eyes flutter closed, how her jaw?—”

“ENOUGH!” Like an exploding bomb, black flames shot out of her hands, hovering above her palms. Erebos took six wide steps back, and a lump formed in his throat.

Alessia doubted that the Lord of Hell had ever been scared of anything, but she could sense he was terrified.

Maybe not of her, but the damage she was capable of. “Don’t speak of her. Ever. Again.”

“I-It’s not dark magic, Erebos, it’s…” Izara’s hands shook. “It’s black magic.”

Erebos nodded silently.

Alessia despised how little she had been told.

She had been kept in the dark about whatever was happening tomorrow.

She was kept in the dark about the route through the pits and the true nature of Erebos .

With those black flames in her hands, she could obliterate this entire realm, and although it would be easy to listen to the person whispering in her ear right now, telling her to do it, she couldn’t help the pull she felt to the man before her.

The red aura shined brightly, and she couldn’t ignore her intuition. It could be wrong, of course, but Erebos seemed to be in physical pain, and the sight of it… It hurt her.

You’re weak, the voice whispered.

I am not weak! she yelled, surprised at her sudden boldness. She was more surprised when the voice shrank back, seeming to become quieter.

“She’s fighting it,” Erebos whispered.

Get out of my fucking head, Alessia growled. You don’t deserve to be in my head, Erebos. Respect my fucking privacy and go fuck Catalina.

Oh, yes. Standing up for herself felt good.

That bridge connecting both of them dissipated, and she knew her mind was her own once more.

No longer would she be the naive girl who didn’t get what she wanted and got left in the dark.

Instead, she would grab this power by the throat and use it to the best of her abilities.

She would learn by telling it to teach her.

Calm down, she told it. You will not react this way over a man. You know what weakness is? This outrageous jealousy that has no reason to be there in the first place.

Of course, the voice responded obediently, but you will not be able to fight this for long.

Fight what for long?

The roaring in her ears vanished, the black balls of fire evaporating, and in its wake, Alessia slumped to the mat of the training ring, exhausted. She sat on her hands and knees, breathing heavily, letting the soft kiss of the breeze against her skin settle her.

“Alessia.” Erebos sank beside her, grabbing her face in his hands. He had never touched her like this before, and if she weren’t so angry at him, the sheer concern in his eyes might have stolen her breath away. “Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

Alessia shoved him away and shakily stood to her feet.

“You both came up with this rouse to get a reaction out of me? Do you know how dangerous that was or could have been? I could kill both of you without a second thought. You don’t understand the voice inside of me and what it’s capable of.

It was irrational, reckless, and pure stupidity to push me like that . ”

Alessia didn’t know them that well, but it was clear they weren’t used to being stood up to or ordered around. They studied her cautiously, Izara seeming unaffected by her rant while Erebos had regret written on every feature of his face.

They were in for a rude awakening, because after that conversation with herself and that threatening voice? She was done being pushed around.

“I am finished with training for today and will see myself to my room.”

“Alessia.” Erebos attempted to grab her hand, but she tugged out of his grasp.

“Do not touch me. I don’t trust any of you after today.

Leave me alone, and do not speak to me again unless it has to do with finding the Seeker, my mother, or getting me the fuck out of here.

” She stormed off towards the castle, but only got ten steps before her body stilled.

Her heart began to beat faster, and an overwhelming feeling of dread settled in her veins.

Something was wrong.

Very wrong.

“I am going to bring Alessia upstairs to get ready,” Izara said authoritatively. “It seems Bastian has decided to arrive a day earlier than anticipated. They are almost here.”