Page 39 of Queen of the Wicked (Afterlife #1)

Erebos

I zara and Alessia were visibly uncomfortable on their journey through the Dead Zone the following morning.

Stripped of their powers, they traveled across a wooden bridge connecting them from one side of the cave to the other.

Some of the planks were rotted, close to falling apart, and where that normally wouldn’t have been too much of a concern, it was when the swaying bridge helped them cross a fifty-foot drop of bubbling lava beneath.

One wrong move and they’d careen over the edge to their deaths.

Erebos was accustomed to not having his powers after being without them for so long, so he didn’t feel much of a difference. He and Eryx cautiously moved behind the two women, avoiding rotten planks in their path.

“Are you really not going to tell her?” The general whispered. It was the first sentence he’d uttered to the lord all day.

“It’s not the right time,” Erebos replied, keeping his gaze pinned on the woman in question.

She followed Izara’s lead ahead, navigating the planks with expert skill.

Her braid from yesterday was still hanging at her mid-back, some pieces falling out of the tie from the battle with the mutated creature yesterday.

Even with her clothing soiled with blood and dirt, Alessia was still the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. It was impossible not to admire her.

“When is the right time? If Alessia knew you were her mate, it would change things.”

“Change things how?”

“Oh, come on,” Eryx said, as if stating the obvious. “If she agreed to be your mate, she would be next in line for the throne, not Bastian, which would extend the decree. Something could happen to you at any point, and we should be prepared if it does.”

His general wasn’t wrong. It would be the most logical solution as an extra precaution to their realm, but Alessia wasn’t a means to an end for him.

Despite the bond, his feelings towards her were genuine, which meant taking her feelings into account before dropping another bomb on her that she didn’t need.

“She is overwhelmed,” Erebos explained. “Obstacles keep popping up that she’s having difficulty handling, and the last thing she needs is me to add another thing forced upon her to figure out.”

“Is that what you think of yourself? An added obstacle? You are her mate, Erebos, and Alessia doesn’t strike me as the type of person who will take kindly to being lied to when she finds out. Not if, but when, because this secret will come to light eventually.”

“You don’t think I know that?” The bridge swayed from a gust of heat, causing a bead of sweat to trickle down his forehead.

“It has taken everything to withhold this information from her, becoming excruciating with each passing minute she remains unaware, but she is not ready to hear that she has a fated mate. I am just the Lord of Hell to her, someone she loathed when she first arrived, and is learning to tolerate. Hearing this news will only make her think of me as another person stripping her of control when we have just become cordial.”

Not to mention that accepting him as her mate would be an added obstacle for her.

The lord had given up on finding his mate decades ago.

The thought of allowing someone in to see all the ugly glimpses of his past was too much to bear.

He wouldn’t know the first thing about carrying on a relationship with his baggage of trauma, let alone a fated bond, but Alessia made it impossible not to want more with her.

She made him believe that maybe he could be vulnerable.

Hell, he already had been. Being in her presence gave him comfort, making him an open book to her.

But there would always be a part of him that believed he didn’t deserve to find his mate.

Blood would permanently stain his hands as long as he lived.

Those he killed because he was ordered to.

The lives he deemed unworthy when he had no authority to do so.

They pressed down around him like walls closing in.

His victims were the only faces he saw when he looked in the mirror and closed his eyes at night.

He didn’t deserve to be happy.

He didn’t deserve her .

Eryx glanced back at him with an arched brow, clueless to his thoughts.

“Is that what I walked in on yesterday? Seemed a lot more than cordial to me.” Then, on a more serious note, “I was out of line for telling you how to handle yourself when it comes to your bond. I have not been granted that connection yet, so I can only imagine how difficult it must be to watch them become injured. I was just…” He sighed, shoulders slumping in defeat.

“I was thinking like a general. About the realm and the repercussions it would face. I apologize.”

“No apology necessary,” he replied. “I wouldn’t expect you to act like anything but my general when that is the title I gave you. All I ask is that, should another situation like that present itself, it is not me I require you to protect any longer.”

“Erebos—”

“That is an order.” His tone was firm, and he could tell Eryx wished to fight him on it, but he knew better than to start an argument he wouldn’t win.

The mating bond was the most cherished connection in all the realms. Very few found their fated match, but if they did, they would go to any lengths to protect each other.

Alessia showcased it yesterday when Erebos was seconds from having a talon rip through his spine.

Since he didn’t have powers to protect her, the next best thing would be an added person to ensure her protection remained above his own.

“As you wish,” Eryx relented. Izara and Alessia waited for them on the other side as they crossed the remaining planks, but not before Eryx added, “For the record, being Lord of Hell isn’t a bad thing, Erebos.

From what I have noticed, Alessia might be more open to becoming your mate than you realize, and I hope that, in time, you will see that as well. ”

“The map didn’t indicate its precise location, but rumors claimed the Seeker resides behind the waterfall.

” Eryx tucked the map into the pocket of his backpack as the group stared at the flowing lava before them.

The bridge had led to a set of stone stairs carved into the cave, and now they were faced with what felt like the heat of a thousand suns blazing against their skin at the sheer height of the lava crashing down around them.

“We’re supposed to go behind that?” Alessia squinted at the high ceilings of the cave, to the bridge they had crossed only minutes ago. “How, if we’re in the Dead Zone? We don’t have access to our power.”

“The Seeker isn’t supposed to be easy to track down,” Izara said pointedly. She gestured to the stone path that led behind the wall of lava. “I say we just go ahead and walk it. Take our chances.”

“And risk the lava singeing our skin?” Alessia stared at her open-mouthed. “Are you insane?” She slid her backpack off her shoulders before unzipping it and pulling out a familiar book that had Erebos’s eyes bulging out of his head.

“You brought the Book of Death to the pits?”

She shrugged and flipped through the pages like it was one of those Bridgerton novels she never stopped raving about and not a precious artifact he’d been trying to find for decades.

“I needed something to read in case I got bored, but maybe it says something about the Seeker in here. It’s worth a try, right? ”

“Alessia,” Izara protested. “We don’t have time to?—”

As if her uttering her name were the key, the rushing lava suddenly stood still. Everything paused as an eerily quiet filled the cavern, causing the rest of their group to fall silent.

Alessia slowly closed the book and then stuffed it back into her backpack. “Maybe it sensed that we’re here?”

Eryx glanced around the cave, utterly perplexed. “Whatever the case, let’s not waste any more time.”

The group shuffled along the path behind the lava, and despite Erebos’s facade of bravery, he eyed the wall of scorching magma frozen in mid-air with uncertainty. If it decided to start up again for whatever reason, there was a good chance his skin would melt right onto the stone beneath him.

“Do you see anything?” Alessia whispered behind Izara.

The path led to another darkened corridor, a gentle drip, drip, drip echoing from somewhere within.

Erebos loosened a breath when they were past the immediate threat, but he geared himself up for a new one as they approached an entrance to a cave within a cave.

“It’s too dark to tell without my magic,” Izara muttered. She glanced over her shoulder at the rest of the group. “Am I expected to go first?”

“I mean, if you insist…” Eryx’s smile grew at the annoyance on the soul seeker’s face. “What? You are the one who asked. ”

“And you are the general,” she retorted. “You are used to fighting without magic. Shouldn’t you be the one to go first?”

“You two are insufferable,” Alessia said with a sigh.

She pushed them out of the way and strode into the cave without fear, leaving Erebos to stare after his mate in awe.

He wondered why the Makers selected such a strong, badass woman as his other half when he didn’t carry a fraction of her bravery.

Sure, he would throw his life on the line for her, but he didn’t handle dark, enclosed spaces well.

As Alessia had experienced yesterday, it stemmed from his years spent in a cell without light, left to conjure up the darkest nightmares while Bastian kept him on the brink of insanity.

Eryx snorted, pulling him back from his memories as they threatened to drag him under. “She seems to be warming up to us well, doesn’t she?”

Izara, who rarely let her emotions show, smiled with pride. “It’s about time she gave us a taste of our own medicine. Let’s go.”