Page 2

Death was a natural equalizer, but that didn’t mean it was always fair.

Seneca had been a pretty decent person while she’d been alive. She tried to live a relatively good life. She was a loving daughter and a loyal friend and had never intentionally hurt anyone or been a bully.

While shewasn’t a saint, she was far from a sinner. Because of that, she believed she would end up somewhere benign, like strolling through a field of flowers or floating on a cloud while she waited to be accepted through the golden gates that lead to whatever waited in the afterlife.

Clearly, she had been way off in her estimation of what happened after death.

She’d never believed things just ended after someone died. There had to be a reason there were so many stories about the afterlife and reincarnation for all of it to be false.

She just hadn’t expected to wake up in hell.

The first thing she saw when she opened her eyes was a light so bright her eyes felt singed. The fire was so hot she was surprised she hadn’t been incinerated already. She tried to back away from the heat but couldn’t seem to move her body. That made panic surge through her, but it didn’t last long. She relaxed again when the raging flamesdimmed,makingit more tolerable to be around.

Shelet out a relieved sigh once she realized she wasn’t about to be cremated. Still, it took several more seconds tofigure outthat she was staring into an enormous stone fireplace where there was a roaring fire made of strange silver, gold, and black flames.

Since her eyes seemed to be the only thing she was able to move, she tried to glanceat as much of her surroundings as she could to figure out where she was. The only thing she could tell was that shewasin a massive room that was completely unfamiliar to her. Although itlooked like she was in the great hall of somemedievalcastle found somewhere in Europe, the strange flames made it clear she was somewhere magical.

Since waking up in strange places was apparently starting to be her thing, she was just grateful it wasn’t another dungeon. She was also reassured when she didn’t see any medical equipment within the vicinity. Relief flooded through her when she was finally able to move her head alittle, but that didn’t last long.

When she glanced down,she blinked in shock when she didn’t see her own legs. Her legs had vanished, and in their place was a tiny pair of black and white paws.

What the fuck was going on?

Had that crazy witch saved her before she died and cast some sort of strange spell on her to make it easier to keep her locked up? Or hadSeneca somehow been turned into a shifter?

“Nope. You really are dead, but that’s only temporary.”

The deep voice made her freeze in fear.

Well, considering the fact she still couldn’t move, being frozen in place was sort of her default at the moment. Her mind was racing, though. That was to be expected considering she had just fucking died.

She gasped when an unseen force suddenly lifted her into the air, and she was spun so her back was to the large fireplace. She tried to let out a gasp, but the sound came out more like a screeching meow. Hearing that noise coming from herself was as much of a shock as seeing four terrifying supernaturals staring down at her.

The two stunning couplesin front of her were sitting on a pair of long, black leather couches that were placed in a V formation in front of the fireplace. Themale sitting closest to herhadto be one of the most menacing creatures she had ever seen. Not only was he freaking huge, his glowing eyes were a strange mix of black, silver, and gold.

He was dressed in a black shirt and matching pants, which was a stark contrast to his long silver hair. His bronzed skin shimmered with a soft glow that had nothing to do with the firelight, and his hands looked large enough to crush skulls. By his appearance, Seneca might have thought he was some sort of angel, but the dark, dangerous vibes radiating off him made him seem more like a demon.

The gorgeous female cuddled up against him was petite compared to his massivesize, but she was as intimidating as he was, just in a different way. Her long pink and silver hair fell in soft curls to her waist, and her glowing bronze eyes had tiny specks of silver and black in them that made them look like stars. She might have been pretty and polished, but her oversized purple sweatshirt with a unicorn shitting sparkles on the frontand pink leggings covered with tiny strawberries sort of skewed her powerful image.

On the other sofa, a handsome male with glowing silver eyes and black hair was holding the hand of a beautiful female with long shimmering bronze hair and glowing gold eyes. They were both wearing dark jeans and T-shirts under matching black leather jackets, making them look like typical humans when they were far from it.

Seneca thought the second couple looked slightly familiar but couldn’t recall where they would have met since she would have surely remembered someone as powerful as they were. She’d been around formidable supernaturals before, but the power radiating off them was nothing compared to the four beings sitting before her.

Just being in theirpresencemade her want to flee asfar away as possible.

She immediately realized how silly that was. Attempting to run would do no damn good against supernaturals who could teleport. Besides, she couldn’t do much but blink at the moment anyway. If they had wanted to hurt her, they could have done so before she even knew what hit her.

Realizing that allowed her to push her fear aside.

There was no point in worrying about something that she had no hope of stopping or controlling. That would just be wasted energy. Instead, she focused on her curiosity. The powerful beings had obviously brought her there for a reason, and she wanted to know what it was.

The male with silver hair cocked his head to the side and frowned. “You are taking all of this better than we expected.”

She wasn’t sure how accurate that was, considering she was still pretty freaked out and had no clue what was actually going on. The only thing she was sure of was that she was dead and had somehow turned into an animal. Perhaps practically growing up in a funhouse had prepared her to take just about everything in stride.

She was afraid, rightly so, but she didn’t react to scary situations like most people.

“That makes sense. Since you are technically just a soul now that you’re dead, I had to borrow a body to stick you in so you can communicate with us. So, you are temporarily a cat.”

He’d stuck her soul in a cat?

She wasn’t sure if she felt offended or fascinated by that, then decided it was a mixture of both. At least the paws made sense now.

“We tried to put you in our hellhound first, but Snix really didn’t like that. So, we tried again with our kitten, Oreo. We found her abandoned in the Human Realm not too long ago. She’s just a regular cat and this type of magic is pretty intense, so that seems to be leading to some mobility issues. That’s why you can’t move right now.”

That sounded completely insane, but it had obviously worked. Sort of. She wasn’t sure exactly how she was supposed to communicate with them since she was stuffed in an animal, though. She was still trying to accept that when the rest of what he’d said sank in. She hadn’t even known hellhounds were real, but she imagined being inside one—even for a few seconds—wouldn’t have been very pleasant.

“We can hear everything you are thinking, so communicating shouldn’t be a problem.”

Seneca mentally cringed. Well, fuck. Knowing these beings had access to every thought in her head was slightly terrifying, not to mention embarrassing as hell. She was concerned she was going to inadvertently offend someone since she tended to get snarky and curse a lot when she was scared or nervous.

“Don’t worry about that. Trust me, I was a human witch with very little connection to the supernatural community before I discovered I was mated to the big guy here, so I understand how overwhelming this shit can get. My name is Devon, and this is my mate, Braxton, the God of Souls.And that is Autumn, the Goddess of Revenge, and her mate, Kingston, a member of the Supernatural Council. Welcome to the Hell Realm.”

Hearing that made Seneca want to cry.

Not because she was upset she had ended up in Hell. If that was where the powers that be had determined she belonged, she couldn’t really do anything about it. What made her immensely sad was the thought of never seeing her mother and father again since she had no doubt both of them had ended up in a better place.

“It’s not like that,” Devon assured. “Actually, all souls end up in the Hell Realm after they die. It’s why this place used to be called the Realm of Souls. It just got renamed Hell by some power-hungry gods who...never mind. We can discuss all of that some other time. Right now, all you need to know is you are not in Hell because you did something wrong. I promise.”

Obviously, there was a lot she needed to learn about the supernatural community. So, Hell wasn’t the scary place it was rumored to be, and gods liked to hang out in casual wear instead of crowns and flowing robes. Good to know. She wondered if all souls got an audience with the God of Souls and his pals when they died, or if she was some sort of special case.

“Fuck, no,” Braxton responded with a snort of derision. “If that happened, I would never get any sleep. Then, I would just want to destroy everyone, and no one would ever get reincarnated.”

Since that was a terrifying thought, Seneca had no idea how to respond to that. Not wanting to think something that might offend her powerful hosts, she focused on trying to move one of her front paws. It was frustrating since she still couldn’t move at all. She was glad she wasn’t all the way dead, but she still wasn’t quite sure why they had stuffed her soul into a cat instead of letting her go about her afterlife.

Kingston’s lips quirked up in a smirk. “I still can’t believe the big bad son of Lucifer has a cute little kitten as a familiar.”

Braxton shot him a vicious glare. “Don’t think I can’t kill you in my own living room. I’m the God of freaking Souls, after all. I can rip yours right out of your body.”

Kingston just laughed in response.

“Please, don’t,” Autumn pleaded, sounding more amused than worried. “I really like his soul right where it is.”

“Aww, thanks, sweetheart.”

“It’s not like I even wanted a damn familiar,” Braxton grumbled. “I mean, seriously. What other god has a fucking familiar?”

“Sapphire and Raiden have their dragons,” Devon pointed out. “Oh, and then there is your dad.”

“He doesn’t count. His psycho ass has an army of hellhounds, not familiars.”

Autumn raised her hand. “I want one.”

“You can have mine,” Braxton offered.

Devon playfully slapped his arm. “Don’t say that. You’ll hurt Oreo’s feelings.”

“She’s a damn cat.”

“So? Animals have feelings, too. Oreo is adorable, and you love her. Admit it,” Devon demanded, poking her finger against Braxton’s chest. “You wouldn’t have brought her home otherwise.”

“We brought her home because you wanted to,” Braxton muttered.

“You decided to keep her as soon as she sat on your foot,” Devon countered. “I know since I’m in your head, mate. You love her.”

Braxton kissed his mate’s forehead. “I love you.”

“Maybe we should pop over to Familiar Field at Aegis Academy to see if you connect with any animals that show up,” Kingston suggested to Autumn. “What type of familiar do you want? A cat? A rabbit?”

“Actually, I would love a hellhound.”

He blanched a bit. “Hellhounds aren’t normal animals, sweetheart. They are unstoppable beasts created from devil fire and dark magic.”

“Which makes them even cooler.”

“What’s wrong with hellhounds?” Devon asked. “I love mine. Snix is the best.”

As if sensing its master talking about him, a small brown dog appeared on Devon’s lap in a puff of dark smoke. His stubby tail wagged happily as she stroked him and kissed his head in greeting. When he turned, Seneca saw that he had glowing red eyes and elongated canine teeth that clearly confirmed he was not a normal animal.

After getting showered with affection by Devon, the hellhound disappeared in another puff of smoke. Then, to her utter shock, he reappeared right in front of Seneca. Only this time, he was twice as large as he had been a few seconds ago.

As he stalked closer, Seneca prayed that the hellhound didn’t see her as a potential food source. To her surprise, instead of biting her, the hellhound licked her cheek with its long tongue before lying down and curling its large body around her. Well, the cat, not her. She mentally shuddered as the big beast’s eyes closed and he let out a snort of smoke from his nostrils as he fell asleep.

This really was turning out to be the strangest day.

She felt an odd sensation, like something was trying to push and pull her at the same time. Even though she couldn’t move, she found herself curling up against the scary hellhound. Her head felt like it was going to explode, and her ears were going to pop from extreme pressure, then the impression slowly dissipated.

“Uh oh,” Devon groaned. “We put Oreo to sleep while your soul is inside of her, but I think she is trying to wake up. She and Snix like to nap together in front of the fireplace, and I think she senses his presence.”

“Then we better get to the point,” Braxton announced. “I’m not sure how long we can keep her soul inside the cat before they start to fight one another for dominance.”

That did not sound good.

“Okay, shit. Now, I feel pressured. Let me give you a quick recap. The Realm of Souls, or the Hell Realm, isn’t the horrible place that people think it is. All of the souls within the six realms end up here to go through a reprocessing cycle. While some souls are immediately reborn, others are punished for what they have done in their previous life,” Devon explained.

“And if a soul is really evil, they are immediately destroyed,” Braxton added.

Devon nodded. “Right, like serial killers. Other souls have to reach a certain level of purity before they can move on to whatever stage is next. We’ve streamlined the sorting process, but we noticed something strange the other day that we haven’t seen before. That brings us to how you ended up here.”

“Souls usually appear in the Hell Realm as blue orbs of light, but yours was pulsing red,” Braxton said. “When I pulled you out of the river and reviewed your life, I immediately sensed you weren’t meant to die. At least, not yet.”

What the hell did that mean?

“It means, you have a chance for a redo,” Devon exclaimed. “You have the opportunity to go back and fix your life.”

“One,” Braxton repeated. “One chance only. If you fuck up and fail, you will end up back here to be recycled with the rest of the souls.”

“Around the same time Brax was pulling you out of the River of Souls, we also felt a disturbance in the force,” Kingston interjected. “Autumn has never been pulled all the way to another realm for a revenge case, so this was completely new for us.”

Seneca appreciated the movie reference, but she didn’t understand the rest of what he’d said.

“As the new Goddess of Revenge, I get pulled towards individuals who deserve revenge. Usually, I have to be at least within a certain proximity to a person, but I guess that is changing. Or maybe you are just a special case. This is my first time dealing with someone who is already dead so I’m not exactly sure how this is supposed to work,” Autumn admitted.

“Not being sure how shit works is kind of normal around here,” Braxton said dryly. “It’s not like this type of magic comes with instruction manuals.”

“I’ve basically been winging it since I was given my powers,” Autumn admitted. “But after reviewing your life, I know you definitely qualify for a chance to get revenge on those who wronged you. We are pretty confident that the four of us can send you back. I know it sounds crazy, but I guess this is a new aspect of our powers we haven’t tapped into yet.”

“Yeah, I think we can do it, but we don’t know what you need to accomplish to be allowed to stay in the new timeline.” Braxton paused, then added, “We aren’t sure how far back you will get sent either. It could be a few days, weeks, or hell, even years.”

Hearing that made hope spring to life inside Seneca. The idea of reliving her entire life from birth was rather daunting, but if she got sent back far enough to save her parents and friends, that would be a gift beyond measure.

“We haven’t been gods for very long, so if you return to a time before any of us have met, we won’t be able to help you,” Devon pointed out.

Autumn raised her hand again. “I will definitely think you are crazy if you contact me pre-godhood since I barely had enough magic to be considered a witch back then.”

“You can try to contact me for help at the firehouse near Trifecta University. But before that, I was in the Supernatural Prison so I won’t be much help,” Kingston explained.

Recognition snapped into place.

Seneca might not have officially met Kingston, but she had seen him before. She had also heard about him since she and Shadow had been friends with Thayer Katz, a tiger shifter-fairy hybrid who was also a firefighter at the station close to the university.

Kingston grinned. “You’re friends with Thayer? Feel free to reach out to us when you go back, then. I still might think you are crazy if you tell me this story, but I’ll still try to help. I’m sure Thayer will, too. He loves shit like this.”

“I probably won’t help you.” Braxton sighed when Devon elbowed him in the side. “What? I’m just being honest. You remember what I was like before I met you, mate. I wasn’t exactly very personable.”

Devon flashed him a grin. “Like you are now?”

He laughed. “I’m better…because of you.” He sighed again as he focused back on Seneca. “If you really get stuck, you can try to contact me. Tell me that you’ve been here at Guardian’s Gate. No, that won’t help. Better yet, tell me you know who my mate is. That should catch my attention long enough to listen to you.”

“Be careful about that,” Autumn warned. “We have to be cautious about changing too many things in the past. Whatever you do could create a paradox that could alter the future. What if you don’t become the God of Souls? Or if you don’t end up meeting Devon?”

“Fuck that. Don’t contact us,” Braxton ordered.

Devon sighed. “I think she just means Seneca has to be careful about sharing information about the future.”

“I won’t risk you,” Braxton growled. “We’re giving her the chance to be reborn, but she has to figure out how to fix her own life in order to remain in the new timeline.”

“Unfortunately, I think he is right. Revenge is a tricky business and should remain personal,” Autumn said. “Just focus on what you want to change in your own life.”

“Don’t go back and tell too many people what happened or try to interfere in events that don’t directly relate to you,” Kingston emphasized. “Something like trying to stop a war might seem like a good thing, but that could end up with disastrous results for too many other people.”

“It also might attract the attention of other gods. You do not want that to happen because most of them are raging assholes,” Braxton stressed.

Since that sounded rather ominous, Seneca would definitely heed their advice.

She still had dozens of questions, but before she could ask for more information from her godly hosts, she experienced that same perplexing sensation she had felt before. This time, it was way more intense, and the pressure continued to build until it became excruciating. The scream that tried to escape came out in a horrifying feline screech as her soul was forcibly expelled from the cat’s body.

Braxton surged to his feet. “Shit, if this is going to work, we need to send her back now. Brace yourself, Seneca. I don’t think this is going to be very pleasant.”

That turned out to be the understatement of the fucking century.

When the blast of powerful magic hit her full force, it completely stole her breath. Light engulfed her, only this time it felt like her entire essence was being scorched to ash. She had no body to burn, but the agony she felt was soul deep. The pain was all-consuming, like there was nothing else in the entire universe.

It seemed like it would last forever, then it suddenly stopped.

In the darkness that followed, she was left wondering if the magic had actually worked or if she had finally reached her end.

As consciousness faded, a faint glimmer of hope flickered in the distance. She was already dead, so she didn’t have much to worry about in that respect. Whether it be a new beginning that awaited her or a chance at rebirth, she was ready for whatever came next.