Even her sister raised her brows at the greedy demand.
"That range would encompass my keep, sorceress. If you think I'll hand over Graven Castle, you're as mad as Nix."
"I recently learned that the king of Pandemonia becomes one with the realm, manipulating it like a god."
Nix had to be giving them information. Few knew that the king and the kingdom were connected, his mind shaping the world, and the world controlling his appearance. The soothsayer was proving to be a wily adversary.
Then leave your female alone, Sian. Refuse the godsdamned bait.
"You can make the dimension as large as you want," Melanthe said. "Add territory between us. Keep your own lands as they are, but expand ours."
He could. His magic in hell was limited only by the level of his life force. But the process would temporarily deplete him, and he needed his strength for the Morior.
"Time's a-wasting," Melanthe said. "If your mate dies, so does your chance for offspring."
Though Sian fucked--irregularly since his transformation--he had never spilled seed. He never would unless he claimed his mate. Just once was all he needed to rid himself of his demon seal. He could then have offspring with a different female, one he chose for himself, instead of fate's insane match for him.
A loud boom sounded behind the Sorceri. He narrowed his eyes as fireworks lit the sky in the distance; beneath them he spied a fine castle. "What land are you in?" He'd always believed he would find Kari in Gaia--Earth and all its connected dimensions.
With a snicker, Sabine said, "We're in the Magic Kingdom."
Sian had been to thousands of realms, but he didn't know that one. "Is she a royal in this life?"
"Hardly," Melanthe said. "In fact, she appears to be a nine-to-fiver."
"A what?"
"You're running out of time, demon," Sabine said with an edge to her tone. "Make the deal, or we'll send you her corpse so you can bury her."
Sian bared his fangs, his demon instincts erupting like the countless volcanoes of his lands. He'd been unable to save Kari before--but now Sian had power.
He could preserve her life in order to punish her. If Nix wanted to play, he could outwit the Valkyrie, out-trick her. He was the devil's son; trickery was in his blood.
"Our time is valuable." Melanthe began opening another portal. "A shame we couldn't do business."
Sabine laughed. "Two portals at once? Bravo, sister." They steered Kari toward the new rift.
"Stop." Claws gone sharp, he told the Sorceri, "In exchange for her, I vow to the Lore that I will give you your lands and a promise never to attack them." The presence of a sovereign kingdom in his dimension would rankle! "Now retract your commands and send her through the portal."
"Very well." Melanthe turned to Kari. "Wakey wakey."
The fey's eyes blinked open--they were both amber this time--but she was slow to shake off the sorcery. "Did I fall asleep?"
Gods, her dulcet voice was the same. Her first words to him rang through his memories: "I am Princess Karinna, and I shall be your guide to Sylvan. Are all demons so handsome?" She'd smiled at him, her dual-colored eyes sparkling. His heart had thundered, and he'd cringed to feel his horns straightening uncontrollably. . . .
"What of the other command, sorceress?"
"Ah, yes. Shed all of my orders," Melanthe told her captive. Laughing, she told Sian, "Have fun"--the two Sorceri shoved Kari into Pandemonia--"with your beauty, beast."
"Foul fucking witches!" he yelled, but they'd already escaped through the other portal.
When Kari stumbled, still seeming drugged, Sian snatched her against him. He would deal with those Sorceri later. For now, he savored this moment, his glyphs blazing from his sense of triumph.
I have Kari in my home. I own her, bought and soon to be paid for. After lifetimes of waiting, she is mine.
He wrapped his wings around her and nearly groaned from the feel of her cheek against his chest.
SIX
Recognition came slowly to Lila. She was tucked against the body of some kind of creature. Hadn't the Sorceri sisters threatened her? My mind's so foggy.
Warmth cocooned her, and she felt . . . safe. She hadn't felt this way since she'd first learned an archer loved to hunt her kind.
She forced open her eyes and drew her head back. An instant passed before she realized she was gazing at skin. Lots of bloodred skin with glyphs that resembled illuminated raised scars. They coiled in ancient-looking patterns on the chest of some towering creature.
The being's scent was like fire--and male.
Leather straps crisscrossed his mighty chest. Both of his nipples were pierced with thin metal bars. She glanced over her shoulder. By the light of those glyphs, she saw the wings that had wrapped around her.
Wings???
They retracted with a swooping sound. She faced forward and tilted her head up and up. . . . Her mind turned over.
A monster.
It was more than seven feet tall with jutting horns. A band of black radiated out from fathomless onyx eyes, down its cheeks and above its heavy brow.
She swallowed thickly. "Demon?" This could not be Abyssian Infernas.
Its features were rough and sneering. "Demon."
When those wings closed around her once more, she loosed a scream that had been building for all her life.
Sian traced his shrieking captive to one of the seven great towers of Graven. Once an amusement hall for hell's orgies, the decrepit top floor in this tower would make an ideal prison.
Forty chambers surrounded a central court and a broken fountain, yet no doors led into the castle.
There were zero comforts, just crumbling stone, thick cobwebs from poisonous blood-meal spiders, and toxic fire vines.
Those red vines forked out across the walls and covered the exterior of the tower as well. If Kari tried to climb down from this height, she'd be in for a nasty surprise.
The only light came from lava oozing down neighboring volcanoes. Shadows slithered along in constant motion.
She squirmed against him. He'd been a teen when he'd seen her last, but now he responded as an adult demon male, his body tensing.
Fighting harder, she twisted in his arms. He didn't want to hurt her too badly--yet--so he released her, dropping her without care as he teleported to the other side of the courtyard.
She bounced on the stone floor, dust and ash rising to blend with the mud covering her. Sian was tempted to toss her in a bath.
Coughing, she sprang to her feet, then sprinted from him. With her fey speed, she was a blur as she charged from one room to the next.
Each one had celebrated a different sexual facet. If she could read the lurid Demonish inscriptions covering most of the walls, she'd probably expire. He crossed his ar
ms, waiting for her to discover the lack of exits.
She finally slowed, stopping across the courtyard from him. "Where have you taken me?" She breathed wisps of airborne ash, coughing.
"To hell. I am Abyssian Infernas, the king of it. Do you remember me?"
"You are . . ." She shook her head. "I've never met you before, but I've heard of you. You're the oldest demon alive, and one of the Morior."
She truly had no memory of him? "This tower is your prison and will be for the rest of your immortal life."
"Why would you keep me captive?" She coughed again, her eyes watering. "What have I done to be locked up in hell?"
"You will pay for wrongs done to me in your past life. And for wrongs you and Nix no doubt have planned."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Past life? You clearly have the wrong woman. I'm not a reincarnate, and I don't know anyone named Nix."
He traced to her, clamping her slim arm in his fist. "And yet here you are." He teleported her to the tower balcony, a spacious stone terrace. At the run-down railing, he gestured to the legions teeming below.
Freed from their punishments, demons of all species had filed in from Slaughter Gorge for the Vrekener battle, one that would never be. But he could promise them another. . . . "If you try to escape my castle, my legions will catch you, and they will not oblige you with a death. They'll keep you alive for their use."
The tips of her pointed ears flattened against her head.
"If you wish to survive here, you will obey my every command. Any hesitation to heed an order will be considered a refusal. Any command only half obeyed will be considered a refusal. Any lie will be considered a refusal. Do you understand me?"
Her gaze narrowed. Instead of shrinking from him, she looked like she'd briefly lost her footing, but had managed to right herself. "You have no right to take away my freedom and threaten me, Morior!"
"Might makes right. Now, answer me: Do you understand my commands?"
"I understand them."
He relaxed a fraction, until she added, "And I reject them."
SEVEN
A jot demonic, Nix?
Lila watched the rage building in the king's expression as one might watch a roller coaster plummeting off a track.
His pronounced jaw clenched, and his wings unfolded in an ominous display. They must be fifteen feet wide! Their shape was jagged, like a bat's.