Chapter 1
Indecision rooted me to the bed as I toyed with my silk sleeve.
The last thing I remembered was fighting for my life. Yet now I was in a place of luxury and garbed in dark blue silky pajamas.
Talk about whiplash.
What concerned me wasn’t the color or quality of the material, but the fact that the pajamas were perfectly fitted for someone with wings. Mine rested on my back unimpeded and the material neatly tucked around the arches.
Wherever I was, they had experience with supernaturals.
Frowning, I tried to recall where exactly here was.
The last thing I recalled was Hades ordering myself and my mates to fight.
To the death.
Because he was a male muse, his words held power.
I blinked a few times. The images of my mates trying to kill me, as well as each other, flashed over my eyes like a nightmare.
I’m alive.
But not everyone was so lucky.
According to Kaito, I’d been out for weeks. My body ached with old injuries that assured me I hadn’t been dreaming.
I hadn’t been able to save my mates. I was supposed to be a Champion of Calamity. What kind of Champion was I if I couldn’t even protect those I loved?
My stomach twisted into knots thinking of how badly I’d failed.
Kaito said Hendrik and Dante were dead. Bile rose to the back of my throat as I tried to digest that impossibility.
I’d conquered death. Could I do the same for my mates?
Desperate solutions already floundered in my mind, but I couldn’t ignore the glaring truth that Hendrik was a Dark Mage.
There was no coming back from that.
And aside from Logan, the rest of my mates were either imprisoned or under Lucifer’s control.
Where did I go from here?
I squeezed my eyes shut as the oppressive weight of failure settled squarely on my shoulders, then on my chest, and refused to let me breathe.
“I was promised to be impressed when she woke up,” said a gruff voice.
I flashed my eyes open again, staring at the owner of that handsome, heartless sound.
He waved his hands at me. “This is what I’m supposed to work with?”
Balthazar, a demon who was supposed to be long dead, observed me with an expression of interest, and a hint of disappointment, while I fought back tears. His hands fell to his sides when I didn’t answer.
Olivia set a tray of food and drinks at my bedside while I stared at the new demon who seemed to be waiting for me to do some sort of parlor trick.
I’d just received the worst news of my life. I was not a demon’s entertainment.
Sitting up, I rolled my shoulders and prepared to stretch to my full height—including unfurling my wings. He wanted to be impressed? My dual set of one demon wing and one fallen angel wing should impress even him.
Then I froze, realizing they weren’t moving. My wings hung limply at my back.
Worse yet. I couldn’t even feel them.
Kaito had mentioned something about “false hope” when Balthazar had so rudely shown himself into the room. I’d thought Kaito had meant hope that my mates could be saved.
But maybe he meant Balthazar was here to save me.
“Aren’t you supposed to be dead?” I asked him. Anger and hatred easily slipped into my voice.
My grief would crush me if I let it.
But if Cole had taught me anything, it was that rage could keep me going when I had nothing left.
I didn’t know much about Balthazar, but he would be a better target for my anger than my best friend or my mentor.
Balthazar’s lips unfurled into a slow grin. “Sometimes death doesn’t stick. But you would know all about that, wouldn’t you, princess?”
Tilting my head, I took my time considering what he was saying—and what he wasn’t.
“Princess” could be a pet name because he wanted to sexualize me. Demons were sensual creatures and they had no problem expressing their interest.
I had eight mates. I definitely didn’t intend to take more. I didn’t need more mates to let down.
However, Balthazar didn’t seem sexually interested in me. Only mildly curious.
Perhaps “princess” referred to my title as Princess of Hell. Although, my skin had gone cold. Hell had probably returned to the state of a frozen rock without myself or my mother there to warm the throne.
Another stone of grief and failure stacked up on my shoulders at the thought.
Ignoring it, I turned to Kaito. “Why is he here?”
Clearly, I’d missed a lot while I’d been out. Whatever was going on, I needed someone to catch me up before I gave into the urge to slither under these sinfully comfortable sheets and never come out.
“Cole sent him,” Kaito supplied while offering me a sandwich on a plate.
My eyes widened. “So Cole isn’t in Hell’s Heart?”
Kaito frowned, then pushed the sandwich at me again. “He’s still there.”
Despite the hunger clawing at my insides, I wrinkled my nose at it.
Kaito’s eyes narrowed. He wasn’t going to allow any arguments regarding my well-being, so I took it with a sigh.
“So, Cole, who is trapped in Hell’s Heart, sent Balthazar,” I reiterated before I nibbled on the crusty edge. My stomach threatened to retaliate, but I dutifully chewed and swallowed.
Balthazar made himself comfortable on one of the stools as his tail lazily whipped around his feet. His wings retracted enough to not block out the sun that cheerfully glowed from the window.
I preferred the shadows, so I wished he would block out the cheery light.
Cole sent him.
We analyzed each other while I digested that statement. If Cole sent him, that meant Cole was alive.
If Cole was stuck in Hell’s Heart, it meant that’s where Balthazar had been all this time.
And more importantly, it meant that Cole trusted him. Cole’s trust wasn’t easily earned.
I took another nibble of my sandwich and forced it down. It was probably a flavorful sandwich, but it was like cardboard in my mouth.
After a few more bites, the sharp pang of my hunger ebbed, but my sense of unease didn’t go away.
Ice clinking against glass drew my attention as Olivia poured a drink at a minibar.
What kind of bedroom has a minibar? I wondered.
Then again, wherever here was, it was a place that also had demon-fitted pajama sets. The minibar was the least of my concerns.
“Hey!” she yelled when Balthazar snatched it up and sniffed it.
He wrinkled his nose and handed it back with a look of disgust. “No cherries, please.”
Olivia snatched it from him. “This isn’t for you.” She seemed like she wanted to tell him off, but she restrained herself.
I couldn’t help but smile. I knew why Olivia had put cherries in my drink. It was her way of letting me know that Azra was still alive. That there was still hope.
The bed dipped as Olivia gently perched on the side and offered me the glass with a straw. “Sorry, anyway…” She cleared her throat while I sipped on the fruity, sugary drink.
“When Orion… when he…” she cleared her throat again as she took my plate and set it on the table.
I blinked at her as I nestled my drink in my lap. Its cool frost seemed to match my own temperature and I tried not to think too hard about that.
“When Orion knocked me out,” I supplied.
It wasn’t Orion’s fault. He’d been under the influence of Calamity and a male muse. Even as a demigod, he couldn’t stand up to forces of that nature.
Her throat worked on a swallow as she nodded, then continued. “Things happened pretty fast after that. Cole seemed to come out of it when Orion released that light blast. It impacted everyone, actually. The effect only lasted for a few seconds, but it was long enough to change the tide.”
A sting radiated across my chest and I slipped my fingers underneath my neckline.
I found a long, jagged scab that hadn’t fully healed.
Memories rushed back. Cole had immediately reacted when Hades had ordered us all to fight to the death. He’d lashed out with his tail formed to a deadly point.
Shaking, I gripped my drink with both hands. Cole had almost killed me.
Again.
How many times would I make excuses for him for hurting me?
Glancing up, I found Balthazar still watching me. It was as if he was waiting for me to do something and I didn’t like the expectation in his red gaze.
“Where’s Orion now?” I asked.
Kaito was the one who answered. He took my drink from me and replaced my empty hands with his warm fingers.
It was the first time I registered that Kaito felt… different.
He’d been holding me a moment before, but I’d felt so numb and hungry and thirsty that I hadn’t noticed the change.
Now, with a bit of food and drink in my stomach, and a moment to pull myself together, I noticed.
Kaito was different. Not necessarily on the outside, but his aura and the way his presence warped the air around him were new.
Venturing inside of myself, I tried to feel our bond, but it was as if I was numb. It still had to be there, but everything felt muted.
I imagined if I could feel Kaito, I would be able to understand what exactly about him had changed.
He seemed stronger, somehow.
Brighter like the sun that stubbornly streamed in from the window.
Which was odd for a demon of his caliber. Kaito was anything but bright. He was darkness and sin in a deliciously handsome package.
He swept his hands through the streak of silver in his hair as I scrutinized him.
“Orion is working for Lucifer. He’s training his Fallen Angel army in an underground facility not far from here,” Kaito supplied.
He kept a straight face, but his entire body rippled as if a tiny explosion had gone off inside him.
His skin lit up and revealed a multitude of scars from every visible stretch of skin peeking from his open silk shirt.
His muscles flexed as if he was in pain, and a phantom of dark wings expanded behind him.
I blinked, then it was gone.
Balthazar grinned. “Oh, she saw that, Kaito.” He pushed off his stool and rested a hand on my mentor’s shoulder. “Now I’m interested.”
Kaito frowned and Olivia fumbled nervously with her hands in her lap.
Before I could start asking questions, Kaito went into full Professor Nakamura mode.