Chapter 4
CHAPTER FOUR
Ama
The sensation of warmth against my side had me letting out a contented sigh as I rolled over onto my back, enjoying the heat infusing itself through my body.
Damn. Whatever I was lying on sure as hell didn’t have a lot of cushion, but it did feel good on my sore muscles.
It felt like the beginning of a hot stone massage.
A sudden low rumbling caused whatever I was lying on to shake and had me muttering a curse as I opened one eye. It was reminiscent of when the ground had quaked beneath us before I’d passed out.
Where was I?
Immediately, I frowned, realizing that I was not in our realm, or at least not somewhere I recognized. This had to be a dream, right? It’s not like I could have physically teleported here.
I was alone and surrounded by stone walls on all sides, seemingly underground. The walls glowed vibrant shades of red and orange, which radiated from a river that ran through the middle of the cave.
Sitting up, my eyes widened as I realized it was no river, but something filled with magma. Oh shit. Was I in a volcano? We didn’t have time for this weird fantasy world I was creating in my head while a volcano was legitimately beginning to erupt in real time.
The stone platform I seemed to be sitting on rumbled again, making me jump down onto the flat surface of the floor.
I stepped back slightly, eyeing the spot where I had just been laying.
It almost appeared to be a...no, it couldn’t be.
Could it? I frowned, not liking that it looked eerily similar to a stone tomb.
That was creepy. All of this was creepy.
“Okay,” I breathed out, looking around and trying to decipher what the fuck was going on. Why did I have to pass out in the middle of a possibly life-threatening situation? That wasn’t cool at all.
The rock behind me rumbled again, but much louder this time, and I stepped back, eyeing the river of magma. If something came out of that tomb and scared me, my ass was going to scream and jump into that river by accident, with my luck.
My ears began to buzz, and my face flushed as a weird surge of desire slammed into me, sending me falling to my knees as my body turned into jelly.
The top rock shifted slightly from the tomb, and instead of the fear I had expected, my desire only increased as a mouthwatering, almost sugary scent filled the space around me.
My vision blurred and my chest heaved, my breathing becoming erratic.
Silver and black smoke poured from inside of the stone tomb and onto the floor, seeping towards me like a weird fog.
I felt a presence lingering in my mind. Calling out tentatively, I asked, "Hello?"
I didn't expect an answer, but I got one. The voice was gravelly, like someone who had just woken from sleep, and dual emotions coursed through my system, leaving me in a paralyzed state of fear and lust.
"I've been waiting a long time for you, Little Temptress."
“Okay, time to wake up,” I whimpered, trying to convince my mind that this wasn’t real and it was time to go back to reality.
The underground cavern shook violently as I squeaked and fell back onto my ass. My fingers met the edge of the stone platform, and the stones instantly crumbled beneath my touch. I cried out as I realized I was at the edge of the volcanic river.
“Oh my devil, this is such a fucked dream,” I breathed out as my heart raced wildly.
A deep laugh, laced with darkness, filled the space around me and had me jolting. My hand slipped, and I cried out as I began to fall towards the river of lava. I closed my eyes, preparing myself for my flesh to be burned away, just as everything turned black around me.
But not before I heard that same deep, rough, gravelly voice say, “Until next time, Little Temptress.”
“Ama!” A familiar voice had me jolting up and slamming into a very solid chest, smashing my nose and driving a groan from my lips.
My eyes stung as tears welled from the blow to my nose, so I kept them shut and patted the chest in front of me experimentally with my hand, finding it bare and warm beneath my palm. Now that was a nice chest. Who the hell was being so unfairly sexy at this time of day? Or night? Where was I again?
Ah, Damien. For sure, Damien. Not only was the Hellhound prince the most likely of the six men I was currently with to go shirtless, but his intoxicating bonfire scent was wrapped around me like a cocoon. Wait, was I... was I wearing his shirt? Hadn’t he been naked?
My body was still flushed, and my memories were hazy as I tried to piece together where I was and how the dream I'd just come out of correlated with reality.
Muttering under my breath, I finally pried my eyelids open once they stopped burning and came face to chest with the gorgeous tattoo over his right pectoral.
It was ornate, made of black geometric patterns that highlighted the golden hue of his skin.
I very much wanted to touch it—and a lot more than that, if I was being honest.
I slid my hand up so my fingers rested on the edge of the ink before forcing myself not to move anymore.
"You are not naked anymore," I mumbled, and my brow furrowed. "I mean, you’re shirtless, but not naked...Why are you not naked?" Wow, that sounded very forward and not at all how I’d meant it. Words were clearly hard for me right now.
Someone made an amused sound in the background, most likely at my expense and embarrassment, but it was enough that I snapped out of my weird haziness.
“You were shivering while you slept, and I wanted to provide you a little more warmth,” Damien answered with a mixture of amusement and compassion in his voice.
"...and I am still touching your chest like a weirdo," I stated awkwardly, retracting my hand as he let out a low rumble from his throat.
My toes curled at the noise, and I met his eyes, which seemed to be sorting through a million different emotions—none of which I was capable of currently identifying.
Or maybe I just wasn't comfortable placing them because that would make me think about my own emotions.
Honestly, after everything that had happened at the Summit, I was mentally and emotionally drained. I was frustrated and stressed that my dad and some of the others' parents were being held captive—and that we didn't have a plan to fix that.
I was angry that King Roarke & Queen Ava of Tenebris had successfully pulled off an attack on the other royals of the kingdom after assassinating their supposed allies, King Marcelo & Queen Anastasia of Peccatum.
I was experiencing an array of turbulent emotions towards the men around me—everything from annoyance to affection—along with, of course, a level of frustration with my own inability to bring the two sides of myself fully together.
Sure, I had gotten the whole “use my Succubus powers” thing somewhat down...
but I felt like there was an entire side of my magic I hadn’t explored yet that I now craved.
"Ama," Damien's words were soft and concerned, "you were screaming while you were unconscious."
Had I been? Well, that was a bit awkward. How much did we want to bet that wasn't going to win me any sleepovers with the princes around me?
"Yeah," I muttered, "I dreamed of falling into a river of magma. It was freaky."
"Not far from the truth, if we hadn't moved after you passed out," Damien muttered, running a hand through his messy dark hair.
I blinked, trying to figure out what he was saying, only to remember the earthquake and the distant mountain peaks that had begun to emit clouds of ash and billowing smoke.
Ah, shit, the volcano. I clearly remembered Adrien saying something about that before I'd gotten dizzy and blacked out.
A brisk wind blew across me, and I curled further into the large long-sleeved button-down Damien had pulled onto me. Where had he gotten this shirt? Or any of his clothes, for that matter?
“Finias,” Damien explained with a small smile, “used one of his runes to create some. Pretty fucking cool, actually.”
I was a bit worried he would be cold, but more thankful than anything because the climate here—wherever “here” was—was far different than in the capital or in my own kingdom.
Seriously, it was cold enough that my teeth nearly started to chatter, and probably would have if Damien hadn't tugged me against him, causing me to melt into a puddle.
I had to resist the urge to nuzzle against him.
That would be weird. Totally weird. But honestly, it being this cold in hell was even weirder.
"We need to keep moving." The sharp voice made me frown, and I looked up to find Colt staring down at the two of us with what could only be described as anger.
I bit back my retort about how he needed to stop taking his anger out on us.
I seriously needed to know where we were.
Clearly, we hadn't gone to the capital as Colt suggested, so...
were we really trying to find this hybrid city in the darklands?
I wasn't positive about how I felt about that.
There was a weird stir of excitement and nervousness, which came on the heels of the realization that I would likely meet others like me. If we ever found the damned place.
"Moving where?" I tried to clarify as Damien brushed a piece of my hair behind my ear gently, Colt's gaze tracking the action before he shook his head and rolled his eyes.
"Back to the devildamned capital," Colt ground out.
"Ignore him," Damien shook his head. "We are trying to find the hybrid city Adrien mentioned.
He, Drayven, and Finias split up and went the three other directions besides the direction we'd been walking from.
They should be back soon. Hopefully, before it rains.
We need to find somewhere to shelter." I couldn't help but find Damien's calm and collected rationale comforting.