Chapter 1
CHAPTER ONE
SAMARA
“Tell me again what they look like.” I turned to my best friend, Nico, and raised my eyebrows.
We had been out foraging for thirty minutes, and he hadn’t found a single nut to show me as an example. I wasn’t a squirrel; I didn’t know what we were looking for.
“It’s about half an inch, black, with specks of gray.” He moved some leaves with his boot and sniffed the air. What exactly did he think he was going to smell while in his demon form?
I rolled my eyes. “Why don’t you shift, and I’ll stand watch. If there’s any danger, I’ll stab them.”
He let out a frustrated sigh. “Too many predators are in this forest. They’ve probably already sniffed me out and are ready to eat me the second I shift.”
I loved Nico to death, but sometimes his nut obsession was a little much, especially when we could be at camp enjoying the fire, alcohol, and dancing.
I understood, though. It was something he enjoyed and was excited about. It was something to keep his mind off all he’d lost.
“I found one!” His voice held so much excitement that the annoyance I had felt vanished. “It’s spectacular! Look.”
Nico hadn’t exactly been the luckiest of demons. He was a rare squirrel shifter, and when everything in Inferna was larger than you, it was difficult to stay alive. In general, it was hard on a good day.
He had beaten the odds, and instead of running from what threatened him the most, he worked his ass off to build muscle and become strong.
He walked over to me and held out his hand. I plucked the small nut from it and examined it. It was smaller than I thought it would be, and it was a miracle he’d spotted it among the leaves.
“This is what we’re looking for?” I handed it back to him, and he put it in a small pouch at his hip. “Seems a little monotonous for such a tiny thing.”
He brought his tattooed hand up to his jaw and rubbed at his beard. “If you didn’t want to come, you should’ve told me.”
“I did want to come. I didn’t know I would be looking for a nut that was so small I needed a magnifying glass to find it. Kind of like your dick.” I tried to hide my grin, but it was impossible when looking for nuts.
“Peanut, you and I both know there’s nothing small about my dick.” He smirked and winked at me.
My face flushed with heat, and I turned back to looking for the ultra-rare nut he was after. He was right—there was nothing small about what he was packing.
Nico and his cock had continuously been on my mind lately.
Anytime I caught sight of him changing or closed my eyes at night, there it was.
My imagination seemed determined to fixate on that part of his anatomy, to the point where I’d steal glances when he emerged from the lake after bathing, water droplets sliding down his tattooed torso.
The memory would resurface during quiet moments around camp, and I’d have to busy myself. Even now, standing in the forest surrounded by perfectly innocent foliage, my mind had wandered down that inappropriate trail once again.
We headed back to camp after finding ten nuts, a great accomplishment considering I wasn’t gifted with animal senses. Nico had spotted eight of them, and he’d graciously credited me with the two I’d stumbled upon while tripping over a root.
There was a bounce to Nico’s step, and his fingers kept brushing against his hip pouch, as if reassuring himself the treasures were still there.
Watching him this content made our scavenger hunt worth it. Inferna didn’t feel so threatening when he moved through it with such ease, like he belonged here among the wildness.
As we approached the campsite, a man on a horse came into view. He was talking to Henry, one of our elders. In a way, most of us were elders, alive for centuries. Some had been around since Inferna was conceived.
Conceived and then ghosted by the bastard who couldn’t face the consequences of what he’d done.
Henry saw us and waved us over. The man on the horse turned to look at us, and I lowered my head and adjusted the hood covering my hair.
Few would recognize me with my purple hair, but I was always cautious. There had been a few close calls where Lilith’s soldiers had infiltrated our camp, but luckily, we had quite a few magic users and ferocious shifters, so I hadn’t had to fight.
The man took off before we could even get to them. Crisis averted.
“What was that about?” Nico walked in front of me, shielding me still. He was the only one who knew my true identity.
I blinked, and the years dissolved, taking me back to the day we met; the same day my world changed forever.
Water splashed onto my face, and I bolted upright. There was no pain in my body, which was surprising since I had been hit by lightning and fallen off a horse.
I swiped the water off my face and rubbed my eyes to find a man standing over me, recapping his canteen.
“How am I still alive?” I asked no one in particular and looked down at my legs.
They were glowing faintly, and I rubbed my hands over them. They felt normal, but they looked electrically charged.
“You’ve been out for a solid ten minutes. I was in a tree when the lightning hit you.” He pointed to a tree close to where we were.
In a tree? What was he? I narrowed my eyes in consideration.
He was a big man, with thick legs, wide shoulders, and a narrow waist. He didn’t live in a village close to the castle because I would have recognized him.
It would have been hard not to, with his sandy blond hair that sat in a knot on the top of his head and his bearded face.
He could be a cat of some sort, or possibly a large carnivorous bird.
“I’m Nicolas.” He held out his hand, and I took it. He pulled me to my feet as if I weighed nothing. “Nicolas Beech.”
I didn’t give him my name in return. If there were guards after me, I couldn’t trust him. I couldn’t trust anyone.
“I’ve never seen anyone take a hit of lightning before and live to tell about it. The storm seemed to end right after it struck you. That’s very strange.” He cocked his head slightly to the side and examined my face more closely. “It should have taken all your light, but you aren’t vacant.”
I pulled my hand away from his massive one. “Well, thanks. I should—”
“Your hair turned purple.” He crossed his tattooed arms over his chest, drawing my eyes to his pecs. He must be glorious without his shirt on.
I grabbed a handful of my hair and brought it around to look at it. My eyes widened at the sight of light purple locks instead of my usual brown ones.
“I have to go.”
I shook my head free of the memory as we stopped in front of Henry, his face pale as he watched the horseman leave.
“There have been reports of angels in the Black Forest. There is a rumor that Prince Reve is with them.” Henry shook his head in disbelief. “After all this time, he’s come back? With angels? I don’t believe it.”
My heart nearly stopped in my chest. The last I’d heard about the fate of my brother was that he had been a prisoner of Lilith’s and then of Lucifer’s.
“What does this mean for us?” Nico was still standing in front of me, and I was grateful because I’m sure my face had gone pale.
Henry made a noise in his throat. “If he retakes the throne, Prince Reve was much more progressive than his father. This is our chance to get a spot on the council, and we can finally stop being treated like shit. Hopefully, he’s back to claim his throne.
He’s the only one powerful enough to take it back from Lilith. ”
I wasn’t sure if it was possible to defeat Lilith. Not only could she control the weaker of the demon races, but she had a lot of support from the higher-ranking demons. They wanted to go to Earth and make it their own, which was what she was offering them in return for their loyalty.
“You should send me and Sammy.”
Henry snorted at Nico’s suggestion as if it were some kind of joke. “We can’t send a woman.”
The initial shock of my brother being back had passed. I stepped around Nico and glared at Henry.
He held up his hands in defense. “The council members are stuck in their ways, you know that. If we send you in there for a council seat, do you think they would give us one? Especially when they just had a crazed woman at the helm?”
“I know the prince on a very intimate level.” I left the comment vague and let him come up with the story for that. “I can be very convincing.”
Henry raised his eyebrows. “She’s kidding, right?”
Nico shook his head. “She’s not. They were pretty close before Lilith came along.”
Henry looked at me, his black eyes shining. “I’ll speak with the other elders first.” He turned toward the main tent, leaving me and Nico.
I didn’t need his permission to go. If my brother were back, I had to go. Still, Nico and I had been with this group for a while, and I didn’t want to disappoint people I considered family.
I began wringing my hands and pacing back and forth. What was I thinking, wanting to go back there? I was happy here on the edge of everything. We seldom faced threats and didn’t have to deal with any political bullshit.
“Talk to me.” Nico crossed his arms, his shirt pulling at his biceps.
“What if he’s actually on Lilith’s side? He killed our parents and then…” I bit my lip and tried to stop the tears from filling my eyes.
I was unsuccessful.
“You moved on from that a long time ago, Sammy. If your brother had any control over what he did, he would have saved your parents.” He stopped me from pacing by grabbing my arms and turning me toward him. “We’ll go, and I’ll scout things out a bit. Then we can decide if we want to go in.”
“Do you think he can defeat Lilith?” If she had found a way to control my brother and defeat my powerful father before, there was no telling how much more power she had now.
He grunted in response. “He’s thousands of years old now, Peanut. Much older than your father was. Lilith couldn’t even kill your father; she had to have Reve do it.”
I sighed because he was right. As much as I hated to admit it, the rational part of my brain knew Nico’s assessment made sense, just like it had the million other times we’d talked about my past. The emotional part of my brain, which was still reeling from learning my brother was back, wanted to curl into a protective ball and hide from everything, though.
He pulled me into a hug, and I wrapped my arms around him, burying my face in his chest. The familiar solidness of him anchored me when everything else felt like shifting sand. He smelled faintly of walnuts and trees, and if I could bottle the scent, I would keep it with me always.
“If the elders don’t approve, let’s leave tomorrow morning,” I murmured against his shirt.
After years of existing on the edge and making myself small and unnoticeable, the idea of voluntarily walking back into the center of that world seemed absurd.
Yet somewhere beneath the fear lay a flicker of something I hadn’t felt in ages.
I was filled with purpose and the pull of blood and family that transcended even betrayal and tragedy.