Chapter Thirty-Eight
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Val
T heo made good on his promise of making me forget—at least temporarily—about my family and their drama. My throat’s still sore from screaming, and yep, I’m walking a little funny, but my burn healed almost completely with the amount of mating magic we generated.
Hell, the whole castle buzzes with power.
The tech gremlins not working on the DNA project decided to launch a new energy storage system to harness the sex magic Theo and I create so others can tap in for spells, charms, and healing.
Having everyone know their potions get extra sparkle and magical boosts from my orgasms? Not at all embarrassing. But the power bumps mean I rate full body projections of my friends courtesy of Shadowvale being a happy castle.
“How cool is this?” Meg asks, reaching for our illusion forms as though she could touch the rest of us. She might be a minotaur’s queen, but she left off the crown to rock ripped jeans, an oversized sweater, and paint splatters. I spy streaks of dayglo pink in her red hair and almost ask if she’d rolled around in the color, but I figure I shouldn’t kick off our first conversation in forever with talk of her and Leander’s sex altar in the labyrinth’s temple. Even though I really want to ask.
Ava’s sleek blonde ponytail rocks back and forth slowly with the waves since she’s aboard her kraken’s pirate ship. The stacks of planners, stickers, and pens behind her make me think of our apartment together. I miss it, but I’m happy for her. “Rosemarie,” she asks, “are you sitting on an actual throne?”
Rosemarie blushes as pink as Ava’s dress. “It’s part of the Bridge of Souls now. Besides, the dragon torched a lot of the Gargoyles’ Keep during the attack, and I didn’t want to get in the way of the repairs.” She wears a silver crown with a green stone set among her dark curls.
“Such a queenly way to look at it,” I say, not surprised in the least with Rosemarie being the consummate people pleaser. She wouldn’t want to bother anyone. “I feel inadequate hanging out with all you queens and I’m a lowly…me.”
“You’ve always been a queen, and I’m just a princess,” Ava calls. “Which is already plenty weird. Besides, aren’t you next in line for queen of hell?”
My stomach spins, and my good mood deflates like a sad balloon left drooping days after the party. “First, Theo would have to take out his sister. As in behead her. He says he’s ready, but who could ever be prepared for that?”
“It’s an unthinkable level of terrible,” Ava agrees. “But it’s not your fight. Why are you insisting on going with him to the haunted house? Monster battles aren’t fun. I’ve fought one, and honestly, it sucked. I almost lost my kraken.”
“I second the sucky part,” Meg says, raising a paint-streaked hand. “Almost lost my minotaur.”
“Third,” Rosemarie adds. “Almost lost both my gargoyles and the Bridge.”
“How did you end up with two mates?” I ask her. “One’s more than enough for me even though Theo has two cocks. How do you?—”
“What?” Ava interjects in a near scream.
“Nuh uh,” Meg says. “Back up. You don’t get to drop that into the convo and roll on like it’s nothing special. I mean, not that my minotaur doesn’t have his own version of pierced special.”
“Piercings and a sex altar?” I ask. When she nods, I can’t help but add, “Wow. Anything the two of you have been holding out on sharing?” I eye Ava and Rosemarie.
“Wings, tails, and really long tongues they know how to use,” Rosemarie says. “Enough said.”
Ava chuckles. “And you have two of them. Seb…well, he….” She goes shy, suddenly studying the planner in her lap, twisting a glittery tab. “He has all the tentacles.”
“But does he know how to use them?” Meg asks.
“Yes.” Ava grins. “Yes, he does.”
“Not to kill the vibe,” Rosemarie says, “but what does Mr. Two Dicks have to say about you charging into this battle?”
I sigh. “That he might chain me to the bed to keep me from going.”
“Sounds about right.” Meg shakes her head. “My Leander’s fine with me being a warrior, but we won’t be going topside for this showdown of yours. Theo asked us to hold the line underground since you don’t know what kind of monsters his sister plans on bringing.”
“Seb and I will guard the ocean for you,” Ava says. “Or I’ll help as much as my kraken lets me. He’s a bit of an alphahole.”
“Tell me about it,” Rosemarie grumbles, and we all join in the complaint. Apparently, it’s a common monster mate issue. “Given that Theo’s sister has already used the After Worlds to bring monsters forth, and she tried to destroy the goddess embodied by the Bridge when she attacked the Valley of the Gods, I’ll need to stay here to protect the Bridge. My mates will be with me, but other gargoyles will be at the battle in case you need air assault reinforcements.”
“Speaking of the Valley,” Meg says, “my parents will be on guard duty there in case the fight spills over.”
“How’s that situation?” Ava asks her. “With finding out your mom’s a witch and your dad’s a monster?”
“Hella weird.” Meg shrugs. “But oddly fine, too.”
My eyes burn with tears because these friends are the best any demon princess could ever hope for. “I can’t thank you enough for all the offers to help us.”
“Pfft.” Rosemarie waves a hand. “Theo bargained for reinforcements from our guys in our matching contracts.”
“Damn dealing demons,” I whisper.
“A brilliant maneuver on his part,” Ava says.
“Smart enough demon to snag you,” Meg adds. “I see you’re still wearing your summoning bracelet. Didn’t figure you for the sentimental jewelry type. At least not the kind without bling.”
I glance at it. “Maybe I simply want to be able to summon him at will.”
“That’s more like it,” Rosemarie says.
Ava’s smile fades, and I wish I could reach through the illusion to squeeze her hand. “While we’re happy to support you in your plan to save the world,” she says, “are you sure you should be doing this when Theo mentioned there’d been some complications with the way your magic is manifesting?”
“What kind of complications?” Rosemarie asks, a colorful owl landing on her shoulder. He hoots to Monty who’s curled at my side, and my mongoose chitters a happy answer back.
“A burn seems to spread from inside me every time I invoke my magic,” I say. Monty’s chirps and playful growls wake the kitten sleeping on Meg’s lap. The little black cutie stretches and then wings pop out from his back. He takes a leap, and… “Is your cat flying?” I ask Meg.
“Yep,” she answers. “Demon cat. Soul guardian. What’d you get? By the way, talking about our cute mini monsters doesn’t mean we’re going to let you change the subject from those burns.”
“A mongoose,” I answer.
“Oh, hi again, little land rodent,” Ava coos. Monty and she met on her visit here in hell, and I swear she calls him that just to annoy me.
“How’s the sea rodent?” I ask, because a mongoose is no more rodent than an otter is.
“Cy’s good,” Ava says. “Nippy in her three-headed form around the pirate shifters today, but good. So are we talking a pinkish sunburn or third-degree go to the hospital burn?”
Ugh, and we’re back to my problems. “A Theo douses me with healing potions and mating magic kind of burn. Although he threatened to take me to the orc in the infirmary this last time.”
“That sounds bad,” Meg says. “You shouldn’t be going to this fight if you can’t use your magic. That’s part of why Leander doesn’t want me going above ground to join the battle there. Our magic is stronger in the labyrinth.”
Oh no, I can’t be the only magical reject around here. “Didn’t any of you have side effects from mating magic?” I stare at my bestie, daring her to say she found a way to manage her newly discovered powers with her planners.
Ava shakes her head. “Mine was bound magic. Once we unlocked it, sure I’ve had some learning curves—a couple of sea storms, one small cyclone, and a whirlpool that took out a shipwreck on the ocean floor. But the mating magic actually helps control the other if I concentrate on my connection to Seb and not the sea witch part of it.”
Not helpful. “You were born magical. Meg? Any weirdness?”
The redhead shrugs, and her sweater dips over her shoulder to reveal more pink paint in what looks to be a brush stroke—or a tail stroke. What did our inter-realm conference interrupt between Meg and her minotaur? “The freaky sex magic does its thing, and I don’t get it in its way. It’s like when art inspiration hits and you need to make a new character for a game. I think of Leander, plop Oggie in my lap for a demon kitty cuddle, and create.”
Yeah, none of that connects except the sex magic part. “Rosemarie?” I plead with my gaze. Please don’t let me be the only one.
“No issues we’ve noticed so far,” Rosemarie admits as though she’s apologizing for being perfect. “The magic comes through the Bridge and the runes my guys painted on me. I just let it flow through me the same as I trust intuition with tarot readings. Perhaps some part of you fights the magic. If so, then maybe you need to embrace it.”
“Or that could leave you crispy fried,” Meg says. “Since it’s demon magic shoved in you and unlocked by some super old contract and you’re not a demon.”
Ava shakes her head, her ponytail bouncing. “Don’t go to the haunted house. Let Theo handle this.”
“Like y’all let your men handle your fights?” I let the question drip with sarcasm because I know full well none of them did. Hell, their mates would’ve lost their realms or at least their castles if it hadn’t been for my friends. “None of your guys had to kill their sister. I’m too worried about Theo to send him off to do this alone.”
“Can’t anyone else do it for him?” Rosemarie asks. “Someone less…family?”
“No.” I wish I had a less awful truth to share. “It has to be him after that dumb bring me the traitor’s head to win the throne edict his father handed down. Theo needs to take the crown. No one else will do as good of a job keeping the hell dimensions in line as he can.”
“Then I guess you have a couple of weeks to figure out how to control your magic,” Ava says. “If his sister’s coming for the human realm’s full moon.”
“I need to mark it on a calendar since I can’t even see the moon from Shadowvale unless I ask the castle,” I say. As if performing on demand, the castle unwinds a fancy scroll and marks the date for me.
“At least it’s not the Valley of the Gods where they always have a full moon,” Meg adds. “We don’t have a moon in the labyrinth.”
“We have a spare in our realm,” Rosemarie says. “Wanna borrow it?”
I giggle despite the seriousness of the conversation because who would’ve ever believed my friends and I would be the warriors saving the world one realm at a time? “Two weeks. I can straighten my magic out before then. No problem.”