I grabbed my dagger and charged through the open tree.
All around me, the fairy world wasn’t what I remembered. The silver trees that had once adorned the dreamlike landscape under the starry sky were fading. The little transparent-winged fairies no longer flew around the realm to spread golden fairy dust and giggle frivolously. They were all dead, their corpses sagging beneath the trees.
“What the fu—” I didn’t get to finish my curse.
My magic pulsed, my senses sharpened, and my vision peeled off the glamour in front of me.
Two beings stood less than ten yards from me, their eyes glowing. The pristine energy of the realm poured into their open, greedy mouths.
These assholes were draining the elemental, and one of them was the God of War.
My angry gaze swept over to his companion.
He was as gorgeous and magnificent as Ares. The war god carried the mighty power of light and sunbeams, and this man had all the shadows and dark powers at his command.
While his aura was dark, his features weren’t.
He was beyond golden. His blond hair was streaked with the colors of a sunset, and his eyes shone with ancient intelligence, suffering, hope, and evil. He held the contradictions like they were his birthright.
He was the darkest being, yet he was also the brightest, as if he had once been forged from the hottest flame in the finest universe.
His lips were the most sensual thing that I’d seen, even more so than the God of War’s.
At my appearance, he let his wings spread to their glorious length, their ivory feathers shimmering with golden light. The being radiated unfathomable power—the tenth level.
And then I immediately registered who he was.
He was the ex-Morning Star, once the most glorious creature in the universe before his fall.
This was the devil, but not the same devil depicted in human textbooks.
Mortals had no idea of the true nature of immortal beings, especially such a being as Lucifer. Their knowledge was flawed, limited, and one-sided.
Raised among them, I was far from prepared to meet the devil.
My throat tightened with cold fear that threatened to freeze my thoughts and paralyze my limbs, but I made sure my hand that held Héctor’s blade didn’t falter and didn’t tremble.
All I wanted was to run, as my instincts screamed for me to get the fuck out of here, just as the elemental had warned me to flee.
But I stood my ground.
Both superior beings trained their gazes on me, their eyes glinting dark starlight, their power smothering the air I breathed. They’d stolen the elemental’s power, turning the entire realm gray to boost themselves when they were already the most powerful beings on Earth.
The trees had withered. The stars had winked out. I could see that the elemental had put up a fight, but it was no match for the combined forces of both the god and the devil. The elemental’s primordial powers had been weakened greatly during an eon of starvation.
“Stop fucking harassing the elemental, dipshits,” I said. This time, I finished my curse.
Ares looked like a delightful shark at the sight of me, and Lucifer regarded me with an eerie interest that made me want to tremble all over or crawl behind a dead tree to hide.
“You look as lovely as ever, Marigold.” Ares chuckled.
I knew how ridiculous I looked. I was barefoot, wearing a silk robe, and wielding a dagger. I hadn’t had the opportunity to dress properly, and I’d thought this would be a brief visit.
“Pardon me, I didn’t dress to impress,” I said. “If I’d known you’d brought afriendto rob the poor, old elemental, I might have dressed for the occasion so I could stab you properly and see what your insides look like—justice for all the nastiness you’ve done.”
Rage burned in my veins as I thought of all the innocent lives he’d erased and the pain and injuries he inflicted on my mates.
Ares laughed. “No one has ever threatened me like this and lived. How refreshing. You’re too good for my son. You should rule by my side.”