Marigold, my Cookie—even the sound of her name burned a hole in my once uncaring heart—still considered herself one of them. She was less human than we were, yet she held the best of humanity in her. The light had shined so brightly in her until it all winked out.
We’d seen her die.
We would bring her back at all costs. Then we would place her in the highest ivory tower, bar the doors and windows, and guard her day and night, no matter how fiercely she protested. My Cookie was the fiercest female I’d ever met.
When I first encountered her, she’d been fighting like a fiend. Her ferocity and beauty were the most stunning things I’d ever seen.
Among all of my cousins, I’d spotted her first. I brought her to us, which had eventually led to her death.
The moment she was gone, our mating bond had snapped and broken. Everything in us had gone dark. We became lonely beasts mourning at the bottom of the abyss, trapped forever without our mate. We’d never be free and right again until we got her back.
She would live again. Her heart would beat for us, as ours beat only for her.
In the meantime, we’d gathered the generals who were loyal to us and declared war on the God of War, the traitor to Earth.
A week later, Ares had popped out and proclaimed us as traitors, too. Many had followed him. So Earth was now divided into three regions. After many brutal battles, we controlled North America but had lost Europe and Asia.
During the war, we continued diligently seeking a path to Hell.
Even though territories and borders had morphed on some parts of Earth after the Great Merge, the only two entries to Hell were still sealed or heavily guarded.
Even though Héctor was the Demigod of Death, he didn’t have an open path to Hell anymore. He was the true heir to the Underworld, but he’d given up the title after Hades, his father, had left for Mount Olympus, coveting his brother’s throne.
When Lucifer fell from the heavens, he’d invaded the Underworld. After he expanded the territory, the Underworld became Hell under his reign.
Enough of this history lesson.
Our contact finally hooked us up with the Duke of Deception, who was in the inner circle of Lucifer’s heir. None of us trusted Pythius, but we would work with any foe who could get us to our mate.
And Pythius brought us the most shocking news—my Cookie was alive. The knife hadn’t ended her life. The duke even let Héctor skim his mind, and the death demigod confirmed that the Duke of Deception was telling the truth.
Our mate was alive! Marigold was alive.
For a few moments, none of us could speak. And when we regained the ability, none of us wanted to weep for joy in front of the archdemon.
“How?” Zak demanded in a harsh voice.
Pythius shrugged. “She’s more than meets the eye. That’s why my prince sought her out.”
“What does he want with my mate?” Héctor snarled.
“Prince Loki won’t harm her, or I wouldn’t be here to negotiate a contract with you,” Pythius said. “As for His Highness’s intentions toward Princess Celeste, it’s not for me to tell and not for you to know.”
Like his prince, the Duke of Deception was a half-blood—part demon and part human. Our intel said that there was a great power struggle between the pureblood demons and the half-bloods.
Pythius had dark skin, gunmetal-gray eyes, and spiked hair fashioned like a human rock star. Even our highly trained Dominion officers had a hard time identifying his half-demon heritage, which made Pythius the perfect and dangerous spymaster.
“Where exactly is she?” Paxton asked.
“She’s been put inside an iron coffin in the Dome of Torture,” the duke said. “Your god and Lucifer cut her open every day, experimenting on her. They’ve sliced every inch of her skin and opened her veins for two months—Hell’s time runs differently than time here. She would heal after they put her back in the coffin, and then they’d repeat the process the next day, looking for her magic. They covet it.”
Lightning struck everywhere at once as Zak’s eyes burned with terrifying rage.
Paxton shook and roared, ice coating the walls and the ceiling. All of a sudden, we seemed to be in a freezer.
My hurricane power exploded like an atom bomb. The suffering of my mate pierced my heart like thousands of knives.
After ice, storm, and lightning destroyed the two-story building where we held our secret meeting, a fire broke out. Debris and concrete plummeted back to earth while we stood amid the rubble, shaking with uncontainable wrath and pain.