I wanted my mates to shatter me again and again with their shower of white-hot passion.
A black wind slammed into me, puncturing me like hundreds of needles, tearing me from my mates. Their outraged roars and curses rang in my ears, and their intoxicating tastes lingered on my tongue when I flashed open my eyes.
Rage and frustration surging through me, I threw a heavy punch at Loki’s face, which was hovering over me.
His hand caught my wrist, so I swung another arm at him, and he caught that as well.
“Why are you so prickly, Celeste?” he asked, darkness swirling in his eyes.
“Why the fuck did you have to wake me up now?” I cursed him.
Why the fuck were people always jerking me awake two seconds before I had my orgasm? It was beyond frustrating.
I’d finally seen all of my mates in the dreamland, and I didn’t even get to kiss them goodbye because Hell’s prince had rudely disrupted us.
“There’s a change of plan,” Loki said. “I can no longer shield you. My father and Ares have just nullified the contract I made with them. They now insist on supervising your ‘education’ in person in Hell’s Academy.”
Ice coursed through my blood. I could work with Loki, but never the devil and the god. Those two fuckers would make my every waking second worse than a nightmare.
“You performed too well in the pit, cousin,” Loki sighed. “You openly challenged the King of Hell. What did you expect after that—roses and chocolates?” There was no scolding in his tone, just calculation. “Get ready. We’re leaving now.”
“I’m in no condition to attend Satan’s fucking school at the moment,” I said. “You know that your father wounded me, trying to melt my bones with his foul fire. You should have fought harder for my case or at least delay the journey to his fucking horror house of Academy.”
He gave me a long look, his face unreadable.
I’d lied to him about my current condition.
Electric energy moved through me, humming with the demigods’ powers. They’d fed me through the dream. I would be radiating power right now if I’d had my orgasm and gotten the full dose of energy from them.
Another thought slammed into me. If I could connect to my mates through the Dreaming, I might be able to activate the Living Flame by mating with Paxton there. Why hadn’t I thought of that? I should have gone for the Demigod of Sea first, fucking him hard instead of Axel. But I’d been so stunned to see all four of them together, sprawling on the bed of black satin like four sexy gods.
I’d been overjoyed, and then lust had drowned me so thoroughly that I could no longer think clearly, except for wanting to fuck all of them.
Make them beg. Make them scream. Make them desire and love me all over again.Those had been the only thoughts throbbing in my skull when I saw my mates in bed.
Loki sniffed. “You smell like—” He stopped.
And I knew he knew what had transpired before he’d woken me up. He smelled the demigods on me. I bet he even smelled my fading arousal.
My heart pounded. If he told Lucifer his suspicion or discovery, the devil would find a way to stop me from reaching my mates through our dreams.
“That was why you were so prickly,” he said, a mocking but intrigued smile ghosting his lips but not touching his eyes. “You have many talents, cousin.”
The old Marigold would have blushed, but I didn’t. I just stared back at him.
He also noticed that I was no longer wounded.
After Lucifer had burned me with his hellfire and left the scene, Loki and his dukes had immediately teleported me to his castle. He’d called the healers, but no healers could help me.
“I’ll have to regenerate by myself, just as I regenerated over and over after they cut me and put me back into the iron coffin,” I’d told him and refused to take his blood.
The last thing I wanted was to become a junkie to the demon prince’s blood.
Then I passed out. And my luck had turned because of that. I’d dreamt, and in the Dreaming, I’d seen all of my demigods. If being wounded badly was the price to pay to see them, I’d take it any second of the day.
“Lucifer and Ares won’t give you a break,” Loki said. “They’ll push you to your limits daily in Hell’s Academy. They believe I am too soft with you after they saw how I protected you in the pit.”
“You got me out,” I said softly.