Eternity of Darkness (Divisa Huntress Book 3) Page 23

  “Because the queen wouldn’t allow it?” Why did I care so much? I had more important things to be thinking about than the inner workings of the Ngah’s mind. And yet I couldn’t stop my curiosity.

  “Partly,” he admitted, but I sensed it was a very minor factor in the big scheme of things. “I never wanted to see him,” he revealed.

  Imagine that. I wasn’t surprised. Cold. This was a side of the Ngah I knew existed but never saw.

  I wanted the whole story. How he came to the Court of Darkness. How the queen had captured him. How she ended up having his spawn. But I sensed the Ngah was hesitant to reveal those details.

  “It was a long time ago, and over those many years, the details have become murky, clouded by years of hate and betrayal. Some of it feels like a dream,” he said, sounding far away, as if he was taking a lonely walk down memory lane, knowing where all the bumps in the road were but unable to stop from tripping over them. “Crossing worlds is always a risky thing, something my people knew, but we had little choice in the matter.”

  Shifting into a more relaxed position against the wall, I stretched out my legs and listened.

  “Our world was dying,” he continued, “forcing us to seek aid outside of our sphere. Twelve units were sent out into the universe in search of answers, a cure to save our planet, to stop the disease that spread through the land. It had been determined by the rate of growth that we had less than a year until our world would be uninhabitable to our species.”

  “Your unit found Hell?” I guessed.

  “Yes. Upon arrival, we split up, scouring this world for anything that might be of help. I and another walked uninvited into the Court of Darkness. Neither of us ever walked out.”

  I could fill in some of the blanks, knowing just what kind of greeting he would have gotten from the Queen of Darkness. “The other units, do you know what happened to them?”

  “I don’t, but I assume they met the same fate as my comrade. Or perhaps they were able to flee, but it seems unlikely given the low escape rate of this place.”

  Hell tended to be a hotel you never checked out of unless you were a demon or knew a demon. “Do you know what happened to your world?”

  “My kind shares a certain affinity with the land. Some feel it stronger than others, and as I rotted away in this cell, so did my world. There was nothing I could do about it. No way to save those left behind. It’s gone.”

  A single tear fell down my cheek. Explained why he didn’t care about going home. He had no home left to go to, something he had mentioned before. But I hadn’t understood, not really, until now. “How did she capture you?”

  He released something like a snort. “She had her army greet us. I’m sure you can imagine what happened next. The Courts of Hell don’t exactly welcome unwanted guests warmly.”

  That was an understatement.

  “We fought, of course. It isn’t our nature to go down without a fight. Killack, my companion and friend, fell first. Even with her army, we aren’t easy to capture, let alone kill. I’m still not entirely clear how the queen managed to get her evil around his neck. She twisted my hand, forcing me to choose. Surrender or Killack died. I made the wrong choice.”

  And she had made him her personal pet. If his world had been destroyed, he was nearly an extinct species.

  “I’d never encountered anyone like her, not in any of the worlds. Even now,” he muttered.

  Her brutality hadn’t scared him. If anything, he had been fascinated by her, a bit like I was with him. I knew he was dangerous, and probably not trustworthy, yet here I was. I got the sense it had been the same for him.

  “Is Soren truly dead? I shouldn’t expect some strange rise-from-the-ashes shit, should I?” I asked. The queen would have something terrifying like resurrection in her back pocket. I would put nothing past her. Or maybe the Ngah’s DNA had the ability to revive. He had mentioned that it was difficult to kill his kind, and Soren had half of his genetic makeup.

  “Yes. He won’t be coming back. At least not as he was.”

  “That’s not encouraging,” I mumbled, images of a zombie Soren wreaking havoc in Hell. That was worse, if possible. “How did you kill him?” He hadn’t touched his heart or burned him alive, the usual methods to kill a demon, but then again, Soren wasn't a full demon. He was half whatever the fuck the Ngah was. Even I, with my demon blood, could be killed by normal methods, but the demon DNA within me made it a difficult task. Not impossible, just a lot harder.

  “My essence is infused with a poison that is deadly to demons. Well, not just demons,” he added. “I haven’t found a being that hasn’t succumbed to the venom in my veins. The moment I sank my nails into his flesh, it entered his system, attacking the only thing that tethers a demon to this world.”

  “His soul,” I whispered.

  The Ngah nodded.

  Note to self: don’t let him scratch me. Hell, I wasn’t even sure I wanted him to touch me. I was beginning to doubt that I could trust him, but between the Ngah and the queen, I still chose this foreign being.

  “He’s on his way, demon huntress,” the Ngah suddenly stated, snapping my focus to the corner of his cell and out of my rambling thoughts.

  Confusion crossed my features before I understood who he was referencing. “You mean Ashor?”

  His glowing eyes grew closer until I could make out his outline. A single nod.

  It was time. “How long?”

  He angled his head to the side, listening, analyzing, or whatever his abilities did that allowed him to know that the Court of Envy was on its way. “By nightfall.” Another stretch of thoughtful silence. “And he’s not alone,” he whispered.

  “He wouldn’t be,” I said. “The Hunt and the Court of Envy’s army would be at his side, at their king’s command.” Allies or not, Ashor would fight this battle solo if he had to.

  “The question is, has he come to save you or kill his mother?” he posed, something close to a smile at the corner of his lips.

  Did it matter as long as we stopped the queen? “Both, if I had to guess. He always has a plan.”

  He tilted his head to the side in a way that looked painful. It was too much, too far, at least for a human. He must have a different range of bone and muscle. “But your safety first.”

  I nodded. Ashor would always save me above everyone else, including himself. But I was doing the same thing, so I couldn’t fault him for what came naturally with our bond.

  “If he does kill the queen, he will not just be the most powerful royal in Hell but also the king with the biggest target on his back,” he mused. “The others will see him as a threat. They will come for him.”

  For someone who had never been out of this prison, he knew a lot about how the Courts of Hell operated. I wanted out of Hell’s courts, and yet it seemed no matter what decision Ashor or I made, we would only be pulled deeper into the chasm of the underworld.

  If there was ever a perfect time to make a move and catch the queen off her A-game, it was now. Ashor’s appearance couldn’t have come at a better time. The queen had scouts. Did she already know her son was on his way home?

  What use would I serve now? Her agenda to use me in forcing his compliance had not been altered. She would make a show of it, dangle me in front of Ashor. Did I make my move then? Or before?

  The answer came sooner than I would have liked.

  Footsteps clattered swiftly down the prison steps. Lifting my head from where it rested on my knees, I waited to see what fate had in store for me.

  A guard in his black uniform, straight horns protruding out his bald head, hustled into the dungeon a bit gracefully. I blinked, mentally preparing myself. It was going to be a long night, I feared. But as the guard’s boots reached the bottom step, his face shifted, his uniform changed, and the horns disappeared.

  What the hell?

  He’s a she?

  With a toss of long blonde hair, the demon grinned, dark red eyes smoldering. “Hello, ma chérie,” s
he greeted like a sultry summer night.

  “Mom?”

  18

  My demon mother was the very last person I ever expected to see come down the stairs. But here she was, dressed in a black leather catsuit like she was goddamn Catwoman, high-heeled boots up to her knees. My mother’s shocking red lips curled. “Who were you expecting, the pope?”

  Definitely not, but she had been just as unlikely as the pope. I surged to my feet and to the end of my cell, chains rattling excitedly. “Mom? How did you…? What are you…?” Shocked didn’t cover what I was feeling, and words seemed to fail me.

  She lifted a too-perfect arched brow, sauntering to the front of my cell like the dungeon hallway was her personal runway. I often wondered how I could be this demon’s daughter, but in rare moments like this, it seemed plausible. “Your mate, of course. How else?” she countered.

  My mother was freaking something else. I still hadn’t decided if that was a good or bad thing. But she was definitely something. “He sent you?”

  Her stunning face scrunched, the demon not looking old enough to have a daughter in her twenties. “You say that like I’m incapable of rescuing you.”

  “Exactly,” I puffed out. I couldn’t believe he had sent her of all people, not when he certainly had more competent demons.

  Put out, her lips turned down. “I should walk out and leave you.” Her threats were empty, despite her being able to disappear from the majority of my life.

  Running a hand through my scraggly hair, I said, “I had a plan, you know.”

  Her lips pressed together, she panned her eyes around my tiny cell behind me. “It sure looks like it. Perhaps you prefer these accommodations over the king’s bed.”

  I shot her a narrowed gaze. That was obviously a fuck no. “I’m here to save him.”

  She rolled her eyes. “The two of you drive me crazy. For your information, he sent me because I have certain skills to get inside the castle undetected and because he knows I’d do anything to protect you, although right now, I’m questioning that loyalty.”

  It was my turn to roll my eyes. “When you put it like that, his decision makes sense. But what doesn’t make sense is why you’re dressed like that.” I glanced over her again.

  She popped a hip to the side, leaning her weight to one foot as she folded her arms. “This is war.”

  I avoided the urge to rub my temples. “And?” I prompted, looking for a further explanation. When she didn’t give me one, I added, “Where is your armor? You look like a comic book character.”

  “If Catwoman can scale a building in this, then surely I can kick a few demons’ asses.” She grinned, running a hand over her ass.

  “God, help me,” I muttered.

  “Are you ready? We’ve already wasted enough time.” Dealing with my mother was so damn disorderly.

  “You can open the cell, right?” I tried to keep the expectancy out of my voice.

  “I hope so. Put these on while I figure it out. I can’t have you fighting in those,” she said about my current attire, pulling out a bundle of clothing stuffed in her cleavage and tossing it to me.

  I caught the pants and shirt. “If they look anything like yours, I’m walking out of here naked.”

  She shrugged. “Suit yourself.”

  I groaned, quickly removing my tattered and disgusting clothes, wishing I could have a bath, but it was enough to wear something that wasn’t covered in my own dried blood and shredded. I did my best to focus my thoughts on the mindless task of changing and not falling into the dark recesses of my mind where all my tormented memories lived.

  Now was not the time to relive them. I had to be strong. Stronger than I’d ever been, both mentally and physically.

  The moment had come.

  I had to get to the queen before Ashor did.

  My outfit was indeed tight and made from a material similar to leather, but softer, more pliable, and lighter. Long sleeves that tapered to a triangle over my middle finger, where a metal ring was sewn in. I slipped them onto my fingers.

  Just as I secured the last button above my breasts and turned around, the lock clicked. Kira grinned at me. “Voilà,” she said, kicking the cell door open with the toe of her boot.

  I bit back the argument about how low-cut the top was and sighed in relief. She was an unexpected welcome. I dashed across the cell and threw my arms around her, my eyes welling. “Thank you for coming.”

  My diluted bond steamrolled into me with such force that I was glad to have an extra pair of arms secured around me. I wasn’t sure my legs would have held me through the flock of feelings, especially when Ashor said, “Hello, luv. Did you miss me?”

  His voice was so clear, so wicked and deep, I nearly cried out. He had no idea how much I had missed hearing his abominable banter. “Took you long enough,” I sent back.

  Now wasn’t the time for a reunion, regardless of how desperately we both craved the sight of the other. For now, I was comforted by the presence of him inside me and through our bond.

  “I will always protect you,” Kira whispered, hugging me another moment for me to steady myself before pulling back. Her sharp gaze looked me over. As she brushed a piece of hair behind my ear, the heat in her eyes deepened, turning her red eyes almost black. “You shouldn’t be here.”

  My chin firmed, determination running in my veins. “I belong wherever Ashor is.”

  She nodded, understanding but not liking it. “Yes,” she said with a sad smile. “Shall we get to it?” I could see in the set of her lips that she didn’t plan to leave my side. She offered me a ribbon tied around her arm for my hair.

  “There is something we need to do first,” I stated, wrapping my hair up with the ribbon into a loose bun at the nape of my neck.

  Her gaze darted to the stairwell. “The guards I knocked out will be waking up soon. That is if no one has stumbled upon them. Regardless, we need to go.” Now she was suddenly in a hurry. “Your mate is waiting.”

  And he was going to have to wait a bit longer than either of us liked. I jerked my head in the direction of the motionless cell across from mine. The Ngah was part of my plan. “He’s coming with us.”

  She blinked. “Who?”

  “Him,” I said, pointing to the cell across from us, making it clearer.

  Her laugh was high. “Now is not the time to joke.”

  I walked to the cage, examining the lock. “I’m not leaving without him.”

  Kira put a hand on my shoulder, spinning me around to face her. “You know who that is, don’t you?” she whispered, staring hard into my eyes.

  “Yes I do,” I replied with a stealthy calm for someone who had been locked up, tortured, and toyed with for days.

  Wisps of fire curled in her eyes, the only part that was her true demon form. “Then you know why freeing him is a bad idea.”

  Not a sound came from the cell, but when I glanced back, the Ngah stood just on the other side of the bars. We exchanged a look, and I remembered the bargain we’d struck. With a slight tip of my head, I let him know that our agreement held. If he helped us destroy the queen, I would in turn take his life. “He killed Soren,” I stated, angling my head to the side and regarding my mother.

  She wasn’t as good at hiding her emotions as Ashor. Or maybe it was more that she didn’t give a shit enough to do so. “The other prince is gone?” Her face went through a scope of expressions but landed with a narrowed gaze on the Ngah. “Explains why the queen has been holed up inside her throne room for most of the day.”

  I didn’t want to know how she knew that. She grabbed my shoulders, pinning me with a stern motherly glare, which looked ridiculous in her current getup. “You don’t know what you’re doing. He can’t be trusted. There is a reason the queen has kept him down here all this time.”

  The Ngah stood quiet and motionless as my mother and I discussed him as if he wasn’t three feet away. I had to respect his control. It was… eerie, for sure, but also admirable, at least to a girl
who spent her life perfecting control. “I’m sure there is, but I don’t care. If anyone has a grudge against the queen, it’s him.”

  She took a moment to contemplate, dropping her hands from my shoulders. “True.” Another beat of consideration. “But you’re responsible for him. And for telling the king,” she added.

  “Fine, whatever, just help me get him out,” I said.

  Twisting to the door, she edged me off to the side as she eyed the lock, chewing on her lower lip. “This thing doesn’t look like it’s been unlocked… ever.”

  “Can you do it or not?”

  “Please don’t underestimate your mom,” she grumbled. It took another minute or two of fumbling with a tool I hadn’t noticed before. “A gift from the king,” she explained. The lock wasn’t like any we had in my world, more like an intricate puzzle of woven snakes. The mechanism gave a series of clicks and hisses, the metal serpents slithering in and around before finally opening. Kira grinned at me with satisfaction.

  As I held the door open, my eyes connected with the Ngah. “Do you remember our deal?”

  “You made a deal with him?” Kira gasped behind me.

  He gave a curt nod, still holding my gaze. His luminous skin brightened as he stepped forward, walking outside the cage for the first time in too many years. I couldn’t say why, but seeing his foot cross the threshold to freedom caused unexpected pressure in my chest. Happiness tinged with regret and sadness. I was grateful to have him stand at my side, but knowing this would also be his last walk alive, his last fight, his last breath of fresh air pulled on my heart.

  I felt Kira’s wary presence at my back, poised waiting for something to happen. “Don’t worry,” I assured her, eyes locked on the Ngah. “It’s not what you think.”

  She snorted. “You of all people know better than to believe that.”

  “He’s not a demon,” I reminded her, turning toward the stairwell, toward destiny. Toward death.