Marigold used to hide in plain sight in Crack, a lawless frontier town like the old Wild West settlement on Earth, until the Demigod of War found her and dragged her to the Half-Blood Academy on Staten Island, which was the demigods’ stronghold. Somehow, she had survived the academy and ended up mated to all four demigods.
Currently, we’d found refuge within the Earth Princess’s warded library. The red brick building was perched at the edge of the dark forest, where no one dared venture, which provided the perfect hideout for my team.
My warriors could handle any rogue supernaturals and the small-time drug lords here. Those gangs usually held their turf wars in the center of town. I bet very few people could break into Marigold’s library; I was among the few selected, and when I spoke the Titan tongue, “Power to power. Blood to blood,” the library had opened for us.
“Joining the Bride Trials is necessary,” I explained again. “All I have to do is fight my way past a thousand vicious women to fetch Hell’s crown. No biggie.”
Dux stopped adding wood to the fire. He rose and turned to face me.
“No biggie?” His light gray eyes rounded in alarm. “Haven’t we gone through enough trials, Your Grace? Why don’t we just stick to the plan—assassinate Lucifer’s son, get a large army, stomp the Ice King, and get your throne back?”
“I saw a better opportunity,” I said, breathing out a trail of frost. “If I become the champion of the trials, I’ll be the Queen of the Underworld. And then we’ll take out Loki. If we do it my way, we’ll not only get an extortionate bounty of gold to buy the best mercenary army, but I’ll also command Hell’s army as their queen. And the best part is—” I paused, my heart drumming in excitement. “The new queen will gain the power of hellfire, the one thing we’ve been searching the universe for. It’s right here, within our reach, should I become the queen of this realm.”
I’d felt the hellfire inside Loki when his wind reached me. Once I became his queen, I’d have the same fire. That was one of the promises to the champion of the trials, as Loki had told the vampire princess.
But I didn’t inform my team how unsettled I was when the Demon King’s fire called my ice, when his hellfire sent a fire song through my bloodstream while he fucked another woman. He didn’t just possess the flame; shadows and death were at his command too. They were all part of his essence.
The Weaver’s warning echoed in my head—your ice’s flame.
And then the scene of the playboy pounding into the female replayed before my eyes until Fayette’s declaration jerked me back to the present.
“If Her Grace becomes the Hell queen, all our problems will be solved,” Fayette said, darting her determined gaze from Dux to me. “I’ll join you in the trials.”
“Count me in too,” Dux added.
Fayette quirked both eyebrows at him. “I don’t think the Demon King would agree to a male bride.”
“I can disguise myself as a woman,” Dux said optimistically. “A big woman.”
“That’s not going to happen.” I smiled. “Plus, neither of you can stand the air and heat of Hell.”
“We’ll find a way,” Dux insisted, his jaw set stubbornly. “We won’t let our queen, our only hope, face our adversaries alone in an alien land.”
My breath caught. For the first time, I would be utterly alone in a land aflame with roaring heat, and half of it was lakes of boiling lava. I didn’t look forward to it, but I had to do what I had to do.
“I’ll have to carry out this task alone,” I said. “By the end of the trials, only the one person left standing will walk toward the crown. The Underworld Bride Trials are bound by magic. It’s the Wild Hunt.”
“Barbaric,” Dux spat.
“I’m more than willing to sacrifice myself for you and the Ice Kingdom,” Fayette said, loyalty sparkling in her arctic silver eyes.
“You’ll have my sword too, as always, Your Grace.” Dux bowed his head. “Give us one more day, and Fayette and I will obtain the necessary spells and potions and go into Hell with you.”
The day they’d fled with me, they knew their lives wouldn’t have a happy ending. They’d chosen to serve me to death.
“I can’t lose you,” I said softly. “It’ll undo me. I won’t be able to keep going when I have no one else left in the end. I’ve already lost so many. I can’t do it again.”
“You still have your people, my queen.” Frost tears formed in Fayette’s eyes. “No matter what happens to us, you must keep going. If we perish, our spirits will always be with you.”
“Don’t say that,” I said, icy tears stinging my eyes. “I forbid it.”
Losing Archer had been the heaviest blow. A wave of grief swept over us, sorrow sinking into our bones. While my team struggled to overcome their grief, I offered my late Queen Mother’s encouragement.
“There’s time for grief and there’s time for joy. Even when the evil net catches us, there’s time for everything.”
Fayette recited with me, “We won’t allow our enemies to take away from us any moment of small joy, and when we remember and do that, we’ll never be broken.”
“We can’t bear to let you go alone to Hell,” Dux whispered, staring at the dark forest through the foggy window. “You aren’t exactly an immortal yet, Queen Tessa Morrigan. Only when you reach the age of twenty-four, which is next year, will your immortality settle. You’re at your most vulnerable stage now. That’s why Ragnarö has been trying everything to get to you before you become an immortal and your power increases.”
“We’ll have a month to finish the trials.” I inhaled, then grinned. “Are you two roasting a shimera with lemon and pepper in the backyard?”
CHAPTER 5
Tessa
“Rule number four,” a striking woman with mint-green eyes announced in the banquet hall. Her auburn hair was pinned to the top of her head, and not a single strand was out of place. Her immaculate hairstyle matched her unimpeachable skirt suit. “No weapons are allowed during the first trial. It’s all about fist fighting for the first round, though kicks are okay. We want to see if you’re up to the games and in perfect physical shape. In the arena, it’ll be up to you if you want to duel to the death. However, we will allow any contestant to withdraw during the first trial only. As soon as someone yields, she’ll be out of the running, but her life will be spared, and her opponent must stop attacking her. Any contestant violating this rule will be executed on the spot.”
I saw her point. If everyone died in the first round, the Demon King wouldn’t have a show.
The lady spoke in a high demon tongue, but I understood her just fine—courtesy of Lucifer. The former Demon King had given me the gift of the angelic and demon tongues when I accepted his contract.
I’d missed three of the rules on account of being late to orientation, as I was trying to get registered to be a contestant for the Bride Trials at the last minute. According to the rude demon manager, I was the last contestant and they’d receive no more. The demon receptionists were also very grumpy about the extra paperwork I’d caused them.