I couldn’t even believe those words were coming out of my mouth.
My chest heaved as I tried to take steadying breaths and failed. Kylo was quick to come forward and grab my face between his large palms as he stared down at me with a gentle smile.
Instantly, his blue eyes and the appearance of his dimples enraptured me and pulled my focus entirely to him.
“Darling, calm down.” My heart slowed at his command, and I tried to take deep, slow breaths. “Yes, it is a bit intimidating to think about going to a new realm and meeting such powerful creatures, but I could see on your face while talking with Alora that this is what you want to do now. Is it not?”
My eyes bounced around between the three of them. “Well…she made some good points,” I quickly agreed. “But this is a decision for all of us to make. Do we go to Divinus or to Ordinarius? Those are our only options, unless you guys see another one that I don’t.”
With a soft kiss to my forehead, Kylo tucked me against his side. “Let’s vote.”
Running a hand through his messy dark hair, Lucien rumbled, “Shit, I think life as we know it is going to change no matter what we do, but I can’t deny that I like the idea of you having more time to train, angel.”
Elwin tucked his hands into his back pockets and quickly piggybacked on Lucien’s words with a shrug, “I have to agree. If they’re going to protect us as much as Alora made it seem, I think it’s worth the risk of possibly being in a realm with unknown enemies.”
Glancing up at Kylo, I waited for his answer as he stared down at me. His hand came up to grip my chin lightly, rubbing his thumb across my skin. I had to actively try to not preen under his touch and gaze. I was such a sap for these monsters.
“I say we trust in Alora’s plan. We need to start learning to accept the help offered to us by the people we trust. It’s not just the four of us against the world anymore.”
My heart did a few somersaults at his wise words. He was right. They all were.
I’d already made my mind up deep down about what I wanted to do, but I wanted to make sure I wasn’t being blind to something they saw that I didn’t. What I knew was that I didn’t want to go to Ordinarius just to lead us to our deaths. I’d only considered that particular plan when it seemed like the only option to keep people from being killed at DIA, but now that we had this alternate plan, it felt foolish not to take it.
The thought of going to a new realm that was littered with those who might possibly want me dead was incredibly overwhelming, but we could do this. Plus, it sounded like we would have a hell of a lot of protection between Zurie and her mates.
“Then let’s go meet Queen Ama,” I announced, a flutter of excitement unfurling within my stomach at the words.
I could hardly believe those words were even coming out of my mouth.
As we crossed from my room to the living room, I had to school my features to hold back the look of awe that threatened to take over as I saw Queen Ama for the first time. Long dark waves of hair with soft red highlights fell down her back that was to us, and there were horns much bigger than Alora’s sticking out of her head. A large scythe that glowed with dark pink energy rested in the palm of her hand, stretching from the floor to above her head.
As soon as Alora smiled at me, her mom turned around, gracing us with a smirk. “I can’t say I ever expected to be kept waiting by a bunch of academy students.”
Seeing her from the front, my breath was stolen from my lungs. I saw clearly where Alora got her love of fashion from. The crazy thing, though? She wasn’t dressed like she was a queen, and I kind of loved that. Black, ripped skinny jeans adorned her legs, leading down to Doc Martens platform ankle boots. Her upper half was clad simply with a black tank top and multiple silver necklaces hanging from her neck.
She was absolutely stunning, just like Alora, but she carried a quiet confidence about her that I could only hope to emulate one day.
Even if I hadn’t known she was the Queen of freaking Hell, I would have instantly known she wasn’t someone to fuck with, especially with the easy way she handled that scythe and looked so unbothered.
How the hell did she wield that thing? It had to be damn heavy.
Mortification burned within my chest as I realized she’d spoken to me and all I’d done was stand there and gape at her. I knew my cheeks were probably the exact color of the energy around her scythe at this moment.
I rushed forward, bowing my head slightly. “I’m so sorry, Queen Ama. We didn’t realize you would be here so quickly and we—”
“Excuses,” she spat, cutting me off. “Not only did you leave me waiting here for you after requesting my help, but you also just stared at me like some type of science experiment.”
Shame bloomed in my chest and sank to my stomach, and I lowered my head.
Well, it was official, I was never going to live down how rude Queen Ama thought I was. I would have to spend the foreseeable future proving I was worthy of being around her daughter now.
“Mom! Knock it off!” Alora exclaimed, cutting off the on-going tangent in my head.
Wait, what? Her words cut through my haze of embarrassment. Knock what off?
Raising my head back up slowly, I found Queen Ama holding a hand over her mouth, eyes dancing with mirth as if she was barely containing a laugh. “I’m so sorry, Alexandra. I was just kidding. I didn’t think you’d take me so seriously.”
My eyes grew wide as I glanced between her and Alora.
