“Thanks, but I think I’ll just do the deed myself.” I look at him fully and give him a no-teeth smile, and he cracks a smile of his own as he nods.
“I know you’re capable,” he chuckles and sits back down.
I follow Emer up, Reaper at my feet. Thankfully, Levi found a spot between Ryker and Knox, which leaves a spot open next to Ryker, so I push between him and Emer.
Being the posh diplomat she pretends to be, she smiles through her teeth as she slips over, but she growls the whole time. I have no quandaries, so I nonchalantly place my hands on my waist but let my wrist slip, making my glaive flair out and point in her direction as I look out into the crowd.
“I would watch yourself, Princess. You almost sound menacing, and I’ve been in quite a few fights lately where I’ve been known to attack first, then ask questions,” I tell her through a tight smile. I shift my weight, and I feel my glaive press into her leg. “I would hate to make that mistake here.”
Emer’s audible gulp makes me smile inside as I shift my weight away and bite back the groan from my injury, but I know it’s a small victory. The point is, I’m not one to be fucked with, and if she wants to fight, I have more in my arsenal than just my fist, and now she knows it.
Angel walks up and slides between us, giving me a wide, toothy grin. “Hey Rez, how are you feeling? Thanks for opening up the Portal.”
“Angel, where the fuck have you been?” Emer hisses through her teeth.
“Relax, Emer.” Angel smiles brightly in her direction. “I’ve been delivering you a present. Given the looks of her, it should be ready in a few minutes,” she says, looking at me with a gleam in her eyes. Leaning in, she whispers into my ear. “I don’t know how you made it out of Hell, but I’m pretty sure your luck is about to run out. That gift should be making its grand debut inabout….a few seconds. Who knows, I might see you back in Hell, so enjoy your last few moments.” She giggles as she moves out of my sight.
“Ladies and Gentlemen,” Dean Cauldron announces, bringing my focus back to the crowd before us as sweat drips down my back. “I’m proud to announce that before you are this week’s contestants for the Gauntlet. Please give them a hand.”
My vision blurs as heat explodes along every nerve in my body. Chills run up my arms and down my back as my legs crumble, and I fall like a sack of potatoes, barely missing crushing Reaper. My lungs seize in my chest and burn as my eyes water from the pain of my muscles locking up. I feel myself convulse, and there’s nothing for me to do but pray that the pain is over quickly.
“Rez!”
“Rezzi-bear!”
“Kitten!”
“Goddess.”
“Nerezza.”
“Bestie!”
“Rez.”
My mates’ faces come in and out of focus as my vision wavers.
“Move!” a rough voice demands.
A worried face with platinum blond hair and green eyes appears in my vision for a brief second before his rough hands grab my cheeks.
Dad?
“This is not supposed to happen,” he growls before everything goes black.
Epilogue
Cain
Ilean back in my chair, sipping on my drink as I watch the show before me. At my insistence, I had a mage conjure up a different look to the hall that my father likes to hold audiences in. At first, he refused, saying my father would not approve and would punish him. Well, it didn’t take much convincing after that—just the death of his daughter.
The canopy of red and gold silk linen that flows down from the ceiling is more to my taste. The music swells and dips as the dancers swing their hips and bend in suggestive ways. The servers also sway to the music as they weave through the patrons in the room who have come to serve my father and secretly get a look at me.
I don’t mind, really. The fear I taste in the air is what fuels me. Just knowing that I can control all of them through their fear is what gives me the most power. Then there’s the knowledge that their personal accounts of me after their visits will do more good than harm in the end. It’s the best power play I could have in this new world.
“Did you really feel the need to turn my house into your play den?” I hear his bored tone before seeing my father walk into the room in his female form.
“Well, I figured what’s yours is mine. Besides, it reminds me of home,” I counter before sipping my drink.
