A call cut through Hell, low and snarling, filled with the promise of torture and hate. It was a woman’s snarl. A vile fucking sound that made my heart race.

“I c-can’t fight her…” Redemption snarled. Sweat gleamed across his brow. His veins were pulsing at the sides of his neck and along his arms. He tumbled, shuddering and shaking as he fell forward, bracing his body on all fours.

I glanced back to Titus and Aeon. They were staring…and Aeon’s lips were moving, murmuring words I couldn’t hear.

“The mortal realm,” Redemption snapped. “She’s calling me there.”

“Common ground,” Lucifer growled. “Does she think that will save her?”

The Unseelie warrior shuddered and shook. His body faded and sharpened, like he was being dragged cell by cell to another place.

“I’m going with him,” I scrambled forward, reaching out as he faded once more.

“We’re all going with him,” Lucifer snapped behind me.

I turned my head, catching my father glancing toward Aeon. “Stay inside the Keep. You know what you need to do.”

Aeon gave a cut nod as my feet slipped and I lost my footing. Hell’s wind slapped strands of my hair into my eyes. I lunged forward, desperate to reach Redemption as I fell…

Only it wasn’t the harsh obsidian rock that caught me.

It was soft green grass and cold earth under my fingers, pulsing with the call of Hell as it slowly faded, and the unmistakable fetid smell of Unseelie filled my nose.

The sun glared, piercing the gaps in the clouds to blind me. I drew a breath and then another as movement crowded my view. There was a snigger and then a snarl as I lifted my head and stared at the wall of Unseelie warriors, and stopped at their Queen.

Dark hair, unflinching gazes. The men towered beside her, dressed in knee-length cloaks cinched at the waist to carry long silver daggers adorned with red and gold gems. They looked every bit as dangerous as what I’d been led to believe.

Redemption would’ve been at home amongst them.

He would’ve stood tall and proud at his Queen’s side.

I swallowed the pang of jealousy.

The scuff of a shoe beside me turned my head. I shoved up from the ground and swiped my hands against my jeans. Lucifer stood there, his face a beautiful stony mask of perfection as he stared across the space.

I wanted to stare at her, wanted to unravel her beauty…

But this was a battle…

This was a war.

“Where is he?” I took a step before Lucifer’s hand shot out and grabbed my arm.

Still he never wavered…he never looked away. His grip tightened, but not enough to hurt me, and that said it all.

“Mab,” my father murmured, and dipped his head.

She was beautiful, lily-white skin and deep dark eyes. Her floorlength midnight gown sparkled as the sun caught the facets of obsidian. She was younger than I’d imagined, as though she lived her life in a void.

Cold…stony…cruel.

I shuddered with the thought of that stony castle.

Redemption stood at my father’s side, pale, sweating, unable to tear his eyes from his Queen as she acknowledged my father with a curt nod, and then turned her gaze on me.

“Where the fuck is he? Where the fuck is Absolon?”

Her red lips pursed for a second, as a sickening snarl came at my back. Rival pushed close, protective. The Queen’s lips curled as she uttered a single command. “Leash the mutt, Lucifer, before he gets hurt, and the wench with him.”

Anger rose, searing and scalding. Black flames swallowed the tips of my fingers and ran up my arm. She smiled at that, without even glancing my way.

Fucking bitch…

“You know why we’re here, Mab, why start a quarrel? You know what Absolon has done. You know what he’s taken from me…” Lucifer glanced at me. “From us. What he’s taken from us. He needs to answer for that.”

She winced with the words, and that stony mask of perfection slipped.

“For what, Lucifer, you’ve lost people, I’ve lost people…where does this end?”

“It ends when he ends,” I growled. “And the Nine along with him.”

Her brow creased, her gaze shifted. It was a tell that didn’t go unnoticed.

“You didn’t know, did you?” Lucifer asked. “All this time, you didn’t know what your own son was doing. Where have you been, Mab? Locked away in your room with no one to see?”

The guard at her back moved, feet shuffled, making way. I caught the shine of slick midnight hair as Absolon pushed through the barrier of muscle to take his place by his mother’s side.

He cast an uninterested gaze across us, the corner of his mouth twitching into a smirk.

My fists clenched at the sight of him. I wanted to punch that smug fucking look from his face and tear out his eyes. My body trembled as my mind raced, dredging up memories that needed to stay buried.

His hands on my body, breath hot on my face.

He wanted my mother.

And he wanted me.

“Lucifer,” the piece of shit murmured, and then glanced at me. “I see you’ve brought the toy.”

“The fuck you say?” Rival roared. “I will tear you apart, you spineless piece of shit. You like to abduct women? You like to torture women? I cannot wait to spend some quality time with you.”

Absolon paled, but that smirk stayed plastered on his lips. Something inside me soared…I was getting everything I wanted. Everything I’d fought for.

“You want my son?” The Unseelie Queen snarled, and lifted a hand. “Then he’s yours.”

Footsteps echoed, the same guards who’d moved aside for him moments ago, now grasped him by the arms.

“What?” Absolon jerked his head toward her. “Wait…what did you say?”

Guards on either side stepped forward, dragging him as they went.

“Mother…Mother, stop this! You can’t do this to me…you can’t fucking do this to me!”

She turned her head then, and for the first time met her son’s gaze. “I can and I have. You will go with them…you will answer for your crimes.”

A smile broke out on my face as the Unseelie guards neared.

Redemption watched the Queen like a man obsessed, but he didn’t understand. He didn’t realize.

All my life, Absolon had taken from me…all my life.

Rival smiled and stepped aside as the Unseelie guards marched their Prince past Lucifer. All heads turned toward him…even mine.

The grasp around my arm was quick and savage, yanking me backwards as the Queen spoke.

“And for the crimes against my people, your daughter shall answer for hers. Harm a hair on my child’s head, and see it happen to yours tenfold. You wish to play, Lucifer…so we shall play. Until next time.”

The earth seemed to open up and swallow me. I wrenched my head upwards, catching Redemption lunging forward. His mouth was open…his scream was lost…as the darkness of the Unseelie realm swallowed me…and the haunting laughter of the Unseelie Queen rang out.