I acted like a male whore offering pleasure in exchange for secrets and information.

And Fiammetta denied me heartlessly, even with my hard cock inside her.

Her body was burning for me. She desperately needed a release. I’d intentionally pushed her over the edge. Yet she still had the willpower to turn me down.

Didn’t they say witches were moths to the flame when it came to carnal pleasure?

I’d underestimated her. I’d put faith in my glorious sexual prowess—no woman had ever resisted me.

But who was I kidding? The Wickedest Witch was a savage from an underdeveloped planet. She was nothing like the refined, noble females I was used to associating with.

Lady Fiammetta was no lady.

It killed me to pull out of her hot, gorgeous pussy, but I wasn’t her whore.

She didn’t even bat an eyelid at my grumbling.

After she told me that my service was no longer required, she demanded I never return to her chambers.

I jumped from the tall tower and landed in a crouch, feeing unsatisfied, hollow, and bitter.

I should have fucked her. I wouldn’t get another chance. And now my cock throbbed in pain. The pressure remained.

Fiammetta’s body was like no other. It was perfect to me in every way. And I’d just given it up. And before I’d stormed off, I had arrogantly, stupidly advised her to find someone else to fuck.

Would she do that?

Her body had been on fire when I’d taken off. She would need relief. If she came out of her tower to hunt for a lover, what would I do?

Black rage filled me. My hand moved to the long sword strapped between my wings.

I would kill any male she picked.

I jogged toward the east perimeter of the witch’s territory.

This post-apocalyptic city was never quiet at night. Monsters bellowed not too far away, beasts from the jungles yowled, and the Furies shrieked. I had a feeling that soon they’d all come to the City of Nine to besiege it.

I did not fear the nightmarish creatures. Angels used to be the worst nightmare, but now I was a lone Angel.

My mind wandered to my away team. Had they been sucked into the vortex but sent to a different time? I had to find a way to contact ThunderSong. My crew would never abandon me. But first, I needed to send them a signal to tell them I was in this period.

How would I even find the coordinates of this savage planet?

Fire cracked in the distant sky. Some blocks of the city were forever burning. At least the residual fire gave the city some light. Half the city was in ruin. In the uneasy night, everything was shadows within deeper shadows.

Shadows did not bother me, but the jungle did.

It entrapped the City of Nine, and its red acid fog was lethal even to Angels.

Before the vortex had devoured my shuttle, I had had a glimpse of Pandemonium. The rainforest seemed endless, and beyond it was blurry, flowing gray that looked like ocean. According to Kaara, no one had reached the other end of the jungle.

Every alien here was trapped.

Fiammetta had been stranded here for three years.

My anger ebbed and my heart started aching for her.

No one knew where the Wickedest Witch originated from.

Kaara refused to reveal further information about Fiammetta, even though she’d briefly told me about the First Seer’s prophecy. She’d claimed that the Seer’s magic bound her tongue.

Fiammetta remained an enigma to me.

I got the most from Rocky. He’d been around the block the longest in the Witch Tower. He’d once suspected she was a native of Pandemonium, yet she understood all alien tongues. I recalled she could even speak Fey tongue, yet she didn’t know the language was spoken by Earth Fey.

Then Rocky speculated that Fiammetta was the only survivor of the first civilization on this planet, yet she didn’t seem to know its history.

Or she couldn’t remember it.

Something clicked.

Lightning pierced through my thick skull.

I’d eavesdropped on the private conversation between the vampire messenger and her. I’d been puzzled at the nuance of the vampire’s words. 

“You can’t remember your own secrets, or can you?” he had challenged. When the witch had tried to brush him off, he’d threatened her. “Be mine, Lady Fiammetta, and I’ll protect what’s mine. And my secrets will be yours as well.” The vampire had paused to chuckle. “Even though you won’t remember any of them the next day.”

Fiammetta had beheaded him right after that to prevent the vampire from revealing more, and taken the war upon herself. The witch wasn’t one ruled by emotions. She calculated her every move. She wouldn’t have killed him unless what he’d said had spilled a truth she didn’t want anyone to know. She had gone to extremes to stop anyone from learning it.

The truth was about her amnesia.

Every morning when she’d come down from her chamber, she stared at me without any recognition. She looked at everyone with that icy blankness— her perfect mask. She kept everyone at a distance, except Kaara. No one had thought it odd. They feared her and believed she merely refused to acknowledge their insignificant existence. And she cunningly used her Wicked Witch act to keep everyone at bay.

Every time I’d climbed up to her chamber to fuck her, her body had melted for me, yet her eyes had always flashed with a strange light, as if it was the first time for her.

She did not remember my touch from the night before. When she’d ridden me, she’d always closed her eyes and only occasionally stolen a glance at me when she’d thought I hadn’t been looking.

She’d been preventing me from gazing into her eyes to see her secrets while she’d been at her most vulnerable. So whenever we’d finished, she’d urged me to leave. She couldn’t afford to let me spend the night.

I stared at fire and smoke rising toward the dark sky. The fire would soon be embers of ash before dawn approached.

Was I right? Could it be real that Fiammetta suffered from amnesia? 

I’d twice sent my Archangel High Sense to probe her, and all I’d gotten was a blank state with static. But I’d thought she was simply good at shielding her mind.

I replayed all of our nights together frame by frame and focused on what had gone wrong tonight.

She’d put up with me even when I’d used sex to maneuver her, because she’d been on the verge of orgasm. Her body had only stiffened when I’d stated I wouldn’t tolerate her acting like she’d never seen me before every morning.

She’d endured me until I’d insisted on seeing the markings on her skin.

I’d glimpsed her name on her arm when her glyphs had first manifested. Who would etch their own name on their arm? Unless she couldn’t remember her name or she was narcissistic. Fiammetta wasn’t self-absorbed; she was pragmatic.

It all made sense now.

I needed to test her without provoking her. Fiammetta would kill whoever learned about her most-guarded secret, believing her own survival depended on it.

The last thing I wanted was to get into a death match with her.

A quiet hissing rose from the north side. Someone was poking around the witch’s territory. I didn’t hear a sound from the night guards. Where were they?

The wind blew unnaturally. I tucked my wings behind my back and dashed toward the almost undetectable noise.

Three vampires stepped over the warded boundary, two guards’ bodies at their feet. I identified one of them as Wally. The former space pirate had been Kaara’s errand boy. I moved my gaze from the wounds on his neck. The vampires had drained both guards.

The vampires looked surprised at my sudden appearance.

“Get rid of him,” the tall vampire in the middle ordered. 

Two vampires charged toward me, faster than the dark wind. 

They were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

After being thrown out by Fiammetta with unfulfilled lust, violence seemed to be the perfect conduit to blow off steam.

I grinned, the angelic rune on my blade radiating faint light in my hand.