I tossed and turned in bed, cursing the Angel.

A knock rapped on the door.

“Who is it?” I snapped.

“Lady Fiammetta,” Kaara’s voice sounded urgently outside the door. “We’ve got a situation.”

When didn’t we have a situation?

I slid off the bed, went to my closet, and selected a cashmere top and a pair of leather pants. They fit well. I had gotten them from raiding a crashed ship three years ago. That had been my first full assault against other clans after I’d taken over the Witch Tower for myself. That raid must have made me feel good because I’d recorded it on my left shoulder. I couldn’t remember the excitement now. I looked at all marked events with detachment.

My heart had grown colder as the days dragged on. 

I zipped up my boots and straightened, tiny ice crystals forming on my fingertips and climbing over my skin to shield me. I shut my eyes for a second to make sure the heat in my blood had also become ice before I pulled open the door.

“Kaara,” I said, eyeing the violet-haired women who wore a fighting outfit and carried a sword that was similar to the Angel’s. “What’s wrong?”

“The vampires breached the ward, Fia,” she said, worried more for me than for herself.

She had such sincere warmth I hadn’t seen in others. It was like honor was in her blood, like an undying ember burning through the cold night. This planet hadn’t extinguished her bright light. Maybe her warmth and courage helped me keep going. I had no light, no warmth, and no fire, only ice and endless darkness.

I descended the stairs with Kaara.

At the border of my territory, I swept a glance at three vampires’ sagged bodies. The Angel who had vowed to never touch me again had killed them brutally. I turned my gaze on the guards drained by the vampires.

I didn’t remember their names and faces, but they were my subjects whom I’d sworn to protect, yet today I had failed them. 

I had been dallying with Gabriel at night, indulging in my carnal pleasure and forgetting the perilous nature of this planet. My negligence had left room for my enemies to break through my defenses.

Wolves howled in the distance. 

The wolf king must have led his pack to hunt for vampires and secure the area outside my tower. Kaara looked grieved at the guards’ demise. She blamed herself. Her mate had spent the night. They must have been fucking when this had happened.

If I hadn’t thrown out Gabriel, he wouldn’t have caught the vampires, and more of my guards would be slain. 

My foes might even have entered into my tower to try to slit my throat.

I’d assumed I would be safe in my tower, but once again, safety was an illusion.

I hadn’t been safe on my home planet. I wasn’t safe in my shady little empire either.

I wasn’t safe anywhere.

I raised my gaze and met Gabriel’s across the space. Though coldness and hardness coated his dark green eyes, it couldn’t completely repel the lingering heat in their depth.

He still wanted me, even though he’d vowed never to touch me again.

Heat stirred in me, trying to rise, and I let ice course through me. 

Gabriel’s intense gaze scorched me as he studied me.

What did he see in me other than the Wickedest Witch who wanted to get fucked at night?

Even if he could open my book, he would see nothing inside.

I was a blank slate—there was no ink on my past. My present flitted by and would soon be forgotten, and my future might be cut short.

I stared into the empty space in search of my ward, which wasn’t visible to others. My eyes narrowed in on the rift where the vampires had breached it. The gap was expanding.

My ward had withstood every attack since I’d taken over the Witch Tower. 

I’d used darkness to weave an unseen fence around my territory, but today it’d been torn open.

I moved toward the rift, seeing the dark grime mixing with dirty smoke eating away at my ward. I flicked my wrist, sending a strong wave of darkness toward it, but the grime clung to my darkness and merged with it. 

The foul, alien darkness was tricking my darkness and convincing my magic it was kin. 

Kinship. Akem regarded me as his kin. And only Akem possessed this darkness. But how could the vampires acquire his power? Unless—

I turned toward Gabriel.

Before I summoned him, he was at my side in an instant. I blinked. He was even faster than the vampires. It would take some getting used to his angelic speed.

“Is this what you’re looking for?” he asked, holding a slender two-inch bottle in his hand. “I took it from the lead leech. He was spraying it into the air when I put him down.”

“You did well, Gabriel,” I said, taking the bottle from him. Our hands touched, and electricity sparked between us.

It was addictive. I wanted more of it.

Gabriel’s eyes brightened amid the backdrop of Akem’s and my darkness.

“Tell me what it is,” he said.

A trail of dark dirt twirled inside the sealed bottle.

“It’s part of Akem’s power,” I said.

Kaara drew a sharp breath. “But Fia, he favors you.”

“He’s changed his mind,” I said drily. 

I hadn’t been to his jungle for five days. My markings told me a year ago, when I’d been absent from his jungle for a week, he’d sent his messenger—the flying owl-lizard—to summon me.

This time, he’d offered the Dark Prince a piece of his power to tear down my ward to show his displeasure.

Was he really going to work with the vampires to destroy me, just because he was mad at me for taking Gabriel out of his realm? We’d beaten his acid fog and his creatures and fled the jungle. I’d once done the same, and he’d rewarded me with access to his realm.

What had changed?

Was Akem capable of jealousy?

Did he consider me to be his?

I’d pondered how Prince Desdemona had learned about my memory lapse. Now I knew. Akem had betrayed me. He was the only one who could know.

“We’ll take down this Akem,” Gabriel growled. He must have seen the fleeting dismay and fear on my face. Others couldn’t catch it, but Gabriel missed nothing. 

Yet he had no idea who Akem was and what the elemental entity could do.

I turned to Gabriel.

The electric current still coiled between us. It wouldn’t leave me alone. It made me crave him. He was no better. The longing in his eyes was unmistakable. But he’d despised me moments ago when he had left my bed.

“I was hoping you hadn’t killed all three vampires,” I said.

“I saved one for you,” Gabriel said.

He stalked toward the vampire’s body and kicked him in the head. The vampire stirred, opening his eyes, and snarled.

Two of my guards dragged the chains they’d put on him to restrain him, but the vampire yanked at the chains, ready to crush their skulls.

Gabriel moved, but my darkness was faster.

It dashed toward the vampire and bound him.

The vampire struggled against my magic, but it was in vain.

I pressed my boot on his marble-cold chest without care and flashed the bottle in his face.

“Where did you get this?” I asked.

The vampire gave me a chilling, seductive look, and I almost jumped back.

Dark Prince Desdemona had just taken over this vessel, despite the fact that I’d beheaded the other one he’d possessed a week ago.

I had indeed made a very powerful enemy out of him, and he’d formed an alliance with the most formidable force on this planet.

My loss was his gain.

My heart sank at the sense of doom, yet my gaze remained icy and steady in a stare-down with Desdemona.

Kaara kicked the vampire in the ribs. “Answer Lady Fiammetta, motherfucker.”

She was warm around me and prickly and sweet in her mate’s presence. But when facing our enemies, she transformed into a vicious killer. I wondered where she’d come from. Maybe I’d known, but had forgotten.

She was probably the only cultured, sane person on this savage planet. She could come from a noble house, and her sword-fighting skills were impeccable, especially with the aid of her rare, lethal sword.

She was the number one sword-wielder, until the Archangel came.

“Are you truly Lady Fiammetta?” the Dark Prince chuckled softly.

I had to kill him before he could say anything more and expose me, but I needed him to confirm one thing first.

“Names mean nothing,” I said coldly. “But I have a name for you.” I twirled the bottle in my fingers, the grimy darkness trapped inside. “Akem, isn’t it?”

A vicious, gloating light flashed through the vampire’s eyes. I got what I wanted. Akem had indeed turned on me in order to punish me. Desdemona was only sending his scouts to test if Akem’s power could bring down my ward.

He had his insurance now.

He could bring his army to my door at any time.

How could I fend off both the vampire horde and Akem’s creatures when my ward couldn’t hold? My mouth went dry like the desert sand, but I laughed ruthlessly.

“I’m the Wickedest Witch, Desdemona. Do you think I have only one type of magic to ward my realm? Bring your leeches here and try again. Or you can run back to your newly acquired lover. Has Akem shared his secret of impotence with you yet?”

I was bluffing.

Gabriel chuckled, but I hadn’t meant to be funny.

The Wickedest Witch didn’t amuse.

“Vampire,” Gabriel asked, “how did you get to this planet? Tell me truthfully, or you can spend a very long night with me and you won’t like it. I know exactly how to treat your species. We experimented on your kind a long time ago.”

The vampire shifted his gaze to Gabriel, his eyes glowing red with icy hatred.

“The Dark Prince won’t care if you torture his vessel,” Kaara said. “This vampire was newly made. He won’t know a thing. His master sent him because he’s disposable.”

“Indeed.” Desdemona laughed chillingly. “If your subjects knew what I know, Wicked Witch, they wouldn’t follow you. Well, well, I see the killing light in your eyes.” His voice went deeper and richer and silkier. “That actually turns me on, Lady Fiammetta, or whatever you like to call yourself.”

My back stiffened. At the same time, I felt both Gabriel and Kaara tensing beside me.

Gabriel didn’t like the Dark Prince’s threatening and flirtatious tone.

“If you kill my vessel now to stop me from spilling your dark secret,” Desdemona said, “you’ll only prove—”

My blood iced over.

If I didn’t kill him, he would reveal my most-guarded secret, and my army would abandon me. Or worse, they would take advantage of my amnesia and prey on me. But if I killed him now, it only proved he was right.

The Dark Prince had planted doubts and uncertainty in my subjects’ minds.

And Desdemona would always come back to taunt me as I attempted to put out the fires.

Soon, I would have no one left to defend me on Pandemonium and I would have to fend off all fiends alone. All I had built for three years in order to survive and find a way home would collapse.

Even Gabriel would laugh at me. I’d denied him. I’d humiliated him. And he wanted his revenge. How could he find a better chance than this?

And Kaara—the only one I could trust—wouldn’t trust me and guard me anymore.

I stared at the vampire prince through his vessel’s eyes, waiting for the inevitable disaster to happen. My hands didn’t shake but they were so cold. 

“You can’t even remember your own—” Desdemona said.

A blade plunged into his heart, and at the same time, another angelblade slashed his throat. The first sword belonged to Gabriel, and the second was Kaara’s.

The red glow faded from the vampire’s obsidian eyes. I wondered if Desdemona had felt a piercing pain when Gabriel impaled the vessel on his sword. 

I stood very still and held my breath, my darkness caressing me, offering comfort.

The two had known, yet they’d chosen to protect my secrets.

Kaara Nightshades had known them all along.

Kaara spat on the vampire as she pulled out the angelblade dripping with his black blood. She turned to the guards. “This is the result of disrespecting Lady Fiammetta!”

The guards stepped back in shock and nodded. 

Gabriel chuckled as if he found this to be amusing, then drew out his long sword. He wiped the blood clean on the vampire’s red cloak and sheathed it behind his back.

I cleared my throat, and everyone stood to attention.

“Stay on full alert while I find a way to patch up the ward,” I said, and headed for my tower without looking at either Gabriel or Kaara.