I waited for Fiammetta to come down from her chamber in the morning.

She entered the Assembly Hall after Kaara, a pool of darkness rippling under her feet. Her presence punched my heart immediately, and my cock jerked.

I still wanted her. I wanted her more than ever, more than I’d wanted anyone.

Kaara Nightshades’ words last night had been the light of a blade slicing between my heartbeats. 

High Prince Seth had once told me how he’d recognized his Fey mate when he’d first met her on Earth. He’d thought she’d cursed him, for she’d awoken him from his millennia of celibacy and broken the seal. He’d never wanted any woman the way he wanted her, and the mating fever burned him hotter than anything he could endure.

This was exactly what was happening to me—the mating frenzy. 

Only my true mate could make my blood boil like that and my cock harder than granite.

Fiammetta had never put the spell on me.

The Wickedest Witch was my fated mate.

Kaara had known it before my ship had crashed.

She’d been waiting for me to fall for her mistress.

The First Seer of the Death Valley galaxy had never been wrong. She’d predicted that Seth, as the Sky Power, would find his mate on Earth and end his father’s reign. She’d foretold I would fall to Pandemonium for my mate.

I, Archangel Gabriel, had crossed light years and fallen into the past for the Wickedest Witch—my destined mate. After an eon of wandering in deep space and crossing one universe after another, I’d finally found her.

But she didn’t know.

And even if she knew, she’d forget me all over again.

My eyes traced her every movement in the hall. 

Fiammetta wore her three pieces—breastplates that barely covered half of her bountiful breasts and a pair of leather shorts draped only a few inches down her gorgeous ass. Her boots were high to the thighs, but those few inches of skin would still conjure unwanted attention from males.

I would talk to her about this outfit. I knew she dressed like that in order to distract when she struck and killed, but there were other ways to do that effectively. I would teach her, and I would kill and strike anyone on her behalf.

I did not like any man looking at her with lewd thoughts. I would kill those vermin.

She planned to venture out to the jungle when she dressed like that.

On her way to her throne, her piercing gray eyes involuntarily fell on me and the intoxicating electricity whipped the air between us.

Her irises widened, which indicated that she didn’t recognize me.

Though this time, she didn’t seem to be surprised by my presence. She’d found a way to alert herself about me, probably through her runes and glyphs.

As her gaze flicked to my wings, she sucked in a subtle breath. She ripped her gaze from me, looking beyond me and pretending she hadn’t specifically noticed me, and swept her glance across the room before she settled in her seat. 

An electric current connected us in a fever pitch. Unseen lightning struck in the room.

I now knew it was the manifestation of the mating call. The more we pushed it back, the stronger it got. It would drive us mad with its endless, potent force, until we caved in.

But Fiammetta had no idea, despite being a powerful witch.

She shifted on her throne, an alarmed look flitting over her eyes. Icy dust emerged and coated her skin. She breathed frost. That was how she shielded herself against an unknown outside force.

But the mating call wasn’t something to be brushed aside.

She was now fighting the mating fever I’d been fighting and would no longer want to resist. 

She sat still as steel. And somehow, there was vulnerability beneath her icy exterior.

She’d forgotten all about our last night and every day before that.

She’d forgotten about the laugh she’d had after she’d pretended to lift the spell from me that had never been there. That laughter had tugged at my angelic hard heart. 

I’d tested her last night. I’d told her how we had fucked on the floor when it had never transpired. I’d told her how I’d driven into her with her being wrapped in my broken wings on the windowsill, and she’d believed it. Her eyes had sparkled like stars and her darkness had receded. She’d been so hungry to know all of the missing pieces in her life.

She’d also forgotten how I’d made her come again and again.

Her memories were lost to her, as was I in them.

For three years, my mate had to go through this every morning, alone and afraid. Not knowing her heritage and struggling to keep her amnesia concealed in order to survive.

She’d kept her secret well guarded, until now.

Now Kaara knew, the vampire Dark Prince knew, and I knew.

Who else?

I would kill the Dark Prince, but before I erased him, I had to find out what he knew. Fiammetta wouldn’t tell me, and she didn’t know about herself anyway. My mate was more enigmatic to me than ever. 

What had happened to her? A trauma or a head injury could make a person suffer from amnesia, but neither would wipe a person’s memory every morning. 

Someone had done this to her.

My rage was so immense it blinded me. I would find whoever had eviscerated my female’s mind and make them pay!

I had to make her remember first.

I wouldn’t allow her to wipe me clean from her memories every morning. I had to find a way to make her remember me and how perfect we were in bed.

“Marrok’s intelligence noticed that the vampires have been unusually quiet this week,” Kaara said. “They barely move out of their tower. We have a reason to believe they’re planning something worse.”

The vampires’ delay pushed everyone to the edge.

Fiammetta hadn’t been able to build an impenetrable ward. She’d used her magic to mend the rift. But when she tested it with a trail of Akem’s darkness in the bottle, it always tore open her defenses.

“I say we go offense rather than defense,” I cut in. “I’ll lead the army to their tower and tear it down. I’ll cut out the Dark Prince’s fucking heart and put it on a string and bring it back to you.”

Fiammetta snapped her head at me, and I met her gaze with a grin.

Beneath all the ice and steel, heat steamed from within her. She was always hot for me; she just couldn’t remember it and didn’t understand why.

But now she had me.

I’d crossed the universe for her. I’d fallen for her. And I would fix things for her from now on.

“We can’t afford to be reckless,” Kaara said. “It’s suicidal to charge headfirst into the vampires’ lair. I don’t want to lose any men unnecessarily.”

The guards nodded vehemently in agreement and glared at me.

“It won’t be a reckless act if I can get the weapons in my shuttle to work,” I said. “One energy blast will reduce their tower to rubble. Vampires don’t fancy heat and fire. We Angels experimented on the native, original vampires and learned about their weakness. The mutant vampires here are no different.” I scanned the room. “I’m going back to my ship to get the weaponry. I’ll equip you lot and you can fight behind me.”

“No advanced weapons can work here, except ones made of iron and steel,” Rocky said.

“Mine will work,” I said. “All I need is a bit more time.”

More importantly, I needed to fix my communication devices. I might still be able to contact my crew. Perhaps they had found a way to get past the time disturbance and had been calling Red Dragon.

I would take Fiammetta off this pit. That was why I’d fallen here for her.

I’d come to rescue my mate.

I gazed at Fiammetta meaningfully. But my mate ignored me, as usual. 

Kaara, however, sent me a measured, hopeful glance. 

“Who’s going to take you to the jungle?” Otsana asked. She was the one who had insulted ThunderSong by calling it Thumb Song.

“I know the way back,” I said. “I’m the best tracker in the universe.”

“Best damn tracker or not,” Kaara said, “once you get in the jungle, you won’t come out alive. The only one who’s allowed to enter Akem’s realm is Lady Fiammetta.” She looked at my mate with a worried expression.

Things had changed. Akem and Fia weren’t on good terms.

“I hope to go see the jungle,” murmured the female scientist of Species 581, whom we’d recovered from the last crash. She was now the tower’s medical chief.

“The vampires will come soon,” I said. “I can cut down a dozen, two dozen, but most of you will be their food. To beat them, we need advanced weapons. My spaceship is still above the planet’s atmosphere, searching for me. They won’t leave until they find me. And when my ThunderSong finds her great captain, you’ll all be in luck. I’ll let some of you hitch a ride if you don’t annoy the hell out of me.”

Fiammetta rose from her throne. “I’m going to the jungle today. The Angel can tag along.”

“Fia,” Kaara said, anxiety written all over her face, “it’s a dire time to go to Akem’s realm.”

“We’re running out of time,” Fiammetta snapped. “I have to go, and the Angel might provide us with the means to leave Pandemonium, if he’s what he says he is.”

She’d forgotten how she’d moaned my name in bed.

But at least she wasn’t calling me winged creature now.

“Guard the tower,” she told Kaara. “When I find the portal, I’ll come for you.”

Tears moistened Kaara’s eyelids. “If you ever find it, Fia, just go. Don’t wait. Don’t come back. You might not get another chance.”

Fiammetta snapped, “I won’t leave you behind. I’ll come for you.”

She exited the room, darkness rolling behind her, and a trail of ice crystals coating the ground she walked on.