What was that god-awful screaming?

I tried to roll on my side and burrow my head under my arms, but a sharp pain in my stomach, like something tearing, snapped me right awake. I blinked twice, using one hand to wipe at my eyes. The sheer amount of ash and grit was an assault to my senses, making my eyes itch and water. My throat was dry as the desert sands. What was it they said about Hell? Endless torture where you will beg God for just a single drop of water? While the sentiment held true, that wasn’t what was going on here.

For one, I was pretty sure Hell didn’t have ten-foot tall raccoon breathing fire…

My eyes flew wide open, trying to take in every detail of the scene above me. Standing next to me was a black and blue striped raccoon so large I could ride on him. His face was set in a fierce expression as he zeroed in on something just beyond my vision.

I groaned, having a bad feeling upon seeing pretty much the entirety of the room had exploded into ash. Few things were immune to the flames of Hell.

“Now listen here, vermin,” I heard Rysten’s voice carry. I could imagine his hands held up in surrender as he inched forward. “Ruby isn’t doing well right now, and I need to get to her—”

“Bandit?” I murmured. The raccoon sat back on its haunches and turned to look at me. Unnaturally blue eyes with pentagrams in them stared back at me. His ears twitched in recognition and he lowered himself to the ground, nosing me gently.

I nearly sobbed in relief as I tried to pull myself up into a sitting position, but a strong hand on my shoulder held me down. I groaned from the strain and turned my head sideways, only then realizing I wasn’t flat on the ground to begin with. My head was resting in Moira’s lap while Julian kneeled at my side. Behind him, Laran and Allistair stood watching me with worried expressions. I didn’t want to read into any of their faces or emotions. They were all too heavy for the elation that was growing in my chest.

Bandit was alive. He was—

Currently jumping to snap at Rysten again for trying to get too close.

“What in Satan’s name did I do to deserve this treatment while the overgrown trash eater runs wild…” Rysten muttered.

I chuckled under my breath and my throat itched, causing me to descend into a fit of coughs that triggered a terrible pain to rip through my stomach. I moaned, cringing into Moira’s lap while she brushed my hair back from my face.

“Hey, Rubes,” she said softly. “I thought we’d lost you there…” Her voice trailed off instead of saying things that were better left for later when it was just the two of us, not that there was any guarantee I was getting alone time anytime soon.

“I imagine I’m a bit harder to kill now,” I rasped, smiling wide despite the pain in my stomach. Moira grimaced while looking down at me, lifting a single delicate eyebrow. She knew exactly what I was feeling, whether I faked it or not. Blasted familiar bond.

“Not hard enough. I don’t know what you were thinking coming here,” she said. I frowned. What I was thinking?

“You were trapped. Of course I came for you.”

The Horsemen stilled beside me. I inched forward, opening my mind to them…only to run into an invisible barrier.

Damnit!

Sin wasn’t joking. I don’t know what she did, but whatever spell she cast over me definitely wasn’t letting me listen in. Just when I was getting used to it too. Ugh. She and I were going to have a chat next time we met, about what she did to me and why.

I got the distinct feeling she was leaving a lot of information out, but until I better understood my abilities and how I originally copied her magic, I wasn’t getting any answers. Not like I could mention any of this to anyone, since she so conveniently made sure of that.

I needed to find out more about Hell and who might possibly be after me. Sin was powerful enough to get around the Horsemen entirely, and even she feared her master. That didn’t bode well for me, and as much as I begrudged her for doing it without asking, if people knowing really would put an even bigger target on my back, I was probably better off with her blasted spell. Not that it would stop me from cursing her to Eve and back when we met again, because we would. I had no doubts about that.

“How did you know that?” Moira asked sharply, breaking my concentration.

“Do you remember that demon from Voodoo Doughnut?”

Her eyes darkened, and her mouth tightened. “She came to you?”

I nodded, and Moira turned away, hiding the troubled expression in her eyes. I reached out, opening my mouth to ask her what was up right as I heard footsteps. Suddenly, Bandit wasn’t the only one growling. I turned, catching only a brief glimpse between my overgrown raccoon’s legs.

“Eugene?” I asked. The air around us thickened, and while I couldn’t hear their thoughts, I could sure as Hell feel their emotions.

Jealousy and possessiveness took over, and I knew without a doubt they would kill him. If not them, then Bandit or the growling banshee beside me.

Shit.

“Ruby?” Eugene called. He didn’t take the time to explain why he was here or what he was doing. That was his first mistake. His second was not thinking before walking toward the snarling raccoon. Bandit reared back, a growl ripping from his throat. Next thing I knew, blue fire was shooting out, and despite the damn hole in my stomach, I’m sprang to my feet.

“Stop!” I shouted.

Everyone froze.

I took that split second of silence and inaction to inhale a deep breath, deeper than it appeared my body wanted to take. I bent at the waist wheezing, and a wiry arm wrapped around my midsection. She grasped my arm and tossed it over her massive wings, draping it around her shoulder. I gave her a painful grimace as thanks and hauled myself up to a semi-decent position. The Horsemen closed ranks around us, with the exception of Rysten who was now beside Bandit, as a united front against the very large—but not so smart—rubrum.

“What are you doing here, Eugene?” I called out in a rasp.

He blinked sheepishly and ducked his head, still awfully oblivious of the raccoon creeping forward to bite his head off. I reached out and placed a hand on his furry black and blue tail, patting him reassuringly. Bandit stopped his advance and sat back on his haunches. Again, my throat thickened as my eyes pricked with unshed tears.

He was alive. I didn’t know how. I saw him die. I saw his soul die.

But he was alive, and I could only assume magic had something to do with it given his new size and the fire.

I turned my attention back to Eugene who was looking increasingly uncomfortable at this point.

“What is that male doing here, Ruby?” Julian asked like it was my fault.

“Can we kill him?” Laran asked in complete seriousness.

“What?” I stumbled forward to try to put myself between the idiot demon and my mates, temporarily forgetting that pesky hole in my stomach and a ripping pain tore through me. “Motherfucker—no you can’t kill him! Bandit—don’t you dare!”

Bandit stopped his creeping and gave me an annoyed grumble, except it was a hundred times louder now that he wasn’t the size of a large cat. I rolled my eyes. Only my raccoon would almost die and come back freakishly large with fire and still have an attitude problem.

“Eugene, if you can’t tell, this isn’t the best time. Why are you here?” I asked, putting a hand to the shrinking hole in my stomach. It was closing. Slowly. That meant my transition was nearing the end, even if dark blue blood was still dripping down my fingers from where I was applying pressure to it. Getting stabbed with a poisonous spike was high on my list of things never to do again.

“Donnach sent me,” Eugene said. His lips pressed into a sad almost kind of smile. “He wanted to remind you about your deal.” The rubrum shifted uneasily, and it hit me that he wasn’t as clueless as he seemed.

“I see…” I said slowly. “Well, it doesn’t look like any demons survived, at least up here. I assume he must know that already if he’s willing to send you all this way.”

Eugene gave me a pained look and I got the impression that despite what I’d done for him, he didn’t want to be here anymore than I wanted him to be. Donnach must’ve really wanted those Seelie freed.

“It shouldn’t be too hard freeing them now…” I trailed off at the swell of emotions coming from not only Bandit and Moira, but the Horsemen as well.

“Your deal? What is he talking about?” Rysten asked without looking away from Eugene.

“The beast and I sort of made a deal with this guy named Donnach to free the…people they’re holding here. That’s why I was here the night you guys came for me.”

No one called me out on my hesitation, but the smooth hands running along my bare hip bones wasn’t just for the hell of it. Aged scotch, heated seduction, and something wholly sinful settled over me.

“Why can’t this Donnach free them himself?” Allistair asked, his voice singing with the smallest hint of persuasion. I leaned into him, pulled by the power that lured me. He brushed my hair aside, letting out a low chuckle in my ear. Moira bristled beside me and Julian let out a grumble, snapping me from his spell.

Unfortunately, Eugene was not so lucky to escape Famine’s charm.

“Donnach couldn’t free them without risking a war with demon-kind,” he answered, scowling deeply in confusion. I turned and whacked Allistair on the arm, but I may as well have hit concrete. The slap echoed in the dark and muggy underground.

“Why would there be a war?” Laran asked, a hint of a growl in his voice.

A sigh escaped my lips. I really should have known I couldn’t keep it from them.

“Because Donnach is Seelie and the Le Dan Bia captured a number of his people to use in their fights. They’re being held here underneath the pit and I have to free them.” I paused at the indignant sighs and grunts from the Horsemen. No one outright told me I couldn’t, but they weren’t thrilled with this new development. “He swore under magic that his people wouldn’t hurt me once I freed them, and as the future Queen of Hell, I felt like it was important not to start my time by blindly turning an eye to shit that demons aren’t supposed to be doing to begin with. Maybe my father did, but I’m not that kind of demon, and I refuse to be that kind of Queen.”

From in front of me Rysten’s shoulders slumped a little. “I suppose that means the rubrum has to remain intact?” he asked under his breath, but I didn’t miss the thinly veiled threat. Rysten, the sweetest of them, was not pleased about Eugene’s presence. Even more strange, I couldn’t tell if their possessive nature was grating my nerves or if I was beginning to kind of like it…nope. Definitely couldn’t be that one. Grating, it must be.

“Yes, I would appreciate you guys not being assholes. The beast and I are not interested in mating him for devil’s sake.” I rolled my eyes and Eugene froze, his eyes going wide.

“You guys thought—” He broke off looking back and forth between me and the Horsemen, then to Bandit who had gone back to growling at the red demon. “No, no…I owe Ruby a debt. She saved my soul. I swear on the sixth ring where I was born that I have no interest in laying a claim on her…I’m also gay.” He looked downward, no longer wanting to hold eye-contact now that he realized what all the puffed-up chests were about.

Not my almost dying, but his maleness.

Assholes.

“If we’re all done asserting who is and isn’t Ruby’s mate, can we get on with freeing the damn Seelie so I can get some sleep. I’m fucking exhausted and I need a steak,” Moira grumbled. I can’t say I faulted her. All I wanted right now was a cup of tea, a hot bath, and a warm bed. In that order preferably.

“This way,” Moira said, taking the lead. She led us to the door behind where the bar used to be. Now only piles of ash and concrete remained. As a group, we walked over to the dark hole in the wall.

“You’ve been through here.” It was less a question than it was a sad statement.

“I wasn’t in a cage,” Moira assured me, and I frowned. “I’ll explain it…later.” Her eyes shifted towards Eugene. She didn’t trust him. Rightfully so.

We followed her down the stairway to a deeper part of the underground. My breath came in short pants from the physical exertion it took to get down there. Because hobbling on flat ground was apparently too much to ask for.

“You okay, love?”

“I’ll manage,” I replied through clenched teeth, trying not to let the pain bleed through into my voice or my actions. Moira slowed her step, waiting for me to catch up at the bottom, and wrapped an arm around my waist to help brace my movements. “Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it,” she muttered.

Laran touched my arm. I knew it was him by the warmth of his hand and scent of wildfire.

“Allow me.” He moved by us, taking the lead. I didn’t have the strength to keep them from ‘accidentally’ harming Eugene, free the Fae, and argue about coddling me. I’d been stabbed and had come close to death. So this time I suppose it wasn’t really coddling. Not when I put it that way.

A ball of flame erupted in the air and he suspended it on his way down, lighting our way to the bottom. We followed after him with the rest of the Horsemen behind us.

At the bottom of the stairs, a rusty metal door blocked our path. Or it did until Laran kicked it down. The door itself didn’t open, but the stone wall it was set in cracked at the force of his blow. The surrounding rock split and the entire frame as well as part of the wall came crashing down. A plume of dust kicked up and I hacked and coughed until it cleared, Moira holding me up through it all.

Fire shot out from his hands, massive glowing orbs of red and orange hovered several feet off the ground, illuminating the metal bars and causing screams of panic around us.

I gasped, but Moira didn’t make a sound.

She knew what was coming. What awaited us in the dark.

Cages. So many cages. They lined the walls, stacked on top of each other from the floor to the ceiling. Most of them were empty. Most, but not all.

As Donnach had promised, four cages in the far corner on the right held grey figures. Their black hair was scraggly and matted, their slate skin covered by only filthy rags. Black bruises adorned them, covered in healing cuts and fading scars.

It was horrifying. Repulsive. I had to fight the urge to vomit just thinking about the mess Moira came to me in, and as it was, Moira was staring down at them with a grim expression and bleakness in her eyes. Her arm around my waist squeezed tightly, as if she were holding me together. My steps trembled as we walked farther into the room, because in the back, something growled—low and deep—and with a purpose.

“We need to get them out and get out of here before that thing gets loose,” Julian said.

No kidding. I squinted to see the far corner of the room, but metal bars and shadows masked it. Only the deep steady breathing of the monster gave any clue as to what was down here with us.

I stepped forward, examining the Fae in the first cage. She was a woman, not much older than me by the looks of it, but it was hard to tell when she was covered in so much grime.

I went to undo the lock on her cage, but there was only one problem with that.

It didn’t have one.

No locks…and yet, the Seelie were very clearly trapped inside.

I stumbled forward with Moira at my side to better look at them. Laran followed, keeping close beside us. He reached forward trying to wrench the door open, but the metal didn’t yield. It didn’t bend. It didn’t break.

That couldn’t be good.

“Did the Seelie you made a deal with mention how you’re supposed to get them out?” Allistair asked, coming up on my other side.

Two cages over, I saw Eugene attempt to phase, reaching through to rescue them. The floor dropped out from under him, but the metal bars stayed firm and didn’t allow him access to the other side. He let out a grunt, holding onto the cage while lifting his legs out of the hole his power had created.

“No, he failed to disclose that information,” I muttered.

Never mind the fact that if neither strength nor phasing would work, what chance did I really have? I could try to melt them with fire. It was unlikely to work and would probably injure or kill the creatures inside. I was pretty sure the cages were not only iron to weaken the Seelie, but they were somehow magically enhanced to prevent normal means of getting to them. Like phasing through shit was normal, but hey, for a demon it was.

“Do you know how?” I asked Moira.

She took a deep breath, her eyes as turbulent and troubled as a firestorm. “I’m not sure…”

That meant she had her suspicions. Moira stuck out her boot toeing the edge of one cage. “Hey, you,” she said to the nearly catatonic girl. I would have thought she was dead if her pinky hadn’t twitched. “Yeah, you. How do we open these cages?”

Another twitch. Her head slowly creaked to the side, and through cracked lips and a bruised face she responded.

“Blood magic,” she spat the words with a venom I wouldn’t believe possible since she was only moments from death’s doorstep.

Moira sighed and pulled me away. Judging by the look on her face, she had suspected as much. Blood magic to open those cages could mean any number of things, and I didn’t understand how to undo spells done by the Unseelie. Most demons didn’t. The Unseelie were few and far between, almost as rare as the Seelie in that way. They kept their magic to themselves and so information about it was sold at a premium.

However, I’d met a woman who could do both kinds of magic. It made me wonder all the more.

We slowly backed away as her eyes fell shut again. The exhaustion was finally catching up with me. Between my dizziness and Moira’s strange behavior, we moved further away.

“What are we going to do?” I asked, trying to block out the growling coming from the back corner. It was really creeping under my skin. “We can’t just leave them here.”

“Sure we can,” Moira mumbled. I cast her a sidelong glare and she pursed her lips, sighing deeply. “I’m not saying we should, or even that I want to leave them here. This place is a graveyard. Souls linger here. The dead speak.” She shook her head. “But blood magic is rare. The Unseelie don’t just hand that shit out to anyone. I dunno. Something doesn’t feel right here.” Moira scratched the back of her neck, breathing slow. Watching everything. She was naturally more paranoid than most people, but I agreed with her. Le Dan Bia had been the largest clan on the North American continent for over a decade. They rose up from nothing and became the portal keepers, quickly amassing power. Now throw blood magic into the mix and…it was certainly enough to make one concerned.

I pressed my lips together and glanced over at Julian. I could ruminate on Le Dan Bia at another time. “Can you open the cages?”

Julian’s jaw tensed as he took me in and he ran his thumb along the curve of his bottom lip. I shivered despite the sheen of sweat on my skin and heavy air, thick with swamp water and mosquitos. I sincerely hoped that Hell wasn’t just a more extreme version of Australia.

I don’t think I could handle the heat and everything trying to eat me.

“She said blood magic is what keeps them in?” he asked. I nodded once, and Moira’s wing swept around the back of my body. “I can open the cages, but I want a promise from you first.”

Of course he did, because what demon ever did anything for free? Just me. Ruby Morningstar, tattoo artist, Queen of Hell, and apparently, demon slayer if you have a good enough sob story. I could add that to the list of things I needed to work on.

“What kind of promise?” I asked him, stepping out of Moira’s warm embrace. I had to pull my dirty locks of hair away from my face so that I could look up at him. Even with my tall stature, Julian was a giant.

“No more leaving us. No abandoning us for strange males,” he said and cut his eyes sideways at Eugene. I held back the eyeroll. “No making deals without talking to us first.” I leaned forward, both from dizziness and the uncontrollable pull I felt to him. “Yes, you’re going to be Queen, and we will all need to learn how we’re going to make this dynamic work…” His words trailed off as he took in the other Horsemen. I knew then he wasn’t just talking about Moira or Bandit, but the four mates the beast and I had chosen. He drew his gaze back to me, a darkness smoldering the green in those dark depths. “But not for a second will that stop me from tying you up to my bed for three days.”

I gasped… I couldn’t tell if what I was feeling came from his words or the dark look in his eyes as he said them.

“Well, that’s quite the list of requests.”

“I’m not asking.”

I swallowed hard and nodded. Yeah, we were getting there, but there was still a long way to go with him. With all of them, really…and we may never get there. But at least the sex would be great on the way.

“No, because that would be too normal for you,” I sighed.

“If you want normal, you have Rysten,” Julian replied. He reached out and brushed the back of his knuckles along my jaw before turning away without a word.

I swayed where I stood, watching Laran hand him his axe. Julian gripped the pommel with ease and then brought his hand down on it. A spray of fresh blood scattered over the row of cages. The metal glowed bright where the blood touched it. Julian handed the axe back and leaned over to wrench one of the cage doors open.

The girl inside lifted her head and looked up into the eyes of Death.

There was nothing fearful about her expression, nor was there any gratitude. Only a deep-seated hatred and loathing. He stepped aside to open the next cage and her eyes slid to me. Curiosity swept over her face as she assessed my presence. I inched forward around Laran, tilting my head to the side.

That’s when I felt it.

Recognition.

“You’re the Heir,” she said. Her words were hardly more than a whisper, holding just the briefest hint of that strange lilt that the other demon hunters also had.

“Am I still the Heir if the King is dead?”

I don’t know why I asked her that. Possibly because everyone referred to me that way, despite the fact that Lucifer was long gone. He’d died months ago now.

“Donnach was right about you. That you would be different.” It was both an answer and not.

“How do you know I spoke with him?” I asked her.

She crawled out of the cage, rising to her feet. Shredded garments hung from her limbs, leaving her orange runes on display.

“Because I was sent here as a trial for you, and a punishment for me. I’m happy to see he was right, given that I would have been left here to rot had he been wrong.” Her words sent me reeling and the gentle swaying of the room intensified.

When the moving stopped, and my vision cleared, I saw that the four Fae had been released and were grouped together. The woman raised her head again to look me in the eye. Never mind, the demon who had actually released her, or the giant raccoon I knew was prowling at my back.

“He wanted to test me. Why?”

She smiled, and it wasn’t pretty. Her black teeth glinted in the low firelight, pointed and deadly.

“Because my brother wishes to return home.”

She didn’t give me more than that as she lifted her hand and began drawing. As with Donnach, the air thickened and the markings swirled together. A distinctive pop sounded, and magic exploded outwards. A small portal forming with only a light haze of orange between this dimension and the next.

“I don’t even know what that means,” I said. Each of the Seelie went before her until only she remained. She paused only inches from it.

“For now, it doesn’t matter.” The dark Fae woman lifted her hand and drew another rune. It floated before her, suspended in the air. “But when the time comes, I owe you a debt. Stay safe, Little Morningstar.”

The flow of magic shot through the air, hitting me square on the shoulder. I gasped in pain, slapping my hand over it. It burned hot, hotter than the flames of Hell, that’s for certain. I peeled my fingers away, flinching at the feel of the harsh air against it.

The skin was orange and glowing. A series of hash marks and interconnected lines that came together to form a rune.

Devil-damnit, how in Satan’s name did this keep happening to me?

First the damned blood oath, and now this. I turned to demand she remove it, but the girl was already gone—and with Julian diving towards her disappearing figure, the portal snapped shut behind her.

“What the hell did she do to me?”

Allistair stepped in front of me and pushed my hand aside. His eyes crinkled in worry, but I knew it was more than that. Inside of him, a deep concern was starting to form the longer he looked at the rune.

“There’s good news and bad news,” he said eventually. I blanched and made an impatient grunt for him to get on with it. A smirk tugged at his lips, but his heart wasn’t in it. “The bad news is I don’t know what rune this is.”

Well, that was just flippin’ great.

“And the good news?” I asked him, my shoulders shaking with exhaustion.

“I know someone that can help us find out.”

I nodded, reaching up to run my hand down my face, rubbing the grit from my eyes. They stung like a bitch after all of this.

“Well, I guess we can add that to the list of ‘shit Ruby needs to figure out’,” I muttered to myself. He slid a hand under my jaw, his fingers curling around my chin as he tugged it upwards.

“We’ll figure it out together, alright?”

He didn’t leave any room for brokering when he looked at me like that. I leaned in, unable to help myself and let my lips brush across his. Allistair let out a small groan, pulling my closer. One hand snaked around my waist while he switched his grip on my chin to grabbing the hair at the base of my neck.

My tongue slipped out, parting the seam of his lips—

“Ruby, babe, I love you to death, and you deserve some after almost dying today, but can this please wait until we are back at the apartment?” Moira interrupted.

I groaned, pulling away reluctantly. The world slid out from under me and I had to roughly grab at Allistair’s shoulders as he supported me to stay upright. It seemed that both my head and my legs had decided they were done for the day.

The hands holding me changed from warm and butter smooth to delightfully chilly as Allistair passed me off to someone.

“She’s still losing blood,” Allistair said. I didn’t like the worry I heard in his voice.

“Don’t coddle me. I’ll be okay…”

Still, even with my insistence, Julian hoisted me up, his arms gripping me under my knees and back. He cradled me to his chest carefully, a stern frown forming at his lips as he looked at the hole in my stomach. It was only the size of a dime now, but blue blood, black dirt, and all sorts of other substances were coating me. What I really needed was a damn shower with a fire hose.

“You’re in pain,” he said.

“I wasn’t aware being stabbed was supposed to be pleasant,” I responded dryly. Julian’s frown deepened. Against my better judgement, I rested my head against his chest, fighting the wave of dizziness upon me.

“We’re going to take care of everything, Ruby,” Allistair said. His voice was low and sweet, but thick with a raw untamable power. I only realized what he was planning to do.

“If you put me to sleep, I swear to the devil I’m never sucking your cock again,” I growled, snuggling closer to Julian. Like he would protect me.

“Darling, I don’t have to do anything. You’ll be asleep before we’re even back at the apartment.”

He wasn’t wrong. Julian turned for my raccoon and the Horsemen began talking. Something about Bandit and not fitting in the apartment. Before I knew it, the darkness was fading in. Black swept up on me, but this time, there was a comfort in it. A solace. Instead of a desolation that crept through and left me isolated, it was a shadow that wrapped around me and comforted. A shadow that held a tendril of Rysten with his embrace, and a hint of something that hadn’t been there before. Another kind of darkness that was strong enough to pull me into its depths and never let me go. A permanence of a sort. Almost like…death.