Page 318 of Blood and Ruin: The Complete Series

The guys freeze, each wearing a matching expression of shock and desire.

Jax gulps. “Maybe we should just let her win.”

I roll my eyes at him. “You’re notlettingme win anything. I’ll win fair and square without any of your help.”

Axel smirks, walking backward. “When I win, you can still ride my beast, but not before you ride me first.” Before I get a word in, he quickly turns and shifts into his dragon, taking out a couple of the nearest demons before moving on to the dozen heading straight for him. He turns them to nothing but flames before circling around and heading for the rest of them.

The rest of the guys turn, ready to shift, but before they get the chance I pull my power to the surface of my skin, feeling the energy around me grow and expand. Focusing on the demons above, I zone in on each one and push the energy into them.

Within seconds they burn, turning to ash and falling from the sky.

Soren gives me an incredulous look. Axel swoops back down to us as the guys chuckle, shaking their heads but all wearing proud smiles.

“Not sorry you lost?” I ask Axel just as he shifts back with a smile on his face and heat in his eyes.

“The only way I’d lose is if one of these fuckers won. They’d hog you all to themselves.”

Jax scoffs at him. “We already know I like to share and I’d be willing to—”

“Now that the demons are no longer a problem here, how about we move on?” Soren looks at us all with an unreadable expression as he starts moving forward.

“Such a buzzkill.” Jax groans but follows him. He glances over at me. “Can we add him to the challenge? I’ll take his life as my winnings.”

“I heard that,” Soren shouts over his shoulder.

“Glad to hear your hearing hasn’t gone with your old age,” Jax shouts as if he is deaf.

“Apologies for delaying the orgy about to happen when the world is about to end.” Soren narrows his eyes on a spot in front of us.

My mouth drops open as Soren walks over to a dark stained spot on the ground. “No one was talking about an orgy…”

“Well—”

Jax doesn’t get to finish his sentence as our surroundings quickly change before our eyes, morphing into something far more terrifying than the Shadow Realm. One that truly envisions the nightmare of Hell.

“What’s happening?” I glance around as ash falls from the sky like heavy snow as it lands in front of us.

“Welcome to the Realm of the Damned.”

CHAPTER 6

Clouds overcast us as the sky grows gray, slowly turning it into the darkest night. It ripples around us, the ground and air soon stained by its black taint.

Huge, flamed pits grow from the ground with embers coating the air above them. They shed sparks of heated light that spit and suffocate and with the heat comes flames.

Flames so hot they scorch the land dry.

A shriek calls out as winged demons appear, flying above us as if they were always there, while hundreds of shadow creatures appear, crawling along the scorched ground.

“Fuck. Me.” Jax gapes around at our new surroundings. A place you would imagine the true nightmare of Hell to look like.

Axel stands next to Jax, a mirror expression of shock on his face. “I think I’ll leave that to Kiarra. You’re not pretty enough for me.”

My mouth drops open at Axel’s joke. Turning to him, I catch Jax’s smirk grow out of the corner of my eye.

“Lies. I’m prettier than everyone here.” Jax winks at me. “Apart from you of course.”

Luka gives Jax the side eye before glancing at Axel. “I think you two are spending too much time together. Jax is starting to rub off on you.”

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