Page 56 of Queen of the Wicked
When the threat was cleared, he focused all of his attention on Alessia, scanning her from head to toe for any injuries. Her hair was braided to one side, falling just beneath her breast, seemingly untouched. A lilac cotton dress hugged her curves, showcasing the body of a warrior she had been trained to become, but no bruises branded her skin that he could see. Her face was deathly pale; those emerald eyes still widened in fear. It ledErebos to believe that while Callum hadn’t succeeded in physically torturing her, this interaction would live on in her mind for far longer than a bruise.
“I’m sorry,” Erebos said. “A demon will rarely cave into temptation, but it does happen. He will be dealt with accordingly.”
Alessia’s eyes darted to his. “You’re going to kill him?”
He replied immediately. “Yes. There are a few things I do not tolerate. Assault is one of them.”Especially when their victim is you.“They belong in the Unknown, with no chance of salvation.”
She pursed her lips before wrapping her arms around her waist. “It all happened so fast that I couldn’t…” Her eyes shuddered. “I couldn’t stop my power from choking him.”
“You were defending yourself,” he replied.
“I could havekilledhim.”
“But you didn’t.” Alessia’s glossy eyes met his, so concerned and filled with an innocence he wished he still possessed. “Despite what you think, you prevented the black magic from killing him. The collar was a means of restraint for him. Nothing more. You’ve come a long way from the incident with the seraph.”
She chewed on her lip, seeming to debate it. “Do you think he’ll tell people what he saw?”
Erebos shrugged. “There won’t be anyone to tell.”Not after he was finished with him.“Are you still up to having this meeting with Eryx, or should I postpone it to tomorrow?” He could still feel her trepidation down thebond, and it was suffocating him like a piece of barbed wire wrapped around his throat.
“I want to go,” she said. “I have control of the smoke now, so let’s finalize this plan so I can get the hell out of this realm already. We can’t postpone this any longer. ”
Her admission shouldn’t have invoked a dagger to shred through his heart, but it did so regardless. Why did he assume Alessia would want to remain here in Hell? After what she just experienced, sheshouldwant to escape as soon as possible.
It was the selfish part of him that couldn’t fathom being without her. Maybe he’d admit to her that he was her mate when all of this was said and done, but then she’d have the potential to ruin him if she rejected the bond, and he didn’t think he would ever be in a place to hand over that sort of trust to anyone. He’d been on his own for as long as he could remember, more than content to live out the rest of his days alone untilshecame along and tilted his world upside down.
Now he didn’t knowwhathe wanted.
Alessia still quivered when she pushed away from the wall, so Erebos extended his elbow out for her to hold. He was surprised when she linked her arm through his without a word of complaint, allowing him to lead the way to his study.
“Thank you,” she whispered, catching him off guard. “For making that decision for me.”
Erebos cleared his throat, uncomfortable with the fuzzy feeling taking over his chest. It chipped away at the block of ice wrapped around his heart, and when the organ began hammering in his chest due to merely twowordsrolling off her tongue, he was in deeper shit than he thought.
Because he knew, without a lick of hesitancy, that if she were terrified of getting blood on her hands again, the lord would continue to stain his, if only to make her happy.
“It looks like a maze.”Alessia observed the map sprawled across his desk with furrowed brows. The parchment had seen better days, kept hidden amongst his other sacred scrolls in a locked drawer. It was centuries old, so the ink had faded in spots, making it difficult to determine the exact route they were supposed to take.
“It is,” Eryx replied. “The Seeker is rumored to be just past the Dead Zone, so we’d have to find the center of the maze to find him. Orher,” he amended. “Let me not be sexist and assume the scariest creature in the realm is a male.”
“What is the Dead Zone?” Alessia asked.
Erebos pointed to a spot on the map, a bridge of sorts that connected them to the center. “Your powers won’t work here. At least, that’s what people have claimed who have managed to make it out of the pits alive.”
“You mean to tell me you’ve never gone into the pits?” Alessia stared at him in disbelief. “Are they not part of this realm?Yourrealm?”
“I have no obligations to tend to the pits. The creatures who occupy it find their own food source.”The lord didn’t want to imaginewhat,exactly, the inhabitants snacked on.
“Or you’re scared,” she mused.
Eryx choked back a laugh when Erebos narrowed his eyes. “I am notscared.”
“Oh? Your research books speak otherwise.” She pointed to the left of his desk, where an arrangement of texts spanned from"Creatures of the Underworld"to"Survivingthe Beasts of Hell."
“It’s precautionary. It can’t hurt to learn as much as I can about what occupies the pits.”
Alessia tipped her head back and laughed. “The red aura around you is so bright it’s as if you’re on fire.”
Dammit.
