Page 98 of Unbound By Shadows
Zaybris gestured around them. “This is the demon spawn’s room. This blasted stone returned me to the spot where I took him.”
She looked around the room. They were in Sam’s world, his home. In his own room where he must have played and slept before he was taken. The fact that it obviously had not been touched since young Sam had occupied it was heartbreaking. What terrible irony it was that she should end up here instead of him.
Zaybris laughed bitterly. “Fate has an absurd sense of humor. Don’t you think, human? Lady? What was your name again?”
“Selene.”
“I am Zaybris, your new ruler,” he said. “I meant to take you to my castle to be honored as a giver of life, yet here we are. Intriguing, don’t you think? I had always believed I was destined to regain Lilith’s favor by ruling in her stead, but perhaps I was sent here to win her another way.”
Without waiting for her to respond, Zaybris tried to stand. Hislegs were shaking, and each movement seemed to pain him. When he reached out to the desk chair for support, he lost his balance. Both he and the chair fell to the ground with a largebang.
“Hmm. It appears our journey has weakened me considerably,” he said, rubbing his back. “Not to worry, though. Come here, Selene. I need a drop of your blood.”
Before Selene could protest, footsteps pounded outside the room. She pressed back into the corner. Sam had told her that the Underworld wasn’t all fiery pits and lakes of lava, but what if things had changed? Would the demons here help her escape, or was she about to be roasted on a spit?
The bedroom door flew open. It revealed an elegant woman with dark eyes and gray wings. She had pearlescent skin, tinged with green and copper, and waist-length auburn hair. She wore a fitted black dress with bell sleeves and tiny buttons down the front. A silver crown made of spikes rested above her pointed ears.
When the woman looked at Selene, her eyes were surprised. The woman’s gaze whipped over to Zaybris, and Selene watched her beauty transform into something terrible and frightening, like a vengeful queen from a fairy tale.
“You!” the woman cried, pointing at Zaybris. “How dare you show your face in the Underworld! Where is my son?”
“Lilith, my love,” Zaybris said, walking toward her on his knees.
Lilith.Selene’s skin tingled as she realized she was staring at the lost queen of Aurelia. Who was also apparently Sam’s mother? The resemblance was clear—both in the set of her mouth and the tone of her skin. She wasn’t much taller than Selene, but her bearing made Selene feel like a child cowering before a giantess.
Zaybris moved to wrap his arms around Lilith’s legs. “Sweet Lilith, destiny brings us together so that we may never again part.”
“Don’t call me Lilith!” She kicked him hard in the chest. “I gave up that name when I began my new life just as you did,Lawrence.Tell me where my son is!”
“W-what should I call you?” Zaybris asked, brushing his hair out of his eyes.
She placed her hands on her hips, causing the sleeves of her dress to billow. Wispy shadows chased around her skirts. “I am Lamia now. Queen of the Night and the Underworld. The Maiden of Desolation, and first Shadow demon of her kind. Mate of Asmodeus, king of the Underworld and mother to Samael, the lost prince of Vengeance. Now I command you to explain to me why this room was filled with your stench the night my son disappeared!”
Zaybris swallowed. “I didn’t think anything could top your Goblyn beauty, but how lovely you are as a demon now. More humanlike. Was the transition painful?”
The queen kicked him again, this time in the stomach. “It was glorious,” she shot back, then turned to look at Selene. “Who are you?”
Selene’s adrenaline was off the charts, yet she tried to appear calm and unthreatening. “Queen Lilith—I mean Queen Lamia, my name is Selene. I was in Aurelia, but Zaybris took me here. I-I know your son.”
The queen took a step closer. “I can smell him on you.” Her eyes brimmed with tears that she quickly blinked back. “Samael is in Aurelia?”
“Yes,” Selene said.
“Has he been there the whole time?”
Selene nodded. “Since Zaybris took him as a boy.”
Queen Lamia closed her eyes and murmured, “I was sure he was in Gaia. We’ve spent decades searching for him. And for Zaybris.” When her eyes opened, they glowed red. “Oh you despicable leech, I always knew you took him. I just didn’t think you would be so cruel as to take him to Aurelia.”
Zaybris shrugged. “You give me too much credit. I merely thought of the only other realm I knew, besides Gaia, which was Aurelia.”
“A closed dimension,” Lamia said.
“Not to me. I can go anywhere I wish now.”
“Then take me to him at once! How did you even come to the Underworld without being dead?”
Zaybris carefully rose to his feet then gestured to the stone suspended around his neck. “A traveler’s stone. After you left, I spent years searching for a way to rescue you. Then I met a man who had used a traveler’s stone to transport himself from Atlantis dimension to Aurelia. I killed him for it, so it now belongs to me.”
