PROLOGUE: AZ
I fucked up.
The three words echoed in my mind, the voice one I barely recognized. Mostly because it sounded contrite. And I didn’t do contrite.
Yet, I felt… conflicted.
It wasn’t like I’d enjoyed seeing Cami in that cage.
Well, no, that wasn’t entirely true. A dark and twisted part of me had thoroughly appreciated the view.
That same part of me had also wanted to join her in that cage, remove the chains, and fuck her in front of the room. Claim her in a base way to inform all those hungry fae bastards that she wasmine.
Except she wasn’t mine at all.
Which made the craving that much more confusing.
Fucking Phoenix,I muttered.She’s not ours, you stupid fucking bird.
A low growl escaped me as I ran through the Marsh Lands, pursuing a runaway bride. This was the absolute last thing I wanted to be doing, but I didn’t have a choice. She was injured and needed to be returned to the bridal camp.
“Veronica!” I shouted, irritated as hell that she’d taken off through the marshy underbrush.
The entire kingdom was falling apart from some unknown magical spell, and this female had decided to try to escape.
Escape to where, I had no idea. If the Unseelie found her, she’d sorely regret the decision to flee.
I shouted her name once more, not that it seemed to be doing me any good.
My Phoenix hummed, my tracking ability fully engaged. The bridal candidate was only a few meters ahead, the smoggy air concealing her from view.
It was thick and damp, the swamp-like surroundings popular with the Unseelie and the Nagas of this realm.
I much preferred the fire and brimstone of the Hell Fae Kingdom.
“Veron—”
Typhos’s fury washed over me in a hot wave, causing me to pause midstep. My Phoenix perked up, distracted from our hunt, as I turned slowly toward the Hell Fae King’s presence.
I couldn’t see him; he was too far away. But I could feel his power rippling through the air.
What is it?I thought at him.
No reply.
Yet his anger was growing with each passing second. Typhos didn’t typically emit emotion, and especially not in such a palpable manner.
Frowning, I engaged my Phoenix and dissolved into ashes. Veronica would have to fend for herself for now.
I’d hunt her down later. Or I’d send someone else to do it.
The courtyard—or what used to be the courtyard, anyway—appeared around me as I took on a solid form again.
Chaos reigned in the sky, a massive portal sucking everything around it into its obsidian depths, all while Nagas and Unseelie worked together to try to close it.
Fuck. It’d grown since I’d arrived, the vortex resembling a dangerous black hole that was threatening to rip this kingdom apart.
Typhos was in the air, his fiery wings glowing furiously at his back while Melek shouted up at him from the ground. However, Typhos’s focus wasn’t on his princely mate but on a beacon of power in the distance.
