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I look around the streets of Otaxis, the capital city that sits across the Crimson River from the castle, and admittedly, the Dark Fae turned king has made some major improvements to this place.
When Kymaris ruled, it was all dim caverns and slithering demons in back alleys while the fires of the Crimson River belched poisonous fumes. Now Otaxis is clean, the buildings in full repair and whitewashed, the streets cobbled and dotted with glowing lampposts. While the Crimson River still flows deadly as ever, it doesn’t smell.
Most interesting of all is the overhead sky, which is set to perpetual evening. It’s like black velvet with crushed diamonds scattered across and in the distance, a simulated glow of sunrise. There’s so much ambient light from the magical new day dawning on the horizon, the city lights, and the molten river, it almost seems inviting. Moreover, the residents who walk the streets—which, granted, are mostly evil beings—look happy and content.
I know Zora gave Amell more power than what he’d normally have as an original fallen angel turned Dark Fae, and it appears he put that power to good use in making this place habitable. The power to do this is immense, and I felt it when he and I fought at her home. We were crushing trees and boulders in our zeal to kill one another, and Amell is only the second creature I’ve come up against in my thousands of years of existence who was not a god or demigod who had that type of strength.
Sadly, I won’t be able to kill him, not because he’s indestructible but because Zora doesn’t wish it to be. Quite the opposite. She’d be hurt if Amell died so I unfortunately can’t rip off his head like I’ve dreamed of doing since I learned he had a relationship with her.
Not in any rush to meet my nemesis, I wander the streets of Otaxis, taking in the various open vendor stalls and shops. I wander into a bar, have a few drinks, quell a few Dark Fae interested in taking me on. Once they realize I’m a demigod, it’s all apologies for assuming I don’t belong.
When I can’t put it off any longer, I bend distance to the end of the Bridge of Judgment, which leads directly into the castle’s main doors. Having never actually been in the castle, I don’t have the requisite knowledge to pull myself to a particular place inside through the magic of bending distance, so the bridge is as close as I can get.
I head through the enormous double doors that are propped open. I don’t think the castle is a singular private abode for Amell, but more of a commerce center where people visit and meet to carry on business. I have no clue where Amell might be in this monstrosity, so I stop the first creature I come across—a Dark Fae ravager, judging by his leather battle clothes and necklace of what look to be rib bones.
I grab his arm. “Hey… you.”
The fae snarls and attempts to jerk free, but I’m stronger, a fact he immediately understands as he stills. “I’m here for Amell. Where is he?”
“His living quarters, I’d imagine?” He grunts and nods toward a hallway.
“Preesh,” I say, releasing him.
I expect the dude to move on, but I guess I dented his ravager ego card, and he pulls his sword. Swinging it once in a circle above him, he attempts to bring it straight across my neck to relieve me of my head. My hand shoots out, grabs the sharp blade without even a slice to my skin, and stops his momentum as if he hit a brick wall. My other hand comes out, base of my palm driving into his sternum, and he flies thirty feet across the hall, knocking over other creatures milling about. He’s down for the count—not dead, but his chest pulverized. It will take him awhile to regenerate.
Turning toward the hallway where he pointed, I find a wall of ravager fae with their swords drawn, prepared to come at me for knocking one of their own to the ground.
“For fuck’s sake,” I mutter, and while I love a good old-fashioned brawl any day, I don’t have the patience for it today.
I start to draw power inward, prepared to obliterate them all to dust when Amell appears between me and his subjects, his black wings spread out as a threat. “Touch a hair on one of their heads and I’m going to toss your ass into the Crimson River.”
I scoff but let the power die, and his wings settle against his back. “As if you could ever.”
“Go about your business,” Amell booms to the crowd watching this unfold. He glances over his shoulder at the ravagers. “Be at peace.”
They grumble but disperse, a few moving over to grab their unconscious friend to carry him from the great hall.
Amell brings his attention back to me. “You better have a good reason for attacking my people.”
“They started it,” I say in an exaggeratedly petulant voice.
The king of the Underworld isn’t amused. “What are you doing here?”
“Zora sent me to help you.”
“Help me what?”
I shrug. “She said something about you having an uprising, and that she didn’t have faith in you to quell it. She wants me to step in and make sure the job gets done right.”
“Get over yourself,” Amell drawls. “Zora would never say such a thing and I’m not petty enough to squabble with you.”
I cross my arms over my chest. “Not petty enough? Says the dipshit who sent a poltergeist to my house to turn the lights on and off throughout the night while I was trying to sleep.”
There’s no reaction except the tiniest of lip twitches, but he denies it. “I have no clue what you’re talking about.”
“Of course you don’t, so why don’t you tell me what’s going on, let me give you some yada yada advice, and I can go back to Zora and say I’ve done my job.”
“I don’t need your advice,” he snaps.
