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Chapter Nine
Hell, first dimension, nearly 3000 years ago
Bennu thanked Cadmuswhen he handed her a glass of wine as she warmed her bare feet by the stone hearth of their three-room bedchamber. She downed the wine in a few long swallows, hoping the sweet and tangy grapes would soothe her. Setting her empty wine goblet down on the low table beside her, Bennu laid back against Cadmus with a groan. His impressive length pressed against her backside while he rubbed tension from her shoulders. Helius and Drakkon sat opposite them on the other end of the fur rug, alternating between giving her smoldering looks and reading by firelight. Once Damon returned home, they could resume their evening ritual where they told each other about their day while also planning for their wedding. They’d been betrothed for years, but finally the day they would forever seal their bond was approaching. Just two more weeks, the next full moon, and she would be Bennu Fangborn. She could hardly wait, for she loved her mates more than anything.
She and her mates had wanted to marry sooner, but they never found the time. Bennu spent her days as Elria’s apprentice, absorbing all her mentor knew about dark magic. Damon usually stayed with her, helping her memorize spells. Her sweet gamma practically had Elria’s entire spellbook memorized.
Helius, Drakkon, and Cadmus, along with their cousins Horatiu, Dragomir, and Lucian, were the enforcers of the city’s laws. They spent their days keeping order among the citizens. Sometimes, that meant they’d return with cuts, bruises, and even broken bones, but the demons they disciplined always fared worse. Helius and Damon both had healing powers, but they reserved the worst of the injuries for her, either because her magic was stronger, or because they knew she’d soothe them afterward with sex.
But now it was she who needed healing. Her head and chest had been aching for some time, which was unusual. Not even Helius’s gentle touch could soothe her. Something dark was coming, but what, she wasn’t sure. The thought of another witch somewhere out in the wilds possessing celaris magic unnerved her, even though Hecate and Elria were the two most powerful sorceresses in all of hell. Who would be foolish enough to challenge them? And why, when they had lived in peace for centuries?
She kept looking toward the heavy wood and iron double doors that led to their chamber, for Damon still hadn’t returned home. He’d stayed late at the temple, worried for his mother, who’d been having dizzy spells and premonitions all day. Bennu had tried to get Elria to return to the castle with her, but her mates’ mother refused to leave her temple. As soon as Damon returned, she and her mates would retire to their bathing chamber where they would drink more wine and clean each other in the steaming waters. Sometimes they would make love in the water. Sometimes her mates would carry her to bed and make love to her there. She couldn’t wait, and not just because sex with her mates brought her more ecstasy than any spell, but because she was hoping it would chase away her headache.
At the sound of heavy steps followed by an erratic knock on the door, she sat up, hugging her knees to her chest as Cadmus let Damon inside. His long hair hung over his face in a messy mop, he had cuts on his arms, and his robes were disheveled.
“There you are,” Cadmus said to his brother, patting him on the back.
Damon winced, arching away from his brother, and his hair fell away from his face, revealing a split lip and black eye.
Ignoring the pounding in her skull, Bennu jumped to her feet. “My love, what happened?” Had a demon attacked him on his way home?
When he fell against the wall, Drakkon and Helius jumped to their feet and led him to the furs, despite his protests that they had no time to rest. Cadmus handed him a goblet of wine, forcing him to take a few swallows before speaking.
“Our aunt has betrayed our mother,” he said as he handed the goblet back to Cadmus. “They forced her priestesses to leave. I fought them, but they overpowered me.” Bennu’s heart caught in her throat when he gave her a mournful look, his eyes glossy with unshed tears. “Our cousins and your sister locked our mother in the temple.”
No. No. No! That made no sense. Clutching her throat, she fell to her knees. “They can’t lock away Elria unless they put her in a curse chamber.” Elria’s magic was too powerful to be trapped any other way. And her sister would never put their queen in a curse chamber!
Damon’s shoulders fell. “Then that’s what they did.”
“No!” She jumped to her feet, pacing across the fur. “I refuse to believe it. My sister wouldn’t do this to us.”
She jumped back, magic tickling her fingers, and her mates growled, snapping their teeth when a large object flew through the open balcony doors and landed on the bed behind them.
She heaved a sigh of relief when Bastet, their trusted winged servant jumped off the bed, her insect wings buzzing, her large bug eyes bulging even more than normal. Wringing her spindly claws together, the bug darted around the room, mumbling to herself.
“What is it, Bastet?” she asked.
Wings drooping, Bastet fell back onto the bed and let out a wail. “Mistress Hecate lose her mind. She think Mistress Elria trying to overthrow her!”
