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I was in a vine-knit crop top and hip-hugging sweats. I arched against his touch, liking the way his scent was now blended with mine when I breathed it in.
“That or I set us up to spend our honeymoon and the rest ofeternity in Tartarus.”
Cole chuckled. “That’s not how we’ll spend our honeymoon.”
“Oh?”
“After all of this is done,” he promised, “I will take you somewhere far away. Where no one has heard of us or the moon itself. I will spend every morning and night with you, and I won’t let you think about anything except what I’m going to do to you.”
His words were warm with sensual promise, but that wasn’t the image he painted that made me relax. It was his utter confidence that there was anafterat all.
“I’ll hold you to it,” I said.
“I keep my word, little wolf.”
A swirl of yellow sparks opened up nearby, cutting off our conversation. Phaidros was the first one through, his black, star-marked skin sharply contrasting the crisp white shirt he wore open to a deep vee. Unlike my sweatpants, his legs were clad in shiny black leather trousers.
In my mind, I painted them with blood. First his mother, and then he would follow.
But the figure who stepped through behind him was not the icy, inhuman goddess I’d seen in the heavens. No, they were distinctly masculine, towering nearly seven feet tall, with shoulders far broader than Cole’s or Phaidros’s lithe builds.
But that was not what made the creature stand out. It was the fact that he wasn’t solid, not the way the rest of us were. His body was transparent. His outline was clear, but the space inside his form was a pale blue, with little sparks of light trapped inside.
One of the many souls the Moon Goddess had stolen for her army. A shifter, who had spent untold years trapped among her stars. A ghostof a soul.
“Where is she?” I demanded.
Phaidros simply shrugged. “She sent a proxy.”
I snarled, my animal side rising to the surface.
The shifter ghost turned at the sound. He appeared intrigued for a moment. His eyes were intelligent, if obviously pained. Then, a second later, it was gone. His eyes went unseeing, trained ahead. Even across realms, the Moon Goddess could control him.
“You can’t truly expect her to be stupid enough to go into your realm, where the two of you have absolute control,” Phaidros chided.
Ihadexpected that. Because I would never be the kind of leader who sent others to do my dirty work because I was scared. “We have a deal not to harm each other while the trials are in play.”
Phaidros arched a brow. “What can I say? My mother is a paranoid psychopath and doesn’t care.”
“Whatever. Let’s get this over with.”
Cole stepped forward. “Now that we’re all here, I’ll explain the trial of this realm. Underneath the ground, there is a labyrinth. It stretches miles in all directions. At the center, there is an imp. Imps are scentless, making the challengefairsince the Moon Goddess lacks a shifter’s sense of smell. You will be required to capture it—and imps are wily by nature and do not enjoy being caught. Once you have the imp, you must walk from the center and find your way back to the exit.” He spoke his next words, looking directly at me. “Do not be deceived: the second half of the trial is just as challenging as the first.”
Chapter XXV
We waited a beat,all eyes on Phaidros. As the arbitrator of the challenge, it was up to him to meet his Styx-bound vow and agree this was an acceptable contest.
“This is acceptable. Even if both contestants wound up having a shifter’s senses,” the demon said, a bright grin on his face.
There was no time for me to respond. The ground opened up beneath me and the shifter ghost. For a moment, my heart slipped into my throat and I choked, recalling the way the ground had split to take Cole to Tartarus.
Instead of the pits, we fell just a short distance.
The labyrinth was massive, as Cole had warned. Smooth stone walls stretched out in front, an opening. The ghost shifter moved into wolf form, its see-through body contorting painfully until it stretched out on all four paws. It stared me down, as if debating if it shouldn’t just take me out.
My lips curled back, my inner alpha snarling,Try it.
A high-pitched laugh sang out. The wolf’s ears twitched, following the sound. It took off in a blur.
