“With good reason, though,” Jax replied, the corner of his mouth twitching. “Remember, we had no idea what we were dealing with, and they were using their invisibility spells. We’ve had a lot more practice since then. They’re not the boogeyman anymore. They’re palpable enemies, with strengths and weaknesses. As long as they bleed, they can also die, as we’ve repeatedly proven on an almost daily basis.”
I scoffed, one hand resting on my broadsword’s bejeweled handle. “One thing is certain, as far as I’m concerned: I hate the Exiled Maras now more than ever. That second chance they got was a complete waste of time and lives. Look at how they’ve squandered it. They’ve festered and spread. It was bad enough the daemons were pillaging and murdering left and right.”
Jax stopped walking and leaned against the wall. He caught my hand and pulled me close, wrapping his arms around my waist and holding me tight. For a few moments, it was as though the entire world disappeared, and it was just me and him, casually standing on a fortress’s wall in the middle of nowhere on a planet far away in the In-Between.
He tucked a black curl behind my ear, then trailed his fingers along my jawline. His touch was deliberately soft, sending ripples of electricity through my skin. “Hansa, we’re about to go to war in about five hours. Forgive me if I don’t feel like talking about the scourge of my species,” he muttered, his bitterness about the Exiled Maras impossible to ignore. His gaze softened once it settled on my face, his thumb gently brushing over my lower lip. “Whatever happens here, I want to enjoy every minute left with you. Screw Azure Heights, screw the daemons and everyone else who aspires to be a wedge between us. I’ve wasted three months avoiding you instead of loving you like you deserve. I’m not letting anyone else distract me.”
I couldn’t help but smile, leaning into him. His muscles were hard against my flesh, even through the layers of leather between us. The effect that Jax had on me was undeniably strong and incredibly addictive. He held my heart inside his, and, judging by the look in his eyes, I had him all to myself, body and soul. Sure, there were armies of daemons getting closer to our location, but who gave a damn? At that moment, it was just me and Jax beneath three full moons.
“You know I love you, right?” I asked, raising my head, touching the tip of his nose with mine.
“Meh, you say it once in a while,” he replied, smirking like a mischievous little kid. He made me laugh when he was like this—the complete opposite of Jaxxon Dorchadas, the Lord of Maras on Calliope, ruler of his kind and warrior extraordinaire. He was hot like a volcano beneath that dark and icy surface, but I loved every bit of him just the same. “If it’s worth anything, I might as well remind you that I love you, Hansa.”
“Oh, good,” I said, my tone flat. “So I’m stuck with you.”
“Forever,” he whispered, then gripped the back of my neck and pulled me into a kiss. He was firm and commanding, intense and possessive. It took everything I had not to unleash my succubus nature on him, although I was tempted. We needed some sliver of clarity left, though, even in that little moment, just in case it all went south fast.
Jax’s tongue circled mine, his lips soft and his breath hot, lighting my senses on fire. He paused to look at me, panting slightly. I could see myself glowing in his eyes, my skin reacting to the intense emotions that he triggered in me. He sighed, then tightened his embrace and rested his lips against my forehead.
“Let’s assume we’ll make it out of here alive,” he murmured.
“So let’s be optimistic?”
He chuckled softly. “Let’s be determined and focus on an agreeable outcome,” he replied.
“Good grief, you were made to lead, Lord Dorchadas. You sure have a way with words, though you’re quite conservative when sharing them with the rest of us.”
“Hansa, let’s think about it. Now. Before dawn, before all hell breaks loose,” he said, his voice low and scratchy, making my spine tingle.
I looked up at him, losing myself in those dark jade pools he had for eyes, and nodded slowly.
“Let’s assume we’ll find Lumi. She’ll bring the shield down. We’ll go back to Calliope,” he continued. “What then? What do we do?”
“You’ll go on to lead your people, while working with GASP. I will continue to speak on behalf of the succubi, while working with GASP. Isn’t that what we’ve been doing?” I replied, resting my palms on his chest.
“That’s correct. I’ll go back to White City. But… Hansa, will you come with me?” he asked, his voice trembling, his breathing heavy. I could feel him getting nervous. Most importantly, I could feel my heart swelling, to the point where it had trouble fitting inside my ribcage.
“Jax,” I breathed. “I’ll go anywhere with you. I’m no longer bound to a tribe, to a patch of land, to anything. I’m free. Free to love you, to be with you. I don’t care where I am, as long as I’m with you.”
He sighed deeply, then kissed me again, this time so tenderly I felt tears forming in my eyes. There was so much love infused into a simple peck on the lips, I could almost cry. I put my arms around his neck and lifted my head. He looked perfect under the moonlight, like a living, beautifully sculpted statue filled with a dazzling whirlwind of emotions that I longed to feed on, every day for the rest of my life.
“There’s one thing I’m a little worried about,” he said. “Though I don’t think we need to address it just yet. Not in these circumstances, anyway. But I still want to voice it, for you to think about once we go back home.”
“What is it?”
“You’re a succubus. I’m a Mara. Your blood is toxic to me. I know, stating the obvious. But I can never do Pyrope with you; I can never taste your blood in an act of love without getting myself poisoned. I worry that, should you want to have children, I may not be able to help with that, Hansa. I don’t think our species are compatible on that level.”
I thought about it for a second. I’d thought about it before, back on Calliope, during the few moments I had to myself to fantasize about what it would be like to be in a relationship with him. Go figure, huh?
“Would you like for us to have children of our own?” I asked gently.
I felt him shudder in my arms. He nodded. “Not now, but at some point, yes. But if I can’t, that’s okay, too. Having you is enough. Not being with you is unacceptable. I’d rather have you than an heir.”
It hit me then. In Mara tradition, Lordship was transmitted exclusively via the bloodline, or by the existing Lord’s nomination, with the support of his subjects. If he didn’t have an heir of his own, Jax only had his brother, Heron, to leave the Lordship to. However, that had rarely happened in White City—Lordship belonged to the offspring, not the siblings. On top of that, I wasn’t even sure Heron would’ve wanted the role, given his independent nature.
But Jax didn’t really care about all this. He wanted to be with me, and that meant the world to me. I’d seen enough in this lifetime. I’d lost enough and then some. Yet the universe had still managed to find a way to surprise me because, as I stood there, looking at Jax, I felt as though my life was only just beginning. I gave him a soft smile, caressing his face.
“You know, I had seven daughters,” I replied, my own voice shaky and tears gathering in my eyes. “I buried six of them. Izora is all I have left, and she’s still very young. She could do with a father figure in her life, if you want to give that a try?” I asked, carefully analyzing his expression.
I registered astonishment… pondering… then a surge of love and warmth as he leaned forward and kissed me, deeply, once again filling me with everything that animated him.
“It would be an honor,” he whispered.
“And, later down the line, we could adopt,” I suggested. “Calliope was left with many orphans after Azazel’s war. I’m sure there are Mara younglings who need a loving family. Should you start considering an heir to your Lordship, I’m sure your subjects would be more than happy to support your adopted son or daughter. The Maras of Calli
ope would know that the heir was raised by Jaxxon Dorchadas, the greatest of them all, after all.”
He stared at me for a while, genuinely impressed, his lips lazily stretching into an appreciative smirk. “By the Daughters, succubus, you’ve already thought of everything, haven’t you?”
I burst into laughter, feeling my cheeks literally light up.
“I did. You know me: I think of all the details, big and small.”
“I wouldn’t expect anything less from the Red Tribe Chief,” he replied, running his fingers through my hair. “You paint a pretty picture, though. I’d like it. All of it. Everything you’ve just described. Yes, Hansa. We could do all of that and more, together.”
“We most certainly could,” I breathed against his lips.
“You know,” he said, changing the subject, visibly amused. “Stories about you spread all the way to White City, long before you made your way there with Serena and Draven.”
“Oh, really?” I chuckled. “What do the stories say?”
He glanced around me, as if trying to remember the exact words.
“That you are fierce and cunning. Deadly, and seductive to the point where absolutely no creature could resist you. That you could crush a Destroyer’s head between your thighs—”
I yelped and covered my mouth to stifle a wave of hysterical laughter. Such stories were always insanely fun to hear, especially after all my adventures on the battlefield.
“Well, I’d heard stories about you, too,” I replied, pressing my index finger against his lips. “That you were like a shadow, bending the minds of your enemies, planting nightmares in their heads, mercilessly cutting them down. That you led your people with an iron fist. That you’d sold your soul to the Daughters a long time ago, in return for your ability to syphon energy from your wards and perform mass manipulation, corrupting the wills of hundreds at once. Let’s just say you were depicted as quite the fearsome, soulless character.”
He scoffed, slightly amused. “Well, they got most of it right. Though I didn’t sell my soul for my wards. I rescued a swamp witch. And I do have a soul, though I refrain from showing it to just anyone.”
“You don’t mind showing it to me?” I asked, raising my heels so I could reach his lips and kiss him.
“Showing it to you? Hansa, I’m wholeheartedly sharing it with you,” Jax said, then lowered his head and captured my mouth in another kiss. This time, he was hungry, greedy for more, eager to make me understand how hot he burned for me. It was easy for me to understand, because everything he felt mirrored my own emotions.
We were two sides of the same coin, only we were fortunate enough to face each other. He grunted softly against my lips, then stilled and froze. I peeled my eyes open, but before I could ask what was wrong, I heard it.
The shrill, brain-scratching, bloodcurdling screeches of Death Claws.
“Oh, crap,” I croaked and quickly turned around.
Two hundred yards to the south, a black cloud hovered toward us. The sound of Blaze turning and stretching his dragon wings on top of the left tower pulled me deeper into the impending reality.
“That’s a swarm,” Jax muttered, then grabbed my hand. We ran along the wall toward the front, where Harper, Caspian, Fiona, and Zane were already preparing for the attack. “They made it before the mercenaries.”
“It’s what they usually do,” Zane replied, visibly annoyed. “I was hoping I’d get to take a nap, at least.”
My heart thudded, my blood rushing as all my senses went into overdrive. I mounted an arrow on my bow, stretching my arm back and aiming at the swarm. They were moving fast, squealing and squawking incessantly.
Growls erupted from below.
“Dammit, pit wolves, too?” Zane groaned, childishly exasperated.
A gust of warm wind hit us as Blaze took off and flapped his wings. He was going ahead, eager to burn those creatures down. I took my aim at one of them and released my arrow.
Swish… Right in the chest it went. It screamed, then plummeted to the ground.
The first round of beasts had reached us, but we were more than ready. If anything, we could do with a little warmup.
“Buckle up, kids!” I hissed. “It’s time for target practice.”
Scarlett
There were at least a hundred Death Claws coming in, screeching and spreading across the night sky like a black cloud. We had less than a minute to get ready.
Blaze took off in dragon form, eager to greet the creatures.
Velnias coordinated with the Imen on the ground floor—their task was to disable as many charmed collars as they possibly could, and shoot to kill when saving pit wolves was not an option. Hundurr and Rover went out to rescue as many of their kind as possible, and I could hear them shuffling and growling through the woods below.
Everyone else was up on the walls and in the towers, ready to strike. The Death Claws were just yards away now, shrieking with the excitement of tearing into us.
I lit a fire on a stone slab and used it to light my first arrow after I mounted it on my bow. The tips were loaded with a mixture of flammable and explosive powders, soon to ignite. I stretched the bow and released it.
It swished through the air, swiftly joined by dozens more shot by the rest of my team. Patrik launched blue fireballs with his bare, glowing hands. The first round of projectiles, both arrows and fireballs from Druids and fae, went right into the center of the swarm.
Boom! One after another, the loaded arrowheads exploded. Amber fires bloomed in the middle of the black mass of Death Claws. The creatures hissed and wailed. Five of them collapsed. The others became even more aggressive. However, they didn’t get to retaliate straightaway. Blaze snapped open his jaws and released a devastating stream of fire.
It engulfed a large number of Death Claws, while the several dozen left scrambled to get out of his range. They scattered overhead, which meant we had to deal with them on an individual basis. Growls erupted from below, but I couldn’t afford to worry about Hundurr at that moment. I could only hope that he and Rover were getting more pit wolves on our side.
I released a second flaming arrow, then a third, a fourth, and then kept shooting, using my unnatural speed in the reloading process. One by one, Death Claws screamed, then fell in the middle of our courtyard, where Dion and Alles rushed to kill the ones still moving, jamming spears into their muscular chests.
One of the pit wolves must have tripped on a wire—a string of explosions fifty yards down from the fortress on the west side rocked us to the core. Fiery orange blossoms burst out from the woods. Several pit wolves whimpered, while others snarled. I could hear fangs clamping down on metallic, charmed collars.
In the meantime, Patrik and I kept firing at the Death Claws. Two of them got dangerously close, flying in low, but I managed to turn and release one arrow, just as Patrik shot out a fireball. Both creatures crash-landed into the northeastern corner of the wall. They ended up in the courtyard under a pile of rubble.
Movement below caught my eye. Freed pit wolves came in, guided by Rover. I counted ten. It wasn’t enough for what armies were coming for us, but it was definitely better than what we’d counted two hours before.
“Cover the eastern part,” Patrik said, then muttered another spell and released a flurry of smaller fireballs. They hummed and shot through the night, smacking several Death Claws at once. They then spread like wildfire, swallowing the creatures whole. I watched them drop into the courtyard, where the newly freed pit wolves proceeded to rip their throats out.
“Oh, a pit wolf scorned is not a creature you want to be around,” I muttered, pleased to see my theory about pit wolves quickly becoming a fact. The Adlets never forgot who they were, despite losing their forms. The charmed collars served to restrict and control but did nothing to the creatures’ long-term memory.
The fight was dirty, but we still had a massive advantage. Said massive advantage kept flapping his dragon wings, chasing isolated groups of Death Claws around. He
maintained a head-on approach, spitting fire then ripping through the beasts with his humongous fangs.
The sea of growls in the woods outside the fortress began to subside. Hundurr and Rover had more pit wolves to help them, leaving the Imen to focus less on shooting charmed collars off and more on killing the incoming crashed Death Claws. There were about six or seven left, and they seemed particularly adept at dodging Blaze’s attacks.
I loaded another arrow, ready to fire at the Death Claw leading a trio over on the east side. Blaze came in from behind, so I decided to move my aim toward one of the three flying loosely on the south side. I shot my arrow and missed a Death Claw by inches—but that wasn’t the worst part. The beast suddenly changed its trajectory and went after Blaze.
“Watch out, Blaze!” I cried out, as the Death Claw caught Blaze by surprise. He was so focused on the three hostiles in front of him, he didn’t see the fourth coming in.
The fiend clawed at his eye. Caia screamed from her position in the tower. Blaze growled and jerked his head, then slapped the Death Claw away with his wing. I caught a glimpse of him shifting back to his normal form as Caia summoned winds to help him land in the tower, where she immediately started applying first-aid measures.
The rogue Death Claw was badly hit and struggling to stay in the air. I loaded another arrow and shot it right in its bony throat. It screeched, then spotted me and feverishly flapped its wings, gaining a concerning amount of speed.
“Oh, crap, it’s going to crash,” I breathed.
It was headed right for us, and I couldn’t let it damage the fortress wall. Patrik was busy shooting fireballs at another Death Claw. There was no time to move away from the impact point.
I had to do something, and fast.
The Death Claw came toward us like an overgrown bullet. I cursed under my breath and jumped out to break its course. Its large body rammed into mine and knocked the air out of my lungs, but I managed to keep it away from Patrik and the northern wall.