Page 18 of Fae Unleashed
Shadows churned all around us.Laughter and screams bubbled from the roiling depths. Black, violet, and crimson swirled like smoke in this nightmare realm. My beast swelled and pressed against the inside of my skin as the power of the realm tried to rip me open and reveal the monster within me.
I didn’t know anything about the man beside me other than he’d willingly married the antichrist. Morgan Callahan sniffed the air as he took in our surroundings. I scanned the auras and cursed myself for falling into another trap.
We’d run headlong into danger once again. I’d sensed Faust in this direction, but the aura I’d detected had been nothing more than a portal leading into Faust’s personal domain. Here, nightmares reigned.
Somewhere in here, the Sluagh waited to pounce on us. I explained this to Morgan and watched him roll his shoulders in preparation.
Raising a curious brow, I asked, “You don’t seem bothered at all.”
He chuckled. “I’ve stared down the armies of Hell. I’ve battled demon generals and call Lucifer my father-in-law. This is just icing on the cake of my weird fucking life, really.”
His response threw me for a loop. For once, I was rather grateful to be myself. There were a lot of times in my life that I yearned to be anyone other than who I was with the shitty decisions I’d made, but I definitely didn’t want to be Morgan.
“How do we get out of here? Our mates are left unsupervised, and I don’t trust any of those women to know how to stay out of trouble.” Morgan glanced over his shoulder in the direction we’d come.
I noted that he didn’t mention protecting his mate. Instead, Morgan just wanted to keep his mate out of trouble. What kind of antics did Vi get up to while Morgan’s back was turned?
I shook myself, cleared my head, and focused on what was more important: returning to my princess. She was alone and needed me. Faust wanted to hunt her, though I wasn’t sure what his intentions were.
He wasn’t entirely under Beryl’s control. Faust was the commander of the Sluagh. He had almost as much power as Beryl herself. There was no way that she could make him hunt us if he didn’t also want something out of it.
My beast moved. It pawed at my skeleton, rattling my bones so that I might let it out. This didn’t seem like a good place to do so, but my options were dwindling. Did I trust my beast? Cerri seemed to have faith in the creature. If I could give it even a small fraction of what she gave, then maybe the beast and I could work together.
The whispers grew closer. Dark Unseelie magic prickled my skin like a hundred tiny pinching fingers. I heard the sigh of metal sliding out of a sheath.
I sucked in a deep breath through my nose. Looking to Morgan, I said, “If this monster doesn’t behave, you have my permission to slap it down.”
The dragon shifter—perhaps one of the few natural born shifters I would trust to handle the nightmare living inside me—gave me an odd look. It wasn’t like I’d ever explained what I could really do. No one other than Cerri knew about the beast inside me.
A horse whinnied in the darkness. Thunderous footsteps warned of the approaching Sluagh. We had barely time for a breath before they would be upon us.
Help us out of here so we can get back to our princess,I told the beast.
It bled out of me all at once. My form exploded in a burst of inky black feathers that vanished into the darkness.
8
CERRI
Ikept my eyes on the windows as the sky outside turned a dark purple. It was an illusion; I was sure of it. However, I couldn’t use disbelief on this one to will it away. The darkness lingered and turned the air thick with apprehension. Breathing felt like sucking down thick syrup.
Was it just me?
I looked to Vi and her hellcat. The air around Vi wavered with untampered heat. I stepped away from her and the cat wound between her legs. A red sheen overtook her eyes when she glanced at me.
“Careful,” I warned because I could see her sliding into her demonic disposition.
She blinked and shook her head. When she opened her eyes again, they were still gleaming with hellfire. She was worried abut her mate. He’d gone off to help Rhoan and walked into the same trap that my fae warrior had stumbled into.
“Burn down the house,” Faust said with nonchalance. “Burn down the whole city but leave the seelie woman for me. I need her.”
My nose wrinkled in disgust. “What do you need me for?”
A hand closed around my upper arm.
The blight inside me reacted before I could move. A thorned vine darted out of the wood floor. It hit Faust in the chest and sent him reeling back. Not even a second later, a crossbow bolt hit him in the chest and sent him to his knees.
Delphine stood in the open door. She exhaled, her shoulders slowly dropping away from her ears. There was a tremble in her body, and her eyes were a little too wide as she stared Faust down.
