Inferno of Darkness (Divisa Huntress #2) - J.L. Weil Page 0,51
days, or months, it felt like years since I’d seen him last? I blamed our connection for my irrational behavior. “Ashor, you make me so mad, I could scream.”
Shadows flickered in his eyes. “I didn’t leave you, luv. Not voluntarily.”
“Am I supposed to believe you?”
“You can feel the truth,” he whispered.
He was right. He wasn’t lying, which still didn’t explain the situation. This wasn’t the Court of Darkness. “What happened then? Why didn’t you fight back? Why did you let them take you? Why didn’t you come with me? And what are you doing here in Gardeness?” I hurtled question after question, my cheeks flushed by the time I was done.
His eyes flickered off my face for a second as I sensed my family moving to stand behind me. “I see you came with backup.” When I said nothing, he continued. “Apparently, everyone wants a piece of me. Can I help it if I am a popular guy?”
I snorted. “You’re so not helping your situation here.”
“Queen Verena and I have business, just boring court business,” he said, brushing off his presence in Gardeness.
He was fooling no one. “Is that so?” I demanded, stepping out of his embrace. My family kept to the background, giving Ashor and me space to work through some shit, but I sensed their restlessness. They were eager to grab Ashor and split.
A long sigh left the prince’s lips. “You still haven’t told me how you managed to find me.”
“I guess it pays to know demons in high places,” I said, evading the question. He wasn’t the only one who could be sneaky.
“Is that so?” He brushed the back of his knuckles along my cheek. “You shouldn’t be here. Go now, before it’s too late. You can still get home.”
All the elation at seeing him vanished, replaced by panic seizing my chest. He wanted me to leave? “What the fuck, Ashor.” I shoved at his chest, but the demon didn’t budge. “I can’t believe you. Do you know what I went through to get here?”
He took my wrist into his grasp and flipped it over. “I have a good idea.”
“Yeah, well, I’m not the only one making deals with demons,” I snapped back in return, my eyes glaring on the blood oath on his own arm. I wasn’t the only one with secrets. Why not just lay all the cards out on the table?
His face was hard like stone and unamused. “She didn’t give me a choice in the matter.”
“When does a prince ever have a choice?” said a raspy female voice that oozed sensuality in a way that had the hairs on my arms standing up.
Squinting against the sun that shone bright through an opening in the trees, I sought out the face that belonged to the voice. Unlike the Court of Darkness, this fracture of Hell was balmy, almost uncomfortably so, but not enough to roast my skin off. No breeze frolicked through the trees, leaving the air stagnant.
A woman broke through a cluster of unusual trees. The woman herself was unusual. Decked out in a gown of sage with a plunging vee that revealed too much of her bronze breasts, the Queen of Envy was the epitome of sex. It exuded off her in tumbling waves. Her strawberry-colored hair fell around her heart-shaped face in a disarray of curls, giving her that after-sex tousled appeal. Her wine-colored eyes smoldered, a speck of white dotted the center of her sultry irises. Being in her presence had such a different effect from seeing her through Ashor’s eyes. Hell, even I was attracted to her, but I also hated her for it, because those feelings weren’t real, but demon pheromones meant to seduce. None of us were immune… except for Ashor, it seemed. Through our bond, he had no reaction to Verena other than mild irritation.
Ashor stepped to my side, a protective hand going to the small of my back. “Lexi, let me introduce you to Verena, the Queen of Envy.” He leaned down to whisper just for my ears only, “Good thing I’m not the jealous type.”
My elbow dug into his gut. I kept my face neutral, regardless of how I was feeling inside. Whatever her ploy was here, I wanted no part of it other than to stop my mate from entrapping this demon queen. I didn’t have the faintest idea of how I was going to break the oath between mother and son, but I had to find a way.