Underworld Bride Trials 1 Playboy King - Meg Xuemei X. Page 0,45

mind them,” Marigold said. “They’re all bullies. Boys are helpless sometimes.”

I smiled. Those boys were all centuries older than her.

“I don’t like everyone staring at you as if you’re the newest attraction at an exotic zoo,” she began. “People used to look at me like that. They still do sometimes. But forget about them. We’re going to have fun. The drinks are much better at this gold table. The king and his dukes wouldn’t risk being cheap where I’m concerned.” She handed me a glass of wine. “Loosen up a little tonight. I’ve tasted this wine, and it’s good. After Lucifer and Ares dragged me to Hell and Loki rescued me, he brought me to his castle. Like you, I refused to drink anything in Hell except sealed, bottled water.”

Fury flashed in the death demigod’s eyes at the mention of Lucifer’s and Ares’s mistreatment of his mate. She turned to him and brushed a kiss across his jaw. “I’m fine, baby. We’re fine.”

“We need to find Lucifer and take his head, as we did to Ares,” the death demigod said, his words lethal and icy.

The demigods didn’t threaten—they delivered.

My heart pounded, but I kept my face neutral. I was probably the only one who knew where to find Lucifer. And if Marigold knew I’d taken a contract from their sworn enemy to assassinate her beloved adopted brother—

My throat became parched. I’d taken the contract without knowing anything about Earth. But even if I’d known, I might still have taken it, for my long-suffering and helpless people and for my kingdom. Yet the nagging feeling of wrongness brewed in my belly.

I accepted the Titan princess’s offer and downed the hot liquid from the glass in my hand.

“Don’t call me Highness. I’m not that high,” she advised me. “Don’t call me Mari either, like most of my friends do. Everyone who has good sense calls me Icy Dagger.”

I smiled. I’d heard the stories about the Earth’s new princess getting annoyed at being called Cookie, Rosebud, Buttermilk, or Buttercup, and then Lamb. No one called her Icy Dagger except herself.

Icy Dagger was my call sign. I was ice through and through, but Marigold was all flames, like Loki, yet her flame was very different than his. Hers was the Titan and angelic flame, strengthened by her four demigod mates. Loki’s was the dark and destructive hellfire.

“Ice Dagger.” I bowed my head in respect. “You can call me Flame Seeker.”

She frowned at me. “It’s Icy Dagger.”

“My apologies,” I said, accepting her correction.

She tilted her head to the side, regarding me carefully. She tilted her head to the side, regarding me. “Who are you exactly, Tessa? I ask this of you out of respect. Your origin feels familiar, and your ice magic can’t shield it from me.”

She was a straight shooter. No beating around the bush. She wanted an answer, so either I was with her, or I was out forever. No one on Earth was more powerful than the Titan princess, even though the citizens didn’t know a damn thing about it.

Blood called to blood. That was how I felt.

Her power rippled in every square inch of the room, yet not in a showy or possessive way. And she leashed it tightly. Hell didn’t diminish her and her death mate’s power, while it would weaken any other gods and demigods from other realms. But somehow, Hell’s heat didn’t neutralize my ice magic either, as if it actually welcomed my ice and frost.

“If you promise to keep it secret, then I’ll tell you, Princess Icy Dagger,” I said.

She smirked, amusement gleaming in her stunning green eyes. She might not be the most gorgeous woman in the universe, but her power was unmatchable. And power trumped beauty any day.

Marigold was a true princess in every way.

“I won’t tell, Flame Seeker, and I won’t bite. I bite only my mates, and they love it,” she said and raised a shield around us.

The dukes looked in our direction, leaning in from across the table, but none of them could penetrate the princess’s shield. While her magical bubble was impenetrable, her mate could hear our conversation just fine. He was a powerful death demigod, Hades’s heir, and her true mate.

They didn’t keep things from each other.

I let my ice magic drop and my Titan power brushed her shield.

The death demigod’s eyes widened for a fleeting second, but Marigold grinned.

“Just what I thought, Tessa,” she said. “You’re my kin. How’s that even possible? Dad never mentioned— Oh fuck, Mom’s going