Underworld Bride Trials 1 Playboy King - Meg Xuemei X. Page 0,64

skin, and my breathing hitched. His every touch had become more and more addictive, as if I needed it like oxygen. I’d been starved for too long, and now that all my senses as a woman had awoken, the payback was a bit unsettling.

His eyelids grew heavy. “Just a demonstration, so you know.”

I murmured something as his scent of clean, powerful male, flame, and wood filled my nostrils, further muddling my mind.

I needed to shake off his sensual influence. Loki couldn’t help it, as his sexual power was part of him. He exuded it at every turn. Even though I might have better immunity than other females, I could feel its impact as well.

I wrapped my ice magic around me and felt my breathing ease again.

“Everything that happens in that reality feels just as real as here, but it’s all fantasy,” Loki continued. “In the end, before our avatars exit, the crystal will tell you a prophecy, and you’ll get an answer to your most urgent question.”

My heart clenched. If the crystal could do that, I could probably ask about my Ice Kingdom. No harm would come from merely asking a question, right? I didn’t need to believe the prophecy if I didn’t like the answer. Instead, I could gather intel and gain some insight into the future.

“It sounds too good to be true,” I said. “An unknown magical artifact can be treacherous.”

Loki laughed lightly. “My Bunny is afraid of a little challenge and fun.”

“I’m not your Bunny, and I came for the trials, not for fun.”

“That’s where you’re wrong, Tessa,” he said. “A wise woman once told me never to take any moment for granted. Even as immortals, life can shatter into pieces at any second. The biggest favor we can do for ourselves is to do our best and make every moment count. Live a little with me, as we don’t know what comes tomorrow. Plus, I’ve tested the crystal. I went inside the fantasy world before I showed you this.” His brows drew together with mock concern. “If there’s danger or any predator out there, please swear you’ll protect me, Tessa.”

I shook my head and snickered. The King of the Underworld was incorrigible.

A mischievous smile dancing in his emerald eyes, he placed a hand on one side of the crystal ball.

“True,” he pronounced.

The crystal’s blue color leached away, giving way to a clear sky inside the ball. Then the scenery shifted to a swirl of stars deep within the galaxy. I could hear enchanted music and wind calling from the stars.

“That’s my desire,” Loki said softly. “To travel with you to other galaxies and be completely free. The crystal ball turned my dream into a reality inside its fantasy world.”

“I might not be a good companion,” I said softly.

He smiled at me as if I were silly but in a cute way. “Time and chance are strange things, Tessa. You can spend a millennium with a person and never really know them. Yet you can meet a stranger and feel an instant, lifelong connection to them.”

“Fine, you’ve convinced me,” I said. “But should I also put a hand on the crystal? My desire is different than yours, so if we both try to claim a reality we want, won’t that cause a conflict?”

He removed his hand from the crystal ball, and it returned to a glowing blue globe.

“The crystal also tests our hearts and minds,” he drawled. “So, you’ll have to choose Truth or Dare, a game—”

“I know what Truth or Dare is about,” I cut in.

“Then you’ll know how to play, Tessa,” he purred.

I couldn’t articulate how or why, but part of me just trusted him deep in my psyche, contrary to any logic.

“True.” I laid my hand on top of the crystal ball.

The ball vibrated beneath my palm; the wind howled inside. Then the blue gave way to a landscape of frozen ice that extended endlessly until a white stone castle appeared atop a range of ice mountains.

Dark lightning flashed behind the mountains.

That was my Ice Kingdom, the place I’d escaped from eight years ago. I’d wanted to have a glimpse of it, and the crystal ball had showed me my home, exactly as it was.

My ancestors had ruled the Ice Kingdom for millennia until it was taken from my parents’ hands, their throne shattered. They were beheaded along with my brother and sister.

My breath caught and my eyes moistened at seeing my kingdom again, so real, right in front of me. But I couldn’t