Wings of Hope Read online

  The crowd stilled. At first, I didn’t sense the change in the air until only the hunter’s breaths and my own panting could be heard. I felt him—sensed the crawl of Mammon’s element. I couldn’t turn, not while the hunter tracked me.

  “Continue,” Mammon ordered.

  Good. I would get my kill. I struck, fast and lethal. The hunter snapped and pirouetted, tracking me, trying to get a fix on my location with its one eye. I forgot the crowd, forgot the tease of his element. My claws, short as they were, found the hunter’s hide and tore through its flesh. Sinking my fangs into its leathery neck, I pinched my jaw closed and wrenched muscle and tissue free. Blood spurted, and the beast collapsed beneath me. I felt the flight of its death in my veins. The crowd fell silent. They’d expected me to die in their pit.

  I found Mammon standing tall near the back of the cavern, his vast wingspan almost embracing the entire crowd. His eyes swirled with the burnt-crimson hues of fire. Between his parted lips, his crescent fangs gleamed. I should have stepped down. It was over. My opponent was dead. They’d had their fun. My place as a half-blood dictated I bow my head and merge with the background, becoming insignificant once more. But a curious burst of defiance shoved all of my ‘should have’s’ aside. I thrust out a hand, twisted my fingers in the shaggy hair covering an elemental who dared stand too close, dragged him into the pit, and sliced his throat open. Wide-eyed, he collapsed, perhaps seeing the truth of me for the first time when I smiled down at him. “Remember me in the underworld: the half-blood plaything who tore your throat out.” I flashed him my fangs and watched the light snuff out of his eyes.

  I saw a dash of movement to my left. I ducked, spun, and kicked out, abruptly ending my attacker’s flight. She hit the ground with a startled grunt. They assumed I was weak. This female at my feet would not get a chance to underestimate me again. I noted her surprise, as I straddled her, punched my thumbs into her eye sockets, and buried my claws into her skull.

  A missile hit me from behind, knocking me off my victim. Cool, slick skin fizzled against mine. His claws pierced my waist. His teeth clamped into my shoulder muscles. Steam popped and hissed between us. My blood boiled. I’d kill them all.

  “Enough!” Mammon’s bellow barely penetrated the bloodlust consuming my thoughts.

  I jerked my knee up into my opponent’s groin and impacted hard with the fleshy, vulnerable parts between his legs. His cool breath whooshed out of him, and then Mammon plucked him off me and tossed him into the fleeing crowd. I bared my bloodied teeth at the Prince of Greed. His element surged in response, wrenching the air from my lungs as cool, clear sparkles of lust chased the fire through my body. Lost to the killing frenzy, I issued a challenge with my gaze.

  He reached down to pick me up. I hissed and snapped, hurling a warning growl his way. His midnight eyes, flecked with fire, shamelessly devoured the sight of my bloody body. He breathed steadily, watching, assessing, calculating. If he touched me, I’d fight. He was not my owner. He did not have the right. Prince or not.

  Mammon stepped back and huffed a chuckle. “You surprise, little half-blood.” He raked a curious gaze over the dead elementals and the lesser hunter in the pit. “Not an easy accomplishment.”

  “Did you know?” I nodded at the dead. Had he been part of this game?

  His black lips pulled back in a predatory grin. Of course he knew.

  I dragged my beaten body onto my feet, spat blood into the mangled dirt, and lifted my head to Mammon. “Do not let my human half beguile you.” I echoed his words, almost to the letter. A half-blood I might have been. I knew my place, but I’d fight like a beast if cornered.

  He turned with a sweep of his grand wings and strode from the cavern, with me trailing behind, dripping blood, trembling with the effects of killing, but standing tall.

  * * *

  I walked the halls of the fortress, head high, wings relaxed behind me. The elementals gave me a wide berth and bitter glares, but none challenged me. They’d underestimated me. None who’d seen me in the pit would make that mistake again. I would tear their throats out if they did. Their dead kin could attest to that.

  Fire throbbed in my veins and danced in my heart. Something fundamental had shifted. It had always been there, inside, smothered beneath self-disgust. Mammon called it defiance. And hope. Was that what this feeling was? Hope? In just two days and two nights, Mammon had opened my eyes. He’d shown me how to summon my element, although I was still a little tentative when it came to controlling it. He hadn’t chained me. He hadn’t beaten me or rucked me, nor had he hurt me. Throwing me in a pit with a hunter wasn’t a malicious act. He’d challenged me, tested me, and looked upon me almost as though I deserved his attention. I didn’t understand it. He was an immortal chaos elemental. Ageless. A First. What could he possibly want with me? But I didn’t care. Whatever he did, it would have been worth it just to walk these halls like one of them, like an equal. I could have laughed. A half-blood striding his dark halls… Da’mean would be furious.

  Thoughts of Da’mean quickly doused the fire in my belly. My fear of my owner was a visceral thing, a madness of the mind rendering me weak and impotent in his presence. I feared my owner more than any beast, more than Mammon. I would return to him, and this shoot of hope would wilt and die. Perhaps that was Mammon’s cruel game: to nurture my hope and then watch me walk away from it. There was nothing I could do. I would return to my owner, and all of this—the fortress, the tales of a world where humans thrive, the pit in the bowels of the rock face, the prince who wore a human vessel—would all be beyond my reach.

  Was that all I deserved? Did I exist simply for the amusement of others? Was that all I was worth? I’d thought so. But Mammon’s honeyed words belied the doubt I’d harbored for so long.

  Lost in my thoughts, I found myself in a narrow receiving hall. Tanned hides hung as trophies on the walls. The curious symbols I’d seen marking various doorways decorated the curved stone canopy. Clearly, those symbols were significant, but unable to read them, I had no way of knowing what they meant. More were scattered along the floor, etched into the stone, elaborate flourishes and interconnecting whirls. They were beautiful, but they were also dangerous. Some of the markings seemed to repel my element, others prompted it to surge of its own accord.

  My feet carried me forward, down the path of symbols leading toward an enormous door. Voices and elements spilled from inside. I inched closer as the elements coiled around me. Water, fire, earth, air, life, and another, darker pull, something forbidden, something rare and tempting. I settled my hand on the door and peeked inside. A great hall stretched seemingly into eternity. Torchlight danced over the bleached lesser skulls adorning the walls.

  Two empty black stone thrones sat proud on a dais. Flecks of light sparkled like diamonds on their smooth surface. In front of the dais stood the Seven. I froze. My breath lodged in my throat. They were magnificent beasts, proud and glorious in their elemental grandeur. One was clearly water. His huge, serpentine body coiled around the throne room and disappeared off in the distance. Another behemoth towered over Mammon, twice his colossal size and so vast his breath tugged the air around my face. I sensed Mammon’s fire and saw him among them, but there was another fire prince present, his crimson flesh peppered with metal rings. Jagged, angular wings jutted high over his shoulders. His metal piercings chimed with each movement, even as they glowed white-hot. A tail lashed behind him, knotting and freeing itself. When he spoke, his voice grated through my skull like shattered crystal.

  They conversed quickly in the old language, undermined by snarls and growls. Their elements crowed the air, pushing and mingling, vying for space. The air strummed tight with power. On the wall, the symbols glowed and shimmered, slipping through the rock as though it were liquid. Conflict hung ripe between them. They despised one another. I felt their restrained rage thinning the air and tasted the anticipation on my lips. I should not be here.

  My gaze returned to the crimson lord. His sk
in was smooth and slick with a sheen of elemental power. His lean frame revealed him a beast built for speed and cunning, not the brute force of Mammon. Filtering the elements through my mind, I found his and recognized it as my own. How could that be? He swung his horned head around and pierced me with his gaze. His power pushed into me, speared my soul, and tugged back, wrenching a cry from my lips. I spun around, staggered, almost falling in my rush to get away from the door, and I ran.

  * * *

  “Enlighten me as to how you have survived this long?”

  Ahkeel paced my chamber, back and forth, with commanding, powerful strides, his body tense and muscles taut.

  Perched on the edge of the bed, knees drawn up, wings clamped closed, I observed quietly. I hadn’t deliberately searched for the Court. But I had been drawn to the throne room. The swell of so many lingering elements had lured me in.

  After the crimson lord had spotted me, I’d fled to my chamber and waited out the rest of the day, acutely aware of the passing time.

  “The humans have a saying, dear Muse, that I find quite apt in this moment. Curiosity killed the cat.”

  I gathered I was the cat, whatever cats were. “I did not mean–” He held up a hand, silencing me, and paced some more.

  “Foolish… Impudent. You are a half-blood. What were you thinking roaming these halls?”

  “I will kill any who tries to hurt me.”

  He stopped pacing and glared. “You would die trying. Do you believe your display in the pit proves anything? You are undisciplined, sloppy, impulsive, blinded by rage, tricked by human emotion. Fast, you might be. Lucky, yes. Do you wish to die?”

  I blinked back at him. “What else is there?”

  He snorted a derisive sound and smiled. “You are mortal and in such a hurry to discard your short life.”

  “Who was the crimson lord?”

  Ahkeel clamped his teeth together. His eyes sharpened to slits. “Asmodeus.”

  “I know him.”

  “By blood. He is your sire, your father.”

  Oh. “No.” He couldn’t be. I was bloodspawn of a prince?

  “Yes.”

  I shook my head. It wasn’t possible. “He is a prince. They were all princes, all Firsts.”

  “Asmodeus, myself, and Leviathan are Firsts. The others earned their titles more recently.”

  I swallowed hard, my throat suddenly constricting. “Did he know me?”

  Ahkeel’s lips did a curious half rise, a mockery of a smile. “No. And even if he did, he would not care. You no more feature in his thoughts than the scurrying creatures beneath his feet.”

  Well, that was somewhat comforting.

  He sucked in a breath and raised a hand to his head while casting his gaze about the room as though searching for something, but his focus was off.

  I glanced behind me, wondering what he’d seen. Realizing the looking-but-not-seeing must be a human thing, I quietly, clearly, said, “I am going to kill Da’mean.”

  “No,” he replied, his tone flat.

  Scowling, I bared my fangs. “It will happen.”

  “A half-blood may not kill her owner. You will be executed for your indiscretion. Any elemental could collect on the bounty. Should you succeed, you would make yourself a tasty morsel for the savagery of our brethren.”

  Then what was all of this for? “Why did you bring me here?” Anger and frustration twisted my words into snarls.

  “Greed is who I am. I saw you, a tantalizing half-blood with fire in her soul. I wanted you. I will not be denied. I get my wants, without fail.”

  “Yes, but I am nothing. Is it because Asmodeus is my father?”

  “That is one motive, yes. I have my reasons, and you will not query me.”

  “You have done nothing but tell me of things I cannot have, stories of impossible worlds where humans talk with one another across continents, where sustenance is delivered to their dwellings, where they paint the sky with pyrotechnics, and how they pleasure and care for one another. I can never have these things. It is all sweet fantasy. And all it does is remind me of my failings.”

  He was on me in a heartbeat, his hand wrapped around my throat as he flung me down onto the bed. I found myself staring at the ceiling of my chamber, my wings trapped beneath me. My skin sizzled the furs on my bed, filling my nostrils with the smell of singed fur.

  “Forget your failings, and consider your strengths.” His face filled my vision. His true form rippled beneath the bronzed flesh. “Would you prefer I treat you like all your previous owners?” He leaned in, pulled his lips back, and revealed lengthening fangs. “Is that what you wish?” His hand rode up my side, impervious to my superheated flesh. He pushed his element into me, deliberately smothering my thoughts beneath the weight of his power. “You forget yourself, half-blood. My reasons are my own. I will do with you as I wish.” An amber halo ringed his eyes, the elemental in him bubbling close to the surface. “If you would prefer, I will beat you, cage you.” He bowed closer, close enough that I felt his breath on my cheek. “I could claim you in every way a male should and send you back to your owner, spent and broken. I have done far worse in my long lifetime and enjoyed every moment.”

  “Do it.” I sneered. This was how it should be. This I could understand.

  He pulled back, his hand still locked at my throat, and admired my body while the fire played in his eyes. Then, with the twitch of a smile, he shoved off me. I sprang from the bed and shook myself free of the scorched fur. He arched a brow and smirked.

  “You are afraid,” I snapped.

  His smirk bloomed into a full grin. “And you are one fiery she-devil who really should know better than to provoke the Prince of Greed. I preferred you when you were silent.”

  “What is a she-devil?”

  He waved my question away. “Kill your owner, and die for your crime. I am done with you.”

  “My liege?”

  “Leave.” He sighed and turned away.

  “But I do not understand. What did I do wrong?”

  He hesitated at the door. “Nothing. You have done everything right. Now go. If I return to find you here, I will have Samien do with you as he wishes. For an elemental, he has an explicit imagination.”

  * * *

  A ll of my bravado evaporated at the sight of Da’mean. Fear riddled my body like a disease. I had forgotten my place, forgotten his power over me. He didn’t speak when I entered the hut, just sat hunched by the hearth, picking at the remains of his meal.

  “You return too early.”

  I bowed my head and pulled my wings in. “My liege dismissed me.”

  A smile wormed its way across Da’mean’s lips. “He tired of you.” He huffed a satisfied snort and then got to his feet and crossed the hut in two strides. I recoiled, but the fist came down. Instinct flared. I blocked the blow with my forearm, and for a few captured moments in time, neither of us moved. His eyes widened. Terror dumped sickness in my gut. He roared and came at me with all of the strength of his monstrous muscles. I tried blocking, but his powerful arc broke through my defenses and beat me down. I hissed. He punched his knuckles into my jaw, silencing me. I was too small a thing, too fragile. The blows rained down on me, one after another, relentless, merciless.

  He rocked back on his heels, wiping spittle from his mouth, and smiled. “I claim you, my muse.”

  Fire fizzled and died inside as I guarded myself against the inevitable. I shut it down, buried it all. The pain, the horror, the disgust. I smothered it, closed my eyes, and succumbed to my fate.

  Pain is relative. What I experienced wasn’t like any pain I’d suffered before. I knew what he could do. Physically, he could only hurt me to a point. But it was the mental anguish that caused me the most distress. Drifting through the realm of unconsciousness, I thought of a world where humans cared, where hope was cherished, not trampled on, and it sheltered my fire from the worst Da’mean could do.

  Days later, when it was over, when I’d healed enough to
hobble from my cage, I stole the first moment I could, and fled. Da’mean had left me alone, satisfied I wouldn’t flee. I’d run before and failed every time. Not this time. I ran like the wind, burst through the undergrowth, and pummeled the earth beneath my feet. He would not capture me. Not this time. Bruised moonlight spilled over me. Lesser demons stalked the thick vegetation. They would rip me to shreds should I fall. Superheated breaths burned my lungs. Fire licked across my skin. I would get to the shore. The air tasted sweet, like freedom must.

  I fell and tumbled into the gnarled embrace of tangled roots. Vines instantly looped around my legs, snaked up my thighs, and knotted around my waist. Fire slithered across my skin, freeing my body of the restraints. I had to keep moving. In the next breath, the next step, he might find me.

  A growl bubbled from behind me. I lunged forward, bursting off my back foot, lurching into a run, but something snagged me hard and fast by the wrist. I yelped and spun. The chain coiled around my wrist snapped tight, and my senses finally cleared enough for me to recognize who held me captive. The expression of perverse glee on my owner’s face threw me into a wild panic. No, no! I’d nearly made it this time. Bursts of hisses and snarls boiled up from inside me.

  I pulled and jerked, trying to twist the links from my wrist. I couldn’t go back to his cage. I wouldn’t. Fire sparked through my veins, angry, defiant, hungry. Da’mean gave one great tug on the chain and pulled me clean off my feet, dumping me facedown in the dirt. He planted his foot on my lower back, grinding my pelvis into the earth, and laughed. The sound of that laughter clamped ahold of my heart and froze my thoughts. I stilled, breathing hard.

  Think. I wasn’t as strong as him. I needed to reason my way out of this. Turning my head to the side, I tried to get a glimpse of him, but the moonlight bathed him from behind, blinding me to all but his imposing silhouette. His cool hand gripped the rise of my wing, and the glint of a light off a blade plunged fear through my chest, wrenching my breath away.