Rejected Queen by Meg Xuemei X.

CHAPTER 8

Tessa

 

 

 

 

 

 

I roamed around Loki’s red castle, escorted and guarded by Asmodeus.

Two elite demon guards trailed behind us, their claws gripping twin axes.

Surprisingly, the two guards were purebloods but loyal to their half-blood king. Loki was trying to bring all sections together. He wasn’t just the king to the half-bloods; he ruled the Underworld.

The king had gone to Sydney, Australia, for an emergency conclave between Hell and Earth. In one of the neutral zones, the conflict between demons and the Dominions had escalated again.

“Nothing to worry about,” the Duke of Wickedness told me.

The duke had boyish good looks, even though he was nearly two hundred years old. His medium-length horns were on the cute side, rather than intimidating.

“Why would I be worried?” I asked him.

“I don’t know,” he said with a small shrug as he sent me a sidelong glance. “You tell me.”

“I have nothing to tell ya,” I said.

“I wouldn’t be so sure.” 

I trekked through the winding corridors and into one of the game rooms. I’d toured the castle before under a disguise. There were over a hundred guest rooms, several dining halls, tea rooms, and entertainment suites. There were also a few sex dungeons. The demons were twisted, horny creatures who served sex and violence as daily dishes.

And Loki was their king.

For a breath, I wasn’t sure if I should be worried or turn a blind eye, as I was getting closer to him. I hadn’t seen his brutal, dark side, but he had to have those traits to control his demon subjects. Hell’s species made me think of Ragnarö’s bloodhounds. Only one kind of creature spawned from an inferno; the other came from dirty ice.

The Duke of Wickedness wouldn’t leave me alone to my thoughts. He kept flexing his arm muscles while looking over his shoulder to watch the movement of his butt. Even more insufferably, he was the chatty type. As we prowled through two corridors, I’d heard three of his jokes.

Neither I nor the demon guards behind us spared him any laughter. The duke didn’t mind our reaction or lack thereof. He enjoyed a belly laugh at each of his own jokes.

“I don’t need a guard, Your Highness,” I told Asmodeus before his laughter died out. “I bet I’m perfectly safe in the king’s castle. There’s no need to follow me around. You must have better things to do and places to go. I promise to behave, and I certainly won’t get lost.”

“No way will I leave you unguarded, lady,” he said. “My king will have my head if a single silvery-pink hair of yours drops from your small, elegant head. You don’t know the king as well as I do. He might be all smiling, charming, and showing perfect, white teeth toward you, but he’s not what he seems. He didn’t become the King of the Underworld by being nice and sweet. You have no idea what he had to go through to be the man and the king he is now. You’re extremely lucky and you should celebrate every day that you’ve never met his father—Lucifer!”

My heart skipped a beat, but I kept my face blank.

Asmodeus shivered as if he couldn’t help it. I glanced at the pureblooded demon guards over my shoulder and caught them shuddering too.

I smirked. “He’s that bad, huh?”

The duke was cruel enough, and he was afraid of Lucifer. I wondered if he’d have a heart attack if he knew that I’d hung out with Lucifer for a week to get the full intel on Loki.

Lucifer might be creepy and beyond vicious, but after suffering through Ragnarö, anyone else was peachy.

“Wipe the smirk off your face,” he snapped, then shook his head in disgust. “Young, ignorant, and immature.” 

I wiggled my eyebrows at him. “There are plenty of old fools out there. You’re quite old, aren’t you, Your Highness?”

He stared hard at me, but the angle was wrong since we’d just turned a corner, so he failed to achieve staring me down. I was already on the move, my gait lithe.

“I’m not that old!” he grated. “I’m still a young immortal. I’m not even five hundred years old.”

“That’s a fossil,” I said.

“That’s it,” he said. “I’m done with this babysitting assignment. I always get the shitty gigs.” He leered at me. “If you don’t mind me being frank, Lady Tessa, I can’t see what my king sees in you. There are plenty of women out there who are prettier, more intelligent, have more prowess in battle, and are possibly better in bed, but the king’s had eyes only for you ever since you came into the picture.” He rubbed his chin and gave me the stink eye. “Maybe you’ve got this attitude that turns him on. You brush off everyone, including the king, unlike other women who try too hard and desperately drape themselves all over him. Fine, so you caught his fancy. But milady, I’m offering you a piece of advice for free. Attitude can only get you so far, and it gets old quickly. You’ll feel the hurt of the world when he eventually moves on. What will you do then?”

I grinned. “Cry a little and eat a lot of ice cream? I heard that in New York roasted garlic ice cream is a thing.”

That intel could be wrong, though, since it’d come from Snow White. She raved about it, giving it a five-star review. Reviews were still a thing on Earth and in Hell.

“Can you be more serious?” the duke barked. “I’m offering you some wisdom that I’ve never offered any other bimbo. I’m closest to my king. I’m giving you this insider tip since I don’t want to see you slip. The king and we dukes grew up together. He worked damn hard to get where he is now, and we worked our asses off to help him. Our brotherhood bond is as deep as the ocean.”

He had no idea how much I knew about his king’s past, and I’d seen Loki’s other side that no one, not even his dukes, had seen before. The king was a complicated man.

“Perhaps you should change your royal title from the Duke of Wickedness to the Duke of Wisdom and Anti-Bimbos,” I offered.

“It’s like talking to a wall,” he sighed, rubbing his temple instead of his chin now. “No other woman frustrates me more than you, except for Princess Celeste.” 

The dukes and the demons called Marigold by her demonic birth name.

“If you know your king that well, what’s his weakness then?” I asked. “Women, power, or something else?”

“I’m not going to tell you his weakness.”

“Sorry I asked.”

He considered me for a long second. “You. I think it’s you, unfortunately.”

My pulse spiked, and a trail of frost escaped my lips.

I should not dip my toe into this dangerous, dark water. They couldn’t know that Loki was my mate, whom I’d come to kill.

Asmodeus stared at the frost turning to steam and vanishing in Hell’s heat.

“You’re the opposite of my king,” he murmured, musing on it. “He’s fire and you’re ice. Opposites attract. But ice and fire should be fighting instead of getting along.” He shook his head. “This new world doesn’t make sense anymore. I liked my old, familiar world, and I hate that the world changes so fast now. Anyway, I’ve never seen my king act that possessively. In fact, he was never possessive before. We used to share…well.” He shook his head as if wanting to wake up to another reality. “He even rebuked me and the other dukes for having dicks while we were around you.” He narrowed his eyes on me. “I volunteered for the first shift of guarding you. I wanted to see what you’re made of, but you remain a mystery—and I’m usually very good at figuring out women.” He clasped his hands. “That’s right. It’s the mystery part that gets to my king. He can’t leave a puzzle unsolved. He’s always been that way, even when he was a demon boy.”

“I’ll leave you to your own amazing thoughts then,” I said and strode through a cozy hall that led to the library, my destination.

I bet I’d bore the duke and the guards to tears if I held a book for a long time. When they napped, I’d sneak away. I had things to do and other places to go.

I sauntered into the enormous library, the duke sidling up to me and the demon guards trailing behind us. I regarded the open timber ceiling and parquet floor.

“So, you like reading, huh, Lady Tessa?” The duke didn’t sound impressed.

I missed books. I couldn’t read Earth languages completely accurately, though I’d managed to extend the linguistic gift Lucifer had granted me from verbal to written words after some trial and error.

A sense of calm I hadn’t felt for a long time washed over me as I stood on the stairs between a large bay window and an alcove, looking over rows of shelves filled with books. 

“Don’t you like to read, Duke of Wisdom?” I asked.

“I’m not the reading type,” he snorted, his horns vibrating a little. “I’m the fucking and fighting kind. The king, however, likes to come here. He said this was the quietest place in the realm. But he doesn’t come here to read. He dozes over those thick books or sleeps off the effect of a late night’s hangover. We’re demons. We party and fuck and kill.”

The pureblooded guards following us nodded in approval.

“You’re actually proud that you don’t read,” I said.

“Why the hell not?” he challenged me. “Only dudes with small dicks read. They have nothing to show and nothing to gain, so they seek hot chicks in books and go to corners to jerk off.”

The demon guards traded another look of utter agreement.

“Some small dicks don’t go to the corners to jerk off,” one of the demons offered confidently. “They jerk off in their pants.”

“They have to drop their pants first,” the other demon said.

I pointed at the study in the rear. A rosewood table was parked in the center of the room, a tall glass bookcase had been adorned with a private collection of artifacts, and a large painting of ice wresting with fire was draped across the entire far wall.

“I’ll just go into that room to read a book or two. It’ll be a long while before I even move away from my chair. You do whatever you feel like doing.”

“That’s King Loki’s private study,” said the duke. “It’s forbidden for anyone else to go in, but the king said to give you whatever you desire.” He shrugged. “So you can go in if you must.”

“Hate to disappoint, but I must,” I said.

I strode into the stately study that smelled of varnish and spring flame. It also carried Loki’s lingering pleasant musk scent. I jogged to a cushioned chair and settled myself in. Pressing myself against the high chair and making myself comfortable, I picked up a book left on the rosewood table and started to read, though I had no idea what the book said since it wasn’t written in English or a demonic language. There were drawings inside, though, and that was good enough.

“I understand clearly that you’re more than eager to get rid of us, especially me, Lady Tessa,” the duke said, his dark eyes suddenly turning sharp and serious as they locked on me. “I can read a woman’s body language just fine, even yours. So I’m going to say this openly to you and say it once.”

He waved the guards out and shoved the door closed behind him with his boot. There were only the two of us in the study now. We stared at each other.

“You aren’t what you claim to be.” He lowered his menacing voice. The hair on my neck stood up as I recognized another predator. He’d pretended to be dumb, waiting for me to slip, and I hadn’t cooperated. So he was a little pissed off now. I remained cool but ready to strike back if he initiated something. “Our spymaster dug into your background. You aren’t in any database, not even in the system of the demigods-controlled regions. You aren’t merely off the grid, and you’re more than a ghost. Who are you and why exactly are you here, Lady Tessa?”

My pulse quickened. I sighed in exasperation to disarm him and rested my chin on my knuckles so my hand was close to the poisoned hairpin in my braid. I should have worn my armor, but it needed to recharge.

My ice magic was slowly returning, but I’d be able to fend off the duke with the combination of my hidden blade and a poisoned hairpin.

I arched an eyebrow, waited, and smiled at him. “Last I checked, Duke of Wickedness,” I said, “I do not answer to you.”

“I expected you to say just that.” He gave me a long look. “But I bet you joined the Bride Trials for a different purpose than any of the other women. My king doesn’t care who you are as long as you’re you, his Bunny. But the other archdemons and I aren’t King Loki, who can no longer see hard facts when it comes to you. His Majesty is everything to us, and it’s our duty and privilege to cover his blindside and guard him with our every breath.”

He drew back and seemingly grew another inch in height, his twin horns straightening. “Don’t exploit his weakness because he’s never treated any other women as he treats you. Don’t screw him up and don’t make him a fool, lady.” 

The Duke of Wickedness opened the door and left.