Hate by K.A Knight

He brings us back and we appear in the cupboard just as the door is flung open. They must have felt us leave, but Aska, who opened the door, seems to know what happened. He throws Lucy a glare and takes my hand, leading me out, and then keeps hold of it as he brushes some hair behind my ear. “Neriso, my jewel, you were so far away,” he murmurs.

“Sorry,” I reply, and lean up and kiss him. He nips my lips in punishment. “Did you need me?”

“Always,” he rumbles, his eyes flashing, and Griffin fake gags.

“Fucking hell, let’s go see what your visitor wants, Vasculo, before you two fuck each other right here.”

That has me pulling back and looking away from my dragon, even though I’m tempted to do what Griffin just threatened. “Visitor?”

Lucy sniffs and then groans. “Xaph.”

Aska’s eyebrows rise. “The angel from the volcano...the sleeping court?”

“Angel? Well, this should be fun.” I look at Lucy. “You know what he wants?”

“Probably to be killed again.” He smirks.

Rolling my eyes, I head back to the throne room. This time we enter through a backdoor that Lucy guides us to and step right out onto the dais. There is a man there, staring out at the room, his back to his. But yeah, he looks like an angel. Halo and all.

He turns as we enter, his gaze clashing with mine for a moment before going to Lucy. “Serpent,” he snaps. “You kill me once more and I will banish you! Now, what has been happening here? I have been hearing whispers that you...you killed the council and put some, some woman child in charge.”

“I guess that’s me.” I laugh.

He dismisses me with a disgusted glance and a snort and looks to Lucy. “You abandoned your position. I have been too busy to chase you down! This is not a game, Serpent, you are mocking our laws!”

“Oh shut up for once,” Lucy retorts. “Why are you here? Left your little mountain, did you, to look down on the peasants below?”

Xaph narrows his eyes and tilts his head high in such a heavenly way I nearly laugh. What a pretentious asshole. No wonder Lucy killed him.

Tried, he regenerates, very inconvenient if you ask me.

“I am here to lead, since you clearly cannot. This, this can’t stand. I am here to remove her from power.” He sniffs.

“No, you’re not,” Lucy counters.

“Sorry, not going anywhere.” I grin.

“You cannot lead, you know nothing of our laws! Our ways! You’re a child...you’re a—” He stumbles.

“Woman?” I offer and raise my eyebrow. “It seems to me if there were less dick measuring contests and power games, we wouldn’t be in this mess in the first place, angel. I am a leader now, so suck it up and start acting like one yourself. If you did your job, we wouldn’t be this lost. Your lack of leadership is the problem.”

“She makes a good point, Xaph. This happened under your watch.” Lucy smirks.

The angel’s face turns red. “You know how hard it is to monitor all these creatures, they are always killing or doing something. I simply do what I can, under his grace.” He looks back to me and glares, his eyes flashing gold as he growls, “You are to be removed from your position.”

Yeah, Lucy isn’t allowed to kill him...but I can.

So I do.

As he turns to argue with Lucy, I take him by surprise. He turns just as I appear before him, his eyes widening as he stumbles back, but he doesn’t make a move to defend himself as I grip his head and twist, snapping his neck with a self-satisfying crack. His body tumbles to the floor as I dust off my hands and saunter back to my men.

Looking at Lucy, I shrug. “He was annoying me.”

I find myself very turned on right now.

“Too much information, Lucy.” Griffin snorts.

Lucy turns to him with narrowed eyes. “Only she calls me that,” he roars, just as a click sounds. We all turn to see Xaph’s neck straighten as gold shimmers across his body, and then he’s on his feet, blinking.

When he realises what happened, his mouth drops open. “You-you killed me! That is punishable by death!”

“I saw nothing.” Lucy shrugs.

“Me neither,” my men chorus behind me, and I wink at Xaph.

“Serpent, you can’t seriously expect us to let her lead. She clearly is not mature enough to uphold a prestigious position and seat such as this!”

“She is and can,” Lucy responds, yawning.

“Serpent!” Xaph protests. “She knows nothing! How will she lead? No, it cannot be allowed, she would need too much guidance and help.”

“I’ll help,” Lucy declares, and everyone gapes.

Xaph stares at him. “You will help?”

“Why not?” he asks, voice clipped.

Slowly, a smile covers Xaph’s face. “You are finally taking your place. It is good to see, even if your first stand is with this child. Fine, you wish her to be your responsibility, you shall have your way, but if she fails it will be on your head. Your position and life lie with her now. If she fails, you both die. Understood?”

“Understood. Now, you are boring me, so if that is everything…” Lucy drawls and turns to walk away, but Xaph stops him.

“It is not, in fact. She was not the only reason I sought you out. We have a problem, a big one, with the dragons,” he informs us.

“Dragons?” Aska echoes, stepping forward. “What kind?”

“They are breaking through, I saw it myself. Eight of them flew from the entrance to Klasfor and into the world.”

“But—” I stumble and look at Aska. “Why? Aren’t they trapped there?”

“Voluntarily. They didn’t want to be a part of this world.” He frowns, appearing confused. “If they wanted to come through...they can. I found a dead male, one from my childhood, not too far south of here. He had been killed in a challenge with another dragon, which is not uncommon, but if it is spilling into this world…” He shakes his head.

“Aska, what does this mean?” I inquire, getting a really bad feeling.

“Eight dragons,” he whispers, and looks to Xaph. “Did they go in all directions?”

Xaph nods.

“They are scouts,” Aska rumbles. “Here to scout the world.”

“Scouts?” I say with a frown. “What? Why?”

“Neriso, scouts come before a war...an invasion,” Aska explains.

“But why now?” Xaph snaps. “You are a dragon, you must know. They withdrew from this world several millennia ago, happy to die and breed in your own world. Why now?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t been home since they closed the gates. If they are sending scouts...coming here, it’s for a reason. We need to find out why and fast. Dragons aren’t known for making friends. They will burn this world if they want to do so.”

“Great,” I growl. “So first the council and now a dragon invasion, anything else?”

“We still need to deal with the rogue humans and witches,” Dume supplies.

Fuck.

The whole world is going to shit. Why now? What’s happening? Do they feel the unbalance of power? No, Aska would have mentioned it, but when I look at my dragon’s face, he seems worried, very worried. And something that concerns my untouchable dragon downright terrifies me.

“Okay, well, we will have to—”

“You, not we, child. You wanted the role, then you have the responsibilities associated with your position. Most of the dragons are heading this way, into your territory, and the door is closest to you. This is your problem.” Xaph smirks and looks to Lucy. “Try not to destroy the world.” Then, he disappears as swiftly as he arrived.

“What the fuck? The whole world is in danger and he’s all like ‘okay, bye, hold my beer?’” I snap, throwing my hands in the air.

Lucy snorts. “Regina, you will learn over the years there is always a war, a plan to destroy the world. It is so common it is boring. He knows it will not happen, we have seen it time and time again. He is giving us a challenge to prove ourselves or fail.”

“And if we fail, we die,” I conclude. “Brilliant, no pressure.”

“That is tomorrow’s problem, you will learn that soon enough. Until then, let us sort some of the council’s issues, clean up this house, and begin planning.” Lucy sighs. “I guess I’m going into teaching mode.”

“Yeah, I’m betting you didn’t listen a lot during council laws and proper leadership studies.” I snort and he smirks at me, proving me right.

All of our lives are hanging in Lucifer’s hands...that’s okay...right?

* * *

We returnto the sleeping court’s quarters, but go into a living room this time. It’s a little dusty, but still beautiful and definitely to my taste. It has large, charcoal, button sofas around the space with black accents, very little gold, and a huge fireplace. It looks homey, as much as a giant living room in a mansion can.

My mates sit down throughout the room as Lucy leans against the wall, his eyes far away. “We could do with a guard we trust for your door,” he suggests randomly.

“I have all these mates, not to mention myself.”

He raises his eyebrow as Griffin stands with a, “Need to pee,” and leaves the room.

“Not enough, I have an idea.”

Just then a pop sounds, and at Lucy’s side is a dog...well, more like a skeleton, but it’s dog-shaped for sure. I can’t help but melt. It’s so cute with little red eyes and flaming feet. I want to touch it.

So I do. I drop to my knees and reach for him. “Oh my God, you are so adorable!” I squeal.

“He is fierce, a killer, a—” Lucy stops, his mouth hanging open as I stroke his fur, cooing to him.

“Oh my gosh, who’s a little cutie, yes you are! Look at those sweet little flames, who’s a good boy with flames? Yes you are, yes you are.” The dog barks happily and rubs against my hands.

“Stop, woman, that is a fierce hellhound! Death itself, he—”

“Yes, you’re a good boy,” I gush, scratching his head.

“Woman!” Lucy screams, throwing his hands in the air as the dog flops onto his back and I scratch his tummy. “You have turned my hellhound into a slobbering puppy!” he protests, staring at his hellhound in disgust. “Get up, Hades, act like the demon you are!”

Hades ignores him and curls around me, rumbling happily. Just then, Griffin comes back into the room and spots the dog. His eyes widen and his nostrils flare. “Oh, hell no! Nope, we already have a wolf and a fucking minotaur, we have no more room for pets! None!”

“Oooh, I could get you a little bandana with skulls on it. Oh my God, we could get your daddy a matching one, yes we could,” I tell Hades.

“Vasculo!” Griffin roars. “I’m serious, no more pets!”

I blink at him. “He stays, problem?” I challenge, raising my eyebrow.

Griffin tosses his hands in the air as well—I have that effect on people—and leaves the room, grumbling about dog piss and stupid women. I look to Lucy. “Is this your guard?”

Lucy watches the dog in disgust as he crosses his arms. “Yes, he is a fierce, loyal beast...usually. He burns souls and eats them.”

“Oh my gosh, how cute, you are adorable,” I tell Hades.

I hear laughing behind me as Lucy glares at me. “Let’s sort the rest of the roles and go through what needs to happen now. Regina, please don’t tickle the hellhound.”

Grinning, I carry on with my ministrations. “Shouldn’t have brought him then! Okay, so what’s first?”

Lucy takes one more pained look at his dog before diving into what the people and council now expect. By the end my head is spinning. So many rules, so many expectations…so much to do, and fighting and killing won’t be the solution this time. Words and power games will be.

And we are only just beginning.