Debauched by Bella Klaus
Chapter Seventeen
Blinding headaches plagued me for a week, and I remained under Healer Iaso’s care the entire time. I suffered panic attacks throughout this time—not out of fear for myself. Weeks ago, I was a twenty-year-old with no ties, but now I had so much to lose. A husband, a daughter, beloved friends, and an entire faction of supernatural souls that we needed to keep in their place.
But the biggest worry of all was that I wasn’t making progress. If Azriel called that emergency meeting, I would be completely useless and a burden to Hades.
I lay in the darkened room with Hades and our daughter taking turns to keep me company. It was strange to think of her as Captain Caria, the woman who had arrested me for the trumped-up charge of espousal abandonment. Every time I saw her, I kept thinking of the little girl who had grown up to be an independent goddess who wanted to work for a living instead of becoming a princess.
The healer taught me to separate my mind into two compartments. One for the memories I had of being Kora, and the other for those Hades had unravelled.
It turned out that Mother had treated each new body with water from the River Lethe, which could make a mortal forget about their previous lives. The effect it had on goddesses was only temporary. Perhaps she had planned on dosing my food to keep me in permanent ignorance of my past life.
A gentle knock sounded on the door, and Healer Iaso stepped into the darkened room. “How are you feeling today, Your Majesty?”
I raised myself up to sitting, blinking away the last vestiges of sleep. “My head no longer hurts.”
The older woman smiled. “And your memories?”
My eyes fluttered closed, and I sucked in a deep breath. “Settled. I’m not sure if more of them will unravel, but at least I’ve discovered how to retrieve them without exploding with agony.”
“I will inform His Majesty of the good news. Are you ready to return to your quarters?”
When I nodded, the healer teleported me to a bright and airy lounge illuminated by huge windows on the entire right side that drenched the space with daylight. Oatmeal-colored sofas took up the space, with low tables etched in gold. A gilded portrait of Persephone hung on the wall beside one of Hades in his current youthful appearance.
I glanced from side to side, my lips parting with a gasp. The only thing that indicated we were still in Hell was the view of Mount Olympus. This room was a cross between something palatial and the penthouse I’d shared with Dami.
Healer Iaso got me settled on the sofa, and a white-haired water nymph brought a tray containing one of my favorite meals—red mullet served with a salad of feta cheese, tomatoes, olives, cucumbers, and red onions.
After a hearty meal, I retired to a comfortable chaise, only for the brass elevator to descend from the ceiling. I sat up and frowned.
“Hades?” I askedthrough our connection.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
“Fine, but who’s coming to see me?”
He chuckled. “Someone who’s been making a nuisance of herself for days. Whatever you do, don’t let her lead you astray.”
“Are you talking about Queen Mera?”I asked.
“Worse.”
The doors hissed open, and I stared into an empty elevator, wondering if this visitor of mine was wearing his Helm of Invisibility. I opened up my connection to Hades. “There’s no one there.”
“Look down.”
I lowered my gaze to find two cats walking toward me. One broke out into a trot, while the other wore a small backpack emblazoned with the shop sign from Dirty Den’s.
Dami leaped onto the sofa and climbed on my lap. I ran my hands through her silken fur. “Are you feeling better?”
She raised her head and gave me an enthusiastic nod.
“Have you shifted yet?”
She shook her head.
The water nymph unclipped Macavity’s backpack and laid it on the floor. It unfolded to reveal a large bowl of fish with an attached bell. My brows rose. How on earth had they ordered food by themselves with Dami unable to shift? I shook off that thought. She probably did it via some kind of app.
As she pushed her head into my belly, I rubbed the space between her ears and asked, “Did the enchanted sleep use up that much of your power?”
She nodded.
Fury heated my skin, and I clenched my jaw. This was all because of Mother and her wretched machinations. “Dami?” I asked. “Macavity?”
The two cats raised their heads to meet my gaze. Curiosity shone in their green eyes, making my heart ache. After everything they’d suffered, they still considered me a friend—even though Mother had targeted them because of me.
“I swear to you both that she won’t get away with hurting you,” I said from between clenched teeth. “Every minute of unnecessary sleep you suffered, every whisker she pulled, and every injury she laid upon you will be repaid tenfold.”
“Meow.” Macavity gave me a firm nod and continued eating.
Dami lowered her head with a purr of contentment.
I relaxed back on the chaise and continued stroking her fur. The Fifth Faction was secure. Hades had even returned to the pagoda to complete an extra round of maintenance, but I couldn’t fully relax.
Now that the headaches had gone and my memories had settled, I itched to do something other than sitting around, waiting for Azriel to summon us to this emergency meeting.
“Meow?” Dami flicked her head toward the elevator, which remained in the room.
“I wish I could go out with you, but I need to lie low until the time is right to move against Mother and her new husband.” I pressed a kiss on the tip of her nose. “By the way, I remember you.”
She tilted her head to the side, her ears twitching. “Meow meow?”
“I had a little brother called Dion,” I murmured. “Short for Dionysus. Mother kept him locked up in a house in the Human World, and only I was allowed to visit him.”
Her eyes flashed with recognition. “I made a contract with you to keep him company, and I was supposed to take you to him, when I left Hell over a silly argument.”
Dami made a mournful sound in the back of her throat. She knew the rest of the story. I had never returned to give her the assignment because the Great Divide had torn my body apart. I hugged her to my chest.
“Sorry I wasn’t there for you,” I murmured.
She released a long meow that sounded like she wanted to say it wasn’t my fault, but I made a note to apologize again when she’d built up enough magic to be able to shift.
Hades teleported into the room, clutching a scroll of parchment. “It’s time.”
My heart jumped into the back of my throat. Dami seemed to get the hint that I would soon leave, and she jumped off my lap to join Macavity in the never-ending bowl of fish.
“Are you sure?” I asked.
Hades wrinkled his nose. “The overwhelming stench of ozone could only come from one source.”
I scrambled to my feet, changing my silk pajamas into armor similar to the one I wore when we met Belphegor. Hades had commissioned it the moment Healer Iaso had assured him that my mind was intact. It protected against angel weapons as well as those wielded by demons and gods. Best of all, it contained a refined set of metallic claws that were invisible to the naked eye.
“Ready.” I pulled my shoulders back.
“Not yet.” Hades materialized his bident and held it out.
“Thanks.” I took the proffered weapon and grimaced. “Can’t believe I would forget something as important as that.”
“All right.” He turned and gave me a stern glare. “As discussed, you’re going to follow my lead.”
“Unless there’s an opening I can exploit,” I said.
Hades glared down at me through narrowed eyes. “I told you—”
The scroll in his hand glowed, filling the room with incandescent light. Dami and Macavity left their shared bowl to gallop beneath the sofa and yowl.
I turned to Hades, my mouth agape. “What’s happening?”
“It’s opening a portal whether we like it or not.”
“Azriel said something like that, but I thought it was an empty threat.”
Hades snorted. “Angels have a way of misdirecting while telling the god’s-honest truth.” He took my hand. “Come on. Let’s step inside under our own steam before we’re dragged by the might of Heaven.”
“How are you feeling?” I asked.
“I want to kill that bastard so much, my cock is hard.”
“Oh.” I stepped into the white light. “Please don’t tell me you’re thinking of doing something to his defeated corpse.”
Hades roared with laughter. “I was thinking of how I would take you good and hard against the wall after he was dead.”
Anticipation rippled through my insides and settled in my core as I moved through a void of blinding white light. We were about to walk into what was potentially an ambush, yet all I could think about was victory sex. Warmth spread across my chest. Being with Hades when he wasn’t suffering under the effects of a poisonous plant made me feel invincible.
The light faded, and I blinked the glare out of my eyes. As my vision returned to normal, I found ourselves standing in the aisle of a modern church of fifty-foot-tall white walls and mahogany pews. The scent of freshly cooked spaghetti sauce hung in the air, making my mouth water.
Hades placed a hand on the small of my back, and we walked toward the marble altar. Right now, I couldn’t tell if we were in the living world, the world of the dead, or anywhere in between. Faint orchestra music sounded from a door on the far left which opened up into an outdoor walkway leading to a small, white outbuilding.
We stepped into a white landscape of what appeared to be long worms that squelched underfoot. In the distance stood a volcano that erupted brown foam.
“For fuck’s sake.” Hades hurried me toward the building’s wooden door.
My gaze darted toward the spurting mountain. Something spider-like with long tentacles climbed up its slope, only to slide down whenever it hit the foam. On first glance it looked like spaghetti and meatballs, but I dismissed that thought as stupid.
“Have you been here before?” I asked.
Hades shook his head. “But from the looks of things, it seems that we’re in the Pastafarian afterlife.”
My mind conjured up an image of a man with dreadlocks. “Don’t you mean Rastafarian?”
“No.” He pushed open the door and ushered me inside.
Before I could ask if he was talking about a religion based on spaghetti, a reaper in a hooded cloak shouted, “King and Queen Hades of the Fifth Faction.”
We stepped into a white windowless room with wooden tables for two arranged in a tight circle. Isis and Osiris sat together, both looking thoroughly annoyed at being forced to attend this meeting with less than a minute’s notice.
To their left sat a shirtless man with skin as dark as theirs, adorned with white faceprint. He had arrived late to the Devil’s Ball, but I’d been too preoccupied with Mother and Samael to ask Hades about him.
“Who’s that?”I whispered into our bond.
“Shango,”Hades replied. “King of the Ninth, which governs South America. He’s one of the most powerful among us because people worship him across continents.”
“How many worship the Greek gods?”
Hades huffed a laugh. “Not enough to do much more than light a candle, which means we have to rely on our own innate magic, or in our case, the extra power bestowed to us by our angel overlords.”
Isis turned to us, her brow furrowed. She wore a white low-cut dress with a large necklace, and it looked like she’d been out on the town when she’d been summoned. Her gaze swept up and down my form. “Who’s that?”
Heat rose to my cheeks. “It’s Kora from the Devil’s Ball. This is my true body.”
She reared back, not saying anything for a while until her features smoothed again. “Do you know what this meeting is about?”
“No idea,” Hades lied. “What did they say to you?”
She turned to her husband and huffed. “A scroll appeared on the dining table. As soon as I opened it, we got dragged into a church.”
We sat at the table to the left of Isis and Osiris and waited for the others. Considering Hades must have had it for a moment before teleporting down to me, I expected us to be the last to arrive.
The door slammed open, and Hel stepped in, clad in a silk robe. “What a load of bullshit,” the rotted side of her face rasped. “I was in the middle of something important when the scroll dropped on my head.”
“Shagging your harem again?” Hades asked with a chuckle.
She half-sashayed, half-dragged herself to the seat next to us. “Some monarchs prefer to keep their options open,” she said with a sniff. “I happen to enjoy a selection of lovers, as is my prerogative.”
I turned to Hades and grinned. “Your smorgasbord of beauties has come to an end.”
He kissed the tip of my nose. “I would exchange all the women in the world for a single night with my beloved wife.”
“Where is everyone?” Hel hissed.
“An excellent question,” Isis said, her voice tight.
I shot a glance toward the reaper at the door, who cringed. They had a point. Only four of the nine tables were occupied. And there was no sign of Lucifer.
“Do you think they’re resisting the scrolls?”I asked through our link.
Hades rubbed his chin. “Azriel might walk around with an HD pencil up his rectum, but he’s the type who would carry out his threats. If the magic hasn’t transported them, then Samael must be plotting something.”
“Or someone leaked the purpose of today’s meeting and Samael’s running scared,” I said.
Hades drummed his fingers on the table. “That’s a possibility.”
Another door behind us opened, and Azriel stepped out, already clad in his gold armor. He’d styled his blond hair in loose waves to frame his pretty face, making me wonder if this style was to make him seem less threatening. He always appeared decidedly more masculine whenever I’d seen him with Namara.
His haughty features morphed into wide-eyed surprise. “Where are factions Two, Three, Four, Seven, and Nine?”
“What are you playing at?” Shango’s deep voice sounded like thunder. “If you are going to drag us to this room, then be a man and drag us all.”
Osiris burst into an impromptu round of applause. “Well said.”
Shango puffed up under the other monarch’s praise. I wondered if they knew each other from before the natural disaster that had torn apart the realms.
Azriel cleared his throat, reached into his inside pocket, and pulled out his computer tablet. His brows crinkled as he scrolled through its screen. “I sent off the invitations at the same time, and they would have reached you all simultaneously—”
“I have a quorum,” rasped a voice that made all the lining of my stomach ripple with disgust.
Footsteps clopped toward us, and Samael’s hooded figure stepped through the room. Mother walked at his side, clad in a white gown that hugged her curves. Behind her was a flaxen blonde with Mother’s features, only she looked like someone had filled her with too much air. Standing next to the young woman was a red-haired man with a body shaped like a pumpkin.
“Bloody Hell,” I muttered under my breath.
“Those are Demeter’s offspring?”Hades asked into the bond.
“Who else could they be?” I replied. “She got herself pregnant with an elixir and gave birth within days. It would make sense that she also accelerated their growth using something equally as dark and nefarious.”
Hades shook his head. “For fuck’s sake. I know she’s a fertility goddess, but they look like shit.”
I swallowed hard. The children reminded me of vegetables people would grow to huge sizes on television just to show off that they could produce monster-sized produce. Nobody ever saw people eating the item because they were full of water and starch.
My breaths turned shallow, and I placed a hand over my roiling stomach.
Mother hadn’t told me what she had done, but Samael had handed me a fertility elixir when he had ordered me to seduce Lucifer. It hadn’t fully registered until now that she’d cultivated these new demigods in such an inhumane manner.
“How could she do this to her own children?”I asked.
“Did you forget the past twenty years of your life?”Hades asked.
“She never disfigured me.”
He squeezed my hands. “She violated your mind. Scooped out the souls of the babies she purchased so she could have a pet. If Demeter hadn’t stopped trying to push me away, we could have joined forces to put you together.”
“Did she know you had my body?”I asked.
“She never gave me the chance to say,”Hades replied. “But she must have known because someone tried to steal your body. She also allowed Samael’s avatar to bring in an object that scattered those infernal seeds.”
Nodding, I remembered how Hades had managed to get through the wards to speak to Mother, only for her to chase him away with a dagger coated in her blood. If he hadn’t stepped out of stabbing range, he would have died.
Azriel spluttered. “What is the meaning of this?”
Samael pulled down the hood of his cloak, revealing his doctor disguise, only it had already started melting around the edges. A shudder of disgust ran down my spine, making me want to spit.
“It’s as I told you,” he drawled. “I have a quorum, and I arrive whenever I please.”
“What does that even mean?”I asked.
“The invitation was designed to drag one or two monarchs to the meeting place,”Hades said.
“Right.” I nodded.
“Samael and his family constitute three factions: Two, Three, and Eight.” He counted them off on his fingers.
My gaze jumped to the young man standing beside the blonde daughter. “And what about him? I’m sure that’s the boy Mother said she was expecting.”
Hades squeezed my hand. “No doubt Samael will regale us with something shocking.”
Samael rocked back and forth on his feet, his face splitting into a grin of serrated teeth. “As of this morning, my youngest child, Agori, took over the Fourth Faction. Central America is now under my domain.”
Azriel’s mouth dropped open. “You—”
“Yes,” Samael drawled. “Between me and my extended family, we now control Two, Three, Four, Five—”
“Not Five,” Hades snapped.
Samael’s gaze darted to where we sat, his eyes glinting with malice. “I thought you might betray us, Kora, which is why we formulated a contingency plan.”
I reared back. “What are you talking about?”
Samael stepped to the side and swept his arm toward the exit. “When your mother told you she was having a boy, she neglected to mention that she was expecting fraternal twins. Meet my beloved daughter, Koritsi.”
A red-haired woman stepped out from the door, clad in the type of green-and-white wrap dress I had worn the day Samael had forced me to step through the mirror and into Lucifer’s office. She was slender, unlike the other two of Samael and Demeter’s offspring, with large breasts and curvaceous hips.
Bile rose to the back of my throat. It was almost as though they had designed her to look like me.
Hades barked a laugh. “Agori? Koritsi? You’re the least imaginative set of naming conventions. Why not translate their names to English and call them Boy and Girl?”
My gaze returned to the Persephone clone, who held a leash, but I couldn’t see if she was pulling in a demon, a Hellsteed, or a Hellhound.
“Come along.” She tugged at the strap of leather.
Hades’ barbs faded into the background with the roar of blood rushing through my skull.
Stumbling into the room was a pale-haired, dull-eyed Lucifer.
