Curse of the Fallen by Eve Archer
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Ella
“What is this place?” My voice bounced off the curved, stone ceiling as my eyes adjusted to the dimness.
I’d followed the screams, winding through the labyrinth of stone corridors overhead until I’d found one staircase and then another, finally descending narrow, twisting stone stairs that were worn shiny in the middle. The air had grown cooler, the scent of salt hanging thick in the air and making me think I was below sea level. I rubbed my arms for warmth as chills went through me and I regretted not grabbing a robe to cover my skimpy pajamas, although my shivering was more from apprehension than being cold. Flames flickered in the wall’s sconces, a sharp reminder of how old the castle was and how long Dominick and his fellow Fallen had occupied it.
The bottom of the stairs emptied into a corridor with an arched ceiling and walls made of stone. Lazy droplets gathered overhead and dropped one by one. To either side were more arches, these fronted by iron bars caked with rust. My mouth went dry at the sounds of moaning that bounced off the stone, and then a familiar female voice alternated with the deep timber of Dominick’s.
Their voices pulled me forward, even though part of me didn’t want to see what was beneath the floor of the castle. Rounding a turn, I saw the she-demon standing in a cell, and Dominick facing off against her on the other side of the bars. Jaya spotted me before Dominick was aware of me, her eyes flitting to mine. Then she smiled and scolded Dom with a shake of her finger, as if he was a wayward child.
Dominick turned and his expression was both shocked and angry.
I repeated my question, although it was pretty obvious I was in a dungeon. “What is this place, Dominick?”
Without answering, he strode toward me, grabbing my elbow and half-walking, half-dragging me back toward the stairs. I got a final glance of Jaya, her grin wicked as she folded her arms across her chest. I struggled to free myself from Dom’s grip, but he was holding me too tight, and moving too quickly.
When we reached the top of the stairs and emerged on the main floor of the castle, I jerked my arm from him. “You’ve really got to stop dragging me from places.”
“You really have to stop showing up in dangerous places.” His gaze drifted down my body. “Barely dressed.”
I folded my arms over my chest defiantly. “Why do you have a dungeon in this place?” I waved a hand toward the stairs. “Was that Dan’s voice I heard?”
His eyes flashed dangerously. “Yes, but if you’re going to plead for me to be merciful to him—“
“Nope,” I said. “That asshole tried to kill me, and almost killed my best friend. As far as I’m concerned you can let him rot down there.”
He lifted one eyebrow in amusement. “I think I like this malicious side of you.”
“I don’t have a lot of people in my life who’re important to me, but I fight for the ones who are.”
He tilted his head at me. “Then that is something else we have in common.”
“Do you normally keep prisoners down there?”
“This fortress is well over a thousand years old. Dungeons were very common during the time we built it. I don’t have dungeons in any of the properties we build now.”
I stifled a laugh. “You don’t have a dungeon in the Four Seasons or your nightclubs? I guess that’s good to know.”
He raked a hand through his hair. “I understand that this is all a lot to take in. The kidnapping, your friend getting shot, being brought to this island, but I need you to trust me, Ella.”
I wanted to laugh at that as well, but I couldn’t. Even though I had reason to run as far and as fast as I could from Dominick Vicario, I did trust him. He’d tracked me down and rescued me from the Solanos, and he’d helped me save Sara. I didn’t understand everything about his world, but in my gut, I knew that I could trust Dominick. Which included trusting him to keep Jaya locked up.
“I do trust you,” I said. “I just wasn’t expecting to walk into a dungeon that looks like it was built for the Crusades.”
He pulled me into his arms. “Who says it wasn’t?”
I gave him a playful slap on the chest. “Are you going to tell me where we are and what this place is?”
He began to walk me away from the dungeons, more gently now. “Don’t you remember the private Greek island I mentioned while we were on the yacht?”
I peered up at him. “We’re in Greece?”
“Technically, yes, although the Greek government does not interfere with us. We are autonomous, although our island sits in the Aegean Sea and is considered part of the chain of Greek islands.”
“When you said Greek island, I was expecting whitewashed buildings and blue domes.”
“This was built long before that became a standard in Greek architecture.” He glanced down at me. “Are you disappointed?”
“No.” I shook my head quickly, not wanting to seem ungrateful. “It’s beautiful. I’ve never stayed in a castle before.”
“We call it the fortress, and it was the first place we built as a sanctuary for the Fallen, and to defend ourselves from prying eyes.”
We walked through a massive hall draped in wall tapestries that depicted various angelic scenes, and finally into a surprisingly modern kitchen. The decor was consistent with the castle, but the appliances were modern, and top-of-the-line—just as they had been in his Venetian palazzo. Copper pots hung from the ceiling along with bundles of dried herbs.
“Clearly, you’ve made updates over the centuries.”
“You would not want me to cook for you on a spit over an open flame, I think.”
I grinned, as he patted one of the stools around the island. “You’re going to cook for me again?”
“Unless you’ve already eaten breakfast?”
I shook my head. I hadn’t, and now that I thought about it, I was starving. I hadn’t had a decent, relaxing meal in days, having been too nervous to eat much of anything when I was being held captive.
Dominick flicked on one of the gas stove burners, putting a small skillet on top, then he opened the door of the refrigerator and retrieved a bowl of brown eggs. “Aside from making excellent grilled cheese, I’m an expert at scrambled eggs.”
“I didn’t know one could reach expert level when it came to scrambling eggs.”
He gave me a mischievous look. “I’ve had many years to perfect this, remember?”
I did remember. I also remembered everything Jaya had told me about her and Dominick, and about me. “Do you mind answering a few questions while you cook?”
His hand twitched slightly as he cracked an egg into a smaller bowl. “I’ll tell you what I can.”
That seemed a little slippery, but I decided not to call him on it—yet. “The demon you’re keeping in your dungeon.”
“Jaya,” Dominick said. “She’s actually a succubus, which is a type of demon. Usually less dangerous and aggressive, but that’s not always the case.”
“She was involved in my abduction. She was with Anthony Solano for part of the time.”
The second egg Dominick had picked up shattered in his hand, sending gooey, raw egg all over the counter. He cursed in an unfamiliar language, wiping the mess away with a striped dishtowel. “If she touched you, I’ll—“
“She didn’t do anything to me,” I said, before he could detail what he would do to the demon. “But she did tell me some things.”
Dominick whipped the raw eggs briskly, not meeting my eyes as he poured the yellow frothy mixture into the hot skillet.
“Why didn’t you tell me that you were involved with her?” I asked. “She’s been stalking us since Istanbul, and you didn’t bother to mention that she’s your ex?”
Dominick scoffed at this word. “I would hardly call the succubus my ex, and it has been many years since then. Since succubi feed off sexual energy and need multiple partners to survive, she would have had hundreds—if not thousands—of lovers since me. It never occurred to me a demon would be jealous.”
Hearing that about Jaya made me feel a little queasy. “Thousands of lovers?”
“Sex is their sustenance.”
I glanced at the eggs sizzling in the pan. So much for my appetite.
“So, there’s nothing between you anymore?”
Dominick glanced up at me, his gaze intense. “There was never anything between us but sex. She was a distraction for me. Easy amusement without having to seduce a woman who might not be as flippant about sex. Exactly the opposite of what I have with you.”
I drew in a shaky breath, nervous about my next questions. “And what do you have with me? A fulfilled prophecy? A chance to be redeemed? The chance for all the Fallen to be restored? Just what am I to you?”
Dominick’s eyes closed for a beat, then he turned off the heat, dropped the spatula, and walked quickly around the stove to me, taking my face in both of his hands. “I should have told you about the prophecy, but you’d barely accepted what I told you about being a fallen angel. I was afraid that learning that you had an angel’s trace on you, and that you might be part of some ancient prophecy that I don’t even know is true, would push you over the edge.”
He had a point. There would have been little chance I would have believed that about myself. It was one thing to believe that Dominick was a fallen angel after seeing him unfurl ebony wings. It was quite another to believe that I had celestial connections and could be the answer to the redemption of all the Fallen.
Even so, tears burned the backs of my eyelids. I wanted to believe that his feelings for me were as real as mine for him, but me having whatever angel mark I had muddled everything.
“Your angel mark might have drawn me to you at first, Ella.” He dragged his thumb across my bottom lip, his dark eyes molten as he locked them on me. “But I fell in love with all of you. I’ve known you were meant to be my mine since the first night we met, but every moment I’m with you makes me believe it even more.”
I huffed out a shaky breath, the intensity of his words cocooning me in their warmth. Still, I had to ask him one last question. “Even if the prophecy turns out to be total crap? Will you still believe I’m the one then?”
“I’ve been searching for you since I was cast from heaven,” he husked, his lips so close to mine they buzzed the tender skin. “No matter what happens, you are mine and I am yours. Forever.”
I nodded, choking back a cry as he crushed his lips to mine.
