Hellfire Crown by Meg Xuemei X.
CHAPTER 10
Tessa
Esme, Pythius, and Leviathan stared at me with anger, distrust, and violence singing in the air, and I stared back at them. Their stares moved from the sanjiegun in my hand to the corpse and then to me again.
Did they seriously think that I’d slaughtered the woman in cold blood? But then, I didn’t have a good track record with them. I’d proved to be an efficient killer in the trials, and they’d all learned that I was a world-class assassin sent by the most feared being, Lucifer, to the Underworld to kill their king.
But that was before their king had turned out to be my mate!
The Duke of Envy jerked up his head from the grotesque sight of the dead woman and raised his hands in a half-hearted gesture of surrender, in an attempt to pacify a cornered animal, or a possible serial killer—me.
I sighed. I’d been misunderstood countless times, and this was one of the more ridiculous, bad situations.
“Easy, Bun—” the Duke of Envy started.
“This isn’t a good time to call her Bunny,” the Duke of Deception snapped. “Plus, the king will strike you for using his exclusive endearment.”
“He didn’t trademark it. Perhaps you should remind him,” the Duke of Envy sneered before turning to me again. “I left you for two seconds, and you’ve already got yourself in some shit. My king will yell at me for an hour for sure when he returns.”
“He might even backhand you if you talk back,” the Duke of Deception offered.
Esme regarded me silently while the two dukes bantered.
“Look,” I said. “I don’t know if it’s in your capacity to believe me anymore, but I have nothing to do with the woman’s death. I was tracking your king since he left in a hurry”—I gestured at Esme—“with you.”
“You pushed my king away, regardless of his feelings for you,” Esme said, anger in her voice and fire in her eyes. “Now that he keeps his distance you start to chase him, demanding he pay attention to your every whim?”
“He’s my m—” I stopped myself, and my temper rose. “It’s not that I don’t want him near me! We all know what’s at stake until I can get this blood contract under control.”
“You’ve caused Loki great pain,” Esme accused. “No woman has ever been able to hurt him like that until you came along.”
“It was never my intention to hurt him.” I threw up a hand in exasperation. Esme was no longer my biggest fan, after having learned about my connection to Lucifer. “Relationships hurt, and there’s no perfect relationship.”
“Then why pursue it?” Esme demanded.
“Your king is worth it,” I said softly.
The tension in Esme and Pythius’s faces softened, but then my expression hardened. “Anyway, I tried to track Loki, but I bumped into a demon having sex with the victim.” I gestured at the woman who was missing half of her face in case Loki’s hostile inner circle missed the point. “First, I thought I caught Loki and Esme screwing—”
“You what?” Esme shrieked.
She used to be really cool. Recent events, the bad news about Lucifer, and fear for her king had taken a toll on her.
“What?” the Duke of Envy asked in confusion.
The Duke of Deception just shook his head at me.
We moved closer to the corpse, so we could possibly figure out what had happened and also yell at each other at close range.
“So gross! How could you even have that kind of dirty mind?” Esme was still yelling at me, her eyes burning. “The king raised me like family!”
“But he’s bedded a lot of women before,” I said weakly as I tried to defend myself.
“Not me!” Esme kept yelling. “Loki is like a big brother to me.”
“I know, I know,” I said sheepishly. She’d helped me even before the first trial. I was the ungrateful bitch here. But then, I hadn’t been myself ever since the blood contract had been activated. “Loki has a reputation with women, not a good one, so humor me if I was a bit suspicious and a bit paranoid.”
“He has never even looked at any other woman since you caught his eye!” Esme said. “Could you cut him some slack? He’s never bent his ways for anyone like he’s done for you. He’ll do anything for you and now he’s gone out of the realm to fix your mess!”
“How? Where did he go?” I demanded. “It’s my mess, and I should be there to fix it.”
“You can’t be there!” Esme glared at me. “You’re stuck in the realm until the last trial. And your safety is everything to my king. Despite what you’ve done to him, he still ordered us to babysit you and guard you like a dragon’s treasure.”
I’d never seen Esme so agitated. Even the dukes eyed her warily; none wanted to cross her. I’d disrupted the dynamics of their tight circle when I entered Loki’s life.
“Do I look like I need anyone to babysit me?” I sneered.
Esme seemed to want to punch my teeth in. I’d really gotten on her bad side by associating with Lucifer, taking a bounty contract on Loki, then tactlessly mentioning that I suspected she and Loki were banging each other.
I was sorry, but I didn’t know how to say it outside my team. It was easier to deal with my own team. I missed Dux and Fayette terribly. And I felt so alone at this moment, without my mate or my warriors by my side.
“Ceasefire, ladies.” The Duke of Deception pressed his fist against his palm. He must have seen the forlorn look on my face.
It was a moment of vulnerability on my part. I never let my guard down or showed any weakness in front of my enemies, but these were Loki’s most trusted people.
“One step at a time.” The Duke of Envy nodded in agreement. “We need to figure out what the fuck’s going on here.”
“Stand sentinel, Leviathan,” said the Duke of Deception, “while we study the crime scene.”
“Why don’t you stand sentinel and let me have some fun for once?” the Duke of Envy said.
“Sure,” said the Duke of Deception. “Have fun with the corpse.”
The Duke of Envy grunted and stalked to the perimeter.
The Duke of Deception made me recount what had happened three times, from the moment I started tracking Loki.
“So the king’s smell lured you here.” The Duke of Deception tried to make sense of it. “Yet it wasn’t his scent.”
“I realized it a bit too late,” I said drily. “The scent was veiled, and I thought he was trying to hide something from me.”
“Not one to trust, are you?” Esme asked. The woman could hold a grudge longer than me. “Has my king ever done anything to make you distrust him so much? He declared his intentions toward you even though his close circle was against it.”
“Give it a rest, Esme,” the Duke of Deception snapped. “That’s for the king and the lady to work out. And you should be smart enough to know it’s always a bad idea getting between fated mates.”
“I think a powerful, vile presence might have tampered with and cloaked itself in the scent,” I said. “I felt such a presence today but couldn’t nail the source.” I paused for a painful second. “It almost felt like Ragnarö, my ex-mate, was stalking me in this realm.”
Esme sucked in a sharp breath. “The Ice God who has been hunting you?”
My breath grew heavy as I nodded. Loki had briefed his whole team about my background.
“But it’s not him,” I said, my throat parched with fear. “I’m sure it’s not him. However, the power I felt and his power seem to share the same origin. There could be a connection, but I can’t pinpoint it.”
“He could have sent someone else,” the Duke of Deception said grimly, staring at the victim’s half-eaten face. “We must get to the bottom of this, the sooner the better.”
“The corrupted scent here is still concealed, which means the killer is extremely powerful, as Tessa said,” Esme commented as she squatted beside the victim’s body, her mage magic probing and analyzing. “I’ve never encountered such a scent, but I’m certain the killer’s scent and the magical signature he left on the woman are not from a demon.”
“We’d recognize a demonic signature under any circumstances.” The Duke of Deception nodded grimly. “We need to call our king back. I suspect that some alien force is targeting Lady Tessa. We need Princess Celeste and her demigods to take a look at the murder scene as well to get a read.”
“We can’t reach them,” Esme said. “And I doubt they’ll be back very soon.”
“This is bad,” the Duke of Deception murmured. “When they return, the scent will have dissipated.”
Esme straightened her back and looked at me, the hostility in her eyes gone, replaced by a troubled expression. “You mentioned that you felt the same presence in the ballroom, Lady Tessa, and that was before the king took off. It can only mean that even our king didn’t feel the intruding presence.” She rubbed her temples. “As the King of the Underworld, he’d have sensed any alien presence that didn’t belong in his realm.”
“He didn’t sense me either when I first entered the Underworld,” I said. “Lucifer gave me magical access to the realm after I…signed the blood contract.”
Esme and the duke snapped their heads at me, panic and fear flashing in their eyes like a living wire.
“Lucifer is the original builder of the Underworld an eon ago.” The Duke of Deception looked into empty space. “Even though Princess Celeste and our king banished him to the Void, our king can’t prevent Lucifer and his chosen from accessing this realm. It’s still bound to the former archangel despite accepting King Loki.”
We traded a doomed look as a chill filled the space likeimpenetrable fog.
I hesitated before speaking again. “The intruding presence felt like it was from Asgard, the realm of brutal gods and goddesses. My ex-mate is half-Asgardian, but the scent isn’t his. He can’t get into the realm of inferno, as his very nature is the opposite of fire. But he could have sent someone else, someone incredibly powerful. It could be Lucifer’s doing as well. Since I haven’t delivered his son’s head to him, Lucifer might have lost patience and sent a second wave of assassins. He’s desperate to remove his son. Or worse, our enemies have gotten together and formed an alliance.” I let out a ragged breath. The lingering stench of blood and foul magic was making it hard to breathe. “I could be speculating or simply paranoid, but it doesn’t hurt to be vigilant.”
“I don’t feel good about this,” Esme said, face paling. “We need to guard Tessa around the clock. Whoever it is, they are targeting her.”
I licked my lips. “I’m not worried about myself. But all of you should not go to any place alone. You might all be targeted because of Loki or me.”
The Duke of Deception regarded me carefully. “Could the murderer be the angel of death? He knew you and he fought the king in the club. He might enjoy messing with us, and he can be a mighty foe.”
“No,” I said without a second thought. “Azrael smells different. His magic signature is different. He’s a death deity from across the galaxy. He has no interest in reaping souls in this world.”
“What does interest him then?” the Duke of Deception pursued.
I shrugged. “Who knows, but Azrael is a straightforward male. He wouldn’t play cat-and-mouse games like this.”
I wondered where the angel was now. He hadn’t showed up in the Underworld since his last fight with Loki. But then, one never could know with those powerful deities. They were as predictable as volcanoes.
“I have a hunch that someone lured Lady Tessa here for a reason.” The Duke of Envy stalked back. He was done playing sentinel. “This is a message to her.”
The Duke of Deception eyed him. “And what is the message?”
“Aren’t you the spymaster, Pythius?” the Duke of Envy asked. “Shouldn’t you figure it out?”
Pythius ignored him and turned to me. “I’m not sure about the angel of death not playing games. He has a great interest in you, which makes my king and the rest of us very uncomfortable.” The Duke of Deception wouldn’t let go of this bone. “I need to know everything about him before I can strike him from the list of suspects. And Lady Tessa, a lot of males will show interest in you, but you must remain faithful to our king.”
The Duke of Envy and Esme nodded.
I threw up my hands. “Sometimes, you guys are the most ridiculous creatures.”
“Don’t call us creatures,” said the Duke of Envy. “And we’re only ridiculous half of the time.”
“Sometimes, boys like to play dumb. It’s their defense mechanism,” Esme told me.
They stared hard at her.
“I bet the new message is,” the Duke of Deception pondered, “a new powerful enemy has come among us and challenged you. And Lucifer might have indeed returned. First thing’s first, let’s start looking for the murderer who Lady Tessa saw.”
“It’s whom,” the Duke of Envy offered and elicited a glare from the Duke of Deception.
If Loki were the one being corrected, he’d simply backhand the offender and send him colliding into a wall.
Despite his legion of faults, I missed my mate terribly. I just wished he would have kissed me or talked to me before he took off to the Void.
