Hellfire Crown by Meg Xuemei X.
CHAPTER 24
Tessa
“Not so fast, my dear, dear Tessa.” A sultry voice floated toward me.
My entire body stiffened before my shoulder blades tingled with fear. That typical reaction of mine had only occurred in Ragnarö’s presence, during my captive years in the Ice Kingdom.
But Ragnarö couldn’t be here, and that feminine, callous voice didn’t belong to him.
It didn’t matter. My instincts screamed for me to run.
I listened and shouted for Mandy to run as I charged toward the cell door.
A strong current slammed into me, throwing me back and sending me colliding with the chains on the wall. A loud clang followed, and the iron door slid shut, faster than a dirty thought.
I was locked inside the cell that had once trapped my mate.
Two figures stepped into view out of nowhere: Lucifer in a black robe and Veronica in her red armor.
How had these two evildoers gotten together? The vampire princess wasn’t even in the devil’s league. But then, she was the one who had access to the trials. I just hadn’t expected her to be his pawn all along.
I guess Lucifer was a bit desperate.
“Surprise,” I said sarcastically. “I didn’t know you two were an item. But it makes sense. I can see you two making lots of bloodsucking demon babies.”
The insult was meant to distract them as I used my ice magic to break the cell door, which was sealed by black magic, darker and more powerful than any black witches’ spells.
“My, my, Princess Tessa Morrigan,” Lucifer said coldly.
Returning to Hell, his homeland, had done him good. His appearance was all golden and magnificent again. His eyes shone with corrupted power, intelligence, and cruelty. And his sensual lips seemed ready to drip honeyed lies.
“It’s Queen Morrigan to you,” I said coolly, yet my blood pumped in my ears. “Ragnarö is nothing but a fucking usurper who will meet a bad end.”
“I could have helped you if you’d just taken care of the problem of my useless son,” Lucifer tsked. “And we wouldn’t have needed to have this conversation.”
“How about this conversation, archangel?” Veronica purred. “You’ll leave your son to me, as I still have a use for him, as per our agreement.”
Lucifer gave her a sharp look, not pleased to be interrupted. But he seemed to be wary of her. Veronica, as a pawn, would never be so bold with the devil. My gaze, razor-sharp now, focused on her.
The vampire princess seemed different. Then her power grade hit my nose. It wasn’t Veronica. No vampire had that kind of power.
I sniffed. Her power seemed so familiar that it unnerved me. Then I remembered the scent in the banquet hall where Loki had hosted the pre-trial party. The scent of power had been veiled, but this being no longer bothered to conceal it.
A light sliced through my mind, and suddenly I knew who she was—Hellen, an Asgardian goddess and Ragnarö’s birth mother.
My heart plunged into a prison of ice. Black panic rose and stuck in my parched throat. I threw my ice magic at the cell door. I needed to get out of here before whatever plan they had for me came to fruition.
The cell door rattled, but it didn’t open.
“Feisty, little Morrigan,” Hellen purred, her silky voice making my skin crawl. “Or should I call you daughter-in-law?”
She knew that I’d recognized her. I sucked in a shaky breath as I slammed my magic into the cell door again.
Veronica’s face melted and morphed into a new face that radiated goddess beauty. Hellen was a blonde with a voluptuous figure. Her slanted amber eyes glowed with viciousness, amusement, and seduction.
She tilted her head, regarding me, and I had the strong impression that this goddess was a lewd, sarcastic, and sadistic package.
“Don’t call me that,” I said icily. I could tell that my face was utter ice. “You son is one of the worst beings, and he should have been put down like a rabid animal a long time ago. He’ll never have me. And I have a mate already.”
Hellen giggled. “Ragnarö would give everything to have you, little Morrigan. But I don’t see why he’s so obsessed with you. It also befuddles me that the King of the Underworld also desires you so much, but then Loki hasn’t seen me yet.”
She was Loki’s aunt, but I wouldn’t give her the satisfaction of knowing that I was aware of their connection.
“I see, like mother like son,” I said. “The world really doesn’t need so many creeps.”
Hellen hissed, but it was cut short as Lucifer snapped at her. “I’m the King of the Underworld! You don’t just call anyone else the King of the Underworld! Never forget that, Goddess of Tricksters! I won’t take any insult kindly.”
“Sorry, archangel, but your son banished you, didn’t he?” Over the devil’s outraged look, she batted her eyes at him. “Of course I’ll help you take back your throne and you’ll be Hell’s king again and forever. But you also swore that you would let me have your son as my boy toy for three full months, and not one day less.” She winked at me. “I can’t wait to ride his massive cock. I bet that it’s big and magnificent.”
I wanted to tear her to pieces with my bare hands and feed her to my gingerbread wolf companion, who was smart enough to stay quiet and crouch in a corner, waiting for the chance to pounce. But I pushed my icy wrath down with great effort so I could use my cool head to battle my formidable enemies.
Strategy, I reminded myself. Head over heart. Keep your temper at bay. Don’t allow your emotion to be the driving force of your actions.
I also knew that this Asgardian goddess fed on terror and fury. She was riling me up so she could feed on my emotions. When I went to Asgard in disguise to seek a weapon to destroy Ragnarö, I’d tried my best to avoid her and had watched her from a distance.
My gaze flicked from Hellen to Lucifer. The first quick step was to get the hell out of here and take the wolf with me. We’d be in serious shit if that failed.
As I darted to the entrance, trying to use my Titan strength and my magic to tear off the door, hostile power pressed toward my chest like knives cutting into me. The air grew too thick to breathe in the cell.
A dreadful realization hit me. That hellfire rabbit might have come from Lucifer, since he had the same Underworld power as Loki. I’d been led into a trap like a lamb being led to the slaughter. And now this cell was completely wired with spells meant to keep me inside.
Beads of sweat started to form on my forehead. But I wouldn’t let my fear of what was to come paralyze me. I needed to keep them talking until I figured out how to tear down their spells.
“Hellen, right? You bore me,” I snorted as I flicked a finger in her direction. “Do you know you’re so full of yourself it’s impossible to have an intelligent conversation with you?”
The bitch goddess’s face morphed right in front of me, and she became me. She was wearing my face!
My skin tightened, but I tried not to show my utter dismay.
Hellen was a third generation Asgardian goddess. She could shift to anyone, just like her father. As a fourth generation and a half-blood, my mate could only use illusion to make himself look like someone else, but he couldn’t shift to anyone other than his wolf.
“Still bored?” Hellen giggled like a naughty brat. “Don’t worry. My nephew won’t know a damn thing. He’ll think he’s still fucking you when I take your place and come out of the third trial.”
She’d become Veronica to enter the trial. She must have consumed the vampire princess to absorb her essence. Was she going to do the same to me?
A wave of nausea twisted my stomach. Chills sank into my bones.
“I can’t wait to try your mate in bed,” Hellen continued. “I hear he is marvelous in the bedroom. Is it true, little Morrigan? But then you won’t be there to watch. You’ll be shipped out to my darling son. Ragnarö misses you terribly. My poor boy.”
The Ice God couldn’t enter the realm of the inferno, so he’d sent his mother.
“My mate will know you aren’t me,” I said flatly, since I didn’t want to feed the goddess any of my emotions. “He’ll shred you to bits, you perverted dickworm.”
Hellen’s eyes flashed with rage, but Lucifer waved a hand in front of her to stop her from lunging at me. He wasn’t done with me yet. And the devil never liked to play a supportive role.
I smirked at Hellen tauntingly. Despite my situation, I could still get under my enemy’s skin. But that wasn’t my focus. I was trying to rile them up, seek their weaknesses, and find a way out.
No one liked to be called a dickworm, especially a haughty goddess who regarded everyone else as worms.
I wished with all my heart that my black wolf mate would do me the honor of tearing this fucking goddess to pieces, but I wasn’t delusional. Hellen was a very powerful Asgardian goddess and a master of tricksters. I needed to find a way to get a message to my mate if I failed to get out of here.
“You brought this on yourself, Tessa Morrigan,” Lucifer said curtly. “You should never have gotten into bed with my worthless son.”
“But you forgot one thing,” I said softly.
Lucifer arched an eyebrow. “What is that?”
“My mate Loki is ten times the man you could ever dream to be,” I said. “You aren’t worthy to be his father. He’s smart to denounce you mercilessly. Blood ties are overrated.”
Lucifer growled. “How dare you?!”
His power lashed out, but hellfire couldn’t harm me any more than my own ice. Unfortunately, I couldn’t hit him back either because of the binding of the blood contract.
It would only backfire if I assaulted my employer.
I called for my Morrigan power, which was the only power that could possibly counter my enemies’. It was the least of my concerns now that the war goddess’s darkness would swallow me. I’d do anything to drag my enemies down with me.
I only regretted that I had pushed back my Morrigan power for too long. Even though the angel of death had forced it out during our fight, I hadn’t had the chance to hone my uncharted power.
It battered the cell door, and it caved in and swung open. Several iron bars bent at odd angles under the onslaught of my Morrigan rage.
Lucifer looked shocked and angry that his hellfire couldn’t do a damn thing to me, though he cursed me and his son for this inconvenience.
I dashed out of the door. My ice magic with the hot lick of hellfire hit Hellen in the face. At the same time, her Asgardian air power lashed out, sending me flying backward. My head and back hit the cell’s bars, rattling them.
But the Asgardian bitch also staggered back, looking stunned that my power could do her damage. Her mask ripped away, and she was no longer wearing my face.
Mandy chose that moment to leap into midair and lunge at Hellen, wanting to give me a chance to escape, even though she knew she would die trying.
Hellen flicked her wrist, her air power holding the wolf’s neck, then she snapped it and tossed the gingerbread wolf aside.
With a roar, I jumped up, letting my Morrigan power take control and tossing the darkness at Hellen.
The goddess screamed as my darkness chipped away part of her essence.
“Take it, bitch,” I snarled, “for being a very poor imposter!”
I rushed toward the wolf, ready to scoop her up and run for the stairs.
The pack howled a war song. They were close by. They were coming for me.
I couldn’t mind-talk to them to warn them away from here.
Then all four wolves charged along the corridor, desperate to come and defend me, but they wouldn’t stand a chance.
“Go! Go! Leave me!” I shouted at them.
The wolves turned, realizing I’d flee with them.
I tossed another wave of Morrigan magic at Hellen to keep her away while throwing up an ice wall in front of Lucifer since I couldn’t really attack him.
Lucifer sneered. “Your ice is nothing to my fire.”
Hellen kept throwing her piercing air power at me and my pack. Cold sweat damped my armpits as I tried to shield the wolves.
A sweep of hellfire rolled through the corridor in front of us, cutting off our retreat, and the wolves reeled back.
Two giant figures stepped out of the ring of hellfire. Lucifer had brought friends, and they weren’t just any backup.
I recognized Apollo, the Olympian Sun God, and Athena, the Goddess of Wisdom and Warfare. The Olympian gods had no quarrel with me, but they’d take me down to pursue a feud with Marigold. The scumbag Lucifer must have ratted out my kin and told the Olympians what had happened to their fathers.
Marigold had locked them up with Cronus, their Titan grandfather, in the Void.
They’d come to me first, taking me out as the weakest link amid all of their targets. And then they’d go after my mate.
Lucifer, a shameless Asgardian goddess, and the Olympian gods had joined forces, and the former Lord of the Underworld had shielded them so we hadn’t been able to track them.
My pulse raced a mile a second; icy terror filled my being.
Danger like they’d never seen was closing in on my mate, my kin, and her mates. Lucifer and the god and goddesses would strike at them from the shadows.
This was the Wild Hunt’s final game, its sick version of a climax. These powerful psychos had taken over the hunt.
I must get word to my mate, knowing I wouldn’t get out of here. I might be a Morrigan with the Titan King’s blood running hot in my veins, but I was no goddess. I could unleash everything I had and probably take down one of them, if I got lucky.
I roared at him urgently through our mating bond, but the connection sparked once, twice, then sputtered.
“We’ve taken every precaution, Morrigan,” Lucifer said, as if knowing what I was trying to do. “Nothing comes in and no one gets out.”
My magic lashed out just as my enemies’ combined forces tore through the fabric of the air and crashed into everything I threw at them.
The pressure threatened to tear my tissue and shatter my bones. The wolves whimpered and fought to stand on their feet under my shield, which I knew would not last long.
Fear squeezed my chest, and dread settled like lead in the pit of my stomach.
Panic blistered my insides, and I managed not to show it.
“What a cast. A band of clowns,” I said with effort while I put on a sardonic smile. “Feeling proud ganging up on a girl?”
“We’ll wrap you in a package and send it to your unsatisfied fiancé as he instructed,” Athena cut in. “We do not care about your fate. Then we’ll pay a visit to Celeste Marigold and our half-brothers. They’ll have to answer for what they did to my father and uncles.”
“Do you know your father and uncles are a bunch of dicks?” I asked. “Well, I love to chat more, but—”
I attacked blindly, putting out one hand in Athena and Apollo’s direction, my ice storm crashing into them. My other hand trained on Hellen, the dark wind of Morrigan whipping the Asgardian goddess mercilessly.
The wolves lunged at our foes as one, trying to bite the god and goddess’s ankles, only to be kicked away brutally and thrown against the ceiling or the mossy stone wall.
Our enemies’ powers merged into a laser-sharp point, bombarding me all at once. My battle cry rocked the ceiling, and I gave it all I had, knowing I only had this one shot. My Morrigan, Titan, and Ice Fae magic clashed with the gods’ powers.
My ice met fire. My dark storm met their light and wind.
A thick crack splintered the ice-coated ground in front of the gods and expanded toward them, as I intended for the earth to open up and swallow my foes.
Walls fractured. The ceiling cracked with a terrible sound.
My ice spears surged toward them from all directions, but Athena put up a shield. She was also the Goddess of Shields. Only one ice spear got through her thick net and impaled Hellen’s left thigh.
“I want her dead! I want the bitch dead now!” Hellen shrieked in rage.
Hellen’s air power crashed into me, joined by Athena’s Olympian wind. Apollo kept himself busy by shooting nasty godly arrows at me. My dark Morrigan shield held for the moment, enhanced by my ice shield, but it wouldn’t last long. I felt exhaustion kicking in, especially as I had to shield the wolves as well.
Apollo’s bolts turned to golden dust as they bounced off my new Morrigan shield. Ignoring his curses, I formed a glacial block around the gods and Lucifer. If my ice could trap them for half a minute, we’d have a chance to escape.
Before we could bolt, our enemies’ forces shattered my ice.
“Think you can compete with the gods and goddesses, you pathetic little mortal who caused my son such heartache?” Hellen sneered.
She knew my immortality status. Only when I made the transition to an immortal would my strength increase a great deal. My power would also reach its peak, but it’d be another year.
The assembled gods’ powers kept draining me, and I felt weaker than ever. Cold sweat coated my icy skin. My hands started shaking from trying to hold my magic together. My knees were ready to buckle at the onslaught of the gods’ powers. And once I dropped to my knees, I wouldn’t be able to get up.
I would die here. My pack would die with me.
This lot of villains had a perfect plan. After they used the third trial to bring me down, Hellen would impersonate me. When and if Loki and Mari found out about my disappearance, it’d be too late for them as well.
The gods and goddesses also coveted Marigold’s power of Living Flame. They were drawn to it like moths. They were not only monsters, but the worst kind that had no moral boundaries or any spark of conscience. They always wanted more power, or anything that caught their fancy.
That Asgardian bitch would be the most lethal weapon against my mate and my kin.
I wouldn’t allow it to happen, even if it cost me my last breath. I roared and roared and slammed my warning into the mating bond with Loki, but he still couldn’t hear me.
My consciousness was slipping away, as I didn’t have any more magic or strength left. My brain registered nothing but inhuman pain that seared every part of me, and yet the gods’ brutal assaults didn’t lessen.
Somehow, I didn’t drop to my knees. Only a desperate wail tore from my raw throat.
“Beg and surrender, and I might spare you,” Lucifer said, a nasty smile on lips that spoke only lies.
“You can’t even spare your own ass, and when my mate finds you—” I couldn’t finish the words as I coughed out a handful of blood.
The pain was too much, but I managed to huff out a half breath. They must have broken a lot of things inside me, as I could taste the tang of blood on my tongue.
“I no longer need you to fulfill the blood contract,” Lucifer sneered vengefully. “You’re utterly useless. But do enjoy your trip to your beloved Ice God!”
The devil knew what Ragnarö would do to me.
“Were you this cheerful in the Void when Lilith chased you with a dog whip?” I tried to laugh to mock him but ended up in a fit of coughing.
Lucifer’s face turned purple in enraged humiliation. His corrupted archangel power crashed into me, breaking my skin. His hellfire couldn’t harm me, but his other demonic powers could, as he had just found out.
I bled from a hundred places, but I thought how he’d cut my kin open every day. Marigold had endured it, as would I. And one day, my kin would avenge me.
I wasn’t any stranger to pain and torture, but this agony topped everything I’d endured in every world and every realm. I was dealing with the cruelest beings who regarded themselves as above all else and were punishing me for my defiance.
Athena struck my inner organs with lightning, Apollo used me for his sun flare target practice, cooking me, Hellen stabbed my eyeballs over and over with her windstorm, and Lucifer peeled off my skin with his corrupted archangel spells.
Every breath was an effort. The agony was making me want to beg for death, but I’d never beg. I didn’t scream for my enemies either as I felt myself being broken to bits and pieces.
The wolves whimpered, struggling to come to me, determined to defend me with their last huff. Their helpless yet furious howls struck a spark into the dead shock in my brain.
I remembered my rare ability—I could open a portal briefly. That was how I’d escaped my ex-mate. I couldn’t open a portal in the Underworld, but that was before I mated to Loki. As the mate to the King of the Underworld, I was granted certain powers as well.
I had to choose: my life or my pack’s. We weren’t in the same space, as the gods stood between us.
I could slide through the portal, even with the gods’ powers skewering me, but my pack would all die in this dungeon.
I had promised to keep the wolves alive.
Bombarded by the powers from other realms, the whole building was giving out. It trembled as if hit by an earthquake. Concrete chunks and beams fell down. The structure could collapse at any time.
With the last strength I had, I threw up my hand and tore open a narrow portal near the wolves.
“Live!” I roared, my icy storm tossing the wolves, all of them, through the portal, and it sealed right away.
Athena’s jagged lightning slashed open the wall where the portal had been, and Hellen’s wind failed to cut down my escaping wolves, as she was a second too late. Instead, it opened several cracks along the wall.
The gods and goddesses were the most selfish beings. They couldn’t perceive an act of sacrifice. That was how I’d gained the advantage, acted faster than any of my foes, and had been able to send my pack to safety.
The wolves’ howls of agony, misery, and fury haunted the air for half a heartbeat before disappearing. My new pack didn’t want to leave me. They’d rather die than leave me to this fate.
The air smelled of the lingering lightning and sun flares and foul power that reeked of sulfur and ash.
I laughed in relief at my enemies’ frustration and coughed up more blood.
Before I collapsed to the ground, Apollo reared back with his bow and let loose another arrow.
It pierced through the air with a twang, coming straight toward me. I no longer had anything to fend it off. The bolt cut into my chest, pinning me against the wall with my feet dangling limply in the air.
Acid bloomed in my body, but I no longer cared.
Amid the raining dirt and rocks, the god and goddesses stalked toward me, their blades glinting with dark light in their armored hands.
“Hey, hey, boys and girls, slow down,” a familiar voice called out. “We need her to be in one piece to be delivered to Ragnarö, as the contract stated. You don’t want to break a contract with the Ice God, do you?”
A flapping shadow materialized and landed between the gods and me, and the angel of death stepped out, three ravens perched on each of his shoulders and one clinging to his forearm. I bet the angel wouldn’t allow his ravens to stand on his head.
In his other hand, a black scythe shone with deadly light.
How had Azrael gotten involved in this scheme?
I tried to narrow my eyes at him, and even that effort failed me.
I’d believed the dipshit when he told me that he and my ex-mate were far from friends and he wasn’t part of Ragnarö’s hunting party. He’d told me that he wanted to slay Jötunn and the bloodhounds since those creatures weren’t natural.
And what was the angel of death doing here?
Yet the warning glance he threw at me pierced through my pain-riddled mind and my accusations, offering me a spark of faint hope.
Even if the angel aided me, we wouldn’t get out of this bind, considering the powerhouse we were facing. He’d be stupid to even try, since he might just get himself impaled as well, even as a death demigod. He couldn’t save me, and I didn’t expect him to. However, he could be my best hope to get a message to Loki and Mari.
I needed him to tell them the enemies were right under their noses.
I flashed the angel a pleading look, sending the message with my dim eyes before all light winked out. I’d do anything, including whoring myself out, if he could just warn my mate. But the angel turned away from me swiftly, shrugged carelessly, and trained his gaze on the gods.
“What are you doing here, Azrael?” Athena hissed. “Didn’t you cause enough trouble last time?”
They were on a first-name basis.
“We didn’t invite you,” Apollo added, hostility in his arrogant voice.
“I invited myself,” Azrael said with a mocking smile. “Only I was late to the party. Looks like all you ancient beings are having too much fun ganging up and tormenting a lone young girl. What does that say about all of you? Oh, no need to answer that. In all the realms of all the universes, not all ugly things are called monster.”
Lucifer narrowed his green eyes in displeasure. “How did you get into my realm, angel of death?”
“I flew here with my ravens,” the angel said, “and I bear a message.”
Hellen swaggered toward Azrael, her breasts nearly popping out, her seductive power lashing out like a snake. The only good thing was that she was wearing her own face after my Morrigan power had ripped off the shifting glamour that had made her look exactly like me.
“So, angel,” she purred. “You’re a friend of my boy?”
Azrael’s lips tilted up into a wicked grin, but he ignored her, untouched by her seduction.
“Apollo.” The angel turned to the sun god. “You might want to take your bolt out of Tessa Morrigan before she bleeds to death. She isn’t an immortal yet. And if she dies by your hand, you know how crazy Ragnarö will get. He doesn’t want a damaged bride, let alone a dead one, if it can be helped.”
Despite the tearing agony and relentless burning inside me that had me moments from passing out, chills ran through my bone marrow all over again.
