Hellfire Crown by Meg Xuemei X.

CHAPTER 25

Tessa

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was pinned like a frail butterfly, powerless and full of rage. But my rage could do nothing to help me. It couldn’t even hurt the fingertips of my enemies.

I wouldn’t get out of here. I knew it with absolutely certainty in my pain-riddled mind. Being held captive by Ragnarö was the worst kind of fate.

The slave imprint in me burned icy cold at my tailbone. For years, I’d tried to carve it out of my skin and had failed. I wondered if my mate’s hellfire could burn it away and regretted that I hadn’t asked him, partly because everything had happened so fast and partly because I couldn’t overcome my shame.

A dark thought flashed into my mind with determination.

I might be able to carry out one last act. As soon as the sun god removed the bolt from my chest, I’d summon the angelblade with the last ounce of my strength and slit my own throat.

Ragnarö would get nothing from me. Even if he resurrected my corpse, I wouldn’t be there to watch the horror. My soul would be long gone. All he would get was a shell.

I would not suffer being in chains again. Never again. 

Then Loki’s words echoed in my head: “Even if he gets hold of you temporarily, Hell forbid, you’ll hang in there. Promise me this. You’ll wait for me. I’ll track you to the end of the world and bring you back. You’re mine and no one else’s. Promise me.”

Icy tears burned in my eyes, and a painful breath of frost escaped my lips.

A promise was a promise. I could not abandon my mate like that. Death was easy, so I was going to do the hard thing.

Live to fight another day. Live for my mate.

The worst enemy wasn’t any of the gods, or even Lucifer, but Hellen. She could pose as me, deceive my mate and Mari, and then strike them when they least expected it.

I needed to provoke her to get her to come at me instead of the sun god.

Apollo grunted, “We must collar her when I take out the bolt, so she won’t have any magic left to fight us. Not that we can’t handle her, but that girl is nasty.”

“Hey, old fart, watch your mouth,” I said, my voice hoarse and scratchy in my ears. I succeeded in getting my words out despite my throat hurting like it was being cut over and over. “You really stink. How long was it that you last took a shower? Don’t even think about coming near me.”

Apollo’s face turned deep purple with rage. He raised a hand, his sun flare ready to toast me, but the angel of death thrust his shadows all around me.

“No, no, that won’t do, chap,” the angel said. “What did I say about the contract? She must be sent to the Ice God alive and in one piece.”

“Fuck the contract,” Apollo jeered.

I ignored him and turned to Hellen. “Fat cow! Yep, that’s you, Hellen. Do you know you’re fat and ugly according to Earth’s standards? King Loki will laugh at your obese face with his dukes. You’re huge, and you’ll disgust him for sure. He’s very picky, you know.”

“No one dares to talk to me like that and lives,” she hissed like a snake.

“Really, fat cow? I’m being honest.” I did my best to flash a careless grin, and agony assaulted me on every level, if more pain was even possible.

“I’ll wear your face. I’ll be you,” she said. “And I’ll ride your mate’s cock tonight.”

I shoved down the disgust and terror that wrenched my gut.

“He’ll know it’s you, fat cow,” I said. “You can’t be like me. No one can. It’s all in the details.”

“Then I’ll study you up close and personal one last time before they ship you away,” she said. “And before that, I’ll make you suffer more.”

The Asgardian goddess was in my face in a flash. She pushed the bolt deep into me. Agony ate me alive. The bitch knew the worst art of torture.

“Goddess Hellen, that’s enough,” Azrael said. He dashed to my side and grabbed her wrist.

“Easy, tiger,” she purred, winking at him seductively. “I’m getting the bolt out of this stupid little bitch for you.”

With everything I had, I summoned the angelblade and swung it toward Hellen just when the bolt came out.

She ducked to the left, unbelievably fast, and my blade sliced only a quarter of her neck. Smoke issued out of her skin. The goddess screamed in pain and shock.

I sank the blade tainted with the goddess’s blood into the Hellfire Crown, shattering it, before I let go of the blade, and then I collapsed onto the ground.             

My enemies’ combined powers slammed into me again, burning me and slicing me open, soaking me in my own blood.

“Stop it!” the angel of death roared, his shadow wrapping around me to absorb the impact of the gods’ onslaught. 

“That isn’t how or when you go down, Morrigan,” the angel scolded me softly.

I’d tried and failed to kill Hellen.

But I’d almost gotten her. Curled on the floor, my blood pooling around me, I grinned at her savagely as my swollen eyes watched her neck slowly knit back together. It must hurt like a motherfucker.

All that was left was my hope that my mate would get my final message from the shattered crown.

Tear her apart, my wolf. I sent the last wish through my mating bond to my mate before Lucifer clasped a collar around my neck.

The last tendril of my magic vanished. That was what the collar was for—binding my magic and keeping me tame while they sent me to the worst monster, Ragnarö.

I was a slave once again.

Icy acid burned in my veins before corrupted darkness dragged me under.