Hotter Than Hell (15 page)

Annwn. Realm of the Dead.

Butterflies batted her belly and she forced herself to slow down and read the passages. Annwn a place of beauty, almost Heaven, but not quite. The Realm of the Dead—it was Hell.

The butterflies dropped like lead as she read descriptions of each place in the afterlife.

A section brought her to a complete stop.

Stolen souls are taken to the Realm of the Dead where they serve the god of Death.

Surprisingly, Incubae and Succubae do not face the fate of the Realm of the Dead unless they fail in the tasks set forth to them by the gods and goddesses.

The only known way for a demon to escape the Realm is for a human to voluntarily release half of his or her soul and offer it to the demon. By doing so, the human will bind himself or herself to the demon.

Because the demon shares the human’s spiritual essence, the demon neither fails nor completes his assignment.

Ericka’s heart raced and she could barely breathe. Half of her soul. Was she willing to give that much to save Aedan?

She closed her eyes tight. Imagined all the times he’d come to her and the bond she’d felt between them. He had sacrificed his own future for hers.

Am I willing to do it for him?

Yes. Yes!

Ericka sucked in another breath and released it, her skin tingling from the magnitude of her decision.

She slowed and read the ritual carefully. She no longer felt tired. Instead, her body buzzed with energy, and it wasn’t just the caffeine.

She’d need three white candles, a lock of her hair, and three flat, water-smoothed rocks. After she gathered all of her supplies, she’d need to make up some kind of rhyming chant that expressed her desire to share her soul with Aedan. That would be the hard part.

Still in her robe, she dashed out of the condo to the beach and combed the line of kelp for smooth rocks. The salty air was moist and humid and wind tugged at her robe as waves slapped the shore. Over and over in her mind she worked on the words for a chant.

The sun peeked over the horizon, the faint morning light just enough to see by. When she’d found the rocks, she hurried back into the condo and grabbed three candles from her bedroom, along with a black marker, a lighter, and a pair of scissors. Slightly out of breath from rushing, she knelt on the kitchen’s tiled floor as she snipped a lock of her hair, then lit the candles. She tossed the scissors aside, along with the lighter and they clattered across the floor.

She grabbed the marker. Her hand shook as she drew a circle on the kitchen tile, around herself and the items beside her.

Ericka eased onto her haunches and stared at the candles. The flames danced, almost mesmerizing her.

She swallowed then picked up the lock of hair.

God, she hoped the chant would work.

As she draped a third of her hair over each flame, the strands hissed and curled as they caught fire. The smell of burning hair overpowered scents of the vanilla candles.

Her heart pounded in a harsh rhythm and she chanted as she placed the hair on the candle flames.

All my love and half my soul,

I give to Aedan the Incubae.

With that gift, I demand his return this day.

Free him now, to find his true fate.

Gods and goddesses, I claim him as my mate.

Forever halved, twins sharing a soul,

Heart to heart, we will both be whole.

Tears stung Ericka’s eyes as she placed the three smooth, flat stones, one at a time over each flame.

She snuffed them with the rocks, pressing the wick into the melted wax and burned hair.

When she finished, a breeze immediately swept the room, lifting her hair from her shoulders.

Goosebumps prickled her skin and butterflies skipped in her belly.

Everything around her wavered like she was looking through a window of water.

Ericka’s lips parted and her heart thundered as she got to her feet. A stone archway appeared and she couldn’t see the condo’s kitchen anymore. On the other side of the wavering air was an enormous room with lots of other archways.

She raised her hand. Instead of air, she touched a rubbery surface. She pushed—

And tumbled through the archway.

Ericka screamed when the sucking sensation grabbed hold of her and the condo vanished. The sensation of being engulfed in goo surrounded her before she stumbled out of it and dropped to her hands and knees on a polished marble floor.

If her heart didn’t stop beating so hard it was going to explode.

“What the hell?” she said as cool marble chilled her knees and hands.

She glanced up from the floor.

Someone was in front of her.

Ericka’s gaze slowly traveled up the blue-robed form until she met the golden eyes of a gorgeous blond woman. Her beauty was marred only by her hard expression.

“Rise.” The woman motioned with her hand for Ericka to stand. “I wish to see the woman who cost my son his future.”

Ericka’s cheeks burned as she got to her feet and stood eye-to-eye with the woman. “I never wanted Aedan to go to the Realm of the Dead.” She spoke so fast she stumbled over her words. “Don’t let him be taken. Please .” When she finished speaking she was clenching her hands so hard her nails dug into her palms.

“It is…too late.” The woman’s voice softened. “My son has been banished to the flames.”

“No.” Ericka shook her head as her mind began to reel. “No, he can’t be.” Heat flushed her as if she was in the fire as a vivid image of him burning alive seared her mind.

Something the woman had said clicked. “You’re Aedan’s mother?”

She inclined her head. “I am Belisma, the water goddess.”

“A-a goddess?” Ericka’s brain stuttered at Belisma’s statement. But she managed to grasp one obvious thread. “If you’re a goddess, can’t you save him?”

Belisma stepped closer to Ericka and raised her hand. The goddess’s fingertips were cool as she brushed them along Ericka’s cheek.

The goddess stared thoughtfully at Ericka as she stroked her fingers through Ericka’s wild red hair.

She wanted to scream and stomp her feet but instead she felt the power of the goddess’s hold and didn’t move.

Belisma let her hand fall away. “You have offered a great gift to my son. Perhaps only half your soul, but you have also given of your love.” The goddess nodded as if to herself.

She continued. “I believe my son has earned his peace and his reward. His choice to spare you and love you is a powerful thing. In the eyes of the universe he should be free of the Realm of the Dead by right and fairness.”

Ericka swallowed, hope welling up within her, but she said nothing.

The goddess now had a faraway look in her eyes. “I will call for a Council session.” Her gaze met Ericka’s again. “They may disagree. Nothing is certain. You both may be saved, or both condemned.”

“Condemned?” Ericka whispered.

“If the Council does not make this exception for Aedan, you could be forced to join him in the Realm of the Dead—if you indeed choose freely to give him half of your soul.” Belisma’s expression hardened again. “Are you willing to take that risk, as he was willing to send himself to the Realm to spare you such a fate?”

Ericka hesitated and closed her eyes. Would she choose an eternity of being burned alive and never seeing her family or friends again? Would she risk all of that to save Aedan?

The right and true answer came from deep within as she opened her eyes. “I will take that risk.”

The goddess inclined her head. “Wait in Aedan’s quarters while the Council makes its determination.”

“Thank you,” Ericka said just before her stomach dropped to her toes and the room spun.

She no longer stood on the marble floor.

Her feet touched down on grass. The dizziness vanished as she caught her balance and took in the chamber she’d been sent to. Aedan’s room.

The sense of the surreal accompanied her as she explored the chamber. A waterfall tumbled over stones in one corner of the room, adding the clean scent of water to the smells of grass and moss covering the rock walls.

She stepped past the large bed carved from rock that had a mattress in it.

Aedan sleeps here. This is where he comes when he leaves me.

No. Where he slept before…

She couldn’t even finish the thought. Only positive thoughts from here on out. The Council would rule in her and Aedan’s favor. She didn’t know what would happen next, but she wasn’t going to give up hope.

Ericka stopped in front of one of several pools around the room. Colorful fish glimmered in the water

—some she was familiar with, like angelfish and Japanese koi. But others she didn’t remember seeing before. At the Rainforest Café, they had the coolest aquariums—

“I don’t believe it.” She tipped her head back to see a star-filled night sky above her. “Aedan’s burning alive right now , I’m in some strange Otherworld, and I’m thinking about fish. ”

Ericka bit the inside of her cheek and glanced at the bed. Heart and soul heavy, she moved to the bed and perched on the edge of a straw-filled mattress. She stared at the wall across from her, tracing cracks in the stone with her gaze.

She’d made the right decision. No doubt about it. No matter what happened.

Right?

AEDAN HAD NEVER KNOWN SUCH PAIN EXISTED. He could barely choke back screams from the never-ending sensation of his flesh burning away.

The demons had chained him to jagged volcanic rock. The iron manacles seared his flesh. He ground his teeth as boiling lava splashed his legs and blasts of flame singed his chest and face. Sweat immediately dried in the beyond-terrifying heat.

Screams, shrieks, and sobs echoed from every direction. His gut twisted at the thought that he was responsible for so many of the people who now spent an eternity here. Mafia bosses and gang leaders, murderers, psychopaths, rapists, thieves—those he didn’t regret as much as he did the innocents.

Had he ever been given a choice to do anything but take souls? No. He was what he was created to be, an Incubus who served the gods. Choice never entered his mind.

He had never given a second thought to what happened to the souls once he retrieved them—until Ericka.

Her name echoed in his mind and he tried to focus on her instead of the blistering pain. The fall of her red hair against her pillow, the intense blue of her eyes, the perfect feel of her thighs around his hips.

But more than that was all he had witnessed when he studied her before he began visiting her each night. Her love for her family, her dedication, her tenacity, her kindness, her joy.

Aedan couldn’t help fighting against his searing bonds, even though it did no good. Even the air he breathed burned his lungs as he kept his thoughts on Ericka.

He had never understood why he had been sent to her until now. It had been a test. A test he had failed.

Two demons appeared in front of Aedan. They unshackled him, grabbed him under his arms, and dragged him through great pools of lava. He couldn’t help a shout from the excruciating pain.

Surprise shot through him as the demons took him to the entrance to the Realm of the Dead and tossed him out of the flames and into the cool tunnel. His head struck rock and his mind spun, but relief from no longer being in the Realm was immediate. The memory of the pain still caused him to feel like his skin was burning, but it was slowly fading.

He stumbled as the demons took him under his arms again and forced him to his feet before prodding him to walk. “What—what is going on?”

No one ever left the Realm of the Dead.

The demons ignored Aedan and caught him when his legs gave out. They pulled him through the passageway and into the Hall of the Lost that now seemed chilly. He could barely focus as they dragged him along the cool marble floor.

His vision wavered and time lost meaning. Then the demons arrived at his chamber. More shock prickled his skin when the demons pushed open the door and shoved him into his quarters.

Aedan landed on his knees on the thick grass and rested his forehead in his palms. Trying to catch his breath as the demons slammed the door, he breathed in the sweet scent of grass and water and…

vanilla?

“Aedan!”

He jerked his head up.

Ericka.

His mind could not process what he was seeing—Ericka rushing across the chamber to him. A hallucination , he thought until she reached him, dropped to her knees, and flung her arms around him.

He almost toppled from the force of her throwing herself against him, but he recovered enough to hold her tight.

“Oh, God.” Tears trickled down her cheeks and slid onto his chest. “Or gods or goddesses. Whoever brought you to me.”

Ericka’s words shocked him to his senses and he grabbed her by her upper arms. “What are you doing here?” he growled as he stared at her beautiful face. “Have they taken you? What have they done?”

“I’m okay.” She caressed his cheek as her blue eyes met his. “I came for you.”

“No.” He gripped her arms so tight she winced and he immediately relaxed his hold. “You will return.

Where you will be safe.”

“I-I have something to tell you.” Ericka cleared her throat then words spilled from her lips. “I’ve told your gods and goddesses that I’m giving you half of my soul. And all my love.”

“Half of your soul?” Aedan’s whole body tensed. He could not have heard right. “Are you daft?”

“I realized you mean too much to me to let you go. And I couldn’t let you be sent there.” She hurried before he could say anything else. “Your Council…Belisma went to them to determine what will happen to both of us.”

“No. I will not allow you to suffer in any way.” He shook his head. “You will go home.”

Belisma appeared like the crest of a wave.

She spun into Aedan’s quarters with the grace and power of the rapids of a river.

Aedan refused to release Ericka to bow to the goddess.

“Rise, Aedan of the Incubae.” Belisma’s voice was surprisingly soft.

He eased to his feet, holding Ericka tight to him.

“The Council made its decision on your fate and Ericka’s,” Belisma said, no expression revealing whatever emotions she might have.