A CROWN OF IMP AND BONE

  IMP SERIES

  BOOK 12

  DEBRA DUNBAR

  Copyright © 2023 by Debra Dunbar

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Created with Vellum

  CONTENTS

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Also by Debra Dunbar

  1

  I stood in front of an interdimensional rift, using my hands to show its outline to Gregory. It was the fifth one we’d closed today, and I would bet my Corvette that it would be back in place within the next twenty-four hours.

  “All we’re doing is inconveniencing these motherfuckers,” I said as the angel stepped forward.

  “Are you suggesting we just do nothing?” Gregory snapped.

  He was grumpy. The fae were coming through passages and snatching up humans. Even the elves hadn’t been this brazen in their kidnappings. And the handful of angels Gregory sent to guard these gateways and thwart them were either missing or found dead—which was why he’d decided the two of us needed to close the gateways. Ourselves. Every two days for probably the rest of our lives.

  It sucked. Especially since my Epic Wedding was in three months. Would we be teleporting around with this archangel to close fae portals on our wedding day? On our honeymoon? I bristled at the thought. These fae were fucking with my wedding plans, which pissed me off far more than them snatching humans.

  “What I’m suggesting is that we take an army through one of the gates and teach these dickwads a lesson,” I grumbled. “And that we do it soon. I need this resolved in the next ninety days.”

  Ninety days. Before our wedding.

  Nyalla was distraught about the humans being kidnapped by the fae, though, which meant I at least had to appear sympathetic toward their plight and not just focused on my nuptials. Nyalla had spent the first eighteen years of her life as a changeling slave to the elves in Hel. Now she was not only the human advisor to the Ruling Council on affairs pertaining to humans, but she also headed the committee that was in charge of the elven integration into the human world.

  She was upset about the fae swooping in from Aerie and kidnapping humans. And she’d insisted that I should be upset as well. It was another reason for us to attack these motherfuckers. Temporarily closing these gateways wouldn’t be enough to even slow down the tide of human kidnappings, we needed to do more—a whole lot more.

  I liked to pretend I didn’t care, but when Nyalla was unhappy, I was unhappy. She was like a daughter to me. All it took was an expression of disappointment in those blue eyes of hers and I was off to move heaven and earth. Or in this case, kill fairies.

  “Our strength and abilities would be severely hindered in Aerie,” Gregory informed me. “Most of the angelic host is just beginning to adapt to their corporeal forms, asking them to fight in a physical realm where they would need to rely on physical weapons wouldn’t deliver the result you’re hoping for, Cockroach.”

  “Well, we have to do something,” I snapped, just as grumpy as he was. “Just closing their portals isn’t enough. If we can’t send an army of angels to teach them the error of their ways, then we need to…I don’t know, send an army of demons who are used to fighting in corporeal form.”

  “They will have little more than human fighting skills,” Gregory reminded me as he closed the fae gateway. “Most of their demonic abilities will be lessened or non-existent in Aerie while the fae will have their full magical powers.”

  “We can’t just close their portals for all eternity,” I huffed.

  “It takes a lot of power for them to create six gateways every two days—so much power that I’m sure they’ll eventually give up,” he said, a tinge of doubt in his voice.

  With a flash of light and a spin of vertigo that was still a bit disorienting, we’d left Denmark and were in the south of Spain.

  Once I’d regained my balance, I turned around to look for the gateway. It was a quarter mile away from where it had been located two days ago. The portals were always in the same general areas in Ireland, Denmark, Wales, Scotland, Spain, and Finland, and there were always six of them. If I’d been the fae in charge of this, I would have randomized their terminus here in the human world, ensuring it would take weeks or even months for us to find them, but the fae were either not so creative, or they lacked the ability to put the portals anywhere but in these six general spots.

  “That fairy from Alaska said all this is because of a broken contract, and that it’s only going to get worse,” I said as I walked toward the interdimensional rift glowing in the distance.

  “It is. And it probably will,” he grumbled, following me.

  I winced, because this broken contract had to do with some jewelry my adoptive son had innocently stolen from Aerie. Lux had misunderstood his role as a ring-bearer in Amber and Irix’s wedding and had amassed quite the collection of pilfered rings—many of them belonging to powerful magical beings. I’d returned most of them, but had held on to a few. And I was undecided about taking this particular one back. If a stolen ring had broken a ten-thousand-year-old contract between the fae and the angels, then it might not be wise to give it back without some sort of negotiation first.

  As for the other two rings…well, the one on my left hand was my engagement ring, and the witchy hag it belonged to was sort of leasing it to me. The other one belonged in Aaru. I had no way of returning that one since we were all presently banished.

  No one besides a select few on the Ruling Council knew I was responsible for the angels being banished from Aaru, and no one but me, Gregory, and Nyalla knew Lux was responsible for this current mess.

  “What were the details of this contract?” I asked, thinking that if I was in a bargaining position, I could maybe reinstate the terms in return for the ring.

  The archangel sighed, running a hand through his chestnut-colored curls. “We haven’t been at peace with the fae since we assisted the elves in leaving Aerie. Two and a half million years ago, before the war that split the angelic host, we decided that the humans would be the ones to receive the angelic gifts and be ushered into a holy evolution. The fae discovered this and sometime after the war in Aaru, they began to subvert our efforts. At first we thought the demons were responsible, but as the fae began to increase their stealing of humans, we realized they were to blame.”

  I grumbled and glared at Gregory. Of course they’d thought it was us. We were the snake in the Garden of Eden, the temptation on the Mount, the ones who got blamed for everything.

  Okay, demons were responsible for a lot of that shit, but not everything.

  “We eventually went to war with the fae, and after twenty thousand years, they called a truce and negotiated the contract,” Gregory continued.

  “Wait,” I interrupted. “You went to war with them? And were winning enough that they agreed to peace talks? How, when you said the angels are at a terrible disadvantage in Aerie?”

  “I honestly don’t know,” he confessed. “We are at a terrible disadvantage in Aerie—us attempting to fight there is the reason I know this. And while the Gregori had been in the physical realm long enough to hold their own against the fae here among the humans, we weren’t exactly winning the fight. Something happened that made both fairy kingdoms eager to negotiate, and I never could discover what that was.”

  Damn. Because if we could figure that out, we could replicate those attacks or actions and force the fae into compliance once more.

  “The contract between us stipulated that no angels were to enter Aerie,” the archangel continued. “The fae were only allowed three gateways into this world, and they could only take humans who had agreed to go with them as part of a good-faith bargain.”

  My eyebrows shot up, because I knew from the elves what these “good-faith bargains” were like. If the fae were anything like their tricky-bastard cousins, these deals were far from being in “good-faith.”

  He sighed and shot me a knowing look. “Indeed, it was what the humans would have called a ‘devil’s bargain,’ my Cockroach. The agreement with the human would be in exchange for something desired from the fae, but there were loopholes and trickery. Still, it kept the fairy-folk from running off with entire villages of humans against their will.”

  I halted, jamming my fists on my hips and glaring at him. “Devil’s bargain?
Really? When will we be free from these hurtful stereotypes? I might need to bring this issue up before the Ruling Council. Demons have rights too, you know.”

  Gregory’s slow smile warmed my heart along with the rest of my body. He stepped into me, wrapping his arms around my waist and pulling me against his rock-hard chest. “There are good reasons for those stereotypes, Cockroach. Demons are wily, sneaky psychopaths, and their Iblis embodies all of those traits. It’s why I love her so much.”

  I rested my head against him, feeling his intense heat scorching through me. “I love you too, you prudish, inflexible asshole.”

  His spirit-self pushed into mine, merging around the edges. I swear my eyes nearly rolled into the back of my head. I’d never get tired of how it felt to have him merge with me. I teased him with my own spirit-being, pulling back, then brushing against him, merging then disengaging. It was a dance that was bringing me tantalizingly close to orgasm.

  “We have one more gateway to close,” he whispered in my ear.

  Just as his words registered in my brain and I realize they weren’t dirty talk, he’d pulled away from me, spun me around, and pushed me forward.

  Jerk.

  “One more gateway, and then we can fuck, right?” I asked.

  He chuckled. “One more and I promise I’ll satisfy your every need.”

  “Every?” When we’d first become intimate, Gregory only wanted to join our spirit-selves. But now he was happy to give me the physical pleasure my corporeal form desired. And on a very rare occasion, he’d allow me to do the same to him.

  I got the feeling no one was supposed to know about that, though. So mum’s the word.

  “What are the fae doing with all of these humans?” I wondered. If they were being feted, and life was one endless party in Aerie, we could stop endlessly closing gates and just let the fae have the whole damned lot of them.

  “Some humans are used as servants. Others are used for breeding as a form of unwilling surrogacy. Others are used for hunting, torture, and other entertainment.”

  So, not feted and partying it up then. Damn.

  Gregory glanced over at me. “Don’t tell Nyalla. She’s upset enough about this.”

  I had no intention of telling Nyalla. “Maybe we should set traps for the fae as they come through the gates. Kill them off until they decide staying home is safer.”

  “None of the traps I’ve devised to date have worked,” he admitted. “And they’ve become better at their glamour. Not only can they appear as humans or animals, they are able to escape detection when they are this side of the gateways. Even their energy signature is masked.”

  I snorted, because I could do that as well. Gregory, the most powerful of the archangels, hadn’t detected me when we’d been in the same room together once. He’d always complimented my ability to bury my spirit-self deep within my physical form to escape notice.

  I might be the Iblis, but I was still a lowly Imp. If I could manage that, then it wasn’t a surprise that these fae could as well.

  But I could ponder this fae problem later. We had one more gate to close and then some filthy dirty sex to have.

  “Here’s the portal.” I outlined it with my hands, then shrieked as something burst through the gateway and plowed into me, knocking me to the ground.

  Not something, someone.

  2

  I shoved the stinking heap of rags off me and scrambled to my feet, staring down at a human. He had a weird drapey thing on that had seen better days, and smelled like he’d been wearing it twenty-four-seven for months.

  “Help me!” He looked back and forth between Gregory and me while scooting on his butt away from the gateway. “They’ll kill me if they catch me. Help!”

  I hesitated for a second, confused about this guy’s circumstances and how he’d managed to escape. Then I realized immediate action was necessary.

  “Close the gate,” I shouted to Gregory as I ran to show him once more where it was. In my rush to outline the portal for him, I accidentally brushed my fingers through the outline of the gateway.

  A burning heat turned my fingers red and sparks flew from the opening. Before I had a chance to do more than yelp, shadowy figures slipped through the passage. I jumped back, tripping over a rock and falling once more on my ass. That probably saved me since one shadow swooped through the space where I’d stood half a second ago. A tendril of the creature brushed the top of my head and I felt that same burning in a streak along my scalp.

  The human screamed, scrambling backwards as the creatures floated toward him. Gregory roared and dove forward through the things before I had a chance to warn him. Scooping me up in his arms, he threw me.

  As I tumbled through the air, I realize that angels had serious throwing arms. Gregory should be playing Major League baseball. Or tossing cabers at one of those Scottish festivals. I flew so fast that I was afraid to reveal my wings in case they were ripped clean off my body. It felt like ages before I finally hit the ground, and once I’d landed I wished I hadn’t. My face plowed a row through the soil, small rocks slicing through my skin.

  Once I stood, I took a quick inventory, making sure all my various corporeal parts were working. The finger that had brushed through the gateway was still numb, but no longer looked like I’d shoved it into a campfire. Looking back, I realized the angel had managed to toss me a good quarter-mile. And from what I could see, he was taking on all of the shadow creatures. None were flitting through the sky or across the landscape, or attacking the human. No, they were all huddled in a lump of gray around a tall, buff angel, ignoring the filthy man who was cowering behind a patch of weeds.

  The angel vanished for an instant under the shadow creatures’ onslaught. I didn’t hesitate to reveal my wings and take to the sky, streaking toward where he fought the shadows. I drew my sword as I dove, slashing through the shadowy creatures.

  Their insubstantial bodies separated with a sizzle of sparks, as I cleaved a path to my beloved who was somehow grappling with the creatures. He looked up at me, his eyes widening in alarm.

  “Cockroach! Get back!” he shouted.

  I paid no attention, even as the shadows I’d split combined again into whole, lethal forms. Swinging the sword wildly, I kept slicing and dicing, figuring that even if I wasn’t killing them, I was at least keeping them from attacking my angel.

  “Cockroach, go,” Gregory insisted.

  “I’m not leaving you here to fight these fuckers by yourself,” I shouted back. Even though he seemed to be holding his own, the angel was striped with burned flesh. Given his ability to regenerate and heal, that was pretty fucking alarming.

  Spinning around, I tried to keep the shadows away from me, but they were reforming faster from their injuries, and a few of them managed to swipe me before I could cut them apart again. This strategy wasn’t going to work long-term, or even short-term it seemed. And the fact that my sentient, kills-everything weapon didn’t have more of an effect on these creatures worried me. Still swinging, I shot a few with lightning and my energy, dismayed to see those did even less damage than the sword. With nothing to lose, I shoved my hand into one and tried to devour it.

  Devouring was my icky superpower. Demons and angels both found it disgusting and perverted, but it had saved my life countless times, and this was getting close to one of those save-my-life emergencies. I felt the shadow creature’s shock and alarm as I spooled its life force into myself. Then it vanished. I’d killed it, but I felt a wave of nausea roll through me that I’d never experienced when I’d previously devoured someone or something.

  I really didn’t relish the idea of devouring any more of these things, but killing one wasn’t going to get us out of this mess so I reached out and spooled another one of them into me.