Lulu gave me a strange look when I stayed farther away from her than normal, but didn't comment as we waited for Lilith to speak.

  “We have a day until the Strange God returns,” she finally began, “I think we all need to clean up and rest before we tackle this…” She waved a hand towards me, and I tried not to flinch. “Whatever this is. We'll meet back here in the morning… Hopefully, Blaze will be back by then...”

  Aeron stroked a wayward strand of her hair out of her face, the adoration on his face mixed with exhaustion. At times like this, I was still struck by how well the two suited each other.

  A pang of longing washed over me, but I couldn't see my mating being anything like that. The Strange God didn't strike me as the cuddly type.

  Still, I thought of Lulu and her mates and felt that familiar pang of envy. Dorian and Hadrian adored her, gave her secret reasons to blush and smile. Lilith was the same.

  Heck, even Rina had a mate who looked at her like she was the sun.

  I wanted that.

  My mind snapped back to the arrogant male who had demanded for my friends to kneel.

  Somehow, he was the same person who had whispered into my dreams and given me the hottest unconscious moments of my life. He'd vowed vengeance against anyone who gave me trouble and had long, moody, jealous periods of silence whenever I'd taken lovers to gather power.

  I'd found the man in my head almost… sweet.

  Was it all just a ploy? Had I just made the stupidest bargain of my life?

  “Good plan.” Jin sighed, breaking my train of doubt. “We could all use a nap.”

  Lilith looked over at me. “Seven. Don't be late.”

  Her words were abrupt, but I was forgotten as she pushed out of Aeron's arms and moved to hug Enzo, who remained stiff. She pressed a small kiss to the underside of his jaw and waited.

  “We need to leave this place,” he said aloud, finally relaxing into her hold. “Where have they taken Blaze?”

  “They're back at the house,” Lilith announced after a slight pause. “Rezinax says he just needs to sleep it off. Rina's already there…” She turned to face me. “Will you be coming back with us?”

  I nodded, blinked, and opened my eyes again to find myself alone in one of Lilith's spare rooms.

  I flopped onto the bed in my full armour, but I didn't close my eyes. I didn't want to if there was a chance that he'd join me in my dreams again, but I knew there was no way I was going to be able to face him again in person if I didn't at least try to get some rest.

  Nerves stewed in my stomach as I shoved off the bed and moved towards the shower. I went through the motions of washing myself in a daze before flopping back onto the bed, exhausted.

  “What the actual fuck, Nells?” Lulu's voice dragged me out of a dreamless sleep. “You mated the Strange God, traded yourself to save everyone else, and I have to hear about it from Aeron instead of my twin?”

  She jumped on the bed as I tried to rub sleep out of my eyes.

  “How could you do that to me? I know you’ve not been yourself recently, but I didn’t think we kept this kind of stuff from one another!”

  With anyone else, I'd have assumed they were angry. But Lulu was different. She rarely ever lost her temper. Instead, she just became sad.

  It was just one of the reasons I was so protective of her.

  I grimaced and tugged her close, hugging her. Lulu clung to me like she hadn't since we were kids. She'd always been more like our mother; air-headed, yet prone to moments of intense, raw vulnerability that bared her very soul. Her brilliant mind thought too fast, jumped between conclusions so fast that the rest of us struggled to keep up.

  Her heart hurt before most of us could figure out what was wrong, but was able to forgive just as fast.

  I didn't deserve her, and I knew it.

  “I’m sorry, Lu,” I mumbled against her hair. “I didn’t want to… I swear.”

  Taking a deep breath, I kept my voice purposely soft and started to tell her everything.

  This was going to be a long, long day.

  CHAPTER TWO

  The gravel of the driveway crunched beneath my boots as I shifted my weight from one foot to the other. It was a cold day and my breath misted in front of my face as I checked my watch for the thousandth time.

  The others were crowded around me, caught between looking like they were ready for a fight or a funeral. Blaze, who had recovered quickly from dying just yesterday, stood as close to Lilith as possible, staring around the space in front of us like he expected the Strange God to pop out from behind a bush and attack at any moment.

  He was on edge. We all were.

  The Strange God appeared exactly when he'd said he would. Not a second later. He was dressed entirely in black, giving him an ominous air that only grew stronger as his dark gaze fixed on Lilith and her heavily armed mates.

  My hand fisted on the handle of my suitcase as his eyes drifted towards me. The arrogance there made my skin prickle. He looked at me like he owned me already, and I stubbornly glowered back even as another lick of power flitted through me, as if to remind me why I'd gotten in this position in the first place.

  If he desired me, which he clearly did, I had the tiniest upper hand.

  I was a Lust. I may not have been as active as Lulu, but I knew how to use a man's desire and my body against him.

  I had a feeling it was a weapon I was going to need in the next month.

  “You're dressed warmly, good.” His voice in my head made me shiver.

  Then his attention flicked back to Lilith, an accusing frown spreading across those serious brows.

  “Cornelia, we had a bargain.” His voice was just as husky aloud as it was in my mind.

  “I'm sticking to it,” I said. “But before we go, I want to keep working for Lilith as her PA. That means regular trips to help her organise things and attend events with her. And my name is Nelly.”

  “Done.”

  “And regular calls to my family.”

  He shrugged. “Naturally. My only condition is that you refrain from mentioning the location of my home, and that you remove that tracking device from your wrist.” He held out a hand and the steel bangle on my wrist disappeared. “I value my privacy.” He paused. “I'll send your bag ahead.”

  The carry-on disappeared from my hands, and I shared a glance with Lilith. There went our backup plan.

  “Come, Cornelia.”

  “It's Nelly,” I huffed, turning to give Lilith one last hug.

  “Stay safe,” she whispered, squeezing once before we broke apart. “I hope this works out the way you want it to.”

  “Me too.” I didn't want to consider the alternative.

  I hugged Lulu next, then sucked in a deep breath before I took my first step towards the Strange God.

  The shadow realm enveloped me before I could take a second.

  He left me there for several long minutes. Shadows jumped around, but the silence stopped me from hearing whatever else was going on as he remained in the physical realm.

  With Lilith and my sister.

  My gut clenched.

  He made a bargain, I reminded myself. He was as bound by that as I was. He couldn't harm them.

  Unless he found a dark imp.

  No. I was not going there.

  Before I could overthink it too much, the eerie grey tones of the shadow realm disappeared, and in their place was an icy cliff side.

  The wind here sliced into me harder than the chill of the shadow realm. I'd been cold before, but now I was truly freezing.

  In front of me, a huge, stone fortress grew out of the rock-face like a dagger of snow-covered stone slicing up into the sky. Its geometric design gave it a sharp, aggressive feel, and the huge stone door I could make out dominated the courtyard terrace we were standing on.

  It was a castle designed to intimidate, hidden in a place so desolate I couldn't see anything else beyond the craggy, frost-covered peaks of more mountains. No civilisation. No roads.

  Not even a speck on the horizon to indicate that other people existed at all.

  Nothing.

  “What is this place?” I wondered, craning my neck to try to see to the top.

  “My fortress.” Just his tone had my hackles rising again.

  “I gathered that much, Elsa. Where are we? The Alps?”

  He was too busy frowning to answer my question. “My name is not Elsa.”

  “It was a—” I cut off my explanation, realising how pointless it would be. He'd obviously never watched a movie before, let alone Frozen. “You know what? Never mind. Besides, it's not like you've given me anything to call you.”

  I was hardly going to call him 'the Strange God' for the rest of the month.

  A slight smirk played across his lips at that. “You can call me Master.”

  The dark heat in his eyes as he looked at me did nothing to soften the deadly seriousness of his words. My stomach tightened with dread as I searched desperately for any sign that he was joking and found none. My mouth fell open, and it took me several seconds to relearn how to speak.

  “I am never going to call you that. Don't you have a name?”

  Although, the more I thought about it, I couldn't picture him as a Tom or a Keith. He was just too much. Too arrogant and too otherworldly for any ordinary name. Even the way he strode through the doors of his icy kingdom of solitude screamed that he was a god, and he knew it.

  His silence made me question myself as I followed behind him, trailing him through an entrance hall lit with fires and decorated with suits of armour and tapestries. It was cool, in a museum kind of way, but I couldn't see any signs of electricity, and the air was heavy with the smoke from the braziers.

  At least it was warmer here than it was outside.

  “When was this place built?”

  He raised an eyebrow as he glanced over his shoulder at me. “It was completed in 1207.”

  I had the horrible feeling he wasn't kidding, something that was only confirmed when he spoke again. “I have been prepared for your arrival for some time.”

  Eight hundred years? I clenched my jaw to stop my mouth from falling open in shock.

  “Rasz, she is here,” the Strange God called into the empty space.

  “Yes, Master.” I jumped as a demon stepped out from the gloom.

  He wasn't an imposing man, though he did have incredibly broad shoulders and a rather thick-set neck. His mousy brown hair was slicked back, and he wore a full butler's uniform, including a pair of pristine white gloves. His guarded expression didn't change as he bowed before the Strange God, then bowed to me as well, never once meeting my eyes.

  “She's to be given everything she needs to conduct her... employment.” The Strange God played with the last word, testing it out in his mouth before turning back to me. “You will provide Rasz with a list of everything you require.”

  The butler bowed again.

  I looked around the hall, taking in the lit braziers and complete absence of anything from the modern world.

  “What about electricity? Are there even power sockets in this place?”

  I doubted it, and Rasz shifted from side to side at the mention of it.

  The Strange God looked confused for a second before giving an imperious wave in the butler's direction. “Deal with it. I have business to conduct elsewhere, I will return soon.”

  With that, he just... disappeared.

  I looked at Rasz in astonishment. He was just… gone? After he went to all that trouble to bring me here?

  What business could he possibly have when he'd only been on Earth for a few hours?

  Rasz gave me a small, pitying look. His guarded expression had disappeared with the Strange God and was replaced with a small, kind smile that I returned.

  “Come, Young Mistress. Nascia, my daughter, will be in the kitchen with some food.”

  I bit my lip, but nodded, following him along the gloomy hall and down a set of stairs set into the side. When he summoned a ball of pyrokinesis into his hand, I did the same, happy to have a use for some of the power the Strange God had provided me with.

  “How long have you been here?” Was Rasz just someone the Strange God had plucked off the street and forced into a butler's uniform?

  “My family has maintained the Forteca Ciszy and its assets for generations.”

  “Forteca Ciszy?” I butchered the words, and Rasz smiled.

  “In your language, it means Silent Fortress. The Master ordered Chosen Marek to see it built, and we were tasked with its protection once construction was finished.”

  He led us out of the stairwell and into a warm, glowing kitchen that looked like something out of a Robin Hood movie. There wasn't a modern gadget to be seen. Not even a microwave. Shit, the oven was so old it was made of stone.

  The one redeeming feature was the huge window looking out over the craggy mountains.

  I gave Rasz a grimace. “There’s no electricity here, is there?”

  “No one has lived here for decades,” he admits. “When the summons to get it ready came just days ago, my daughter and I drove for three hours to get here. It was all we could do to summon the power to make the place presentable.”

  He paused by the table, inspecting it with a frown. “I will make it a priority. Honestly, my father and his father before him both died without any instructions beyond keeping the castle clean and well maintained. I expected the Master had forgotten all about it. We certainly never expected...”

  No. I didn't think anyone could be prepared for a god to come to earth.

  “It seems time passes differently for him,” I whispered just as a door—which I'd dismissed as being a cupboard—squeaked open, and a head poked out.

  The blonde waif of a girl had wide eyes as she glanced at me then at Rasz before spouting off in a language I had no hope of understanding.

  Rasz frowned and spoke back just as rapidly. The words, combined with his slight accent, sounded Slavic, but I couldn't make out a single word.

  “Mistress, this is my daughter, Nascia. She does not speak much English yet, but she would be glad to cook for you.”

  The tirade that followed his statement told me two things.

  One, Nascia could understand enough English to grasp what her father had said and, two, she disagreed.

  Rasz cut her off with a single sharp word.

  “It's fine,” I whispered. “I'm not very hungry.”

  I'd promised to eat at the same table as the Strange God, anyway.

  “Nascia would be happy to cook for you,” Rasz insisted.

  I got the distinct impression that what Nascia really wanted was to retreat back into her cupboard, but I didn’t want to drive any more of a wedge between them if they were going to be my only company in this place. So, I took the seat the butler pulled out for me at the large table without complaint.

  When Nascia stepped out of the doorway and into the kitchen, I wanted to gasp. Her eyes were red raw, as though she'd been crying for hours. She looked young, though that could be more to do with the fear in her eyes. Her hands shook as she fiddled with the black dress and apron. She tried to execute a small, half-hearted curtsy in my direction before hurrying to the ancient oven, muttering under her breath.

  She wasn't happy to be here. I couldn't say I really blamed her.

  The Strange God had completely uprooted these people's lives. What had Rasz been before he was stuck here? Had his daughter given up a life and friends to be stuck in the Strange God's Silent Fortress?

  She couldn't be much older than twenty. Her Envy crystal sat proudly at the top of her breastbone, the skin around the edges still red and raw. Newly-shown, I would guess.

  Rasz ignored Nascia, and instead pulled out a small notebook and a pencil and stood to one side. “If the Young Mistress has any particular requests? The Master did say everything you needed was to be procured.”

  I pursed my lips as I thought about it. “Mainly electricity and wifi,” I mumbled. “Most of my work for Lilith will need both of those.”

  My laptop was in my bag, along with my phone, but those had disappeared as soon as we arrived. I was on the verge of asking Rasz if he knew where they'd been put.

  Nascia's hiss cut me off before I could open my mouth. She snapped her reddened hand away from the oven, and I didn’t need to speak her language to know she was using some very creative expletives. She glared at the oven in disdain, shooting venom at it with her eyes, before turning back to her father and muttering something else.

  Rasz barked a reprimand, but I held up a hand to stop him, a small smile on my face. I'd be pretty pissed off if I had to use a kitchen that looked like it had fallen out of an Arthurian Legend too.

  It wasn't fair to steal demons from their everyday lives and expect them to adapt to a castle from the middle ages. Nascia was clearly struggling, and I suspected that Rasz was too. He was just better at hiding it.

  “You know, Rasz,” I began, twisting my hair around my finger as I considered things. “I think I know what I really need to be productive.”

  “Yes, Mistress?”

  “A full, modern kitchen.” Nascia's head snapped up, and she asked her father a question in their language. Rasz responded, and the younger woman gave me a small, thankful smile and another curtsy before turning back to prep some vegetables.

  “That can be arranged, Mistress.”

  “And if the bathrooms are anything like this, those will need replacing too.”

  If the Strange God had a problem with that, well, he should have been here to stop me. I grinned at the rebellious thought.

  Mates were supposed to be equals—as stupid as that was, when he was literally a god and I… wasn’t. As soon as that bond was formed, what was his was mine by demonic law. If he had any complaints... well, after his 'master' comment, I didn't really care.

  I'd deal with them when he actually deigned to speak to me.

  “And lighting,” I added, looking at the torches. “This place needs electric lights.” Torches and braziers sounded so romantic, but it made the whole place gloomy and the air stuffy.

  Rasz looked up with a slight frown, “Mistress, you do realise… he will not know how to use these things.”