She sucked in a quick breath and then bit her bottom lip before asking, “What about the dragons, hell, Ra, and Shelly?” The words rushed out with the air from her lungs.

  Aston wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her body tightly to his. “You’re my number one priority. Always. Now hush and let my body talk to you.”

  “Bossy,” she said. He felt the nervousness in their bond change to hunger, though not for food.

  “I should have been bossy when we were in the dragon realm. Maybe then we wouldn’t have put each other through such torture.” He didn’t let her respond. The control he’d been holding onto slipped. Aston pressed his lips to hers and devoured her. They did have a lot to talk about. But first, they needed to reconnect on an intimate level. Their souls needed to reunite and be as one. Frankly, he needed her.

  Chapter

  Nine

  “I’ve always known there was something a little off about me. I mean, who stalks a person until they’re forced to either call the police or accept you as their best friend? This girl. Who hands her soul over to the devil for a guy she’s known all of twenty-four hours? This girl. And who finds herself once again trapped in hell, separated from the guy she’s fallen in love with? This girl. But worst of all, who is battling feelings of desire that she knows cannot be real? You guessed it folks. Life seriously sucks bouncy, rubber objects sometimes. Oh, and in case you're wondering, yes, I’m trying to give up cursing again. Most people here have come for reasons other than the lord of the underworld wanting to get into their knickers. If I behave better than them, perhaps I won’t be tempted by the wickedness surrounding me. I can feel it pressing in on me. Throw me a bone, people. This girl is running out of options.” ~Shelly

  “I do not want him,” Shelly bit out through teeth clenched so tightly she feared she might break them. “There is no way in hell, heaven, earth, and any other realm that I want Osiris. No, I take that back. I do want him, but only a piece—his head. I want Osiris’s head on a spike. I want it planted at the gates of hell so everyone that passes into this realm can see who used to rule here and no longer be afraid of him.” Bile rose in Shelly’s throat. The feelings had been coming to her unbidden every time she was around Osiris longer than a few minutes. She tried and failed to push the thoughts from her mind, then she nearly retched.

  Never in her life had Shelly felt so guilty and dirty as she did now. When the lord of the underworld appeared, all thoughts of Ra fled. The debilitating pain, which had once been her constant companion, abated. And Shelly found herself actually interested in what the damn devil had to say. Then she’d return to her room, and all the emotions came flooding back, knocking her on her butt, literally. The ache for Ra was so intense that Shelly felt as if she might die because she couldn’t get enough oxygen into her tight lungs. She didn’t understand what was happening. At first, she’d assumed the pain came from being separated from Ra. She shared a soul with him after all, not to mention she was head over heels in love with him. But this new thing with Osiris … these feelings… Shelly had no freaking clue what was up with that. But she knew it needed to stop, like yesterday.

  She stomped, yes, literally stomped, from one side of the room to the other and wrung her hands repeatedly. She was a caged animal. “A rabid caged animal,” she amended out loud. Shelly had never in her life seriously contemplated killing anyone, but she’d never been in a situation like this before. “I’m going mad.” She made an about-face and stomped toward the other side of the room. “Ra, dammit, where are you?” She shouldn’t be mad at Ra. It wasn’t his fault she was Osiris’s prisoner. And it sure as hell wasn’t his fault that she felt the tiniest sliver of attraction toward the lord of the underworld. A thought made Shelly freeze, her foot held in mid-air. Had Ra found someone else while she’d been in hell? Was he having feelings for some chick that had slid into Shelly’s spot since she’d been imprisoned? Ra was hot. She had no delusions that there weren’t other females at the school who would be interested in him. And now she wasn’t there to give them stabby looks. “That’s ridiculous. He wouldn’t move on after just a month,” she said into the empty room. At least she thought it was a month. There were no clocks, so tracking time was impossible, but Ra had told her time moved differently here, anyway. “Surely he’s thinking about me and not putting his hands on some random chick. And double surely, his heartache over losing me hasn’t driven him into the arms of the first woman that has offered him a soft shoulder to cry on.” Shelly let out an animalistic growl. “I will cut a female dog if one goes near my Ra.” Her fist came down hard on her thigh. “I will rip her arms from her ridiculously fit body and beat her unfairly beautiful face until she looks like hamburger meat.”

  As soon as the words left her mouth, Shelly wanted to take them back. She was threatening some nameless, faceless female that probably didn’t even exist. And she was promising some seriously sickening acts. “What is wrong with me?” Shelly bellowed. She grabbed fistfuls of her hair and pulled. “Please, Ra,” she said through tears. “Please come get me.” She doubled over when pain ripped through her. But instead of attempting to block it out, Shelly reveled in it. The pain meant the connection between her and Ra still existed. Her body still needed his soul. She was still his, and he was hers.

  A knock on the door quickly brought Shelly into an upright position. She wouldn’t let Osiris see her weakness. It was bad enough he seemed able to somehow sense the weird feelings that were growing for him for some insane reason. The little smirks and knowing look in his eyes made her want to stab him with a rusty nail and then carve Ra’s name all over Osiris’s skin so he had a constant visual reminder of who her heart belonged to.

  “You’ve been in here for nearly twenty-four hours.” Osiris opened the door without waiting for her permission. It was an improvement from just materializing in her room from out of nowhere. “I think you need some fresh air.”

  Shelly snorted. “Hate to break it to you, but sulfurous fumes are only considered fresh air to demons.”

  He rolled his eyes as if her statement was being ridiculous. Had he forgotten he was the one who’d abducted her and trapped her in the underworld? She didn’t want to be here. “I wasn’t talking about the underworld. I’m going to take you to the upworld.”

  Shelly’s chin rose, and her back straightened. He was taking her out of this hellhole? Could she use this opportunity as a means to escape? Maybe she could simply scream for help when they saw people. She could yell for someone to call the cops. She could scream rape or kidnapper or pedophile. Anything to attract attention. But what in Hades were the cops going to do to Osiris?

  “I see I’ve piqued your interest.” He stepped farther into the room and extended a hand. “Join me, please. Let me show you the world.”

  “Have you been watching Disney movies?” Shelly stared at the offered hand as if it was a poisonous snake. Symbolically, it sort of was.

  “What?” He gave her a puzzled look.

  “Show me the world? A whole new world?” she asked. “Those words aren’t ringing a bell?”

  “Should they?”

  “Ugh, even my insults are lost on you. Not only do you not know pop culture, but you don’t even know Disney culture. What do you do with all your free time?”

  He kept his hand out, and she continued to ignore it. “If you want to know more about me, I’ll be happy to tell you. Just come with me, and I’ll tell you anything you want to know.”

  “Anything?” She forced herself not to fidget. Fidgeting seemed like a sure sign of weakness. She was not weak.

  Osiris pursed his lips. “I reserve the right to set limitations, if necessary.”

  “Chicken.” She walked toward the door, past his hand. “Let’s go then. Fresh air is calling my name.”

  Shelly could feel his eyes on her as she passed. She didn’t turn when she heard his footsteps following behind her. Osiris took her hand. Before she could pull it away, they disappeared and reappeared in a large field covered in lush, green grass. Shelly’s eyes widened. She pulled her hand from his and slowly turned in a circle, letting her eyes take in the incredible sight. Mountains surrounded the field, and she realized they were high in a grassy valley. She could see a small village farther down the plain.

  There were cars parked on the dirt roads next to adorable cottage-style buildings. It was as if they’d stepped back in time, but based on the cars and poles that showed electricity flowed through the village, they were at least in the twentieth century, if not the twenty-first.

  The scene looked like something that might appear on a postcard. Shelly didn’t want to be enamored with the location. She didn’t want to be excited to see anything Osiris had to show her. But it was difficult to keep from feeling a tiny form of delight. She felt her lips turn up in a smile as she thought of Ra and how much more amazing this would be if he’d been the one to bring her here. Ra. She hadn’t forgotten him. Although she was in the company of the lord of the underworld, and could still feel those damn emotions she didn’t want, Ra was still with her. He was filling the places where darkness hadn’t yet taken over.

  “Don’t you want to know where we are?” Osiris asked.

  Shelly turned to look at him and found that he no longer wore black slacks and a white dress shirt but sported denim jeans and a V-neck sweater that fit nicely against his fit form. She looked down at herself and realized that her clothes, too, had changed. She also wore jeans, and her top was a soft cream sweater. Shelly shivered as she realized for the first time since appearing that it was significantly cooler here than in hell. She snorted to herself. What place isn’t colder than hell?

  “Honestly, I don’t really care.” Shelly found she meant it. “It’s stunning with the mountains, deep green grass, and the cozy little Hogwarts town,” she said. “But I don’t give a flying cow patty. What I care about is why you broke your oath. Why can’t you leave me alone?” Her voice rose with every question, and her anger grew. “Why do I have feelings toward you I know aren’t real? Why does everything inside of me feel like it’s trying to rip itself from my body? Why?” Shelly yelled. “How can you want someone who doesn’t want you?” Tears slipped down her cheeks, and she hastily wiped them away. Her breaths came in quick succession as she attempted to get herself under control. But there was a part of her that wanted to lose control. She wanted to simply let go of every ounce of self-control she’d been maintaining and fall apart. Shelly didn’t care if it cost her some of her dignity. She didn’t care if she looked like a four-year-old throwing a tantrum. All she wanted was Ra, to see Tara, and to be back in her world where she belonged.

  Osiris blew out a breath. For a moment—a very brief moment—he looked remorseful. But Shelly blinked, and the emotion vanished. The indifference she’d grown used to returned. “Why?” he asked. “Because I can. It’s that simple.” He slipped his hands into the pockets of his jeans, and his shoulders relaxed. “I rule hell. The earthly realm is my playground, and I will take what I want.”

  Shelly stared at him, watching his face closely. He held her eyes briefly and then looked away, which wasn’t like him. Typically, Osiris challenged her with his bold looks and intense eyes, which often flared with flames. She narrowed her eyes on him and tilted her head. “I’m going to call bullcrap on that answer.”

  He frowned, though he didn’t look directly at her, she could see the down turned lips from his profile. “You can call it anything you want. It doesn’t change the facts. I’m tired of my tedious existence with no one to share it with. Even the lord of the underworld gets lonely.”

  Shelly felt again: the annoying desire to comfort him. She mentally shoved it in a box and then pushed the box over the edge of a two-hundred-foot-high cliff. “Then perhaps you should consider changing your profession and quit acting like a child. Real men don’t have to force a woman to be with them, Osiris.”

  The flames in his eyes exploded as his head whipped to fully face her. His skin flushed with an otherness that chilled her to the bone. His cheekbones sharpened, his irises morphed from round to vertical slits, and when he hissed at her, his teeth had become pointed like that of a predator. She stumbled back, putting more space between them. A chill ran down her spine as she realized this was his true face. The handsome man he showed the world was evil, wrapped in beauty.

  “You think I want to be this?” He spat and pointed to his face. “Do you honestly believe this is something anyone would choose?”

  “I, well, you’re the devil, the fallen angel,” she stuttered.

  Osiris laughed, but bitterness laced the sound. He shook his head, and the demon face slipped away, replaced by the handsome human one. “I don’t know where that legend comes from because I have no memory of that.” He turned his back on her and tilted back his head. “I have no memory of where I came from or how I came into existence. But this is all I’ve ever known. Power, with limits. Darkness, though there is a part of me that longs for the light. And a hole inside me that hurts more than any flame of hell.”

  The anguish in his voice squeezed Shelly’s heart. He sounded utterly hopeless, resigned to his fate despite loathing his lot in life. “I feel sorry for you, and that pisses me off. But it still doesn’t excuse what you’ve done.”

  “I don’t want your damn pity, female,” he snapped. “I want your loyalty. I want what you freely give to Ra.” Her soul mate’s name sounded like a curse from Osiris’s lips. “And I will have it.” He turned back to her, his shoulders squared and his jaw set. “I’ve been patient with you. But I’m tired of your obstinance.”

  Shelly’s eyes widened, and her mouth dropped open. “You’ve been patient,” she said with a staccato tempo. “You ripped me away from my family, my soul mate, my best friend, my entire life. Every breath is a damn struggle. My body feels as if I’ve been beaten with a baseball bat and then thrown under a herd of elephants that have danced an Irish jig on my body. And you’re telling me you’ve been patient?”

  “Yes.” He lifted his chin in defiance, as if she had no right to challenge him. “Very patient. I have not used the full force of my charm on you. I’ve been subtle, coaxing you like the scared animal you are so you would grow to trust me. I have handled you like the most precious jewel, but still you refuse me. I’m done waiting. You will choose me. You will look upon me with adoration. You will touch me with true desire. You will long for my touch and my attention. You will do these things, or I will destroy Ra.

  “Not only will I take his soul, but I will replace it with the most depraved demon from the underworld and then turn him loose in the human realm. He will become the antithesis of what he is now. And I will make you watch every second of it.”

  The wind fled from Shelly’s lungs as if a heavyweight boxer had punched her in the stomach. It had been Osiris’s magic working in her all along. She didn’t feel genuine attraction for him. He’d been manipulating her emotions, playing with her like a damn cat plays with a mouse. “You bastard.” She seethed. Her blood boiled inside her veins, and the flames that burned inside of her ignited along her skin. The fire licked at her flesh, but it didn’t burn her. It was the first time since arriving in the underworld that she had been able to tap into the power that Aviur had given to her. “You… I…” She didn’t know what to say. What could she say? No? The hell I will? If she refused him, Shelly knew he would follow through with his threat. There was no way she would ever allow Ra to suffer that.

  The fire suddenly disappeared when she realized Osiris had won. She had no weapon that could fight against his power. She had no way of escaping him. And not only was her life in his hands, but so was the life of the man she loved. “Take me back. I don’t want to be here. I don’t want to see your face right now.” Not that she ever wanted to see his face, but she couldn’t say that. She couldn’t risk angering him further, pushing him to make good on his threat against Ra.

  Shelly inwardly cringed when his hand wrapped around her arm. Bile filled her throat, and she swallowed it down. When they reappeared in the room that was her cage, she ripped her arm from his grasp. His touch repulsed her. His very presence was an affront to everything good in the world. She walked away from him, giving him her back. Shelly squeezed her eyes closed, forcing the tears to remain at bay. She was sick of crying. Sick of feeling helpless.

  “The clock is ticking, Shelly.” Osiris’s voice was no longer hard. “You will come to terms with this. And when I see you next, you will offer yourself to me of your own free will. I will accept nothing less than everything from you.”

  The heat and emptiness that seemed to accompany him everywhere suddenly fled, and she knew he was no longer in the room. Shelly rubbed her hands over her face and tried to suck in air. When she realized she could not get herself under control, she ran for the first thing her eyes laid eyes on: an opulent statue of a naked woman. She picked it up and hurled it at the door. Next, she grabbed the lamp on the bedside table and threw it at the wall. It shattered, a symbolic image of the current state of the organ that beat in her chest. Shelly waged war on the room around her as if it was a living foe that fought back. She ranted and destroyed everything in her path until there was nothing left to break. Panting and exhausted, she dropped to her knees and reached for the bond that she knew still existed inside of her. She cried out, “RA!” His name carried, long and loud, until there was no air left in her lungs. Finally, she collapsed in a broken heap on the floor.

  Ra stumbled as he felt a massive pull in his chest, and then Shelly’s voice filled his mind. His own name reverberated throughout his skull, blocking out all other sound around him. The complete and utter desolation in her cry brought him to his knees. “Mery,” Ra whispered, her name a prayer on his lips. He reached back to her, pushing with everything inside of him, with every ounce of love and devotion he felt toward her, hoping she would feel him. He begged Mother Gaia to give her love and comfort to Shelly in her suffering. “I’m coming for you, Shelly. Just hold on a little longer. I swear to you, I will get you back, and I will never let you leave my sight again.”