He fell to his knees then caught himself with his hands before he face-planted, vaguely noticing the way the dry grass stabbed into his palms. His stomach roiled with nausea, and his head felt as if it had been hit by a sledgehammer. Ra gritted his teeth to keep from roaring out in rage. Not because he was in pain, but because he knew his pain meant Shelly was in pain.

  As he knelt, taking slow, deep breaths, another feeling surfaced. This wasn’t physical pain, but emotional. Ra suddenly felt guilt and shame, and he knew they weren’t his own emotions. He certainly had his own guilt and shame, but these felt different. Confusion intermingled with them. Ra dug his fingers into the ground and tried to focus on those feelings. He knew the emotions had to be coming from Shelly through the soul bond they shared because Ra wasn’t confused about why he felt guilty or shameful. Ra hadn’t protected his mate. He’d allowed her to be taken by the lord of the underworld. For that, he was entirely guilty.

  But the emotional roller coaster going on inside of him now was not his own ride. This was definitely coming from his female. What did she have to feel guilty about? Or shameful? The beginnings of a terrible thought began to form in his mind. He instantly shut the thought down before it could take root. He would not torture himself with “what ifs.” That type of thinking was pointless. “What ifs” wouldn’t help him find a way into hell. All they would do was distract him from his goal.

  He slowed his breathing and mentally pictured taking all the pain he felt and stuffing it into a box in his mind. Then Ra closed the lid tightly. After a few more heartbeats, he stood up, dusted off his pants, and then rolled his neck back and forth, enjoying the feel of the popping joints. When he was sure his emotions and power were under control, he walked to the door of the Blackhorn coven and knocked.

  At least a minute passed before the door was finally pulled open. The woman standing in the threshold appeared to be in her late twenties. Her face was free of makeup, which only made her look younger. Her brown hair was pulled up in a messy bun, the style Ra had noticed many of the females at the academy utilized when they were sparring. She wore a T-shirt with the words “I put a spell on you” across the front and ripped jeans. As far as witches went, she seemed to Ra very un-witch-like.

  “What do you want, elementalist?” the witch asked.

  Ra wasn’t surprised she picked up on his power. It was pouring off of him like a cup overflowing with water. He’d been able to suppress the magic somewhat, but the pain he’d just felt coming through the portal had shaken his control.

  “I have some questions regarding the summoning of demons,” Ra said without giving an introduction. The witch didn’t need to know who he was. It was enough that she knew he was powerful enough to cause her serious problems if she didn’t cooperate.

  She snorted. “As if.” She shook her head. “I’m sure you know that messing around with demons wiped out over half our coven. We were foolish. Our demon-summoning days are over.”

  “I don’t want you to summon it,” Ra said before the witch could shut the door. “I just need you to tell me how to summon one.”

  She narrowed her eyes at him. “Why?”

  “I need to get into the underworld.”

  “Are you stupid?”

  Ra shrugged. “Maybe.”

  “Wrong,” the witch said dryly. “You aren’t just stupid. You’re completely mad. No one with normally functioning brain cells would want to summon a demon, and they certainly wouldn’t want to go into the underworld.”

  Ra clenched his jaw and reminded himself that this woman didn't know him. She was completely unaware of his situation, so she had no idea her words wouldn’t deter him; they’d only make him angry. “My mate is being held captive by Os—”

  “SHH!” She cut him off and held up a hand. “Do not speak his name. The last thing we need is to draw his attention.”

  Ra fought the urge to release his power and burn the house to the ground. He needed her to focus and understand how serious he was. But that might be a little drastic, and Shelly wouldn’t approve of him causing the witches any more misery after they’d already suffered so much. The witch was lucky Ra cared about his mate’s opinion, or she’d be standing in the middle of a pile of ash, and the rest of her coven would be gone as well. “Speaking his name won’t draw his attention, you foolish girl,” he bit out through clenched teeth. “He is too busy paying attention to my female.” He didn’t allow himself to think about the connotation of those words, or the house would catch fire. “And frankly, I don’t give a damn if it does draw his attention. In fact, I would be glad if it did because then I could face him man-to-man. You wouldn’t need to do anything but get the hell out of the way. Now…” Ra took a step toward the door, and the witch backed up. He stared directly at her. “You are going to tell me what I want to know, or point me to someone who can. My patience grows thin.”

  Her eyes widened, and she took another step back. “Who are you?” The witch’s voice shook, and all her previous confidence evaporated.

  “That’s of no consequence,” he said. The fear in her eyes caused him a twinge of guilt, but it was necessary. Anything was necessary to get Shelly back.

  “Your eyes are entirely filled with blackness. I’ve only seen that before in demons. And I’ve never seen anyone bearing runes on his body that light up like a Christmas tree.”

  Ra’s eyes dropped to his bare arms. He saw the runes placed by Aviur were glowing. He couldn’t see his eyes, so he’d just have to take her word for it. But he didn’t know why they would be solid black. Filled with flames? That would make sense. Blackness was new.

  “There’s no way that rumors of you wouldn’t have made their way through the supernatural world,” she said, her voice growing stronger as Ra began to feel power pulse through the house. “I’ve only ever seen one type of being with those eyes.” The witch raised her hands to her sides and opened her palms, her voice growing deeper as she began speaking in Latin. An incantation, Ra realized. Then she leveled her gaze on him and said, “Give me your name, demon.”

  “You think I’m a demon?” Ra almost laughed at the absurdity of it. But then he considered the current location of all his ancestors. He realized he was closer to being a demon than most, simply because of his bloodline. Not that merely being sent to the underworld made you a demon… But then again, who knew what lasting effect his ancestors’ choices might have had on him? And there was one other thing. He’d fought his way through each and every level of hell. Ra had been surrounded by the underworld’s power for longer than he cared to remember. Perhaps there was a part of him that had absorbed some of the demonic power. Was that even possible? He wasn’t sure, but now wasn’t the time to consider it.

  “The proof is in the eyes. No other being can have eyes like that.” She pointed to him, and Ra automatically threw up flames around himself. He didn’t trust the witch to keep her power to herself. He was already bearing Aviur’s runes. He didn’t need a witch’s curse adding to his problems.

  “Are you dense, woman?” Ra snapped. “Why would I come here asking how to summon a demon if I am a demon? Wouldn’t I already know how to summon a demon, likely having been previously summoned myself? Give me a break. I’m not here to hurt you.”

  Maybe he should have led with that statement when she’d opened the door. But even as he said it, Ra wasn’t sure it was true. What the hell is wrong with me? Would he really hurt this female in order to get the information he needed in hopes of getting one step closer to getting Shelly back? He wished the answer to that was no, but he knew that would be a lie. Something inside of him was changing. With every ounce of pain that ripped through him, a part of his own soul twisted into something he didn’t recognize.

  “I don’t believe you,” the witch said. “And by the look on your face, I’d say you don’t believe you either.”

  “Can you help me or not?” Ra growled, ignoring her statement. He drew his power back, and the flames covering him disappeared.

  The witch stared at him for several heartbeats before letting out a breath. Then she pulled the door open and motioned him inside. “I can let you look through the grimoire, but I don’t know if there is anything that will help you. I might have something to get rid of those runes, though.”

  “I’d appreciate anything,” he said, not making any move to go farther into the mansion without her approval. Despite the disturbing changes going on inside of him, he didn’t want to hurt the witch, and any sudden movements by either of them might end in bloodshed.

  “I’m Penny, by the way,” she told him.

  “I’m Ra.” He gave a slight nod of his head. “Are you the only one left in your coven since…”

  “The witches got their asses handed to them by the dragons because they foolishly trusted a demon?” Penny finished for him.

  “That’s one way to put it.” Ra followed her farther into the house.

  “There’s a handful of us left, in this coven at least,” she said. “I don’t know, nor do I care, about the other covens.”

  “I’m sorry for your loss,” Ra said. Penny said nothing as they walked through a room that appeared to be a sitting area. A dark red velvet fabric covered the wall, and a massive black chandelier hung from the ceiling. Two dark chairs and a large black couch occupied the center of the room. Their steps were silent on plush, gray carpet. Ra thought the gothic decor was overkill, but he didn’t bring it up. He wasn’t here for banter.

  As if she’d heard his thoughts, Penny said, “I told them that just because we’re witches didn’t mean we had to live in the Addams family house.”

  Ra grunted, but said nothing. He followed her into an equally gothic hallway. Dark gray wallpaper bearing human skulls printed in a vertical pattern lined the walls. Every fifteen feet, a candelabra protruded from the wall, complete with burning candles. She stopped at a black door with an ornate, old-fashioned brass knob. Penny pulled a key from the back pocket of her jeans and slipped it into the keyhole. There was a click, and she pushed the door open.

  Ra followed her inside, and the smell of stale air assaulted him. Floor-to-ceiling bookshelves lined each wall of the room. Like the sitting room, plush dark furniture decorated the space. Here, though, open books, some stacked ten or more high, rested on almost every available surface, including several ornately carved tables.

  “Do you have any idea which of these books I should consult?” Ra took in the sheer number of manuscripts that filled the room.

  “No, but I can cast a spell that will help. It will illuminate the titles of any books predominantly dealing with demons.” Penny walked to the center of the room. “After that, it’s good old-fashioned trial and error.” Standing in front of a black velvet couch, the witch closed her eyes and began to chant silently. Ra saw her lips moving but didn’t hear any of the words. A rush of wind filled the room, and it felt cool against Ra’s hot skin. He tried to step away from it, uneasy at being touched by anyone else’s magic, but it was gone as quickly as it came.

  When he glanced around the room again, he saw the words on the spines of various books now glowed a light gold, making them stand out against the others. A few others resting on the tables had the same effect. Ra ran his eyes over the room again and guesstimated there to be at least twenty-five books that contained something related to demons.

  Penny opened her eyes and swiveled around until her gaze stopped on him. “Guess you’ve got your work cut out for you.”

  Ra swallowed his frustration and walked to the nearest table. With a grumble, he took a seat. A few of the glowing books rested on it, and they seemed as good a place to start as any.

  “I’ll retrieve the others so you don’t have to waste time with the ladder,” Penny offered.

  Ra looked over at her and frowned. “That’s considerate of you.” He wondered at the witch’s change in demeanor. Much of her initial hostility seemed to have evaporated.

  Penny grinned and moved to a ladder that was attached to one of the tall bookshelves. “I’m a sucker for a good love story. This girl of yours is lucky to have someone willing to go to hell for her.”

  Ra clenched his teeth as he thought about Shelly. He missed her. They’d only been together a short time, and yet it seemed as if they’d been together always. He knew he could never live without her. Ra reached for the first book, and the pain he’d felt earlier returned. He used it to fuel his determination. Ra would read every book in the damn room cover to cover, if that’s what it took to get his female back. “I’m lucky to have her,” he told Penny. “And it’ll be my second trip.”

  “Where did the runes come from?” Penny held up her hand, and a book flew from the shelves into it. She began flipping through the pages.

  “Aviur, the light royal fire king.”

  The book suddenly snapped closed, and Penny looked up. “I got nothing for those runes.”

  Ra frowned. “I thought you said you might.”

  “I did. But that was before I knew who put them on you.” She set the book down on the table beside her. “If a fire elemental, a royal one at that, put those on you, then only a fire elemental can take them off. And he or she might also have to be a royal. I’m not even sure it could just be any old fire elemental.”

  Ra slowly turned the pages of the book he held as his eyes ran over the words. “How do you know that?”

  “Because knowing things about magical beings is what keeps me safe. If my coven members had sought knowledge instead of power, then they wouldn’t be roasting their asses off in hell.”

  “Can’t argue with that,” he said absentmindedly as he continued to scan the pages. Page after page he searched for anything that might tell him about demon summoning, but the book he currently held only discussed types of demons, not how to actually get them here. He closed it, set it aside, and picked up the next book in the stack. Ra’s muscles tensed. He realized he was going to have to call on all his patience to sit and read book after book, instead of fighting something or someone, which is what he wanted to be doing.

  He had no idea what the witch was up to, nor did he really care. Ra just wanted to find what he needed and then move on to the next step, whatever that was. I’m going to kill you for taking her, Osiris. His grip tightened on the book. I’m going to kill you and accept that my place in the next life is in hell with my ancestors. Ra never thought he’d be able to come to the realization that no matter what he did, all roads still led to his ancestors. But here he was. To keep Shelly out of Osiris’s hands, it would be worth it.

  Chapter

  Five

  “There’s something wrong with me. Rage consumes my insides. It constantly gnaws at me, eating me away bit by bit. I don’t know why I’m so angry. I don’t know why or when it started. And I don’t know how to stop it. What will happen when the rage eats all of me, and it still hasn’t had its fill?” ~Rory

  “I would say I’ve lost my reason for being, but wow. I mean, wow. That makes me sound like I’m singing one of those stupid love songs.” Rory stomped around in the cave that she had shared with Aston until a few short hours ago. Already she felt the emptiness building within her. Aston’s shining soul had chased away the emptiness. Now, it returned with a vengeance, bringing darkness in its wake. Like flesh becoming necrotic, the light within her began to perish. Rory had only thought her life had been bleak before she’d known Aston. After experiencing his presence in her life, and then having it ripped away… She was left with no hope. Despair was closing in, and Rory had no idea how to hold it off.

  “Do you believe me now when I say he’s your soul bonded?” Kimba asked, her dragon lips pulled tightly across her large muzzle.

  Rory glared at the dragon. “If we are soul bonded, then why couldn’t we get along? Why couldn’t we seem to connect somehow? Other than feeling the soul bond when we first met, there was just a … just a … just a mess between us.” She flung out her hands in front of her. “It was like a rope, full of knots and kinks that we couldn’t undo.”

  Kimba snorted, and smoke billowed from her snout. She’d managed to wedge her sizeable form into the entrance of the cave so that her neck and shoulders were within the opening and her rump and tail hung out over the cliff edge. Her scales currently had a brown hue to them as she sat close to the dark cave walls, and it gave her a somewhat sinister appearance. “Did you seriously think that just because you were fated for one another by the royals that it wouldn’t take work?”

  “I don’t know.” Rory huffed, and her shoulders rolled forward. “I mean, I’ve had so many good relationships in my life you’d think I would know exactly what to expect.”

  Kimba rolled her pale blue eyes the size of cantaloupes. “Sarcasm is not becoming. You have a brain, Rory. You’re far from dumb. What was really going on?”

  Rory dropped to the ground, hitting her butt hard and blowing out a whoosh of air. She pulled her knees up and rested her elbows on them. Her mind drifted back to the past two weeks and how she and Aston had interacted. Then she thought about the fight they’d had.

  They’d both said some very unfair and unkind things. And though she knew she shouldn’t have said them, there was a part of her that still wanted to attack him even more. Rory wanted to feel justified for her feelings, whether they were legitimate or not.

  “What is wrong with me?” She rested her forehead against her arms. “I don’t understand why a part of me wants him so badly, but another part of me is so furious with him. And the part of me that’s furious with him is winning.”

  “Hmm.” Kimba appeared to ponder Rory’s words. “When you brought Aston here,” the dragon began, “how did you feel?”

  Rory lifted her head and looked at her unlikely friend. “Relieved,” she answered immediately. “I know that sounds weird, but I felt I had been wandering in the wilderness. When Aston came along, I was suddenly found. I felt seen … and hopeful.”