Chapter 28

Barbie

Ablink, and I found myself perched on a comfortable chair in a banquet room, a feast spread out in front of me.

Hunger roared in me, as did an acute sense of danger. For the first time, I didn't descend on the food like a locust.

Something wasn't right here.

My shoulder blades tingled, confirming my suspicion.

A memory flooded back, though foggy. The last thing I remembered was Killian and the other princes merging their powers to take down the legion. I'd thought I was finally in safe hands, but obviously I was wrong. I wasn't out of the woods, and thus I was here. I scanned the hall lit by artificial light coming from the black marble ground that stretched far into the distance. The ceiling was open to the night sky, but there wasn't a single star above. Black gemstones adorned three walls, a full glass door overlooking a dark lake.

I wasn't on the Shades Academy grounds, as I was supposed to be after the battle.

Sy!I shouted. Sy!

She didn't come, and I couldn't feel her.

I stared down at my wrists. There were no chains like those mercenaries from CrimsonTide had used on me. There was no torque around my neck either.

Yet my link to Sy was cut off, as was my connection to my familiar. As I searched deeper to reach for them, only an empty echo returned. But then I noticed another link deep down, fluttering yet veiled. It took me a long minute to realize that it led to Killian. My breath caught in my throat.

I hesitated for a beat, then left it alone. If it was hidden, there must be a good reason. I needed to draw attention away from that hidden bond, so our enemies wouldn't fix their eyes on it.

I regarded my wrists again. I had no chains on me, yet I couldn't reach Sy.

I nodded an understanding of my situation. It didn't take a genius to figure out that I had been hijacked. My mind was compromised.

This wasn't the realm that Killian created to dream-walk to me. This was a different place from a different time, fabricated by someone else. This banquet hall appeared more splendid than Shangri-La Paris, but only a single table was set, where I perched.

A variety of cupcakes, puffs, donuts, and fruits—all my favorites—packed every inch of the table. Whoever had brought me here was very powerful, and they'd studied me, knowing my undying love for food.

Hunger gnawed my stomach. I desperately needed to replenish myself. A voice in the back of my head urged me to take a bite and make myself feel better.

I picked up a puff, but before I inserted it into my mouth to quench my hunger, I spotted a slice of fruit between the cream filling. It wasn't orange but something else. I narrowed my eyes, and my innate knowledge flashed.

Shit!It was ambrosia, food for gods and goddesses. There'd be a heavy price to pay for a mortal or an immortal who consumed it. I was neither. Ambrosia couldn't harm me, as I had goddess blood, but there would be strings attached.

As I studied the fruit, my senses spiked, and my shoulder blades tingled again. Someone was watching me. The ambrosia offered to me was local, grown from the soil of the Underworld.

The mythology told the story of Hades, Killian's grandpa, kidnapping Persephone. He offered her a pomegranate. She tried to be polite, so she ate six seeds. Fates showed up right after saying that she could never return to the land of the living.

Whoever offered me food had tried to trick me, as a slice of ambrosia could easily be mistaken as a slice of blood orange. Once I ate it, I'd never leave the Underworld.

I had a hunch who had set the trap, but she had no idea that I'd been training my mind since I was a child. Who wouldn't when her father was a sadistic god? When I reached age seven, even the original god couldn't penetrate my mind, my most-protected asset.

I had to give the queen credit, since it wasn't an easy task to even bring me here. Now, I'd just wait, maybe even get some shuteye to preserve my energy.

One thing did worry me, though. No one, not even Pucker, knew that my mind was being hijacked. No one could help me if I didn't get out of this. I'd end up in an eternal coma.

As I propped my feet on the table on top of the cupcakes and ambrosia while shutting my eyes for a fake nap, I felt pressure pricking against my mental shield. A force was trying to pierce my mind. The pressure kept increasing, and my head pounded in pain.

After a while, I caved in, weakened and compromised by the Seed of Heaven, and then my first shield was breached. I clenched my teeth as it dawned on me that the Seed of Heaven, the torque, and the chainlock were all connected. The druid might want to get his evil hands on me, but he'd received the tips about my perceived weaknesses from someone else, someone who knew my origin.

Had my father made a new ally? But he wasn't one to share power. He was a conqueror and an eater of the world. He didn't require allies, only slaves.

I clamped the second shield down, ready to swing at whoever came along. My opponent clawed at it, rammed into it, hacked at it, but my second shield was firmly in place and unbreakable.

Who are you, girl?a feminine voice asked, carrying seductive and persuasive power stronger than a siren's.

She knew who I was, I was damn sure, but she needed confirmation. If I answered her truthfully, I'd give her power over me.

Huh? I offered, playing dumb.

Tell me who you are and where you are from,her voice commanded, carrying compulsion that was much stronger than Silas's.

If you answer my question first and correctly, ma'am, I'll tell you everything.I smirked, ignoring the headache her compulsion caused me.

Fire away,she said with a hint of humor.

What came first? The chicken or the egg?I asked eagerly.

What?I couldn't see her, but I felt her frowning upon me. I had that effect on a lot of beings, especially superior beings.

Did the chicken come first, or the egg?I repeated slowly.

She sighed, then decided she no longer wanted to play nice as she hammered at my head. If I were a mortal, it would've cracked.

I started a heated debate about the egg and the chicken with myself, aiming to drag her down with boredom while I strengthened my mental shield.

"Let's solve the chick and egg situation," I called. "Some think it's an impossible argument in a scenario of infinite regression. However, the truth is out there. Barbie A, you're up."

I shifted my voice to a high-pitched, girlie type. "The egg came first, since if there'd been no egg, there would've been no chicken. The first chicken was hatched from an egg."

I changed my voice. "Barbie B, do you agree? Speak up."

I gave Barbie B a low, husky voice. "There had to be a chicken first to lay an egg. I'm dying to know what the first chicken looked like. White? Black? Yellow? Brown? Or even green?"

The force pounded my second shield, yet it couldn't get in, as I didn't give an inch while looping my tiresome debate over and over, broadcasting on all frequencies to anyone who was willing to listen. I could do this not only for hours but months, nonstop, like the training I'd gone through as a child.

I didn't even need to stab her. I'd bleed her with boredom until she was fucking bored to death.

"Humans think they evolved from monkeys." I started a second round of my loop, as I had endless uncut material. Good thing I didn't need to be original. "But the supernaturals laugh at that shit. Why are the apes and monkeys from the jungles still apes and monkeys? Should they visit their human cousins for a recipe?"

Not for a nanosecond did my thoughts drift to anything—not to my father, not to Sy, not to Killian—other than chickens and eggs.

"My, my, tell me," I said, starting over. "Did the chicken come first, or did the egg?"

It might've been hours before the pressure in my mind eased, the probe withdrew, and my pounding headache lessened.

Sensing someone entering the hall, I slowly pried open my eyes.

A regal woman. An immortal. A queen.

Instantly, I knew who had just walked in.

The Queen of the Underworld, Killian's betrothed.

Queen Lilith was a great beauty.

She looked only a couple of years older than me, but I knew she was at least centuries older. I was twenty going on twenty-one. She was almost as tall as Killian and had a ruthless air like him. I hated to admit it, but the two would look great together.

The queen's golden hair, two shades darker than mine, flowed down to her slender ankles. While my face was pale gold, hers was creamy and radiant. She shone brighter than anyone on this planet, yet somehow, I knew that she couldn't outshine me, and I didn't even shine.

There was a lot of gossip and rumors about her. Mostly, they said the Queen of the Underworld came from a fallen star, one of the brightest before the fall, like Lucifer.

I sent out my dark wind to feel her power, but in this world controlled by her, she called the shots. When I stopped trying, the familiarity of her power rippled toward me. Could my father have had another daughter before me?

I shook my head and scratched the ridiculous idea. If he had one, he'd never have let her go. He'd have sucked her dry as well, like he'd done to me.

I couldn't explain it, but I felt connected to the queen, drawn to her like a fly to a spiderweb. A voice tried to convince me that I could trust her.

But I wouldn't trust her. Sometimes you could judge a book by the cover, but most of the time, you shouldn't. Trust me on that.

"Hello, hello," I said with a smile aimed toward my adversaries. "Are you also responsible for my kidnapping not so long ago?"

She tilted her head to regard me. "So, you're the girl whom my beloved took into his house against objections?"

A fit of jealousy shot to my head. I didn't like her great beauty and perfection. I liked even less her lyrical voice infused with cold power.

Multiple voices from myself churned in my head.

Break up her and Killian.

Send Sy to eat her.

Drag her down by her golden hair and maul her gorgeous face!

But will Killian get upset if I maim her? In the end, he has to marry her.

Tears suddenly gathered behind my eyelids. I could never give Killian anything. I had nothing to offer him, or anyone, except disaster, curse, or even death.

No, it wouldn't come to that.

When my borrowed time was over, I'd leave of my own volition and draw Ruin away from Mist of Cinder and everyone I cared about.

So, I should protect Killian and his interests, including his engagement to the queen, while I could, even though it felt like acid dripping through my stomach. At least, I would not cause shit for Killian by letting his betrothed suspect that I was the other woman.

"Sir Killian is known for his charity," I said. "I guess I'm his new project."

She smiled at me, and that smile had teeth like blades.

"Hmm." The queen tilted her head. "Do you understand what you consumed?"

There was no need to beat about the bush and pretend that I had no idea what she was talking about. I bet she'd studied me extensively before she hijacked my mind and brought me here.

"Seed of Heaven," I said, "brought from Heaven and grown in your garden. Are you the drug dealer or the supplier?"

"You're young and green, yet you possess such knowledge," she said, her seductive voice the music of the dead and living. "You've never been to my realm, yet you figured out right away you're in my Underworld."

I felt the strong urge to pour out my guts to her under her power.

"I have my moments, ma'am." I smirked, then corrected myself. "Your Majesty."

"Both Heaven and Hell have been conducting experiments to find ultimate weapons against the old gods for an eon," Queen Lilith said. "But it's impossible to get their hands on the three originals. We believe two of them are gone, but one is making a comeback. So Heaven has been hunting for the direct descendants of any old gods." Her brilliant green gaze fixed on me as if I was the shit. "The Seed has taken root in you. All involved parties are eager to see the development. The Seed of Heaven might be the only thing that you can't absorb."

"Thanks for the update," I said. "People suck. Gods are worse."

She arched an elegant eyebrow. "Do you have other questions?"

"Are you truly a fallen star?" I asked.

She laughed, full of the promise of the star and the power of the Underworld.

I'd never heard any laughter so enthralling. The more she talked, the more I was drawn to her, addicted to her voice. She was the speaker of the truth. I put my chin on my palms like a puppy laying its head on its paws, gazing up at the Queen of the Underworld in utter admiration.

It seemed that we'd been talking for eternity, though I didn't mind it one bit. Only I couldn't remember the subjects we'd visited, as I felt time slipping through my fingers. And then I started to forget more of myself, my past, and my friends.

"You should eat the fruit," the queen said.

I beamed at her, aiming to please. "Maybe I should, but something tells me that I shouldn't. I wonder why."

"Just try," she urged. "Once slice of the orange will do you good, and then you won't be hungry anymore."

I picked up the puff with the fruit in it that I'd put down before.

"But this isn't orange, Your Majesty," I said. "This is ambrosia. You think I should really eat the gods' food in the Underworld? If I do, I won't be able to return home. That's a big deal."

"Where do you think is your home?" she asked, her enchanting voice the flow of a beautiful violin.

"Uh?" I tried to think, then nodded. "That's a good question."

There was this place, but where? Fragmented images flashed before my eyelids—rare blossoms shivering in the night, a fairy lake, and a violet building of glass and steel under a starlit sky that stretched to eternity. Those images conveyed feelings, but they didn't stick. As soon as they appeared, they vanished, plucked out and chipped away by time.

I frowned in confusion and dismay. "Maybe I don't have a home?"

"You do now," she said. "This is your home. Eat the puff and the fruit, and you'll feel more at home."

Barbie!a high-pitched male voice screamed in my ears. There's something wrong with Barbie!

Who the fuck was Barbie? And that person was so loud and rude. I should send Sy to eat him!

Wait! Where was Sy? Why wasn't she around? Even if I forgot myself and everything, I could never forget Sy, my other soul, a beautiful savage with glowing golden eyes and a penchant for blood, gore, and porn.

I ran my fingers through my golden curls, ruffling them to make them bounce. Sy's hair was dark, lush, and straight, down to her ankles. Even her hair was a weapon that she'd used to wrap around a few rapists and choke them to death. I grinned at those memories fondly, not because of the brutality Sy had dealt to those bad men, but because I'd remembered.

And then I remembered more.

How many times must I tell you, Sy, that you can't just eat people merely because you don't like them?

Sy wasn't convinced.

We must be our better self. Plus, if you eat intelligent beings that annoy you, you'll have bad breath, I pressed. Rowan will be turned off, and he won't give us diamonds anymore.

I won't eat people raw, then, she pondered. We can cook them well done with pepper and garlic. Those are good seasoning.

Rowan? Who was he?

I cocked my head. A gorgeous, formidable male came to my mind, with a body built to kill and fuck. His storm-blue eyes gazed at me, containing scorching heat that expelled the cold winter in them.

As I recalled this male who had made me shiver down to my toes in lust, his scent of pine and clean, powerful male followed me to the Underworld, enveloping me in protection. But he couldn't be Rowan. That name didn't fit.

I blinked hard, desperate to remember him. The core part of me also told me that it was uber important to find out his name, but an outside force was hellbent on erasing him from my mind.

Sy! Earth to Sy! I shouted, peering into the deep well within me. Do you copy?

I heard a faint echo, and I called her again and again, sinking all I had into my search. We're two peas in a pod. Sy, do you copy?

Roger! In the distance, a roar came. Mars to Barbie, we're in danger!

No shit!