Kim Harrison - Hotter Than Hell

He kissed her cheek. “Sleep. I will return.”

Ericka’s eyelids drooped. She didn’t have the strength to fight off his kiss or tell him to go to hell. She was too limp, too exhausted.

She tumbled into a world of crazy, crazy dreams.

AEDAN NARROWED HIS BROWS AS HE TURNED AWAY from Ericka, walked through the veil and the archway. What in the Underworlds had he been thinking? At that moment, when she’d been so close to orgasm, when he could have taken her, she would have given him anything. Even though she wouldn’t have realized what she was giving up, she would have said the words. He had sensed it, known it.

And he hadn’t asked her for her soul.

He half expected the guides to the Realm of the Dead to be waiting for him.

Instead, Kyne and Jett were.

“What the fuck was that about?” Kyne shouted, his gold eyes blazing. His muscles tightened as he clenched his fists at his sides. “You had her. She would have turned over her soul without thinking twice.”

“She wasn’t ready.” With a thought, Aedan dressed himself in a toga then tried to shoulder his way past Kyne and Jett, but both stepped in front of him.

“Are you out of your mind?” Jett was as loud as Kyne had been. She tossed her long black hair over her shoulder. “By all that crawls the Realm of the Dead, she was ready.”

“You are much too close to this one.” Kyne folded his arms across his chest, his look fierce. “Errol or I should finish it.”

“You hold no power over me.” Heat washed over Aedan and he scowled at Kyne. “This is my assignment and I will complete it. Neither you nor Errol will touch her.”

I will save her from you , whispered his mind. And from myself, too .

“You are coming with us.” Jett took him by his upper arm and tugged, her fingers pressing into his flesh.

He stood firm. “I am retiring to my quarters.”

“No,” Kyne said. “First we have something you must see.”

A low rumble rose within Aedan. “If it will get you to leave me in peace.”

Jett studied him. “That will be for you to decide.”

Aedan growled again, but walked between Jett and Kyne from the Chamber of Veils into the Hall of the Lost. The floor was cool and smooth beneath his bare feet, the silence thick and heavy between the three of them.

The vast hall stretched endlessly, yet it wasn’t long before they reached a chamber that Aedan had always avoided. It was the Chamber of Futures, and he had never desired to see what lay in store for him. His future would be whatever he made of it. He merely had to make the choice.

To pacify his companions, he allowed Kyne and Jett to shove him into the room. They could not enter, as only the being who wished to see his or her future was allowed.

His throat tightened as he walked into the darkened passageway of a cave. Rough rock walls surrounded him, sharp stones pricked his soles, and smells of dust and age filled his nostrils. It was akin to a holy place, had they not been demons.

He turned a corner and came to a stop in the doorway of a small, round chamber. The walls were white and as smooth as polished marble. On the floor at the center of the room was a circular mosaic depicting the gods and goddesses of the four elements—fire, wind, earth, water.

Four figures intertwined. The god of earth was at the top of the circle, north, and he bore a green seedling in his palms.

The goddess of wind was to the east, her red hair flowing in a breeze and a bird perched on her shoulder.

At the base of the circle, south, was the god of fire. He held both hands up to either side of him, a flame in each palm.

And then on the west side of the circle was the likeness of the goddess of water, who tipped her head back as rain fell upon her face. Belisma, his mother.

Aedan sucked in his breath and stepped into the center of the mosaic. Immediately, sensations of cool earth beneath his feet warred with sudden heat warming his legs. A breeze raised his hair from his shoulders and flattened his tunic to his body. It felt as if the welcome caress of water wrapped around him.

His skin tingled as he stared at the smooth, white wall. He forced himself to breathe as he waited for his future to be shown to him.

For a moment, nothing. Then the entire room vanished.

He stood on a sandy beach looking out at the ocean. Sunshine warmed his body—a strange sensation. He was an Incubus, never allowed in the sunlight, always relegated to the dark.

Annwn. I must be in the afterlife where my kind go if the gods and goddesses are pleased .

The tightness in his throat increased and his heart pounded in time with the waves against the sand. Of course he would be sent to a place near water. But this…he had not expected such beauty, such vastness.

A cry from a sea bird mingled with the roar of the ocean. The scent of salt was heavy enough that he even tasted it on his tongue. To either side of him grew thick green foliage that hugged the small cove.

For the first time in all his centuries of being, he felt alive and free. Free of the constraints of serving the gods and goddesses, and alive with possibilities.

In one moment, he felt joy.

In the next, terror.

Light and joy vanished.

Aedan shouted as he was enveloped in flame, the pain so deep and constant it was as if the flesh was charred from his bones. Bursts of fire lit the darkness while bubbling pools of lava lapped at his feet like the ocean waves had when he had stood on the shore.

With every splash of lava against his ankles and calves, Aedan wanted to cry out. But he ground his teeth and held it in as he searched for some way out of this version of the human hell—

The Realm of the Dead .

Sweat rolled down his face and arms but quickly dried in the searing heat. Shrieks, cries, and sobs of other beings in the realm echoed from sharp and sheer volcanic rock. He could make out figures now. Men, women. No doubt some he had sent here himself.

Dear gods and goddesses .

A wave of heat slammed into him, forcing him to drop to his knees in a lava pool. Aedan gave another shout.

Everything vanished.

He was in the Chamber of Futures again, but on his knees.

Aedan’s breathing came hard and fast and in his mind’s eye he could still see the flames and the tortured souls. His tunic was now damp with his sweat and clung to his body.

When the beating of his heart slowed and his breathing calmed, he stood and straightened to his full height.

His choices had been laid out before him.

Annwn, or the Realm of the Dead.

His choice.

Robbing Ericka Roberts of her soul was the key.

Aedan clenched his fists at his sides and strode from the chamber, nearly running into Jett and Kyne when he entered the Hall of the Lost.

Without speaking to either of them, he turned and headed away from the pair who remained silent.

He needed…he needed his quarters. The stone, the water. He needed to think.

When he reached his quarters, he slammed the door, raked his fingers through his hair again, and looked up at the starry sky. “Gods and goddesses, what is happening?”

A sigh and a breeze whirled through his chamber and he turned to face the direction it came from. Like the reflection of water on a pond, his mother, Belisma, appeared before him along with her scent of fresh water and moss. The goddess of water was as beautiful as a crystal waterfall tumbling into the River of Life.

Surprise sent a jolt down his spine that Belisma had answered his cry. He knelt before the blond, golden-eyed goddess, and kept his head lowered.

“Rise, Aedan of the Incubae.” Her voice even sounded like water trickling over rocks.