Meg Xuemei X - ANGEL’S FURY (THE EMPRESS OF MYSTH #5) | Aug 2016 Read online

  THE EMPRESS

  OF MYSTH

  book five

  angel’s fury

  Meg Xuemei X

  The Empress of Mysth Copyright © 2016 by Meg Xuemei X

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photography, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system without permission in writing from the author. Requests for permission should be sent to [email protected].

  Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

  First Edition

  Meg Xuemei X

  Printed in the United States of America

  Cover art by Lou Harper

  Edited by Mia Darien

  Proofread by Jay Howard

  The novel is a work of fiction. Any and all characters, events, and places are of the author’s imagination and should not be confused with fact. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or events or places is merely coincidence. Novel intended for adults only. Must be 18 years or older to read.

  About The Empress of Mysth

  Part I

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Part II

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Preview of The Empress of Mysth 6: Angel’s Mate

  More Books by the Author

  About the Author

  ABOUT THE EMPRESS OF MYSTH

  Forbidden. Sworn Enemy. Wicked Seduction.

  Savage angels have turned Earth into their hunting ground. To save all earthborns, the fey princess Rose cedes to the marriage demands of the King of Angels, knowing she won't survive the wedding night. When she comes to Atlantis to find a secret weapon to banish angels from our planet, she awakens the darkest lust in the king's lethal brother.

  The most formidable angel comes across the universe and finds her. He will stop at nothing to possess her, even if he must fall.

  The High Prince offers Rose an indecent proposal: sleep with him once and he'll keep her safe. Rose will turn his urge against him and destroy the angels' house. While unbridled lust burns the prince, it also torments her.

  This sizzling mythological romance series centers on war and lust between an immortal race and fallen angels, before humans walked the earth.

  PRINCE SETH

  It had taken me a while to gather the ice.

  I grabbed the huge bucket of ice cubes and flew toward the Spring Hall. I seemed to hear her calling me, her small voice urgent and desperate, “Help me, Seth! Come now!”

  It made me uneasy, but I shook my head. My lust now made me hear her voice, and soon I would see things. This madness had to end soon.

  You’ll have to wait, Princess, I promised the imaginary voice. Your fun will come.

  The fey female had set a horde of bats after me, so the least I could do was to return the favor. The Mysthians loved to indulge themselves with a hot bath; they hated all things cold.

  I grinned, picturing the look on her face as ice cubes poured on her ass while she was pleasuring herself. My cock hardened at the image.

  Splash! The sounds of struggling. The fountains couldn’t drown out the noise from my superior hearing.

  She wasn’t alone.

  Seth, Rose whimpered in my head, then her voice was gone.

  Assassins!

  Fear pierced me.

  With a furious cry, I burst through the skylight of the Spring Hall.

  Two rogue angels were on Rose, while another guarded the door and two more watched from the perimeter with their swords half-drawn.

  Five angels, all wearing protective face masks, had come to murder the princess.

  Rose thrashed as the assassins pulled her under the water. They intended to drown her and make it look like an accident.

  I had thought of the threat from my brother.

  I had thought of the threat from my father.

  But I hadn’t seriously considered the possibility that the minor angels would act so boldly as to make an attempt on Rose’s life.

  Wrath burst in me. How dare they try to snatch her from me! I’d marked her as mine.

  Mine. It was the first time I declared the truth to myself.

  I dove, holding my breath. I was one of the most powerful angels, so the poisoned air wouldn’t kick into my lungs for three minutes, not until I breathed in again. I tossed the bucket of ice at the angels who held Rose. I couldn’t use my lightning since Rose was with them in the water.

  The princess stopped kicking. Something worse than fear punctured my heart.

  The assassins turned and looked up at me in shock; the attack of the ice made them release their grip on her.

  I was on the two in a nanosecond. In rage, I thrust my hand into an angel’s chest and tore his heart out. The other stared at me, then at the still-pulsing organ. My sword slit his throat.

  The other three didn’t come for me, but fled instead.

  My lightning shot out and burned the closest two. I intended to keep the last one alive for interrogation, but he flew toward the broken ceiling. I longed to give chase and capture him, but I was too worried about Rose.

  I scooped her out of the water, now tainted red by the angels’ blood, and laid her down on the streambed. Her eyes were shut, and she wasn’t breathing.

  If she died, I would dig out whoever was behind the assassination and skin all of them alive. I would also kill all of the guards who had been assigned to the princess but failed to protect her.

  My rage would set me on a killing spree if she perished.

  I breathed into her mouth as my hands pumped her still chest.

  “Breathe!” I shouted at her. “Take a breath, Rose! Don’t die on me! You won’t die on me like this! Rose!”

  I breathed into her again and again.

  Her heartbeat fluttered under the heel of my hand.

  “That’s better, baby,” I said. “Now come back!”

  She gasped, water flowing from her mouth.

  Her big whisky-colored eyes opened, then grew wider in her pale face. Fear flickered in them. It vanished as she spotted me, then rage burned darkly.

  She remained feeble, the polluted air still affecting her.

  I shrugged off my trench coat, covered her, and pulled her into my arms. Kicking open the door, I carried her out of the Spring Hall.

  Her lead guard wasn’t around; her two other guards’ faces paled at the sight of their princess, limp in my arms.

  They quickly assessed the situation and one of them rushed into the bath hall.

  “Some dead bodies,” I said. “The air is still poisonous inside.”

  The guard withdrew and closed the door. He traded a look with the other guard; fury rolled off them. I knew they were calling their leader via their telepathic ability.

  “Give her to me,” one of the guards demanded as I carried Rose toward her chamber.

  “Touch her and I’ll kill you,” I snarled.

  Both guards were about to lunge at me. Black lightning sizzled at my fingertips.

  Rose waved them back weakly, her strength slowly returning.

  The guards followed me to the princess’s suite.

  The lady-in-waiting rushed out of the room and went berserk at seeing her princess sl
ack in my arms. She tried to take Rose from my arm, but I shoved her aside; no one would take Rose from me.

  Not that I’d have cared if all of them fought me, but they didn’t. I guessed that Rose must have told them telepathically that I had slaughtered the assassins and saved her.

  When I reached her sleeping chamber, all of the Mysthian guards had arrived.

  The head guard stormed into the room and knelt before Rose, who still trembled in my arms. Following their leader’s orders, the guards quieted. Though they all looked like they would murder me if I held their princess a minute longer than necessary, none moved to attack; they stayed watchful and restrained their anger.

  I gently laid Rose down on her bed and cradled her until she stopped shivering. Though she put on a brave facade at all times, deep inside she was just a nineteen-year-old girl, who hadn’t before now seen much of blood.

  The lady-in-waiting sprang forward and wrapped the blanket around Rose. “High Prince,” she said tensely, “we can take care of our princess from here.”

  I didn’t want to let Rose go, but I couldn’t hold her forever.

  This intense emotion, close to tenderness, was too strange to me. I knew what lust, cold rage, and bloodthirst were, but I hadn’t known this softness and sensibility.

  “Go fetch a court healer,” I ordered the Mysthian head guard.

  “There’s no need for that,” the lady-in-waiting said. “I’m a healer. And now, I want all of you to leave the room while I tend to Her Highness.”

  I gave the lady-in-waiting and the Mysthian guards an assessing look.

  Rose was safe for now with her people.

  I reluctantly stepped back. “I’m going to hunt down the last assassin,” I said. “I’ll be back.” I scanned the guards in the room. “Guard her well. I’ll kill you all if a hair on her head drops again.” Thinking to conceal the depth of my emotions, I added a vicious snarl. “She’s the future queen!”

  I took off toward the Spring Hall. My wings flapped rapidly as I soared toward the broken ceiling. My insides still shook from the scare. I hadn’t realized that her immortal life was so fragile. If I had been a minute later, they’d have snuffed out her life.

  Terror had clawed at my gut when I’d seen the killers upon her.

  The fey princess had become my weakness. I’d become vulnerable because of her. I had to protect this secret. I would kill all, except Rose, who knew my weakest spot.

  And I must never let my lord father and my brother get the wind of it.

  I traced the assassin into the sky.

  PRINCESS ROSE

  “Stop assigning blame to yourselves,” I told my people, “You couldn’t have known about the assassination.” My voice croaked because the assassins had hurt my vocal cords, though I had recovered much faster than a mortal could, and Souline’s healing helped greatly.

  “We should have known,” Hector insisted. “We should have prepared for every situation.”

  The Dragonian leader hadn’t warned me that there was a secret door leading to the Spring Hall, and the assassins had come through that door. Maybe North hadn’t expected me to spend a lot of time bathing. Or maybe he hadn’t expected the angels to decide to kill me so soon.

  I would let the matter drop for the moment as we needed to focus on our common enemy.

  Soon I would have to pay him a visit, to discuss the Forbidden Glory. I needed to know what else the oracle had said about it.

  “From now on, Your Highness,” Lexa said, “I’ll always be with you when you bathe.”

  Anxiety spiked in me. I still needed those times with Seth. I needed to continue to “bond” with him so he would keep protecting me as he’d done today.

  “That’s unnecessary, Lexa,” I said.

  Then the guards all voted that Lexa and Souline would be with me during my bath.

  “Who has the say on this?” I demanded. “Have you forgotten I’m your princess?”

  “You have a say on everything, but not on the matter of your safety,” Hector said. He was the most wrecked when he had heard the news and seen me like that in the angel prince’s arms. My fiercest loyal guard had doomed himself for having failed me today.

  “Look,” I said. “I’m safe.” I managed to stand up to show them how well I had recovered, despite pain shooting through my every muscle at the movement.

  Souline had put a simple dress on me after Prince Seth had left, and I had drunk a full cup of fruit juice.

  Hector stared at the purple bruises along my neckline. The rage hadn’t receded from him.

  I should have asked Souline to select a dress with a high neck.

  “Lexa will be with you when you bathe, Your Highness,” Hector said. “Stab me if you hate the arrangement.” He swallowed again. “We almost lost you today, Princess.”

  “Fine,” I sighed. I couldn’t bear to see them keep beating themselves up. “Stay with me. Anything else?”

  None of them mentioned that Prince Seth had saved me, and obviously none were in a thankful mood. Seth was an angel after all, and it was his fellow angels who had attacked me. The fact that the prince had killed the assassins wouldn’t make my guards look at him any differently. Actually, they still regarded him as worse than his brother.

  Souline sent me an uncertain glance, then paused as if she needed to summon courage to murmur, “The angel prince seems a better breed than the others.”

  Hector snorted through his nose. “They’re all our sworn enemies. Don’t ever mistake that!”

  Lexa tried not to look at me or anyone, so I knew that she hadn’t told the other guards that Prince Seth had also helped me when we’d fled from the Forbidden Glory and Victoria’s guards. The prince could have killed us for what we’d done, or he could have delivered me to the king when he’d caught us.

  Lexa had watched how the prince looked at me, as had Souline. They both had heard the story that the prince hadn’t bedded anyone for millennia. When I’d sent my elite courtiers to him, he’d sent them back untouched. When my lady-in-waiting had tried to use her sexual appeal on him in order to stall him for my sake, he’d ridiculed her.

  Souline and Lexa had seen how he chased after me like a dog for a juicy bone.

  My ladies traded a quick glance, not wanting me to catch that, but doubts shadowed their faces.

  For the first time, my companions and I were keeping secrets from each other.

  “Get me ready,” I told Souline with a sigh. “The king will visit soon. I believe the news have reached him by now.”

  I reminded myself to refrain from touching the bruises on my neck in the king’s presence. They would only excite him and give him the wrong kind of idea.

  Souline picked a high-necked gown for me that covered all the bruises. She also applied rouge to my cheeks.

  I had trembled in Seth’s arms, but would not shake in front of the king.

  I wouldn’t be a victim in anyone’s eyes.

  Before King Agro arrived, I checked myself in the mirror to make sure I was his usual composed and adoring Princess of Mysth.

  PRINCE SETH

  The assassin became a speck in the sky as I gained on him. Realizing that I was hot on his tail, he descended rapidly.

  All angels knew that none could escape me in the air. He would have a better chance evading me on the ground.

  No matter. Even if he went to the deepest pit, I would dig him out.

  The assassin furled his black wings, ready for a touchdown.

  Whak! Whak!

  Flaming arrows zipped my way, not from the assassin, but from another source, just when I was about to dive after him. I ducked an arrow and let the other whoosh by. My swords caught two more and cut them to shreds.

  Who dared to attack the High Prince of All Angels?

  A soon as I realized the arrows coming at me were a diversion, a black arrow had drilled into the chest of the assassin. My lightning showed up a nanosecond too late to knock it away. The assassin flapped in the low air and crash
ed to the ground.

  I landed beside the predator-turned-victim—a female angel.

  Black blood oozed from her mouth. I recognized the poison. Cursing, I turned her face to the right angle. “Who sent you?” I demanded in fury.

  She opened her mouth, more black blood pouring out. Then her eyes stilled and stared listlessly at the open sky.

  The hidden archer had silenced my only living lead, and she or he, who had been far away in the first place, must have been gone by now.

  The master assassin had won this round.

  I retrieved the arrow and studied the faint trademark of three overlapped black skulls on its head. It was Victoria’s personal arrow, though she hadn’t used that make for centuries. The tip of the arrow smelled of nightshade. She’d once used the same poison to kill one of her powerful rivals.

  When I arrived at King Agro’s chamber, he was with a dozen females of all races. Two-thirds of them were Mysthian courtiers.

  “Come to join us, Seth?” the king snickered.

  The dark-skinned female astride him had three breasts. She was an Aryanian.

  “Oops,” the king added, “I forgot—you can’t.”

  The whores laughed, then immediately shut up under my glare.

  I tossed the blood-tainted, poisoned arrow at the foot of his bed.

  “What’s this about?” he scolded.

  “There was an assassination attempt on Princess Rose while you were having fun,” I said.

  The Mysthian courtiers in the room froze, wrath rolling off them like icy waves.

  “Is Princess Rose alive?” one of them breathed. The rest held their breaths, eyes burning. Their former seductress demeanors vanished the next second.

  Just as I’d suspected—they hadn’t come to Atlantis to entertain the king. They’d come to help their princess find a way to undermine the angels. I believed that the instant they received the news that their princess had perished, they would run the blades into the king or whatever angel they were with.