Meg Xuemei X - Angel’s Mate (The Empress Of Mysth #6) Read online

  I had thought he’d meant to kill me, but he’d saved me again.

  PRINCE SETH

  I hadn’t killed her.

  My sky power didn’t hurt her.

  My lightning couldn’t harm Rose.

  It had gone through her and into Victoria and knocked out the king’s bitch.

  The Princess of Mysth was the first living person who was immune to my lightning.

  How could it be? Unless she had the great earth magic to shield her.

  I studied her intensely.

  Or she’s your missing half, the passing wind whispered. You won’t harm your own.

  I shook my head. I was so astounded that I imagined nature talked to me. It was absurd to even let the idea get into my head. The princess and I weren’t cut from the same material. She was a fey and I an angel. I’d always been a loner. I didn’t have a mate and wasn’t supposed to even have one.

  But—

  The fey princess was the only one who could arouse me and keep me hot after my millennia of celibacy. Her scent still sang to my blood and drove me out of my mind.

  What was she to me in truth?

  And I didn’t like to have so many questions and so few answers.

  Rose met my gaze with disbelief and amazement, while the residual wrath still harbored in her eyes. She thought I’d tried to kill her; unexpectedly, that she thought I would do so hurt me like a knife twisting in my guts.

  My brother’s jaw had dropped as he watched the fight, but now he remembered his role. “What was this farce?” he yelled. “This is my throne. This is my court! I won’t tolerate a brawl!” Then he turned to me. “I was about to interfere. I had everything under control! Do not step on my toes again, Seth! I warn you!”

  “My apologies, Your Majesty,” I said and lifted a shoulder, “for making an educated guess that you wouldn’t be pleased if the Princess of Mysth was dead before the wedding, so I unwisely took the initiative to stop the catfight. By the way, I shudder at your righteous anger.”

  He glared at me a second longer, then waved his hand in dismissal, as if I were but a fly on the wall and he needn’t bother with it as long as it didn’t come buzzing under his nose. But he couldn’t let it go yet.

  “How?” he asked.

  I knew what he wanted to know. My lightning had entered Rose before hitting Victoria, but it had caressed the princess rather than hurt her. If Rose hadn’t stepped in front of Victoria at the last second, my bolts would have crippled Victoria even if it let her live.

  “My lightning can choose to its proper victim,” I lied.

  “But it never happened like that before!” Agro said.

  “I wasn’t willing to preserve anyone before this day.” I kept at my lie. “Today, I spared Princess Rose for your sake.”

  Agro tried to imitate my icy calm and ended up squinting. “So you believe I owe you now?’

  “I’ll call in the favor when I see fit,” I said.

  “I didn’t ask you to do it!” Agro snarled. “So thank you for nothing! Now tell me: how many secrets have you held back?”

  “If I tell you, I’ll have to kill you afterwards, Brother,” I said, then bragged for Rose’s ear. “Even our lord father doesn’t know the extent of my powers.”

  My lord father was the most powerful being in the universe, but he wasn’t omniscient. He wasn’t all-powerful. And I hadn’t confronted an all-powerful being in the universe.

  Every living thing had a weakness.

  For eons, I’d been wondering what my father’s was. The ones who had known had long since been dead.

  He would kill any of us, even though we were his sons, if we knew his fatal weakness. So I wasn’t stupid enough to dig around or show the slightest curiosity.

  I strode toward Rose, who had picked up her dagger, and stretched a hand toward her. “Princess Rose, I need to have my dagger back please.”

  I had to make my brother think the princess had gotten from me the dagger that could bleed and kill the angels. I did not want leave any room for him to sniff at her and grow suspicious.

  Rose gave me a blank look and slowly put the danger in my hand.

  Her fingertips brushed my palm, and I wanted to wrap around her hand even with the blade in mine.

  She quickly withdrew her hand but wasn’t fast enough to evade sparks of delicious electricity that looped between us. Her eyes shone brightly for a second, as did mine. Fortunately, my king brother didn’t see the exchange. He didn’t possess the ability to see through the supernatural lure between Rose and me. If my lord father were here, it could have been a different story.

  Rose inhaled and turned away from me.

  “What riled you up so, love,” my brother asked her, and I wanted to ram my fist into his eye socket for calling Rose his love. He studied her further. “My general might have gone a bit far by beating your courtiers, but they’re only whore—courtiers.”

  In an instant, Rose’s demeanor changed. She sent the king a cool smile. “They aren’t ordinary courtiers, as in other Earth courts. My courtiers are the best artisans of dance, singing, literature, and science, chosen from tens of thousands because of their beauty, breeding, and intelligence. Many of them came from noble families. They’re now yours as well. Your general cost us by mauling the best. They were trained their whole lives for this one purpose and one destiny—to serve and please Your Majesty.”

  Flattery was a weapon that never dulled.

  “Very well.” The king grinned, then gritted his teeth. “The general will be punished!”

  “What if she keeps breathing down on my neck,” the princess pursued, “because of her petty jealousy?”

  “She won’t touch you and your courtiers again, my love,” the king said. “You have the word of the King of the Earth. Now let’s check out the exciting toys.”

  Forgotten, the king’s mistress was left unconscious on the hard marble stairs of the dais.

  PRINCESS ROSE

  “Prince Seth,” I said, gesturing for the prince to place the box on the table near the throne, “will you be so kind as to show His Majesty what I bought from Babylon for our wedding night?”

  “I’m no one’s messenger boy,” he growled, dropping the box to the floor and kicking it toward the king. The box skidded and stopped right before his brother.

  “Must you always be this obnoxious?” the king grated. “Anyway, one more month, and you’ll be out of my hair!”

  I flipped back the lid. I had no idea what was inside exactly. My courtiers had prepared them before we’d set out for Babylon.

  Femi and Philomena gathered around the box as well. They forever remembered their duty to distract the king from me, even when they could barely stand after being tortured. And I couldn’t dismiss them yet. I sent them a quick glance. Just a little longer. Just hang in there a little longer.

  As long as it takes, Princess, Femi answered.

  King Agro picked up a set of fancy restraints. According to my spies, restraints were one of his regular sex toys. They had also vaguely told me Teasers for Vagina and Deep Throat Hard Fantasy were in style.

  Seth peeked into the box with a frown, and my heart started drumming. My cheeks felt hot. The image of his cock thrust half an inch into my heated channel kept flashing before my eyes. I’d pictured how it would feel if there was no fabric between us, and what it would be like if every inch of his large, hard, glorious length was truly inside me.

  While the king pulled out a string of small balls—my courtiers called them pleasure beads—and studied it, my eyes met Seth’s. I tried not to lick my lip.

  Though his face appeared cold marble, his eyes glowed bright silver.

  Even with all the others in the room and standing between us, I could feel a rush of electric current leaping from Seth to me and returning to him. It was always like that whenever we shared space. The spark of electricity only vanished when we touched each other, but then it always transformed to wilder lust that burned us mercilessly.

>   I bit my lips at the memory of his sensual mouth on me and his large fingers thrusting inside my sheath. I wondered if the prince was picturing playing with me with the toys he stared at. My blood heated up, and his male scent enveloped me. I dropped my gaze and tried to even my breath.

  A yearning sprouted like weeds in me. I longed to be with the prince alone. I longed to be in his arms and have his lips on mine. I wanted to taste him again. Even if he had to turn savage, so be it.

  No! What am I thinking? While surrounded by my enemies, I was fantasizing about being kissed by the most lethal one of them?

  Disgusted with myself, I at once slashed at the erotic images in my head to banish them, yet they hovered.

  My walls were crumbling down around the prince, not only because my body wanted him. He had dived into the murky water for me and pulled me back to safety, though he’d done that mainly for his own interest.

  If his kind ever found out what he had done to his own race, he would have no place among them. He would have no place anywhere. I wondered if he’d realized that, and that when he’d offered me the indecent proposal, he had doomed himself.

  But I didn’t want him to see the brutal truth. I didn’t want him to figure it out. I needed him desperately, now more than ever, while I was trapped in the enemy’s territory. In order to keep blinding him, I had to constantly stoke his lust to help him think only with his dick.

  But I wasn’t doing any better. Whenever the prince was around, I had only half a mind, despite knowing that I couldn’t afford to lose my cool head. I would have to enhance my defenses so my feelings for him wouldn’t grow. I had spied an uncanny bud. I had been worried that it was about to sprout like the unstoppable weeds.

  It wasn’t only my own life at stake. If I ever let my guard down, my kingdom would lose the war before it started. Mysth would fall. My people would perish or be enslaved.

  I couldn’t be fair to the prince when my race might go extinct, when we would meet on the battlefield in the end.

  We all had to do whatever it took to win.

  The king’s gaze slid toward me, his green eyes filled with creepy lust. “I haven’t tried these many wonders.”

  No, no, no! Do not look at me like that. Go away.

  I’d meant to divert King Agro from suspecting my connection to the Dragonian rebels; I hadn’t expected him to show such strong sexual interest in me. It would be hard to fend him off if he became obsessed with me and demanded… Revulsion crawled over my skin.

  The prince had moved; icy rage and tension ripped out of him. He cut in in front of me and blocked the king’s view of me.

  “Seth!” the king growled.

  “Why? Am I not allowed to be curious as well?” the prince said and snatched something like clutches from the box and turned to Femi. “Redhead, you know what this will do?”

  He was veering the king’s attention away from me.

  “Pleasure teaser!” Femi purred, taking the cue and wheeling around to the king. “Your Majesty, we’d love to show you the secret pleasure in your chamber, but we’ll have to bathe first and put on perfume.”

  I wouldn’t send my wounded courtiers back to the sadist. But before I protested, Seth snarled, “Even after a bath, you two are in no condition to serve my forever demanding brother. You think the king likes playing with damaged goods? Go get others. Get going now! The king will be on his way back to his chamber.”

  King Agro grated, “Since when did you get into the business of arranging my bedroom life, Seth?”

  The prince grinned viciously. “I can learn to enjoy the new role, Brother.”

  I turned to Femi and Philomena. “Go get your sisters ready to serve the king. Souline will see to you in my chamber.” My lady-in-waiting would heal them.

  The king looked at Femi and Philomena’s retreating figures, then moved and leered at me over Seth’s shoulder. I knew that he wanted me to join him very much.

  “The ‘Delight of Earth’ will delight you, Your Majesty,” I said sweetly, yet felt so sick and ashamed. “I look forward to the most delightful hours on our wedding night.”

  Though Seth wore his icy mask, I could feel his tight rage ready to lash out.

  “You’re the most gracious female, Rose, and most beautiful,” the king said. “I believe our marriage will work wonders.”

  “I have faith in our union, Your Majesty,” I said. “Now I must retire to my chamber after a trying day.”

  “Go rest, love,” the king said with a lewd smile before turning to his brother with a bark. “Don’t just stand there, Seth! Do your job and escort Princess Rose back.”

  “Since when does this become my job?” Prince Seth asked. “Escort this and fetch that?”

  “You don’t want to constantly test my patience! So just do it,” the king said. “Father assigned you to be in charge of the princess’s safety for a reason, so you’d better take it seriously. You know how Father will treat a failure. I’m telling you this to warn you, so now we’re even.”

  “We’re far from even, Brother,” Seth said. “I’ll still call in the favor one day.” He turned to me with a sore expression and an impatient gesture toward the exit. “Shall we, Princess Rose?”

  “You’re such a charmer, High Prince,” I said as I straightened my shoulders, giving him a haughty glance, and swiftly followed him out of the throne room.

  Femi and Philomena trod closely behind me, as they couldn’t wait to escape the king as well.

  I was meant to protect all of my people, yet I’d traded them for the benefit and safety of the majority of the Mysthians. I could never repay them for their sacrifice and I owed them a lifetime debt.

  All the way back to my suite in the king’s palace, deep shame echoed in the chamber of my head and bitter bile coated my tongue. Yet I still let my courtiers keep going to the monster king.

  Winning at all costs?

  Had the war with the angels already turned me into a cold-hearted monster as well?

  PART 2

  PRINCE SETH

  I almost had her on top of the mountain.

  Her kiss had made my frozen heart pump hard; my cold blood had run hot. For the first time, I’d felt this unfamiliar yet sweet ache in my chest.

  Since then, I hadn’t been able to find alone time with Rose. She no longer bathed in the Spring Hall, and visiting her in the middle of the night would risk us both. Not because Victoria and her vermin were watching every activity in the south wing, but because my lord father had become alerted and fixed his eyes on the princess and me whenever he could spare a moment.

  I’d spent the days flying to the distant lands, staying in my villa, or fighting like a fiend in the arena.

  The princess hadn’t bothered to come to see me fight or tried to muddle my head with her scent as she’d done before.

  Wherever I was, I couldn’t get her out of my mind. I thought of kissing her all the time, and the fantasy always escalated to me pounding between her thighs. I longed to make her come over and over and have her scream my name when she came. Afterwards, I would taste her juice and she would beg me to do her again.

  I’d been reduced to my teen self, dominated by skyrocketing hormones with excessive sexual thoughts all the time. Only this time I’d been forced to hang in there and be tormented by a burning lust that couldn’t find relief.

  Rose refused to let me get off, and I couldn’t force her. I couldn’t even reproach her harshly. I surprised myself by being extra patient and nice to her.

  With this hard-on, I could no longer sleep tonight.

  I put on my trench coat, my long sword strapped down my back, and flew up into the sky. I soared for a while and stopped near the edge of Earth’s atmosphere. From the star-streaked space, I gazed down at light and shadow pulsing and rippling on Earth’s landscape.

  The cool air hadn’t done anything to rid me of the lust. Then I decided to have a drink. I needed to get drunk, to get completely wasted, so I would not constantly think of jumping
the fey princess like a wild hog in heat and act on it eventually.

  I spotted the never sleeping Atlantis and plunged toward what the earthlings secretly called the sin city.

  To live up to its reputation, bars, nightclubs, fighting rings, and gambling shops in the great Atlantis remained open till dawn. I wasn’t in the mood to hop into one of the strip clubs with a good supply of exotic dancers from all Earth continents. I was never into the strip club scene anyway.

  I shot for a new bar called Earth, Wind & Metal. Strong booze and blasting music sounded like a good, alternative means to blow off steam than fucking and fighting once in a while.

  I descended through the bar’s vast open ceiling and landed on the ground floor which was covered by white sand.

  The inside décor was all earthling style. Framed paintings portrayed by Earth artists dangled here and there and wheeled in the air when the wind came. The bar owner aimed to convey the nostalgic feel of the old Earth before our arrival, but the sentiment was lost to the angels.

  We were conquerors. We weren’t farmers or builders.

  A brunette angel came to me lithely. “Your Highness,” she greeted brightly, a hint of surprise in her eyes, “your appearance graces us. My name is—”

  A large, rough hand landed on my shoulder.

  Without turning, I knew it was Ephraim, one of my oldest friends. For an eon, we had fought shoulder to shoulder in every battle and bedded females together. He had just come to Earth to rejoin me a few weeks ago.

  “The prince will share my table,” Ephraim told the brunette.

  “Your Highness,” she said, focusing on me, “we have better seats at the top floor.”

  “When I asked you for the best seat,” Ephraim grated, “you said it’d been reserved.”

  “Well, reserved for His Highness,” the hostess said.

  “You didn’t know he was coming,” Ephraim insisted.

  If the hostess was any other species than angel, the offended angel would have struck her in vengeance. But I was their high prince, and the hostess was an angel, so there would be no further dispute.