Ericka hesitated and closed her eyes. Would she choose an eternity of being burned alive and never seeing her family or friends again? Would she risk all of that to save Aedan?
The right and true answer came from deep within as she opened her eyes. “I will take that risk.”
The goddess inclined her head. “Wait in Aedan’s quarters while the Council makes its determination.”
“Thank you,” Ericka said just before her stomach dropped to her toes and the room spun.
She no longer stood on the marble floor.
Her feet touched down on grass. The dizziness vanished as she caught her balance and took in the chamber she’d been sent to. Aedan’s room.
The sense of the surreal accompanied her as she explored the chamber. A waterfall tumbled over stones in one corner of the room, adding the clean scent of water to the smells of grass and moss covering the rock walls.
She stepped past the large bed carved from rock that had a mattress in it.
Aedan sleeps here. This is where he comes when he leaves me.
No. Where he slept before…
She couldn’t even finish the thought. Only positive thoughts from here on out. The Council would rule in her and Aedan’s favor. She didn’t know what would happen next, but she wasn’t going to give up hope.
Ericka stopped in front of one of several pools around the room. Colorful fish glimmered in the water—some she was familiar with, like angelfish and Japanese koi. But others she didn’t remember seeing before. At the Rainforest Café, they had the coolest aquariums—
“I don’t believe it.” She tipped her head back to see a star-filled night sky above her. “Aedan’s burning alive right now, I’m in some strange Otherworld, and I’m thinking about fish.”
Ericka bit the inside of her cheek and glanced at the bed. Heart and soul heavy, she moved to the bed and perched on the edge of a straw-filled mattress. She stared at the wall across from her, tracing cracks in the stone with her gaze.
She’d made the right decision. No doubt about it. No matter what happened.
Right?
CHAPTER 6
AEDAN HAD NEVER KNOWN SUCH PAIN EXISTED. He could barely choke back screams from the never-ending sensation of his flesh burning away.
The demons had chained him to jagged volcanic rock. The iron manacles seared his flesh. He ground his teeth as boiling lava splashed his legs and blasts of flame singed his chest and face. Sweat immediately dried in the beyond-terrifying heat.
Screams, shrieks, and sobs echoed from every direction. His gut twisted at the thought that he was responsible for so many of the people who now spent an eternity here. Mafia bosses and gang leaders, murderers, psychopaths, rapists, thieves—those he didn’t regret as much as he did the innocents.
Had he ever been given a choice to do anything but take souls? No. He was what he was created to be, an Incubus who served the gods. Choice never entered his mind.
He had never given a second thought to what happened to the souls once he retrieved them—until Ericka.
Her name echoed in his mind and he tried to focus on her instead of the blistering pain. The fall of her red hair against her pillow, the intense blue of her eyes, the perfect feel of her thighs around his hips.
But more than that was all he had witnessed when he studied her before he began visiting her each night. Her love for her family, her dedication, her tenacity, her kindness, her joy.
Aedan couldn’t help fighting against his searing bonds, even though it did no good. Even the air he breathed burned his lungs as he kept his thoughts on Ericka.
He had never understood why he had been sent to her until now. It had been a test. A test he had failed.
Two demons appeared in front of Aedan. They unshackled him, grabbed him under his arms, and dragged him through great pools of lava. He couldn’t help a shout from the excruciating pain.
Surprise shot through him as the demons took him to the entrance to the Realm of the Dead and tossed him out of the flames and into the cool tunnel. His head struck rock and his mind spun, but relief from no longer being in the Realm was immediate. The memory of the pain still caused him to feel like his skin was burning, but it was slowly fading.
He stumbled as the demons took him under his arms again and forced him to his feet before prodding him to walk. “What—what is going on?”
No one ever left the Realm of the Dead.
The demons ignored Aedan and caught him when his legs gave out. They pulled him through the passageway and into the Hall of the Lost that now seemed chilly. He could barely focus as they dragged him along the cool marble floor.
His vision wavered and time lost meaning. Then the demons arrived at his chamber. More shock prickled his skin when the demons pushed open the door and shoved him into his quarters.
Aedan landed on his knees on the thick grass and rested his forehead in his palms. Trying to catch his breath as the demons slammed the door, he breathed in the sweet scent of grass and water and…vanilla?
“Aedan!”
He jerked his head up.
Ericka.
His mind could not process what he was seeing—Ericka rushing across the chamber to him. A hallucination, he thought until she reached him, dropped to her knees, and flung her arms around him.
He almost toppled from the force of her throwing herself against him, but he recovered enough to hold her tight.
“Oh, God.” Tears trickled down her cheeks and slid onto his chest. “Or gods or goddesses. Whoever brought you to me.”
Ericka’s words shocked him to his senses and he grabbed her by her upper arms. “What are you doing here?” he growled as he stared at her beautiful face. “Have they taken you? What have they done?”
“I’m okay.” She caressed his cheek as her blue eyes met his. “I came for you.”
“No.” He gripped her arms so tight she winced and he immediately relaxed his hold. “You will return. Where you will be safe.”
“I-I have something to tell you.” Ericka cleared her throat then words spilled from her lips. “I’ve told your gods and goddesses that I’m giving you half of my soul. And all my love.”
“Half of your soul?” Aedan’s whole body tensed. He could not have heard right. “Are you daft?”
“I realized you mean too much to me to let you go. And I couldn’t let you be sent there.” She hurried before he could say anything else. “Your Council…Belisma went to them to determine what will happen to both of us.”
“No. I will not allow you to suffer in any way.” He shook his head. “You will go home.”
Belisma appeared like the crest of a wave.
She spun into Aedan’s quarters with the grace and power of the rapids of a river.
Aedan refused to release Ericka to bow to the goddess.
“Rise, Aedan of the Incubae.” Belisma’s voice was surprisingly soft.
He eased to his feet, holding Ericka tight to him.
“The Council made its decision on your fate and Ericka’s,” Belisma said, no expression revealing whatever emotions she might have.
“Because a mortal has offered half of her soul to you, and because you have earned her unconditional love, you are spared the fate of the Realm of the Dead.” She smiled and added, “You will return to Ericka’s world and you will live as a mortal. You may walk in the daylight, take a wife, and reproduce.”
“He can come back with me?” Ericka’s voice was one of both disbelief and excitement.
“It is so.” Belisma’s gaze returned to meet Aedan’s. “You will be given what papers and human things you need to live in the mortal world. You will age and you will die and you will forget your life as an Incubus.