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She was simply a means to an end and that was that.
CHAPTER 16
Helheim
Aria
I should be thinking about escape.
I shouldn’t be lying in the arms of the very same man who kidnapped me from my home realm and held me captive, but here I was doing that exact thing.
I felt the steady rise and fall of his chest beneath me and heard the rhythmic beat of his heart. It was a sound that should have belonged to my enemy, but instead, it brought me an unexpected sense of comfort. The logical part of me screamed that this was wrong, that I needed to get out, to find a way back to Sungard. But another part of me, the part that had spent these past days in his presence, couldn’t deny what I was beginning to feel for this cold, dark man in ways I wasn’t quite ready to admit to.
Follow your heart, trust your instincts, and remember that even in the darkest places, there is always a glimmer of hope, maybe even love.
Love.
Could that really be what this was? How could I possibly love a man like the Dark King? He was everything I had been taught to fear—cruel, merciless, a ruler of shadows and death. And yet, the more time I spent with him, the more I saw glimpses of something else, something that didn’t quite fit the image of a monster I had thought he was, which made it increasingly hard to see him as the villain in my story.
But falling in love with him? That couldn’t be right. Love was supposed to be pure, simple, not this tangled mess of emotions that left me questioning my own sanity. How could I love someone who had taken so much from me, someone who was capable of such darkness?
I closed my eyes, trying to push the thought of him far away. Maybe it wasn’t love, I told myself. Maybe it was just the pull of the mate bond that was bringing us together, but deep down, a small voice whispered that it might be something more, something I wasn’t ready to face.
Not yet anyway.
His fingers trailed up and down my spine for a moment before I felt him pull away.
“Come. It is time for us to return to the castle,” he said softly with a hint of reluctance.
I watched as he rose from the sandy beach. He reached for his clothes, slipping on his dark trousers and shirt. There was something almost ritualistic in the way he dressed, as if he was preparing himself to step back into the role of the Dark King once more, and that was a bit terrifying in and of itself.
Once he was fully clothed, he turned to me, his eyes softening as they met mine. Without a word, he bent down and gathered my discarded dress from the ground beside him. He handed it to me, his gaze never leaving mine as I slowly dressed under his watchful eyes and when I turned, he laced up the back of the gown.
Then he stepped closer, his hands lingering on my waist as he adjusted the fabric of my dress, making sure everything was in place.
“Ready?” he asked, his voice low and gentle.
I nodded, feeling a mix of emotions swirling within me. He smiled faintly, then turned and stepped away from me, his body beginning to shift and change as he transformed back into his dragon form. The now familiar ripple of dark scales spread across his skin, his wings unfurling as he grew larger and more imposing. Within moments, the Dark King was gone, replaced by the magnificent black dragon, his scales gleaming with a deep, otherworldly purple sheen in the moonlight.
He lowered his massive head, those fierce violet eyes locking onto mine as he crouched down to allow me to climb onto his back. I hesitated for only a moment, then moved forward, placing my hand on one of his smooth obsidian scales. The warmth of his body radiated through the cool night air as I found a foothold and carefully pulled myself up, settling onto his broad back.
With a powerful beat of his wings, he launched into the air, the ground falling away beneath us as we soared into the eternal twilight sky. The wind whipped through my hair, and I pulled in a shaky breath.
This time I was more comfortable on his back. I allowed myself to look around and then, something caught my eye—a shimmering, almost invisible barrier in the distance, stretching across the horizon like a veil of mist. I knew that it was the magical boundary that separated Helheim from Sungard, a barrier that had stood for centuries that functioned to keep the realms apart.
It pulsed with a faint, ethereal glow, the magic woven into it ancient and formidable. Yet, as I watched, I noticed something unsettling—the barrier seemed to flicker, its once steady light faltering like a candle in the wind.
I leaned forward, my grip tightening on Hades’ spine. “Hades,” I called out, my voice tinged with concern. “Look.”
He didn’t respond, but I knew he had seen it too. The barrier flickered again, more violently this time, as if something was straining against it, pushing at the very fabric of its existence.
For a moment, the barrier shimmered brightly, as though it was trying to reassert itself, but then it faltered once more, the glow dimming until it was barely visible. A cold dread settled in my stomach. The barrier was weakening, and I had no idea what that meant for Helheim, for Sungard, or for us.
Hades adjusted his flight path, angling toward the flickering boundary. His wings beat faster, more urgently, as he brought us closer to the edge of Helheim. I could sense the tension in his body as his muscles rippled beneath me.
Whatever was happening, it was not a good sign.
As we neared the barrier, I could see it more clearly—the way the magic wavered, the threads of light that once held strong nowunraveling at the edges. It was as if the very fabric of reality was being torn apart.
