Val couldn’t stop staring at the most beautiful beast she’d ever seen. Not to discount Khent when he was smiling.
He is rather handsome.Ilu stared and caressed his snout. “I feel the heat you seek to burn me with, dragon. And so I tell you,Valentine, where this is love, there is betrayal. For your mate would rather kill you than see me victorious.”
Wait. What?Khent?
He opened his mouth, his fangs massive. Then she felt it.
That first kiss of flame before he released the heat.
CHAPTER
FORTY-NINE
Talon had little time.Hecate had been pushy but made some valid points. Plus, her idea of a deal sounded like pure heaven. An afterlife with Ava, finally within reach. He just had to make sure Khent didn’t screw up whatever he was meant to do. And if Talon had to die to make sure that happened, he’d do it.
Whatever it was.
Might have been nice if the annoying goddess had mentioned specifics.
Then she’d done him one worse and stuck him with a tall, muscular chick with an attitude. He didn’t trust her with that ax either, yet what could he do? His pack was hiding out in the bazaar while trying to survive death demons.
And now he was riding stale winds in a grayish-blackish kind of hell.
“This place sucks.” The woman with him had flown, her own wings golden filaments made of pure energy.
She had to be a valkyrie or some kind of Norse magir, because she had an accent and an attitude he’d seen one too many times in the bar when serving the occasional brawler rehashing their battles in “Midgard.”
She pointed with her ax. “I got the cute one over there. Do what you gotta do.” She spun away from him and landed by Rolf, who was overwhelmed with demons until the woman landed like Thor in that superhero movie and shocked the shit out of everyone around her.
“Hell, not me woman!” Rolf roared.
Grinning, because the battle was affecting his own senses, Talon saw Val looking super weird in a dress made of smoke while she talked to Khent and an inhumanly tall man a few steps lower than a throne made of…bones?
Gross. Then he spotted Vladimir.
Talon wheeled and headed right for him.
“No. Talon! Help,” Val called, and he couldn’t resist his friend in need, no matter how close he was to finally avenging Ava and his family.
But as he drew closer to Val, he noticed Khent turning into…into…
He wheeled to the ground and shifted shape. “Fuck me. Is thata dragon?”
The giant guy standing next to him nodded. “Impressive. I haven’t seen a dragon in four thousand years.”
They stared in awe as Khent let out a puff of smoke.
Val waved her hand to clear the air. Then she stared at dragon-Khent, which had to be a little tough without eyes.
“Is that Val?”
“I believe that is Ilu, using Valentine’s body as a host. And who are you, shifter?”
“Uh, I’m Talon. Nice to meet you.”
“Greetings. I am the God of Death and Plagues. I am Nergal, Lord of the Underworld.” Nergal smiled. “Isn’t it a great day to be alive?”
“You mean until you and that fuckhead Vladimir kill the rest of us?”
