Page 53 of Hell Fae King
Her face appeared in my mind, her beautiful, angelic features taking my breath away.My Cami.
I’m here, she told me.I’m right here, Ajax.
I opened my eyes, wanting to see her, and found myself staring into Emelyn’s eyes instead. Dark orbs. Dark hair. A face painted in perpetual fear and torment.
My last memory of her, I realized, my chest aching.That’s not what I want to remember.
I wanted to think about her secret smile. Her laugh that no one else ever heard. Her happiness that no one else ever saw.
My first love.
Except… that no longer felt right.
I’d cared about Emelyn. Valued her friendship. Enjoyed her company. Loved that I could provide her with joy in a dark time.
But as I observed her in this cruel montage, reliving her death all over again, my chest ached a little less. Because my heart belonged to another now.
Does that make me selfish?I wondered, staring at Emelyn.Am I selfish to love another? To love someone… more?
I couldn’t ask her because she wasn’t really here. Yet I suddenly knew what she would say.You deserve to be loved, Ajax. You deserve so much more than this…
They were words from long ago.
Words she’d said to me once during a walk through the woods.
She’d never proclaimed to be the one who would love me the way I deserved, and now… now I understood why.
Because our love was nothing like the feelings I possessed for Cami. It didn’t touch how I felt about Az, either.
They were my mates. My reasons for life. Myheart. I breathed for them. My soul was theirs in every way.
And Emelyn had started me down the path toward that fate.
Her loss meant more than I could ever have realized. Because without it, I wouldn’t be here. I wouldn’t have become Lucifer’s Warden. I wouldn’t have met Az.I wouldn’t have met Cami.
I wasn’t someone who indulged in thoughts of guardian angels or predestined paths; that was Shade’s chessboard, not mine.
However, I understood it now. Saw the big picture. Realized that everything I’d been through had shaped me into the fae I needed to be for Cami and Az. To be their mate.
Emelyn blinked before me, her eyes falling closed as though for the last time.
Only that wasn’t how it had happened that fated day—she’d looked right at me while she’d died. Held my gaze with her last breath.
But this simulation had her closing her eyes…in peace.
What was it that Lucifer had said? These cells were magicked for their inhabitants. Crafted to create nightmarish hellscapes to torture his prisoners.
So why is the visage changing?I wondered.
Because you’re not a dark soul,Az whispered into my mind.Typhos devised this room to punish Dakota… for you.
I frowned, my limbs finally thawing as I turned to look at Lucifer. “Why?”
“Because I couldn’t give you Constantine,” he said quietly, somehow following my question. Maybe because of Azazel. Maybe because he anticipated my query. I didn’t know. Nor did I care.
Typhos stepped closer to me, his sapphire eyes swirling with power as he held my gaze, making it impossible to look away.
“You were so riddled with pain and anger when we first met. I had to do something to avenge you. Something to make it right. When Zakkai and Shade brought her to me, I knew what I had to do. And now it’s time for you to decide what’s next. Do you want to end her suffering? Strengthen it? Leave her in this state for another decade?”
