Was this a jest? He turned to face the portal. Dropped his jaw. On the other side, in some distant realm, was . . . his mate.
Though mud covered her, Sian could tell her fine-boned features and full lips were the same. Which meant she would be breathtaking when not filthy.
Eyes closed—would they be mismatched again?—she stood motionless between two Sorceri females. Was she bespelled?
The black-haired sorceress pressed one claw from her gloves against Kari’s jugular. Most likely a poisoned tip. The Sorceri were known toxinians. Some poisons could kill even an immortal.
Sian grated, “You have my attention.” He eased closer to the portal. Damn it, a one-direction rift. He couldn’t simply snatch Kari.
He tried to read the Sorceri’s thoughts, but the females had blocks in place. “Who are you?” He probed Kari’s mind as well, yet even in this stupor, she maintained her own blocks.
The black-haired female gazed up at him, and a tremor passed over her, no doubt at Sian’s horrifying appearance. “I’m Melanthe, queen of the Vrekeners. And this is my sister, Sabine, queen of Rothkalina.” The redhead gave a careless wave.
“You have a lot of bloody nerve contacting me.” The Vrekeners were the ones who’d invaded his realm! He’d get to that soon enough. For now, his eyes couldn’t stray from Kari.
The tips of her pointed ears poked out from her mane of damp brown hair. So she was fey once more. As before, she stood a little over five feet. Her mud-coated dress revealed the same willowy figure.
He hadn’t expected a replica.
When he realized he was gripping that pink chemise, he used magic to make it disappear to his chambers. “What is wrong with your captive?”
“I commanded her to sleepwalk.”
“I’ve heard of your powers.” Melanthe could control minds and create portals between worlds. Her sister could make a victim see anything she wished. Their talents would be particularly valuable for bounty hunting. “Why not attempt to ensorcell me?”
“Something tells me you’ve developed an immunity over your long life.”
True. It would take more than a fledgling sorceress to control his mind. “Why is your bounty covered in mud?” He wanted to see Kari’s face clean.
Melanthe said, “She fell for our ruse.” Both Sorceri chuckled at that.
“How did you locate her? Nïx?”
“It doesn’t matter how,” Sabine said. “Just know that your reincarnated mate is in play.”
“Nïx plots my downfall. If the soothsayer wants me to have Kari, perhaps I should resist acquiring my mate.”
Resisting Kari was not Abyssian Infernas’s strong suit.
Which Nïx must know. In his last encounter with the soothsayer, she’d warned him, “Hold on to your ass.” She’d also told a group of gathered Møriør, “To win this war, I’ll use every trick in my tricksy little bag of tricks.”
The Valkyrie has begun.
Melanthe said, “Your mate’s name is Calliope now. Not Kari.”
“I don’t give a fuck what her current name is.”
“You put a Lorewide bounty on this female. Will you not honor it?”
“Perhaps I would have if you and your husband hadn’t taken over one of hell’s mountains and declared it a sovereign territory.” The winged Vrekeners might technically be demons, but they acted . . . angelic.
In hell?
It wasn’t to be borne! “Not to mention the havoc you wreaked on my subjects.” She and her husband had freed the legions—the most warmongering of Pandemonia’s demon population—from their interminable labors of hell.
Melanthe waved his comment away. “So we freed thousands of demons from unending strife. Ish.”
“They were to be punished for an uprising against my sire.” Though Pandemonia hadn’t been actively ruled for ages, Sian’s father and brother had set up controls. This self-governing dimension was filled with protections to punish intruders and to keep its unruly inhabitants in check. “They are bloodthirsty. Now they hunger to war on you.”
“You either want your female or not.” Melanthe tapped that claw against Kari’s neck.
While he applauded the sorceresses’ daring, he wouldn’t be trapped by it. Sian shrugged. “Keep the bitch. We war. I’ll destroy you, then take her.”
“You’d risk her?” Melanthe said. “So apparently you didn’t love her during her previous life.”
I adored her, would have done anything for her. “I want her for revenge only.”
Sabine exhaled. “All the best with that.”
Melanthe shook her head. “I’ve ensorcelled her to die within the hour—unless I release her from my commands. Your mate’s perished once already.”