Half-Blood Academy 4: Magic Unchained: an academy reverse harem paranormal romance Read online

  I almost chuckled at the irony.

  I didn’t mind this racism and class separation in Hell. Instead, I would fuel the dissension and let Hell burn from the inside.

  Maybe that was why Loki had gone to great lengths to kidnap me in the first place, then made a contract with Ares and Lucifer to take me out of the iron coffin. He needed a powerful ally, and given time, I’d be extremely powerful.

  He probably held this illusion that I would help secure his future throne.

  Last night, he’d insisted on me taking his blood.

  “You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me.” I had seethed.

  “You’ve been tortured for months,” he’d said. “It’s a wonder you can still stand straight in front of me. Human food can’t sustain you. You’ll need a different energy source. At the moment, I’m it.”

  “No, thanks, dude. I’ll pass,” I’d said.

  “My blood isn’t as foul as you think, princess,” he’d said. “Either you drink my blood or perish tomorrow. And you won’t just be dead. A lot of demons in this realm hate me, and they’ll see you as my pet. It’s their every intention to brutalize you as much as they can, including raping you over and over in public before cutting you into little cubes. This trial will allow them to do that without fearing punishment or retaliation from me. Not even I am allowed to come to your aid during the culling before the bell rings.”

  I’d swallowed, and he’d given me a dark look before his fangs appeared and he pierced the veins in his wrist. His blood had gushed out, scented like a new drug that I had never tried.

  My hunger was piqued. I craved his blood as I’d once craved my demigods’. For a moment, I’d been deeply ashamed as unquenchable thirst blasted through me, feeling like I’d betrayed them, even though I’d never see them again.

  “You’ve been reborn, Celeste,” Loki had said. “Embrace it. Shrug off your past skin. It doesn’t suit you anymore.”

  Loki was an infamously great seducer, and he was leading me to dive headfirst into the dark path of no return with the enticing call of his powerful blood. But he was right about survival and many practical things.

  “The Half-Blood Academy trained you the wrong way. Even the demigods tried to tame you, but I won’t. I want to unleash your wildness. I want you to reach your full potential and be the top predator you were born to be. Now drink.”

  His black blood had dropped to the black marble, and I hadn’t wanted to waste it. I needed it to survive.

  “I’ll drink from a cup,” I’d said.

  I would never drink from his veins directly, afraid of what that would do to me. The last thing I wanted was to lust after Hell’s prince and be addicted to his blood.

  No matter what, even though I knew I wasn’t going to see my demigods again, that was a line I wouldn’t cross. Not even to survive. Ares had once cursed me for my loyalty to my demigods. Even Hell wouldn’t take that away from me.

  Loki had sighed, cut his wrist deeper, and poured his blood into a chalice of pure gold.

  When I drank from the chalice, dark power had exploded on my tongue. It was very different from the demigod blood, yet it was equally potent and luscious.

  “That good, right?” Loki had smirked before he uttered roughly, “I’ve never offered my blood to anyone else.”

  I’d emptied the chalice, feeling alive for the first time since I’d been hurled to Hell. I wanted more of his blood, but I bit my lip to prevent myself from asking for more.

  “Aren’t you worried this top predator might treat you like food, too, prince?” I’d asked instead.

  He’d flashed a savage smile, his fangs sparkling white.

  “I aspire for that day, cousin,” he’d said enigmatically. “But you’ll have bigger fish to fry first.”

  Did he want me to take out his devil father so he could rule Hell alone? Was that his endgame?

  Patricide was common among the gods, so maybe demons had the same practice.

  The Olympians had taken out the Titans, locking them in the forever prison of the Void. But I hadn’t heard of anyone ever trying to overthrow Lucifer.

  There was always a first time for everything. If Loki’s goal was to off his father, I was game. We could start the revolution together in Hell, and for his favor, I’d spare the prince when the day came for me to slaughter all the other demonic motherfuckers.

  ~

  The trial of culling was nothing but a horror show.

  Demons thrived on blood, gore, and extreme violence—their favorite sports.

  The scent of blood in the air called me to battle.

  My demon part stirred, arose, and peeked out.

  A thrill buzzed in my bloodstream. Fear, conditioned by my human upbringing, was purged from my every cell.

  I was a demon princess, a daughter of an archangel and Queen of Hell.

  I didn’t need to love this part of me, but I accepted it. I’d embraced it the moment I realized that I needed my demonic powers to survive and get my revenge.

  I did not worry about the monster inside anymore.

  In Hell, only the biggest, scariest monster could rule and prey on the smaller dogs. I intended to be at the top of the food chain, which was my birthright.

  Today, I would slaughter other monsters.

  They would all fear me.

  They weren’t worthy enough to pump fear into me, but I would hunt and terrorize them. I would soak myself in their warm blood as I laughed and howled like a wolf toward the blood moon.

  The heated battle suddenly paused in front of me as if by an unspoken code.

  Over two hundred contestants remained.

  Half of them peeled away from the other half and stalked toward me, flashing their claws or spinning their chainsaws. Some dark mages and black witches who were the demons’ minions trailed behind their alphas, also coming for my blood.

  I didn’t move an inch from my crouched position, but my hands went behind my back to retrieve my twin swords. Last night, both Asmodeus and Leviathan had graced me with a sword. Asmodeus had offered me a katana while Leviathan simply gave me a demon sword.

  The giant demons made lewd comments about me as they advanced on me. They took their time, their gaits swaggering, cocky, and intimidating.

  Their victims’ blood dripped from their chainsaws, axes, and their steel-like claws.

  “That half-blood is all bones,” a demon with twin brown horns said in disappointment. “One strike and she’ll be a pulp. Such a weak human!”

  “Heard she’s the half-blood prince’s new pet,” a black witch said. She must be a demon alpha’s lackey. Demons despised humans, but they kept useful witches and dark mages in their houses.

  “Then we should prolong the torture on the fragile thing,” a dark-haired demoness said, flashing her jagged teeth. “We should draw to decide who gets to open her up and play with her innards first.”

  The stupid demons thought I was half-human like the prince they despised. My sense said that these were all low-ranking demons, graded no more than level-three. No wonder they couldn’t even smell my powerful demon heritage.

  Or maybe it was me.

  If my mother had stood in front of them in all her glory, they’d have all knelt, trembling.

  But then, even the God of War had failed to figure out my hybrid heritage before he’d brainstormed with Lucifer. And when the devil had recognized my hidden origin, Ares had murmured. “Fuck me. I should have known it.”

  Now that the demons thought I was their prince’s half-blood pet, they planned to torture me slowly, inflicting as much pain as possible before killing me.

  They planned to make a show out of me and make me a sacrificial goat.

  But I wasn’t this half-demon half-human thing they assumed. I was another kind of hybrid. I was far beyond them.

  I didn’t suffer fools.

  I summoned my magic, and again, it was but an ember in the ash.

  Loki’s blood hadn’t been able to help me counter the dark sp
ell that bound my power, but it had temporarily sated my hunger and boosted my energy level.

  I was incredibly strong, though I didn’t look it.

  The demons advanced closer as they kept mocking me, calling me a filthy half-breed, among other names.

  I pictured their next moves. One of them would grab my throat, lift me in the air, make a speech to insult me and work the audience, then start to slash my skin shallowly so they could take a long time to kill me.

  The spectators that I’d temporarily blocked out cheered and roared. They’d been doing that before the culling started. They were thrilled at what they thought would come next—a show of grotesque torture. They’d relish every gruesome detail, even getting off on it, if I let them have the show they wanted.

  I purged every emotion from me.

  No fear. No rage. No grief. No regret.

  Only one purpose echoed in my skull—kill.

  Ten yards, five yards, the demons swaggered toward me as if they owned the arena.

  Three giant demons took the lead, craving the glory of breaking a little thing like me.

  Now! I roared.

  I leapt from my crouch, defying Hell’s gravity.

  I might not have magic just now, but I was a hunter and always would be. Years of honed skills ran in my blood.

  And I was a daughter of a Titan king, no longer restricted by my once human mind and ideology.

  My feet skimmed over the top of the horn of the demon in the center front. I needed only a touch point to anchor myself. My twin blades glinted off the crimson moonlight as they swung down and slashed in force. Two demons’ heads rolled off their necks. They should thank me for preserving their horns, but then, they could no longer say thank you.

  I whirled like the forest wind and jumped onto another demon’s head while my blade pierced his skull.

  The rest of the demons yelled and pulled away, shocked and shaken. By the time they’d recovered, I had cut down a dozen of them and landed in a spacious circle they cleared around me.

  The hot sand beneath my feet was sticky with blood, none of it mine.

  “Bitches, want some more?” I grinned. “Today is your lucky day because you’ll get more and get it all free.”

  They lunged toward me as one, and I spun like a violent twister. Wherever my blades touched, heads or limbs dropped.

  None of the contestants were allowed to wear armor, which worked to my benefit. And even though the demons had natural spikes and scales covering their bodies, my blades met no resistance.

  Loki’s dukes had offered me the best swords.

  Lucifer and Ares wanted to cut down weeds in the culling game. That was all right. I was showing them how to cut down demon weeds. The audience had been stunned to silence when I’d made my first kills, and now they all stood up from their seats, bellowing like bloodhounds, which they were, in a way.

  As the wicked duke had said, I didn’t look it, but I was faster and stronger than any demon.

  Fools always judged by appearance, and I tolerated no fools.

  Wherever I went, wherever my blades touched, became death and destruction and flowing blood.

  “She isn’t a human!” someone yelled from somewhere.

  “Too late to realize that now,” I said softly.

  My blades flowed with black blood, and the air reeked of fear, anger, and desperation.

  They hadn’t seen anything like me in the pit, but now they saw and they wouldn’t get out of here alive.

  The only good demon was a dead demon.

  One less demon, one less bit of trouble for my friends on Earth.

  When I’d fought Asmodeus, I’d been in my weakest state and I hadn’t wanted to maim him since I believed that he might be of use.

  But now, boosted by Loki’s powerful blood, I became a psychopath on a killing spree.

  I was the demon princess, and they were all my prey.

  My superior demonic power rippled through me, dark, formidable, and merciless. It grew stronger, feeding on fear and destruction.

  In killing, I claimed another part of my birthright.

  “Stop the mad cow!” Shouts increased.

  I snickered.

  The demons, witches, and mages ran from me, and I hunted them. Blades cut, slashed, and hacked. Heads rolled from their necks, blood surged like mobile fountains, and horns stuck into the scorching, bloody sand.

  I purred. My red leather jacket, pants, and boots were drenched with mostly black blood.

  I was the instigator of death who had returned to Hell.

  “Ring the fucking bell,” someone else called. “The culling is over! We have less than a hundred contestants left.”

  The toll chimed.

  The remaining demons, witches, and mages stopped racing away from me. They thought they were safe from me.

  I spun in the air, did a roundhouse kick using their stilled bodies for leverage, and beheaded another dozen contestants.

  “You don’t play by the rules!” a tall witch yelled, tossing spells at me.

  The other contestants had tried that already, but none of their spells worked on me. I didn’t know if it was because of my royal power or if Loki’s blood could naturally defuse spells cast by his inferiors.

  Whatever worked was fine by me.

  “Rules are for you fucking morons,” I laughed coldly, “never for me.”

  I thrust my blade into the tall witch’s black heart and didn’t bother watching her drop as I turned to slay another.

  A rush of adrenaline pumped through my veins.

  I roared in joy at killing.

  A glyph appeared on the back of my left hand, glowing, and I felt another one radiate and burn on the side of my face.

  “The queen’s mark,” someone gasped. “The queen has returned.”

  As the mark lit, my hellfire broke through Ares’s and Lucifer’s spells, but my Titan fires were still bound.

  They would break out eventually.

  No one could contain me forever.

  I laughed viciously.

  The rest of the demons and their minions cowered in front of me.

  “Burn,” I said with a sweet smile.

  But I didn’t waste my fire on the demons.

  I levitated into the air, thirty feet from the ground, and blasted my fire toward the royal balcony where Lucifer and Ares sat.

  “Burn, motherfuckers!” I howled, willing my fire to toast them crispy.

  Gasps rose and fell all around the arena.

  Was I the only person who’d ever openly challenged the devil? My bad. I was first, and I’d be last if I could vanquish him with my fire.

  I doubted it, though, yet I wouldn’t give up this opportunity to undermine Lucifer’s authority and to shame him.

  Both Lucifer’s fire and Ares’s energy beam shot toward me, slamming into my hellfire.

  “Such a darling,” Ares said with a smile that was both approval and disappointment. “I wonder if she’ll ever bend to us.”

  Once again, their combined forces doused my hellfire, and I dropped onto the sand in a crouch, but not before the devil pushed his two-toned, rampaging fire further toward me, and I felt my bones sizzle from the burn inside.

  With every ounce of my will, I rose slowly, crossing my twin swords in front of my chest in defiance.

  “C’mon, you two bitches,” I said.

  I bet no one had ever called Lucifer and Ares bitches. I tried to paste a sardonic grin on my face but failed.

  The pain in me was too much.

  I conjured my remaining strength with all the will I had left in me before I fell. My eyes glowed with hellfire, yet my lips breathed out frost.

  The entire arena was deathly quiet. No one dared to make even a hushed sound.

  Then a whoosh of black wind whipped around me.

  Loki, Asmodeus, and Leviathan materialized and surrounded me, shielding me.

  I wasn’t fool enough to believe that they were my protectors, but Loki would try his best t
o keep me alive. I was his asset that he’d gone to great pains to acquire.

  Now he had to clean up the mess I’d left behind. I’d made a fatal mistake by challenging my worst immortal foes before I was ready.

  I’d let my rage overcome me.

  I’d killed with cold clarity in the pit until I’d heard the devil’s order, “Enough!”

  I refused to take an order from him, so I’d tried to further defy him, forgetting that I would never defeat the devil and the god without my active Living Flame.

  “Father, allow me to take Princess Celeste away from the arena,” Loki said. “According to the contract, she’s mine to train and tame.”

  Whispers sounded from every corner. Loki had just thrown out my identity.

  “The girl defied me,” Lucifer said in an icy voice, refusing to acknowledge my status.

  Despite everything, I suddenly perceived the emotions in his voice as no one else could. Part of him hated me more than anything, as I was the daughter of his former queen and sister, yet part of him craved to have me near.

  “You want her dark side to surface, my Lord,” Loki said, “and I’ve made it happen. You can see she’s all blind rage. She can’t tell who she’s killing anymore.”

  “But you promised to keep her under control, my heir,” Lucifer growled.

  “It’s only been a few hours, Father,” Loki said. “It takes time to train even a hellhound. She’ll bend. She’s young. She’ll be who she was born to be—one of a kind—before the end of the contract. And for her defiance today, she shall be punished severely in my house.”

  “You’d better deliver, Loki,” Lucifer said, which sounded more like a threat than anything else.

  “Your Majesty,” Loki said with a bow.

  A bright light flashed, and the devil was gone.

  He had once been the fucking brightest morning star.

  “I’ll be back, Celeste,” Ares chuckled, his rich, darkly seductive voice making my skin crawl. “See you soon.” Winking at me, that fucker was gone, too.