The AetherBorn Saga

AetherWars: Book 4

To save the ones she loves, she has to give up everything.

AetherBorn and leader of the Elementals, Ruby Black, never imagined that her blood could open a portal. Let alone a portal to Tartarus, a realm that is more nightmare than truth — filled with death, torture, and unspeakable horrors. 

When her boyfriend is captured by Demas, the self-appointed wicked King of Tartarus, she knows there is only one thing she can do. Ruby must gather an army and form unlikely alliances to save her boyfriend and destroy Demas for good. 

But war is a fickle thing, especially when the lives of everyone she loves are on the line!

Will Ruby be able to destroy her mortal enemy and save the love of her life? Or will the evil-filled world of Tartarus engulf her whole? 

Everything is put to the test in the final chapter of The AetherBorn Saga. With lives on the line and worlds to save, can our strong heroine survive what’s coming for her?

EXCERPT

1

We will have victory

Demas

Haunting screams carried over the bridge, through the balcony doors, and into the throne room. Demas shifted his weight on the cold stone seat and dug his nails into the armrests. There was only one thing the wails meant — the only thing they ever meant — company was coming.

“Cheer up, brother,” Nyx said with a sneer. “No-one likes a pouter.”

He shot his sister a side glance and waved her off, hoping his indifference would make her scurry back into whatever shadows she crawled out of, on this otherwise dreary afternoon. It did not. Her red-lined lips curled into a grin, and she tugged at the chain in her hand roughly, laughing when the man on the other end grunted before falling to the floor before her. With a whirl, Nyx swept the sheer fabrics of her skirt aside, revealing a long and shapely leg tucked into a glittering red stiletto; the heel of which she dug into the man’s back. 

On any other day, Demas would find the display amusing, laughable even. Today, however, his mood was grim and melancholy, and his sister’s presence did nothing to placate his thoughts. 

“Enough, Nyx,” he said. “I’m not in the mood.”

“Why not, brother dearest? I thought you were always in the mood to see this one squirm?”

This one, he thought. It had been weeks, and she still refused to call the prisoner by name. But it wasn’t just someone on the other end of her leash, it was Liam. Her Liam. Ruby’s biggest weakness, and the thing that would deliver her to him once and for all. Didn’t  his sister see how important the Elemental was? How important his demise would become? Of course, she didn’t. Nyx was a fool, and he had had his fill of her games. His fill of all of it, really.

“Shall we put this display on hold for the time being?” He asked. “It’s in poor taste to torment in front of company.”

“Ha!” His sister guffawed and pulled harder on the chain. “I would hardly call the lost souls’ representative company.”

She had him there. Stavros was many things, but good company was unfortunately not one of them. Demas dusted the tail of his coat, sending shadows to escape into the room like eager children out to play. “Company is company, sister. Now play along or leave me be!”

“Oh, my!” Nyx raised her arms dramatically and loosened her grip on the chain while Liam rubbed at the cuts on his throat furiously. The chain had done some damage in the past few weeks — though not nearly as much as Demas himself had. “Fine, brother. I’ll behave.” 

The screams silenced and he heard the dragging sound of the gates sliding open which only made his stomach turn faster. He was in no mood to deal with Stavros and whatever complaint the workers had this time; it was always something with them. The entire procedure was exhausting, and Demas often wondered why they bothered speaking up at all. He was their king, and the king did as he pleased. But of course, appearances must be kept, and so he entertained their dwindling concerns and demands as one would entertain an unwanted house guest — with a smile on the face and a knife under the table. 

Demas looked over the throne room, his eyes narrowing on a spot in the corner that had gathered enough dust to cover the detail in the stone. His brow furrowed as he continued to scan the room. There was a time when the palace was so much more than the decrepit place it had become. The room they were in was once stoic and respectable but somewhere in the time of his absence, it had become nothing more than just a room; a large, gloomy place with deep red draperies across the windows and a dark wood throne that had seen better days. He brushed the long tails of the velvet cloak off his legs to reveal a pair of leather pant legs tucked tightly into intricately laced boots. At least his attire was still in good standing. 

At his side, Liam groaned, and he found himself disgusted with the sound. He nodded to Nyx, and she dragged the Elemental away from the throne; a line of red trailing behind him from the last lashing Demas administered. The thought made him smile but his happiness was short lived, lips forming a thin line as the throne room doors burst open. 

“Brother!” Eros yelled, his blonde hair bouncing as he walked. 

“Hello, Eros,” he scowled back. 

“Ah! As jolly as ever, I see,” Eros said and turned to look at Nyx. “And you, sister? Still haven’t tired of your toy?”

“Not at all! In fact, I think I grow more fond of it daily!” She went to tug at the chain again but one look at Demas made her drop her hand. “It will be a shame to end this one.”

“Yes, well, we all make sacrifices,” Eros said, grinning. 

He hated that he needed his family for the task ahead. Hated to depend on them and force trust into a situation where there was none. Their guilt over the role they played in his banishing was evident in every pathetic attempt at trying to make amends, but he would not forget. He would not let them escape their sins against him unpunished, their sins against Eirene — his only love. No, the time would come when he would get his way, and they would no longer serve a purpose in his life. He longed for that time with such intensity that there were days he could think of nothing else; could dream of nothing else but serving them the same fate they served her. Demas knew his brother and sister did not end Eirene by their own hand, he knew they were not to blame, but that fact would not help them when the time came. They didn’t do enough, didn’t understand how he could love someone that wasn’t a deity. Someone tainted in the eyes of his family. When the decision to cage him was made they stood by silently, watched as he was dragged away and locked in this disgusting hole. Maybe laughed even. They weren’t laughing now. No, now they bowed to him, obeyed his every whim. and followed his command. The guilt would be the thing that killed them. Not him. Well, maybe him a little.

“What’s this about, brother? Stavros is on his way to see me, though I must thank you for postponing the meeting with your visit.”

“If that’s the case, you must thank me for more than that!” Eros exclaimed. “We crossed paths on the bridge, and I was able to send him on his way.”

“Oh?” Nyx raised an eyebrow from the shadow of the throne’s large back. 

Eros swept his arms in exaggeration and took a dramatic bow. His calf muscles pulled taut from the effort, making him appear even larger than Demas knew his brother to be. Hell, rotten braggart. 

“You’re not the only one that can be cunning around here!” He yelled out.

“What did he want?” 

“Same as always. The workers are complaining about the floggings.”

A laugh escaped him before he could stop himself. “Complaining? They do know they weren’t dragged down here for cake and tea? This is bloody Tartarus!”

“I know, I know,” Eros said. “But you know how the lost souls get. Always floating around like the world is ending.”

“I don’t care how they get!” He screamed and drove a fist into the armrest, leaving an indent of his fingers in the wood. “Double the floggings! And dear brother, please let Stavros know that the next soul that bothers me with such nonsense will get floated.”

“The ships are full as it is,” Eros muttered under his breath.

“I’m sorry?”

His brother ran a golden hand through his locks, “Nothing, just clearing my throat.”

“Good. Very good,” Demas said. “Since we finally find ourselves delighted by your presence, why not make yourself useful and help Nyx with the Elemental? It’s time for his walk again.”

With a clap of his hands, Eros bowed ceremoniously, no doubt eager to obey. They all knew what walk the King of Tartarus had in mind, and it rarely ended in anything but blood and tears. No one could endure the pits long enough to keep a smile on their face, they even made Demas’s stomach quiver, though he vaguely remembered a time when the pits were the highlight of his days. That time haunted his waking thoughts like gum stuck to a shoe on a particularly hot day. After all, the months that followed his initial incarceration to the prison he now called home were the reason for the power he now held and the crown that sat so prominently on his head. He spent months tormenting every soul and creature in the realm if only to help him erase Eirene’s face from his mind, her laughter from his ears. Then another few years’ building Tartarus into a realm he could be proud of.

His gaze traveled to the balcony doors, and he furrowed his brow before standing from the throne and walking outside. The wind hit his face with a gust of fury, and he welcomed its familiar stench. Fear and pain intertwined in a tight ball of suffering. The smell of home sweet home. 

He tightened his grip on the stone rail, crumbling it with his power, and looked at the dim glow of the structure over the hill. Eirene’s Castle stood stoic in the midst of the darkness and destruction of Tartarus, taunting him with its walls of marble and glints of gold. A sight for sore eyes, Nyx once said. It was the last time his sister spoke of the castle — her words cut short with lashings of his power against her oiled skin. 

“We will have victory soon, my love,” he whispered into the wind. “She will come for him, just as we planned, and when she does, we will end her.”

He let the wind carry his words over the Screaming Bridge, past the Wall of Fire and the Dead Dunes, and all the way to port. The words coated his realm like molasses, trailing their promise over the land and the souls he commanded. 

“You will be avenged.”