The Darkest Craving. Gena Showalter

      Screw you.

      Hate the girl, Josephina. Want to kill her.

       You touch her, and I’ll …

      What? One of his daggers fell from his boot, and the demon laughed. You want to stay here? Fine. But you’ll do it without your weapons. Even as the creature spoke, another dagger fell away.

      “You guys seem to know a lot about me, considering we’ve never met,” Kane said, ignoring the demon. His hands were weapons enough.

      Evil Overlord smirked. “We do. You’re Kane, a Lord of the Underworld. Disaster. Supposedly undefeatable. Wicked. The worst of the worst enemy to ever have.”

      “And I touched him,” said the guy behind him, his tone overjoyed. “My wife won’t be able to get enough of me tonight.”

      “Then your wife is a fool. This man is nothing. A no one. Look at how easily we were able to subdue him.”

      Evil Overlord thought he had Kane beat, and that’s what Kane had wanted, but hearing that sneer really irked him. How many times had he been left behind during the war with the Hunters because his friends couldn’t risk the damage Disaster would cause? Countless.

      Kane had always felt like the weak link—had always been the weak link—and he was tired of it.

      He jumped up, swinging his feet through the circle his arms provided, placing his arms in front of him. The moment he landed, he elbowed the leader in the face, breaking the guy’s nose. He threw the weight of his skull into the Fae next to him, knocking the warrior to the side. He kicked out a leg and nailed the male on his other side. As the soldiers stumbled for purchase, he reached out and grabbed the hair of the male in front of him, jerking backward.

      The male hit the ground and Kane stomped on his face to get to the guy in front of the line, wrapping his bound hands around the guy’s neck and choking. Everything had happened so quickly, no one had realized what was going on—until then. The others sprang into action, leaping at Kane, but he kicked out one leg and then the other, sending two warriors rearing backward. He spun the guy in the chokehold, knocking his body into the others and sending them flying backward.

      “Pain,” he heard.

      Just like that, the sharpest of pains tore through him. From the top of his head to the soles of his feet. His knees buckled, and he hit the ground with a heavy thud.

      Tinker Bell’s brother? he wondered, remembering what she’d said.

      “That all you got?” he gritted.

      That earned him a meet-and-greet with the hilt of Evil Overlord’s dagger.

      Two soldiers grabbed him by the armpits and dragged him forward.

      “Lord Kane beat me up,” one said with a grin. There was blood on his teeth. “Did you see?”

      “Best. Night. Ever.”

      Evil Overlord—definitely Tinker Bell’s brother—glared at Kane through eyes a slightly darker shade of blue than his sister’s. “The king will order your death, despite who you are, and I’ll take great pleasure in delivering it.”

      “Now why would your king want to kill me, hmm?”

      “Because you dared lust after the princess’s blood slave.”

      Tinker Bell was a blood slave on top of being a servant? What exactly did that mean?

      Kane was hauled up a wide set of ivory steps, the railing shaped like a winged dragon. At the top, the guards passed through open double doors of dark wood and twisted iron. And then, Kane was inside the palace. The spacious foyer had a floor of mosaic tiles and was surrounded by life-size statues. Velvet-lined walls were covered by paintings of elaborately dressed Fae.

      There was another staircase, and past it, a long, narrow hallway. Chamber after chamber whizzed by. The guards entered the last—what had to be the throne room.