Fallen Demon

**Spoilers of book 2 below**

I thought I'd already lost everything. Now, I might lose him forever...

The moment Levi vanished into the underworld to save me, my world shattered. Our bond is the only thing keeping him alive in that hellish realm, but it’s unraveling fast. The powerful magic I’ve been cursed with is more unstable than ever and its control is slipping through my fingers.

But guess what? Giving up isn’t my style. I’ll tear apart heaven, hell, and everything in between to get Levi back. With a war brewing in Elysium and Rhodes plotting to become king of everything, I’m caught in the middle of a nightmare—and this time, the fate of the world is at stake. Great timing, right?

Falling for Levi was never part of the plan, but now I’ll stop at nothing to save him. Because if I lose him for good, that’s one fight I won’t survive.

FALLEN DEMON is an intense and steamy paranormal romance set in the dark, dangerous world of Juliana Haygert’s Rite World. With epic battles, scorching passion, and forbidden love, this book will keep readers on the edge of their seats!

17+

Rite World: Fallen Angel

Dark Wings (Book 1)

Light Magic (Book 2)

Fallen Demon (Book 3)

Wicked Angel (Book 4)

Chapter One

I stood in place for a long time, frozen and in complete shock.

This couldn’t be happening. No, I hadn’t just witnessed Levi and Ylena disappearing in front of my eyes.

“Sweetheart, wish for me to take her to the fiery pits of the underworld.”

That was what Levi said. And in that split second, I didn’t consider the full extent of his words. I simply thought that with his powers, he would open a portal and send her through.

Not that he would go with her!

I took a step forward, as if I could follow them, and almost fell to the ground as a pang of pain cut through my side. Damn, I had forgotten Ylena clipped me with her magic. I glanced down and saw a red line on my shirt, and it was growing wider and larger by the second.

For half a second, I panicked. What should I do?

Then I kicked myself into gear and moved. I ran back to the motel room, the pain growing more intense with each step. Gritting my teeth, I endured it. I couldn’t pass out just yet.

In the room, I found my purse, almost dropped it with my shaking hands, but I found the coins. I closed my hand around one. 

Instantly, a portal appeared before me.

I stepped through it.

Into the library in the Great Eternity Hall.

“Ariella?” Abbie asked, coming to me. She grabbed my arms as my knees gave out and I sank to the floor. She crouched down with me. “What happened?”

In a flash, Maggie was beside us. “Where’s Levi?”

“He’s gone,” I rasped, the words thick in my throat.

“What?” Abbie’s hand tightened around my forearms. “What do you mean?”

“I—” I gritted my teeth and hissed as the pain went up a few notches.

“She’s bleeding!” Maggie yelled.

I turned to her, but dark spots filled my sight. My head swam.

“She’s going to—”

The world revolved and I sank into darkness.

* * *

I woke up with a start, lost and confused.

It took me a moment to remember what happened and where I was—in the infirmary of the Great Eternity Hall. I was lying in one of the beds on the far back, right beside Lacey’s bed, though she wasn’t there. The sheets were messily folded, as if she had pushed them off her legs and walked away.

Was she better?

She probably was, but not her brother.

My heart squeezed at the thought of him. He had come for me. He had known I was in danger and came for me. He wanted to protect me. And I had sent him to hell.

A sob made its way up my throat, but I swallowed it. I wouldn’t cry. No, instead, I would do something about it.

I reached for the side table to grab my phone, an automatic movement, but stopped halfway when I remembered, I didn’t have it with me. To my surprise, my bag was on a chair beside the bed. The girls must have gone back through the portal and gotten it after I passed out.

I pulled the bag, picked up the phone from the outer pocket, and glanced at the time. It was midmorning already!

I swung my legs to the side, determined to leave this bed, but groaned when my side pulled.

“It’ll hurt for a few more days, but I healed it. You’ll be fine.”

I snapped my had back. “Lacey.” She walked toward me, carrying a tray with food. “You’re okay.”

She nodded as she set the tray on the nightstand between our beds. “Abbie accessed my healing magic and did a great job.”

I remembered that, but I hadn’t seen her awake before I left. “I’m sorry about that. You went there for me and—”

“Stop it,” she tried snapping at me, but it came out forced. She was too sweet for that. “I wanted to help you.” She leaned on her bed. “Though, I heard someone else wanted to help you while I was out and …” She swallowed hard. “Abbie told me you said my brother is gone. What do you mean?”

“By the light,” I murmured.

After taking a deep breath, I told her everything—how I left without saying goodbye, Abbie opening a portal for me to Boston, me calling Queen Thea at DuMoir Castle to see if the angel Zadkiel could train with me for a couple of days, going to a garage to borrow a car, being attacked by supernaturals who wanted the bounty on my head, being joined by my mentor, Archangel Ylena, who had fled from Elysium after Rhodes tried to sway her to his side—or so she wanted me to believe.

I continued, telling her about canceling my trip to DuMoir Castle, going to an inn with Ylena, training with her, Ylena talking about the Scarlet Hex Dagger … and me agreeing to go find it soon. Then Levi called me in the middle of the night, saying Maggie had had a vision and I was in danger. I opened up a portal to let him come to me, because he was freaking out, and that was when I learned Ylena was his mother and she was the one actually behind everything. She had ordered Rhodes and Molraz to kill us, but when I escaped, she lied and made it seem like I had lost it and killed them all myself. She had sent angels after me, and when they couldn’t find me, she put a bounty on my head.

And then she tried tricking me, pretending she was against Rhodes, so I would lower my guard and give her the damn dagger, because from what she told me, she needed the dagger to kill Adona and create a new Elysium.

But Levi saved me by sacrificing himself.

“When he asked for me to wish him to take her to the underworld, I didn’t think that was what he meant,” I said, my voice breaking.

Lacey walked up to me and embraced me. I stiffened for a brief moment, then I hugged her back. He was her brother; she should be mad at me.

“He knew what he was doing,” she whispered.

“I know, but it doesn’t make sense.”

She pulled back, a small smile in her lips. “Why not? Wouldn’t you die for someone you love?”

My eyes widened, my throat went dry. I shook my head once. “He doesn’t care for me. Everything we feel, it’s the bond. He did it because of the bond.”

“If you say so.” She retreated to her bed again.

I wouldn’t dwell on what she was implying. It was too much for my head and my heart right now.

“Did you know about his mother?” I couldn’t quiet grasp that information, to be honest.

“No, I had no idea.”

“My own mentor,” I whispered. The archangel I had looked up to, who I wanted to be like. It still felt surreal. Maybe it always would.

“I’m sorry.”

I frowned. “Why?”

“This can’t be easy for you, either.”

I nodded. That was true. I inhaled deeply. “It isn’t, but I won’t just sit back and wallow in pain. I have to do something about it.”

Under Lacey’s protests that I had to rest a little—if that was the case, then she had to rest too!—I picked up the food tray and marched to the library.

Abbie and Maggie were hunched over large leather books spread out on the long tables, while the younger siblings were upstairs, studying.

The sisters saw me coming, and Abbie frowned. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“I tried stopping her, but she’s stubborn,” Lacey said from behind me.

I deposited the tray on a corner of the tables, away from all the books. “We have work to do.”

I took a chair and munched on my food while I retold the entire tale of what had happened to Abbie and Maggie. When I was done, the tray magically disappeared, like it usually did at the dining room.

“I sent them to the fiery pits of the underworld,” I said, my chest hurting with that truth. “Do you know what that means? Is there a chance he could—” I sucked in a sharp breath, afraid of saying it.

“That he could be alive?” Maggie finished for me. “Fiery pits could mean so many things. If he went literally to fiery pits, I’m not sure he could have survived.”

“Maggie,” Abbie snapped in a hush.

“What?” She stared at me. “Would you rather I lied to you so it would hurt less?”

Maybe? I shook my head. “No. I want the truth. Always.”

“Is there a way for us to narrow down what the fiery pits could mean, then?” Lacey asked. “If we can, then maybe we can determine if he’s alive or not.”

“I think there’s a way to know if he’s alive or not.” Abbie walked up to me and gestured for me to stand. I pushed to my feet. She placed her hand on the center of my chest, right above my breasts, closed her eyes, and inhaled deeply. Her magic tingled as it invaded me, gentle and warm. “The bond is still intact.” She opened her eyes. “I’m not one hundred percent, but if I had to bet, that means he’s alive.”

I sighed in relief. Lacey smiled at me.

“Then, he’s somewhere in the underworld,” I said with renewed energy. “That means he can just walk out, right?”

“Maybe,” Maggie said. “Again, it all depends on where exactly he and Ylena went. They might be trapped deep in the underworld with no way of leaving.”

“Then we need to go after him,” I said. “We need to find out exactly where he is.”

Abbie looked at the giant bookshelves around us. “There are hundreds of books about the underworld here, and I guarantee you, the information we have won’t be complete.”

“What do you mean?” Lacey asked. It was the same thing I wanted to know.

“The underworld is a world in itself, as large as the human realm … or Earth, if not larger,” Abbie said. “No one knows the true extent of that place, since it was never fully explored.”

Maggie nodded. “I remember mother telling us about it during a lesson. She said it was never fully explored because it was so large. No one had time to map it all, not while there were evil things to be done, humans to terrorize, battles to fight, and whatever else demons and evil beings do.”

“So, you’re saying there’s no way of knowing where Levi is?”

“Only if we’re lucky and he went to a place we have records of,” Abbie said. “Otherwise, it’s like he’s lost in a different world.”

I sat down on the chair, the hope and excitement deflating. “Wait,” I almost jumped up to my feet again. “The bond. We can follow the bond, right?”

“Maybe.” Abbie looked at me. “But I doubt it. If you go to the underworld but you’re not close to where he is, the bond will take you nowhere. Think as if you were in the United States and Levi was in Australia. The bond wouldn’t be able to guide you to him.”

I reached for a book, running my fingertips over the spine. “There has to be something we can do. What if we research the books you have about the underworld, make a list of all the places he could be, and go from there?”

“You’re thinking about what?” Maggie asked. “Going to all these places to try finding him?”

I shrugged. “Any better idea? What about a vision? That would help.” She flinched and I felt the urge to slap my mouth. “Sorry. I didn’t mean it like that.”

“I know,” she said with a sigh.

“Unfortunately, Maggie’s visions don’t work at will,” Abbie said.

“Yet.” Maggie lifted a finger. “I remember reading something in one of mother’s diaries about forcing a vision. I bet her older diaries will have more information on it.”

“There are dozens of diaries,” Abbie said. “It’ll take a long time to get through them all.”

“I can skim for something about visions.” Maggie smiled. “I’ll get started!” She skipped off to the library.

“Oh-kay,” I said, confused.

“She loves reading those diaries,” Abbie explained. “It’s her way of getting closer to our mother.”

I nodded, understanding that. With a deep inhale, I stood from the chair. “Should we start, then?”

Abbie lifted a finger. “Let’s say we gather all the books about the underworld, we make an extensive list of places where Levi could be, and then we go to these places to find him. Do you think we’ll waltz into the underworld and waltz out? There will be dangers in every corner, and your magic is still a mess. What are you going to fight with?”

“Well, my plans to train went down the drain,” I said, harsher than I wanted.

“I strongly suggest you leave the researching to Maggie, Lacey, and me,” Abbie said. “I’ll even ask Gwen and Britt to help to go faster, but you should go to DuMoir Castle. When we find something, we’ll come for you.”

I opened my mouth to protest, but Lacey had the same determined expression as Abbie.

A list of arguments formed in my head, but I could also see their point. What if we ran into a horde of demons and had to fight? My messy magic could be what put us in danger, hurt Lacey again, or someone else, and I couldn’t have that on my conscience.

I groaned. “Fine.”

The RITE WORLD is a "universe" Juliana created -- it's our own world, in modern times, but with a large, hidden, supernatural society.

Many of Juliana's series are set in this "universe," and have many cameos.

Think like Marvel, where many of the superheroes have their own movie series, but you see cameos all the time. Same for The Vampire Diaries and The Originals--it's all the same world, the same "universe," but the stories happened separately, with cameos here and there.

If you love when the side characters you fell in love with get their own stories, then the RITE WORLD is perfect for you!