"Fuck me," I groaned, lifting a hand to my head. My mouth tasted ashy and gritty, but it was the throbbing in my temples and queasy stomach that had me hissing through my teeth as I rolled from being sprawled on my side to my hands and feet. Did I try drinking Thor under the table again or something equally foolish? Ugh.

"Umm... you probably don't want to encourage them."

The whispered voice came from my left and I cracked open an eye, squinting at the reddish light around me. Despite the pounding of dwarven hammers in my brain, I turned my head and made out a vaguely humanoid shape. It took a few seconds of blinking to get my eyes to focus, but when they did, my confusion deepened.

A thin, naked female with a short cap of white hair met my gaze. With unusual yellow eyes, an oddly hooked nose, and thin lips turned down at the corners, she appeared frail. The way she jerked her lean face was almost bird-like.

I opened my mouth to ask what she'd meant, but she put a finger over her lips, again jerking her head. Shifting my weight back onto my knees and rising, I peered in the direction her eyes were focused.

A jolt of alarm stiffened my spine, seized my lungs, and burned the fog from my brain.

Thick black bars surrounded us. And on the other side of those bars, multiple tones of grey scales stretched over the coiled, muscular serpentine bodies of two Mushhushshu. I'd never seen one of the massive snake dragon demons before. Just three-dimensional images in Valkyrie training.

By the Nine, they are huge.

A rasping sound reached me as one of them moved slightly, the scales rubbing against each other, reminding me that these demons were not images projected by our mages. Poison dripped from one fang-filled maw as a head turned sideways enough for me to glimpse two- metre-long fangs on an elongated snout and a silver eye. The dark pupil expanded, a nictitating membrane blinking sideways to cover it briefly before retreating again.

Yggdrasil's heartwood, they were intimidating. My pulse pounded a heavy rhythm in my veins, warning me with every beat not to fuck with these creatures. I did not want their attention.

I caught the female's eye, placing my own fingers at my lips to let her know I understood, then carefully crawled away from the bars to the far side of the cage where she sat against a basalt rock wall. And it was a cage, with a fine-grained, almost black, dirt floor that left smears on our skin, rough-hewn walls on two sides and even bars on the top. We were outside, open to the unusual red-coloured sky, that once I noticed it, created a sinking sensation in my chest.

My eyes closed, fists clenching.

Unless I was dead and had joined the others in Helheim, only one world in this region of the galaxy had red skies. The enormous gas giant that loomed in this ominous sky confirmed the location.

Damn it. I might prefer to be dead.

Muspelheim. The planet—moon really, since it orbited the gas giant planet—ruled by dragons and other creatures terrifying enough that they'd been the basis for demon myths on Midgard.

But they weren't myths.

They'd never been myths.

They'd ruled Midgard for several hundred million years before Asgard developed the Bifrost, and it was only one hundred and fifty thousand years ago that we'd finally kicked them off Midgard in a war so brutal, it flipped the magnetic poles of the little blue planet, if I remembered the details correctly.

Both the planet and those early mortals flourished in their absence, evolving from cave-dwelling prey hiding from the demons to what the Midgardians were now in the seven hundred thousand rotations of their star. Farther from the galaxy's core, time moved five times faster for the mortals than the rest of us, despite the younger age of their solar system.

We hadn't had a major conflict with the demons in the entirety of Odin's rule as All-Father... at least, as far as I knew. Yet rumours of sightings by Midgardians persisted, feeding the mythology, and in many cases, mistakenly combining it with Helheim.

But how the fuck did I end up here? And what did the demons want with me?

The last thing I remembered... I poked at my shoulder. The injection site was only a faint redness. I must have been out for hours. Maybe more than a day. Not even the puncture remained.

A hand touched my other shoulder and my muscles tensed.

"I'm Bloudewedd," the female murmured, her eyes flicking between the Mushhushshu and me.

"Mist."

"Oh, good. You are awake."

The smooth voice had my pulse leaping and my head whipping around to the bars to meet the dark eyes of an olive-skinned male, dressed in an immaculately pressed dark grey bespoke suit, lighter grey shirt, and dark tie. He looked like a damned business executive from Midgard, complete with black shoes that somehow shone despite the gritty dirt floor.

Yet I hadn't heard him approach.

The oddity of it had me frowning as I took in the rest of him.

He was surprisingly attractive. A neatly trimmed black goatee surrounded full lips, although his nose was crooked. Unusual in an immortal. Muscular, but not bulky, he had to be at least seven feet tall. Other than the height, he would pass as a Midgardian. He looked deceptively relaxed, but there was no denying the leashed power in him. His eyes gave away his predatory nature.

No fucking way was I going to cower. I shoved myself to my feet, standing tall despite barely reaching his shoulder. And being naked. After all, I'd gotten over worrying about nudity in my teens, surrounded by my parents' wild parties that frequently turned into orgies. If he thought it would intimidate me, he was so fucking wrong.

His lips twitched, a smile appearing.

"Why am I on Muspelheim? Asgard will be looking for me," I growled.

He shrugged negligently. "They are welcome to try. We aren't worried about Asgard. You and the elf were payment for a debt. There is no way off Muspelheim except by completing a work contract, minimum five years, as payment for your passage."

I cocked an eyebrow and crossed my arms over my chest. If he thought I'd bend a knee to anyone other than Asgard, he was sorely mistaken.

"What are you going to do with us?" Bloudwedd asked, also rising to her feet.

He held up a hand, raising three fingers. Fingernails lengthened into claws. "You have a choice between three different contracts, but once you make it, there is no changing your mind. There are three different auctions to acquire a purchaser of your contract—the fertility temple auction run by the sky realms, the labour auction for the gem mines and lava fields, and the meat auction. Pick one." As he ticked off each one, he lowered a finger.

"What is the meat auction?" Bloudwedd asked the question I wanted answered too.

The demon's smile turned sharp-edged, his eyes glittering with menace and his mouth suddenly full of fangs. "We're predators. What do you think we eat?"

My gorge rose, and I swallowed it back.

The elf held a hand over her mouth, face pinched in disgust. "Even the damned Unseelie don't stoop so low as to eat humanoid flesh. You are no better than the Wild Hunt."

The demon shrugged. "Eat or be eaten is the law of Muspelheim. Usually only dying workers or those who want to die choose to be prey for the meat auction, but I'm obliged to give you the option. It would include a payment to whomever you choose."

"And what about the fertility temple and labour auctions? What are the life expectancies of workers that end up there?" I asked, narrowing my eyes at him.

He smirked, his mouth returning to less predatory proportions. "As long as you accommodate at least one patron of your choice each day in the fertility temples, your contract will be complete at the end of five years and you will be returned to the planet of your choosing, completely unharmed." He waved a careless hand. "The contract of most labourers is longer, usually ten to fifteen years since the contract isn't as valuable, but the gem mines and lava fields have their own inherent dangers. It is hazardous work and there is no guarantee that you will make it home unharmed. Still, it is your choice. It's possible a demon will buy your contract in the labour auction as a household domestic and you wouldn't end up in the fields or mines."

My fingers tapped my ire on my crossed arms. "What if we choose none of those and demand to be free?" I asked, not holding back my snark.

His eyebrow rose, an amused twist to his lips. He wasn't the least bit intimidated or put off by my attitude. "That is certainly your right, but the rulers of each realm demand every sentient being on this planet contribute in some way. If you aren't under contract within a realm and the demon lord who rules it, then you are fair game to be challenged by every demon you meet."

"What happens with a demon challenge?" Bloudwedd asked before I could.

His eyelids lowered, again glittering with warning. "It's either a fight to the death, the winner eating the loser, or a dominance fight with the loser entering a contract in service to the winner." His face resumed its more neutral expression, and he shrugged. "Everyone contributes here, one way or another."

Asgard would come for me. I knew it as surely as the sky was red. The certainty steadied me, easing the tension in my chest. We didn't abandon our Valkyrie. I just had to survive long enough for them to get here, or to find a way to escape myself. I wouldn't have to wait five years to earn the passage home.

And maybe I could learn something about our ancient enemy in the meantime. It was an opportunity for me to update our knowledge. There was little on the demons in the palace library. Many beings were chatty when it came to sex, letting down their guard.

Besides, I enjoyed sex. As undercover missions went, I'd certainly had worse, especially if they were as handsome in humanoid form as the demon in front of me.

Maybe I'd even forget that fucker Manannan if I rode enough cocks. That would be a distinct benefit.

"You said as long as we accommodate at least one patron daily. Will they be in humanoid form or..." I waved a hand at the massive snake dragons behind him.

He chuckled, amusement glinting in his eyes. "You can negotiate, and should, with each one."

"We get a choice? Both in what we agree to and with whom?" I asked, holding his gaze.

He inclined his head. "Yes, there is always a choice."

"Then I choose a fertility temple contract."

"Me as well," chimed Bloudwedd.

His smile broadened. "Very well."