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He stretched out beside me on the bed, fully clothed while I lay completely naked. The contrast should have made me feel vulnerable, but instead, I felt powerful. This dangerous man had been brought to his knees by my pleasure.

My moans still seemed to hang in the air around us, evidence of what we'd just shared. I turned my head to look at him, taking in the sharp lines of his profile, the slight flush on his high cheekbones.

"Better?" he asked, his voice gentler now, though no less intense.

I nodded, though we both knew it was temporary. The heat was still there, banked but not extinguished, ready to flare again at any moment. "For now."

Archer brushed a strand of silver hair from my face, his touch unexpectedly tender. "Rowen will be back soon," he said. "And then we'll take care of you properly."

The promise in those words sent another shiver through me. Two of them. Both of them. Together.

Now I just needed Callum here too.

Wait a fucking minute. Where had that thought came from?

"I'm already back, and we need to have a discussion before going any further," Rowen's voice drew me out of my haze and dumped a bucked of ice water over my head.

A discussion. Also known as the "We need to talk" speech.

Uh oh.

9

Rowen

Istrode through the obsidian halls of my palace, my jaw clenched so tightly I wondered if my teeth might shatter. My tail lashed behind me, the barbed tip scraping against the polished stone floor. The council meeting had gone exactly as I'd expected. Badly.

"A waste of fucking time," I muttered to myself as stomped through the halls, almost cracking the hard flooring.

The council, a collection of ancient demons who'd grown fat and comfortable on the power I allowed them to wield, had unanimously voted against sending aid to the Fae realm. My half-brother's realm.

"The Fae have always managed their own affairs," Lord Asmodeus had drawled, inspecting his nails as if we were discussing something as trivial as the weather. "If Prince Callum cannot maintain control of his own court, perhaps he isn't fit to rule."

The memory made my obsidian eyes narrow. The smug bastard had no idea what Callum was facing. None of them did. The whispers I'd been hearing, the dark energy seeping from the cracks between our realms—this wasn't just court politics. Something was coming. Something old and hungry.

And Callum would face it alone unless I found a way around the council's vote.

I paused at the base of the grand staircase, my thoughts suddenly scattering as a scent hit me. Female arousal, sweet and heady, mixed with the unmistakable essence of power. Sierra's power.

"Fuck," I breathed, my body responding instantly.

The scent was intoxicating, drawing me forward like a siren's call. As I climbed the stairs, I heard it. A high, keening moan that echoed through the upper halls of my palace. Sierra's voice, thick with pleasure and need.

The incubus side of my nature stirred, hungering for the emotional and sexual energy that radiated from her in waves. With each step I took, I felt it washing over me, feeding something primal and possessive that lived in the darkest corners of my being. The energy seeped into my skin, strengthening me, sharpening my senses until I could hear the rapid beat of her heart, the desperate gasps of her breath.

I didn't need to reach out with my powers to know that Archer was with her. His energy was there too, focused and intense, winding around hers in patterns of possession and pleasure. The assassin had wasted no time, it seemed.

When I reached the doorway to Archer's chambers, I leaned against the frame, crossing my arms over my chest as I took in the scene before me. Sierra, her silver hair spilled across the dark sheets like moonlight, her body arched in ecstasy as she came apart beneath Archer's skilled hands. The assassin was fully clothed, his focus entirely on her pleasure as he whispered filthy promises against her skin.

The sight should have enraged me. Another man touching what was mine. But the bond between us was different. Archer had been mine first, sworn to my service centuries ago. Andnow, Sierra was to be ours. All of ours, if the prophecy was to be believed.

I allowed myself a few moments to just watch them, to absorb the energy they were creating. It fed the darkness within me, soothing the rage that had been building since the council meeting. Sierra's pleasure was a balm to my wounded pride, a reminder of the power I still wielded within these walls, regardless of what the council decreed.

When they finally stilled, Sierra boneless with satisfaction and Archer looking at her with a mixture of pride and hunger, I cleared my throat.

"I'm already back, and we need to have a discussion before going any further," I announced, my voice lower and more gravelly than usual from absorbing so much of their energy.

Sierra's eyes flew open, her expression shifting from post-orgasmic bliss to mild panic in an instant. Archer, ever the soldier, simply turned his head toward me, his ice-blue eyes revealing nothing.