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“That’s it, beautiful,” he croons. “Oh, you’re doing so good.”

When I start to move faster, he grabs me by the neck. “When I come, you’re going to take it all in your mouth. Swallow it like a good girl.”

I speed up my pace, and his delicious groans fill the room. A small drip of salty liquid fills my mouth. “Oh fuck!” he shouts. “I’m going to come.”

Having him under my power like this… I like it.

A burst of liquid rushes into my mouth and down my throat. His fingers dig into the back of my neck as he lets out something between a groan and a whimper.

“Oh, Ava, my girl, it’s never been this good before. Never.”

Damian

Ava is going to slit my throat as soon as I drift off to sleep tonight.

When we got back to the dining room, the first thing I did was order an attendant to bring her something—anything—for pain, and to make it strong. The look she shot me was enough to strip flesh from bone. But she sank into her seat with all the poise of a woman determined to pretend she hadn’t just been bent over my knee.

And that blow job afterward. My God.

I’d told her it was never that good before, and I meant it. What is it about her? Why does my body ache for her like it’s starving—like it’s only just realized what it’s been missing all this time?

And now she’s having tea with my mom on the other side of the house, and I hate it. I can’t stand being apart from her, even when Gabriel Wolfe is right now sitting across from me.

My dad’s voice pulls me out of my head. “I know what you’re thinking about.” He swirls the whiskey in his glass. “And I can see why you chose her.”

I force myself to smile lazily as I lift my own drink to my lips.

Gabriel smirks. “Must be fun having someone whose behavior you need to correct. Although you should have made her your consort.” He leans back, draping an arm over the chair. “As the sacrifice, she’ll be dead in a month, and you’ll have to look for another one.”

An unholy rage simmers through my veins, but I keep my gaze fixed on the amber liquid in my glass, not wanting Gabriel to get even a hint of what’s going through my mind.

How fucking dare he talk about Ava like that. Like her life means nothing. Like she’s just an object that can be replaced. Certainty hits me in the gut.

I’m going to kill Gabriel Wolfe someday, and I’m going to enjoy doing it. I’ll let him know the fear of death I spare my other victims.

I smile at him, not letting it reach my eyes. “I won’t need to look for women. When I’m prior, I won’t have to lift a finger.”

He stiffens, and my smile deepens. He’s no better than Kane—just older. You’d think he’d have learned by now how to mask his emotions. It was clear how little he liked the certainty in my voice when I said I’ll be prior.

Most likely because he’s planning something.

Gabriel clears his throat. “I hope you know, Damian, that I had nothing to do with Kane’s little…mishap.”

“You don’t have to tell Damian that,” my dad says, narrowing his eyes on Gabriel. “We both know you aren’t dull-witted. Kane’s little stunt accomplished nothing other than making him look like a reckless fool to the Sacred Light.”

Gabriel’s nod is jerky. He lifts his whiskey to his lips and throws it back before setting the glass down with a hard clunk onthe table in front of him. There’s a ghost of a smile on my dad’s mouth, and I know what it means.

He has Gabriel exactly where he wants him. My dad knows just as well as I do that Gabriel was, in fact, involved in Ava’s kidnapping, and my dad is planning to use it to his advantage.

But for what?

“I’m not particularly concerned about impressing the Sacred Light,” Gabriel says. “I don’t expect him to last. He’s too modern. He was meant to interpret our laws, not rewrite them.”

My dad nods. “He’s a reformer. I’ll bet he worked in social justice before he became the Sacred Light.”

Gabriel scoffs. “Pathetic.”

“Yes.” My dad smiles. “But it’s a good thing. He has a soft spot for the weak and vulnerable.” He sets his glass down and turns his gaze to me. “That’s why I let him spend so much time with Damian when he was young. If you take care of someone as a child, you often unconsciously assume they’d never hurt you.”