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My Little Mortal gasped, her head moving side to side—was she unhappy? Even in my short travels to the mortal realm, it had been a concept many humans moaned and whined over. I did not understand it, and I had no interest in it—until now.

Tears had dripped from her eyes; it caused this visceral throb to travel through my torso.

She was not in pain when I pleasured her. I stretched my wings out of my path to crawl down until I hovered over her succulent pussy.

I pried her knees apart, exposing her. My seed had filled her to the brim, claiming her.

Her scent, sweet, earthy—and wholly mine—lured me forward, and I ran my tongue along the slit.

I focused on the little throbbing bud and tongued her again. She moaned, her hips lifting with a groan. I did not think it possible for a mortal female to taste so decadent. Nor did I expect to enjoy feasting on the nectar between her legs. No mortal or Novian had ever caused in me this feral urge to claim. I slid my tongue into her tight sheath.

Her sex clamped around my tongue, clenching as if it never wanted to release me. I rubbed against her inner walls, pumping with each lick.

It did not take her long to reach her climax, her channel flexing as sighs left her lips. Such sweet sounds from my Little Mortal. She wriggled onto her side and curled her arm under her cheek, settling into sleep.

Her soul glowed brilliantly, ready to be devoured on the quickly approaching Novareth when I would feed on her soul and extinguish her being.

I walked along the hallway,working on memorizing the small shifts in the wall in order to learn my way around the castle. The crack in the wall, the torch that was a few inches lower than the rest—they were all methods for me to remember my way back.

After bathing, the shadows had expanded to bring me another face towel, and it currently trailed behind me, almost not seeming to have energy. I could understand that, considering I was famished and on my way to get food from those pantries in the room he’d brought me to the first time. I was glad I’d eaten when he dumped me in the room, because it’d held me off until now.

Even as hunger pains twisted my stomach, I couldn’t get rid of the panic of not being able to wake Corvus. I’d left him in his bed, sleeping, and he’d not even twitched after the time I’d spent trying to shake him awake.

Shadows wrapped around my wrist and jerked me to the side, and now I faced a door. A very familiar one. I shoved through to a descending staircase with those same slim, pizza slice steps. With my palm pressed against the wall, I inched my way down as slowly and safely as possible. One misstep would send me on a painful tumble. It took me a while to get to the base that opened to the endless hallway, but I made it.

Once in the small room, the first thing my eyes snagged on was the husk on the floor. It was drained, as if she’d been put into a food dehydrator.

I shivered and yanked my gaze away, shuffling over to the pantries lining the furthest wall from the door. I quickly found water bottles and chugged them, then took a fresh one, tucked it under my arm, and closed the pantry to look at the next section containing food. There was nothing new. I grabbed a packet of the jerky and saltine crackers, trying not to think about the dead body in the room as I stuffed my face.

“Don’t judge me,” I muttered at the pulsating black fog clinging to the side of the wall.

I hadn’t realized how hungry I was. I finished up the entire packet and held the trash. There was nowhere to put it, so I placed it in a neat pile on the surface in the pantry and closed it, planning to ask him where he disposed of things later.

Here I was thinking I’d be staying with him, as if we were in a relationship. I scoffed and thumped the water back down in the pantry.

I wasn’t living after Novareth—he’d made that clear.

Clean, fed, and hesitant, I left the chamber to return to try and wake Corvus. As soon as I took a few steps, a low sob echoed to me. I whirled, but it sounded like it was coming from multiple locations. It was the damn acoustics of this place, noise bounced off everything because there was nothing to muffle it.The haunting cry came again, and I squinted to the left. It had to come through the wall. I inched closer.

Were the shadows trying to hide a passage?Approaching, I held out my hand, and it went into the accumulated shadows. I stepped through the hole that cut into a corner and spat me out on the other side into another hall with torches lighting up the way. I whirled and eyed the surface I’d walked past. It almost seemed an illusion with how the torch light flickered.

Making my way toward the murmurs, I passed empty cells, the heavy smell of rust permeating the air. Movement caught my eye, and I rushed to the cell with hands poking out of the bars. As I neared, I saw the male leaning against the iron, his arm through the bars. His attention fell on me, eyes peeling wide.

“Let us out,” he snarled, flashing fangs—a Novian. At his words, more people crowded the bars, grabbing and slipping hands through them. There were humans in there, too. There had to be a minimum of fifteen people crammed into the small space like some sick farm.

The cell across the way held a smaller group behind the rusted bars.

I went to the latch of the cell nearest to me, which had the most people. I yanked at the heavy latch securing the door closed, struggling to lift it.

“Hurry,” a human man next to the Novian hissed.

“I’m trying,” I snapped, miffed, angling myself to the side and bending my knees. Propping my shoulder under the latch, I braced and used my leg muscles to push.

A high-pitched squeal ripped through the cell, and finally, it popped free, and the latch thudded open. Immediately, they shoved, and the hinge of the door screeched, assaulting my ears. In a scramble so fast I struggled to grasp, they swarmed out, crowding me and getting in my face.

“Show us the way out,” he snarled, holding a jagged rock toward me. I put my hands up and backed away.

“What have you done?” Corvus’s silky voice caressed my ears. Every single Novian and human recoiled, backing away as a collective.