Page 27

Aches flared through my body, dragging me back to consciousness. My dream faded into fog as I groaned. It had been about the kings, discussing something with their council. How… mundane. But no matter how hard I reached for it, the conversation blurred and twisted, slipping through my grasp.

Not that it mattered. It was just a dream. Better that than a nightmare—

It took a second for my mind to fully wake. Memory slammed into me like a storm. The ceremony. The agony. The impossible connection snapping into place, binding me to the two monsters who had stolen my life.

I was soulbound to the Imperium.

Godstars save me.

A sharp breath shuddered from my lips. It was real. There was a spell woven into my very being, a link I couldn’t break. It couldn’t be undone. It could never be undone.

But that meant… had that been an ordinary dream? Once Karra was soulbound to Azaras, she sometimes slipped into his mind whenever she was asleep and he was awake. Which was almost always, since demons didn’t need to rest. Vampires did, but during our week on the road, they had only slept once.

Did that mean even my dreams would no longer be my own?

A strange chill crept down my spine. I had no control over it. No control over them. I hadn’t chosen this bond, hadn’t asked for it. But now, it was inside me, chaining me to the Conqueror and the Butcher. I would never be alone again.

My stomach twisted. No need to panic. Not yet. There were too many unknowns. I forced my fingers to unclench from the sheets, grounding myself in the present. Grounding myself in my body. Every part of me hurt, from the bruises on my knees to the cramp in my back to the pounding headache pressing against my skull.

All perfectly normal after kneeling for hours on cold stone, feeding two murderous vampire kings, orgasming on their fingers, having one of the aforementioned fingers shoved into a wound, nearly dying, falling on a corpse, and discovering a fucking soulbond of all things.

I let my head fall back and sank into something sinfully soft—

A large snout nudged the back of my hand.

Every part of me went stiff. I turned ever so slowly…

Titus panted at me from the end of a gilded bed, piled with pillows. Ah. Yes. After Estrella and Tristan had all but locked me in the Mortal Bride’s bedchamber, exhaustion had crashed over me like a wave. Vampire venom might have numbed my pain temporarily, but it hadn’t fully erased my other symptoms. I had crawled into bed immediately, uncaring that Titus snuggled into my side.

It had been nice, to be honest. I had spent too many nights shivering in my loft. With Titus at my side, it was like sleeping next to a fire that never burned out, no careful rationing of firewood required.

The hellwolf shuffled closer to me with a low whimper when I didn’t respond. The bedframe creaked with the movement. The Mortal Bride’s bed wasn’t designed to hold a four hundred pound hellwolf.

When the legs didn’t snap beneath us, I exhaled and reached out. Titus slid his head beneath my palm. I snorted, but my fingers automatically dug into his thick ruff, giving him a thorough scratch.

I stared into those dark, shadowed eyes as his tail started wagging back and forth like the dog he wasn’t. “You knew I was soulbound to them, didn’t you? That’s why you like me, since you sense I’m bound to your masters.”

Titus huffed like I had asked something obvious.

I wished he could actually speak. I had a thousand questions about my new life, and the hellwolf didn’t see any need to keep me in the dark. But there was only so much we could cover through yes-and-no questions.

As I scratched Titus’s ruff, I finally blinked around at the room I’d barely noticed earlier. The ceiling was a pale, frosted gold, the walls papered in a soft, neutral pattern that matched the rest of the kings’ apartment. None of the murder art had made its way in here, thankfully. An armoire stood beside a full-length mirror, and in the opposite corner, there was a row of bookshelves. Along with a bedside table, those were the only furnishings in my new prison.

My gaze snagged on a scuffed leather-bound book resting on the nightstand.

The Soulborne Queen: Volume I by Katalina Estevez shined a dull silver on the cover.

I jolted upright. Titus huffed at my sudden movement. That hadn’t been there when I passed out. I had handed my book off to Jules at Luc’s command when we first arrived in Dawnspear and hadn’t thought of it since. There hadn’t been time.

Tingles crawled my spine. One of them had been in here. One of them had stood over me while I slept, placing my book at my bedside.

I clenched my fingers around the worn cover and hugged it to my chest. Tears pricked at my eyes. Returning it didn’t make up for treating my people as livestock. It didn’t undo what they had done to me. But I couldn’t see how it benefited them, and that had to mean something.

Or maybe it was just a trick, meant to lull me into compliance.

I shook my head. Whatever it was, I wouldn’t turn away one positive thing in this terrible place.

Titus’s gaze snapped toward the door, sudden and sharp, as quick and terrifying as any vampire. I nearly yelped, startled.

It clicked open a second later.

I dropped my book and pulled the bed sheet tight against my body as Maire entered, her head bowed. Long strands of delicate silver and gold chains draped over her arm. A petite, dark-haired thrall with warm brown skin followed at her side, carrying a platter of jewelry and two small tins.

Before the door shut behind them, I caught a glimpse of Estrella and Tristan stationed outside. Not outside the apartment. Inside .

So I couldn’t run off again.

Titus huffed and flopped back onto the mattress, wholly unconcerned. The two thralls flinched at the movement.

I cleared my throat. "Maire?"

She didn’t meet my eyes, stepping closer over the blood-stained gown I had torn off before passing out. “The Imperium requests your presence for dinner before the revelry for the Red Queen’s Rising.”

Every muscle in me tensed from my neck to my core to my toes. Dinner. I had slept for only a few hours then.

I exhaled slowly. The kings had fed from me once already today. Vampires only needed blood every few days to survive, but the kings weren’t merely surviving. They were thriving. This world was their playground, and humans their playthings.

If they wanted to consume my blood ten times a day, there was nothing I could do or say to stop them. I might have been their soulbound now, but I was human first and foremost.

When I didn’t reply, Maire finally flicked her gaze up to me. The green of her irises made the red veins from her tears even more noticeable. Had Maire cried for Sophie and éamon? Her sister and friend were claimed in terrible ways, one after the other.

“This is Riona,” Maire said into the silence, gesturing to the thrall at her side. “She serves General Isabeau and Chancellor Roxiana. She’ll be taking over for éamon.”

I flinched. “Maire, I’m so sorry—”

“Why? That traitor faced the Imperium’s justice for his actions.” There was contempt in her tone, but her expression was somber.

Two vampires stood outside the door, listening to every word. Maire couldn’t say anything more without revealing her true loyalties. And I couldn’t, either, without exposing her as the one who had actually led me from the apartment.

I nodded, hoping my eyes conveyed what my words couldn’t. But Maire dropped her gaze a second later.

Stars. Was this what Odran went through every day? Ignored by the vampires protecting him, avoided by the fearful thralls serving him?

How had he not gone insane?

How would I not go insane?

But that was a problem for another day.

I gestured at the chains she held. “Is that for me?”

Maire and Riona moved to dress me in silence. It wasn’t a two-person job, but I wasn’t going to say anything. I had already gotten a thrall and a witch killed today.

I stomped down on the guilt before it overwhelmed me. I hadn’t killed them. The kings had.

I did not control the kings.

Perhaps that would need to become a new mantra of mine.

When I spun and faced the mirror, I nearly fainted. The gown was little more than silver and gold chains, but there were enough of them that I’d hoped they would cover most of my skin. The thigh-length skirt covered enough… as long as I didn’t move.

The top, however, didn’t even try.

My pink, flushed skin peeked between the strands that fell loosely over my chest before cinching together with a ruby-encrusted clasp between my breasts. I tried to adjust the chains, shifting them over my important bits, but there wasn’t enough metal to hide them.

Maybe Aislin could’ve managed, but I couldn’t even cover a single nipple.

I hadn’t thought I had any shame left over my nudity, not after every eyeball that had traced my skin this last week. Apparently, I was wrong.

“Where is the, uh, rest of the outfit?”

Maire carefully placed a headdress of chains and rubies over my loose brown waves. A red, teardrop-shaped jewel the size of my thumb hung over my forehead. “There isn’t any.”

“Oh.” I nervously looped a strand of hair around my finger. I literally glimmered in the dim light of my new bedchamber. I didn’t look terrible but… “So I’m wearing what is essentially a large necklace?”

Maire held my gaze solemnly in the mirror and nodded.

My cheeks warmed. “And I don’t get any say?”

“No.” Maire brushed back my hair and added dangling silver-and-gold earrings, almost tame compared to the rest of the ensemble. Her expression didn’t change. “This is what the Imperium wants you to wear, so this is what you’ll wear.”

I swallowed but nodded. The message couldn’t be clearer.

Tonight, the kings planned to fuck me, and nothing would stand in their way.

I shuddered… and not just from fear. What would Maire say if she knew I craved the kings’ touches? What would any thrall? I was wet and desperate for my captors . I dropped my gaze to hide my reaction, but Riona kneeled at my feet, looping massive pale pearl bracelets around my ankles to match the ones circling my wrists.

I forced a slow, steady breath. There was something clearly wrong with me.

And that something was the soulbond.

Karra had known what was happening to her, had bravely sacrificed herself to slay a demon. But even she hadn’t been able to resist the overwhelming need the spell created for Azaras. If a determined witch couldn’t fight the demon who had eaten her family, what hope did a tired human have against the vampires who had made her their living sacrifice?

But I had to resist. I had to.

If I even had the choice.

When I was harvested, survival had been my only goal. Now, I was soulbound to the Imperium. It should have meant freedom, but instead, it was just a different kind of cage. Choice had never been mine, then or now.

I didn’t choose this outfit.

I didn’t choose to attend a revelry where vampires would gorge themselves on blood and pleasure.

I didn’t choose any of this. I’d have much preferred to read a book, curled up with a story instead of wrapped in chains, preparing to be devoured.

The soft tip of a finger traced along my spine.

I stiffened, my heartbeat stuttering. My eyes flashed open to meet Jules’s bright, gold gaze in the mirror.

The King of Dawn was draped in rubies and pearls, a headdress matching mine resting over his pale blond waves. Massive ruby earrings framed his sharp jaw, while an intricate cuff embedded with gemstones gleamed over his biceps. A length of deep maroon fabric hung from his shoulders, the rich color a striking contrast to his ivory chest, dusted with faint gold glitter beneath matching body chains spaced even further apart than mine. Loose slacks hung low on his hips, completing the effortless display of decadence.

“When I saw this dress, I knew it was the right choice,” Jules said, his finger tracing along my shoulder. I resisted a shudder. “Didn’t I make an excellent choice, Lucey?”

Luc leaned against the doorway, broad shoulders filling the space. “I wouldn’t know. You’re blocking my view.”

“My apologies, darling. I’ll have to rectify that.” Jules dropped his hand from my shoulder and entwined his fingers with mine. Before I could process the movement, he spun me with effortless grace.

My chained skirts swept apart as I twirled. I resisted the urge to slap them down. I wouldn’t give them the pleasure of watching me squirm, no matter if it made me a wicked, sinful whore.

When everything stopped spinning, my world narrowed to silver eyes.

The King of Dusk had shed his dark doublet for a navy-blue robe, silver buttons sparkling like the night sky. Two silver chains crossed his chest, each side ending in a massive ruby. Lines of glittering silver dust traced his neck and jaw, swirling over the sharp ridges of his cheekbones, but the rest of him remained unadorned. His simple silver rings lined his knuckles, his dark curls tousled and effortlessly regal.

Jules circled me, my hand still trapped in his. “Is this more to His Majesty’s satisfaction?”

“It’s better.” Luc pushed off the doorframe and approached with slow, measured steps.

My heartbeat kicked faster, but I held his gaze. I wanted to melt beneath it, to cower, to hide. But I wouldn’t. I steeled my spine.

I was his soulbound now. He couldn’t hurt me.

I wouldn’t let him intimidate me.

“Better?” Jules’s golden eyes traced my bare skin, his gaze a lazy caress. “She’s perfect.”

My breath hitched. Perfect. He was insane. I certainly wasn’t perfect. They were perfect.

Luc stopped beside Jules, towering over me. The heat of them became a fire, radiating into me. I’d had both of their eyes on me before, but this was different. They were… enjoying me. Admiring me. Something fluttered low in my stomach.

I wanted to curl into a ball.

I wanted to run.

I wanted to beg them to fuck me until I couldn’t think anymore.

I hadn’t said anything aloud, but Jules’s grin widened and Luc let that arrogant smirk play over his lips. Their intensity changed with their expressions, simmering interest turning to a slow, smoldering boil. I wanted to lean into them, to press my hands against their chests. The next inhale drowned me in their scent, thick spice and smoked honey.

Stars, I was soaking my inner thighs.

I clenched my legs together.

“You’re dismissed for the night, Captains,” Luc said.

Captains? I blinked, my small, crowded room returning to focus. Maire and Riona kneeled, heads bowed. Estrella and Tristan remained by the door, watching. Blood rushed to my chest and cheeks. I had completely forgotten about all of them.

The two Imperial Guard nodded and bowed. “As you wish, Imperator.”

In a blink, Estrella and Tristan were gone, speeding from the room quicker than I could see. But Maire and Riona remained in place. How long would they stay there, kneeling, if the kings didn’t dismiss them?

I didn’t really want to know the answer.

But the kings weren’t interested in having an audience this time.

Jules flicked his fingers toward the thralls. “Leave the tins. Take everything else.”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” they murmured in unison. With quick, efficient movements, they collected my discarded gown and the empty jewelry tray without daring to meet my gaze. Maire and Riona disappeared as quickly as they had entered.

Neither looked back.

I was on my own.

But I always had been on my own. I could face this. I would face this. I straightened my shoulders and kept them that way, even when the chains slid over my nipple, grazing sensitive skin.

“You look ready for battle, little one.” Luc brushed a knuckle against my chin, tilting my gaze up to his.

I narrowed my eyes, pretending the fire in me was rage instead of need. “Shouldn’t I be?”

Jules cackled. “You’re such a little spitfire when you’re mock-angry.”

This time, my glare was real. Mock-angry. Asshole. The soulbond made everything I did and said painfully obvious to them. I’d never be able to hide my true feelings again, not from them.

“I never shy away from a fight,” Luc murmured, “but I think I’ll enjoy delaying a win for once.”

“Who said you’ll win?”

The corner of Luc’s lip crooked. “I always win, little curiosity.”