Page 29

Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in.

The sound of my stifled huffing joined with the rising melody of laughing voices and otherworldly music. I should have cared more about whatever depraved hell of a party we were about to attend, but every step jolted the plug inside me. A spark of pleasure warred with the settling discomfort. I bit my lip to hide my whimper, but a desperate noise escaped.

Luc’s lip twitched in my periphery, but Jules didn’t bother holding in his satisfied grin. “We haven’t even reached the revelry yet.”

“Is this part of your plan?” I aimed to sound stern and faintly annoyed, like I wasn’t awkwardly waddling through the halls of Dawnspear. All that came out was breathlessness. “Torment me until I beg you to take me back to your apartment, even knowing what you have planned for me there?”

Luc’s massive hand slid lower, squeezing my ass. “What exactly do we have planned?”

I straightened, my entire body tensing—

Oh, fuck . My ass clenched down on the plug again. I gasped and choked at the same time, a mess of a noise.

Luc chuckled. I glared at him to my right, but the King of Dusk kept his focus on the hallway ahead.

“Funny,” a new voice muttered. “That was my exact question.”

I yelped, an embarrassingly high-pitched sound. Sabas now walked beside Luc, a step or two behind. If the kings hadn’t boxed me in, I’d have fallen flat on my face. But as I stumbled over my bare feet, pearls clattering around my ankles, Luc’s hand at my hip and Jules’s on my shoulder tightened, holding me effortlessly in place.

Luc didn’t turn, but Jules did. Those heavy ruby earrings swayed between the strands of his pale blond hair as his head moved. “How long have you been prowling the hall waiting for us?”

“Too long.” Sabas had switched into an elevated version of his usual black doublet and trousers, the addition of a star-shaped ruby brooch his only embellishment. He somehow looked even more exhausted than yesterday, but the weight of it still didn’t tarnish his immortal good looks. “Are you telling the courts?”

“Not tonight,” Luc said.

Sabas didn’t wait for Luc to explain or elaborate. The Conqueror didn’t do that. “If someone were to ask?”

“No one’s going to ask us directly if she’s our soulbound. And since they won’t, whatever answer we give won’t be a lie.” Luc’s voice remained cool. “Why can’t we keep our hands off our bride? Because she’s ours to touch .”

“Why did we growl at someone who stared too long?” Jules continued smoothly. “Because she’s ours to admire .”

Luc delivered the final blow, his voice silk over steel. “Why did we ditch the party early to hunt her through the halls? Because she’s ours to fuck .”

Heat rushed through my entire body. I should have been disturbed. The kings didn’t know me. They only claimed me now because of the bond between us. But my body didn’t care.

I had never been anyone’s before. No one’s daughter. Barely Aislin’s sister. Certainly no one’s lover.

Something unfamiliar fluttered through my chest.

The kings’ hands on me tightened at the same moment. Had they heard the sudden rush of my heartbeat? Or glimpsed my tumultuous emotions through our bond? I hadn’t noticed anything from them… until I thought about it.

Luc’s expression was serene and confident, but underneath it swirled a storm of emotions. Concern. Determination. A smidge of wariness. And, new to the mix, a growing excitement. Jules was far less conflicted, burning with impatience and mad glee all at once, though his bright smile only showed the second emotion.

“But if someone did?” Sabas pressed. “You’ve never been this possessive with a previous Mortal Bride.”

“Then we’ll tell them.” Luc took my hand as we started down a stairwell. I flushed, somehow more flustered by the quiet chivalry of the gesture than when his palm was on my ass. “I’m not breaking the allegiance runespell with an unnecessary lie. But this is our castle, in our city, in our impire, Sabas. If anyone dares to challenge us because we’re bound to a human, I will kill them and then go on with my evening.”

“They’ll want to know who cast it.”

“They aren’t the only ones.”

Sabas exhaled sharply. “What if—”

“Enough with the hypotheticals, Sabs,” Jules said. “Go find a vat of blood wine and someone to bury yourself in until you stop thinking. We’ll talk tomorrow morning about whatever worries of yours survive that.”

Sabas didn’t reply.

After a moment, I twisted around. The Crown Enforcer was gone. Had he gone back up the stairs? There was nowhere else for him to go, but the revelry sounded like it was ahead of us.

Did it really matter? I had more important things to worry about.

Namely, the kings at my side.

Jules let out a long sigh. “I love Sabs, truly. The paranoia makes him great at his job. But I think he may need a vacation.”

“We’d have to haul him there ourselves and then sit on him to make him stay,” Luc said, amusement lacing his voice. “I doubt any of us would find that relaxing.”

“Maybe we can get Cédric to lace his drink?”

My eyebrows raised. “You want your brother to drug his soulbound to help him relax?”

Jules tilted his head against mine with a dramatic sigh. How we were still walking straight when he clung to me like a six-foot-four leech was a mystery. “What other option is there? We can order him to take a leave of absence, but he’ll never do it.”

“It won’t be a request.”

I shuddered at the callous authority in Luc’s tone. Another spark shot through me from the plug.

Oh, stars, I needed to stop doing that. At this rate, I wouldn’t last an hour before begging them to touch me. To hunt me through the halls. To fuck me hard.

Wicked, sinful girl.

I shook my head, shoving the thoughts down. If the increasing noise was any indication, we had almost reached—

The kings turned a corner and led me through an open doorway to a terrace of pale stone and gilded columns. My jaw dropped. A garden sprawled below us, manicured trees framing a hedge maze, the greenery expanding into the distance before the sharp drop of a cliff. The city sparkled on the mountainside below us, the twinkling lights of other fires, other revelries. High above, the Blood Star peeked over the horizon, a bright spear of red surrounded by four dimmer lights.

My imagination couldn’t have conjured this sight if it tried.

But neither would it have conjured a thousand half-intoxicated Azarasians. They had draped themselves in their finest silks and brightest rubies, hair unbound and threaded with gems like my own. Dust painted nearly every inch of exposed skin—and there was a lot of it, more than I had ever seen. Even the thralls shimmered under their black uniforms, collars and simple ruby jewelry reflecting the flickering light.

Everywhere I looked, there was indulgence.

Goblets in hand, arms intertwined, fangs sinking into bared throats. Vampires spun across the open terrace floor, flitted between velvet lounge chairs, and surrounded tables heaped with food. The air was heavy with the scent of roasted meat, spiced wine, and the cloying sweetness of melting sugar.

Beyond the terrace, two vampires wrestled in their finery, a silver-eyed female taking down a green-eyed male as a circle of spectators jeered and cheered. Bodies writhed together in the open, in pairs and trios and quartets and… however many that cluster was, a mass of glittering skin and shifting limbs.

In Mabon, we gathered around fires, passing cups of mulled cider, hands brushing but never lingering. Here, there was no restraint. No whispered flirting behind clasped hands. No stolen kisses in the dark. Here, pleasure was taken openly, offered in full view of anyone who cared to watch.

It made my skin crawl. It made something in my stomach twist. And yet… my pulse still quickened in the kings’ hands.

I tore my gaze from the depravity, but Luc simply watched me, his impassive expression a stark contrast to the intensity simmering behind his eyes. He missed nothing. The red glow of the Blood Star caught my eye, and I lifted my gaze from his, letting its light anchor me.

I inhaled the open night air.

Just me and the Blood Star.

And the vampires at my sides.

“You call the Blood Star the Red Queen?” It was a silly question, the answer obvious, but I had to say something to ease this tension.

“The Red Queen and her court,” Luc said, his breath against my ear. “Your people only care about the queen, but she has four handmaids in the two silver stars to her right and the two gold stars to her left.”

I nodded. We called the other stars the Blood Star’s Guard, but we didn’t mention them much during our spring celebration.

Without waiting for anyone to acknowledge them, the kings moved forward in perfect sync. Shit. I scrambled so they weren’t pulling me between them.

The weight of a dozen luminous silver and gold stares flickered to me. To the kings. The closest vampires cleared a path and bowed as we passed, their thralls dropping all the way to their knees. But I had expected something more… elaborate. The Church made a bigger fuss about Patriarch Meallán entering a sermon than the High Courts did for their brutal rulers.

“Shouldn’t someone announce you or something?”

“Why would they?” Luc arched a dark brow. “It’s not like they’ve forgotten who we are.”

“The regents enjoyed copious bowing and groveling when they entered a room,” Jules said, plucking a goblet from a serving tray carried by a thrall. He offered one to Luc, who took it without ceremony and lifted it to his lips.

I glanced at the tray, half-expecting Jules to hand one to me as well. But of course, he didn’t. It wasn’t ordinary wine inside those goblets. The metallic scent of blood hit me a second later. I swallowed hard. Right.

“Alphonse mainly, but even Marisol had her days,” Jules continued. “After a couple of centuries, it gets a bit dull. We try to save the spectacle for special occasions now, like when we’re entertaining dignitaries or ambassadors from our vassal states.”

I frowned. I didn’t know much about the regents who ruled before Luc and Jules took the throne, but from the way Jules spoke, they must have relished their power. But if they only reserved grand displays for dignitaries now, that meant—

“The Isaurans are here, aren’t they?” Unless they had thrown the witch delegation in their dungeon for almost accidentally killing me… or eaten them.

“Oh, they are.” Jules waved lazily over his shoulder toward the towering walls of Dawnspear, where numerous balconies lined the floors above. “They have the best view for tonight’s festivities.”

I shuddered. Some thralls had runed collars, marking them as harvested witches. Only a handful of vampires were feeding on the terrace, their intertwined bodies almost easy to ignore over the cacophony, but that would surely change as the revelry went on. The Isaurans would be forced to watch their own people succumb to the bite one by one for hours, helpless to stop it.

My voice came quieter than I meant. “I guess that’s one way to remind them of your power.”

“They’re reminded every day by the collars around their neck,” Luc said.

I brushed my fingers against my collar. It was impossible to ignore…. both as a wearer and a witness. More than one Azarasian widened their eyes at the sight of the new collar around my neck. No one whispered. No one pointed. But the weight of their attention settled on me all the same.

I exhaled slowly. Only the Kings’ Council and the Imperial Guard knew about the soulbond right now. To the High Courts, I was no better than a human thrall, barely worth notice. But when they found out? That attention wouldn’t slide off me.

It would devour me.

If I couldn’t handle this, how would I survive that?

“Imperium.” A red-haired beauty clad in nothing but dust and strings of rubies stepped forward before she bowed. Godstars, she was absolutely stunning. Her golden eyes flickered halfway up to Jules, demure and respectful. “It’s been too many nights since you last visited our bed, Your Majesty.”

I tried to keep my face neutral, but my eyebrows lifted before I could stop them. How… forward. My fist curled. The motion set off a chain reaction—muscles tensing, sensation jolting through me from the plug. I swallowed my sharp inhale, refusing to give anything away.

A handsome, silver-eyed male wrapped an arm around the redhead’s shoulder. Unlike his soulbound, his gaze was on me. On my collar. On the chains and dust that barely concealed my breasts.. “And we’d be honored if your new bride joined us—”

“Eyes on me, Lord étienne, unless you want me to remove them.” Luc’s voice cracked through the air like a whip. “Our bride’s for us, not you.”

Lord étienne and his soulbound dropped to their knees in a blink. “I apologize for my overstep, Imperium,” she said. “If we displeased you—”

“You did not, Sylvie.” Jules didn’t hide the sharp edges under his kind, soothing smile. All the vampires in the vicinity had hunched their shoulders at Luc’s outburst, and reassurances from the Butcher weren’t exactly comforting. “Lucero and I have other plans tonight, and they don’t involve anyone but our Mortal Bride.”

“Of course, Your Majesty,” Lady Sylvie said.

The kings didn’t reply. Wouldn’t reply. The two vampires backed away, and the rest of the High Courts followed, carving out even more space for the kings as we cut across the terrace. No one dared glance at me or my collar again, but the weight of their attention somehow grew heavier.

There was something about it that almost felt… disbelieving.

And why wouldn’t it be? The kings had turned down two beautiful vampires for me. Lady Sylvie’s red hair gleamed like polished rubies, her body honed and sculpted in ways mine could never be.

She has hips for whoring . I tensed as my stepmother’s voice whispered in my mind again. My stepmother and sister were as thin as the vampire, but they could never match her beauty. Their jealousy always twisted into judgment, and now that same judgment sat like a stone in my chest.

“Ooh, what was that?” Jules stopped abruptly, spinning to block my path at the edge of the open dance floor. He extended his goblet, and a thrall scurried over to take their empty cups. His golden eyes locked onto mine, gleaming with intrigue. “It burns so hot in your chest, I can almost feel it in mine.”

Fuck. Of course the one emotion that could match the strength of my pain and pleasure would be my insecurity. “It doesn’t matter. It’s not about you.”

The heat of Luc radiated into my back. “Then what is it about?”

I frowned over my shoulder at the King of Dusk, at the arrogant smirk curving his lips. Half of me wanted to slap it off his face… and the other half wanted to kiss him. I did neither. Instead, I twisted forward and glared at Jules’s chin.

A hand fisted in my hair.

I yelped as Luc yanked my head back, forcing my vision skyward, straight into the molten silver of his gaze. “I asked a question.”

“You did. I don’t have to answer.” I somehow kept my voice steady, even as my nipples pebbled and need pooled in my core. “You own my blood and body, not my thoughts.”

Luc’s grip didn’t tighten, but his hold remained firm. “I wasn’t asking to own them, I was asking to know them.”

“Why?”

“I believe that’s how relationships evolve,” he said dryly.

“We don’t have a relationship.”

“Don’t we?” Jules traced a finger along my bare throat, down to my collarbone. “I seem to have quite a few memories of our relationship .”

Jules’s head between my legs. Luc’s lips on mine. Their fingers stroking inside me, touching me together. I shuddered at the flash of memories and clenched my thighs together, but I doubt it did much to hide the scent of my desire. It didn’t help me ignore it, either. “You don’t have a relationship with your Mortal Bride.”

“You know you’ve become much more than that,” Jules murmured, his voice a soft caress under the music and laughter.

I swallowed. These were monsters who ate people. They were my captors, my owners, my tyrant kings. They had killed a thrall and a witch in front of me today. If Luc and Jules felt anything, it was only the result of the bond tying us unwillingly together. They didn’t care for me as anything more than their possession.

Tonight, they planned to fuck me. I planned to… let them. Beg them, probably. None of that meant I had to let their beautiful smiles and heated touches lure me into complacency. We didn’t have a relationship. We couldn’t ever have a relationship.

This was an exchange, nothing more. They’d get to claim me. I’d get to come, my nerves sparking with pleasure instead of pain. They were still the villains in my story, no matter how good they made me feel if we started fucking.

When we started fucking.

Luc tugged harder. “Answer, Nessa.”

Pain flashed through my scalp. I yelped, the sound nearly a breathless moan. Godstars, what was wrong with me?

“Fine.” I tried to snarl at the King of Dusk, tried to twist my confliction into rage, but I couldn’t hide the rasp of my desire. “I wished I looked like Lady Sylvie. If I looked like her, I wouldn’t care that you’re parading me around naked for your courts to mock.”

Luc slowly arched a brow, equal parts unimpressed and amused. “That’s not judgment in their eyes, little curiosity.”

I scoffed. “What else would it be?”

Luc didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he released my hair, letting the silence stretch between us. But I knew what he wanted instantly, instinctively, his intent like a whispered command through the bond.

A challenge to look.

I didn’t want to. Didn’t need to. I already knew what I would find. But… when I let my gaze drift, I caught the way a few vampires watched us. Not with disdain. Not with amusement.

With longing .

They weren’t laughing at me, the soft, unremarkable human caught between two godstars made flesh. They were imagining themselves in my place.

A single word dropped from Luc’s lips, a brush against my ear. “Envy.”

I shuddered. Envy? No. That couldn’t be right. What in the stars would any vampire be envious of me?

But Luc wasn’t lying. Not even slightly. But he had to be… right?

His fingers ghosted down my spine. “You’re in the arms of two of the strongest vampires in the world, who can’t keep their hands off you, wearing a collar and gown worth more than most country estates. Is that not something to covet?”

“But… they’re all beautiful and immortal and I’m just…” I flapped a hand down at myself “...me.”

Jules snorted and shook his head. “You say such ridiculous things sometimes.” His golden gaze flickered to Luc. “Perhaps we should call it a night? I think our bride might need to ride both our cocks to believe we desire her.”

I straightened. “We just arrived.”

“A decision I’m regretting already.”

My heart stuttered and twisted. Desire and fear tangled in my stomach, a nauseating mix. Minutes ago, I thought I’d beg them to fuck me.

But now that it might actually happen…

Stars, I couldn’t do this.

My world started spinning.

Luc’s hand tightened around my hips. “Breathe.”

“I can’t.”

“You can.”

I forced myself to exhale slowly. Not on my own. Because the Conqueror commanded it. But my heart didn’t stop racing, my skin heating and sweating and pebbling.

Jules wrapped both of his bejeweled hands around mine. “I have a better idea. Let’s dance.”

My brain stopped. Dance?

My eyes drifted from Jules to the scene behind him. Vampires twirled and twisted to the thud of the music. In the corner by the balustrade, some musicians even danced, their flutes played flawlessly throughout. It wasn’t like anything I had ever seen, so far removed from the stiff dances of Mabon.

No.

Dancing was somehow even worse than sex. At least I wouldn’t have an audience for that… today. But dozens of eyes still flicked to the kings, watching their Imperium interact with me. If I danced with them, the gazes would follow.

I didn’t know how to dance. My stepmother had attempted to teach me the steps to the stiff, measured line dances popular in Mabon. I had only ever managed to trip over my own feet. My body wasn’t meant to move the way a dancer’s did. It just wasn’t.

My head started shaking before I could even manage any words.

Jules tugged gently at my hands. “That wasn’t a request.”

I didn’t stop shaking my head. I dug my heels in, not that it would help. “Even if I could dance, I’m not going to twirl around in front of the entire Courts of Dusk and Dawn naked .”

Warm fingertips brushed along the curve of my ass under the chains—and nudged the tapered end of the plug.

I yelped, nearly jumping in Luc’s arms.

“Would you rather stay here alone with me then?” Luc’s voice was smooth, teasing. “When Jules wants to dance, nothing can stop him.”

I almost flung myself at Jules.

“Ha! I win, Lucey.” The King of Dawn twirled me away in his arms as Luc chuckled darkly behind us.

Jules cut through the swirling, sensuous dancing with ease, the other Azarasians stepping aside for their Butcher King. When we reached the center, he spun me around. A sharp jolt of pleasure shot through me from the plug. I barely bit back a gasp, my knees threatening to buckle, and tripped over my feet.

And we hadn’t even started yet.

I tried half-heartedly to pull away. “I can’t dance.”

“Everyone can dance.”

I shook my head, flushing. Behind Jules, Luc settled into a cushioned chair at the floor’s edge. A thrall approached with another tray of blood wine and dropped to their knees at his feet to offer him a goblet. He took one without glancing away from us and leaned back into his seat. The way he sprawled, effortlessly commanding, turned the chair into a throne.

Godstars, was he going to watch the entire time?

Panic clawed at my ribs. “I can’t. I’m not… I’m too big to be graceful.”

Jules gave a gentle yank. I crashed into his arms. His arms skimmed between the chains at my hips, around the softness of my stomach. “You’re the perfect size.”

My pulse dropped between my legs. “I’m not—”

“You’re a tiny, soft morsel that I want writhing on my tongue daily for as long as we live,” Jules crooned. “And you can dance.”

My mouth watered.

Jules grinned and pressed a finger to my chin. With a light tap, he popped my gaping jaw closed. Heat burned my cheeks.

Before I could counter, Jules slid his hands up, one settling on my waist, the other taking my hand. “So let’s dance, lovely.”