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Rhadamanthus

I should have felt at least mildly guilty about her stress, but I could not bring myself to do so when I needed to understand.

I hadn’t lied when I said I needed to know the truth.

Whispers of the new Queen had made their way to me.

Onyx, an old head of the Elysian House, and mated to Queen Greer, had written to me about the young Daughter of Nyx.

The struggles she would face, and the burden that would come with her taking the throne after Greer.

And he’d admitted he wasn’t sure if she would be strong enough without the allegiance of my House.

Nyx was certainly testing me with this one. Never had I been tempted by one of her blessed Queens. They’d been allies, sometimes annoyances. I remembered when Pandora assumed the throne. Working with her had been difficult enough. The five after her challenges of their own.

But this one…this one called to a part of me that had long been dormant. It had been a coincidence, her landing in the House of Lust. I’d only used Ravenna as a tool to get my hands on the new Queen, but I hadn’t expected to feel so…

Alive.

She was not weak, no matter how much she claimed to be.

Unlike the male trying to steal her throne, she’d been receptive to suggestions.

Some Queens had taken the crown of Nyx and tried to slash their way to the top.

They hadn’t wanted to understand what the different creatures were like, how they lived.

But this one listened. She’d taken the time to try and understand what the succubus’s game was—even if it had been futile.

I never would have made her go through it.

It had been a long time since I’d had an adequate partner in one of the House games.

I was thankful we hadn’t landed ourselves in House Wrath, though.

Those demons with their taste for blood and pain were the last thing I wanted the sweet Queen to deal with.

She was an odd temptation. One I knew I should not have. My promise to Nyx had relinquished me of such needs.

And yet, I felt almost like I did before the Rift. That time when creatures rarely interacted, when Nyx walked the worlds she called her home. Before Pandora and the great shift in magic.

I shook my head, looking away from the window and the sprawling fields stretching out endlessly beyond my city.

My Queen stood with her hands curled into fists, that fake crown still resting atop her dark hair.

It took all my power not to lift the silly thing from her head.

It was barely even a placeholder—almost mocking in its similarities to the one she should actually be wearing.

“Your mates are safe,” I finally replied.

Her nostrils flared in frustration, and I sensed another question about the six creatures I had locked away.

“Before you ask, they were never going to be harmed. As soon as it came to my attention that they were with Ravenna, I had them ferried to me here. They were always safe. And your half-Fae mate saw to that.”

Confusion flickered across her features, softening them slightly as she glared at me. “Hawk?”

“Yes.” I placed my hands in my pockets, once again admiring the way my snake marked her skin. It fit almost too well on her forearm. The essence was too happy there. “Your half-Fae mate is also of demon descent. Had he not told you?”

She stiffened. “It never came up,” she muttered, eyeing me warily now. “What did he do?”

“Nothing you need to worry yourself with.” I wouldn’t necessarily hold him to his bargain, though I wasn’t entirely sure why. It wasn’t even necessarily a risky deal, and once Ravenna revealed the extent of it, she had passed it onto me.

“Rhadamanthus—”

“Damon,” I cut her off. “Rhadamanthus is too formal for this.”

At that, she bristled. “This should be formal. We were sailing to meet with you about travelling to the Old World. We need someone to take us.”

I tensed at the mention of the world we’d once called home.

Relegated now to the Old World , when once it had been Nyx’s Domain.

The land she had built for her creatures—for all of us.

There had been a time where we lived harmoniously within the laws and magic of the human world, when old Gods reigned, and mortals bowed to kings.

But we were not the allies they wanted. We’d posed threats.

And so, Nyx had claimed us as her own.

There was history I did not know, some I refused to remember. But there were still things that I let take up space in my mind. Memories that kept me alive.

I cleared my throat, shoving my hands in my pockets again. “Would you prefer a meeting in the throne room, perhaps? Where you are placed on a stage before my court?”

Her eyes narrowed. As she flexed her hands, light—electric, purple sparks—danced at the tips of her fingers.

“I want my mates. And I want to make some sort of deal with you that gets us to the Old World. You seem to think you’re on my side—on Nyx’s side.

So, prove it. Help me and my mates travel there. Then leave the rest up to us.”

“How do you expect to navigate the Old World?” I asked, though I knew the answer: her magic . She didn’t appear to have realised it, though, as her eyes darkened. I couldn’t exactly tell why I was so determined to get under her skin. Any other Queen, and I wouldn’t have cared.

A smile formed across my lips. “I am perhaps the only living being left who has wandered those lands,” I murmured. “Who has seen what it is capable of now. Unless you have a necromancer in your midst, capable of conjuring a spirit to guide you.”

The Queen clenched her jaw, but she did not have a quick answer for me.

I raised a brow. “What is your plan, my Queen? Other than travelling into a dangerous world and searching for a crown that has no resting place?”

Her shoulders dropped, the magic dancing along her fingers dissipating as she released a heavy breath. “All I know is Nyx wants us to go there. To find the crown. That’s it.”

Interesting . What was that Goddess up to? And why would she send her only living Queen into a world not even she has seen in nearly fifteen hundred years?

Either there was something the young Queen wasn’t telling me, or not even she knew how her journey would end.

“Dante found a way to go there,” she continued, her voice dark with bitterness. “He wants the crown. He thinks that if he has it, he’ll be the uncontested king. No one will question him.”

“But he won’t have your power,” I replied.

Her eyes followed me as I moved to a small bar across the room.

What she didn’t know was that I had brought her into my private suite at the palace.

Through one of the four cavern hallways, was my bedroom.

I had an office through another, a library, and a meeting room.

We were in the sitting room portion, which rarely saw visitors.

And I had the urge to show her the rest.

I’m simply lonely, I told myself as I picked up two crystal tumblers from one of the racks above the bar.

They were mostly for show, sitting on the smooth, carved shelves.

The meeting room had another bar in the corner, though the serpents of House Greed were more likely to bring refreshments when I did have company.

I poured two glasses of mead, born from the bees that frequented the fields.

There was something oddly delectable about drinking the nectar of a place only the dead would see.

No one knew why the bees came and went as they pleased, but to drink the nectar from their venture into the fields was dangerous.

And yet, I carried the Queen a glass, watching as she eyed it with scrutiny. It had a golden colour, perhaps more amber. As I handed it to her, the small amount I’d poured swirled like it had been dusted with the same glittering substance she had.

Hesitantly, she lifted a hand and took the glass, though she didn’t bring the tumbler to her lips immediately.

“Thanks,” she muttered, before cupping it between both hands.

“He might have found a way to take my power. That’s why I need to find the crown before him.

And find the rest of my mates. I don’t know why, but Nyx put me on this path to find them and the crown.

So, I have to trust that she knows what she’s doing. ”

I brought the mead to my lips and took a slow sip. There were hints of wild flowers and death, but the sweetness of honey overpowered it. “And you think a journey into the Old World will solve your problems?”

She sighed, and I glanced at her from the corner of my eye. There was a clear war playing out in her eyes. Her gaze strayed to the fields, almost like she could see beyond them and into the darkness that awaited those who disappointed our Goddess.

“This is the path she’s taking me on,” she said, finally turning to me. “So, what do you want?”

I quirked a brow and took another sip. “What do I want?”

She nodded, eyes locked on mine. Goddess, she was a small thing compared to me.

But she didn’t let my size sway her. Some would consider me intimidating, and I certainly was.

The average demon could either be much smaller than regular creatures, or have a larger stature—depending on breeding.

But those of us of the Elysian line—and there were few of us left who were truly Elysian—were bred to work with death.

And sometimes, the dead liked to fight. We had to know how to keep them in check .

It’d been a long time since I’d gone down to the fields to do such a thing.

Shaking those thoughts from my head, I finished my drink and released a breath. “There is nothing you can give me, my Queen, that I do not already have.”

Her eyes narrowed and she frowned. “What was Dante going to offer you?” she demanded. “What could he give you that I can’t?”

Her questions, for some reason, made me smile. I let the tumbler fall into the shadows; it would be safely taken to the kitchens to be cleaned, before being returned to its shelf, where I likely wouldn’t have need for it again until the next time I brought a sweet young Queen into my chambers.

“That pretender made a few offers,” I replied, crossing the short space between us. Once again, she did not move. Did not flinch away. This time, she lifted her chin so those narrowed, angry eyes could meet mine. “One of those included a choice in whatever female I wanted.”

Confusion filled her expression, but that was quickly replaced with rage. “He was going to trade you a person?”

Through the marking on her arm, I felt a wash of her emotions; anger, disgust, helplessness as she realised she would not do the same. That she could not.

“Yes,” I said bluntly. “Because unlike you, he sees his fellow creatures as pawns. Not as their own person. They do not have agency under him.”

Her throat bobbed as she swallowed. For a brief moment, those dark eyes left mine to take in the glass in her hands. She considered it before bringing the crystal to her lips and swallowed a mouthful of the nectar, squeezing her eyes shut.

I couldn’t take my eyes off her as she let her tongue wet her lips, as she took in the flavour of the mead. Only when her eyes popped open again did I smile. “Enjoy, my Queen?”

She pressed her lips together before shaking her head. “Tastes like honey.” She lowered the glass slowly and sucked in a breath. “Is a female something you want, Damon ?”

I chuckled and rose to my full height. “If I wanted someone to warm my bed, then I would have that. But since taking my position, I gave up the luxury.”

That seemed to surprise her, because her brows rose, and she took a step back. “Then why would he offer that?”

“Because he believes that once he becomes king,” I said, “he will also be able to rule over my kingdom. That he can take my place.”

“Can he?” she asked.

I shrugged. “You said he found a way to take your power. Perhaps we should assume the same for mine.”