Page 31 of The Damned (Coven of Bones #3)

M A R G O T

Beelzebub and I made our rounds, circulating the room and mingling with those who were not otherwise occupied. If it hadn’t been for the sex happening all around us, it might have felt like a formal event.

Like a ball, rather than the free-for-all it was.

“Is it like this every night?” I asked, turning to look up at Beelzebub’s face more fully. I hadn’t wanted to allow myself to look at him, hadn’t wanted to see his rough, handsome features in the dim lighting. The red lights did something to his eyes, turning them molten as I met his gaze.

“I can’t say that I’ve spent a great amount of time here.

From what I’ve seen, this is a bit grander than is typical,” he answered, surprising me into a moment of thought.

I knew enough to know that the circles all existed within Hell, but outside of Lucifer’s influence over them all, they largely functioned independently in the same way the Covenant ruled over the Coven, but each head of family was responsible for their own line.

In this place, that knowledge seemed to matter so much less.

It seemed natural to have Asmodeus in charge of all this, while Beelzebub somehow didn’t belong here.

It was like handing a Red witch a crystal; sure, it was pretty, but their connection to its magic wasn’t the same.

He watched some of the couples with rapt fixation, but there wasn’t the same hunger in him that I saw in others around us. There wasn’t the same hunger in him that I felt in me.

We strolled in a moment of silence, and I wondered how much longer we would need to remain downstairs before I could retreat to the privacy of a bedroom.

Before I could separate from Beelzebub and the danger he presented to me under normal circumstances, let alone with Asmodeus’s magic coating my skin and making mine rise to the surface.

I felt like I might come out of my skin, like the heat pooling between my thighs would drive me to make a mistake I would very much regret come morning.

“Come with me,” Beelzebub said, guiding me toward the double doors that led to that patio that overlooked the cliffs.

In the distance, the hillside was stained with blood, the imagery sobering some of my desire.

It felt wrong to say it was a welcome sight, but it was the one I’d needed in that moment—a stark reminder of what waited for me if I failed to move past the Second Circle.

Beelzebub pulled his wing back, leaving me feeling suddenly cold as he leaned forward onto the railing and crossed his arms over each other. His head hung forward, his chest moving with slow, deep breaths.

“Are you alright?” I asked, mimicking his stance. I didn’t lean as much as he did, worried about the length of my dress and what it might lay bare. Particularly given that there was no underwear to shield me from view.

“He’s trying to decide how to tell you that you will be required to partake in the festivities if you wish to leave,” Asmodeus said, emerging through the doorway behind us.

“Impeccable timing as ever,” Beelzebub groaned, raising a hand to pinch the bridge of his nose. “And also untrue at that. She doesn’t have to partake in the festivities.”

Asmodeus rolled his eyes as I turned to face him. “You must give something to the magic of lust to show you are in control of your sin if you wish to leave. He is correct in his assertion that it needn’t happen at the party. It could also happen behind closed doors if you wish it.”

“But surely abstaining from my so-called sin is all the evidence needed to show I am in control. What greater control can there be?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest as Asmodeus’s attention dropped to my breasts.

“Abstaining implies you are afraid of it. It implies you do not trust your self-control to put it to the test, and that means that you belong here. With me and mine,” he said, sweeping a hand behind him to the party still going inside.

“Amelia is fond of you and has requested I make space for you within the manor. So long as she remains so, you will be allowed to reside here with us. You need not fear the cliffs. It is a far better life than most can hope for here.”

I swallowed, turning a venomous glare back at Beelzebub. “You knew about this? You knew what I would have to do to pass through?” The hurt that built in me shoved all arousal out of my system. He knew enough of my history to know why this was impossible. He’d said to trust him, that he had a plan.

I’d been dumb enough to believe him.

“I thought an exception could be made given that you are still alive, songbird. I didn’t know he would hold you to this ridiculous fucking notion, and I thought he may allow me to pay your debt,” he said, reaching for me.

I sidestepped the grasp, shaking my head as I retreated back into the party.

Amelia waited just within the doors, staring at me as if she knew exactly where the reality would push me.

She was the only other familiar face, the only one I could even hope would be honest with me.

“What do you need?” she asked, her voice soft.

“Distract him,” I said, whispering the words as I retreated from him.

I knew enough of lust, and from my time with the friend who would take this as a challenge, the beginning of a plan had started to form in my mind.

It couldn’t only be my lust that would satisfy the requirement, couldn’t only be my body that would satiate it.

When Beelzebub stormed through the doors after me, I glared at him, clearing my throat so he would hear it as a low hum building.

I let it loose for a moment, watching him go still as his eyes widened.

The magic clawed its way up my throat with sharpened talons, feeling as if it would tear me open from the inside in its desperation to be free.

I pushed through it, sinking into the spell that I laced around the hum in my throat.

But this song wasn’t meant for him. It wasn’t an outpouring of emotion that would call to anyone nearby, but a specific, directed call I hummed to attract women alone.

It was higher pitched than the song I would have used for men, more sweet than seductive, but it was pleasing all the same as the four women closest to me closed ranks and approached.

“Songbird,” Beelzebub said, watching as I turned my attention to Amelia, touching a gentle finger to the closest woman’s cheek.

“Not me, darling.” The woman’s brow furrowed as she followed my gaze to Beelzebub, tracking up over his muscular frame like he was something to be devoured.

My guilt was immediate, knowing that I would have never turned my magic on anyone and used it to trap them under any normal circumstances.

But the hurt that pulsed through me felt more potent than normal, rage simmering alongside my own lust and the lust of those around me.

The woman I’d bespelled wanted him, desired him as her eyes trailed over his form.

I could feel that hint of attraction within her, feel it pulsing under the spell.

“ Him, ” I said, ushering the command that made Beelzebub’s mouth drop open in shock.

The woman left my side to do as my magic demanded, making her way to Beelzebub with swaying hips.

This magic, this power that danced at my fingertips, was exactly why I didn’t allow myself to use it. No one should be able to command free will and the sexuality of others like this. It was monstrous.

I didn’t allow myself to read into him, to look for signs that he may or may not find her attractive. I didn’t want to unpack why the notion that he might desire her left me feeling devastated and numb, making a hollow form in my gut.

“ Margot, ” Beelzebub muttered, holding out an arm to keep the first woman away from him. She stroked a finger up his chest, a teasing touch that made that hollowness fully settle in my belly. It stung like hurt, which made no sense given it was my own doing.

“See that the Lord of Flies finds an outlet to satisfy himself for the evening,” I said to Amelia, glancing down at the bulge that had long since formed in his pants.

He’d been aroused since the moment I descended the stairs, doing his best to control it for my benefit and doing everything he could to shield it from my view.

He’d taken the effort to make me comfortable with him, even though he had to be uncomfortable himself.

It wasn’t fair to expect him to abstain, too, given there were plenty of partners who would be willing to help him alleviate the pressure in ways I couldn’t do.

I wouldn’t do. Not with him.

I turned my back on him, making my way through the crowd that had formed to watch as he tried to keep the woman’s hands off him.

Without casting a glance for who I grabbed, I snagged the closest hand on my path away from him.

A man laughed at my side, closing his fingers around mine as I guided him to Amelia’s room.

I had to hope she wouldn’t mind what I was about to do, but I somehow suspected that her room had seen far more illicit acts than what I would be capable of doing.

We hurried up the stairs, and I guided him into the room.

Closing the door behind me, I turned for the first time to face the man I’d grabbed.

He was handsome enough, blond and nearly shirtless, with gleaming muscles like the surfers from California.

His was a much leaner build than Beelzebub’s and I shook off the impending comparisons of things I couldn’t want.

“Do you want me?” I asked, watching as his head jerked back.

He reached out, attempting to touch my cheek as I flinched away. “What’s your name, pretty?”

“Margot. Now, do you fucking want me?” I asked, my patience reaching its limit. I needed consent before I did this, needed to know I wasn’t taking from this poor soul in a way that would be a violation. I needed to finish here, to go witness the end of Beelzebub’s…

I couldn’t even think the words without vomit rising in my throat, and I hated that I cared.

Hated that he’d gotten under my skin when he’d never consented to this attraction.

I’d stripped the most valuable thing he had from him, forcing him to want me when otherwise he might have just allowed me to rot in Hell.

I needed to see him with the woman he chose. Needed to watch him fuck her so I could erase this irrational need from my mind and remind myself that attraction was just lust. That any person could fill the void, and that whatever Beelzebub felt for me wasn’t special.

It was just a spell, and he was surrounded by the spell of lust while we lingered in the Second Circle.

“Yes, I want you,” the man said with a chuckle. “But that will be hard to act on if you don’t let me touch you.”

“Do you consent to me getting you off?” I asked, strategizing my way around having to let him touch me.

I planned to simply plant a vision in his mind, to utilize the magic of dreams that was so difficult to access.

It would cost me a great deal of energy, but the alternative of touching him wasn’t something I was prepared to give.

“Sure,” the man said with a chuckle as I pointed to the same chair I’d occupied when Amelia readied me for the night. There’d been a reason she encouraged me to sink into my magic, to let myself feel arousal and pleasure. I dragged it away from the vanity, placing it in the center of the room.

She’d known damn well I wouldn’t be able to leave here if I couldn’t find a way to tolerate using my magic, but she’d given me ways to do that.

Willow would never have allowed herself to be trapped in a situation where she was powerless, not without fighting back and doing everything she could to outsmart the system.

To use brute magic to fight her way through it if she needed to.

My magic didn’t work in the same way, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t use it to my advantage.

The man I intended to use to do just that sat on the chair I’d gestured to, spreading his legs as if he intended for me to kneel between them.

I scowled, swallowing as my tongue felt thick with disgust. “Take off your shirt,” I ordered, turning to the curtains hanging from the windows.

This room had an unobstructed view of the cliffs, the very threat that hung over my head waiting to claim me when I eventually died.

I tore the golden rope from where it tied the curtains back, rending the fabric as I spun back to tie my chosen participant to the chair, putting myself in the position of power I needed to make this work.

I needed to know he couldn’t touch me, couldn’t hurt me for me to be willing to lose my magic, to drive his need higher and higher until he became a plaything for the Second Circle, feeding the offering it required of me.

The door slammed open, Beelzebub’s stormy face filling the doorway.

His chest was covered in shallow scratches, his eyes murderous as he took a few steps into the room and surveyed the situation.

The rope held in my hand felt suddenly heavy under the weight of that gaze, but it turned away from me just as quickly.

His steps took him to the center of the room quickly, not even giving me time to shout a warning as he grasped either side of the man’s head in his hands.

He’d turned to look at Beelzebub over his shoulder, staring his death in the face as the archdemon twisted his head sharply to the side, the resounding crack filling the room as I dropped the rope to the floor and scrambled forward.

The corpse swayed to the side, toppling off the chair and falling with blank, unseeing eyes as it stared up at me, twisted at the neck to face the wrong direction entirely as I swallowed the vomit threatening to rise up my throat.

“What is wrong with you?” I asked, the shrill sound of my voice bringing Amelia to the door.

She stared at the body on her bedroom floor, a grin of absolute glee spreading over her face.

She leaned into the doorway, crossing her arms over her chest as she surveyed us.

“This is about to get very entertaining,” she said, earning a glare from Beelzebub as he spun to stalk to the door.

He gave Amelia a gentle push, swinging the door closed in her face as I gaped at him.

When he turned back to look at me over his shoulder, I couldn’t breathe.

“Tell me, songbird,” he said, twisting his body to stroll toward me, feigning a casual ease we both knew was fake. I backed away, wincing when he took the other man’s place on the chair, kicking the body to the side with a disgruntled sneer. “What exactly were you planning to give him?”