Page 26 of The Interdimensional Lord's Earthly Delight

“To theirsorrow,” Raz said softly.

Tynan nodded. “That night—I called it the task of many fingers, but it would become the third invocation, the Prayer of the Touch At Last—they blindfolded me, they stripped me nude, they pleasured me until the moment before the suns rose…and then they slew me.”

Nor tucked his chin, grimacing in what seemed like unwilling sympathy. “Oh. Huh. I did not see that coming.”

“Neither did I,” Tynan said wryly. “What with the blindfold and all.”

Raz snorted. “I suppose that’s why you didn’t see they were goddesses?”

Tynan scowled at the duke. “Easy for you to say, since you know the legend after the fact.” He shrugged one shoulder. “In retrospect, itwasrather obvious that they were inordinately beautiful. And probably a bit too accommodating considering what I’dput them through. They were goddesses of antiquity, who are always the least forgiving, you know. The girls I’d rejected so rudely had prayed to them, and they came to judge me for themselves. They tore my heart from my chest and deemed it wanting. As my mortal life ended, they decided that my punishment would be to forever watch others finding their beloveds and yet never touch my own.”

He lookeddown at his hands clenched on his thighs and only with great difficulty forced himself to slide them to the bench beneath him. The cold, hard slab was what he’d deserved.

When he finally glanced up, the other two males were looking not at him but down, as if they too were contemplating their fates in love.

Except when the duke raised his gaze, his dark eyes were hard. He gestured at the devicestrapped to his wrist. “Just received the results of the ident test we ran on the sample we took from you while you were unconscious. It—and the automatic retest—match the Blackworm sample on file with the penitentiary.”

Letting out a short, harsh breath, Nor shook his head. “Really? And I was just about to believe in gods.”

Tynan watched them, struck mute. Was it true? The device had shownhim an image, tested his blood as the goddesses had tested him, and declared him a criminal.

“Nothing to say?” Nor took a menacing step toward the barrier between them. “You had a lot of words just a moment ago.”

Lishelle had accused him of the same. “Would more words change your mind?”

Nor glowered. “I saw you die once. I’d willingly watch it twice.”

Tynan leaned his head back against thewall behind him. “Apparently, it would be the third time.”

Though he sensed the other males filing out, he didn’t bother lifting his head to watch them go. What was he? A foolish young lord of legend? A murderous disgraced nobleman? A god cast out of the Lightlands?

The threads of his being felt strung out, thinning to nothingness as if being sucked into the black hole spinning somewhere outside.Which he suspected might be his fate again if the duke and his brother had their way.

And he wasn’t even sure he would stop them.