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“It's time for the finale,” Reyes explained with a cold smile.
Every man in the room that wasn’t tied to another—and even some that were—had their eyes trained on the stage. I studied the women, noting how miserable they appeared.
“Are they in…? What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I hissed.
“As a rare show of charity, our king has offered up two young, healthy demis for the taking!” the lycan’s voice boomed.
“Reyes... no,” I breathed out in horror at what he was about to do.
“I always feel it necessary to give back to the supes that support me.” He ignored me, lazily explaining his logic.
“You cannot do this to them,” I seethed loud enough to draw a few curious stares.
“Are you ready?” the lycan called out, pulling my attention back to the stage.
I tried once more to get Reyes’ attention.
A bell rang, and all hell broke loose as the crowd went wild. Bodies began dropping; throats were torn open, bones were broken, and lives viciously snuffed out, all to get to one of the terrified women in the center of the bloody stage.
I looked away. The sounds piercing the dark sky were everything from laughter to moans of agony. Reyes watched all of it with a pleased look upon his face, as did his brothers.
The women were finally claimed and carried off to be fucked for days on end by their new partners.
This had to be where the rumors Toby had heard came from. The ones where demis were forced to be sex slaves beneath the roofs of honorless brutes.
If Reyes did this every week, that was nearly eight demis a month.
The stage now coated in blood, limbs, and glassy-eyed bodies began being cleaned as everyone filed out of the room.
We’d taken one step forward—a baby step, but a step nonetheless—just to revert to square one.
I placed myself inside the shower, turned the water to warm, and settled on the stone ottoman inside.
I placed my head in my hands and closed my eyes, fighting the raging storm inside me. “Remember your duty,” I repeated to myself.
Words were always so much easier to say than to act on. It would have been all too easy to fuck my duty and fall apart, give into despair…to let Reyes do as he wished and be the obedient queen who stood by him.
But that wasn’t me.
It had never been.
I couldn’t let this go, even with things looking worse and worse for me. There was this inexplicable thing inside me demanding I regain control over what was rightfully mine.
Shoving fingers through wet hair, I rose from the ottoman and grabbed my body wash, lathering it onto my cloth.
I scrubbed my skin, wishing I could clean all I’d just witnessed from my brain.
What I wished even more was that the mark coiling down one side of my body like a venomous snake wasn’t so dark in color.
With every touch, every kiss, every lingering look, I’d tossed another stone away from the pile of rocks I’d built up around my heart. I’d tossed them away for a creature that would have been devastatingly beautiful as a prince but was painfully cruel as a king.
I knew I should never have gotten rid of them in the first place. How many pep talks had I given myself since being here?
This was a region overpopulated with the corrupt and savage. They had no rules or structure other than to not challenge their king and to be loyal to his reign. I didn’t fit the mold.
With still no idea what this diabolical man was planning, I was beginning to think it would be better all-around if Purgatory were not under Reyes' thumb.
The only way to ensure that was to go against him entirely. To up the ante. Overthrow the king and crown myself in his place.
~15~
I didn’t expect to see him when I stepped into the room.
He’d gone to the banquet hall directly after the reckonings, leaving Dylan to escort me. He was there, though, sitting in his chair by the fireplace.
“What if I didn’t come back?” I asked him, referring to the injection that had killed so many of my kind.
The pause was so long, I thought he might not know what I was talking about. I’d just opened my mouth to tell him when he replied.
“Well, then you’d be dead,” he responded matter-of-factly.
“I’d be dead,” I parroted, making my way to the bed, fuming. “You have a shitty idea of what it means to worship. I’m not sure repulsing me fits that definition.”
“Repulsion.” He rolled the word off his tongue as if it were the first time he’d ever heard it.
Ignoring him, I pulled the comforter down and climbed up onto my side of the mattress. Before I could even get comfortable, he was standing on his side, staring down at me.
