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You will. She is your true bride.
Then, Lux’s hands tread onto Neo’s back. I stiffen, insides boiling because his whole countenance changes, warped from that hellish heart inside his chest. His shadow overthrows Nita as he stalks out of the breakfast hall but doesn’t neglect to jab his finger back at Quillion to issue the order, “See to it, Bishop!”
Neo ends the command by throwing a teacup at the vampire, who is still content reading his morning news. Their age-old pattern. but this time, Quillion doesnotcatch the teacup. Instead, he dodges to the side so the teacup shatters against the wall behind him. Neo growls low, nostrils flaring, eyes centering on his closest friend for a few moments, giving me the full awareness that Quillion’s miss was intentional…andsymbolic. As if something between them is broken. Because of me.
Shoulders sinking, I lower my head because I can’t help but blame myself for it all.
“No, sweet angel,” Nita reassures me, either reading my body language or my stray thoughts. She cups my shoulder once Neo has stormed off in a huff. “You are the only one who can save him. Save all of us,” she adds and leans in to kiss my brow.
I fondly rocket a heartful of tiny little stars to twirl around her horns. “You saved him first, Nita.” She saved me in a way, too. My heart warms at my sister’s approval, her alliance.
Behind us, Quillion clears his throat, and I pivot to survey him as he closes his news app, righting his ascot and standing to offer Lux and me his arms. “Lady brides?”
Lux touches my arm. “I meant what I said, Elysia. I do truly want us to become sisters,” she mentions in her lilting soprano, far too flawless of a voice.
I have to refrain from allowing my eyes to wander across the familiar roadmap on her flesh—the bites I still feel every damn day like writhing serpents preying on the shining fortress of my heart. Sometimes, they still squeeze. Neo’s fang mark on our honeymoon was the only exception—the one time I freely allowed a vampire to bite me. Except for Thanatos’ spirit in the tower.
But the Father ensured my honeymoon mark disappeared when he took Neo’s memories. Unfortunately, Thanatos’ sickle mark remains along the back of my neck.
Whether out of pity or logic, I can’t help but soften to Lux. If she is simply the Father’s pawn, then she deserves every mercy I can grant. I don’t have to like her, and I certainly don’t have to trust her. I’ll tread carefully and learn about this new wife. Perhaps Thanatos will be of service later.
I sigh, prepared to open my mouth to make amends when Lux adds, “I empathize with your struggles, Elysia.” Her voice lowers an octave, and her eyes swing to my nether regions. I tense when she throws her arms around my neck and hums in my ear, “Except in my case, Neo’s been making me bleed every day for the past hundred and one of our honeymoon.”
All of me tenses. Nails biting into my sides, I hiss through my clenched teeth. When she feathers a kiss across my astonished parted lips and takes Quillion’s extended arm, I scream inside Nita’s head,I take it all back! She’s the fucking devil in human flesh!
Elysia…Nita’s silver eyes kindle like righteous angel spirits upon mine when she admits, unashamed,we despise!
As the Tenth Court’s high bishop, Quillion escorts Lux and me and serves as a worthy buffer. But my Halo light weaves around his body to nip at Lux’s transparent gown folds. Unfortunately, I find myself on the receiving end when hers don the form of white serpents to coil around my legs and shoot into my sex to bite my sex. My pulse spins. Oh, that scarlet, little strumpet!
Always the perfect gentleman, Quillion acts with grace and dignity and cool composure as I pit my Halo against her faux one. He doesn’t balk at how the flames lick at his tailcoats and singe its ends. Unlike Nita and I, who are adorable plagues, Quillion is simply adorable with his warm mahogany skin, dark and glassy eyes, and forward-fashionista persona, along with his love of trashy romance novels and celebrity gossip—and occasional rainbow-painted wings.
Nita struts ahead of us. Make that Kitty since Nita doesn’t strut.
Déjà vu rears inside me when Quillion escorts us to the highest level of the cavernous and cadaverous, five-leveled Court arena with its sprawling stadium seats, raised outer circle, and inner Court ring. Encompassing the back of the arena, countless pillars, molded of hundreds of vampire bones, teeth, and fangs, form part of the foundation. I appraise Lux’s reaction, but all she has are sweet smiles when she admires the Court of skeletal vampire remains. Apart from the Father statues surrounding the inner circle, where Neo deals his justice in carrying out sentences, everything echoes the Dragon.
Lux takes her esteemed seat in the private viewing box. Like an open oyster shell of skulls and bones, it sits within line of sight of his throne of blood rubies—a throne that is the apex upon a soaring pillar of vampire and human skulls fused with silver blood tech.
Neoptolemus, Prince of Destruction, crouches on his throne—a perfect predator, gaze swooping vulture-like over his Court as always. Unlike Tax Season, he does not wear black diamond armor. Instead, he merely robes his throne in those same unconquerable, labyrinthine shades and flames while his nebulous black cape flows a hundred feet to the floor behind him. At the base of his throne, it pools like burning ink. A single gold diadem graces his head.
My blood warms and heat reddens my cheeks because I can’t deny how gorgeous he is to this day, how his prowess in his Court is a turn-on, as is his clever way of dispensing justice and mercy. Does that sense of justice and mercy exist anymore with this new black heart?
After releasing Lux, Quillion sighs and reluctantly hands me something. I peer down, confused at the transparent lacy birdcage veil. I wrinkle my nose and shake my head. “Not. A. Fucking. Chance.”
As if he senses my rebellion, Neo’s raptor eyes roam to the bone-box. They turn to soft silver mist irises for Lux, who wears her birdcage veil to bar her eyes from all other vampires. His gaze turns brutal as a scythe when I incinerate the little scrap of material with my Halo fire currents.
Only Nita dares to rise to the balcony where she clenches the railing so tightly, her dark knuckles paling to a gray. With her silver-song hair like a thick blade down her back, she makes her disapproval obvious. In return, Neo clenches his steel jaw and presses his lips into a seamless line before curling his upper lip in disgust when he scrutinizes me.
I can take anything he throws at me, Nita.I reassure her, hoping to assuage her concerns.Just like I did before.But I refuse to wear a veil. Just like I refused to wear his ring on my fourth finger. He cannot dictate the terms of what I do withmybody.
You’re not dealing with the same man, sweet angel. This is not the brother I have come to know. This is a machination of our asinine ancestor. He raised you higher, sweet Ezer. Now, he’s determined to save face and bring you to your knees.
Holding up my chin, I approach Nita and step onto the balcony next to her, lighting my fingers on the back of her hand.I wouldn’t be Ezer if I expected you to bail me out all the time. If Neo wants me to pay a price for cracking his crown, then I’ll pay it.
The Hydra Queen sighs and kisses each of my cheeks before she turns a cruel glance at Lux, who only shrugs and flutters a hand to Neo. I bite back an insult but still roll my eyes until his dark shades swell around me. Freezing, I swing my head, my breath catching in my chest, my heart lodging in my dry throat. His swollen pupils are an inch from my face.
I part my lips, freezing at that invasion of space, but Halo dust buds between my thighs. Leaning in, I recognize how I desire nothing more in the world than to kiss that dark, full, and lithe mouth—until he gathers me in his arms, rips the breath from my lungs when he leaps from the balcony and crashes to the ground. A raging fire tears through me when he deposits me in the pool of black ink that is his cape at the very base of his throne. His shadows smother me, debase me. Just as his heart degrades me.
Releasing my waist, Neo grins, cocks his head to the side, and purrs a growl, “Sit, stay, good bride.”
