“TOMORROW?” Her eyes widened. “But I thought he said you had until the end of October.”
“The bastard seems to have changed his mind,” he seethed, gripping the counter as his knuckles went white. “I can’t refuse him.”
“Can’t you postpone? Surely, if you explained about the war with Ares, and the threat it represents to Scorpios, he would let you have a bit more time here. You’re the Dux, after all.” Her voice was hopeful. She touched his arm and felt the muscle flex under her fingers.
“No, I can’t.” His voice held an edge, an edge that could slice someone in half if they stirred the beast. “The king calls, you go, no questions asked. You drop everything.”
Molly shook her head, rubbing a finger along her forehead. She eyed him as he grumbled under his breath and angrily undid his cuffs. She sucked at her teeth.
He had been strong for her, and now her king needed her to be his strength.
“Then we’ll go together,” she told him.
Tensley’s head whipped around to gawk at her. “Definitely not.”
She glared back at him. “And why not?”
He growled, yanking at his tie and popping open the top button. “Because it’s too risky. You’d be right under Fallen’s thumb, and if he sensed you were pregnant, if he even took a wild guess, I wouldn’t be able to protect you.”
She sucked in a deep breath, understanding his worry, but she wasn’t going to wait around. “Tensley, I’m going with you.”
He half-turned, a warning in his tone. “Molly—”
“No,” she bit back, her nostrils flaring, the icy burn behind her eyes a telling sign her powers were aching to release. “Tensley, don’t you see it? We’re stronger together. All the time we wasted fighting this, fighting each other, we could have been so strong, so unstoppable. This time—we can fight together. I’m done fighting what we could be. What we should be.”
She saw his jaw unlock, his fisted hand flex out one finger at a time, and the way his muscles melted.
“Molly,” he said, softly, his eyes weak, but still a hard glint to them. A concern.
“You know I’m right.” She blinked back the wetness and turned, not wanting him to see how damned emotional she was. Ugh, raging hormones. “I need a shower.”
She padded back to their bedroom, pulling her t-shirt over her head and wiggling out of her skirt, entering the sleek bathroom.
She stretched her arms above her head before she entered the hot spray. It burned, but she needed the warmth, the heat to relax. She needed to be calm. For him, for her, for the baby.
She let the hot water run down her front, eyes closed as she tried to regain control over her chaotic emotions.
Deep breaths.
One.
Two.
Three.
Fo—
Two large hands spread across her lower belly, pulling her flat against his front.
She breathed out shakily.
His own breath blew against the nape of her neck, and he pressed a kiss there, then to her mark, making her moan.
“My instinct is to protect you,” he whispered against her earlobe. “I’m sorry I sometimes forget my dolcezza has claws and venom of her own.”
She looked down at his large hands, tanned and rough, but all hers. Against her pale skin.
“We’ll fight, side by side, sleep side by side, and destroy anyone who threatens us,” he hissed, his hands bringing her flush against him.
She bit back a moan, and his hand rose to her chin, slowly turning her to face him.
She blinked her water-beaded lashes at the god, tips of his hair soaked and his skin gleaming. Warm streams caressed her curves and left his chest looking glossy. The water made his muscles look even more pronounced, and she couldn’t help but purr in delight.
She kissed his upper chest, her hand smoothing up to where his heart beat rapidly. Her iron heart.
“Together.” She promised him.
And she kissed the beast.
TENSLEY squeezed Molly’s hip, pressing her close to him as Seto stood before them.
He wasn’t alone.
Three more guards, cloaked in black robes, stood behind Seto.
His office felt too cramped, too dark as the sunset cast shadows across the wall and his desk.
He dared one of the men to glance at Molly, but none of them looked at anyone. Their gazes stayed to the hardwood floors, an impassive expression on their weathered faces.
“Why did Lord Fallen send you to take us?” Tensley asked.
Seto glanced at Molly for one second too long, and then back at Tensley. “He wanted a soldier he could trust to safely deliver you to court,” Seto explained, and he lifted his hand until one of the guards laid two black cloaks in it. “Lord Fallen advised that you wear these.”
“Why?” Molly frowned at his hands.
“Because he wants you to fit into our society. That,” Seto said, his eyes dropping to Molly’s pink flowy dress, “does not fit into Fallen’s dress code.”
Molly chewed on her lip, nodding.
He handed the hooded garments over, and Tensley took both of them, spreading a cloak over Molly’s small frame. She smiled shakily up at him as she clipped the cloak together below her throat.
Tensley shrugged his cloak on but didn’t bother clipping it. It flowed around his feet, just over the floor, a cloud of darkness.
He returned his attention to Seto, who watched them silently.
“Ready?” His clipped tone irritated Tensley. He didn’t want Molly more nervous than she already was. She spent the whole night tossing and mumbling in his arms, and even woke before him.
Tensley nodded curtly.
Seto flicked his wrist, and one guard produced a long, curving dagger from his cloak and faced the window.
Words spat out of Seto’s mouth, fast and vicious, foreign to Tensley’s ears.
But that would mean Tensley and Molly wouldn’t be able to leave whenever they liked. They’d have to depend on someone to let them go.
That did not sit well in Tensley’s gut.
The dagger hummed so low he wondered if Molly could hear it. Seto sliced the dagger slowly through the air, a wavering shimmer, and soon, Tensley noted a hole gaping through of a dark view of fresh grass and woods.
Molly’s hand clenched his, and he squeezed back.
One guard led, strolling through the hole, edges glowing and sparking. Seto then gestured for Molly and him to go ahead.
Tensley straightened and walked toward the hole, Molly matching his steps.
“Don’t touch the edge. It’ll scorch you to the bone,” Seto warned. Tensley knew the bastard was smiling.
Molly snuggled closer to his side, and they stepped through—into the dusk, into the lawn of dark blue grass.
Fireflies blinked in and out around them, filling the darkening night sky as if the frostbite of the first cold night hadn’t touched Babylon. A long warm summer, a cool autumn, a snowy winter, and a refreshing spring of tulips.
Up ahead stood the castle, a statue of destruction and beauty—Lord Fallen’s High Court.
Seto recited again in a foreign language and closed the hole with the same dagger.
“Just a bit further,” Seto announced, stepping around them and up the dirt path. The path was lined with large trees full of lush green leaves, and they towered over the path as a shield, a shelter from the weather.
“I wish I had brought those books,” Molly whispered as they walked closer to the castle, stone off-white, hidden by rich green ivy consuming it.
He smirked. She had spent the entire day reading books from his office about High Court, trying to absorb as much knowledge as possible before they left.
“Don’t worry,” he hushed. “You have me.”
Neither of them spoke the rest of the walk, both focused on steeling their expression and postures. They were about to enter a court of beasts, and the last thing they needed was to smell of fear.
The closer they got, the more Tensley’s stomach dropped. He had seen photographs of High Court, heard tales and warnings, but seeing it for himself was entirely different.
It was sculpted like a cathedral, three large towers, such complex architecture, and a carved sun at the very middle.
A holy place of the King, of their society, and he was about to march Molly into the heart of chaos.
A ten-foot tall gate of iron, designed to tell the story of Fallen’s road to becoming king, detailed between the bars.
Seto pulled down his hood and spoke to another man on the other side of the gate, and soon, it opened, letting them pass into the central courtyard of cobblestones.
Laughter filled the area from the entrance to the house.
Tensley straightened his posture and gave one last glance down at Molly, a warning.
She nodded.
They walked toward the front entrance. French doors fully opened to let in the cool night air into the packed room.
A room full of high-class demons of the powerful families of High Court. Tensley flexed his fingers in Molly’s hand, tugging her closer as they stepped into the ballroom, flooded by large gowns and black suits, a toast to the late 1800s.
Tensley had heard of Fallen’s obsession with the human era of the 1800s. He loved their society. He loved their strict but sexual flirting fashion. He molded his court to reflect that like his own fantasy of modesty and sin.
What the king wanted, his court gave him.
Tensley didn’t cower though. His blood was highborn, and with the daemon beside him, he was a god of destruction.
A few stopped to glance at them, and he challenged them with a hard stare.
He wouldn’t flinch, he wouldn’t sweat a drop, and he wouldn’t back down.
Fallen wanted him?
He’d show them the beast.
Teeth and all.
Seto guided them into another room, the dining hall and shouts of pure delight rang in his ears.
The last thing Tensley expected to see were two men, bare-chested and wrestling in the midst a gold circle on the floor.
Women in the room wore crowns of lilies painted gold and men wore wreaths of evergreen on their heads, an odd sight with their tailored black suits.
Gold paint glimmered off the wrestlers’ skin, an image of a shimmering god, to catch the eye of the sun. Both were hairless, black tattoos lining their scalps instead, their pledge to serve the court and the crown. Tensley glanced at Seto—the man was the king’s guard, but he too had the tattoos hidden beneath his dark mane.
“To honor the harvest and the sun god, Sonolios. To give thanks to the summer and welcome the coming darkness. The union of the sun and night,” Seto explained at Molly’s scowl. “Both men are lower-class, chosen to prove their worthiness of defending the crown. This is their only chance of doing an honorable job for them. If they lose, they’ll be cast out in the forests outside the castle gates.”
Fallen had fucking invited him to the Fall Solstice.
One punch to the stomach, the other groaned, retorting with a fist to a man’s jaw, blood splattering across the ground.
Men and women sat at long tables cheering at the entertainment.
The wrestlers were crazed, driven by the need to please Fallen, to earn his approval to be accepted into his army.
More growls, more blood splatter, until one of the men roared, shoving his opponent out of the ring.
He panted, raising his hands above his head, praising the sun god.
The fallen man spat blood onto the marble floor and sneered at the winner. Soldiers grabbed his arms and in the midst of the chaos, escorted him out.
“Present yourself, boy,” Fallen’s voice interrupted the cheers, and Tensley followed where it came from.
Perched on his high throne at the head of the hall, a crown of gold and vicious thorns, one that legends had said he’d murdered traitors with, he beckoned the man to come forward.
“King,” the man panted, dropping to his shaking knees.
“With the sun god’s blessing, I welcome you to my army. To be loyal to me and only me—the crown, the court, comes before all else. Your life, your duty belongs to the court. You will claim no maiden and sire no young. Pledge to me.”
“I pledge to serve the crown and the court and give my life every sun and every moon I see,” he said, bowing his head.
Fallen smiled slowly at that. He gestured for a guard dressed in golden glimmering armor, and he grabbed the youth. “The sun god blesses you with strength and power in the victory. You will no longer remember your name, your family. You are my army.”
The man nodded and was taken away by the guard—beaten, bruised, bloody, but proud.
Seto marched them up to a long table at the back of the room where Fallen sat in the midst of laughing at what another member had said.
Seto stopped in front of the table, legs far apart and a hand held behind his back, bowing low. “Lord Fallen,” he began, and Fallen’s eyes dragged to him. “Your guests have arrived.”
Fallen turned to see Tensley, and his eyes lit up when he caught sight of Molly beside him. “You brought the daemon.”
A few people at the table stared and leaned to whisper to another.
Tensley rolled his shoulders back. “Lord Fallen.” He bowed his head.
“You came for the perfect night,” Fallen said as if he hadn’t been the one to request their presence for that very night. Tensley flashed his teeth, but his attention was still on Molly. “The Fall Solstice. We just finished a delicious feast of boars caught within my forests and fish in my stream. Such a shame you didn’t come earlier.” He clicked his tongue and stood. “But the celebrations have just begun!”
“Lord Fallen,” a sensual voice spoke behind him. Tensley glanced over his shoulder to see the queen—large curls of strawberry blonde hair rained down her neck, her dress fitting to her curves, and red lips that smirked with each word she spoke. “I don’t think I’ve had the pleasure of meeting your guests.”
She lifted her hand, waiting for Tensley to take it and kiss it—a tradition when presented to the queen.
But Tensley simply took her hand and bowed, his hard stare challenging hers.
Her smile twitched, and she turned to face Molly beside him. “And you, you, my darling…are the daemon everyone has been gossiping about. Hm?” She touched Molly’s blonde curls, testing the silkiness between her fingers, and Molly’s mouth twisted. She looked ready to snap at her. “Ah, that mark of his.” Fallen and the rest of the members close by all gawked at Molly’s neck, Tensley’s collar visible to all the highborns. They knew he claimed her and that made his beast roar inside of him with pride. Then Lilith stepped closer, a gasp of shock leaving Molly’s mouth as Lilith tilted her head so she could gaze directly into her eyes. “And those eyes—beautiful weapons.”
Molly took one deep breath and rolled her shoulders back. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Lady Lilith.”
Lilith froze, but she laughed. “Aren’t you charming?” Her eyes scanned both of them, frowning at their cloaks. “This just won’t do though. If you come to High Court, you must dress for the occasion.” She grabbed Molly’s hand, yanking her with her. “Come. I’ll dress you appropriately.”
Molly swallowed and glanced back at Tensley.
He stood like a statue and fought against yanking her back into his arms. He nodded.
And just like that, he let her go into the court of beasts.