THE THREE OF them stood in front of their king in his quarters, his fingers drumming on his gold armrest of serpents circling around the feet of the chair.
Guards flanked each side of Fallen, stone-faced, spears clasped in their iron fists.
“First, you disobey my command to stay in my kingdom,” Fallen said, shifting in his seat, his features drawn into an ugly scowl. “Then you release my prisoner—one who dishonored his court and his crown.” He tsked, shaking his head. “My patience is wearing thin, Mr. Knight. Very thin.”
Tensley worked his jaw, the fiery urge to snap back and the need to return home weighing heavy in his chest. “You know why I need to leave, Lord Fallen. My people are dying back in New York.”
“Your people,” Fallen said, the sound of his bitter laugh scratching along the stone walls of the great room. “I’m afraid you forget who you are talking to, Mr. Knight. There is no such thing as your people—they are mine. All of them. You are nothing but a simple Dux, where I am King. They are my people, and I am letting them die.” He seethed, his own rage barely contained.
Tensley had never seen the king so near to losing control, at least not with his own eyes. He had only heard of it, in tales of the king’s unrivaled rage. And he wondered if the king’s tight leash on his own control was failing because he was afraid of the Dux.
Of what Tensley was capable of.
The prince had strongly believed Tensley had the power to take him down, after all. Perhaps, the king was starting to believe the same.
As much as Tensley wanted to snap back with his own boiling rage, he didn’t. He couldn’t lose it. Not yet, not now. This was a crucial moment, and he needed to tread carefully or both Molly and he would end up dead before he could ever say ‘please don’t.’
Fallen turned his attention to Seto, bound in chains on his ankles and wrists, a caged animal. The chains were so heavy they weighed Seto’s hands to his groin, and he struggled to keep himself from dropping. He was probably weakened by the lack of food and water since his imprisonment.
“Your whore begged for you before she wilted,” Fallen said, his eyes curving at the pleasure of watching Seto grow wild. “Such a delicate little flower she was on the outside. But such a debauched, filthy little slut she was on the inside. She tried to give you something that was never hers to give, to begin with. She only got what she deserved.”
Seto snarled, but he couldn’t move.
“Where is your gratitude to your king, bastard,” Fallen roared as he spat on Seto’s bare, blackened feet. “I raised you. When your own father abandoned you, I cared for you. If it had not been for me, you would have been dead long before today,” Fallen hissed at him. “An orphan, a forgotten, unwanted boy. I gave you power, prestige. And what do you give me in return? Nothing. You betrayed me. You betrayed my court and my authority.”
Seto scowled at Fallen but refused to speak.
Fallen shook his head and eyed Molly and Tensley. “I have grown tired of your corruption over my court. And I have grown tired of your pitiful attempts at making a fool out of your king. You will be punished for disobeying me,” he snapped, his dark, fuming eyes burning into Tensley’s. He held his ground, unmoving. But when Fallen’s eyes suddenly slid to the side, hovering over the small form of his wife, Tensley couldn’t suppress the vicious shiver that attacked his body. He grabbed Molly’s hand tightly into his own. It was clear Fallen hadn’t missed the movement when a monstrous smile slowly took place over his lips. “For believing that you have any sort of control over my people. For believing you own something that is mine, and mine alone, perhaps I should have my initials carved in your wife’s flesh. As a reminder.”
Tensley glowered at the king, stepping in front of Molly. “You won’t touch her.”
“Oh?” Fallen’s brow hiked high to his hairline. A sinister grin warped his features into something inhuman. “Giving his king orders now, are you? You should know better, Mr. Knight. That only tempts me more,” he said, the evil glint in his eyes now full blown. He turned toward one of his guards and flicked his finger in Molly’s direction. “Bring her forward.”
Tensley roared as he yanked Molly into his chest before any guard could touch her.
Fallen’s features darkened even more. “Do not dare disobey me more than you already have. Bring her here now,” he said. His head tilted to the side dangerously. “Or would you rather the punishment be more severe? I am a man of great power, Mr. Knight. I can do far worse than carve my initials in one’s flesh.”
Molly shuddered in his tight grip, but she glared at the guards surrounding them.
“You won’t touch her,” Tensley hissed, the beast within him growling wildly.
“I am your king!” Fallen shouted, the veins in his neck visible and throbbing. The dark lord who had once ripped out the heart of the woman he loved out of rage now staring back at them.
Tensley needed to weaken the king. To make him feel vulnerable and exposed in front of his court. If he could prove to the court that their king was weak, maybe then he’d manage to be freed.
“You are a king who once loved a human,” Tensley snapped back, watching Fallen’s features for any change in his demeanor, but there was none. “According to your own rules and laws, you are nothing but a weak demon. A man who should be shamed based on our society standards. A man who doesn’t deserve our respect.”
Tensley looked into Molly’s eyes briefly, and she nodded softly, understanding what he was trying to do.
She spoke for the first time since they had been brought to this room, her voice strong and loud—the voice of the daemon. The voice of a woman who could take down a king, if only she desired. “All of these people,” she began, her eyes, moving slowly across each member of the court present in the room. “All of these resilient, hardened warriors,” she continued, her gaze then moving from warrior to warrior. “They have worked and earned the respect of this court. These warriors gave up everything they had and everyone they cared about, for a position in this court. But for what? A tyrant who fell for a human? Who let her control him? A man who gave up his own world for simple beauty, too blinded by love to notice the beauty was only playing him, waiting for the right opportunity to strike and betray? According to this ridiculous court, are women not seen as lesser than men, Lord Fallen? Then doesn’t it make you a lesser man for falling for one?” she spat, her eyes shining brightly. “They deserve a better man as their king. A man who is capable and strong.”
Fallen’s nostrils flared, and he blinked rapidly, his other hands fisting. “Do not speak of her in my presence.”
“I know why you created all of these rules, Lord Fallen,” Molly said as if the king hadn’t uttered a single word. “It’s because you are deathly afraid. You are afraid of men challenging you, dethroning you. But most importantly, you are afraid of women. You are afraid of what they can supposedly do to men. Tempt them, ensnare them, manipulate them, and then betray them. Like your little princess did. You are nothing but a fool who never got over his broken little heart. What a great king you make, indeed.”
Fallen’s brow wrinkled. “How dare you, you little—” he began, rising from his throne, his entire body now shaking with red-hot anger, but she stopped him by raising her hand. Tensley grabbed Molly’s arm out of reflex, partly to be ready in case he needed to shield her from the king’s attack, partly to let her know she needed to take it down a notch before all hell broke loose around them. He could see the people around them starting to whisper to each other, and the guards in the room were starting to look uneasy.
“But you know what is even less surprising, King,” she continued, spitting the last word like it tasted bitter in her mouth.
“You were right to fear the people around you. Not only did your little princess betray you, but your own wife also tried to betray you. She has been scheming behind your back all along. Your own son, the prince, has tried time again to betray you. Your best guard has betrayed your authority for a woman. Even we,” she said, looking briefly at Tensley with a soft, confident smile. “Have tried to betray you because we don’t believe in your power over us. And I’m sure this is only the beginning. Many more will eventually betray you because your biggest mistake was to believe you are playing all of us when, in reality, we are all playing you.”
A dead silence filled the throne room, and Molly refused to look away from the red-faced king.
“Leave us,” Fallen commanded the guards, and each guard backed off, taking Seto with them, leaving the room. “Leave us all.”
Tensley rubbed Molly’s hip and stared at the king’s bowed head in frustration, his crown, lacing his hair, tilted at the angle.
Silence.
Unbearable fucking silence.
“Let us go now, and we will never return,” she began, unaffected by the king’s silence. “But keep us here, and I promise, Lord Fallen, that I will raise hell in this castle before you can even try to kill either me or my husband.”
Fallen rubbed at his mouth and coughed, and Tensley watched as the king’s hand shook.
Suddenly, a high, vicious laugh escaped from Fallen’s throat, the sound making Tensley’s skin crawl. “Oh, but were you trying to make me feel weak, little daemon? I see you believed you had gotten to me,” he said, a false rueful smile twisting his lips. “I’m afraid you’ve mistaken me for a man I am not,” he whispered mockingly, a manicured hand to the side of his mouth. “You were right. I have been a fool once, in another era. But that man ceased to exist long, long ago. In his place, a monster was born, and that monster learned from his mistakes. He memorized the smell of betrayal so he would never be fooled again. I do not fear the members of my court or even my own wife. I sensed their betrayal just as strongly as I sensed the weapon you are carrying in your womb, daemon.”
All the warmth left Tensley’s body at Fallen’s words.
Tensley tugged Molly closer, feeling her heart race, and she gripped his sleeve. Her breaths came fast, uneven as panic set in.
Fallen lifted his head, a wicked grin that sent chills down Tensley’s spine.
The bastard knew.
The bastard knew about the baby.
“Were you pregnant when you murdered Pearce, hmm?”
Every single nerve-ending in Tensley’s body vibrated in pain and terror.
Tensley could feel Molly trembling against him, feel her nails dig deeper, hear the pitter-patter of her heart.
“Such an offense is punishable by death in my court since you aren’t a demon,” Fallen continued, supplying as if a tiny, minuscule detail. Fallen let his light brown hair shadow his face as he leaned forward, the leather cracking beneath him. “And since you disobeyed me, Tensley—our bargain is useless now.” He chuckled, revolting to his ears.
Fuck no. He clenched his jaw. The bargain that insured Molly’s safety.
Fallen stared her down, his face entirely neutral as his fingers drummed on the arm of the chair. Thump, thump, thump.
“Hmmm,” he said, tapping his long polished nail on his mouth. “As a non-demon, you’d be sentenced to life imprisonment or death. Most likely death as the High Court does not favor humans.” A dark, sinister laugh crept from his dark mouth. “But as a daemon, we could not let your potential go to waste. No, no. You’d be punished by serving in the High Court, by my side. No title, no power, but a slave to us. How fitting.”
Molly’s shoulders stiffened, and Tensley reached for her, pulling her behind him. “No,” he said sternly, leaving no room for argument. “I’ll take her punishment.”
Fallen lifted a thin brow. “You would risk your life for hers. Did you not want to return to New York to help your people? Is she really worth more than hundreds of innocent people?”
“As if you were planning to let me leave this place alive,” Tensley said, not playing into the king’s trap. He had wanted to have Tensley admit how he felt for the daemon, admit that he had pledged himself, body and soul, to her. “Punishment be damned.”
A slow, dark smile warped Fallen’s entire features. “I really thought you were wiser than this, Mr. Knight. I thought you would realize the truth sooner than this. Alas, you never did…” he said, sitting back down in his throne roughly, the complete opposite of his usually graceful manors. “You could have saved yourself a lot of trouble had you not accepted my bargain.”
“What do you mean?” Tensley snapped, growing more frustrated by the second. It was evident the man was mocking them, and Tensley did not appreciate it.
“Pearce Saint… he died seven months ago. Long before your little daemon ever touched him.”
Seven months ago?
But Molly had killed Pearce three months ago.
All the tension in his body passed through him, and he frowned. “What?”
“He stole Prince Asmodeus’s playthings, a few favorite familiars from the High Court, and I gave the court the power to punish Pearce for his crimes.” He intertwined his fingers and leaned forward. “They cursed him as a Black.”
Born as nothing.
In court, they do not have a name.
Only Black—exiled, forgotten Black.
“He didn’t exist in court,” Tensley whispered, and Molly turned to watch him, brows pinched tightly. “So there is no punishment for his death. There never was.”
Fallen smiled gleefully.
The bastard had played them.
Mind-fucked them for shits and giggles.
“His family won’t be pressing charges either. They disowned him. He had no power.” He smiled. “And I may have lied about a daemon existing,” Fallen added, humming to himself. “But to get you here and to cooperate, I needed leverage, and the only way was to place your daemon on a cliff.”
“No daemon?” Molly whispered, still trembling beside him. Her skin had gone pale, all the blood draining from her features.
“Why?” Tensley breathed out, stunned. “Why did you do all of this?” he asked again as he felt all the blood rushing to his head—anger filling his veins and muscles. The king had played them for fools. Played him to get what he wanted.
“I needed you two under my thumb,” Fallen said, eyeing the two of them with a winning grin. “But to know you carry a child outside of your marriage—tsk, tsk, tsk.” He raised a manicured brow at them. “Should we repeat history, Mr. Knight? Rip your heart out and rip the human apart?”
Tensley’s muscles rippled with tension, with anger, and he let the toxic aggressive pheromones storm the king.
“You won’t touch her,” he hissed, his chest heaving.
Fallen straightened in his throne, the evil glint ever so present in the depths of his eyes. “You cannot tell me what to do, boy. I am your court. I am your crown. I am your king. And you have both disrespected me and betrayed my laws and authority. You will pay with your heart tonight, Mr. Knight.”
Tensley bared his teeth and took one step closer.
He’d fight, he’d devour, he’d kill for his court, his crown, his queen.
If the only way to protect Molly was by killing Fallen, he would. And at this point, there was only one way left.
“I challenge you, Fallen,” Tensley spoke, the calm and power lacing his voice like a whip. “I challenge you for the crown.”