She should have flown far, far away from here.

“What’s happening to me?” Nalini cried, throwing up in the toilet for the sixth time since she’d woken up an hour ago.

The contents of her stomach just wouldn’t stay in, but that was nothing compared to the headache and the way her muscles ached, feeling heavy.

Krane smirked, filing his nails. “I’d say you reap what you sow, or something of the sort, if you didn’t look quite so miserable.” Then he beamed. “Want something to drink? Won’t help, but, hey, might as well stay hydrated.”

She crawled to her bed, feeling like she was going to die.

“Hope you’re enjoying the solstice, by the way.”

She really, really wanted to ask what any of this had to do with the solstice, but Krane was already feeling way too smug.

Kronos pressed a cold compress to her head. That helped for all of three seconds.

Finally, she gave in. “What’s wrong with me?”

“You mean, other than a stubborn streak and too many skills with a wrench? Nothing at all.”

She glared with as much hostility as she could muster.

“That might work better if you didn’t look like a puppy drowned in sweat.”

Krane caved. “Go to the kitchen,” he told Kronos, “and ask them to make a tea for your sister. They know what she needs.”

Once the child had left, he turned to her, still looking quite smug. “This,” said he, “is the start of a millennia-old ceremony celebrated by our kind here. You, and every unattached youth with magic who are currently of age, are giving your power to nature, feeding it for the next year. And once you’re truly, completely depleted, you’re going to have to replenish it. That’s where the party starts. Fear not. The most attractive volunteers, male and female, will be gathered at the festivities tonight. And you will take them, many of them, feeding like one of the beasts we once were.”

She watched him with undiluted horror. “I’ll eat people!”

He laughed hard, slapping his leg. “Goddess Light help you, sweet summer child. No, little lady. You’re gonna fuck people. Enjoy your solstice.”

She stared. Then, whatever was left in her stomach came out right there in her bed.

Eating people might not have been as bad.

Krane explained things to her as she basked in misery, torment, and regret. Talks of energy, replenishing it. Harnessing, he called it. Causing orgasms and feeding off them.

“Why didn’t you drag me out of here.”

A kinder person would have said nothing, but Krane shrugged. “Tried, sugar. You made us stay. Maybe you’ll listen next time.”

Kronos came back with a strange brew that smelled like feet, but, after drinking it, she managed to fall into a deep, dreamless slumber.

When she woke, the sickness had receded some. Her limbs were still weak. So was her mind.

She recalled wishing her powers away in her youth. Wishing that she wasn’t different from other girls out there, just a regular without the visions, the energy. They said be careful what you wish for. She hated it. Truly abhorred being so crippled, broken, vulnerable.

Someone had changed her soiled sheets and cleaned her up sometime while she slept. They’d also left a dress hanging in her bathroom.

Well, if she could call this a dress at all. It was nothing but triangular patches of cloth tied together in the middle, baring the sides of her tummy, and most of her legs, barely holding her breasts.

She winced at her reflection. Everyone else would be wearing the same thing, no doubt; whatever outfit had been laid out for her before a feast fit in with the dress code.

Tonight was about one thing, and they weren’t bothering to hide it.

Nalini was no untouched flower. She’d developed an interest in males pretty late, granted, but she’d done something about it. Touching herself, thinking of the dark eyes of a powerful male she’d met once in her entire life—and okay, seen another couple of times through weird, and weirdly realistic, visions—was too pathetic for words. So, she’d just pulled an attractive warrior who had been looking at her that way into her room soon after her arrival here.

Baz. She’d played with him a handful of times since, when the itch needed scratching. She was leaving, and neither of them were even remotely attached, so they could simply have some harmless fun. He knew what to do with all his body parts, so he served a purpose. She wasn’t against casual sex, but this, this backward, forced fornication no one had even warned her about, was different.

Frustrated and angry—at Krane and everyone else, for not spelling things out properly, but mostly at herself—she burst out of her room and raced down to the party, intending to find Baz and get it over with.

She froze in the great hall.

There was only one city planet-wide, and everyone in it liked to meet for one reason or another once a week at least, so the palace they’d built was of an adequate size. Humongous. And right now, it was entirely filled with naked people. Cocks. Cocks everywhere. And pussies, too, but those were a little less conspicuous.

Only mages were dressed, if the outfits they wore, similar to Nalini’s, could even be called that.

“Nalini, dear.”

She closed her mouth and counted to ten in her mind as Rani Tharshen greeted her, taking her forearm.

“Warlord,” she managed to say without yelling, and not even adding one single insult.

“Your first solstice. I don’t think I’ve ever witnessed so much energy entering the planet. We’re blessed to have you,” she said, pulling her forward.

“You…” She cleared her throat. “Participate?”

“Oh, yes. I’m not attached,” Rani replied, winking. “And there’s something quite exhilarating in these bestial nights. Come, let us go choose our partners.”

Plural. Krane had already said something of the sort. She winced. “I was going to try to find a guy I know—Baz…” She struggled to remember the name he’d given her on their first meeting. “Uaani.”

Rani laughed. “A good boy, for sure. He won’t do the trick, not tonight. You’d need a dozen like him to return to your full health. No, let me help; I’ve sampled quite a few of the pickings.”

Never mind feeling better, she was going to be sick again all over the warlord’s cut-out robes.

“I can’t—” She winced. “—sleep with a bunch of strangers out of the blue.”

Rani tilted her head, as though trying to understand what she’d said at all. Then she patted her hand, not without kindness.

“I forgot. It has been a long time since my first solstice. Centuries. It’s very strange to a young girl.”

At least someone made sense. Although at twenty-five, she wasn’t as young as the warlord made her feel when she said that.

Still, compared to a female who’d seen centuries, she supposed she was.

“Your misgivings, forget them. You’ll take many men through the night.”

She hadn’t believed it at the time. But finally, she found Baz and dragged him to her room as fast as her poor limbs would carry her. She knelt in front of him and took his length in her mouth, making him hiss in pleasure. Krane had said it was about taking their energy after release; she needed it now. Nalini wasn’t the obedient type. She didn’t feel like actually having sex with anyone, so that seemed like the best course of action. She worked him up with her tongue, and, after five minutes, the warrior exploded in her mouth.

Nalini froze, the most delicious, addictive rush of power coursing through her body, making her tremble in ecstasy, not unlike an orgasm of her own.

It didn’t last. The next second, it had passed, and she still felt depleted. Hungry.

That night, she learned to do as she was told, sometimes. And she enjoyed it.