Chapter 46

I stumbled in a dark room, staying on my feet on luck and miracles alone. I didn't know where I was or how I'd gotten there, but somehow I was standing in new and abrupt darkness. I tapped my hands against my face, verifying I was alive and my flesh and nerves still existed. I felt along my silhouette, where I seemed to be wearing something stiff in the bodice and large in the skirt. Then I tapped my feet, analyzing the way my shoes hit the floor. If the reverberation in my heel and the ball of my feet were understood correctly, I was apparently wearing stiletto heels. I could barely walk in these things in the real world, but among the many miracles of my right now was the fact that I was moving adeptly through the void.

Where I was headed, I couldn't say. The last thing I recalled was entering the Red Sector with Rai, Alessi, and Theron by my side, but now I was nowhere, and none of it made sense.

I touched my lips, recalling that explosive sensation as Theron kissed me for the first time. Then I frowned remembering how happy I'd been, and how overwhelmingly full my whole heart had felt.

Then what happened?

How did I end up wherever this was?

I took a few more blind steps forward, only to smash into a warm, hard wall. I felt around, following the contours of this barrier that I was quickly deducing was actually a man. I jumped when steady hands took hold of mine.

Bright lights flared, revealing the room around me in a burst of white. I was surrounded by people in copper masks that obscured their features, then I was swept into a dance with the man in front of me, and I followed on pure instinct, like a marionette on unbreakable strings.

The ballroom sparkled, the lights reflecting off the hundreds of masks, fine jewels embedded in the tile, and golden adornments that accented the swirling black and white patterns on the walls. I kept time with nimble steps, and I swayed with this charming stranger.

"You are as elegant as you are fierce, Sela." That familiar voice penetrated my fog, and I met his emerald eyes through a golden mask. His covering only obscured the top half of his face, while his expression left no mystery to his identity. He was striking, in a fine suit, and a black and viridian corset. Elegant rivulets adorned with green gem stones snaked around the curled horns of a ram, and his messy auburn hair complimented his otherwise pale skin.

Jericho led me through the dance floor, navigating twirling nobles in elegant dress, securing me against him with one hand on my waist and the other interlaced between my fingers.

"Where am I?" I kept up, though I didn't know how I did it.

"Exactly where you belong, my queen." He spun me around, then pulled me close again. We weaved between two men locked in a waltz, then stepped around an older couple who simply hugged and swayed.

We continued to dance, moving gracefully across the glittering tile. The King of Devils dominated my steps, with clear intent to lead me somewhere specific. It wasn't until he twirled me by the fountain, then dipped me over a still, glassy pool, that I caught the first glimpse of my own reflection.

I was wearing a ball gown that was cinched around my waist with a black corset, then fanned out with an A-line skirt in a shade of green that matched the devil's eyes. Our outfits were coordinated with enough unique flare to feel individual, but similar enough to present as one. He looked truly like a King among commoners and a devil among men. I looked like the dazzling queen that belonged by his side.

The King of Devils. The man with the charming smile and clever poetry that brought me to a hell beyond my wildest imagination. The man who took my fucking cat.

"I don't have time for this." I shook my head, but couldn't find a way to break the spell of his gaze. "I still need to make it through the maze to take Pumpkin back."

"Don't be in such a rush." He kept me close, and I let him have that control. I couldn't seem to will myself to fight it. "Your Pumpkin is perfectly safe and sound, and the Labyrinth isn't going anywhere. Take some time for you, my queen. Let yourself be pampered. There's no reason you can't live in comfort and luxury within my castle. Why run away to a miserable and lonely existence among human men, when you can have unlimited power, eternal life, and eternal youth? All you have to do is stay with me."

The words were nice. Soothing. I hated Jericho though, didn't I? I racked my brain trying to recall why, but that space in my memory was hazy, as though it was locked in a box where I hadn't been allowed a key.

Maybe I'd never had a good reason at all, and I'd just told myself he was evil. He'd drugged me and kidnapped me. Those were evil things weren't they? But was I happier before he'd done so?

Probably?

I must have been.

I'd worked so hard and accomplished so much in my thirty-five years of life, how could I throw all of that away for a flight of fancy. Men were always temporary, but my achievements were permanently my own.

"But what about my job? I have a lot of people who depend on me." I said next.

Was that why I hated him? He took me away from my work? No, that didn't sound right either. It had to be something worse than that.

"The same people who only respect you if you jump through the right hoops, perform the right rituals, and never speak too loudly, dress too boldly, and live too honestly. Those people would turn on you in an instant. You have no obligation to be their puppet." Those words struck something deep inside me, searing me deep in my hard earned confidence.

The problem was, I knew he was right. I'd built my career over a lifetime, but I continued to make concessions every day, dulling my shine, and wearing a coat of barbs to assure I never disrupted the delicate tower I'd built. To stay in power, I couldn't be whoever I wanted to be. I couldn't be too pretty, too loud, too commanding, or too opinionated. I had to be just the right amount of everything, like I was baking a soufflé that would collapse at the first loud noise.

But those were the sacrifices I had to make to get what I wanted, and I was okay with that, wasn't I? I didn't care about "feminine things" because that would lessen my credibility and have everyone questioning my intentions.

So I hid and suppressed it all, and I built a place for myself among the expectations and rituals of the powerful. And they let me have power. They listened to me now. I'd earned that.

That was real, right?

Our waltz continued, but I felt numb as the revelation sank deeper. My words barely came out in more than a whisper when I tried to argue. "Maybe that's so, but I've worked so hard for that crown. If I give up while it's made of sand, I'll never be able to forge it into glass."

"That's where you're mistaken." Jericho shook his head, then he pulled me in close and dipped me low. "Your crown is made of diamonds, Sela. You've simply allowed the world to tell you it's still but fragile shards." He pressed a delicate kiss to my lips, and I let him do that too. He felt right against me, and the way he secured me so tightly to his chest felt safe and warm.

He wasn't safe. He was still the devil king.

But maybe…

He pulled me back upright, never breaking our connection. I didn't try to either. He was sweet and spicy vanilla and nutmeg, and his tongue was perfection in my mouth.

I lamented our separation when he stopped kissing me long enough to whisper softly against my lips. "In the realm of devils, no one disrespects their king." He melded his mouth into mine again, and I savored that taste of the richest dessert that only Jericho could share with me. "And no one questions his power." He speared my lips, and I skated my teeth over his tongue in response. His flavor was intoxicating, and I was drunk on his dominance. "Because this realm is carved in merit that no one can challenge. And you, Fraulein, have always been an indisputable queen."

The dancing stopped, and the ballroom disappeared. We were alone now, somewhere new, just me and Jericho and my unshakeable haze. He walked me backwards, and my knees buckled when they touched the soft silk of a fine comforter. I fell backwards onto the bed, and he took the time to remove my heels, one at a time. The lord of the entire realm knelt before me, and he touched a soft kiss to the tops of each of my feet, before he approached me on the bed.

I let him press me down into the plush silk with his mouth, and I swallowed his sweet kisses, while he devoured my gentle moans. I let him possess me. I wanted him to. I wanted to know his body, his soul, and I wanted him to claim me on his bed. Why had I ever been fighting this? Why couldn't I be his toy and his queen?

He climbed further on top of me, his knee between my legs, sinking into my oversized skirt of tulle and silk. His hands on my wrists, he pinned me beneath the weight of his body, and a sense of satisfaction and comfort flooded through me. His powerful muscles were security embodied, and his possessive grip painted me as precious and worthy of his protection.

He was the strongest man in Tartarus, and he was begging me to stand by his side as his equal.

Wasn't that the ultimate victory?

He unhooked the front of my corset, then he stole his tongue from my mouth, so he could start fluttering kisses down my jaw line. He followed the side of my neck, pecked and nipped past my collar bone, then tapped the softest touches atop my breasts. I closed my eyes to better focus on the feeling. His touch was hot and wanting, like another devil I knew.

I laced my hands through his soft auburn hair, then gripped each of his thick horns for purchase.

Jericho brushed his teeth over my nipple, before circling and kneading the sensitive peak with his tongue. I heard the shameful sound of my own desire as he played my body so perfectly. He worshipped my breasts like I was his goddess, and I couldn't help the ache that settled in my core.

I spread my legs to let him get closer to me. He tore at the material of my skirt, until the massive tulle gown was practically a short tutu, then he reached a hand up my skirt, and traced every pleasure center between my folds. A wicked grin graced his lips, before he lowered his face to taste me for himself.

His mouth on me was electricity and magic and euphoria all at once. He dipped his long, skillful tongue inside me, then he dragged it up through my center, until he was nudging my clit with exquisite pressure. He'd shift from sucking to flicking, to languid strokes, and I was an undone mess in his grasp.

I was already on the verge when he added two skillful fingers, and started to rub slow circles over my g- spot. He was sucking my soul from my body while coaxing me to follow him into the River of Styx, and I was ready to oblige.

He waited until I'd lost my mind, before he meticulously and patiently cleaned every drop of my arousal from my pussy using nothing but his tongue.

I was still reeling and shaking as he crawled back up my body to taste my whimpers for himself. I tugged on his horns, needing more of him, to be closer and more roughly connected, then he took hold of my wrists and shoved them back down onto the bed.

It wasn't until the heel of his hand pressed into Theron's marks that I truly remembered how I'd gotten here.

"What about the others," I whispered as the trail of his lips returned to my neck, and he sucked roughly on the sensitive skin. "What about Theron, Rai, and Alessi? What will happen to them when I'm queen?"

"You won't need them anymore when you have me."

"But I want them. I don't want to choose. I want you all." I barely got the words out before the sudden intrusion of his cock sinking into my pussy made my breath hitch.

"You'll forget them soon." He filled me beautifully, but I couldn't admit out loud how perfect he fit. "I'm the only one you need."

"No." I shook my head despite myself, while his skillful thrusts had me wanting to beg him to keep me. But I couldn't be his. Not his alone. "No!" This time I shouted, feeling like it was the only way to break my mind away from the way he was making me feel.

"No?" Jericho stopped fucking me. He removed himself from my soaked pussy, and I instantly missed its presence. He ran his hand up the soaked length of his cock. He drew a line with my own fluids between my breasts, up my neck, then he sunk them into my mouth. I sucked dutifully, tasting how he'd made me feel, until he withdrew with tentative hesitation. He frowned down at me. "No, you won't give up your trysts with devils and demons and angels, despite having the king himself on his knees to serve you?"

"No." I licked my lips, savoring the lingering traces of both his kiss and my own pleasure. It was divine and not enough at the same time.

"That's such a shame, Fraulein." He pulled away, backing off the bed, and leaving me with a torn bodice, a ruined dress, and once again on edge. "But I can't blame you for being greedy." A smile stretched across his lips, and he looked far more menacing behind his golden mask. "If you want it all, then all you have to do is fight for it, just like you always have."

With a single snap of his fingers, I was back in a world of darkness. Then I was laying in something soft, while my consciousness was slowly catching up to my physical body.