Chapter 5

ChapterFive

“He’s coming!” her sisters whispered.

The words bounced around the chamber outside her room. She hadn’t heard of anyone approaching the Tower, but Selene had hidden herself as soon as coming back.

The problem with her power, or the second of her powers, really, was that she couldn’t keep all those emotions underneath that icy lake forever. They had to come out. And knowing that he would follow her here had meant that she had to let it all out so there was room for more.

It was in those moments that she realized two problems.

The first was that his power was immense. She’d felt nothing like it before, and she’d encountered a few witches who were very proficient in manipulating emotions. Apparently, they were not anywhere near the talents of a demon king.

The lust that he’d poured into everyone at the tavern, during the festival, even when he passed by her on the road, all poured out of her at once. It struck her like a sledgehammer to the head, soaking her immediately and turning every touch into something horrific.

There was no pleasure to be found in that much lust. Only pain.

Wool was difficult to wear. She found it scratched too much against her skin, the sensation both pain and pleasure until it mixed into an overwhelming sensation. Her sheets touched her so much that she couldn’t sleep. She couldn’t stand because the wind brushed against her nipples and made the sweat cool on her body. She couldn’t think other than to endure because no amount of orgasms even touched it. Nothing satisfied.

So she’d stayed in her room. Until she realized the second problem.

If she had to endure him again, there would be no safe place to purge all the build up of emotions. Was he connected to her? Would he be able to feel her lust even from his castle? And he’d been able to tell when people were affected by his magic. She’d seen it in his eyes.

So, as the lust in her body finally cooled, she knew this would be a test of her own power. Because if she couldn’t keep all these emotions under lock and key in her mind, then the trick was revealed.

She wasn’t the only person he’d ever met who his magic didn’t work on. Not at all.

She was just another sorceress who was quite good at lying.

Ursula knocked on her door again. “Selene? Did you hear me? He’s coming! You did it.”

Of course she’d done it. She’d laid the groundwork for him to be interested and he was nothing if not a man who enjoyed conquest. He’d come. He’d tracked her down because she had thrown down the gauntlet before him.

Damn it. Why had she been born for this job and not to be Ursula’s assistant?

“Selene?” Ursula asked again, her voice quieter this time. “Is everything all right?”

No. It wasn’t. Selene stared at her reflection in the mirror and wondered just how she was going to survive this. The icy lake in her mind was completely and utterly purged. Free of any emotion she’d had to bury within the ice. But that didn’t mean it wouldn’t fill up again. And quickly.

How did she stop it from spilling over? From leaking, even when it should have been locked underneath mountains of ice?

Her power made little sense, even to herself. Selene had read a thousand books on magic, spent countless hours researching how to expand what she could do. She’d trained with every other sorceress, but none of them had been able to understand why her magic was fractured. Sorceresses were good at one thing. She was good at two.

Maybe it had something to do with how she’d been left for them to find. Selene’s real mother had dropped her off in the middle of winter right in the front of the Tower. Minerva claimed that Selene had been outside in the cold for hours before someone had opened the door. No one went outside the doors in the winter. They were lucky anyone had thought to go outside at all.

The moment of fear and cold and icy despair as the one woman who was supposed to love her left had become her power. The sorceresses taken her in as a foundling and changed her life forever after that.

Ursula opened the door and poked her head in. “Are you alive?”

“Yes,” Selene replied, straightening the brocade of her gown one more time. “Alive enough, that is.”

“Oh.” Ursula ducked into her room, carefully closing the door behind her as though she didn’t want the others to see. “You know none of us would agree to this if it wasn’t absolutely necessary. He won’t hurt you, love. None of us would let him get close enough.”

Of course they would. If he offered them all a role in the palace and in the running of this kingdom, every single one of them would sacrifice her. Selene knew that. And she didn’t appreciate the lie.

Sighing, she shook her head and gave herself one more once over. The black gown should have been worn for mourning. A square neckline showed off her pretty collarbones, though they’d be mostly hidden by the fur lined black cloak she’d put on top of it. Steel gray embroidery decorated the bodice and down into the skirts with the vague impression of flowers, though it was difficult to see them unless the light was just right.

She’d pulled her hair up into a low bun and pinched her cheeks so she didn’t look quite so pale with fear. Unfortunately, that was the best she could do, given the circumstances.

“I’m afraid,” she whispered. “I hunted him down and now he’s played right into our claws. What will he do when he realizes I’ve lied?”

“This is a blessing. Our mother has spent her entire life preparing us all to take down this demon king. Soon we will walk through the kingdom, the rightful rulers of this realm! Can’t you see it? A better place for everyone. You even said yourself that the villagers were living chaotic lives. We’ll make it better.” Ursula walked up to her side and gently smoothed a single strand of her hair back into place. “This is a gift. You have to start looking at it as one.”

A gift to condemn a demon to death? How novel. The idea made her want to vomit.

“Of course,” she replied, though. Because that was what was expected of her and nothing else. “I’m just having a moment. Is he here already?”

“He rode through the gates. Minerva is going to meet with him in the great hall before she tells us what to do next. She said there’s a long conversation they need to have. Naturally, he’ll be very suspicious of her, and she wants to ensure he’s lulled into a sense of comfort.” Ursula held out her arm for Selene to take. “Do you want to listen in on it with me?”

“You know we’re not supposed to.”

“One more mischief. Just like when we were kids.”

They’d always called them “mischiefs” when they snuck around the Tower as children, getting into trouble where they weren’t supposed to be and taking over areas of the attic for their plotting and planning. They’d take over the entire Tower someday, they’d said.

Ursula might. She’d make a good High Priestess. Maybe then Selene would be a sorceress and not just a foundling.

She set her shoulders and rested her hand on top of Ursula’s arm. “Why not?”

Together, they snuck past their sisters and skittered up the stairs. There was only one part of the tower where they could survey the great hall. And that was five stories up on a tiny balcony that was meant to be decorative. Selene had the faint worry that maybe their weight would make it bend, considering they’d been children the last time they tried this.

But the two of them tucked behind two equally large green bushes that some gardener had placed to make it look more decorative and less like a mistake that a balcony had been left here at all.

They couldn’t stop laughing. Both of them were breathless from their sprint up the stairs to make sure they were hidden before anyone entered the great hall beneath them. If they weren’t careful, they’d be caught. And they both remembered what happened if they got caught.

“Your skirts,” Ursula said at the end of a giggle. “They’ll see your skirts!”

Selene yanked her skirts closer and perfectly timed as the front doors of the Tower banged open.

“High Sorceress!” Lust called out. “I know you’re in here, and I believe you were expecting me.”

She’d recognize that voice anywhere at this point. Those deep tones were... well. Delicious.

Ursula squirmed in front of her, eyes wide in shock as she mouthed, “Is that him?”

She nodded because she couldn’t say “What do you think?”. Ursula already rocked to the rhythm of his footsteps, without realizing that her body knew what his power asked of it before her mind had caught up. Even Selene could feel it.

Warmth dripped from his words and then surged out of his body. Right now, it was only the faintest hint of his power. Just the soft touch of strong hands digging into tight muscle. Hands that certainly would put her entire body at ease if she would only let him.

The feeling was a trap. She knew that. Her sister knew it. All the sorceresses in this entire place had to know it, but what were they doing? Plodding along with his magic.

He’d already gotten them under his thumb and none of them even knew it yet. Her mother had better have a good plan.

She leaned around her plant to see Minerva walking down the stairs. The great hall was actually the center of the Tower. The giant circle was bare until it reached the stairwell that wrapped in a coil throughout the inside of the building. Every room was only a small part of a larger circle, every floor proving the absolute delight of architecture within which they lived.

The white walls, ceiling, floors, and stairs were meticulously cleaned every single day. Sometimes by younger sorceresses who had yet to come into their power, sometimes by the few servants they kept on staff.

Her eyes moved to the demon king. He stood in what could have been royal regalia, or could have been his traveling outfit. A black corseted top with a black shirt underneath. Dark pants that clung to his thick thighs and tightly cupped what was between them. A gold cloak over his shoulders kept him warm from the chill, and it was metallic. It even reflected the light.

Minerva had chosen a much more classic outfit. Her black gown clung to her form. Even in her fifties, she was stunning. All hips and tiny waist and smooth steps that made her look as though she were gliding across the floor.

Selene remembered thinking she was the most beautiful woman in the world when she was young. Now, seeing her mother standing before Lust, she thought she had been right. They fit. The two of them were otherworldly in their looks, and she felt horribly drab in comparison.

“Wow,” Ursula whispered. “Look at them.”

She was. And she hated every second of it.

“To what do we owe the honor of welcoming our esteemed demon king?” Minerva asked, a little too close to Lust for it to be a surprise visit.

“You know why I’m here,” he replied with an arched brow. “You practically laid her out on a banquet table for me.”

“I did no such thing.” Was she... flirting with him?

Selene looked over at Ursula and watched her sister shrug. Flirting wouldn’t make sense, but Minerva knew what she was doing, so... surely this was the plan?

But then Selene felt another pulse of lust. She buried it deep, already concerned with the limitations of her power. Ursula squirmed again next to her. Her sister bit her lip, eyes focused entirely on Lust now.

“Come now, Minerva,” he said, tsking his tongue against his teeth. “Neither of us has time to play games.”

“And what game do you think I’m playing?”

“The woman. She’s one of yours.”

“Yes, and if you want her, then I’m afraid you’ll have to beg.”

What was her mother planning? Jaw dropping open, Selene almost stood up from behind her bush. Her mother certainly couldn’t expect a demon king to beg for her daughter. Could she?

Minerva wouldn’t give her up. Her mother wouldn’t send her off with the demon as if she was property to be bartered? They’d wanted him here, and that was the end of what she was supposed to do.

Ursula grabbed onto her skirts and tugged her back down at the same time Lust chuckled.

“You know that’s not going to happen. If I wanted her, I would have her already.”

“And yet, you are here. I have her and you don’t.” The flash of pride in Minerva’s gaze wouldn’t keep her safe.

Selene braced herself at the first touch of his magic and then hissed out a low breath as it pulsed through the room. Sorceresses appeared behind her mother, ready to protect their High Priestess from his rage. But that didn’t stop him. Another pulse of lust sent every woman in the room to their knees.

Even her mother. The High Priestess of the Tower of Silver Thread, a goddess in her own right, fell onto her knees before him, rocking back and forth and... and...

Moaning.

Selene shoved it all down, deep underneath that lake, and ignored how Ursula pressed her hands hard between her legs as though trying to hold it back.

“If I wanted you all to bow before me, I could make you.” His eyes searched the six women who’d approached and sighed. “And yet, I do not see her.”

“She was born for you,” Minerva whispered, but her voice carried up into the rafters. “She arrived to us as a child and since then we have trained her for you and only you.”

“A puppet,” he snarled.

“No. A queen.”

“I have no use for a queen.”

She stood up with a snap. Her skirts billowed around her even before she realized that she was about to shout at him. She didn’t want to be a queen either, and her mother had no right to trade her off. She had given her dues, and she was supposed to be a sorceress now. Not a queen. Not a sacrifice to a demon!

Selene ducked behind the bush again as his eyes glanced over at the balcony. All her bravery fled in the wake of those blue eyes. Don’t see me, she thought. Please don’t see me.

“You have use for her. The entire kingdom awaits your choice of queen who will rule over them. There are whispers in the streets. Whispers of how you will rule on your own forever and disregard the needs of your people.”

“I have never done so,” he snarled. And when she peeked out from behind the bush again, his eyes had moved back to the High Priestess. “None of us, as you so affectionately call demons, have a bride. And we never will.”

“You may know what the nobles and the beautiful ones say, but you do not know what is whispered in dark places. You have need of a sorceress, Demon.”

He rolled his eyes, and the light caught on his horns. More glitter, she noted with disdain.

He eyed her mother and then sighed. “I’ve seen this ploy before. You are not the first High Sorceress who tried to wriggle her way onto the throne. You offer me a puppet who, if I indulge in a few nights, will expect a payment for access to her innocent body. You will then try to make me bend because you believe that I care about your daughter or sorceress or foundling. When I do not allow you to cajole me into a bargain, then you will threaten her life. I will tell you I have no interest in her life, and then she will die. Your people will rebel against you because you killed one of your own with your careless actions, and then a new High Sorceress will take your place. Within two more centuries, all of this will repeat itself. Or am I wrong?”

Selene caught her breath.

Was that the plan? Was she to be thrown into his arms only for her mother to make demands of him later?

Of course it was. She saw it so clearly now. After all she’d given up, her mother wouldn’t trust her with something so important as this. The truth of her mission had never been just to tempt him. It had always been to infiltrate the castle.

“You underestimate me, Demon,” Minerva hissed. “We will no longer bend to you.”

“Is that so?” A flash of anger made his face even more attractive.

The pulse of his power was stronger this time. Then another. And another. Over and over again, until even Selene winced.

His voice thundered around them, terrifying and monstrous in its power. “All it takes is one thought for you to drop to your knees. Another for you to know what it is to die a little death. How much more power do you believe it would take for me to end you all where you stand?”

Ursula moaned, the sound echoing with the rest of her sisters as all the women suddenly writhed on the ground.

And she couldn’t take it anymore.

Selene leapt to her feet, then raced down the stairs. Her footsteps might have echoed, but who could hear them over the sounds of her sisters? Or her mother?

This memory would haunt her for the rest of her being. Finally, she reached the ground floor and stood at the top of the stairs where her mother had stood only a few moments ago.

“Demon,” she called out, her voice ringing out not with lust but with anger. “You will cease this foolishness.”

His eyes flashed again, another pulse of power rocking through the entire building until she feared it might loosen the stones from their base. As though his magic penetrated even the rock surrounding them.

But it didn’t. And she just stuffed his power underneath the ice in her heart and glared at him.

“Enough,” Selene said again. “You’ve done enough.”