Chapter 1 #2
I take her hand, gripping it tightly. “You will be. We will make our court bigger and better than any other. We will save as many as we can.”
This place is a sanctuary for women, for succubi, in a male-dominated world.
That is what my mother wanted, and it’s what she created with her blood, sweat, and tears. She’s a powerful queen, and I hope that one day, I can be as strong as she is and I can lead with the same kindness and quiet strength she does.
We lapse into silence, happy to be together until the night draws closer to dawn and we both give into exhaustion.
When I succumb to sleep that night, I am brimming with power and ecstasy and excited to do it all again tomorrow.
A loud cry wakes me.
I jerk up, blinking in confusion as my doors crash open.
Teresa, my mother’s best friend and leading lady, rushes in with wild eyes, her dress torn as she reaches my side and starts yanking me from my bed.
“Run, rethia, run now! You must go!” she begs as she pushes me towards the secret chamber that only she, my mother, and I know is in my bedroom. “Go now, and do not come back.”
“Teresa, what is it?” I ask, alarm running through me. “My mother—where is my mother?”
“It’s too late,” she sobs, tears flowing down her cheeks. “Go, save yourself.”
I stare into her stricken face, denial surging through me. “No. No.” Pushing past her, I rush to the corridor, my fur-lined dressing gown billowing around my bare feet. They smack into the ornate tile of the corridors as I dart around corners, aiming for her rooms.
Terror directs my every move, leaving me struggling to breathe.
I almost fall, causing me to grab one of the gilded paintings to right myself. “Rethia, please,” Teresa yells after me, grabbing my arm. “She begged me to get you out. Do not make me betray your mother. I promised her.”
I tug my arm from hers. “You love my mother, no?”
It’s not a secret. I’ve known for years.
I also knew my mother made this place for her best friend, who’d been abused for years in an incubus court before she’d found her again and saved her.
She built this for her, the love of her life.
They’ve never admitted it, but they love each other.
My mother would never be with another if she didn’t need to feed, but I know that she does it for Teresa and passes it on to her.
“More than anything,” she whispers. “We cannot save her. You are the most important thing in her life. Please, Elara, let me do this for her. Let me help her as she has always helped me.”
“Go,” I demand. “Get out.” Whatever is happening, it’s not good if my mother wants us to leave. She wasn’t just protecting me, but Teresa too, sending us both away. Teresa would never leave her side without an order to keep me safe.
“Please, Elara,” she begs, and I cup her cheeks, pressing my forehead to hers.
“Thank you for loving my mother. Now go. I release you from your promise to her. Go!” I demand as I push her away and race down the corridor.
My heart hammers in time with my feet as I run to the open doors of my mother’s room. It’s empty. The bed is ripped apart, and the furniture is overturned. Blood is smeared across the floor, leading out the other doors into the court.
That’s when the screams reach me.
Slipping in the gore, I sprint through the rooms and out into the corridor beyond.
The maze is as familiar as the back of my hand as I follow the cries and blood into the throne room.
Everyone is gathered, and it looks normal for a moment before I realise every woman, every single succubus, is on their knees.
Men, our men, stand above them, pointing weapons at them as the succubi huddle together, scared and unsure.
I step into the room, breathing heavily. “Elara, no!” My mother’s voice fills the air, and every eye turns to me. “Run!” she roars, but I don’t. I stand rooted in place, and the crowd parts, allowing me to see her.
She is naked and on her knees with a gun held to her head. Her cheek and lips are bleeding, but she doesn’t look afraid until she sees me. True fear fills her eyes as I tilt my chin up. She knows what it means.
I won’t run. I won’t leave her or my people.
“What is the meaning of this?” I demand as I march towards my mother. Two men block my path, their guns aimed at me. “Move,” I order, but they ignore my command and hesitate.
A man breaks away from the others, chuckling as he stops before me. He’s familiar, and that’s when I recall who he is.
He’s the one from tonight, the first man I fed on.
His name eludes me, but those dark, angry eyes are the same.
He wears a similar expression to the one he gave me when I ordered him around.
“You seem confused, rethia. You are not in charge anymore. You order no one.” He nods, and the men step back.
He grips the nape of my neck and I gasp.
The crowd wails in outrage at one of ours being manhandled, never mind their leader.
I struggle in his grip as he drags me forward, but he’s too strong, and in that moment, I realise how precious our hold on these men was and how easily it has changed.
He drags me to his side as I stare into my mother’s weeping eyes. Even now, she looks tall and strong, but I see the agony in her gaze. “Teresa got out,” I mouth to her, and I see her relax a little. “What are you doing?” I ask him, struggling in his hold.
“Isn’t it obvious, rethia? We are taking what we want, just like you and your kind have done with us for far too long,” he hisses.
“You came here willingly, stayed willingly!” I shout. “You could have left at any time—”
“Oh yes, we know just how little you want and need us, but we don’t want to leave. We want to rule. You will all grow to know what it feels like to be used and controlled.” He grins at me.
“Stop this,” my mother demands, “and leave now before it is too late.”
“No, I don’t think I will.” He chuckles at my side, his hold growing tighter on my nape.
“I said leave. Take your men and go, all of you.” My mother’s voice is infused with her power, and the man at my side raises his gun and aims it at her.
His hand wavers as he fights her off, and when she goes to open her mouth again, he pulls the trigger. It’s loud, and horror fills me as she jerks and falls back.
For a moment, I don’t understand what has happened. Blood pools beneath my mother as she lies motionless on the floor.
Everything is silent before a scream fills the air.
Mine, I realise.
She’s dead.
I drop to my knees, staring at my mother’s body. He killed her. He killed her.
It repeats in my head as I scream and fight.
Another scream echoes through the room, and I turn in horror.
Teresa’s heartbroken cry echoes as she fights against those touching her, dragging her through the crowd.
They release her, and she crumples to her knees, sobbing and screaming as she crawls to my mother.
I kneel, unable to move. Teresa, on the other hand, drags my mother’s lifeless body into her lap and brushes her hair softly from her face.
“I’m here, Will. I’m here. I’m right here. I never would have left you. I was coming back. Why couldn’t you hold on for me?” She kisses her bloody mouth softly as my lips start to tremble.
I need to be strong. My court is looking at me.
They need me now more than ever, but the agony is unbearable.
A gun presses to Teresa’s head. “Move away,” the man demands.
She kisses my mother again, holding her tightly as he barks, “Now!”
Teresa looks up, her pale face covered in tears, but her eyes are hard as she stares the man down.
“You think I am scared of dying? You just took away the only reason I had to live. Kill me, I don’t care, but you will have to pry my lifeless corpse away before I release her.
” She turns back to my mother and ignores the man as she whispers to her love.
“Teresa, please,” I plead before a hand covers my mouth, silencing me as I’m kept on my knees with another hand on the nape of my neck.
“Sir?” one of the men asks.
“Kill her too,” the man holding me commands.
“No!” My muffled howl echoes through the room, but it’s too late.
Teresa falls, draped across my mother, still holding her even in death.
She chose to die with her rather than live without her.
I fall forward, and he lets me. My hands hit the tile as I scream, staring at their bodies.
At least they will finally be together. It’s an idle thought as my heart splinters.
I have no time to grieve, though, as something wraps around my throat and clicks shut, and I am dragged to my feet by my neck. Glancing down, I spy a shackle with the chain held in his hand.
The man who did this grins at me as I glare, winding the chain around his fist to drag me closer.
“I see that look in your eyes, rethia. Do not get any ideas. You cannot win here.” Using the chain, he drags me over to their bodies.
I jerk back, a whine leaving my throat. My eyes shut, not wanting to see, but he pushes me down, pawing at my face and forcing them open.
“Look at them,” he orders as he pulls me closer, pushing down so I can see the hole in my mother’s chest and the matching one on Teresa’s forehead.
The noise that leaves my throat is more animal than human, and he laughs.
“This is what will happen to you if you do not obey.”
As I stare at their unmoving bodies, I realise two things.
One, he will kill me if I do not listen to him.
Two, I cannot save my people if I am dead.
It’s up to me now. A silent tear falls for my mother, and I blink it away, knowing I need to be strong.
He drags me to my feet once more and turns me to face my people.
I stare at them, their shocked, pale faces turned up to me, demanding for me to save them. They are waiting for their queen and saviour.
She’s dead, but I’m alive.
I’m all they have left.
“Your queen is dead, and your rethia belongs to me!” he yells. “I am your king now!”
Chaos breaks out. One of my succubi stands with two more, and they turn to the man nearest them. “Drop your weapon.” Their voices are laced with power, and he starts to lower it before another turns and shoots all three of the women.
I feel the man at my side jolt. It’s clear this is not as easy as he wanted.
“More blood spilled than you anticipated?” I hiss as I glare at him. “You expected us to roll over and accept this?”
His gaze turns to me and darkens in anger. He backhands me, and my head jerks from the force, but I chuckle as I look at him, my tongue darting out to lick the blood from my split lip. “You are a fool.”
“No, rethia, you are, all of you. Order them to comply or we will kill them,” he whispers in my ear. “You are their queen now, order them. They will listen to you. Either they will die now or live as our slaves. You decide.”
It’s a horrible choice, but one is their end and one means we have a chance, even if they will suffer. I am ordering them into slavery, into experiencing pain and humiliation. It’s easy to know what these men will do.
It’s what men always do.
We were fools.
I order it anyway, knowing what it means. I take that weight onto my shoulders. “Stop!” I order, and the others stand still. “Obey what they say and live for now. That is an order from your rethia!” I demand, leaving the rest unspoken—live for now and fight later.
I see them hesitate, so I raise my voice. “That is an order!” I roar as they kneel again. “No more blood will be spilled tonight.” My voice cracks. “Do as they say.”
“Good girl.” The man at my side smirks, sliding his hand across my body possessively. I hate it, but I show no reaction.
They made a mistake when they killed my mother.
She was a kind, good queen. I never was.
I was always cruel. I was always the darkness on her shoulder.
His wicked mouth meets my ear. “I have waited a long time to make you mine, rethia,” he mocks, “and that’s exactly what I will do. You’re my prisoner now. Every inch of you is mine, and I think it’s about time I showed you that.”