Chapter Forty-Four
Stassi
H eat from Alemthian’s wretched pale sun beat down on me as I let Asher’s magic invade my senses—my mind. She was a beastly thing when she wanted to be, and this morning was apparently one of those occurrences.
“You’re taking too long,” I drawled, lifting my hand to inspect my nails before shoving her out of my head. Across the training area we had confiscated on one of the few grassy patches, she stared with squinted eyes and pursed lips, her fists balled at her sides.
“Pardon me for not wanting to tear apart your mind to break through your mental shields,” she hissed out. Ironic seeing as my shields were made of—“snakes. Your shields are made of horrible, awful, pink s nakes.”
“Oh, so you are in my head then?” I asked, smirking over at her. She was wearing those same training leathers that all of Bellamy’s little cronies donned obsessively, the outfit bland. Asher was far from that though. She was quite stunning now that I really had the chance to look at her. The painting above Padon’s bed didn’t do her justice, nor had that moment we first met forever ago. Or, well, it felt like forever. Time on this world moved too quickly.
“I do not have to be in your head when you are practically shouting your thoughts. Thanks for the compliment by the way.” Sweat dripped down the side of her face, which was much sharper with her hair pulled back in two braids. Tilting my face down, I took in my loose pink locks before peeking up at her below my rosy lashes. Her eyelids fell halfway as her head cocked to the side and her lips jutted out.
“Do not ask me what you are about to,” she ordered, crossing her arms. I let my bottom lip stick out, pouting like a youngling who wanted extra dessert.
“Will you braid my hair?” I asked anyway. She groaned, letting her head fall back.
Asher and I had formed a sort of alliance since I started helping her with her magic. She was a descendant of not only Stella, but Asta too, which meant she had stubbornly refused just as the female I looked at like a sister would have. But I had worn her down with brute force. Getting to use my magic on her had been exciting, and I so loved being able to understand what she thought of as sinful and virtuous. Even more exciting was seeing how drastically her subjective opinions on those things had changed since she’d been gone.
We now met every morning, and I had the chance to see that she was somehow a perfect mixture of Solana and Asta. Like Sol, Asher was curious and always moving. She wanted more than what was given to her, even if she didn’t always believe she deserved it. Similar to Asta, Asher was fierce and brutal, often acting on the unending anger that pulsed inside of her. Just as they both had been, Asher was secretly kind. She wanted peace and was willing to suffer or lose herself to find it for those she ruled over. It made for a great leader.
But what made me truly begin to like her was just how much of a bitch she was.
“I feel it is important that you understand how much torture I would withstand if it meant I did not have to do your hair right now,” she seethed, approaching me.
“Do you want me to snap all of your fingers so that the act of braiding is torture? Best of both worlds.” Her dark gray eyes rolled, but soon she was behind me, her fingers brushing through the sweat-soaked strands of my hair.
“Hearing your voice is worse, honestly,” she remarked, yanking harshly on my hair.
“Ooo yes, mommy, pull my hair,” I moaned, knowing it would make her angrier.
Her annoyed groan was paired with her lips near my ear, her breath fanning across my cheek. “Tell me more of the story or I will cut off all of your hair with my dagger.”
“I knew I shouldn’t have given that back to you,” I sighed out. Rolling my shoulders back and closing my eyes, I let the words begin to flow. “Where did we stop yesterday? Oh yes, the generation before mine. Well, that’s actually a rather sad chapter. Padon and I were forced to take our seeds way too early under two entirely different circumstances. His mother had him at a very old age, not that it mattered to her physical health or appearance. But living that long, it does something to one’s mind. It’s miserable. We grow bored and eager for something new. Eventually, not even conquering and raising entire worlds can appease you. Morgana was ready to go, so she forced Padon to take her seed. Stella said she held Padon for hours after she ripped out Morgana’s seed and placed it into him.”
Asher sucked in a breath behind me, her fingers faltering as they deftly styled my hair. I wished I could see her face, especially knowing how much she hated Padon. There were few things in life harder than acknowledging the utter humanity of your enemy.
“My situation was different. There was no build-up, no planning. My father was the previous holder of Sin and Virtue. Unlike most high demons, he loved my mother. Married her, even. High demons don’t usually do that. They mate with as many low demons as possible, producing heir after heir until they find one strong enough to hold the seed. My parents only had me, as my mother simply could not carry another. Luckily for them, I was strong. But that did not stop my mother from falling deeper and deeper into agony with each loss of a youngling. I remember walking in on her sobbing on the floor of her bathroom, blood pouring down her legs as she gripped her swollen stomach. That was the last time she was pregnant. A few months later, she wrote my father and I each a note declaring her love and her wish for us to be happy, then she hung herself from our kitchen rafters.”
Asher gasped behind me. I smiled at the virtue in her heart. Mortals were predictable. Weak. They could be swayed by sad stories and pretty words. It would be pathetic if it weren’t so Eternity damned lovely. I wished I could feel that too.
“My father and I found her together, and I was forced to listen to him begging her to come back to him as he tore her down from the rope. Even worse, he had the audacity to look me in the eye, apologize, and then rip out his seed. In one day I watched both of my parents be buried in our sacred grounds and became the high demon of Sin and Virtue.”
The words were not shaky or forced, instead my voice was sharp. Lifeless but for the small hint of fury there. They both left me. Chose someone else over me. My mother, her dead children over her living family, and my father, his lifeless wife over his breathing daughter. I no longer mourned them, though I would defend them to anyone else.
“Did it hurt?” Asher asked as she ripped small sections of my pink blouse. I almost turned to yell at her, but then I felt her use the fabric to tie off my hair. Scoffing, I whipped around, facing her fully. Her eyes were red, but her face was dry. She did not cry for my dead family. Not really. Which was better for us both.
Crossing my arms, I glared up at her.
“The seed will only accept that which is strong enough. It essentially tries to kill whoever takes it and it only accepts the blood of its original owner. It’s why they’re passed down families. So, yes, it hurt like a bitch.” The tension between the two of us seemed to peak as Asher took a step forward, reaching out as if she would console me. Thankfully, Milo saved me from the uncomfortable interaction.
The tiny dragon soared through the air, tackling Asher to the ground and puffing hot breath into her face. She giggled, scratching the beast behind his wing. Torrel had found her new caretaker without trying. The princess adored Milo, and she was more than willing to care for him any time she could. Which meant even Torrel loved her. But I knew the real reason everyone flocked around her like sheep.
“Hi there, little one. Want to go start fires and laugh when Bellamy has a panic attack as he puts them out?” Asher asked, rubbing her nose against Milo’s snout. Then, she seemed to remember something. Her mouth fell open and her eyes widened as she gazed up at me from her place in the grass. “How is Likho? Would Padon hurt him since you mentioned he took a liking to me?”
Eternity spare me, she was so infuriatingly considerate of everyone else. Why couldn’t she just not care like the rest of us? At least Bellamy leaned towards being selfish. It was far more tolerable. Shrugging, I sat down and glanced back at Torrel as she approached, what looked like an entire horse hanging limply from her mouth. The stench of blood tainted the mountain air, festering in the heat of late summer.
Gross.
“Padon is a brute, but he won’t kill a dragon. We were nervous about Torrel, but I doubt he would’ve done anything to her or Milo. It would have been the other dragons that got mine. Padon has a deep respect for their species, just like his mother did. As much of an idiot as he is, that’s one thing he wouldn’t risk or sacrifice,” I admitted, bending down to sit beside Asher.
Milo barely looked back at me, too absorbed with Asher’s doting. Fickle little beast.
“Padon is definitely an idiot.”
“And pathetic.”
“And full of himself.”
“And annoying.”
“And creepy.”
“And—”
“Are we interrupting something?” a male voice asked. I turned, finding the orange-haired demon walking beside my creature and his sister. Sterling. What a strange and oddly perfect name for him. He had left with his snotty sister, promising that when he came back he would prove to me just how valuable he could be. A callback to our times talking in his cell. Back when life was far less exhausting.
Finding out he was a mortal without magic had been jarring. I had never been with one of those. And what use could he possibly have when his entire life was practically the length of a blink of my eye? Pity.
“Always,” Asher jibed, placing a kiss on Milo’s black scales and pushing herself up to stand. When I reached out a hand for her to help me up, she merely smirked and walked towards the approaching trio.
How. Fucking. Rude!
“You’re such a bitch,” I mumbled, standing on my own like a peasant.
“But she is our bitch,” Henry, that was his name, said. From his side, Sterling laughed before embracing Asher. The two hugged as if it had been years since they saw each other last. Too long. The hug was far too long.
“Okay, okay, let’s not act like you haven’t seen each other in a century. Break it up,” I demanded as I made my way to them. They laughed as they parted, and I noted how my creature seemed a bit lighter than he had seconds ago. As if whatever she had just done with her magic had sliced her open, Asher simultaneously bled both sin and virtue.
“You know, Henry,” Sterling said, turning to face the demon. I waited with bated breath as the two looked at one another with a sparkle of challenge in their eyes. “Seeing as you are Genevieve’s bitch, I would not think you would be one to talk.”
Sterling’s sister snorted, crossing her arms and looking up at the now smirking male who seemed glued to her side. “Awe poor firefly, nothing more than a hound now.”
Henry smirked, licking his lips and speaking without taking his gaze off of her. “Yes, I love being your bitch. Even more so when we are naked.”
“Gross,” Sterling groaned, sticking his tongue out and pretending to gag. Asher laughed at his side, but she offered a small smile to the pair that made me think she was quite happy for them. “Oh, by the way, Asher. Queen Shah told me she could do it tonight if you are wanting to.”
Asher nodded eagerly. “That is perfect.”
Then my creature’s warm brown eyes were on me. He wore forest green trousers and a tight black top with the sleeves rolled up. I noted just how much fuller he looked now. No sign of the starved male who existed beneath the golden castle. His sunshine curls were wild atop his head, shorter than they were back in the dungeons when I had thought them brown. He approached me with a wicked curve to his lips.
“Hello, Spice. You are looking absolutely murderous over here. If you want, I would love to help you get rid of some of that built up tension,” he teased, his hand coming up to toy with one of my braids. Behind him, Asher cleared her throat and quickly began pushing Henry and Genevieve away, shouting for Milo and Torrel to give us space. All I could do was stare at the male before me and picture all the ways I could use him before he inevitably died.
Unsure whether or not Padon knew where I was after Stella and I had been discovered by Jonah and Venturae, I took the risk of portaling the two of us to the rooms that Bellamy had given me in place of his. After forcing the prince to make it larger and demanding he get me decorations as well as a more comfortable set of linens, I deemed it good enough. The second we were in the locked room, I shoved Sterling backwards on the bed.
“Tell me, mortal boy, can you manage to keep me entertained? Or will you turn out to be a bore and force me to kill you?” My voice was husky as I lifted my legs and straddled him. His smile was sinister, his light skin already flushed from his red blood. “So interesting that you bleed red.”
His eyes lit up, a daring look in them as he scrutinized me. Then, he surprised me by flipping us. I gasped below him, feeling his hand trail down my leg. Instead of doing what any other male would do, he stopped at the strap there, ripping my dagger free. And, without so much as a warning, Sterling cut away my blouse and skirt, then my underwear after that. Then he stood, his fingers moving to the buttons of his shirt.
“Those were new!” I shouted in response. But even I knew how devastatingly sexy it was. And as I watched him smile while he slowly undressed, light flowing in and reflecting off his hair, I realized he knew too.
My creature crawled my way, chasing me with the dagger as I backed further up the bed.
“You like blood, Spice? You know, I have lost a lot of it this last year. It seems you are not the only one interested in seeing just how mortal I am.” Wincing when my head hit the wooden frame, I stilled, trying to understand what he meant by that. “You want it, Stassi?” Sterling gave me no chance to think further before he cut a line horizontally across the fleshy part of his forearm. “Then have it.”
Warm liquid poured over me, splashing my bare breasts and stomach. For the first time in a long time, someone surprised me.
Sterling reached down and dragged the tip of the dagger across my nipple, sending shivers of pleasure throughout my body. Red spread, and I caught sight of his hardened cock as he pumped it with his bloody free hand. What in Eternity was happening? Were all magicless mortals like this?
There was a haunted look there in his eyes, sin coating the air as it pulsed in time with his cock as he rubbed the bloody tip against my clit. Moans dug up my throat from deep in my chest, and I gripped the sheets in a baffling amount of ecstasy. Just as my mouth opened in a desperate cry, Sterling shoved three blood-soaked fingers down my throat.
“Drink it, Stassi. Taste me,” he commanded. Instinctively, I sucked, the iron taste of his blood coating my tongue. And though I could not read minds like Asher, I could have sworn I tasted the sorrow and pain within him. His fingers left my mouth, the cut and bloody arm dragging down my body as he unceremoniously tossed the dagger. “Tell me, am I sweet or spicy?”
And then his head was between my legs, his mouth sucking roughly on my clit before I could answer him. I arched up, the sin in the air heady. Magic stirred inside of me, itching to break free. Demanding more of him would be so easy. Natural, even. It was what I did. But there was something about this one that stopped me from freeing the cloud of pink that raged beneath my skin.
I felt…too much.
“You, Spice, taste like sin,” he groaned out against my dripping cunt just before biting down. I screamed, unbothered by anyone else hearing as I relished the feeling of his mouth against me. Seconds turned into minutes, and soon I was near tears from the pleasure. He lifted his arm so I could see it, touching two fingers to his still-bleeding wound before driving the same digits into me.
Words could not explain the way it felt as he worked me into a frenzy, my hips bucking and my toes curling. All the while, beneath the sin that he remained drenched in, resided a dark aura of agony.
Sterling was in indescribable pain. I felt my mind acknowledge it just as I finally fell off the edge of ecstasy, my release barreling into me and likely wetting his face. I watched him suck and lap it up, his eyes scrunched in pleasure. And when he lifted his face, it was the sight of his dark red blood on his cheeks that altered something in me. Something that I was not sure if I could come back from.
My hands shook as I reached up and grabbed his neck, pulling his mouth to mine. Lips met and worlds collided. Perhaps the universe itself could’ve fallen apart in that moment and I wouldn’t have noticed. All I could think or feel or acknowledge was Sterling and his unbearably heavy pain as he lined himself up. When he shoved into me, I thought I felt a tear hit my cheek. Was it mine? His? I didn’t know. I couldn’t remember the last time I cried. Not truly.
His thrusts grew frantic, hard and fast. Desperate in a way. Normally, it would be everything I wanted. Why was this not normal? What was happening to me?
An undeniable urge to soothe him washed over me, and suddenly, I was grabbing his wound, shoving my magic into him and willing the skin to stitch back together. I wasn’t nearly as good as Padon, my magic not as perfect or seamless, but I still felt the blood slow. Then all at once, it stopped, and his wound was healed.
“I have you, my creature,” I whispered against his lips. Hips stuttering, he opened his eyes and looked at me. The whites around his brown eyes were red, the green flecks in his irises clashing with the new color. I had never seen someone look so broken, so shattered beyond repair. It hit me abruptly, the reality of what must have been happening to him.
He had his memories restored after being forcibly taken. He had been tortured, then told lies. He had been tormented and then tricked. To top it all off, he had the memories given back, and it all came back to him like a tidal wave.
“You’re not alone. Feel it all. Feel me. Give me your fear, your hatred, your hopelessness. Turn it into sin. Feed it to me and let it go.” Never had I been so kind or considerate, not since Sol and Asta were still around. But it was second nature to kiss him again, feeling as he shoved every bit of his pain at me. His body sunk, pressing into mine as his cock continued to barrel into me. He fucked me like it was his last chance—as if there might not be a future in which he lived to do so again. “Yes, just like that. Feel me, Sterling. I’m here.
When the mortal came inside of me, I wondered if he had broken me too.