Chapter 3
CHAPTER THREE
Seraphina
The sound of footsteps woke me from a restless sleep.
My muscles fucking ached from being chained to this fucking cross for so long.
It was going to drive me mad. Perhaps that’s how Laszlo would finally break me, by driving me insane on cross.
It had now been five days since I was chained up.
Each night, I watched the moon wane further, the new moon nearly upon us.
The moon was larger here, similar to the one I knew, and yet different.
The night sky held more stars here, and they twinkled with colors, unlike the muted stars I grew up whispering my hopes and desires to.
Laszlo’s guards opened the doors, their gazes lingering on my naked flesh. How they could find me even remotely attractive covered in this much dried piss, blood, and cum was beyond me. One fucker even squirted into my hair. I was cutting his dick off first, mark my words.
“Time to get cleaned up, my dirty little toy,” Laszlo mused, eyeing me with his stupid haughty smile. “Tonight, the creatures of this ridiculous planet will come together and pledge allegiance to their new leaders.”
A stunted laugh escaped my dry lips. “If you think Belial is going to share his throne with you, you’re an imbecile.”
Laszlo, to his credit, barely flinched at my words. “Belial knows the importance of our alliance. He rules Stella Terra, and I rule Earth. Together, two worlds of slaves, two worlds of power. With our combined efforts, we will take on every planet and bring the universe to heel.”
“Oh, so not your normal, take over the world plot.” I rolled my eyes. “Go big or go home, as they say. I stand by my previous statement. He will never share power with you. In the end, you will be just another pawn in his game.”
Laszlo toyed with his cufflinks, a simple outward sign of his annoyance. Seeing him dressed like this reminded me so much of Andras, my dark prince.
“And if you think I blindly trust that daemon without my own plans, you’re a bigger fool than I expected.” Laszlo stalked closer to me and scrunched his nose. “You smell, Seraphina. Get cleaned up for the party. As the honored guest, we must have you looking your best.”
He brushed his thumb across my mouth, pressing in on the wound he made earlier today. While the physical violence was minimal, whenever my mouth delivered a sassy comment, which was often, he slapped me hard enough to draw blood.
But pain was an old friend, and I didn’t flinch when my lip split under his hard touch.
He smeared the blood across my lips and leaned in as if he meant to kiss me.
Laszlo’s body pressed into mine, his erection poking my stomach like some horny frat boy who couldn’t find a clit if it was shoved in his face.
I glared up at him. “Rub that cock on me as much as you want. But it will never be as good as your son’s. Fuck me, oh douche king. Take your pound of flesh and know that there is nothing you can do to me that I won’t overcome.”
Laszlo stepped back, crossing his arms, wrinkling his tailored suit.
“I am not going to fuck you, Seraphina. No. I’m going to let every creature in this army take you in every way they want.
And all the while, I will watch. Your body will be used again and again and again.
And you will do this, because it pleases me. ”
Rage burned through me, and a flicker of power sizzled just out of reach.
He smiled, greedy eyes taking in my anger. “And when your sister comes, I will do the same to her. By then, you might even help me.”
I screamed at him, spitting curses and every threat I could come up with. My skin burned where I pulled against my restraints. “I will fucking kill you before you touch her.”
His dark and hateful eyes pierced mine triumphantly. “And when I have severed your ties to my son, when I have broken your mind so completely that all you crave is my touch, I will make you beg for my kiss. My cock. You will moan for me and only me. And all those who stood for you will bow to me.”
Bile rose in my throat as I continued to struggle against my bindings. “I will die first.”
Laszlo patted my cheek and stepped back, a satisfied smile on his smug face. His words rattled me, and he knew it. “It has begun.”
He walked out of the room, head held high, and I screamed profanities at his back.
There is another choice. Belial’s enticing voice wrapped around my mind like an inky cloud.
Two idiot guards stepped forward, and the one to my left immediately stuck a needle into my neck. My body dropped forward as I lost feeling. The larger guard carried me through Laszlo’s rooms into a massive en suite bathroom. A small female in a gauzy shift dress stood in the room, waiting.
The guard lowered my body into the bath already filled with warm water and stepped back, turning to the woman. “Laszlo’s orders are to clean and dress her. No talking. You will have one hour, and we will be waiting outside the rooms.”
She nodded but didn’t speak. I groaned, unable to move due to the drugs and my unbelievably sore muscles.
Never in all my days had I missed my ability to heal rapidly until now.
Lying in the steaming bath, I watched the woman walk toward the doors and wave her hands in front of them, muttering words I didn’t know.
A thickness suddenly coated the air around us, and she turned back to me with a smile.
“We can speak freely now, but we don’t have much time.” She smiled, her green eyes glowing. “I am Jophielle.”
“Who are you, exactly?” I mumbled, unable to be courteous when my mind and body were so fucking exhausted.
Jophielle smiled again. “An ally.” She knelt beside the bath and slid her arms into the water. Her soft hands brushed against my arms, and warmth spread through my body.
I gasped as the pain receded and my body finally began to heal. My eyes darted around the room, searching for an escape, when Jophielle squeezed my arm, drawing my attention back to her.
“No.” She shook her head. “Now is not the time to flee. You’d be caught instantly, and the protections to keep us out would double. You must remain for now, but know, we will pull you out soon.”
My shoulders slumped back into the water. “How soon?”
Jophielle smiled sadly. She picked up a cloth and delicious smelling soaps and began washing away the grime from my hair. I grabbed another cloth and scrubbed my body, ridding my skin of the soon-to-be-dead guards’ fluids.
“I cannot say too much now, just in case others are listening,” she finally spoke. “When the new moon rises, be ready for us.”
I paused my ministrations. “How will I be ready? What creature are you, exactly?”
Jophielle giggled, her bright eyes twinkling. “So curious. Your mother was that way, too.”
My head whipped around in a blink. “You knew my mother?” I scrutinized her further. This woman did not look nearly old enough to know my mother. Time moved differently here, though. Morax said something about daemons and lumens living for centuries, their youthful looks lasting for just as long.
Jophielle nodded. “I am a lumen. I lived in the palace.”
We both continued cleaning my battered body as I let her words sink in.
“How did you end up here?”
She dunked me under the water, scrubbing her nails into my thick hair for several minutes before letting me up. At least some of my power was coming back, otherwise I’d have drowned. She smirked at me, and I grinned back.
“Queen Aurora only kept a small circle of us close after Belfegor was killed. My family was loyal to the crown and to the Valdis line for hundreds of years. We remained at her side until the end.” Jophielle sighed, her eyes downcast and clouded with hurt.
“Most of my family was killed, but one of my powers is the ability to project a mirage of sorts, and I made those who came believe I was dead, too. I was entrusted with a task. To be here, in this place, when the daughter of Aurora and Belfegor returned.”
My mind whirled with the implications of her words. There was so much more to this story, so many things my mother put into place without us knowing. “I’m sorry your family was killed.”
Jophielle nodded. “As am I. But we all knew the parts we would play in this.”
I shook my head, brows scrunched in confusion. “But why? Why is this all happening?”
She stepped away from the bath and held out a robe for me before speaking. “Because you are the one who will end it.”
A startled laugh escaped my lips. “No pressure.”
Jophielle cocked her head up at me. I wasn’t tall, and she was still at least a few inches shorter than me. She might be a lumen, but the female was giving me major pixie vibes. She reminded me of Tibby, in that way, but with dark curly hair instead of bright blonde.
“A millennia before even Queen Aurora was born, the old gods sent down a prophecy,” she began.
I aimed to interrupt, but Jophielle held up a hand to silence me.
“No time for questions. This prophecy foretold the greatest battle, one all creatures in our world and beyond would have to fight. And the one to end it would be born of a great Seer and a prince of old with a tainted soul. This child would be a perfect blending of light and dark, lumen and daemon, life and death.”
This was insanity. I shook my head vigorously and stepped back from her. “There is no fucking way I am that…creature. I have power, but I am not all that.”
Jophielle clasped her hands in front of her and sighed. “Not yet, young queen. But you will be.”
A sigh escaped my lips. I wanted to believe her.
A guard pounded on the door, shouting for us to hurry along.
She squeezed my shoulder. “Illegitimi non carborundum.”
I cocked my head to the side. “What does that mean?”
Jophielle smirked down at me. “Don’t let the bastards get you down.”