Page 83 of Crown of Chaos

Inside the main room, Istewed over the dismissal Knox had dealt me. Fear fueled my thoughts, forcing every worst-case scenario that could unfold into my overactive brain. The way he’d tilted his head and looked at me with sparkling, taunting eyes had me convinced he’d been calculating just how much time I had until I hit the psychotic-nympho-with-anger-issues stage again.

Avyanna was updating me on each child while I half-ass listened. Siobhan would randomly offer her own information on one or another of the children.

“Do they ever shut up? My vagina aches, and he left us. He walked out, and there was aheadin his hand. It was so sweet of him to bring her head to us, but the rest of it wasn’t sweet at all. I let him smell our need, and he walked out. What does hewantfrom us? I am horny and achy. Maybe we should have asked the library for something sexy instead of the grandma nightgown you wore.”

I sat up straighter, blinking at Ember’s outburst. She’d been silently pacing within me for days and had totally gone silent last night.“I don’t think he cares what we’re wearing when his entire plan is normally to take it off,”I pointed out crossly.

“We’re going to grow cobwebs soon, cobwebs, I tell you! Bats are going to move into our pussy as if it is the ideal location for the bat cave! Why, oh why did I get you as my host? Can’t you feel me wasting away from lack of dick?”

“I really don’t think anyone’s ever died from lack of dick, Ember. You’re being overly dramatic. Besides, he literally told me to fuck myself because he would not help us out this time. He and Lennox are driving us nuts on purpose.”

“No, he isn’t driving us anywhere, and that is the issue. And I’d suck his nuts if you’d give me half a chance with him! But no, Aria isn’t willing to be captured because she doesn’t want to be chained to the bed. Bitch, please! If he chained us to the bed, he’d be fucking us so hard that you wouldn’t have time to give a shit about the chains. I miss his cock. I want to hug it and rub it and name it!”

“That’s sad, Ember.”I snorted, but the sound wasn’t inside my mind and Avyanna paused and looked at me.

“Are you all right? You seem anxious and more annoyed than usual,” Siobhan pointed out as she pushed the hair away from her face. “Your fangs also keep sliding out, which we can actually hear. It’s frightening the children, Aria.”

“She’s heading into a heat cycle, and Knox basically told her to either figure shit out on her own or women the fuck up and find him to take what she wants,” Esme informed before popping another kernel of popcorn into her mouth and moaning at the deliciousness of the buttery goodness she was eating.

“Do you need assistance, Aria?” Jasmine asked, turning her green eyes toward me and smiling. “I can be ready to please in seconds, which puts most men to shame.”

“No, thank you,” I muttered, scrubbing my hand over my face before flopping back in the oversized chair.

“You might as well slap a born-again virgin sticker on our vagina and hold a funeral for it. I doubt anyone wouldcometo it, since it’s a failure and couldn’t land dick in the first place, though.”

“A funeral? Why? If it is born-again, it isn’t dead.”

“It feels dead to me.”

“It does not. As we speak, it’s clenching with signs of life!”

“That’s because it’s flopping around, gasping for dick to give it life again. I know. Ask Knox for mouth-to-vagina resuscitation! That’ll make us weep with pleasure as he breathes life back into our poor wilted, severely neglected vagina. He’ll assume he is the hero, and all parties will be happy with the outcome.”

“That isn’t how resuscitation even works—or, maybe it is? That’s beside the point here, Ember. There is more to life than just getting dick. Knox isn’t interested in fucking us anymore. Deal with it.”

“You’re insane if you think that was what he meant. Jesus, Aria. I thought you were thick, not stupid. He wants to be chased! I love chasing. So, if you’re not willing to capture him and fuck that aggression out on that magnificently thick dick that promises to rearrange our guts, move on over and let me into the driver’s seat. This bitch can drive that dick!”

“I don’t want to drive that dick, and I have shit to get done,”I growled, standing to pace before the fireplace, which wasn’t anything like Knox’s.

“Maybe if you worried about getting off as much as you worried about those stinky midgets, we could focus on the same thing.”

“Maybe if I had bigger tits and a larger ass, Knox wouldn’t be commanding me to hunt his ass down! Isn’t he aware of how this works? The man chases the woman, not the other way around.”

“Do you think better curves could help get more dicks or get Dicker to notice us more? I mean, we could go eat a village, and I could slow our metabolism down to force some curves onto your skinny ass,”she shot back with a hopeful note in her tone.

“No! This isn’t Build-A-Bitch Workshop. We have to focus on what I need to get done. I need to get the wind element now that we’re aware of where it is, and then I need to get my scrawny ass to the cave where we met Aden. There’s no dick in the plan, Ember!” I snarled, turning as children whimpered at my sudden outburst. “And now we’ve scared the children. Are you happy now?”

“We could just eat them and handle the issue quickly. They literally are nothing more than whiny midgets who enjoy sitting in their own feces and urine. If I’m being honest with you, I don’t think I want one anymore. They’re ungrateful, shitting, urine-infested creatures who stink and drool. I now understand why we eat our young and find it most appealing.”

“Oh, for the love of god,stop!We’renoteating them. They’re children. It’s what they do! Eventually, they’ll be potty trained and won’t drool anymore! Now, that’s enough about eating them!” I snarled and then winced because everyone was staring at me with wide, horrified eyes. Their little lips quivered, and then the entire room erupted with crying.

“No, no, stop crying! Aria won’t eat you. I promise she didn’t mean it like that. She’s working through some internal issues,” Avyanna cooed, giving me a side-eye. “You won’t, right?”

I groaned in frustration and rubbed the bridge of my nose. “No, I will not eat the children. I promise I will never eat you, sweet witchlings.” I added that to the list of shit I never thought I’d say.

Jasmine snickered before whispering, “Polite, murderous creatures gooutsideto speak about consuming children—or most do, anyway.”

Deflating, I groaned again before blowing the air from my lungs. I needed to eat, and while the food the library provided was delicious, it didn’t satisfy Ember’s craving for raw meat.

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