Page 105 of The Demon Court

“Welcome back,” Minerva said. “Would you like to fill your sisters in on what you have encountered in Lust’s castle?”

She took a plate offered by Ursula and met Minerva’s gaze. “It was warm.”

The silence ringing after her statement was enough to make her smile. Selene demurely ate her food, her thoughts still on the man upstairs. Had he affected them all? Maybe she was feeling his power through the floor, and that was why she couldn’t focus on what was happening in front of her.

But no. None of her sisters were wiggling in their seats like she was. And she couldn’t imagine they could stay still if their thighs were as slick as hers.

Why was she here?

Minerva frowned. “Anything else? Anything more interesting than that?”

“Not really.”

“You were sent there for a reason. Did you forget that purpose?”

“I did not. I was sent there to get the demon king under my thumb, and if I could not do that, then I should gather as much information about him as possible so that we can all take the castle. You claim it is our rightful place in this kingdom.” She popped a cherry tomato into her mouth. “I did not forget.”

“Then have you failed?” Minerva’s face turned bright red. “You were always a worthless little foundling. I trained you for years, preparing you for when you could save us all. And instead, you have forgotten your entire life’s work for a man who has made the entire world fall to their knees before him. He has corrupted you.”

Corrupted? Yes. That was the word for it. She felt him deep inside her, even though he’d never been there before. Did it matter, though? She didn’t mind being corrupted, and he certainly enjoyed corrupting her.

Clearing her throat, she nodded. “Perhaps he has. But he also was kind enough to offer me a home in that castle. A place to rest my head in safety, with people who wanted me to be happy and welcome. It’s more than I can say for my life here.”

She could have cut through the shock with the butter knife next to her plate. Everyone stared at her as though she’d grown a second head, and maybe she had. A better one. A better mind that knew how to deny her mother from her cruelty and how to prepare herself for the life that she actually wanted.

She wanted a life with him.

A life with Lust that would be filled with color and warmth and sure, some things that made her nervous. Moments that would push what she thought was right or proper, but did that matter in the slightest? No. Not at all.

She didn’t want to be here. She wanted to be with him.

“Mother,” she breathed. “I want to have a relationship with you all here. I want to have you in my life and I want to know that you are happy. But I do not want to live here forever. What he has offered me is something I hope to someday offer all of you.”

The color drained out of her sister’s faces, but she never stopped meeting Minerva’s gaze. She wouldn’t back down this time.

Minerva put her fork down. “You will stay here for the two weeks we require of you. Clearly, you are not the daughter I sent away.”

“I am not.” Selene stood. All the weight she’d been carrying with her seemed to drip off her shoulders as she said the words that freed her from this place. “And I don’t intend to stay. If you’ll excuse me.”

“I’m not done speaking with you.”

“But I am done speaking with you.” And with that, the chains around her shoulders released. She could almost hear them clang as they hit the floor, and she left them behind in that room. Her sister’s jaws remained open as she swept out of the room she’d just entered.

Selene didn’t care. For the first time in her life, Minerva’s opinion of her didn’t matter. And by all the seven kingdoms, that was freeing.

Her feet flew up the stairs to her old room. It wasn’t the highest point in the Tower, but she was breathing hard by the time she stood outside her door. Her fingers itched, her hand raised to push open the door, but her stomach twisting in fear. Did she want to do this? Could she?

Before she could overthink everything that had just happened, she heard his voice. “Get in here, Selene.”

She shivered at the dark promise in his voice. Breath catching in her throat, she stepped into the darkness of her bedroom. Night had fallen quickly, and there was no light other than the candles he’d lit next to her bed. A bed that was absent of the large man she expected to see.

Instead, all she saw was darkness and furs in glimmering golden light.

His dark voice whispered in her ear, “Are you sure you want to do this?”

“I am.”

That dark voice deepened even further, the rasp of a demon in her ear. “I will consume you, Selene. There’s no going back.”

---