Page 29 of The Demon Court

“I don’t know how you experience it through me,” she murmured, although her mind was already whirling with the implications of what the spirit had said.

Were the sorceresses wrong? She’d grown up knowing that the kings of all seven kingdoms were demons who must be purged from the land. But if they were spirits of emotions, then... Did that complicate things?

She wasn’t all that certain. If her sisters were aware that these were actually spirits, who seemed rather harmless now that she held one in her hand, would they want to fight against Lust so viciously?

Oh, her thoughts were all tied up in knots and she didn’t know what to do. Perhaps that was why, when she stepped back into the great hall, she didn’t notice as much as she should.

Instead, her breath caught as she looked up at the ceiling. They’d opened the glass ceiling to let the night pour in. The stars glittered above her and the clouds had gathered low. Some even slipped through the glass to hover above their heads in fine, glittering mist. Even the stars had pulled from their places in the sky to gently rain down upon her. Glittering faerie lights danced the moment her eyes lit upon them.

The torch light, which should have been warm and cheery instead, had taken on a bluish hue. It turned the entire world into something like midnight come to life. The sway of the pale curtains turned into the quiet sound of snowdrifts on a winter’s night. The carved people who held up the second floor had been draped in midnight blue velvet that pooled on the floor in icy heaps.

A few other lights glowed in the depths of the pools, though they were warm. The golden glow bounced and flickered off the scales of the fish that swept past them. Gilded and lovely, drawing her toward the pool like a moth to the flame.

The music in the air was quiet. The faintest strum of a guitar and a violin that sang along with it. Quiet, lovely, so peaceful she didn’t quite know what to do with herself.

Until she saw the bodies.

Countless people, all wrapped up in each other. Some of them were draped over the pillows, the red velvet exchanged for blue. Some of them were pressed up against the columns, skirts around their waists, and men already well underneath them.

A couple closest to her were halfway through their first act of sex. The woman’s breast was bared, and the man slowly dragged his tongue across her pebbled nipple. The woman’s moan cut through the relaxing sound of the violin.

“Oh no,” Affection whispered. “You don’t like this.”

“Not at all.”

“But this is... this is the castle. Is this not normal?” The little spirit grew agitated, obviously growing more upset the more uncomfortable Selene became. “We should go back. We shouldn’t be here.”

“No, we shouldn’t.” But she was no fainting princess. She wanted to make her displeasure known.

Picking her way through the bodies, she stepped over countless people locked in embraces. The closer to the throne, the more debauchery was revealed. Multiple partners, multiple people all plunging into whatever warm, welcoming hole was available. So many people that they were all tangled up together into one mass of limbs, so threaded that she’d never guess how many were there.

The sounds of their pleasure made her cheeks flame, but she refused to back down. Not when she knew this was his plan all along.

And there, sitting on his throne as if this were the most normal thing in the world, was their absurd king.

Lust had forgone his usual corset. Instead, a pale shirt was split wide over his muscular chest. Tight velvet pants hugged his thighs and did little to hide how affected he was by the display before him. But he cushioned his head on a fist and the expression he wore was decidedly bored.

That is until he saw her. She knew the moment their eyes made contact how her presence affected him.

His nostrils flared. His pupils dilated. He even sat up straighter in his throne, leaning forward as if to come to her, only to settle against the back once more. A young woman rounded the throne with a tray of wine and two stemmed glasses. She poured the red liquid into a glass, ignoring Selene, who was the only person standing in the entire room.

“So you came after all,” he said, his voice ringing through the atrium. “I thought you’d hide away in your room all night.”

She lifted the hand that held Affection, even though the little spirit tried to hide from his gaze. “I made a new friend.”

His eyes narrowed on the spirit. “You have other duties tonight.”

Selene watched as the young woman sat down beside Lust’s leg and dragged her hand up it. Dangerously close to what should have only been Selene’s if they were actually going to be married. She knew what the other woman was trying to do. And she didn’t care.

“I have no duties here,” she replied, her voice like the lash of a whip in this otherwise splendorous room. “You’ve made that very clear.”

His eyes flashed with anger. “Have I?”

“I will take no part in this.”

“This is how we celebrate in the castle, little moon. If you want to be their queen, you will do well to remember it.”

Affection was trembling so badly in her hand that it had lost all shape. It kept slipping between her fingers, trying to pool onto the floor and sneak away. But Selene just gathered it back up like a strange slime and held it in her arms. “I am not from this castle, nor do I have any wish to linger in this kingdom. You took me from my family. You made me come here even though you know I wished to remain in the icy north, within the safe walls of my Tower. And now you think I should endure what happens here? No. I think not.”

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