“What?” Ena asked, her cheeks reddening slightly, catching him staring.
“Nothing,” Ty began, reaching out to gently grab her face, stroking his thumb gently across the beautiful blush on her cheek to assure himself that she was real. “It’s just, part of me can’t believe you’re actually here. I spent so many years dreaming of you in this very room, and now…here you are. It almost doesn’t feel real.”
Ena smiled up at him, and his chest felt tight. Did she know she had that effect on him?
“I know the feeling,” she said, stepping closer into him.
He took the movement as permission and leaned down to press his lips to hers. Her lips were so incredibly soft, like two warm rose petals, and he parted them gently with his own. She opened for him, leaning into his body automatically like she was drawn there, and Ty pressed her lower back into him, feeling her breasts squish up against his chest.
His heart beat faster, and his cock hardened as everything they’d done last night came rushing back to him. The way she’d obeyed him and practically begged for it, the things she’d admitted, and the feral enjoyment in her eyes when she’d sucked his fingers clean.
Iblis, she was so fucking perfect for him, and it drove him absolutely wild.
His fingers dragged down the side of her neck as he deepened the kiss, only to snag on the cold iron of theimperaecollar.
He pulled back, guilt flooding him as he looked down at it. Ena inhaled sharply, as if missing his kiss, before reaching her hand up to touch it herself.
“Shit, Ena,” he said, stroking it with his thumb. “I’m so sorry about this. I should have warned you.”
Ena looked down, watching his hand as he touched the collar. “What is it exactly?” she asked.
“We call it animperaecollar. It’s Imbued using runes, like the ones you saw on the entrance to the Underworld, only instead of causing confusion, the collars are Imbued with the Power ofdocili.They make the mortal, or daemon, who wears it docile and compliant to commands.”
“Like myvisanis?” Ena asked, seeming concerned by this association.
“Sort of, but it doesn’t compel them to do the command, like your Gift. It just increases their susceptibility to suggestion, and makes them more willing to do things without resistance.”
“Others have worn them before?” she asked, her brow furrowed.
“Yes, the mortals that have been taken and forced to serve here in the Underworld, they wear them. And some daemons, too, are forced to wear them as punishment. Those who do are calledimperi, and they are made to serve the upper- and mid-level daemons.”
“There are differentlevelsof daemons?” Ena asked, this idea seeming distasteful to her.
“Unfortunately, yes,” Ty answered, steeling himself to reveal one of the more shameful aspects of his home. “It’s part of the hierarchy I told you about, the one Cole insists on. Not all daemons are afforded the same privileges as Steig, Turner, and I.”
“I see,” Ena said, contemplating this.
He knew these ideas were foreign to her, and he was worried how she might react. There were many things about the Underworld that were complicated, and he didn’t want her to judge them all on the ways they’d been forced to be.
“But why did he make me wear it?” she asked. “The collar, I mean. The magic in the runes won’t work on me because I’m a witch.”
“Exactly,” Ty said, raising an eyebrow. “Cole made you wear it anyway, as a symbolic gesture. Just to illustrate your status as a witch-slave. To make sure everyone, including me, knows your place in the hierarchy.”
Ena scoffed at that and turned away from him, taking a seat in the chair. She seemed…not upset, exactly, but annoyed.
“I know this is a lot to take in,” he said sympathetically. Would it be too much?
She sighed, then looked up at him. “It is, but I’m fine, I promise. It’s just that your uncle seems like a fucking piece of work,” she said.
Ty couldn’t help but laugh. That was one relatively mild way of putting it. He would go with “manipulative piece of shit,” but that was just him.
“Believe me, I know,” he said. “That’s part of why I want to break the bond. To break his hold on this place. If daemons had more of a choice…they might not all follow him.”
Ena nodded. “I get it,” she said. “I’m okay, really.”
Ty’s chest swelled with pride to see how well she was taking everything in stride, and part of him relaxed slightly. “You’re doing so well with all of this, Ena,” he said gently. “I’m impressed. But let me know if that changes, okay? I don’t ever want you to feel scared. You know I’ll protect you, right?”
“Yes, Ty, I know,” she said, giving him a small, sweet smile. “I trust you.”
