Blessed Amara was many things. Mother. Maiden. Warrior. Queen. Sage. And many others. But there was also another element to her attributes. That of the Seductress. Those that served her at the Temple of the Blue Rose were tutored in the arts of the flesh, and would often grant their favors among the chosen few.”
—CAROVYN HAMAD, SCRIBE OFA HISTORY OF THE GODS
Morning brings with it new resolve and a sense of peace I’ve never known. All the doubts I’ve endured these past few days evaporate like mist. The goal now is simple. Find Kari. Then go to Blackfyre Keep with Bael and see my sister again.
And if Bael does not seek to claim a mate for himself?
Then fine.
I’m going to be the one who does the claiming.
I know he wants me. And if a particularly chaotic God tries to get in our way, then I guess we’ll just have to see if there’s some way to kill a God.
But first… Kari.
By the time Teanna is through with me, I’ve been scrubbed from head to toe. She’s an expert with her powders and heating irons, providing the kind of clothes I’ve never even imagined, let alone touched before. Bael awaits me in the chambers upstairs, but this is important.
Rhykus never saw Bael’s face at the manor, but he knows mine.
Which means I must be invisible.
I must become prey.
“There,” says Teanna, finally stepping back and admiring her work. “You’re perfect.”
I suck in a deep breath, examining myself in the mirror. Teanna did her best to make me look vulnerable, but I cannot help but think they’ve gotten it all wrong. I feel sleek and sexy and dangerous.
And now it’s time to put the outfit to the test and see what Bael thinks of it.
“Come in,” he calls, when I rap on the door.
He turns as the door opens, like some sort of fairy tale beast…
And then he freezes, his gaze sliding over me swiftly, before darting back to my face as if his eyes simply cannot believe what they’re telling him.
I lift my hands to the thick velvet cloak draping my shoulders and tug the cord loose, so the cloak slides down my body with a slither and pools around my feet.
Bael’s eyesburnas he follows the path of the material.
“Do you think this will do?” I purr, enjoying the moment.
Teanna painted my skin with gold in places. Intimate places. The gauzy black dress is draped around me strategically, leavinghints of skin. Just enough to tempt a male’s gaze to linger. The slit to my thigh bares my legs, and my thick dark hair has been twisted back into an elegant affair that weaves together in loose braids, until it forms a single one down my spine.
I remember the way he grabbed my braid last night, and slickness wets my thighs as I think about him doing it again.
“It will do.” The words rasps through a dry throat. “Amara’s breath. You’re… beautiful.”
Bael circles me, taking ineverything.
I track his path, shocked by how much I enjoy the dark glint in his eyes. I could own this male in this moment. I knew there was currency in sexual power, but this is the first time I’vefeltthat power.
He is mine.
“Are you ready?” he asks, presenting an invitation and a small circular item on a velvet cushion.
My hands hesitate as they lock around the collar. This was once anathema to my very being.
I will never yield. I will never fall to any man’s touch…
