A ripple of nervous laughter trembled through the court. Nexia’s smile faltered, and with a hiss of magic, she snapped her fingers. Servants hurried forward with adifferentchest. This one, smaller but a pile of jewels glittered inside without enchantment.
Alora trembled when Rune’s shadows continued up her thigh. Her core throbbed in anticipation as they grew closer, but they then slid up her stomach. She exhaled sharply and Rune hid a smile as Ira came forward next.
The great war demon presented them with a chest of armor, a beautiful black chest plate veined in crimson, much like her bodice. Though this one was sharp like a tangle of thorns and adorned with tiny red flowers. Included were matching gauntlets and greaves.
“For your Queen,” Ira said, his voice low and booming. “It will turn away any blade, damned or divine.”
Rune inclined his head. “A gift of purpose.” His gaze stayed on the Lord of Wrath as his shadows secretly continued beneath her dress, curling through the valley of her breasts like smoke. “May your hammer never falter against any unworthy opponent.”
Ira grinned and stepped back.
The Wrath faction roared, beating their chests. She was grateful it masked how rapidly she was breathing. Alora clenched her fists when her undergarments grew wet. She ignored it, telling herself it was because he was touching where no one had before.
Rune’s smirk grew.Oh?
Alora scowled at him.Stop it.
His fingers curled around her neck lightly, so light it made her shiver.Why? I am enjoying watching you try so hard not to squirm. Has no one ever truly touched you before?
It wasn’t as if there had been much opportunity for lovers when she had been confined to a cottage in the woods for most of her life.
Does that please you?
Rune gave her a wicked smile, flashing the edge of his fangs.What pleases me, Alora, is that I will be the first one to fill every inch of you. Once I do, you will desire no other cock but mine.
Alora nearly choked on her drink.You truly have an inflated sense of self-importance.
He hid a grin behind a curled hand.You will soon find that’s not all that’s inflated.
Would it be treason if she stabbed him in front of the entire court?
Her attention on his touch stalled when Segrith glided forward next.
She stopped at the base of the dais and held up her offering. A small scale of blackened iron, delicate yet heavy with unseen gravity. One pan held sand that burned faintly like dying coals. The other, nothing but a single white feather.
“A rare gift, my king,” Segrith murmured, her voice like a dying flame. “The Scale of Ordinance.”
Rune’s gaze sharpened. “And what does it measure?”
Segrith’s expression never changed, but the faintest tremor of a smile curved her lips. “Everything that matters. This will tell you when the balance shifts between love and hate, light and dark, beginning and end. When the feather falls, you will know the cost has been paid.”
Rune reached to take it, but the moment his fingers brushed the cold iron, the feather trembled and a single grain of ember-sand vanished in a hiss of smoke.
“Keep it,” he said tightly.
With a flick of Segrith’s clawed finger, the scale crumbled away into sand. She didn’t seem offended by his rejection. Her hand lifted, palm out as that eerie eye looked straight at Alora.
“Then in its place, I offer my queen a gift. By the end of the dance, something you’ve lost will be returned to you.”
Alora’s heart jolted, immediately thinking of her lost lark hairpin.
Rune’s eyes narrowed with suspicion and his shadows drew away from her skin.
“I ask for the same in kind,” Segrith hummed before he could speak.
He nodded once in agreement, and she retreated backward with a bowed head.
The last to approach was Sal’vathar.
