I prowltoward the majestic Scarlet Temple, summoning my moths like a crescent moon at my shoulder, along with my rats who scurry in the shadows.
I feel exposed without Devil stalking at my side, but my demonic lion bodyguards are forbidden to enter the sacred quarter of Sheut, the Temple Precinct.
My eyes glow with rage.
The long, straight avenue is lined with giant stone sphinxes with ram heads. Their bodies are carved with frenzied scenes of Bloods both feasting on and sacrificing Blood Lovers: sex, pain, and death.
I thought that it was symbolic of the Scarlet Temple’s duality of assassins and courtesans.
I was wrong.
What else have I been wrong about within my own kingdom?
“Who knew that Dove would taste…like mine?” I lick across my fangs.
This is the first time in three years that my fangs’ pain has dulled.
I shudder, chasing after the delicious nectar taste.
Dove’s blood is coursing through me like an explosion of magic — purelife.
I am flying.
My eyelashes flutter, and I press my gloved hand to my chest.
Is Dove in my heart forever now?
“Such beautiful wings,” I mutter, buzzed. “Would he fly with me? Like a beautiful, large moth. I always thought that Relius and I would…”
I shake my head, trying to clear it.
For the first time in my life, I am filled with sunlight.
Yet the night feels more alive than it ever has. I can hear the soft shuffle of the ibises settling in the temple courtyards, a cat jumping between the roofs, and the pulsing hum of the crickets beneath it all.
Thousands of animals, birds, and insects, all under my command, are just within this Temple Precinct.
I take a deep breath of the cold air.
The aching hunger is quietened within me, but a new hunger has been awakened.
One for the fae’s blood.
Pinning Dove down and drinking from him was like drinking sweet heaven.
On my fangs, is Dove truly a Shadow God descended to my nighttime court to be hunted by us monsters?
I growl.
If I was good — like my dear Omega appears to believe — then I would protect my heavenly fae.
But I’m not.
I’m the monster prince…king…assassin.
Instead, my fangs ache to desecrate the skin of his fair neck again.
The best thing, however, is that as much ashelooks good, he isn’t either.
