“Holy fuck, Siren,” he panted, and she huffed a laugh.
Xia lay in the aftermath, her muscles still trembling from the most intense orgasm she’d ever had. It wasn’t long, though, before a sliver of doubt crept in. Would he be satisfied? How long until he lost patience and demanded to fuck her with his cock?
The Siren slithered back into the recesses of her mind, but the exhilaration and freedom of domination still pumped through Xia’s veins. In that moment, as she basked in the afterglow of absolute control, Xia decided she wasn’t ready for anyone to have that sort of power over her. She’d been given a taste of domination and had no intention of letting it go.
Fury rolled off her shoulders in waves, steam lifting from her heated cheek as it met the chill in the air. Chaos was in Avyssos. What was she supposed to do? Shout to the sky and tell everyone their savior had come? That he was ready to take down Mount Olympus and set them all free?
No.
She couldn’t.Wouldn’t.
If her people knew their sovereign walked amongst them, Nyx would never be able to pull them back from the ledge. There was a fine line between faith and fanaticism, and the people of Avyssos had been through too much to lean toward faith. Nyx worked too hard to keep them alive, and all would be lost if they thought salvation was at their door. Besides, Nyx knew how it would end. Chaos didn’t care about any of them. He would leave soon and her people would be left to starve and rot.
If that bastard would put in even half of the effort to save them as he used for that useless woman lying in Nyx’s bed, the world would be completely different. That she knew for a fact, because she could feel it in her bones and her bones never lied.
It’s what kept her alive
Nyx stormed through the night as their conversation played on a loop in her mind.“I love this village, and I love these people. I would die for them. But I will not die for you.”And still, he didn’t care. The broken damsel woke and he rushed to her side without a backward glance. For a single moment, Nyx drew on that shriveled piece of her heart that still hoped the god her people worshiped would save them. The godshehoped would save them
He might as well have placed a knife in her hand when he walked away, because Nyx cut that rotting piece of herself on the river bank..
Nyx walked until the sun crested over the hills and illuminated her home in a hazy light. She spent time searching for anything edible. She’d fed that bastard the last of their rations and was begging the desolate wood for an answer. Nyx was supposed to come back from Club Hel with enough valuables to take to the nearest Olympian outpost to trade. Sure, the daemon had their own tall buildings and shining cities just like the human world, but those were closer to Olympus. Her town was nestled far away from those godsforsaken cities. The pitfall to that was living like animals with no access to running water save for the river.
As it were, Nyx hadn’t come back with shit.
Well, that was a lie wasn’t it? She’d come back with more than she could handle. Rage and anxiety burned in her chest when she thought about her deal with the Devil. Less a deal and more of a race against the clock.
“Fuck!” she yelled, her voice bouncing off the trees and reverberating through the forest. “Gods, Nyx, think!”
But there was no room for reason. She couldn’t see past the emotions boiling over. Nyx pulled her arm back and with one swift movement punched the tree next to her. She swung her fists over and over again, screaming her pain and fury into the world as her helpless soul raged. Bones cracked as splinters of bark flew, but the adrenaline kept her numb. Nyx swung until her arms were too heavy to continue, sobs wracking her starving frame as her knees hit the ground.
Her hands throbbed, knuckles no doubt shattered. Pain vibrated up her forearms and into heaving shoulders. But she didn’t care. Nyx couldn't help herself, and now she couldn’t help the people counting on her.
Nyx laid on the forest floor until there were no more tears left to cry. She stared at the copse of tree branches, moisture from the morning dew soaking into the tattered dress from the evening before.
Nyx was exhausted but knew sleep would not come. She rose, whimpering as her fingers pressed to the ground, and walked back to the village anyway. Back to her uncomfortable pallet made of straw and rags.
Birds sang overhead as she dragged her way back. Warm, sticky blood coated her palms but she didn’t bother to wash them in a stream. Future Nyx could deal with that.
Right Now Nyx wanted to feel the throb of shattered bones. It felt better that way.
It was a small mercy that the village wasn’t bustling with the rising sun. She didn’t want anyone to see her broken in both body and soul.
Smoke drifted from embers that still burned between piles of stone. Makeshift hearths where people told their stories and warmed their hands, counting on blessings from a god who wasn’t coming. She huffed a laugh. If only they knew. Just another reason to keep silent.
Their god had come, but he was more worried about a single woman than the whole of his creation.
When her crumbling home came into view, a small bud of relief bloomed. It wasn’t fancy. It wasn’t even really cozy. But, for now, it was hers. She made a silent resolution to die in that house. If they were all going to starve, she would do it in the one thing that belonged to her.
Nyx opened the wooden door and begged it not to creak. She wanted them to sleep in for as long as possible because, when they woke, reality would come all too swiftly. She stepped inside and turned to close the door as quietly as she’d opened it when a familiar presence made her stiffen.
Her heart pounded as that angry despair flooded back to the surface. If she listened hard enough,felthard enough, she could have sworn that his heartbeat at the same tempo alongside hers.
“Did you miss me, Kitten?”
Nyx placed her head against the door in an attempt to gather herself before turning. Hatred filled her blackened heart as she turned to face the cause of her strife.
The Lord of Nightmares sat perched in one of her only chairs, his boots heating by the fire. His messy blonde curls were pushed back from his face and those wild white eyes stared back at her.
