Lilith Shadowflame's Arc

Chapter 11 of 21

Lilith sat on her throne through the night and felt Damien fade to a coal at the edge of her mind. By dawn the coal was still warm, but she could not see through it. She wanted a window. There was none. She had never built one. A goddess with hundreds of eyes below her and no way to use them was a goddess with none. She tried to pull harder from the mark. The bond gave her heat, not sight. She saw the throne hall, the altar, the empty second throne. She did not see him. The dragon shifted on its ledge and watched her fail. She stood and paced the dais. Something under her ribs pulled toward the path. She named it worry, then discarded that. She named it want. That fit worse and truer. She wanted him back in the room. Not for the altar. For her. The thought sat in her mouth like a stone she could not spit out. She reached down the collar's leash instead. The succubus answered before she finished the pull, stepping out of the dark near the altar with her horns catching the purple light. Lace at her hips. Silver at her throat. She had climbed the mountain in the time it took Lilith to decide to summon her. "Where is he," Lilith said. "Two switchbacks down. Coming up. Twenty behind him." Twenty. The number should have filled her. It did not. She kept looking past the succubus at the doorway. She made her choice then, because she hated the feeling and would not sit inside it. "On the table," she said. She pointed to the strapped wooden table by the wall. "Lie down." The succubus obeyed. Lilith climbed up beside her and let the succubus's hand run along her thigh. She kept her eyes on the doorway. She heard boots on stone before she saw him. Damien came in with the mark bright on his chest and stopped at the altar. He looked at the table. He looked at the succubus's hand on Lilith's leg. His face did not move. His mark did. It flared once, hot enough that Lilith felt it through the bond like a slap. He crossed the hall in six strides. "Out," he said to the succubus. She was gone before he finished the word. He put his hands under Lilith's shoulders and laid her flat on the table. He leaned over her. "You are mine as I am yours," he said. "No one but me touches you." She laughed. It came out small and pleased and not like her. "Say it again." He did. She kept smiling under him. The yearning was gone. Something heavier had taken its place, and it had his name on it, and she did not know yet what it would cost her.