Lilith Shadowflame's Arc

Chapter 5 of 21

Damien stayed on his knees at the foot of the dais. The oath still hung in the air between them. Below the mountain, the succubus was already speaking Lilith's name in doorways. Worshippers would climb soon. They would expect a ceremony. Lilith had none. She knew the shape of a crowning only from what others had done to their gods. A song. A vow. A hand that placed the crown. She had no priest. She had no song. She had a follower on his knees and a crown already on her head, warmed by a name he had given her an hour ago. She stood. The dragon lifted its head on the ledge above the thrones. Lilith lifted the spiked crown off her scalp and set it on the arm of her throne. The purple in the throne's crystals dimmed a shade. Her scalp felt bare and cold. "Stand," she said. Damien stood. "You want my bite." "Yes." "Then you will earn it. When the worshippers come through that door, you will be the one who places this crown on my head. You will speak my name so they hear it. You will kneel after, in front of them, so they see what a follower looks like." His eyes moved to the crown on the arm of the throne. "You want me to crown you." "I want you to hand me to them. If you do it clean, I bite you after. If you fumble it, I don't." He was quiet. She watched his jaw. She watched his hands. "Say the words back," she said. "I lift the crown. I say your name. I set it on your head. I kneel." "In that order." "In that order." She sat back down. She left the crown on the arm of the throne, in reach of him, not her. That was the part that mattered. A goddess who placed her own crown was only a woman with a heavy hat. A goddess crowned by a devoted man was a goddess. The dragon made the low sound again. Not a growl. Something closer to attention. Down the mountain path, faint, she heard the first voices climbing. The succubus had done her work faster than expected. The villagers were already on the road. "They're coming," Damien said. "I hear them." He stepped up onto the dais without being told. He stopped beside the crown. He did not touch it yet. He looked at her once, the way a man looks at a door he has decided to open. "Goddess Shadowflame," he said, testing it in the empty hall. "Louder, when they're inside." "Yes." She sat straight. She set her hands flat on the arms of the throne. The ceremony existed now because she had said it did. The first footsteps reached the temple stairs.