A Kingdom of Ruin (Deliciously Dark Fairytales 3)

“That wasn’t in my brief,” Govam said, holding out his hand for me to take so that I could get in the tub.

Her slurping teamed with Jedrek’s loud moans made my skin crawl. She was clearly being noisy on purpose, and he liked her all the more for it. Once he was in the water, she must’ve switched to a hand job, because the sloshing of water accompanied his groans and grunts—at one point, the guy fucking whinnied. Whinnied! What in the actual fuck?

“Does she have to keep it up through the whole thing?” I asked at one point, the attendants scrubbing suds through my hair. The bath might have actually been pleasant if not for the soundtrack. It wasn’t the actual act that disgusted me—I’d been in the castle, after all; I knew how those things went—it was that the guy thought he fucking deserved it.

Govam stood beside me with his arms crossed over his chest, facing their way. His expression was dark. He didn’t reply, but he didn’t seem overly fond of the situation himself.

“Does it affect you?” I asked after getting out of the water. The attendants had dried me and were dressing me in a puffy pink gown that should’ve been used for curtains. They strapped the sword around it, which made the whole ensemble marginally more tolerable.

Govam glanced at me; he was still close but facing to the side, doing me the courtesy of not staring at my nudity.

His eyebrows shot up.

“The sexy magic,” I elaborated. “Does it affect you?”

“No,” Denski answered, standing near Jedrek. Sonassa was letting him grope her while the attendants rooted around in a chest for pants in his size. “Not unless their power is greater than ours. Which is very rarely the case, isn’t it, Sonassa? Demons of your sort are best left for menial jobs, like jerking off possum shifters.”

“It won’t be pleasant for you to marry him, will it, little dragon?” Sonassa asked me in a sultry voice, ignoring Denski. It seemed the various demon factions disliked one another. At least the ones forced to work together. “You won’t have magic to get you in the mood. You will have to be held, I think, when he makes an heir. Unless you make friends with me, of course. I have the ear of his highness. I can push off the wedding if you’d like me to…”

My blood ran cold. Was that what they were doing? Getting us ready for a wedding?

“The ear of the highness?” Denski huffed. “You don’t have access to the cock of his highness, let alone his ear.”

Sonassa glared but didn’t comment.

A while later we were walking again, and despite Jedrek’s repeated questions, they wouldn’t tell us where we were headed. The hallways got finer and grander the farther we went, until it was obviously a place of royalty. Dolion had paid attention to the areas that mattered to him and clearly ignored the rest.

Through a set of double doors, we found a large room with gold and cream walls, a large crystal chandelier, and a huge rug adorning the floor. Red cushioned stools lined each side of a walkway up to a raised dais hosting a grand golden throne—empty—with purple fabric on the seat and back. Two golden posts rose beside it, draped with purple and red fabric. It was pretty impressive, I had to say. I didn’t even know if Nyfain’s castle had a throne room. Probably, I supposed, but I’d never seen it.

Govam directed me toward the dais and then stopped. Jedrek was guided to stand next to me, and the guards fanned out around us, Sonassa dropping her smirks and smiles completely.

I felt my eyebrows creep up as I looked around, not noticing the details so much as trying to keep my raging heart from breaking loose from my chest and skittering across the floor. My stomach tied in knots as I waited for whatever would come.

The door opened and admitted a handful of guards, all wearing loose black tops and tight black pants leading down into shiny boots, like Govam and his guards. They fanned out around the throne, a few standing in front of us, before Dolion walked out with all the arrogance and self-importance in the world. His long purple velvet cape dragged across the floor behind him, lined with puffy white fur around the edges. Two other demons followed, and I could smell them from the distance. Musty and gross, they were powerful, not terribly far down the power scale from the demon king himself. Their skin had the same blue tint, and similar horns curved away from their temples.

Dolion stepped up onto the dais and sat, swishing his cloak around him. The others took their places at his sides, a step down. The hierarchy was clear, even for idiots.