Page 76 of Scion of Chaos

I sense laughter through the bond, strongest from Pan and Erebus, whose seed I actually swallowed quite a bit of already. It’s fainter from Asterius and Typhon. And through the link, I can easily sense that the two I’m closer connected to areverykeen on the idea of me being naked more often than not.

“Well, bottoms up.” I clutch the goblet in both hands and bring it to my lips. The aroma is now toasted pecans and caramel, like it’s making its way through a coffee shop menu. The instant it hits my tongue, I taste coffee and nearly choke from surprise. But it’s tasty, so I gulp it all down in several swallows. It’s cool and thick, but goes down easily.

When I empty the goblet, I lick my lips and an involuntary belch escapes. Vesh stirs behind me at the sound. I peek over my shoulder, chagrined.

“Sorry.”

He lifts his eyebrows and gives me a sleepy smile. The man is downright adorable, all mussed with a pillow indentation on one cheek.

“You drank it. I was worried you wouldn’t.”

“It tasted pretty good, actually. I didn’t think it would.”

His brows scrunch together. “What did it taste like?”

“Like a Frappuccino. Why? Should it not have tasted like that?”

“It’s semen. It typically tastes like semen. But the prison anticipates the needs of its residents, so I’m assuming it altered the flavor for you.”

I stare into the goblet, frowning and trying to decide whether I should be grossed out. But I feel fine. Better than fine, in fact.

I set the goblet down and Vesh reaches for it, absorbing it into himself the way he did the shards of void glass when I arrived.

He scoots closer and props himself on one elbow, drifting his fingertips up my spine. “How do you feel?”

Closing my eyes, I take stock again. I enter the increasingly familiar dark landscape where I greeted Typhon earlier and find the handsome young man waiting with a huge smile. But this time, it’s more than a sense of his presence that I feel. My limbs tingle with the immensity of his power, the space we share luminescent with it.

Then it’s as if doors open around me, swinging wide before falling away to expand this mental space. On one side I find Asterius, waiting like a solid, watchful sentinel. On the other is Pan, in a space I sense was there all along just waiting for me to discover.

I don’t need to look to know the other two are waiting behind me; I can simply close my eyes and feel both Vesh and Erebus looming larger than the other two, their power as potent and affecting as Typhon’s. Between the three of them, the landscape is altered, becoming more than just a nondescript space that was once empty and black. The darkness acquires weight, architecture blooming from the earth like a garden, except where Pan stands an actual garden appears, complete with a trellis of roses arching over him.

The most surprising thing is the excitement I sense from the five of them. I turn and find Vesh standing to one side, and on the other is a man I almost don’t recognize.

“Erebus?”I walk toward the imposing, armored man with dark skin and black hair flowing around his shoulders. The black armor covering his body is ornate, with gold designs etched all over it, glimmering with light that is the antithesis of who he is, but perhaps a better reflection of the state of his soul. He has human features here, though, not the angular visage he shows when he isn’t simply pure darkness.

“It’s me.”He looks down at me, then at Vesh, both of them wide-eyed with wonder.“I don’t know what I expected, but it isn’t this.”He waves his arm at the entire scene, encompassing the other men and the elaborate palace still forming in the distance past the garden.“Or them. You’re connecting us even deeper to one another, Nemea. I didn’t think that was possible.”

A touch against my shoulder makes me turn, and finding no one there, I realize it happened in the real world. I open my eyes and turn to Vesh, only to have my face gripped between both his hands before his mouth lands on mine. His kiss is intense, the sheer gratitude in it confounding. When he pulls back, he stares into my eyes.

“Thank you. I always believed we were as strong as we could get as a team, but you are making us even stronger.”

“Um, you’re welcome, I think? I admit I don’t really understand any of this, but I’m excited about it too. Just as long as it doesn’t mean you all spy on me on the toilet or anything.”

He chuckles and shakes his head, then reaches up and taps my temple lightly with a fingertip. “You’re in control up here, Nemea. You can create the environmentyouchoose, and we will exist within it at your whim. Think of it as your own personal Tartarus.”

“Are the others very upset that they haven’t been included yet? They know they will be, right?”

His brows twitch and his fingers tighten possessively on my hip. “You don’t have to…”

I cut him off. “Yes, I do. I’ve spent years trying to figure out who I am, what my purpose is—if anything. I’ve had this gaping hole in my soul ever since the night I learned I was Bloodline, but never knew what it meant. It turns out that this is what I’ve been searching for.Youare what I’ve been searching for. All of you. For the first time since that night, I feel… calm. Like I actuallyfit. Wearea puzzle, the ten of us, and even though five mates sounds like a lot as it is, I know I’m not close to finished yet. Just look…”

I clench my eyes shut and drop into my personal sanctum. It feels like home, knowing it’s mine and that I can invite them to it or not. I spin until Vesh appears, noticing while I do that the others are now absent. Pan’s garden remains, though, and I wonder if there’s a library somewhere within that still-growing palace where Asterius might retreat if he chooses.

But there is still a swath of blank emptiness on one side that I could only feel in the outside world, but is actually visible in here. There is only the barest glimmer of other doorways, with dark keyholes waiting for me to unlock them. I don’t know whether they know they already have a place waiting for them here, but I intend to show it to them soon.

I open my eyes again to the real Vesh, who watches me with consternation. He harumphs, and I squint at him.

“You’re jealous, aren’t you?”

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