Page 472 of Kingdoms of Night

Tamuz calmly descended after me, waving off the ship’s crew with that taloned hand—larger with sharper, slimmer nails.

Swift as they’d docked, they took back off into the air, a dark, shrinking shape in the verdant dawn. Leaving me stranded this high up.

Anticipation tightened my joints, keeping me tense as I followed Tamuz deeper into the floor, becoming encased in pale, curving, opalescent walls.

The blade stung against my heated skin, like it was itching to be used. It was too early. I needed to be careful, not impulsively attack my one ally in this alien world.

The ceilings rose higher as we exited the tunnel, baring a multifaceted end to a mirrored room lit by dim, green torches.

If sunlight shone into this hall, it would be blinding.

Tamuz stopped in the center, and behind him loomed a circle-backed throne carved from an opaque, white rock. Moonstone.

Swallowing on a dry throat, I headed towards him, torn between fear and fascination. I stopped three feet away, attempting to regulate my breathing. “Now that you’ve delivered me, I hope that you’ll be more forthcoming in the minutes I have left.”

“Minutes until what?”

“Until what happened to the six previous brides happens to me.”

“You are so certain of their demise?” He hummed curiously.

“They each left one winter to wed your master and were never heard from again. Am I supposed to believe they are not only alive, but safe?”

“I have no intention of hurting anyone, least of all you.”

Within a blink, the fire in my blood had chilled, leaving me frozen stiff. “You? You’re—”

He threw out his arms, pale hands turned up in a beckoning gesture to form a staple pose among sculptures of patron gods. The holy image cracked when he bowed his head to me in acknowledgment. “Tamuzalam, Prince of the Phases, a pleasure to formally meet you.”

CHAPTERTHREE

There had been whisperings of what the Shadow King was like. Ranging from a horned beast like the monster Khumbaba to a humanoid being like the gods. Popular opinion couldn’t decide what he was, demon or deity. I hadn’t cared beyond wanting him gone.

Except…

“P—Prince of the Phases?” I stuttered. “You’re responsible for the Moon changing its shape every month?”

“I was.”

Such a brief response carried the weight of troubling implications.

“Why?” I wheezed pathetically. “Why are you keeping the Moon from us below?”

“It is not my wish to darken your nights and keep my home in the permanent state of the new moon,” he said tersely. “What do I have to gain from doing so?”

“Seven brides plucked from their earth, never to be seen again,” I said. “I wonder, what number will be enough for you? How long will you hold our safety past sundown hostage?”

“Until I find the one that I have been looking for,” he said. “Moonlight will not return to the world until I am truly wed, in every aspect of the word.”

I was aghast, my jaw between my toes. “Are you that horrid that you not only can’t find a willing woman on your world, but have to terrorize a human into accepting you?”

“It would seem so,” he said bitterly. “Believe me, if it were as simple as it sounded, we wouldn’t be here.”

“Why not? People marry and remarry every day with little to no trouble, what makes you so special?”

Tamuz held out an arm, baring the large, pale, taloned hand and nothing else. “It may have slipped your notice, but I am a god. Nothing I do will ever be as mercifully simple as it is for mortal men.”

Curiosity scraped at my skull, the distraction his mysterious form posed made it difficult to remain angry. I wanted to see what was under his shadowy cloak, especially now that I knew there was something under it. That he wasn’t just a being of pure darkness, featureless and frightening.

---