Page 80 of Insidious Monsters
“Leaving so soon?” Barathos appeared in the archway, blocking our exit. He’d shucked off his corset, leaving his gauzy silver shirt open to halfway down his smooth chest. His midnight-blue skin shimmered with silver tones and his indigo eyes flashed wickedly. “We have yet to share in your aura of pleasure.”
A sigh rippled across the room, followed by excited murmurs.
What was he talking about? I looked up at Lothos, but he was in a gaze-off with Barathos. Dahlia caught my eye and the dismay on her face had my stomach tightening.
“I welcomed you into my home,” Barathos said. “I gave your nova prima a Failte fitting of a status you lost long ago, and now it’s time for you to show your appreciation.”
The room fell into an expectant hush.
Barathos’s gaze fell on me, and his mouth lifted in a wicked smile. “As your liege, I invoke the right of Fairoir.”
An uproar filled the room.
“Hasn’t been invoked in centuries.”
“Wasn’t the custom discontinued?”
Okay, panic alarms were blaring in my head now. I squeezed Lothos’s hand. “Lothos, what’s going on?”
It was Barathos who answered, sauntering toward us as if he owned the place—which he did, of course.
“You’ll both fuck for me, August. Right here. Right now.”
twenty-one
Istared at Barathos blankly, the word “fuck” echoing in my head, because surely I must have misheard him. Surely he didn’t just say that Lothos and I had to fuckforhim.
“What in the hell does that even mean?” All decorum fled as panic and anger met inside my chest and decided to do the tango.
“He means what he says,” Lothos said calmly. “Fairoir is an ancient, discontinued rite, and I must respectfully decline.” The polite bob of his head belied his terse tone.
Sharp inhalations of shock filled the room.
I didn’t need to have someone spell it out for me to realize that saying no to the prince was a bad idea.
Barathos went lethally still. “You know what the penalty for refusing your liege is, don’t you?”
Lothos lifted his chin. “I do.”
“But I don’t.” I glared at Barathos. “What is the penalty?”
“Death or torture that will bring you close to death.” He smiled, eyes devoid of emotion. “I choose which.”
He’d kill Lothos. He’d use his refusal to end him. Why? Just so he could get to me? There was nothing special about me, so this had to be a power play between the two of them. I just happened to be stuck in the middle.
I cared for Lothos. He was on my list of people to protect, but protecting him now meant crossing a line that would alter our friendship forever.
I didn’t want to do that. I wanted out, and Telarion’s name was on the tip of my tongue. But if he came, if he found out what the prince wanted from me, nothing would stop him from tearing out his spine. And hell, that was no skin off my nose, but it was detrimental to Lothos’s people.
I had no choice. “We’ll do it.”
“What?” Lothos stared at me in shock. “August, I don’t think you understand—”
“I do. It’s fine.” I swallowed the lump in my throat and locked gazes with him, trying to communicate the tangle of emotions in my chest. “We’ll be fine.”
He put his arm around me and dipped his head so his lips brushed my ear. “You don’t understand. If I start, I won’t be able to stop. It won’t be quick. I won’twantto be quick. I haven’t fed since we signed the contract.”
My heart tried to escape my chest and the air seemed suddenly thinner. “Why? Why haven’t you fed?”
