Page 3 of Inheritance
I thought of my mates again, and my heart ached to be with them. To be by their sides, freeing the capital from the tyranny of the Dark Elves. I just needed to hold onto the truth I knew in my heart—that they would find me. They would come for me as soon as the war was over. I just had to wait it out...however long that took.
Damnit, I didn’t want to wait it out. I needed to be there for the war. To help. I could feel it in my soul: it was absolutely essential that I be there.
Glancing over my shoulder at Luce, I decided to offer up one final proclamation before I took my vow of silence—for now. "One day, when I am nothing but a shell of the person you think you want, you're going to realize that you took everything from me when you caged me…and you will regret it. Markmywords."
The only response I got was his lips parting with a sharp intake of breath, and I turned back around to gaze out the window of my prisoner cell. Moments later, the door opened, then closed again, and I heard the telling sound of a key turning in the lock from the outside.
I was trapped with the devil himself.The most powerful being in the realm was supposedly my mate. Yet, I knew no amount of power would rid me of the love I had in my heart for my true mates, who were fighting a war that would change the realm as we knew it.
Steeling myself for the mind games I knew would undoubtedly be on the docket for the duration of my imprisonment, I vowed to take control. I'd turn the tables on Luce and play by my own rule—the singular mandate that would govern everything I did as long as I remained in this cage.
Above all else, I would do anything it took to get myself out of here…even if it meant killing the devil himself.
CHAPTER TWO
Ama
The devil was a fan of chocolate chip pancakes.Fascinating.Maybe I would poison his pancakes...
Except, itwasn’tfascinating—or anything else positive—because I shouldn’t have been sitting across from him, watching him eat breakfast, the next morning in the first place. No, I should have been with my mates on the front lines of a war to save the Kingdom of Pura—to save our families and our people.
Instead, I was sitting across from him as I devoured my eggs Benedict, unashamed that I was completely stress-eating. It felt justified now, if at any time. At least the food was good—that was something I could appreciate as a silver lining to being held captive.
Actually, I could also easily admit to appreciating almost every element of this castle I’d seen so far—at least from an architectural standpoint. Mind you, that “every element” consisted of the bedroom I’d woken up in, the long, windowless hallway leading to this room, and the massive circular dining table we were sitting at. My eyes moved towards the long, narrow windows that looked out over a mountainous landscape lit up by the morning sun. It was a beautiful sight that contrasted starkly with the gothic architecture and design of the castle. It reminded me of our castle back home in Mortem...
But this wasn’t my home. This was the devil’s castle.
It was hard for me to believe that the sinfully handsome man sitting across from me was the devil. The immortal being who had been asleep for as long as I could remember, leaving Hell to rule itself. I’d known he was real, but to me, he’d still always been something of a fable or story—one I would admit to having always found fascinating, but which I had certainly never considered actually experiencing. Especially on such a personal level.
The devil’s mate? The concept was honestly laughable, but now that I recognized what the mating bond felt like, I couldn’t deny it. I was going to just hope that he would stop bringing it up.
Although, he seemed very stuck on it, and throughout our silent meal, I could feel his eyes on me. The tension between us was so intense that I felt on edge, like I needed to jump out of my seat and leave. I had nowhere to go, though. I was a prisoner until I accepted his words, and even then, I wouldn’t be able to leave. The crazy bastard truly believed we were meant to be together and that I could just forget about the others.
I wouldn’t lie, the reality of this situation had stung a bit. I’d enjoyed our weird dreams together, but they’d been safe because they had been exactly that—dreams. Not anymore, though. In fact, I’d had absolutely no dreams last night, and I had a feeling it was because of Luce taking my magic.
Who the fuck took someone’s magic like that? It was like stealing the oxygen they needed to breathe.
That was probably the part of this whole thing that made me the most anxious. My magic was gone. I could feel the void in the center of my chest, and it was draining my energy, leaving me feeling as if I was coming down with a minor cold or flu. Typically, I only felt like that when I needed to feed my Succubus side. This time, though, it was elevated to a whole new level. it was coming on faster, and if I didn’t find a way to fix it, it was going to be debilitating.
I fought the urge to put my head down on the table—I couldn’t look away from Luce because he was a threat, but I also felt as though I was on the verge of falling asleep as my body struggled to conserve energy.
“You know, they can make you anything for breakfast. They’ll do whatever you want.” Luce’s deep voice had me meeting his golden gaze, which seemed to almost glow with intensity. The man was a picture-perfect representation of a “golden god”, and everything about him seemed to radiate light. His hair was a golden blonde, and his skin was a rich, healthy color— nothing like you would imagine from someone who had been sleeping for hundreds of years—and it contrasted with the dark suit he wore.
“So, if I wanted breakfast delivered to my room, they could do that?” I hedged, annoyed that he had all but demanded we have meals together. Was he trying to win me over with food? I mean, don’t get me wrong, I loved food, but it wasn’t enough to convince me that he wasn’t an extremely shitty person or that I needed to spend the rest of my life alone with him.
“I told you, we are eating meals together every day.” He spoke with an expression and tone that told me what he wanted was all that mattered and that I needed to abide by his laws with a smile on my face.
That wasn’t going to happen.
“Yes, youorderedme to do exactly that,” I snapped, dropping my fork on my plate with a loud clang.
“It wouldn’t feel like an order if you justattemptedto enjoy yourself,” Luce muttered softly, his eyes taking in my expression. “I have been waiting for you for a very long time, Little Temptress. I see no harm in getting to know one another. Especially since you won’t be leaving anytime soon.”
A snarky smile crossed my face, “And what, exactly, would you like to know?”
“Everything.” He shrugged, leaning back in his seat as his gaze moved down and over the black dress I wore, the flimsy silky sleeves arranged so they hung off my shoulders. It was actually really pretty, despite not being my normal style, but I obviously couldn’t let him know I liked it.
“My father is the ruler of the House of Death,” I explained easily, watching surprise color his gaze momentarily. He had hand-picked my father to rule that territory, after all. So he definitely knew him.
