He resembled the demons I had read about as a child.
He leaned forward until his face was in the crook of my neck and inhaled deeply. My jaw clenched.
“She doesn’t smell like much.” His voice lilted with an unfamiliar accent. It wasn’t one I had heard before. Native to the Vampire region?
“She doesn’t have to smell like much to still be our Champion,” the Incubus King drawled lazily.
“I still don’t understand how that can be!” This outburst was, of course, from the Mermaid King. Envious bastards. I knew they would be upset that a Mermaid hadn’t won the competition. Though, if I wasn’t mistaken, a Mermaid hadn’t even made it to the top ten.
“What’s your name?” This next voice was not belligerent but not necessarily kind. I swiveled my head towards the shadows, somewhat surprised that the Shadow King was speaking to me directly.
From the gaping mouths of the other men present, they felt the same.
I quickly caught my bearings, standing straighter.
“Z,” I answered firmly.
“Z…” He said my name as if he was testing it, tasting it on his tongue.
“Not Zara?” The Genie’s King voice was tinged with amusement.
Zara was the name of the woman I was impersonating - a blond bimbo that served as the maid and lover of Z. Basically, I was the perceived lover of myself.
Diego had had a field day with that knowledge.
At the thought of my best friend, my mood instantly turned somber.
“My name is Z,” I said sharply. I had thought I had overstepped when the Genie King’s eyes flared brightly, but the Shadow King merely threw back his head in laughter. It wasn’t entirely unpleasant. It sounded almost...normal. As if he was familiar with laughing.
“I like her. She has fire.”
“She’s a female.” I didn’t even have to look to know that it would be the Shifter King who had spoken. “And she’s a human.”
“But she won the Damning,” the Shadow King pointed out. Was I mistaken or did he sound...smug?
“That she did.”
Silence. Sudden and pronounced, suffocating me as if I was buried below twenty feet of black, sticky tar. I resisted the urge to fidget.
I was in the room of my enemies, the monsters I had been tasked to kill, and there was nothing I could do about it. The knife in my sleeve suddenly felt ten-times heavier.
How easy it would be to slice through flesh and tendon and bone…
There was a certain way you had to hold a knife for maximum impact. Lightly gripped between your fingers, the copper handle resting on your palm, an extension of your hand. A fluid flick of your wrist…
“The situation is different,” the Incubus King agreed with a nod. My eyes, unbidden, flickered towards him, and I sucked in a breath. He was gorgeous. I hadn’t expected anything else from a descendant of lust, but it wasn’t even his unnaturally good looks that caused my heart to hammer. It was the power he exuded in waves. Even from where I stood, liquid heat settled in my core. I had the need to rub my thighs together to alleviate the ache.
I noticed Lupe sniff, eyes heating with lust. No doubt, he could smell my arousal. If he could smell it…
The Vampire King laughed giddily, slapping his thigh for emphasis.
“Better tone it down a bit,” he said, turning to smile at the Incubus. “We don't want her to jump you.”
The Incubus King’s grin was satisfactory, eyes brewing with wanton desire. His hair was a shade of garnet, darker than his son’s, and his chiseled cheekbones made his face even more striking. What I wouldn’t give to lick…
I shook my head, clearing my lust-muddled haze. Anger replaced it, and I glared at the King.
How dare he use his powers on me?
The man who had hurt my mate! I recalled Killian’s story, how this despicable man had tried to force him to have sex with a woman he considered a mother. When Killian refused, he raped her in front of him. And then killed her.
Anger burned me from the inside out, molten lava brewing just below the surface. I had the sudden urge to leap the few feet separating us and jab my knife into his head. No, that would be too quick of a death. He deserved to suffer. Bleed.
Lupe’s expression was positively murderous. His hands clenched and unclenched at his sides.
“She has to prove herself,” the Mermaid King cut in. It was apparent he was jealous that the attention was no longer on him. Resisting the urge to roll my eyes, I reluctantly turned in his direction.
My brow furrowed when I caught his son’s eye over his shoulder. Dair’s brother. The man was handsome with lightly tanned skin and golden blond hair, but he didn’t hold a candle to my mate. My mate…
I still hated those damn words.
The man - Tavvy, if I remembered my facts correctly - was watching me with rapt attention. His head tilted to the side as if he was contemplating a difficult math equation. I pulled my eyes from his, focusing on his father, the Mermaid King.
“A task. One chosen by each king.” There were a few mutters of approval before they were silenced by a wave of his hand. The Shifter King growled harshly at what he perceived as a slight from the Mermaid. I had a feeling he would attack the envious ruler if not for Lupe’s hand on his shoulder, restraining him. My mouth flattened at their touch, hating to see Lupe with such a monster.
“A task?” the Shadow King parroted, amusement evident in his voice. The Mermaid’s smile was positively gleeful.
I couldn’t help but compare it to the smile of a sociopath seconds after a kill. It was a smile not intended for comfort.
“A task. To prove your worth and loyalty to the seven ruling families.” He nodded towards the Mage King, descended from Sloth,
