Ava and Jasper stood at the edge of the ship, where the rowboat swayed on the sea’s surface, tied to the ship.
I wandered over to them, avoiding Ava’s attempts at catching my gaze. Jasper bowed deeply for both me and the Prince before he slowly dropped to one knee in front of me.
I wasn’t sure he had to be on his knee for this. It wasn’t like I’d ever done it before. Hell, I wasn’t even sure I could. Rumours and speculation, out of hand. At least, that was how it started.
Clearing my throat, I took Jasper’s offered hands in mine and shut my eyes. The inner hand shot through me on instinct and clutched Jasper’s honey power in an iron-tight grip.
My hands started to sweat. I could feel the thumps of Jasper’s frantic heartbeats on his hands, slick against mine.
Tightening my grip on him, I forced the inner hand to reach further into him, far beyond the surface of his warm essence. When I was certain I’d reached the bottom of his power pit, I tightened my grip and pulled, slowly. Thick, sweet power ran up my veins. It still fought against me with its thick, sticky texture, but I was stronger than ever—I dragged every scrap of it into my body. As the power rushed to my horns, it made my head dizzy.
I staggered into Adrik, who steadied me with his hands on my waist. I let Jasper’s hand go and, as I opened my eyes, I noticed the difference in him instantly. His honey smell was gone, but so was the faint glow aniels carried with them. No golden aura in the right light, no sunkissed touch to the skin. He was ordinary.
To be sure, I took his cheeks in my hands and raided him, searching for pieces left behind. But he was empty, hollow, a mortal vessel.
Letting my hands fall from his face, I studied him as he inspected his hands. Awe slackened his face as he looked up at me, like I was the first and only God he’d ever seen.
Even Prince Poison watched me with a newfound wonder. I avoided Ava’s gaze, still. After everything, I just couldn’t bring myself to face her.
I just couldn’t forgive her, and with how volatile I was feeling of late, I didn’t want to risk ripping out her spine too.
I stepped back from Jasper and watched as he shakily got to his feet. Unsteady, he tried to find his balance by holding onto Ava’s sleeve.
“How do you feel?” I asked curiously.
“Do you feel weak?” Adrik pressed, excitement clinging to his tone.
“I feel mortal,” he said, lines creasing at his mouth. Lines that I was sure spoke of regret, however fleeting. It was a big decision to make, and there was no going back now. I didn’t do refunds.
“You’re free to go,” I said, keeping my gaze on Jasper. “Both of you.”
Ava’s silence thickened at my curt farewell. But whatever it was she wanted to say to me, she let the words die with our final moments together.
She helped Jasper onto the rowboat before worshippers untied the ropes and, with Adrik’s push of power that shoved them away from the ship, they were on their way.
Looking out at the rowboat as it drifted away to a new life, I felt the Prince’s bitter cold presence come up behind me.
“We’ll start with my temple,” I decided, not because I craved worshipers and adoration.
The sooner I had a temple built in the Lost Square, the quicker I would be cemented alongside the Firsts and inject renewed life to the old shadowy part of the Capital.
I would make it my Square.
end of book six.
epilogue
From the balcony, the stars seem to be within arm’s reach. They burn so brightly in the navy blanket of the sky that I have to squint against the glare.
I feel his presence before he steps foot on the balcony. Behind me, the Prince leans against the doorframe, shirtless.
I hold only a bedsheet to my form, clutched just above my breasts. Both of us wear the sweet scent from our shared bed.
In silence, we watch the stars wink down at the Lost Square, where freshly painted buildings glitter. Our bedchamber looks down on my favourite part of the Capital.
It took months but, finally, the forgotten part of the Capital gleamed as brightly as the rest, its crimson and pink faces smiling at us from the bottom of the bone-white hill.
The sound of parchment rolling breaks into my daze. I look over my shoulder.
Past the Prince, Adrik is in the bedchamber, tying up scrolls with thin ribbons. Lists of my worshippers, applicants, those who devote themselves to me.
A new God is all the rage, I’ve come to know.
Too many of them pledge themselves to me for little reason other than that I rebuilt the Lost Square and killed Phantom. But to pledge themselves to a God, they forget what it means. I own them, their lives, their souls. So I take only the most devout for my temples.
“Ava wrote to you,” the Prince says, and looks out at the dark sky. “Again.”
I see the familiar letter on the table where the others sit, unopened. “I’ll get around to them,” I say.
“Please do. I fear we will be buried alive in them one day.” The Prince’s smile hooks me in, and I find my gaze drifting to his chest. “At least destroy them, if you will not read them.”
I shrug and carry myself over to him, aches from too long in bed with him clinging to my bones. His arm comes up around me as I melt against him, my cheek resting on his hard, marble-like chest.
“Burn them,” I suggest, watching Adrik arrange my scrolls for the day. I’m studying every piece of known history on the Gods and the world, searching for answers about the Hole of Health, anything that can tell me what happened to me beneath the water.
The Prince is just as lost as I am when it comes to the Hole of Health. I refuse to let my questions go unanswered, and I refuse to waste time on silly letters from Ava, a vilas I once loved and who abandoned me long ago.
It’s easier now. I don’t love her anymore. The closest I feel to love is what I have with the Prince.
And beyond him, I feel little.
“Dress for the saloon,” he orders me. I bristle against him. “The games begin shortly.”
I peel away from his hold, and turn my dark gaze on him. “I’ve told you before, I will not trade him.”
Prince daily demands the return of Adrik, and not because he misses him. He wants to inflict unspeakable tortures on him, tortures that are too ill even for me. Mind, most call me a Beniyn.
“Adrik is mine,” I say, then storm into the room. My head aniel was smart to make himself gone—he’s not in the grand bedchambers anymore.
Prince is hot on my heels. “If not in a game of cards, I will have him,” he hisses.
Holding the sheets to my chest, I spin around, stopping him dead in his tracks.
My voice is low and dangerous. “You can’t throw me in the dungeons anymore, Draco.”
His lashes lower, casting dangerous shadows down his beautiful cheekbones. With the hand that wears our ribbon, he reaches out for my loose hair.
I see the dark excitement in his eyes. “Is that a challenge?”
I lift my chin. “Try it at your own peril.”
He does.
In a heartbeat, I’m thrown onto the bed with a bounce, and pushed down as the Prince lowers himself onto me.
He pins my wrists with his poisonous hands and floods me.
My head throws back as a cruel laugh cackles from me.
“Is that the best you can do?” I tease before I hike my legs over his hips and push up to meet his mouth. I bite him, hard, tasting the sweet copper of his dark blood.
He hisses against me. I leverage the distraction and flip him onto his back. The sheet slips away as I straddle him.
My bite turns to a hard, commanding kiss.
Into my mouth, he murmurs, “You are my poison too, my cruel Monster.”
I’m as much a daemon as I am a God.
But most of all, I’m a Monster.
And I am loved for it.
end of the Gods and Monsters series.
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Monsters: (A Dark Gods Romance) (Gods and Monsters Book 6) Page 6