Chapter Sixteen

***RHODES***

Every time my twin or I cause trouble, Kieran punishes us both. And today it’s the worst one, manual labor.

“We were set to be Princes,” Kallias mutters to himself for what feels like the millionth time this morning.

I don’t think my brother remembers exactly why it is that we’re cleaning the stables. In fact, I’d bet my right blade that Kallias is still so drunk that he remembers any aspect of last night at all.

It’s a glorious morning to be intoxicated. Pure white stillness coats every inch of Twilight House. Kieran of course will have to lie to his court that he chose to let the snow in, that he wanted to bring cold and wet into his gardens, anything to prevent our enemies from knowing that his precious wards are failing.

He held them perfectly until morning. And since then, Kallias and I have been working. The world around us the last few hours turned into glittering heaven.

When the sun is well past noon, I decide it’s time. I stick my pitchfork into the hay and replace it with a fresh bale. “Do you remember last night?” I ask.

Kallias peers down from where he’s working on the roof above me. Despite the cold, he’s shirtless, and I can’t say I don’t understand why the Offering went for him first. Why did she go for both of us?

“Don’t remember a fucking thing,” he answers, then goes back to work as if it’s nothing more than another day of work.

Except it’s not. “Keiran is fucking pissed.”

“Don’t you say that every time we end up in these stables?”

I pinch the bridge of my nose. “Kallias, seriously–”

“What did you do this time? Fuck a girl from an enemy court?”

I can’t say I blame Kallias for assuming it’s my doing that we’re here. I’m always the one to bend the rules, and break them, while he is always perfect, even somewhat honorable compared to the rest of us.

“I hate to say it brother, but it’s your funeral he’s planning.”

Kallias stops painting.

“What do you mean?” he asks, stopping his work and joining me on the stable's ground floor. “What did I…there was the party, then the Offering, the bath…”

I watch as it clicks into place.

And it’s not a pretty sight.

“Holy shit, was that all real?” We are identical, both have deep tan skin, but my twin looks as pale as the snow around us. “Did I–?”

“Yes,” I answer, resuming my work with the hay.

“And did attack–”

“Our King, and employer? Yes and yes.”

My twin mutters something that resembles a plea to the Great Mother. Then his violet eyes meet mine, wild as a day of battle. “I didn’t…?”

“None of us fucked her,” I reply, and I know it’s time to confess, “but I did spank her.”


“You DID WHAT?” Kallias drops his can of paint. I curse and move instantly to fix it, fucking Kallias.

“Keiran ordered it,” I explain to my brother, “and he watched and then nearly fucked her. We debated doing it together, but she grew shy and naive, such a fucking shame.”

Kallias looks like he’s swallowed a bug. “And how was she, when you punished her?”

My cock turns hard as I recall the memory of my leathers against her sweet flesh. I’d kill to be in that position again, three whips were not enough to satisfy my hunger.

“Curious, obedient, flirtatious in the face of my sadism.”

Kallias growls, signaling he remembers all of last night. “You’re such a fucking sadist,” he says, “you all fucking are.”

There’s no use in denying that. Me, Xaden, and Kieran could all compete for centuries on which one of us is heavier on that scale.

But Kallias, the nice boy acts with him is not all just an act, my brother does not approve of my treatment of the Offerings, not to the extent I like.

Or not anymore, at least. Not since the last Offering broke from it.

I still think to this day, a century later, that Kallias broke with her. He hasn’t been the same since.

None of us have.

Up the mountain, I can make out our half-sister riding down the mountain on the back of a white horse.

It’s painful how much I seek out Remi. Pitiful.

“On stable duty, brothers?” she asks when she arrives. “And here I thought Kieran was starting to like our place in his court.”

Kallias is listening to Vienna about just as much as I am.

Remi is a fucking dream on the back of her horse, riding down the mountain with the grace of born royalty. And the clothes she wears, their Vienna’s, a light purple dress and violet cloak.

The color of my brother and I’s home court.

“Stop your gawking,” Vienna orders us, handing me the reins of her horse. Her next words capture my attention. “I need you both alert tonight, you’re to accompany me and the Offering to the City.”

My twin and I squawk like seagulls. Vienna is hardly phased.

“I don’t know about you two, but I don’t need permission from the King to go into town.”

Kallias laughs at the sky. “He will with his most precious cargo. What the fuck do you think you can say to him to change that male’s mind?”

Our pirate sister puts her hands on her hips. Against the white snow, her red hair is nearly ablaze. “As far as I know, Remi is the one dying, so Remi is the only one who should make that choice.”

My twin and I exchange a look.

She’s talking about last night. The males she murdered from Moon Isle.

Kallias bites his bottom lip. I know.

She looks fucking awful, I say back, noting my sister’s split lip and black eye. Maybe we should back her up.

To be honest, I’m surprised Vienna is alive after last night. She murdered five High Lord's sons completely alone, a task even I wouldn’t dare to do without the extra set of eyes from my brother.

But then again, Vienna’s always been fiercely independent. Forced, perhaps, as Kallias and I have each other and she has none. And in terms of the Moon Court Heirs, they say vengeance is the strongest motivator.

Kallias shakes his head. We swore an oath to Kieran for this period of war, now is not the time to be defiant.

Fine, I concede. Then we argue.

“They’ll crowd her,” I say aloud, placing Vienna’s horse into its stable. “She’ll become too overwhelmed.”

Our sister raises her chin. “We’ll disguise her,” she says, but we’ve heard that before.

“They’ll smell her,” I say back. They always smell the Offering.

My sister’s head seems about to explode. “It’s her fucking choice, her fucking body.”

Yup. This is definitely about Moon Isle.

“Kieran won’t allow it,” Kallias says quietly, “not after Riley.”

Not after Riley. I don’t think I’ve heard him say her name in…half a century.

“Who’s Riley?”

The whole world, me, Vienna, the argument we held between us just seconds ago, vanishes.

And gods, Remi is gorgeous.

Her long brown hair is in a single braid down her back, just begging me to tug at it. Her lips and cheeks are extra pink from the cold, and her upturned nose, which I’ve never noticed before, is dotted with a sea of freckles.

Kieran is right in his assessment.

She’s a little, lost doe.

“Is she another Offering?”

My twin, perhaps from his hangover, looks just about ready to throw up. And then I’m not quite sure what’s happening, but Vienna’s arm is around the Offering's shoulder and Kallias is puking his guts out and I for whatever god damned foolish reason am trying to make the sacrifice feel better.
“I heard you’re interested in going into town,” I say, observing how the veins in her neck have grown larger in her horror.

She shrugs but drops the questions about Riley. I want to bend her over and take her just for how she looks at my brother.

“I think it would be a good idea,” she says, “given how the witches come in eight days for the ceremony.”

“Ah,” Vienna starts, pulling away from the offering and rubbing the back of her head, “that’s another reason I think you might need a drink tonight.”

The Offerings face drops. Little. Helpless. Doe.

“Y-you said eight days,” her eyes are wide as if Xaden is present, “you promised I had eight days.”

This Offering is more terrifying than most. I say to my brother. Is that a good thing, or a bad thing?

I receive nothing back but vomiting noises and a strangled, fear can be a choice, from Kallias.

Fear can be a choice, no doubt. And last night I saw the Offering feed into it as I whipped her, then falter.

Maybe she just needs a push. Kallias suggests.

I look at our baby sister. The strength she now carries alone.

Maybe she just needs to consent.

“Tomorrow the Priestesses visit our court for what is known as Daemetai,” I say to the Offering, all steel edges. “It is a ceremony to prepare you for the sacrifice. You will be bathed in front of our entire court, not in a gown, not in a robe, but naked before hundreds of high vampires. Positioned directly in front of Kieran’s throne. We’ve had Offerings go in thrashing, gracefully, and everything in between.”

I don’t know if it’s my words, or the smell of the stables and Kallias’s dinner, but the Offering leans over and throws up.

Vienna comforts her immediately, Kallias too, but I hold the scared little doe’s gaze and expect her to show me what she did last night. I expect her to show me that fearlessness.

And she does.

“It’s important you know that this is not intended to be anything but an honor, but it will be done to you whether or not you wish it to happen,” I continue, praying, that this time things will be different, “this is happening, and that there is nothing that any of us can do except willingly murder two hundred and fifty thousand to make it stop.”

A warning, I suppose, of what is to come at the sacrifice.

“And Riley?” The Offering asks, wiping her tears and staring straight at me. “How did she go into…Daemeta?”

"Daemetai," I correct in a tone that's harsh, too harsh. So I make an attempt to...soften. "It's called *Daemetai,* baby girl."

The Offering looks at me in the way I'd imagine a scared and curious child would approach a shark.

"Well..how did she go into*** Daemetai?***"

My cock twitches at the sound of the ancient language on her tongue...of her bathing before us all.

Vienna takes that one. “She drowned two Priestesses.”

That spark of power, of self-assuredness, flashes in the Offerings' eyes once more. “Should have been three,” she says, then laughs to the snow-cromed world, "I guess I do need to go tonight for a drink, do you have any pubs?"

Our pirate sister lights up, "we have many princesses," she answers, swinging her arm around the Offering, and I swear, I watch my twin brother fall in love.