Considering her life had been written off as a broodmare? “Yes. Yes, that has… some interest.” Georgia cautiously sat on the spot Suzanne indicated. “But as I understand it… well, I’m pretty much trapped. I signed a contract… this, being allowed to pick my own… er, husband, I guess… is pretty much best-case scenario. Right?”

Suzanne rolled her eyes. “Oh, I bet the brutes genuinely believe that’s a real win for one of their helpless little Breeder slaves. No offense. Even after their new queen demonstrated what kind of power you contain, they still can’t quite wrap their meaty heads around you being more than a womb to exploit.”

Georgia blinked. “I’m sorry… power? What power am I supposed to contain? And… what exactly is it you can do to help me? And why do you want to? What’s in it for you?” It felt borderline disrespectful to ask that of a freaking goddess, but considering the circumstances, it felt prudent. “And also, what was the whole Maine-charade about? If you didn’t want Kesh to know your identity, why come here?”

“Ah, yes… All fair questions.” Suzanne smiled, her eyes crinkling at the corners, but there was a sharpness in them. “Your power, darling, is what draws the demon scum to you like flies to honey. It’s the light you carry—their darkness craves it on a primordial level.”

“My light? I don’t carry any light. At most, I carry a depressive gray. There’s nothing special about me—outside of being able to see through demonic disguises. Well… I could. I can’t anymore, not after this thing.” Georgia touched a hand to her forehead. “And, supposedly, the whole… breeding thing.”

Suzanne let out another pealing laugh. “Oh, sweet girl… Yes, outside of being one of the rarest creatures on the planet, there’s nothing special about you. Your light, Georgia, is what makes you feel others’ pain. Makes you do whatever you can to help them not hurt anymore. It’s what made you run into the middle of a battlefield to save a helpless child. But it’s more than that—it’s magic in its purest form.

“For centuries, it was believed the ability to use it had been lost with the agreement to tie your fates to the demons. It hasn’t. The queen proved as much. You are powerful, Georgia. More than you know. You just have to learn to unlock it.”

Georgia rubbed at her temples, where a headache was threatening to form. “Okay… let me get this straight… You’re saying I have magic? As in… make things levitate, heal illness, blow things up magic?”

Suzanne’s lips curled up in an amused smile. “Yes… depending on application.”

“…And that I don’t currently have access to it, because… someone agreed to turn me… and people like me… into demon broodmares?”

“Simplified, but yes, in its essence.”

“But now you have the key to unlock my ‘potential’ and turn me into a light-blasting badass?” Georgia lowered her fingers from her temples and stared at the goddess by her side. “Do you know what a pyramid scheme is? Because you very much sound like you’re trying to recruit me for one of those.”

The goddess’s smile turned into a mischievous grin. “You’re a little sassy, aren’t you? Good for you. And you’re not entirely wrong, of course. Helping you isn’t an altruistic endeavor. The demons have always been… problematic. It’s in their nature. They fight divinity on primitive instinct alone. But with the new king’s mating, some of us have seen a… let’s call it a spark in the darkness.

“You see, he loved his mate so much, he went against the evil core within his very nature to set her free. And with that one act of true love, he reawakened the magic we all thought lost.”

Georgia blinked. “So… Okay, you’re saying the king—Kesh’s brother?—loved his wife so much, she can now do magic? That’s… cool. But I’m not sure what that has to do with me?”

“You’re like her, Georgia. You have that same spark just waiting to be ignited. And here you are, under the protection of the brother to the first demon in history to choose love over possession… Fate weaves her web rather obviously sometimes, don’t you think?”

“Wait… wait, wait, wait.” Georgia stared at the smug-looking goddess. “Are you trying to insinuate I need to mate Kesh?”

“Well, him or his father, yes.” Suzanne smiled brightly. “That bloodline… Fate has touched their lineage. Whichever one claims you will be fine.”

“Whoa, hold up.” Georgia pushed down the wave of nausea at the suggestion of being ‘claimed’ by Kesh’s scary father. “Even if we ignore for a second that he’d apparently kill me if he… you know. I don’t love him. And he certainly doesn’t love me, either. Whatever happened to give the queen her powers, that’s not… that’s not something that will happen for me. I’m not like her—at all. I’m just…”

“A sad gray mouse?” Suzanne finished off for her, eyebrow arched sardonically. “A helpless little victim, content with bowing your neck and taking whatever scraps your demon overlords decide to throw at you?”

Heat flooded Georgia’s cheeks. The mocking words echoed Kesh’s opinion of her uncomfortably. Refreshing anger rushed through her veins. “That’s real easy to say, but it’s not like I can just wave my hands and be something I’m not. He says I’d die from being ‘loved’ by a demon lord.

“And again—I don’t love him. I can’t just start loving a demon who’s treating me like an inconvenience that needs to be pawned off because it suits some random goddess’s schemes. Which, by the way, you still haven’t explained. Why do you care what demon takes me in the end? And why should I care about your plans? It sounds an awful lot like you want to use me just as much as the demons do. How are you any better? At least they gave me my brother’s life in return.”

“Oh, I don’t think you have any idea what you are, little firecracker. But you will. All you need is a little… push.” Suzanne gave her a wicked grin, her eyes lighting up with an otherworldly glow as she leaned in.

Some of Georgia’s anger withered, unease creeping up her spine. “Wait, what are you—hey! Stop that!” Her voice rose to a sharp squeak as the goddess without delay pushed her down onto the mattress and slipped a hand underneath her skirt. Slim fingers brushed against her sex, then slipped up between her folds, violating and intimate. She kicked out, but it was too late. The goddess found the metal ring encircling her clit—and twisted.

Sharp, painful fire shot through her pelvis, forcing a cry from her throat as the dark magic in the ring sank deep into her flesh. And then… then came the awful, all-consuming need.

“Sorry about that. Had to be done, though.” Suzanne stood back up and brushed off her fingers.

“What… what did you do?” Georgia’s voice was a horrified rasp. Every molecule in her body throbbed painfully, her vision turning hazy at the corners. Her trapped clit swelled against the metal, angry and raw, and oh, God… she needed…

“I just gave Fate a little push. Sometimes, a drop of chaos is needed to get things moving in the right direction. Let’s see if one of the demon lords can’t help you awaken your power after all.” With a cheerful wink, she snapped her fingers, letting the golden shimmer barricading the door fall, before vanishing into thin air, leaving Georgia alone to writhe on the bed.

There was no more coherent thought; no more of anything.

Only the burning, all-consuming need eating her body alive.

35

Kesh

Hell. Such a contrite name for a brothel servicing demons, and yet, it managed to encapsulate the atmosphere perfectly.

The smell of sex and tears was heavy in the air as Kesh pushed his way through the door of Jimmy’s establishment, the groan of the hinges momentarily drowning out the female cries from within and the wet slapping of flesh on flesh.