over my eyes, and he’s dragging me backward, Ella’s fingers drifting away from my body.
My back is flush with Cain’s chest, and he bands an arm around my waist, covering J’s name, like he knows it’s there too.
“Are you ready to be one of us?” Cain whispers in my ear.
My throat feels tight, my pulse thrumming all over my body. My chest, my wrists, my temple.
“I-I don’t—”
Abruptly, Cain picks me up, my feet off the floor as he steps carefully backward, and I think we’re in the circle of candles. Just as quickly, my feet touch the hardwood, and he says, “Are you here of your own free will, Sid Malikov?”
My mouth is dry, and I have a strange urge to laugh.
No. It’s my automatic response, but I bite it back for some reason as Cain’s teeth find my shoulder, biting me.
I gasp, but before I can say anything, Lucifer’s voice rings out over the music.
“Ella.” That word is a growl. “I want to see my fucking wife and you’re in the way.”
Cain’s hand is still over my eyes, and all of my other senses seem heightened. The heady scent of incense and the music playing, Going to the Ceremony by Kid Cudi, surround me. Infecting me.
And with Lucifer’s words, it seems like no one is breathing.
Then I hear the creak of the floor.
Lucifer’s groan, like he…wants something. Is it me?
Cain’s question is in my ear again, his hand coming up my belly, over my breasts, cupping me, his thumb smoothing over my nipple. “Did anyone force you to come here, Sid?” His breath fans over my ear, and it’s like he’s breathing for me, because I can’t.
I swallow down my nerves, shiver in his arms.
“What is this?” I ask him quietly.
Before he can answer, Lucifer does. “You’re my wife, baby girl,” he says softly, but his voice carries. “This is all for you.”
I bite my lip, Cain’s hand slides over to my other breast, palming me as he presses his cock against my back.
“I don’t want to ask you again,” he says softly, his nose grazing my neck.
“I’m here of my…own free will,” I finally manage to say, stumbling over the words.
He bites my neck, the hairs all over my body standing on end. “Are you worthy, Sid Malikov?” His words are a low rumble, and desire unfurls in my belly.
“Yes,” Lucifer bites out for me. “She’s always been worthy.”
There’s a pause, a moment of silence save for the music, then Cain moves his hand from my eyes, picks me up with one arm under my knees, the other around my back. A startled breath leaves my mouth as I blink in the darkness, and before I can think, he’s setting me down gently on the floor, in the circle of the candles, the hardwood cold against my back.
I’m shivering, naked, my arms over my chest as Cain kneels beside me, inside the flames.
My eyes are on his and he has a smirk pulling at his lips, but before I can think to ask anything, say anything, the rest of them come into the circle, too, all on their knees.
Maverick is opposite Cain, on my side.
I feel the floor shift above me, and I lift my chin, craning my neck back. Atlas is at my head, staring down at me.
Ezra comes beside Maverick, closer to my hips.
Then a flame flickers, going out, the smoke unfurling toward the ceiling as Lucifer’s fingers circle around a candle at my feet. He crawls over my body, the candle in his hand, dripping red wax over my belly, my chest, my throat.
He has one hand planted beside my head, the other holding the candle which he poises over my temple. I feel the warm wax drop above my brow, where that scar is.
Lucifer dips his chin, his eyes on mine.
“Are you nervous, baby girl?”
Before I can answer him, Cain’s fingers are circling one wrist, Maverick’s the other, pulling my arms away from my chest, pinning them down to the floor.
My chest heaves, panic and lust consuming me.
“L-Lucifer, what are—”
“Submit to me, Lilith,” he whispers, dropping his mouth just above my own. “Submit to us.”
My legs start to tremble, my arms too, but Cain and Maverick keep them pinned down.
Atlas’s fingers come to my hair, massaging my scalp, and I feel like I’m drowning in sensation.
Lucifer twists his body and I see his muscles flex, his shorts still on as he hands the candle to Ezra, who sets it down.