a glare and takes my hand, leading me out, and then keeps hold of it as he brushes some hair behind my ear. “Neriso, my jewel, you were so far away,” he murmurs.
“Sorry,” I reply, and lean up and kiss him. He nips my lips in punishment. “Did you need me?”
“Always,” he rumbles, his eyes flashing, and Griffin fake gags.
“Fucking hell, let’s go see what your visitor wants, Vasculo, before you two fuck each other right here.”
That has me pulling back and looking away from my dragon, even though I’m tempted to do what Griffin just threatened. “Visitor?”
Lucy sniffs and then groans. “Xaph.”
Aska’s eyebrows rise. “The angel from the volcano...the sleeping court?”
“Angel? Well, this should be fun.” I look at Lucy. “You know what he wants?”
“Probably to be killed again.” He smirks.
Rolling my eyes, I head back to the throne room. This time we enter through a backdoor that Lucy guides us to and step right out onto the dais. There is a man there, staring out at the room, his back to his. But yeah, he looks like an angel. Halo and all.
He turns as we enter, his gaze clashing with mine for a moment before going to Lucy. “Serpent,” he snaps. “You kill me once more and I will banish you! Now, what has been happening here? I have been hearing whispers that you...you killed the council and put some, some woman child in charge.”
“I guess that’s me.” I laugh.
He dismisses me with a disgusted glance and a snort and looks to Lucy. “You abandoned your position. I have been too busy to chase you down! This is not a game, Serpent, you are mocking our laws!”
“Oh shut up for once,” Lucy retorts. “Why are you here? Left your little mountain, did you, to look down on the peasants below?”
Xaph narrows his eyes and tilts his head high in such a heavenly way I nearly laugh. What a pretentious asshole. No wonder Lucy killed him.
Tried, he regenerates, very inconvenient if you ask me.
“I am here to lead, since you clearly cannot. This, this can’t stand. I am here to remove her from power.” He sniffs.
“No, you’re not,” Lucy counters.
“Sorry, not going anywhere.” I grin.
“You cannot lead, you know nothing of our laws! Our ways! You’re a child...you’re a—” He stumbles.
“Woman?” I offer and raise my eyebrow. “It seems to me if there were less dick measuring contests and power games, we wouldn’t be in this mess in the first place, angel. I am a leader now, so suck it up and start acting like one yourself. If you did your job, we wouldn’t be this lost. Your lack of leadership is the problem.”
“She makes a good point, Xaph. This happened under your watch.” Lucy smirks.
The angel’s face turns red. “You know how hard it is to monitor all these creatures, they are always killing or doing something. I simply do what I can, under his grace.” He looks back to me and glares, his eyes flashing gold as he growls, “You are to be removed from your position.”
Yeah, Lucy isn’t allowed to kill him...but I can.
So I do.
As he turns to argue with Lucy, I take him by surprise. He turns just as I appear before him, his eyes widening as he stumbles back, but he doesn’t make a move to defend himself as I grip his head and twist, snapping his neck with a self-satisfying crack. His body tumbles to the floor as I dust off my hands and saunter back to my men.
Looking at Lucy, I shrug. “He was annoying me.”
I find myself very turned on right now.
“Too much information, Lucy.” Griffin snorts.
Lucy turns to him with narrowed eyes. “Only she calls me that,” he roars, just as a click sounds. We all turn to see Xaph’s neck straighten as gold shimmers across his body, and then he’s on his feet, blinking.
When he realises what happened, his mouth drops open. “You-you killed me! That is punishable by death!”
“I saw nothing.” Lucy shrugs.
“Me neither,” my men chorus behind me, and I wink at Xaph.
“Serpent, you can’t seriously expect us to let her lead. She clearly is not mature enough to uphold a prestigious position and seat such as this!”
“She is and can,” Lucy responds, yawning.
“Serpent!” Xaph protests. “She knows nothing! How will she lead? No, it cannot be allowed, she would need too much guidance and help.”