Between the Moon and Her Night (Between Life and Death #3)

Chapter 29

Aurelia

M oments later, I was seated on Von’s lap, overlooking a grand throne room, its black, opaque, glass-like walls lit with the dancing flicker of purple flame. Chandeliers, forged from bones so large they must have once belonged to a giant, hung from the arched ceilings, dozens of feet above us. Matching sconces were placed around the walls, alternating with banners that held Death’s sigil on them. Incense coated the air, scenting the vast room with the deeply earthy, musky smell of patchouli.

The mountainous chamber was full of immortals, humans, ravens, and creatures. Creatures that I had never seen the likes of before. They made my blood run cold. Some looked like they were . . . rotting, their skin hanging unnaturally from their bones. Like worms were chewing on them from the inside, slowly causing them to decay.

Some individuals wore matching black cloaks trimmed in silver, their hoods up. Skull masks with prominent beaks sat on their faces, concealing their identities. Ten of them stood at the front of the room, on either side of the dais, facing the crowd. Their cloaks were different, dyed with a deep amethyst. In their skyward facing palms, they held small, glass-like spheres . . .

Souls.

Despite the amount of people in this room, the temperature was not warm. If anything, it was quite cold, like fall on the cusp of winter. The only thing granting me any form of heat was Von.

Both of his legs were full of muscle, as was his torso, which made me wonder how much of his body matched the left side of his face. His fingers, the ones with flesh on them, drew small circles on my elbow. The ones made of bone rested peacefully on the arm of his throne.

An eerie silence lingered in the vast room. It was so quiet, I could have heard a pin drop on the polished, obsidian floors. So, when I heard something sliding against the floor, my attention jerked to the right, looking to find the source. Stepping out into the light was a cloaked figure, their hunched shoulders wide like a boulder. They dragged their leg as they walked, the tattered remnants of their cloak sliding behind them. From this angle, I couldn’t see their face, but something in my gut told me that I wouldn’t want to.

“Bow to your king and future queen,” rasped the male voice. It sounded as if his throat had been filled with gravel, making his vocal cords hoarse as he spoke.

Future queen.

My lips parted ever so slightly. Sure, Von had said that’s what I would be, but to hear it spoken by a stranger, it was just . . . different. Not good or bad. Different. Real, even.

All at once, everyone but those wearing the purple cloaks lowered onto bended knee. Even the dozens of ravens that were perched all around the room dropped their heads in respect. They stayed like that, frozen in place—waiting to be told otherwise.

I had spent a great deal of time in a throne room throughout my lifetime, but I had never seen a crowd who was so obedient. Not even Aurelius could get them to behave like this. So what had brought about such subservience? Was it fear? Or was it respect?

Perhaps, it was a bit of both.

Von’s fingers ran up the length of my arm, sweeping across my neck to my jaw. His thumb and forefinger plucked my chin, pulling my attention towards him. “Command them to rise.”

“What?” I asked, my eyes rimming at the corners as I took in the monstrous side of his face. My gaze drifted to that one vicious, sharp fang. Without gums, it looked even longer now. Even more menacing. I was fairly certain that if he were to bite my wrist, the porcelain incisor would go all the way through it.

“They will not rise until they are told to,” he said. “Command them.”

“What makes you think they will listen to me?” My gaze shifted from his fang, tracing along his prominent cheekbone. My fingers itched in my lap, tempted to touch that side of his face—something that frightened me—just so I could feel the adrenaline of doing it.

“Because I have told them to,” he said, his voice low. “I meant what I said . . . You are to be my queen, which means you will rule alongside me, as my equal.” He guided my face to look out at the crowd, his hand releasing my chin. He lowered his head and whispered in my ear, “This throne, this realm, these people. My cock and my sword. All of it is yours, Little Goddess.”

My gaze flickered over the crowd, leaping from one kneeling person to another.

To know that one word from me was all that it would take to make them stand, well, I had never felt such power radiate from within me. The goddess within, she licked her lips, starved of this for so many centuries.

All I had to do was say one little word.

When I spoke, it was her voice, not mine. “Rise.”

I watched in amazement as they did—they rose for me. Hundreds of eyes lifted, falling on me and the dark king whose lap I was seated in.

The hunched male with the raspy voice turned towards us and I bristled—

The man’s face looked as if it were engorged, like too much fluid had built up beneath the skin. In some places where it wasn’t as swollen, those parts were lined with deep wrinkles and sagging flesh. His lips were painted in a smear of black, like he feasted on the blood of monsters.

I could feel a silent laughing breath come from Von, skittering across my skin—turning it to gooseflesh as he asked, “Does Ithar frighten you?”

Ithar bowed to us, and then he turned back to face the crowd .

“What is he?” I whispered to Von over my shoulder, watching as the strange male limped across the floor, speaking to the crowd.

“He was an oracle, but he lost his gift of sight many years ago.”

“How did he lose it?” I asked, watching Ithar as he took a silver bowl from a cloaked, masked figure who walked up to him.

“He insulted the Goddess of Fate, claiming that her prophecies were not accurate. It struck a nerve, so she broke his legs so that he could not swim and threw him into Lake Thersha, a body of water that can leech the power from one’s bones. Sure enough, the waters dragged him down into its stomach, swallowing his ability to see the future. Then it spat him back out.” Von paused for a moment. “Although his gift was beneficial, he now has other uses.”

I had heard of the power-thieving waters of Thersha before in the books I had read, but it was painted in a more mythical light because no one had ever found it. There was speculation that it was in the Immortal Realm, but no one knew where exactly. I couldn’t help but wonder if Von knew where it was. Considering he had been here since the dawn of the Three Realms, I suspected he did.

“What do you mean by other uses?” I asked as Ithar walked to the front of the throne, his leg dragging like an anchor behind him. He stood there with his back turned to us, the bowl raised above his head for all to see. Everyone else in the room was silent.

“So many questions, my curious one,” Von mused. “Because he has been stripped of power, the Ancient One that I have imprisoned has no interest in eating him as his soul would be of no substance to her. So he is the one who goes to feed her. He is the first who has been able to walk out of her prison alive.”

His answer conjured a dozen more questions—primarily about the Ancient One eating people—but instead of asking, my tongue stilled in my mouth as I watched the scene play out below, my curiosity piqued.

Ithar lowered the bowl in front of him. One by one, the purple-robed figures began to walk up to him, discarding the orbs into the silver bowl, glass striking metal. A total of ten times. When it was full, he turned towards us and laid the bowl at the bottom of the dais. Then he got onto his hands and knees, lowering his face to the floor. “I humbly ask you to bless this sacrifice, my king,” Ithar said, his voice as pleasant as a metal fork scraping against teeth.

“You have my blessing,” Von answered casually, as if Ithar had asked to fill his wine goblet, much less give his blessing to a sacrifice .

Ithar scrambled to his feet, the process a painful ordeal to watch. He grabbed the bowl from the ground, bowed his head to us, and then began walking to a doorless arched frame that was tucked into the back of the room—where it led to, I did not know.

I sat there for a moment, churning the melting pot of thoughts rolling around my head. Ithar, the oracle who had lost his sight. The only one who could feed the Ancient One. The bowl of gathered orbs—ten, to be exact. And a blessing for a sacrifice.

My stomach turned heavy, filling with lead .

I swung my head, looking up at Von through my lowered brow. “You feed the Ancient One souls ?” I hissed under my breath.

“It is a necessary evil.”

“A necessary evil?” I repeated in disbelief. “Those souls are somebody’s someone.”

Von’s eyes burrowed into mine, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. “ Those souls are abusers and rapists, and they deserve so much worse than being fed to the Ancient One. They deserve to burn in the fires of the Seventh Tier for the rest of eternity.”

“So then why don’t they? Why feed them to this . . . Ancient One?”

“Because it is the bare minimum to keep her alive. If she were to die here, her people would seek revenge, and I can assure you that would be much worse for all of us,” he answered, his gaze lifting from mine, drifting over the crowd, until it stopped.

A muscle feathered in his jaw on the flesh side of his face, his teeth visibly clenching on the other.

I looked to see what had caught his attention, what had caused his reaction—

And that’s when I saw her.

The Goddess of War.