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She bites her lip and bravely locks eyes with me again. “I wish for you to teach me things, Lord Erebus. Carnal things. I am yours to… defile.”

My cock stirs again. “Well, then I’m going to need you to be naughty for me. Misbehave. Anger me with your tongue and with your knives. Your punishment will be desecration.”

“I am going to ruin your life, Lord Erebus. You will never have a moment of peace.” She smirks at me like the devious little creature she is.

She stokes the darkness in me, coaxing it as if she knows what to do with it. I’m starting to suspect that she does. She is a wildling, raised in privilege and luxury while immersed in dark ritual and family curses.

I lick my lips, relishing that little spark in her eyes as she delights in the sight of my pronged tongue. “Arkana, never in my melancholic existence have I ever yearned for anyone the way I yearn for you. Peace be damned… I prefer your chaos.”

This makes her giggle, but in the way I imagine a demon would. She uses my shoulder to lean on as she pushes herself up from the floor. “I must find Delia before she and Olga flee the manor in fright. I need to bathe and ready myself for Tenebrose as well.”

I jump to my feet and cover her with my ruffled shirt, buttoning it all the way up to the collar. “There, now you may go traipsing through the house again.”

She snickers. “And what if I’d rather run down the halls naked?”

The darkness that festers rears its murderous head. I grab her throat and pull her close. “Then their blood will be on your hands. I don’t bluff, Arkana. I will remove the eyes of any man who dares to look upon the parts of you that belong to me.”

Her fire flickers, blazing in her eyes as if my possessiveness excites her. “Well, then you already owe me two pairs. I have a birthday coming up.”

The two initiates from our wedding night. I knew she was still harboring that. “Oh? And on what fateful day did you come screaming into this existence, my love?”

“I was born on the eve of the winter solstice. Much to my mother’s disdain. She said she knew I’d have a spoiled nature when I had the audacity to steal a holiday as my own…”

“With hair as black as ravens and eyes like cerulean jewels… Not to mention a mouth that rivals any heathen’s on Scabber’s Row. As I said, you’re fucking perfect.” I run my thumb across her lips. “You will have what you desire, my love. You have my word.”

She looks up at me with a fire in her eyes that blazes hotter each time our gazes meet. “I look forward to it.”

I follow like a trained dog as she saunters out of the parlor. The servants are a trembling mess of limbs and whimpers. And yet, she is positively glowing, radiating joy as she practically skips through the foyer and up the staircase.

With blood stains and my cum still stuck to her thighs, she exudes a playfulness that I had not seen before. I’m under her spell, entranced by her beauty. And I nearly throw a fit when I have to finally leave her side.

Olga, the older housemaid who despises me, throws me a look so nasty I’d be well within my rights to slit her throat right here. But she’s been tending to Arkana since her childhood, so I let it go. For now.

I let my butler whisk me away to my bedchambers so he can scrub me clean. After being lathered with the finest soaps and creams, I stand with my arms outstretched as he fits me with a new ensemble. Another ruffled shirt, this one black, thick woven slacks, also black, lay in exquisite contrast to the emerald-green velvet coat.

“The widow Graves will be pleased you don the color of her house. It will honor her and her late husband,” Percy declares.

My jaw ticks in irritation. “Well, that was not my intention. I’d rather wear the color of this house. Mine.”

He looks down at the floor. “Forgive me, my lord. You don’t have one. I-I mean… one must be picked.”

I tilt his chin up gently. “Stop bowing to me. I am just a man like you.”

His eyes widen in fear as if it’s all a trick. “Yes, my lord.”

I sigh. There are many men who deserve my ire, this one does not. “Make it red.”

“Red? Forgive me again, my lord, but red is the color of matriarchy; it represents birth and fire. No house would dare to claim it.”

“And why not? Seems like it’s their loss and my gain.”

“The other lords will laugh at you… Red is a woman’s color.”

“Then it’s a good thing there’s a woman running this house, Percy. Make it red. And the first lord who laughs at me will be reminded how red is also the color of blood.”

Within minutes, he guides my arms into the dark-red velvet coat. I nearly startle myself in the mirror. I look like an actual nobleman. Oh, if the Wickford Hollow nuns could see me now. Fucking hell, if my miserable excuse for a mother and father could see me now… I bet they didn’t think their little orphan boy would grow up to become a lord in Raven’s Gate.

“Perfect. Now send word to Arkana’s bedchamber that she is expected to wear the same. No one leaves this house until they are dripping in crimson.”