Iniquity (The Ascent Book 1)

by Melody Winter

  Livia hissed again, baring her fangs at me.

  I stepped backward.

  Erebus chuckled. “Now, now, Livia. Remember whose company you are in.”

  She ignored him and sprung to her feet before heading to the back of the carriage. Even though Erebus had pulled her hair and attacked her, she moved gracefully.

  Erebus followed her to the carriage and roughly grabbed her arm. “If I ever see you again, it will be too soon. You leave now, and never return. Send someone else with the carriage at the Ascension Ceremony next year.”

  Livia’s bright-red eyes burned at Erebus who refused to look away. Only when he released her arm did she move. She jumped onto the back of the carriage, and as if knowing she was there, the horses snorted their approval. The ravens swept into the clearing, their noise deafening as they departed. Livia kept her eyes forward as the carriage charged away.

  The villagers stepped out from their homes, and Susie ran to me before flinging her arms around my waist.

  “Thank you, Athena, you saved me.” Her eyes were pooled with tears. “You saved all of us.”

  “Hey.” I crouched to her level and softly nudged her chin with my fingers. “Don’t cry. She’s gone now.”

  She hugged me even tighter as tears crept down her cheeks.

  “Go to Myrtle,” I said, gently pushing her away as Erebus approached.

  Her eyes widened as she saw him, and as if understanding that she was best hidden, she ran to Myrtle.

  “Come along, Athena. Time we left,” Erebus said.

  I shook my head.

  “I’m staying here in the village. It’s where I belong.” Even though he said he hadn’t physically hurt Livia, I feared the violence that he’d unleash on me.

  “I say you’re coming with me.” He strode to his horse and patted the magnificent beast on its neck.

  “She said she’s staying here.” Thomas sidled next to me.

  “I suggest you back off. Leave Athena to me. I’m sure I’ll cope.” Erebus’s glower confirmed his agitation.

  “You can’t just drag her away from the village!” Thomas shouted.

  “I can. And I will.” He beckoned me toward him with an incline of his head.

  “She’s not leaving,” Thomas repeated as he stepped in front of me. It reminded me of when we were young and the times he stopped the other children teasing me. I fleetingly felt the twinge of regret, of my love for Thomas resurfacing, but quickly brushed it aside. I wouldn’t let myself forget what he did. If I stayed in the village, I wanted nothing to do with him. I reached for his arm when he took a step forward as if prepared to challenge Erebus. I’d seen the power Paymon had, I wasn’t willing to see Thomas get hurt by whatever power Erebus had.

  Erebus stopped concentrating on his horse and faced Thomas. “Don’t mess with me, boy. Back off. That’s your one and only warning.”

  “You don’t frighten me,” Thomas said.

  “Really?” Erebus chuckled.

  Thomas immediately sank to his knees, shouting and groaning as his body twisted and turned, each limb shaking uncontrollably.

  “Stop it,” I shouted, rushing to Erebus. “Stop it. Leave him alone!”

  I stood in front of him, blocking his focus on Thomas. Erebus snarled and grabbed both of my wrists. I wriggled in his grasp, but his hold only tightened.

  “Don’t be difficult,” he snapped.

  My body flooded with heat, my limbs became heavy.

  “Stop it!” I immediately recognised the sensation. “Don’t you dare compel me.”

  He yanked me closer, and his eyes bore into mine. “Then do as I say. I won’t put up with this behaviour.”

  “I’ve told you I’m not coming with you.”

  The familiar trait of compelment hit me again, only this time I got the full force and swayed with the intensity of it. Before I had time to react in any way, the world around me began to spin. Thomas called my name, but I slumped forward against Erebus’s hard chest.

  “You’ll learn,” he whispered against my ear, “to do as I say.”

  He lifted me in his arms, handling me no better than a worthless belonging, and bundled me across the horse’s back.

  He jumped into the saddle behind me, and within moments we were moving. He sighed as Thomas continued to shout my name, but as we rode further away from the village, heading to the house I had fled from only a few hours ago, everything around me faded. I didn’t have enough strength to fight his compelment as it drew me deeper and deeper into an unsettling nightmare.

  Bright flickering flames danced around me.

  My hands were tied with rope to metal rings.

  My legs spread apart and my ankles bound to two further rings.

  Fear.

  Chants spoken in a language I had no understanding of.

  The removal of my clothes, cut from my body.

  A man’s naked body lying over mine.

  Confusion.

  Need.

  Kisses to each shoulder, to each breast, my stomach, each hip, each knee.

  Lust.

  More flames, more chants.

  Pain.

  Blood.

  Sparks lighting the room with a white light.

  Tiredness.

  Lifted in a man’s arms.

  Whispered words.

  Sleep.

  Sleep.

  I awoke with a start. A loud rumbling shook the bed. I stared at the canopy above me. Flashes lit the room, eagerly illuminating everything in a surreal brightness. More loud bangs and rumbles. More flashes. My heart calmed as I realised there was a thunderstorm, although it sounded as if it was directly overhead.

  Relief flooded though me as I recognised that I was alone, back in my bedroom at Paymon’s house. But the numbness of my nightmare returned as I sensed that under the bedsheets I was naked. I lifted the sheet up.

  Completely naked.

  My right hand burnt with a pain I’d experienced only a few weeks ago, and I lifted my hand, not wanting to see confirmation of what I was sure had happened, but needing to see the proof.

  My palm was cut, the wound sore and angry looking. And the back of my hand showed the red raised mark of marriage that would eventually leave me with the same black-lined design as before.

  Even more memories—for that’s definitely what they were, not a nightmare but my subconscious during the marriage ceremony—came flooding back.

  Erebus, tying me to the rings on each point of the pentagram, his chanting in demon language as he stood between my parted legs. The flash of the blade and the jewelled handle as he cut me free from my dress. The heaviness of his naked body as he pressed against me. His kisses, tender, on my exposed body. The feel of his hips pushing against mine.

  Had he had sex with me whilst I was under his compelment? Paymon had told me it was a usual part of the ceremony—he gave me a choice on whether it happened or not. There had been no choice with Erebus.

  Lace, I needed the lace. I’d left it when I’d fled from Bia.

  I reached into the drawer in my bedside table. My fingers wrapped around the dark pouch, and I tipped a small handful of the dark seeds onto my palm before slipping them into my mouth and chewing.

  My ankle peeked out from under the blankets and I frowned. It was bandaged. I lifted my hand to my neck, and timidly touched the side where Livia had fed from me. It too was bandaged. I pulled one of the fur skins from the bed before wrapping it around me and rushing to my dressing table. My reflection in the mirror confirmed that I was also clean. There was no dried blood or dirt on my face, hands or arms. My hair was loose, but clean, freshly washed. So he’d bathed me, washed my hair, tended to my injuries and then married me? Or had he married me first, completed the full ceremony before tending to my injuries and dirty body?

  An insistent tap at the window caught my attention, and I hobbled across the room and pulled the curtain back.

  “Odin,” I shouted, seeing his bedraggled feathered body. He’d obviously got
caught in the storm.

  I slid the latch holding the window shut, and just as I opened the heavy frame, another flash of lightning lit the world in front of me. The forest flared a ghostly white, and the scent of damp pine wafted in the air, reminding me of what had occurred before Livia had arrived with the carriage. Odin shuffled past me and hopped from the window ledge into the room. He was on edge, like a secret lover calling on me during the night, and I laughed as he squawked and fluttered before settling on the bed. After pulling the window shut, I joined him on the bed as he hopped across the blankets.

  “Where did you go?” I asked, reaching to rub his ruffled beard.

  He leaned into my touch, a throaty gonk greeting the attention.

  “Well, you’re back now,” I said.

  I rolled onto my back, and Odin hopped onto my stomach, picking at bits of fluff from the fur I was wrapped in.

  “It’s a pity you’re not human,” I said, reaching to the back of his head to scratch him. “What do you think?”

  “I think it’s a very strange and somewhat disturbing idea.”

  I sat upright, spinning to face the door where the voice had come from.

  Erebus.

  He walked into the room, eying Odin suspiciously.

  I pulled the fur tighter and crossed my arms over my chest.

  “There’s no need to cover yourself,” he said. “I’ve already seen what you have to offer, and I’m not impressed.”

  I glared at him as he strode past the screen that divided he room.

  “I want some answers,” I said, shifting to the edge of the bed.

  Erebus halted his stride and turned to face me. “To what exactly?”

  “You’ve obviously completed the marriage ceremony.” I lifted my hand and showed him the stinging mark.

  “Likewise,” he said, lifting his matching hand, although it was covered in a black leather glove. “How very astute of you.”

  I stood but didn’t walk any nearer to him. He was too imposing, standing there fully clothed whilst I was wrapped in a fur that only just covered what it needed to. He also alluded a power that I couldn’t place. I’d caught ripples of it with Paymon, but it was more powerful from Erebus.

  “At the ceremony. Did you . . . I mean, did we . . .” My words failed me, my thoughts shattered. I felt naked before him—on display, begging for information I should have known.

  He raised one brow but didn’t respond. He ran his gloved hand along the top of the screen and waited for me to continue.

  “Did you have sex with me?” I blurted out.

  He blew imaginary dust from his covered fingers. “I completed the ceremony as necessary to keep you safe.”

  “So you did. You forced yourself on me!”

  He crossed the room in large strides. I stepped backward, the back of my knees hitting the edge of the bed.

  He stood so close that his body brushed against mine. The rough cloth of his trousers scratched my skin, and his belt dug into my stomach. He seriously had no understanding of personal space. I leaned backward, careful not to lose my balance and fall onto the bed.

  “I have never forced myself on any woman,” he said, eyes swirling with amber. “And believe me, I’ve had plenty of opportunities.”

  “You’ve not answered my question.”

  “Nor do I intend to.” He took a step back and crossed his arms.

  “But I want answers.”

  “You’ll get your answers,” he snapped. “But not until I get mine. We have lots to discuss.”

  “Such as?”

  “Downstairs,” he said, backing away from me and heading toward the door. “Get dressed and meet me downstairs. Or you can stay in that dead animal skin, but it does you no favours.”

  Odin fluttered across the room, and Erebus’s gaze followed his path.

  “He was Paymon’s,” I said. “And now he’s mine. He stays with me.”

  Erebus nodded, but I saw a smirk pull at the edge of his mouth.

  “Where’s Bia?” I asked, sure she wouldn’t have taken kindly to his arrival.

  He stopped at the doorway and frowned. “Bia?”

  “The infernal who lived here.”

  “Oh, her. She’s dead.” There was no remorse of any kind in his declaration.

  “Did you kill her?”

  He shot me a bemused look. “Don’t tell me you and her were friends.”

  I shook my head.

  “I told you earlier. I hate vampires. Vampires of any kind.” He strode out of the room but left the door open, a beckoning tease for me to follow.

  “Don’t keep me waiting,” he called as his footsteps drifted along the corridor.

  I sank onto the bed, my shoulders hunched. He wanted answers from me. About what?

  I huffed before opening the cupboard door where my dresses were. He may not have any desire to see my flesh, but I wasn’t going to wander around half dressed.

  “Best do as I’m told,” I muttered as I pulled a dull rusty brown dress over my head and slipped my feet into the matching shoes. The dress fastened up the front, and I laced it tightly, still smarting at his cruel words concerning my body. I pulled my hair into a high ponytail, securing it with a clasp from the dressing table, before venturing out into the corridor. Odin didn’t follow. He’d settled on the wooden screen, preening and stretching his wings in the gentle heat of the fire.

  I ambled along the corridor, noticing a quiet vibration in the air. There had always been heat, a warmth about the house when Paymon was here, but Erebus’s arrival hadn’t brought that. Instead, there was an unexplainable, hardly detectable buzz.

  I wondered which room he expected me to head toward, but as I turned the corner of the stairs, I got my answer. He was leaning backward against the bottom staircase balustrade, inspecting his covered hands, and had one foot placed flat against the upright.

  Without looking up, he said, “Go through to the lounge. Sit and wait for me.”

  My stomach churned, and I took an unsteady breath, trying to stay calm. I was worried about what he wanted to ask, and I certainly didn’t want to anger him, not after I’d seen the way he attacked Livia.

  “So, Athena.” He was right behind me as I entered the room, invading my personal space again, his body too close. “You have returned home.”

  I frowned as I sat on the sofa.

  “You should never have left,” he said, sinking into Paymon’s favourite chair.

  “But Paymon’s dead,” I said, not understanding his reasoning.

  He sniggered. “As his wife, you were tied to Paymon, you should have stayed until I arrived.”

  “I had no ties to him or the house once he was dead. His presence here died with him. There was no reason to stay.”

  “Oh, but there was.” He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees and pressed his hands together in front of his face. “You were married to him. He died, but not through old age. He died prematurely, but that is another matter. Now, you obviously seem confused by recent events, so I shall spell them out to you.” He shifted even further forward. “If Paymon had died through old age, you would have been able to return to your village and live your years there as a free woman. But seeing as he was murdered, the marriage still stands.”

  “What, I’m married to a dead man?”

  “Not exactly. You were his property and, like the rest of his belongings, they are passed along to the next demon. You are now my property. You are my wife. I completed the full ceremony whilst you were under my compelment.”

  “So you did have sex with me!”

  “It will protect you if something happens to me. If Paymon had done as he should, Livia would not have come back for you.” He shook his head. “I can’t imagine why he didn’t do it if you were his wife of choice.”

  I didn’t offer a reply. I knew why Paymon hadn’t completed the full ceremony. It was because I asked him not to. He cared about me, wanted me to be happy. He was a demon, but one that seemed to have d
eveloped some sort of heart. I looked to my hand. The marriage symbol tying me to Erebus was already settling into the dark lines that I’d had before Paymon died.

  Erebus sprang to his feet and stood in front of the fire, his back to me.

  “I am not exactly pleased by the situation,” he said. “I would have preferred to have found my own wife, not have my predecessor’s forced upon me, particularly one as weak as you.”

  “Weak? Paymon said that he fed off my emotions without me having to do anything. I was a constant emotional charge for him.”

  “Really?” He turned his head to the side and raised his brow. “I find that hard to believe. I’m not impressed by you. Fortunately, I do not need to be constantly fed, but I warn you now, if you do not begin to satisfy me, I will send you to the Master. If you are no use to me, perhaps he could use you for something.” His lips formed a scathing smirk.

  I ran a shaking hand across my forehead as images of what could be flashed through my mind.

  “Ahhh . . .” He breathed in deeply. “That’s better.”

  I looked down, not willing to see the smug line of his mouth.

  “Now, I need some answers from you.” He walked to the chair he had only just vacated and perched on the side of it. “I advise you to be honest with me.”

  I straightened up, prepared to answer truthfully. I had no reason to lie.

  His first question came quickly and was easy enough to answer. “When did you marry Paymon?”

  “The night before the last Ascension Ceremony.”

  “Really? He left it a bit late.” He scratched the stubble on his chin. “Had you been seeing him before then?”

  I shook my head. “I only met him properly on my twenty-first birthday. That was two days before the ceremony.”

  “So you had only just turned twenty-one?”

  “Yes.”

  He continued to rub his chin. “What was Paymon’s categorisation of you for the Master’s household?”

  “A wife.” I reminded myself what Paymon had saved me from, and even though I didn’t want to admit it, what Erebus had also saved me from. Although I didn’t yet know what the alternative was.