Phanes clapped his hands. At once the table became laden with delicacies. If I was human and starving, I couldn’t consume a fraction of the food in front of me.
Phanes clapped again. Music filled the air, along with an instant fog that covered the empty center of the room. Moments later, a platform crested through that fog, revealing dozens of dancers wearing only jewelry, body paint, and enough oil to make their flesh gleam.
They began to dance. Fog clung to them or dashed away as if it were dancing, too. Some of the dancers were human, some were nymphs, some centaurs, and some were an unknown species, but they all moved with a fluidity that made every leap, sway, and dip mesmerizingly graceful. Soon, the dance took an explicit turn as the dancers began pleasuring themselves and each other with inventive, uninhibited gusto.
Phanes leaned toward me. “Beautiful, are they not?”
“They are,” I replied.
He settled back into his chair. “Pick one. Or pick several. Or pick all of them. Whatever you desire.”
My brows rose. “Pick them for what?”
“Pleasure.” He spoke as if the answer were obvious. “They are the most skilled lovers you will ever find, barring only myself, of course.”
It took all my willpower not to roll my eyes. First, Phanes plied me with excessive pampering, then enough food to choke a horse, and now, he was offering me my own harem. Never let it be said that he did anything by half measures.
“Thank you,” I said in as appreciative a tone as I could manage. “But you know what I came here for, and it isn’t that.”
He leaned in, an odd intensity in his gaze. “Very well. Then, tell me what you think about the play. It will begin soon.”
The music increased in tempo. The dancers matched the new pace until their movements were almost a blur. Then, with a crescendo that thrummed through me like an artificial heartbeat, the dance came to an abrupt, dazzling end.
Everyone applauded. Then, Phanes clapped his hands, and there was instant silence. The fog around the stage rose, covering the dancers.
Phanes clapped again. The fog cleared, revealing the stage. The dancers were gone, and a temple appeared to loom in the distance, with people and creatures of all types frolicking in a village in front of the temple. No surprise, the frolicking soon turned erotic.
I fought a sigh. I had no interest in watching another orgy, let alone one with a Fifty Shades of Centaurs subplot, but Phanes apparently didn’t offer any other form of entertainment.
Ian wouldn’t be bored. He’d be taking notes, my other half thought with more amusement that I had believed her capable of.
She was right, and it only made me miss him more.
It hurt to dwell on that, so I concentrated on the play. Thankfully, the orgy was soon interrupted by a new actor and actress who were clearly playing the part of villains. The actress had fake, frost-coated wings, and she froze several of the revelers in place with a mime of a deadly ice storm. The actor scattered the remaining revelers with a mock earthquake that destroyed the temple. Then, the evil duo set up a new temple, and the remaining revelers now had yokes on them and looked miserable as they mimed serving their new rulers.
A new actor swooped onto the stage wearing large, fake golden wings. He began vanquishing the villains to cheers from the villagers. By the play’s conclusion, the villains were in cages in a dark pit, and the actor who was clearly representing Phanes ascended to a duplication of Mount Olympus. When the fog finally rose to cover the stage, the audience broke into wild applause.
I clapped, too, since it was only polite. Once the applause died down, Phanes turned to me.
“What did you think, my lovely one?”
That having an entire play performed to praise you is so arrogant, even Vlad Dracul would tell you to tone it down.
I didn’t say that, of course. I just replied, “I’m overwhelmed,” which was also the truth.
He leaned in so close that his lips brushed my ear. “Once, before the Great Flood, I saved your world from the cruel deities ruling it. Now, I can give you more riches, pleasure, and protection than you’ll ever need. That’s why your father honored me by betrothing me to his future seed. He wanted you to be with a worthy mate. I am that mate, Veritas.”
It took everything to keep my smile frozen in place, let alone keep my other nature from showing her opinion of being referred to as “future seed.” Phanes came from an era where family-arranged marriages were the norm, and where offering to buy my affection with jewels, orgies, and protection was probably a compliment.
“You’re a very worthy mate,” I told Phanes, which was what he wanted to hear. Then, I kissed him.
He was so startled, he didn’t react for a full three seconds. Not used to a woman taking sexual control, was he? He and I would have been the worst match.
By the time Phanes recovered and his arms went around me, I was already pulling away and acting as if the brief kiss had flustered me. Our onlookers cheered, and I fidgeted as if I were fourteen instead of several hundred years past four thousand.
One kiss with witnesses, done.
“All the excitement has exhausted me,” I said, ducking to tuck my head against his chest. It fit my “exhausted” claims, and also blocked his attempt to extend our kiss.
He hadn’t specified in our bargain how long the kiss had to last. That was his problem, not mine.
“Let me retire to the bedchamber,” I went on, then added in a louder voice so there was no chance he could claim that I hadn’t held up my end of the second half of our bargain, “And I hope it won’t be too long until you join me, Phanes.”
More cheers, this time accompanied by the expected amount of ribald encouragement. Phanes laughed, wrapping a wing around my shoulders as he turned to our guests—
“Sorry, luv, but Phanes is going to be indefinitely detained,” said the very last voice I expected to hear.
Shock stabbed me. No. It couldn’t be.
I felt like I was moving in slow motion as I turned toward that voice. Then my gaze was welded to the tall, auburn-haired man striding through the remaining fog, a red cape billowing behind him as if it were his own pair of wings.
It can’t be! my mind continued to rage.
But it was.
At last, my other half thought.
Phanes’s wing dropped from my shoulder as if he were shocked, too. Then, his arrogance returned, and he boomed, “Who dares to enter my temple without invitation?”
I’d seen blood dripping from knives that didn’t look as threatening as the smile Ian gave Phanes.
“I dare, mate.”
Chapter 7
For a paralyzing moment, I had no idea what to do. Would rushing over to Ian humiliate Phanes to the point that it guaranteed they fight to the death? Or would staying at Phanes’s side incite Ian to do something even more rash than barging into a lesser god’s temple as if he owned the place? Could I do anything to prevent bloodshed, or were we irrevocably fucked?
“How did you penetrate my security?” Phanes demanded.
“Not without difficulty,” Ian replied, sounding faintly amused now. “And I hear you have to defeat the ruling temple’s champion for the right to safe passage in your lands, so, whoever the champion is, consider them challenged.”
Irrevocably fucked it is! my other half thought.