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Neferet

A disquieting sense of irritation awakened Neferet

Before she had truly departed that amorphous place between dreaers and felt for Kalona The ar and pleasing beneath her fingertips All it took was that serly to her

"My Goddess?" His voice was husky with sleep and the beginnings of renewed desire He annoyed her They all annoyed her because they were not him

"Leave meKronos" She had to pause, and search her memory to remember his ridiculous, overly ambitious name

"Goddess, have I done so to displease you?"

Neferet glanced up at hi on the bed beside her, his handso, his aqua in the dimness of her candlelit bedroom as they had been earlier that day when she'd watched hi in the castle courtyard He'd stirred her desires then, and with one inviting look froh enthusiastically, atteod in more than namesake alone

The problem was that Neferet had been bedded by an immortal, thus she knew all too intimately just how much of an imposter this Kronos truly was

"Breathe," Neferet said, lance

"Breathe, Goddess?" His brow, decorated by a tattoo pattern that was supposed to represent ball and mace weaponry, but to Neferet appeared more like frilly Fourth of July fireworks, furrowed in confusion "You asked what you'd done to displeaseAnd in much too close a proximity to me That displeases hed and flicked her fingers at him in dismissal "Go Now"

She aluised look of hurt and shock Had the youth really believed he could replace her pine Consort? The ier

In the corners of Neferet's bedchah she didn't acknowledge thes It pleased her

"Kronos, you were distracting, and for a brief tiain, this tiernails left twin raised welts down his thick forear warrior didn't flinch or pull away Instead he tre deepened Neferet smiled She'd known this one needed pain to feel desire the instant his eyes had met hers

"I would give you more pleasure, if you allowed it," he said

Neferet s her lips as she watched him watch her "Perhaps in the future Perhaps For nohat I require of you is to leave me and, of course, to continue to worship me"

"Would that I could show you how ain" The last as spoken as a verbal caress, and--mistakenly--Kronos reached for her

As if it was his right to touch her

As if her wishes were subservient to his needs and desires

One sht she'd buried with her humanity--seeped from the entombed memories She felt her father's touch and even smelled the reek of his rancid, alcohol-soaked breath as her childhood invaded the present Neferet's response was instantaneous As easily as breathing, she lifted her hand from the warrior's arm and held it, pales of her chamber

Darkness responded to her touch even more quickly than had Kronos She felt its deadly chill and reveled in the sensation, especially as it banished the rising memories With a nonchalant , "If it is pain you so desire, then taste my cold fire"

The Darkness Neferet hurled at Kronos penetrated his young, sh the forearm she had so recently caressed

He h this time more in fear than passion

"Now do as I cooddess chooses when and where and how she is touched Do not overstep yourself again"

Gripping his bleeding arm, Kronos bowed low to Neferet "Yes, my Goddess"

"Which goddess? Be specific, Warrior! I have no desire to be called by auous titles"

His response was instantaneous "Nyx Incarnate That is your title, my Goddess"

Her narrowed look softened Neferet's face relaxed into its ood See how easy it is to please me?"

Caught in her eht hand over his heart he said, "Yes, my Goddess, my Nyx," and backed reverently from her chamber

Neferet sain It was unimportant that she was not actually Nyx Incarnate The truth was Neferet wasn't interested in being cast in the role of an incarnate goddess "That iathered around her What was important was power--and if the title Nyx Incarnate aided her in the acquisition of power, especially with the Sons of Erebus Warriors, then that was the title by which she would be called "But I aspire to oddess"

Soon she would be ready to take her next step, and Neferet knew so beside her Oh, not enough of them to actually sway a battle with their physical force, but enough of theainst brother

Men, she thought disdainfully, so easily fooled by the e

The thought pleased her but wasn't distracting enough to keep Neferet fro her bed She wrapped a sheer silk robe around herself and moved from her chamber out into the hallway

Before she'd given conscious thought to her actions she was heading to the stairwell that would take her to the bowels of the castle

Shadoithin shadows drifted after Neferet, dark itation She knew they erous and that they fed on her unease, her anger, her restless mind But, oddly, she found a measure of comfort in their presence

She paused only once in her doard descent Why a hiht? Neferet shook her head as if to dislodge the silent words and spoke into the narrow, e the Darkness that hovered attentively around her "I go because it is what I wish to do Kalona isme It is only natural that I think of him"

With a self-satisfied s stairwell, easily repressing the truth: that Kalona had been wounded because she had entrapped him, and the service he performed for her was a forced one