Dark Nine ❈ Dark Nine Universe Bk1 ❈

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Diana's POV

I sit myself on the prison throne, crossing my legs, as Mars refused to let me near him as he went to talk to Ninth Squad.

Silly Kors. I guess they forget they shouldn't leave me alone – I tend to run to the edges of the universe.

But anyway, this time, I just sit and I pretend to know what it was like to be a true Kor Empress.

Cinta sat here once, when the prison was a clean place, scrubbed completely clear of the nature that has grown in all around it now.

The area beyond me is wide enough to allow a massive procession of Fey to crowd in for a speech.

Usually a throne is set up a little with a raised podium, not set up at the top of a damn pyramid. I guess it reflects her massive ego.

And each step is so difficult to climb... I have a feeling the Kors carried her up here every time, since she was dressed in heavy draping robes, her mouth always smug. Her eyes always covered. I guess some people took evil to another level. And when those people found themselves up here, sitting so far above absolutely everyone, it was even easier to dictate without caring for consequence.

The Fey had been a matriarchy, but not any kind – the Fey not only enslaved the Kors but starved them until they were so thin I barely recognised them in those photographs. It was haunting to imagine them as not completely full of strength and health as they are now.

But don't get me wrong, they still killed. They were still alien. Literal gods of this universe.

I hear my Kors moving and when I look up I see them jumping down and using vines of the architecture itself to slide to the ground floor, moving together. All together, they move as one force. To intercept. The intruder.

I'm smug as they all shoot looks my way for sitting on this seat where they fucked me earlier.

My Enhanced Instincts tell me to stay out of their problem with the last free half-Fey.

I can't do anything about Airy. I can't help her situation. It's unique to her and the Kors and they'll sort it out together. If she ends up E's prisoner in a lab, I'll help then, but I also want to see how they resolve it without me near.

As the Kors leave, I hear struggling breaths beyond me, and I'm not sure what it is, until I see little hands grappling up the last step.

"Mo ga," little Maelstrom climbs up the last step toward me, his stealth over, reaching for me desperately. I immediately lean down and pick him up, as his head lolls to the side and he snores instantly.

He is so damn cute. I cuddle him right to me, shuffling right back into the corner of the throne until my feet are up on the seat itself. I wrap my arms around the little creature and he sleeps against me.

A hand rests on my head. My heart jumps.

It comes from nowhere.

I don't want to disturb Maelstrom, so I just look up to see Venus looking down at us.

"You stayed behind," I whisper as he leans over the back of the throne, his hand sliding down my face and sending nervous chills through me. Venus leans in to watch the baby sleeping.

"If he's not breastfeeding, he'll turn into a fully-fledged little Kor... no Kor has lived since we were born from our fathers and their moons," Venus explains, like a bedtime story. It's hard to know if he's telling me or the baby, "With my help... I made you into another moon," his eyes flicker to mine. He sounds romantic, but I know better than to fall for it. Whereas in the past he might have been a very together person, now I knew even his moments of calm, they were not... guaranteed. I just nod.