Chapter 159: The Moon Palace
Seraphel
Azriel’s dates were always better than modern ones. No author Nude back home would ever have called a sin like him romantic, but he had proven, over and over, that he understood exactly what I wanted, sometimes before I knew it myself.
When we reached the front of a tall building made entirely of glass, I expected to find another ordinary building on the other side.
Instead, the moment Azriel opened the doors, I forgot how to breathe.
Beyond us stretched a magnificent castle beneath an endless sea. It was as though an entire kingdom had been built at the bottom of the ocean.
Towers of pale crystal rose toward the dark blue waters above, their peaks disappearing into the shimmering depths.
Massive glass walls formed the sides of the castle, letting me watch schools of luminous fish glide past like living stars. Enormous sea creatures drifted in the distance, their bodies glowing faintly against the darkness.
It felt like standing inside some impossible aquarium, except far more breathtaking than anything I’d ever seen.
Golden bridges connected the towering spires, while floating lanterns drifted through the waterless corridors, casting warm light across floors of polished pearl and blue marble.
White lotuses bloomed from the walls and balconies in soft, endless clusters, and above it all, the surface of the sea rippled like a distant sky, silver moonlight filtering down through the water to bathe the entire castle in an ethereal glow.
I stared in silence, still leaning against Azriel’s back in a piggyback, unable to hide my excitement as my heart pounded so hard I could feel it in my throat.
This wasn’t just a castle. It was an entire world hidden beneath the sea.
"Oh wow!" I said, breathless, as Azriel lowered me gently onto the glass floor. Beneath it, a cluster of giant sea turtles drifted lazily through the deep, their great shells catching threads of moonlight that broke through the water above like scattered silver coins.
"This is amazing," I said again, turning to look up at him.
He stared down at me with so much warmth in his crimson eyes that it eased the frantic pounding of my heart and turned it into something else entirely, something slower, deeper, aching.
Before he could say a word, I rose onto my toes and leaned in to kiss him.
Azriel wrapped his arms around my waist at once, pulling me flush against his chest, one hand sliding up my back to cup the nape of my neck as he kissed me back.
His mouth moved over mine slowly and unhurried at first, deepening with every second, until he caught my bottom lip gently between his teeth and tugged, drawing a soft, helpless sound out of me.
I melted into him, my fingers curling into the front of his robes, and he angled my head with a tilt of his hand, kissing me harder, deeper, until I could taste nothing but him.
A low moan slipped from me against his mouth, swallowed instantly by another kiss, and I felt him smile against my lips at the sound.
When I finally pulled back, I was breathless, my forehead resting against his, panting softly against his mouth.
"You always surprise me with so many beautiful things," I murmured.
He chuckled, low and warm, and pressed a kiss to my cheek. "I will always do everything for you, my love. I have long wanted you to see this domain."
I nodded, looking around again. "It’s stunning. I have to give it to you, your designs are always incredible. I always assumed your domain of desire would be built for desire alone. I never expected it could be this beautiful."
Azriel cupped my face in his warm hands and leaned down to kiss me briefly. "The mate of Lust always receives the best of everything. I am glad you like the castle."
I placed my hand over his, rubbing it gently. "And what is it called?"
He let go of me slowly. "I have no name for it yet."
"Something this beautiful deserves a beautiful name."
"Then would you like to name it yourself?" Azriel asked, gesturing around us. "Go on. Name it."
I looked at him, eyes wide. "I can?"
He nodded.
I closed my eyes a moment, and when I opened them again, I pointed toward the towers rising into the dark water above and said softly, "The Moon Palace."
Azriel said nothing at first, only stared at me in quiet awe. Then his gaze dropped to the small bump already forming beneath my robes, and he laid his hand over it gently. "Even the child agrees with you. The Moon Palace," he agreed.
I clapped my hands, delighted. "So, tell me, is there anything else you want to show me?" I asked, unable to hide my curiosity, because I knew Azriel well enough by now to know he always had something else planned.
He swirled a finger through the air, and a shimmering carpet unfurled out of thin air before us.
He climbed onto it with practiced ease and stretched a hand toward me, which I took at once, because clearly we were about to have another ride of our own version of a whole new world, magic carpet and all.
"The Moon Palace has four places I want to show you," Azriel said, pulling me to his side and holding me steady as the carpet lifted and began to glide.
Before he could say anything more, my eyes caught sight of an enormous koi dragon swimming above us, just beyond the glass.
"Is that a koi fish?" I asked, because I’d only ever seen them drawn or in movies.
Azriel nodded. "Yes, it is."
"This shit is really cool."
"Shit?" He raised a brow, then let out a low chuckle.
I knew he wanted answers about what I had said and I was already planning the lies in my head but he spoke up before I could.
"You needn’t explain. I know it is one of your foreign words." He tapped his fingers gently against the curve of my waist. "As I was saying," he continued, "the Moon Palace holds four places. The Lotus Garden. The Palace of Desire. The Abyss."
"The Lotus Garden? The Abyss? You joined two domains together?"
My shock rang out so loudly that my voice echoed off the crystal towers around us.
"Yes. I have already shown you the Abyss, and it seemed you were fond of it. The Lotus Garden was made in your name, for you especially, so I wished to bring it into this realm as well."
I looked up at him, my eyes welling with tears.
"And the last is," he leaned down, whispering against my ear, "the Red Room."
My eyes widened. I remembered him taking me there once before, and I found myself wondering if this was that very same place.
"I cannot hear your thoughts," he murmured, the carpet slowing to a stop beside a wall of glass where glowing jellyfish drifted like lanterns, "but I know well enough what you are thinking."
His hand slid from my waist down to rest against me, gentle and possessive at once, and he leaned in until I could feel the warmth of his breath against my skin, a shiver chasing down my spine at the closeness of him. "You are thinking of the Red Room. And yes. I intend to fuck you so thoroughly tonight that you will not be fit to train for days."
My breath caught somewhere in my chest.
’’Do you want to see it? or would you like to...’’
I shook my head because I could already feel the burning desire inside of me and how it had spread to my core that I could feel the wetness sliding down my thigh.
I wanted him badly.
’’no, we go to the red room.’’
Azriel grinned wickedly at me and then his hand was back to my waist. ’’Of course, little lotus.’’
The carpet drifted onward, gliding past towers of pale crystal and gardens of glowing coral, until it came to rest before a set of tall doors carved from deep crimson stone, veined through with gold like something molten had been poured and left to cool mid-motion.
Azriel stepped down first, offering his hand to help me off, though his eyes never once left my face.
"Welcome back," he said softly, "to the Red Room."
The doors opened on their own, as though they’d been waiting for us.
Warm light spilled out, gold and low, pooling across a floor scattered with rose petals that seemed to drift and resettle no matter how many times I stepped through them.
Sheer crimson curtains hung from a ceiling I couldn’t see the top of, stirring faintly though there was no wind. The air smelled of lilies and something darker beneath it, something that made my pulse quicken before I even understood why.
Incense.
"You built all of this," I said quietly, turning in a slow circle, "just for me."
"I built all of this," Azriel said, stepping up behind me, "because two months without you nearly undid me." His hands found my waist, drawing me back against his chest, and he pressed a kiss to the side of my neck, slow and deliberate. "I counted every day, Little Lotus. And I promised myself that when I finally had you again, I would not let a single moment go to waste."
I turned in his arms to face him, tipping my head back to meet his gaze. "Then don’t."
Something shifted in his expression, the warmth in his crimson eyes darkening into something hungrier, something that made my knees go weak before he’d even touched me again.
He cupped my jaw in one hand, tilting my face up to his, and kissed me slowly like he had all the time in the world and intended to use every second of it.
His other hand slid down my spine, drawing me flush against him, and I felt the low, rumbling sound that escaped his chest as much as I heard it.
"I have missed you," he murmured against my lips, punctuating each word with another kiss, softer, then harder, then softer again, "more than I have the words for."
"Show me, then," I whispered back, breathless, my fingers curling into the front of his robes. "Since you’re apparently so bad with words tonight."
He laughed, low and rough, the sound sending a fresh shiver through me. "Careful, my love." He walked me backward, slow and unhurried, until the back of my knees met the edge of something soft, and he lowered me down onto it with a gentleness that only made the heat in his eyes more unbearable.
He braced himself above me, crimson eyes locked on mine. "I told you," he said quietly, dragging his knuckles along my jaw, "I intend to take my time with you.’’