Hell's Consort

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<strong>Newest Chapter of Highest Tier (January 2022)</strong>

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<strong>Archdemon Empress Luna</strong>

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"Persuade me to sleep just so you could refuse my sensual advances and count my every breath while you watch over me, instead? No thank you." She gave him a half-shrug smiled graciously. "I'm staying here. Queen Morgan might arrive later and give us some news about the hunt for the Tree of the Four Seasons. I don't want to miss a single thing."

Luna observed how her husband swirled the red liquid in his glass before he drank the rim touched his lips.

After he took a sip, she asked him about it.

Apollyon had explained that swirling the contents in its glance will let the wine interact with air.

It will enhance the flavour more.

According to him, he had allowed it to 'breathe' as if he was talking about a real person here.

He washed his glass with water on the small metal bucket on the table to prevent the flavours from mixing with each other.

She hadn't known that a wine tasting celebration had such intricate rituals.

The corner of Luna's lips quirked up. "You must have indulged in vampire wine too much before you met me that you felt comfortable enough to share some of those secrets."

She also noticed that her husband hadn't spat the wine out like the rest of them on this strange device that was shaped like a funnel and she guessed that this thing would prevent the guests from getting drunk and creating more trouble.

The slow classical piano started playing in the background as well as the opera singer in the red gown performed her best song.

Luna swore she heard Apollyon snicker softly as if he found it interesting… but that was it.

He didn't look at her and it felt like he had done it on purpose.

His growing interest had moved into the wines and she simply had to accept that. Her husband started with the lighter ones and work up to richer, darker selections to show her how Wine Tasting was done.

Apollyon appeared as if she had swished it around his mouth to get a better idea of its texture. Luna continued to engage him in a conversation as they approached the untasted wines that followed.

"How can you tell the age of a wine, Apollyon?"

"By, its appearance and scent.' His tone was matter-of-fact.  "The darker the wine it appeared to be on this clear glass, the older it is."

A lock of raven hair fell on his forehead and Luna tiptoed and reached out a hand to comb it aside with her fingers. "How about the taste?"

After fixing his hair, she withdrew her hand.

It will be more intense than the wines that came from new bottles."  Luna followed his gaze as they hovered over the array of wines on the long tables. "You are quite a novice to wine tasting so dry and sweet samples would be suitable for you." He remarked the instant his Prussian Blue eyes returned to her. "Drop a tincture of my own blood from the vial that you should carry with you all the time. Indulge all of your senses before you take a sip. Smell the blood mixed with the wine for a minute to enjoy it more. Bloodletting during a Wine Tasting Party would be strange but if you wanted it, I will do it for you. As long as you are pregnant no more." He didn't hesitate to add.

Luna gave him a pleasant smile. "How does my Archdemon blood taste with the wine, husband?"

He appeared to think it through as he rubbed his chin. "Fruity. Heady and potent. I told you it's like a drug."

He bent his neck as she faced her so that he could sniff the top of her head.

Then, he pressed his warm lips on her scalp.

It seemed like her husband was being touchy despite promising that he wouldn't do it again.

To put it crudely, he was afraid of harming her because of his uncontrollable need to rut.

Also, cheating with another woman never crossed his mind. Apollyon was a good husband and bad mates like her didn't deserve her.

That was why Luna would never let his mate go because it was her fate that brought them together.

"If I was a god, this would be what ambrosia tasted like." Lifting his head, a manservant poured his empty glass and he drank it. "Ah." He sighed in appreciation. "This wine had aged well. The blood wine had a subtle scent of oak."

Luna looked at it closely.  The wine had such a nice colour and the shades are even all throughout the surface, unlike the others.

An older man appeared at Luna and Apollyon's side alongside a brown-haired Fae in an expensive-looking gown clutching his arm.

"This is our best wine, Prince Apollyon. You are right. This wine  had sat for a decade in casks made of oak."

Luna nodded her head in agreement.

She believed that the lords and ladies who owned vineyard estates made sure that they selected the best for tonight's celebration and she was grateful for every one of them for not sabotaging them as newcomers.

Perhaps, these Faeries weren't really antagonistic towards Apollyon and Luna's appointment in the royal family or they just didn't want to risk Queen Morgan's wrath with just the slightest disrespect towards them.

"I am Lord Blackthorne and this is my wife, Your Grace." The man introduced himself and bowed while Lady Blackthorne curtsied and made goo-goo eyes with her husband to which he ignored.

His actions made her smirk a bit. Apollyon really know what was good for him when he didn't offer to kiss the back of the lady's hand.

Even Lord Blackthorne never attempted to kiss her hand.

Afraid of the man's life, she didn't even bother to offer.

He must have heard rumours regarding Apollyon's jealous streak which can be unreasonable at times. One mistake he made in this Wine Tasting Party and his entire Household would be ostracized from society.

That was the extent of Apollyon and Luna's power in the Autumn Courts after winning Queen Morgan's favour.

"It's a pleasure to be your acquaintance." The four of them seemed to murmur in unison.

"My husband thought it tasted marvellous—" Luna said with a bemused laugh."—but you are not supposed to tell that since we are supposed to guess which Manor in the Autumn Courts produced it. "

"I can't help but beam with pride when the new prince of the Autumn Courts appreciate it. The vineyard Estate in the Autumn Courts are the fewest when it came  to the Faeries' means of livelihood but I have never heard of a Manor who had offered a bad bottle in the entirety of my attendance in a Wine Tasting Party." Lord Blackthorne replied.

"Lord Blackthorne. Even if we had just inherited Queen Morgan's vineyard estate who she had taken care of personally, my servants and I knew better than keeping wines that smell like raisins and moulds. A vampiric Fae such as I who just acknowledged my lineage in the Summer Courts never lost my sense of sight and smell when I ascended into someone who belonged to the royal family —-."

Suddenly, lightning strikes and sparks flew everywhere. Glitters dove headfirst from a bolt of lightning as it zigzagged in the atmosphere before everything went black.