Berries and Greed

God no. I immediately stepped back. “Uh, no. No, thanks. I need to—”

“My Greater…” To my utter horror, the old man lowered himself to his knees again and gazed up at me imploringly. “Please. Please, honour them with this.”

Fucking hell, stand up, dude. I was frozen, staring back down at him, my skin heating from the feel of so many eyes on me.

“Please,” he begged again. “Just look upon them.”

Fuuuuck.

“Alright,” I grated, gut clenching. If it got him up, I’d look at them. He was way too old to keep falling to his knees like that. “But I have to go. Very soon. Like, in a minute.”

“Of course,” he breathed as one of the others carefully helped him back up. “It will only take a minute. And perhaps…” His eyes filled with tears again. “Perhaps you will find your mate among them. Perhaps you will bless one of us this day.”

Absolutely, categorically, a million percent not happening, but I dragged my feet across the courtyard, trying not to fidget. God, this was embarrassing. Did all these humans think I was some horny creep who’d come here to sniff out a bed partner? I mean, that was what they wanted—or thought they wanted, at least—but if any of them went into the city and talked about me and someone who knew me overheard…

God, that would be fucking humiliating. At least I hadn’t told them my name, so there was less chance of anyone finding out I’d come here.

“Your loyal followers, my Greater.” The high priest swept his arm out dramatically when we reached the rows of silent humans. “All willing and eager to submit to you and share your bed and your life. All well-versed in the ways of your kind. All unfailingly dedicated to providing you with the best human mate you could ever ask for.”

I managed not to shudder in horror. Some of them were gazing at me with blatant adoration, others were fidgeting with sheer excitement. Several pairs of eyes trailed lustfully down my body, making me want to sprint away.

And then I spotted one human at the back, not a part of the line-up. She was leaning against the courtyard wall with her arms crossed and a mild sneer on her face. She was the only one not wearing beige. Her shirt was white and her trousers, while still flowy like the rest of them, were pink.

For some reason, my gaze snagged on her and refused to let go. She had vibrant orange hair and pale skin covered with freckles. Her eyes were green.

When our gazes clashed, she scowled, her cheeks turning bright pink. My gut knotted just a little.

“That one,” I heard myself blurt out, raising a hand to point at her. “I want that one.”

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Chapter Four

Beryl

“Oh my gods, oh my gods, oh my gods.”

I watched with a brow raised as my friend Nancy scurried around her room, frantically checking her hair and face in the mirror before ru

“So there’s really a demiurgus here, huh?” I asked, mouth twisting. “What a perv.”

Nancy gasped, spi

“For one of us, maybe,” I muttered. “I’ll say it again—perv.”

“What?” Nancy’s delicate brows scrunched together as she pulled off her shirt to tug on the other identical one. “How is he a perv?”

“Uh…” I gestured around us. “Coming here to pick a human lover like he’s just browsing the fresh produce aisle at the store?”

“But…” Nancy slipped on the fresh trousers. “This is what we’ve dedicated our lives to. To the chance of one day becoming a demiurgus’s cherished mate. And he won’t browse us. The mating instinct will tell him.” Her voice turned dreamy. “It will guide him.”

I snorted, picking at the hem of my shirt. Mating instinct. Yeah, sure.

Nancy was fussing with her shirt buttons, but she shot me a betrayed look. “Are you not excited?”

I cleared my throat and sat up straighter, trying to feign some enthusiasm. “I mean, yeah, sure. Of course. It’s what we’re here for, right?”

“So why did you call him a perv?” she asked, sounding personally hurt by it as she crossed the room and sat down at her dressing table.

“I guess it… it’s just a shock to have one of them actually come here,” I answered uncomfortably. “It hasn’t happened the whole time I’ve been here.”

“Penelope said it hasn’t happened for forty years,” Nancy said excitedly, leaning in close to the mirror as she applied mascara. “I can’t believe it. I’ve only been here for two years and it’s already happening.”

My gut clenched with unease as I watched her. She was young—just twenty-three. In that moment, I felt monumentally guilty that I lived here, that my aunt literally ran the place, instead of trying to shut this cult down. But until now, it hadn’t ever felt like there was any real danger of a demiurgus actually showing up to take one of the members away. It hadn’t felt real. More like they were all just playing make-believe in here, wasting their lives by wishing for things that would never happen.

But now it was happening. And the demiurgus might pick someone as young as Nancy.

I was the only person to have ever been in the cult as a child, and I’d been largely left alone while I was growing up. They’d just let me live here, knowing my aunt was my only family, and hadn’t actively tried to drag me into their beliefs.

That had come after, when I turned twenty-one and was deemed an “eligible mate” for a demiurgus, because I hadn’t already left. But again, there’d been no danger of it ever actually happening, so I hadn’t cared.

If the demiurgus picked Nancy, or someone else just as young, would that be it? They’d spend their life doting on him and deferring to him as his mate, thinking it was what they truly wanted, but was it really? They’d all come here willingly. They’d all joined of their own accord. The cult didn’t go into the city trying to recruit new members. We kept to ourselves, and I suspected that was mainly because too many of us meant too many humans who would just stay here forever, never actually becoming a demiurgus mate, and that might start to bring unrest. More minds to doubt, more mouths to whisper. More competition.

“Okay, I think I’m ready.” Nancy screwed her mascara shut with trembling hands and blew out a breath. Her dark eyes drifted to me in the mirror. “Are you going to get changed?”

I made a face and glanced down at my pink trousers. “No. Why would I? These are my clothes.”

She stood up and smoothed down her beige shirt. “I’m not sure why the high priest lets you wear them.”

I rolled my eyes, easing out of my chair with a groan. “It’s not a rule to wear all beige. Why do you?”

“Because I want to be picked for me, not for catching a demiurgus’s attention with bright clothing.” She flushed. “Sorry. I don’t mean to imply you’re trying to—”

“I know. Don’t worry.”

“It doesn’t matter what we’re wearing,” she added dreamily, her gaze growing vacant. “He will pick his mate by looking at their soul. Their essence. He will find the one who aligns with him perfectly.”

Brown eyes snapping back to me, she beamed wide around a sigh. “Oh, Beryl, I so hope it’s me.”

I sure as shit don’t.

“Well, best not keep the Greater One waiting,” I drawled, managing to keep most of the sarcasm out of my voice. Nancy was too flustered to notice anyway, fussing with her curly dark hair as she hurried to the door.

Robbie caught up with us in the hallway, fiddling with his glasses as he fell into step beside me. A line of other members were ahead of us, everyone heading down to the courtyard to meet this mighty sex god. What a crock of shit.