Chapter 1036: Through: Nyxire

I didn’t warn them.

Of course I didn’t. Where’s the fun in spoiling my own masterpiece?

The van kept accelerating like it had somewhere better to be than the pathetic little world we were leaving behind. Thirty faces—my glorious, chaotic harem of goddess perfection—froze in real time.

Conversations strangled themselves mid-sentence.

Laughter got executed on the spot. Heads snapped toward that glorious 180-degree windshield where the cliff yawned open like the universe itself was bored of their mortal nonsense and ready to swallow them whole.

Genevieve clutched Maya’s arm like it owed her money. Margaret’s eyes shot open from her massage chair faster than she’d ever reacted to anything that wasn’t a direct order from me. Charlotte’s hand locked on her tablet like the damn thing could save her.

Amanda—

Amanda

, the woman who’d rather die than close her laptop—slammed it shut and braced like a good little soldier.

Then Mom hit me with the nuclear

"

Peter—

"

That voice. That sweet, soul-crushing

mom

voice that somehow survived supernatural harems, interdimensional real estate, and my ever-expanding god-complex. It still made me feel like a delinquent sixteen-year-old who’d just set the garage on fire.

Adorable.

The van hit the edge.

Reality

bubbled

.

The windshield melted into liquid madness—colors stretching like cheap taffy in the hands of a sadistic deity. The cabin vibrated straight into everyone’s bones, bypassing ears entirely and going for the marrow like a proper cosmic bully.

Gravity took a

quick vacation.

For one beautiful, weightless second, thirty of the most beautiful women on Earth floated like elegant balloons—hair lifting, bodies rising, crystal glassware hovering, ARIA’s chandelier strands spreading like a frozen firework that even I had to admit looked dramatic as hell.

Then we punched

through

.

The bubble

popped.

Gravity remembered its job. Wheels kissed ancient stone—pale, flawless, older than your ancestors’ excuses—and the ride turned silk-smooth again.

The windshield cleared, and the world on the other side laughed in the face of everything they thought they knew.

A driveway of pure arrogance stretched ahead beneath cathedral oaks. Golden light dripped through leaves so perfectly arranged they looked photoshopped by a god with taste.

The grass?

Impossibly

green. Every blade the same height, maintained with the kind of psychotic precision that made surgeons look sloppy. The air itself tasted cleaner, older, smugger—like the Chasm had been the bouncer and this was the VIP lounge it had been guarding all along.

Nobody spoke.

They glued themselves to the windows like kids who’d just realized Santa was real and also slightly terrifying. Hands on glass. Breath fogging the tint. Mouths hanging open in the sacred silence of mortals realizing they’d just driven through a hole in reality and landed somewhere that made their entire previous lives look like a budget PowerPoint presentation.

Margaret broke first, voice barely a whisper. "I forgive everything," she breathed. "Every bus. Every vote. Every uncomfortable moment I just went through right now.

Forgiven.

"

Patricia’s hand stayed glued to Margaret’s belly while the other pressed flat against the hers. Her face wore that rare, beautiful expression she gets when something refuses to be organized, filed, or controlled.

She stared at the impossible perfection and then looked at me through the glass. Her lips moved silently:

My God.

Luna was awake now—headphones abandoned, glasses shoved into her hair like she needed zero obstructions to witness my glory. Maria sat beside her, mother and daughter gripping hands, watching the driveway unfold like it was the first honest thing they’d ever seen.

Neither bothered looking at me.

This moment was theirs, and I, in my

infinite

generosity,

allowed it.

Then the mansion revealed itself.

Grey stone rising like it owned the concept of

majesty

. Mirrored walls catching the dying light and throwing it back with interest.

The tower face watching us with window-eyes that had been waiting.

The fountain spiraling upward like physics was merely a polite suggestion. Gardens shifting at the edges of vision, alive and aware and clearly thrilled I was finally home.

The van parked. Doors opened. My women spilled out onto warm stone and scattered like beautiful chaos, drawn in every direction by rooms, gardens, and impossible details that whispered their names differently.

I let them go.

Generous Dark Lord privileges.

Madison, of course, stayed glued to my side. Arm looped through mine, body pressed against my shoulder—not because she was overwhelmed, she’d walked these halls before, but because she

chose

to.

Because watching our ridiculous family discover my masterpiece together was its own delicious intimacy.

"Stables?" she asked, voice soft with that knowing smile.

"

Stables,

" I confirmed, because even gods have priorities.

We walked through the courtyard, past the upward fountain, past hedges that shifted when they thought we weren’t looking, along paths lined with trees older than every country that had ever disappointed me.

Her head leaned against my shoulder, steps perfectly matched, like the universe itself had finally learned how to coordinate.

The equestrian facility waited—stone walls the color of warm honey, arched windows glowing, slate roof crowned with weather vanes shaped like running horses spinning in a breeze that existed purely to show off.

I’d missed this place. I hadn’t admitted it out loud—

I’m not that weak

—but the pull had been there, low and constant, a thread tied between my ribs and the mansion’s ancient foundation. The LA estate was home. The penthouse was home. Wherever my women slept was home.

But this? This was something older, something that made the word "home" sound adorably insufficient.

And the mansion knew it too. The stone warmed faster beneath my feet. Lights brightened just for me. The air shifted into warm pockets that moved

with

me instead of against me.

The gardens didn’t just shift—they

leaned

, like sunflowers tracking their rightful sun.

It was welcoming its master back. Personally. With quiet, ancient relief that basically screamed:

Finally. Don’t leave again, you magnificent bastard.

Nyxire

was already at the gate.

I’d named her on last visit—because a horse that beautiful deserved a name worthy of my taste. White as moonlight, mane flowing like fog, eyes holding the same vast, ancient calm as the void we’d just violated.

She watched us approach with pure recognition.

She pressed her velvet nose into my palm and exhaled—long, warm, the breath of something that had been waiting with the patience only immortals and superior horses possess.

"Hey, girl," I murmured. "Missed you too."

Madison pressed closer, heartbeat steady against my arm. "Every time," she whispered, looking at Nyxire, the stables, the mansion glowing behind us like it was showing off just for me, "every time I think I’ve seen everything you are... there’s more. There’s

always

more."

I kissed the top of her head. My queen. The first. The one who believed before believing was even fashionable for Peter Carter.

Nyxire nudged my chest—impatient, possessive, the equine version of

stop kissing your girlfriend and remember who the real favorite is, asshole.

Behind us, the mansion hummed—warm, alive, smug as hell—full of thirty women discovering rooms they’d never want to leave, gardens that moved when they looked away, and a life that had stopped making sense long ago...

...and had become something far, far better instead.

Home~

Welcome to your new home, ladies. Try not to embarrass yourselves too much in front of the sentient architecture. It has standards.

I

have standards.

And trust me... we’re both

very

hard to impress.