Chapter 522: Psycho Little Succubus

It took about an hour.

Landon—the

amateur,

the serial apologiser, the man who once muttered "sorry" to a cocktail umbrella after nudging it—found his target near the dance floor. A brunette who laughed at something he said and hadn’t stopped laughing since.

She touched his arm twice—light, deliberate, testing.

He didn’t apologise for it.

Progress.

They rolled away together, Landon throwing one last look over his shoulder at Phei and Brian—half grateful, half terrified, the expression of a man who’d just left the tutorial zone and stepped into the actual game with live ammo and no save point.

Brian took longer.

Pickier.

He already had a girl at home and wasn’t looking for just anyone—he was looking for someone worth the complication, someone who’d make the inevitable fallout feel earned.

He found her near the bar. Tall. Sharp jawline. Drank gin neat.

They talked for twenty minutes—quiet, intense, the kind of conversation where eye contact feels like foreplay—before she smiled and he smiled and they left together without looking back.

Which left Phei.

Alone. With his water.

He’d talked to them both about the Ashford Madam’s ad shoot before the hunting started. Laid it out clean: men’s cosmetics line, three days on Hell Paradise Island, proper pay, proper contracts.

Brian had nodded once and said it would be an honour.

Landon had said the same, then immediately asked if there’d be free skincare samples. Phei told him to focus.

So, the commercial was handled.

Emily would sort the details.

The boys were on board.

And they’d already tasted real money from their Challenge money share—Phei and Emily had made sure both boys got their shares from everything the Challenge had generated. The exact numbers, Phei didn’t want to know. Emily handled that. Emily handled most things.

The girl was a machine.

So Phei didn’t see why he was here anymore.

His boys were leaving with their women. He was sitting in a booth with a bottle of water that had gone warm and a bill he’d already paid. Staying longer meant being a third wheel.

In his case, a fourth wheel—two couples and a boy with tap water.

He stood to leave.

His phone buzzed.

He looked at the screen.

Sighed.

There was no rest today, was there?

Of all the things that could happen tonight—of all the messages, all the calls, all the perfectly reasonable communications a person could receive at this hour—

Elena Ashford

had chosen right now to text him.

She wanted to see him. At the estate. Tonight.

If he could.

That last part—

"if he could"

—was doing a lot of heavy lifting. It read like a question. Polite. Optional.

The kind of phrasing a well-raised Legacy girl used when she was being considerate of someone’s schedule.

It wasn’t a question.

It is a dare...

this girl would be the death of me?

Because Elena wasn’t asking him to visit. She was asking him to sneak in. Into the

Ashford Estate

.

The compound of the second most powerful family on Earth, give or take.

The same estate where the

Consort

lurked—that ancient, terrifying, bubblegum-haired nightmare who’d nearly choked the life out of him in the garden with one crystalline hand. The same estate where her master hid—the

One Above

, the voice in the void, the presence that made Consort herself look like a house pet.

And most importantly—

most beautifully, most

catastrophically

—the same estate belonging to the woman he’d fucked in a car outside her own gates less than two hours ago.

The Ashford Madam was probably in her bedroom right now. Pressing her thighs together. Soaking through silk while her dormant succubus blood sang for the boy who’d just had his tongue in her mouth, his fingers in her cunt, his name on her lips.

And her daughter wanted him to

sneak

into the house.

Tonight.

Phei stared at the message.

Great.

What perfect fucking timing.

**

The fist bump was tiny.

Maya’s knuckle—small, warm, human—pressed against Eira’s crystalline fist with a soft clink that sounded like a champagne flute being tapped by a diamond.

They held it for a beat.

Two

ancient-souled

girls watching a boy’s phone light up on a Void-Ice projection screen hovering above the dashboard of a parked car, the pale blue glow painting Maya’s silver hair like frost on moonlight.

"How did you know Elena would call him?"

Maya asked, voice low, calm, the Shadow Empress already turning the board in her mind.

Eira faked thinking—chin on her tiny fist, wings folded back, the theatrical performance of a fairy pretending to access memories she’d had ready for hours.

"Let’s see.

One

—Elena knows about her mom and Phei

. At least enough to know there’s something between them that goes beyond anything her father would ever agree to. Probably knows they’re

fucking,

or close to it. That’s her perspective. So from that angle, she’d be calling Phei to test him. See if he’s interested in her too.

See how he plans to conquer

mother and daughter."

Maya’s eyes flickered—sharp, calculating.

"That would be the first

mother-and-daughter

question,

by the way. Since he hasn’t deflowered Delilah yet or make a move on Maddie’s mother or even Amber’s—Elena and her mother? That’s direct. Vertical. Mother and daughter. And Elena knows that much."

Eira’s wings fluttered once—tiny, excited.

"Come on. We’re talking about a girl who’s capable of spying on Sovereign Tower and her own mother. She had eyes on the Madam’s office. She probably knew Phei was there with dinner before Catherine finished signing her autograph."

She paused—dramatic, savoring.

"And apart from all of that—

Elena might be the most psycho beauty Phei will ever meet

. He hasn’t realised that yet though."

Maya nodded. Calm. Processing. The Shadow Empress face in full effect.

"Number two?"

"

Two

."

Eira held up a second tiny finger. "Elena might want to get ahead of the other princesses and fuck Phei. She’d lose the Virgin Succubus title, but in doing so, she’d want him to work for it. Because at this point—the moment she knew Phei and her mother were a thing—she knows he’s

too capable

to be reduced to some side act like the boys she takes to orgies.

"She won’t let him

participate

in her organised

orgies.

Won’t let her group touch him either. He’s not some rich boy she can watch perform for her entertainment. She sees him as someone worthy of her. Of her little succubus virgin pussy specifically. And she wouldn’t share that with her circle."

Eira shrugged her crystalline shoulders—casual, deadly.

"She might as well have him herself."

A beat.

"Or maybe I’m

completely wrong

and all of these are just angles and there are more I haven’t considered. Elena operates on a level where even I can only guess at the geometry." She looked at Maya—eyes gleaming. "

Either way

—Phei, as you can see, isn’t going to back out of this one."

Maya nodded again. Slow. Her silver hair catching the glow of the projection screen like liquid starlight.

"It’s Phei and Elena alright,"

she said quietly. "One is—what exactly is Phei at this point? And the other is a

psycho little succubus.

When those two meet, there’s no knowing how far the other can go."

She raised a finger—long, elegant, deliberate.

"But how is he going to enter that fortress?"

Eira rolled her void-black eyes—dramatic, exasperated, pure fairy theatrics.

"How do you think that

lazy—"

"

EIRA!

"

Both of them looked at the screen.

Phei had turned a shadowy corner somewhere in Downtown Paradise. He was standing under a broken streetlight, phone still in his hand, head tilted upward, calling into the empty air with the irritated certainty of a man who knew his invisible fairy was nearby and was done waiting.

"

EIRA! Come

the fuck back, I know you’re—

"

Eira smiled—slow, wicked, delighted.

"And that’s what I’m talking about." She turned to Maya, wings already spreading for flight, crystalline edges catching the projection’s glow like fractured diamonds. "But wait for it. Today, he’s in for a

rude awakening

."

She disappeared—pop of void-ice, gone.

The screen remained—shimmering, hovering, the Void-Ice projection still broadcasting Phei’s face in crisp detail.

Maya settled deeper into the back seat. Popcorn in her lap.

Silver hair glowing in the pale light of the projection like moonlight on water.

Inside the coffee shop, the others were still there—Melissa, Emily, Valentina—visible through the café windows, still deep in whatever meeting they were having that Phei wasn’t supposed to know about.

Maya watched the screen.

She smiled—small, secret, dangerous.

This is going to be good.