Chapter 2414 So Proper. So Composed.

The words echoed in Sylas' ears over and over again, as though the steam in the room had caught them and refused to let them go. The first time. Everything he had learned about the Demon World suggested that it had been an enemy of the Real World from the very beginning, that the two were so fundamentally opposed there had never been any choice but war.

But Xarvenya spoke as though that wasn't the case at all. Or rather, it had only become true after the Madness System lost its mind. And there was something hidden beneath her words that mattered far more than who had fought whom, something that made Sylas' blood slowly heat.

Before the Madness System began pushing, there had been no communication between the Real and Demon Worlds at all. Perhaps it went even further than that, and neither side had known the other existed. If the Madness System had been so desperate for challenge that it pierced a hole through the walls between universes and dragged two of them close enough to function as one, then the question was no longer how the war began...

The question was how many other worlds were out there that had never been touched.

Sylas didn't particularly care about the answer. There were still five Heavens he hadn't stepped into, and exploration for its own sake had never been something that moved him. If it had, he wouldn't have leaned back the moment he believed he understood the ceiling of something, and he would have kept pushing until he reached it instead.

Even if there were an infinite number of worlds, if they held roughly the same level of power as this one, he saw no reason to bother with any of them. What interested him was something else entirely. He wanted to know if those other worlds had a Dragon and a Phoenix as well.

If they did, then whoever created them had left their imprint on countless worlds at once. It would mean that their power was great enough to pigeonhole an infinite number of realities while hardly lifting a finger. That was a ceiling worth reaching for, and it was the first one in a long time that Sylas couldn't see the top of.

That… that was enough.

Sylas felt his heart shift, and the emerald in his eyes burned even brighter. He slowly stood, water streaming down his body as the three women watched him rise, and he turned toward Cassarae without a word. His hand found her neck, lifting her until she rose to the tips of her toes, her lips already leaning forward in search of his.

He didn't give them to her. Instead, he stepped over the edge of the tub and onto the tile, turning her around and pressing her cheek against the wall with his palm. She didn't struggle in the slightest, arching her back and wiggling her ass against him with a grin he could hear in her voice.

"Well, hurry up, then," she said, her tone thick and sweet. "Give me my reward."

Sylas didn't make her wait. He pressed forward into her in a single, slow motion, and Cassarae's breath left her in a long, shuddering exhale that fogged the tile beside her mouth. Her fingers splayed against the wall as though she might claw her way through it, yet her hips pushed back to meet him the moment he stopped.

Behind them, the water sloshed. Nosphaleen didn't bother climbing out gracefully, all but pouring herself over the edge of the tub with a look in her eyes that had nothing to do with patience. She sank to her knees on the wet tile between their legs, her hands grabbing onto both of them for balance.

Her tongue ran a long, unhurried line from the base of Sylas' balls all the way up to Cassarae's clit, and Cassarae's knees very nearly gave out beneath her. Sylas caught her by the hip and held her in place.

She had nowhere to escape to when Nosphaleen did it again. Cassarae's moan broke against the wall, far louder than she had likely intended.

"Nos," she gasped, half a warning and half a plea. "You little—"

Nosphaleen didn't answer, and she didn't need to. Her mouth moved wherever she pleased, sucking and licking at the point where the two of them joined, and every time Sylas drew back she followed him with her tongue as though she had claimed him too. When he drove forward again, she pressed her lips against Cassarae and hummed.

Cassarae's whole body shuddered. Her toes curled against the tile and a thin stream of liquid ran down the inside of her thigh, catching on Nosphaleen's chin, who only licked it away with open delight. For all of Cassarae's usual commands and teasing, she couldn't seem to get a single complete sentence out anymore.

Sylas' hand slid from her hip to the small of her back, pressing her down until her ass rose higher and he could sink deeper. His pace grew heavier and less forgiving, each thrust echoing through the bath house as the steam swirled around them. Cassarae bit down on her own lip, then gave up on that entirely and let her voice fill the room.

Through all of this, Xarvenya remained in the water.

She hadn't moved from her seat, her composure held together with the same elegance, but her eyes had long since stopped pretending to look anywhere else. Her lips were slightly parted, and the water around her had gone very still. When she realized that Sylas' gaze had shifted toward her over Cassarae's shoulder, she lifted her chin as though she had merely been observing.

"I was in the middle of a history lesson," she said coolly.

"You can finish it later," Sylas replied.

Xarvenya opened her mouth to say something else, but she never got the chance. An invisible force wrapped around her waist, lifting her from the bath in a spray of water before she could so much as grip the edge. She landed against the wall right beside Cassarae, her palms pressed flat to the tile.

For a moment, she seemed on the verge of protesting. Then Sylas' free hand trailed down the curve of her spine, his fingers slipping between her thighs, and whatever objection she had been constructing simply dissolved. Her lips pressed together tightly, her eyes fluttering closed as she tried very hard to maintain the dignity she had carried into the room.

She lasted three seconds before her hips began to move against his hand.

Cassarae turned her head against the wall, her cheek still pressed to the tile, and looked at Xarvenya with a flushed, wicked grin. "Look who decided to join," she panted. "So proper. So composed."

"Be quiet," Xarvenya said, though her voice cracked right in the middle of it.

Nosphaleen laughed from below, the sound vibrating against Cassarae, and Cassarae's grin collapsed into a strangled cry as her climax tore through her. Sylas held her through every convulsion, his rhythm never slowing, while his fingers curled deeper inside Xarvenya until her proud mouth fell open at last.

The emerald in his eyes hadn't dimmed once. If anything, it had only grown brighter, as though the hunger he'd found in Xarvenya's history lesson was pouring out of him through every movement. Cassarae felt it too, and even through the haze clouding her mind, a part of her was deeply, quietly satisfied.

Her husband had found something to chase again. And whatever it was, she had a feeling it was far larger than a single universe.