Thus, he had no choice but to stop kissing her.

But he did it giving something to her.

“I would wish to pierce your navel, and soon,” he murmured. “We shall plan for that with a ceremony between ourselves.”

“I would like that, my love,” she said in a tone that underlined her words. “And yours?”

His piercing at her navel was indication she was naught but his in body as well as in her heart and mind. The piercing he had promised her at his cock would mean the same.

He shook his head. “I would need to heal, which would mean I would need to not make love to you and I’d wish a few days in our home, in our bed, before I am forced to abstain from that.”

“Agreed,” she stated immediately.

Mars exploded with laughter.

He felt her body shake beneath him with her giggles as he did so.

Unfortunately, when they were done, this interlude needed to be the same.

Thus, he kissed the giggles still at her lips, and then he pulled them both from the bed.

She went to her dressing room.

He went to his.

And Mars decided to tear down the wall between these two chambers.

But that would be for another day.

This day needed to be for something else.

“They’re unbreakable,” Lorenz said, standing at his side in the musty, torchlit chamber below the earth in the necropolis.

“Hmm,” Mars hummed, staring at the prone men chained to the stone floor before him.

“News of the loss of Mercy has traveled wide, Mars,” Lorenz carried on. “We have heard word of three Go’Doan temples in our realm that have been overrun. Looted. One burned.”

Mars kept his gaze steady on one of the men restrained on the floor, seeing a twitch in his cheek as he heard Lorenz’s words.

“The priests are scattered,” Lorenz continued. “We know not where. Rumor has it they are using tithes and trading relics to pay tribesmen for safe passage back to the Dome City.”

Mars raised his brows but did not shift his gaze. “You tell me this because you wish me to secure their temples?”

“I do not care about their temples. I tell you this because it might be Rising priests who are escaping our borders.”

“Hmm,” Mars hummed again.

“If we were to question them, I feel certain we’ll get useful information from the Go’Ella,” Lorenz went on.

Another twitch from the prisoner on the floor.

“Gather them,” Mars ordered.

The eyes of the man on the floor closed.

“Pardon?” Lorenz asked.

“Gather them for interrogation. All of them.”

“The Go’Ella?” Lorenz inquired.

“Yes.”

“All of them?”

“Yes. If you can, find the ones that belonged to these men.” He swept an arm out to indicate the men on the floor, but he turned his attention to his captain. “Talk to your friend. If he knows, discover who they are, names, descriptions, and seek them. In the meantime, bring the ones that are currently serving priests in Fire City.”