Chapter 1459: Life Flame & The Devoted Husband

Phei had made certain of one thing before any of them left the bathing chamber that morning: every woman of his walked away carrying a Life Flame.

He had placed each one quietly, almost casually, between kisses, teasing laughter and the lazy splashing of warm water around the sunken pool or fucking really; without turning the act into some solemn ceremony that would have made everyone stare at him as though he were about to pronounce a heavenly decree.

Melissa had been the first way before. The pale-gold flame entered her body and Soul with barely more than a warm pulse beneath her skin before sinking so deeply that even she could not longer feel it. From there came others; Goddess, Soraya, Delilah and Valentina, each receiving the same sacred protection until five faint lights rested within five women Phei had absolutely no intention of allowing some ancient curse, poisonous bastard or corrosive nightmare to ruin while he was still breathing.

Phei could still perceive every one of them whenever he focused, however, five tiny flames sleeping inside bodies and Souls.

Melissa’s had been the first to teach him what the protection truly meant:

The Life Flame would never simply sit idle while poison, corruption or a curse gnawed away at someone carrying it. It would rise, purge, heal and continue fighting whatever entered them until either the invading force yielded or Phei’s Life Flame reached its limit!

That last part had irritated him considerably more than he cared to admit:

The System had made it perfectly clear that something powerful enough could still overwhelm the Life Flame temporarily, especially while Phei himself remained at the cultivation stage he currently stood, though even then the invading power would struggle to harm a Life Flame bearer as completely as it otherwise might.

Phei disliked the phrase powerful enough on principle.

Still, the Life Flame’s power and effectiveness would grow with him from within them!

Wasn’t that cool?

That made the limitation easier to tolerate.

He had awakened Genesis Angel less than a day earlier— barely begun understanding half the power and abilities now living inside him and already possessed the sort of temperament that made limitations feel less like permanent boundaries and more like personal insults waiting to be corrected.

If the Life Flame strengthened as he did, then eventually he would simply become strong enough that finding something capable of overpowering the Life Flame became somebody else’s impossible problem.

For now, he accepted the limitation.

Eventually, he wanted his family walking through curses as casually as other people walked through rain.

Delilah and Valentina had left the bathing chamber in the same manner; Phei taking each of them to their bed after exhaustion— and all carrying something considerably deeper than the Life Flame:

They now carried his Mark!

Phei could feel them within the Harem Anchor now, now two nexus presences were woven into that strange intimate place connecting his women who had gotten his new Mark.

Even after experiencing the bond several times, describing it remained awkward.

It was deeper than merely knowing where they were and far more intimate than catching the occasional emotion. Their existence rested somewhere beneath ordinary awareness, warm, familiar and unmistakably there— it was a quiet certainty that those women had become part of the same ever-expanding little universe his heart had somehow continued finding room to hold.

Valentina had accepted hers exactly the way Phei expected Valentina to accept anything dangerous, intimate or potentially overwhelming.

Headfirst!

Delilah had been Delilah.

The contrast between them could hardly have been greater, but the eventual result was amusingly similar.

Both women were asleep.

Valentina remained completely dead to the world in the bedroom where Phei had tucked her beneath the sheets. The same woman who could normally enter a room and somehow make expensive furniture look underdressed had been reduced to an impossibly beautiful heap beneath silk covers, one arm sprawled across a pillow while the occasional soft snore escaped her.

Phei had checked on her more than once through his senses, partly because the sex had overwhelmed her hard enough to make him cautious and partly because discovering Valentina snored cutely when extremely exhausted felt like intelligence of considerable strategic importance.

He intended to treasure that knowledge responsibly.

Meaning he would absolutely use it against her later.

Delilah had lasted longer.

Technically.

She had risen from the pool with as much dignity as any woman could reasonably gather after the morning they had just shared, adjusted herself and calmly announced that she needed rest.

The declaration might even have been convincing if she had not reached the doorway, paused and looked over her shoulder at Phei with an expression that translated rest into something considerably less restful.

Phei understood immediately.

Naturally.

A responsible husband listened when his wife communicated her needs!

So he followed Delilah back to her room and devoted a very generous amount of time to ensuring she became exhausted enough to justify the excuse she had already given everyone.

By the time Phei finally left, Delilah was genuinely asleep, one cheek pressed into her pillow and a huge satisfied smile still resting upon her lips, looking remarkably like a cat that had somehow inherited an entire dairy empire and intended to tell nobody where the paperwork was hidden.

That left three women still standing by the time Phei finished dressing.

Melissa. Soraya. And the Goddess.

Phei adjusted the collar of his shirt and turned toward them, golden-white hair still faintly damp from the bath while morning sunlight streamed through the enormous windows behind him and spilled across his face.

Most of the overwhelming celestial majesty from the night before had settled beneath the surface again, enough that he no longer looked as though the heavens themselves had personally dressed him in radiance, but there was no truly hiding what had changed.

Deep and sacred gold occasionally spiraled through the amethyst-gold depths of his eyes, and the faint Genesis markings beneath his skin revealed themselves whenever the light struck him at the proper angle before fading once more into flesh.

Three pairs of eyes watched him.

Phei grinned:

"I’m going to get Sienna— for breakfast," he announced, then somehow managed to add the final two words with enough unnecessary innocence that every woman in the room immediately knew he meant something else and not breakfast.

The Goddess raised one elegant eyebrow.

Melissa covered the beginning of a smile with the back of her hand.

Soraya glanced between them before understanding arrived, followed immediately by the expression of a woman annoyed with herself for having interpreted Phei’s sentence literally even for half a heartbeat.

Nobody in the bathing chamber believed Phei planned to knock politely upon Sienna’s door, and call his terrifying Nether Goddess wife to a pleasant morning and escort her to the penthouse for pancakes.

Phei’s definition of getting Sienna for breakfast clearly involved ensuring Sienna received a proper good-morning first.

Breakfast could survive the delay.

"You are shameless," Melissa said fondly.

Phei placed one hand against his chest as though wounded by the accusation. "I prefer devoted-to-my-duties."

"Of course you do."

The Goddess’s lips curved faintly. "Do remember that the remainder of us may eventually wish to eat."

"I’ll send emergency provisions if things become desperate."

Soraya stared at him. "You say things like that with such confidence."

"One of my better qualities."

"That wasn’t praise."

Phei winked at her and disappeared wearing the irritatingly pleased expression of a man about to go bother his wife.