“The Master rarely needed to use these, but I find them suitable for this improvisation of mine. Although likely not what Master Darthar had in mind, I have little doubt he would have approved,” he added with a grim smile.
Grabbing ahold of one hookless chain to the side, he pulled down on it, his muscles bulging with the effort despite how easy he made it look, until she was suspended in the air above the altar. Moving forward to stand directly beneath her, he pulled on a strap, making her sway.
“Now, shall we try this again?”
Rose glared at him.
“I was training at the conservatory. I was ahead of the other apprentices, but I had so many questions. There were things that I needed to know,” she spat. “They considered my studies to be unfit and were going to strip me of my powers if I had not escaped.”
He regarded her dispassionately as he swung her thoughtfully and then dragged her to him, her face was within inches of his. His teeth bared in a cruel snarl.
“You lack discipline, for all that power and curiosity you have. You are too proud and so did not obey the instructions of your Master until you had achieved a level where you might have done your studies freely. It cost you once. I tell you now that I will give you everything. I will teach it all, but you will obey. And obeying will be the subject of your first lesson, and this false pride you have will eventually crumble.”
With that said, he let go and stepped away, leaving her swaying haplessly in the air as he left the room. Moments later, he returned with the chest and set it directly before her. Tilting his head at her, he waved his hand toward her.
“Summon your element.”
Chapter 9
Rose dangled at his mercy, her heart pounding in her chest. Summon my element? He had her strung up like a side of meat and wanted her to summon her element—as if she hadn’t been trying just that in a more comfortable position earlier. She attempted to twist, to keep an eye on the lupo as he ranged around her, but it was impossible with her mobility hampered. She tugged at the straps pinning her arms to her sides. She didn’t like being helpless at someone else’s mercy, especially not when a familiar subtle scent stirred in the air.
“Let me go,” she snarled, forcing her body to go lax and unresponsive.
He circled her in a predatory manner, his gaze pinning her, a low growl rumbling from his throat. She stiffened, certain that he would attack. Instead, he halted off to her side and shrugged.
“Perhaps you are not the one.”
She paused. What?
“All of the others brought here, although they were initially frightened, were honored once they understood that they were chosen to follow in Master Darthar’s footsteps. They were all experienced mages, Masters in their own right when they arrived. It is clear that bringing a mere apprentice here was a mistake. My lupi should have left you in the woods.”
That pricked at her pride, but she pushed it away. One corner of Saris’s mouth lifted knowingly, stirring her anger. He knew nothing!
Rose shook her head, clearing the anger from her mind. Wait… she had to think. He was preying on her emotions. She understood fine manipulations of the emotional body. It was a specialty of water magic. She focused on his words, replaying them in her mind. He was offering her freedom.
Was it really going to be that easy?
His hand gripped a strap, turning her slowly until they were eye to eye, his expression grim and eyes cold, the scent immediately dispersing as he cooled noticeably toward her. Every line of his body was perfectly controlled power as he regarded her.
“You are free to leave. I will remove these bonds from you and escort you from the castle and the passage into the mountain. I will leave you to find your way back to human civilization.” He leaned closer, his breath brushing her face as he spoke. “You do not know the horrors of the mountain and what exists, lurking in the shadows. They will tear you apart and devour you, if you are lucky. If you are not, and you encounter one of the wraiths, they will possess you and consume you from within until they are all that remains within your flesh.”
She paled and lifted her head to search the baleful stare of the merciless yellow eyes looking down on her.
“You would do that? You would leave me out there to die?”
She had known that they were unnatural. She would have known it from her carnal response to whatever pheromone they emitted had she not known it from the lore surrounding the “bestia.” There was nothing normal about them, not even the clear intelligence shown in the speech of the one standing before her.
If they were as old as he said and if he had attained Mastery, he must have been educated. Even still, she could not make any assumptions. Although they had once been human, there was nothing human about the lupi anymore. To think that he would pity her situation was almost laughable, but she had to try to evoke some sympathy for her situation.
Saris returned her regard, unmoved, his ears tilted toward her before slowly sliding back, his fur bristling in irritation.
“This is my duty,” he snarled vehemently. “We were not made to save and escort foolish humans who intrude beyond the barrier. We protect the world of the living from the filth and horrors that rise up. You think you can survive the mountain? Then leave, but know that more skilled mages than yourself have died on this mountain in their foolish quests. Some who even intentionally came in hopes of seeking to study under Darthar himself. Few have made it to this castle. The majority have fallen to the creatures that inhabit this place,” he whispered.
A shudder ran over her skin, an icy cold prickle of awareness of what he spoke of. Hadn’t she seen an example of what he described—a monster that inspired great terror in her just to look upon it. Even hanging there at the mercy of Saris, she knew she was fortunate to have escaped, but how long would she have been safe from it or any other creatures if she had not come upon the lupi? What if it had continued hunting her unbeknownst to her? Would her body now be joining the rest in their decay? The thought was unsettling. She had truly been ignorant of just how much danger she faced when she breached the barrier in her escape from Roninbar.
Saris glanced down her body, his attention pausing at her nipples before dragging further down. She crossed her legs tightly, unwilling to expose that part of her if she could help it.
“But,” he mused, “it is possible that you will get lucky again and make your way through the forests of the mountain without meeting certain death. The gods might smile upon you, or perhaps fortune herself will deliver you back to the world of men unscathed,” he murmured. “But that is a deadly wager to make. Do you have something so precious that you are willing to risk death?”
A humorless snort burst from her at her situation. The gods truly had to have a sense of humor. “Why does this sound familiar? Once again, I am being offered a choice between what could easily be certain death or possibly death in your company. It is a cruel game some god is playing with my life.”
Saris grunted and raised his thick shoulders in a shrug. “It depends on one’s perspective. The fates themselves could be directing you. There is risk in everything, mage. Your apprenticeship, however brief it may or may not have been, should have taught you that much.”
She ground her teeth at her impossible situation as the lupo stared at her, waiting passively for her decision although his hand tightened on the strap he held. Rose let her head drop as she considered her options. Even if she somehow managed to get off the mountain alone, which seemed less likely than it had a few minutes ago, she would still have to escape Roninbar. He would have neither forgotten nor forgiven her for the way she had slipped away from him. Yet if she stayed here, she would be isolated with the lupi, facing an unknown danger that had killed other mages and could possibly kill her. Either way, death mocked her, laughing at her futile attempts to once again escape his power.
She sighed. “The others… The lupi…”
“They will not touch you nor come near you,” Saris snarled bluntly. “Th
ey should not have touched you to begin with and I have yet to reprimand them for it.”
Rose shook her head and laughed weakly. She was dangling from some odd contraption that she had never seen, above a mage’s altar, and he was offended on her behalf for what the other lupi had done with her. Although it had been surprising, she had given in to the pull of her desire without any fight. It had been a rush being dominated, feeling the explosion of pure pleasure that she had rarely managed to reach before. She could be open to it in another setting, one on one with a male she chose, but group activity was off the table.
“No need,” she muttered, twisting her head up so that she could meet his eye. She smirked at the surprise that crossed his face before he concealed it once more behind a wall of nonchalance. She licked her lips, smile widening. She had her own forbidden hungers that were rarely satisfied, and that one had been too hard to resist satisfying. She was happy to let them think that they were in control when she got exactly what she wanted.
“Do not worry about me, lupo. Nothing happened that I didn’t want once everything got started—although the pheromones helped speed the decision along. Sometimes that which is frightening can also be the most stimulating.”
Saris’s eyes heated and he tugged her closer, his rich scent encompassing her. She turned her head away from it, forcing herself to breathe through her mouth. It still had its effect on her, but that way, it didn’t create more than a pleasant hum through her body. She wanted to be certain that he knew she couldn’t be overpowered by using her need against her. His eyes narrowed on her, a glimmer of something that could almost be considered interest shining in his gaze. She cleared her throat and looked away from him.
“In any case, my interest in that sort of group indulgence doesn’t require a repeat performance. I just wish to make it clear that I am not interested in taking them all on again. Once was more than enough.”
A low rumble rose from his chest, and he pulled her closer, forcing her to meet his fiery gaze. “No male but me shall touch you.”
“What if I don’t approve of you touching me?” she bit back.
He shrugged again. “Your choice, if you would rather pursue this path of pain than pleasure.”
She swallowed at the promise in his words. “Sometimes pain can be pleasure,” she whispered hoarsely.
He nodded. “But to walk the path they did is nothing but torture. I will torture you, make no mistake. I will burn you throughout, without you suffering the way they forced themselves to. All you must do is submit to me. And that will be the agreement for your presence here. Full submission, which you never gave your former Master.”
“Hardly a fair arrangement,” she said.
“It is the way of things. Nothing is fair, but in the arts, all are given equal access to achieve the greatest of mysteries. You make your choices, presented with the options just as every apprentice before… This is just in the eyes of the gods and fates.”
“Really? Were all the others offered a pleasurable alternative?” she mocked.
His gaze hardened, and he shook his head.
“It did not occur to me before, for there has never been any evidence that a human would accept such touch from one of us…”
“Or nearly all of you,” she muttered.
His smile at her response was fleeting, but he continued to speak as if she hadn’t interrupted. “But it will be something considered in the future, should you decline or fail.”
“You are that certain there’s a possibility I will fail?” she demanded. She knew it probably sounded ridiculous coming from her as she hung precariously from the ceiling by a series of straps, but the very notion offended her to the quick.
His eyes brightened, but he did not answer. His gaze pierced her, demanding truth from her. Demanding her decision.
She hissed between her teeth. “I do not submit well. I do not follow directions nor take orders.”
He tugged her closer, his gaze level with hers, his muzzle brushing her cheek. “You will. For your desire to know… you will.”
“It is unethical,” she groaned as his tongue stroked the length of her neck. “A Master does not lay with an apprentice.”
“I care not for your human morals or ethics. I am only here to show you the truth. Accept it however you like,” he murmured, his teeth nipping at the lobe of her ear.
Her breath drew in with a shaky rasp.
“What will you do to me?”
“Everything,” he growled.
Chapter 10
Saris felt something within him uncoiling as if uncaged for the first time. Something that had been waiting for centuries to be released. He was unable to define it other than the fact that it blazed hungrily, far more so than his natural appetites that raged during the hunt. Those he understood. When he hungered, he ate, tearing apart the material forms of the escaped spirits. It was his nature to hunt and consume. This new hunger now demanded to be fed and he refused to deceive himself as to its nature.
He hungered for her. For the human mage. His kind didn’t consume the flesh of humans, but he wanted to scrape his teeth against her, to taste the sharp bite of her blood on his tongue.
Saris shook his head, his ears flicking nervously as he backed away and regained his control. It was too soon to blood her. Instead, he paced over to the chest and picked up a flogger, the supple braided leather tickling his palm as he inspected it for frays or any damage from its long storage. Technically, the apprentices used the floggers on their own flesh to purify themselves, but this he would do for her so she would taste pleasure with the lick of the leather tongues upon her skin.
Returning to Rose’s side, he took a minute to appreciate the beauty of her form as she hung suspended there. Tucking the flogger beneath his arm, he lifted one leg, hooking it through a loop and tightening the strap just enough so that it was supportive before doing the same to the other leg. Her body tipped forward with the redistribution of her weight, but a small sigh of relief left her at the additional support, even though it left her knees splayed apart and the leather strap threaded between her thighs visible for his pleasure.
He observed with interest the way small bumps spread over her lovely flesh as she shivered with awareness. His mouth parted slightly on a grin. Saris brushed his tail over the back of her ass, delighting in the way it clenched in reaction and her sharp, indrawn gasp. Rose turned her head left and right in a vain attempt to catch sight of him where he stood beyond her field of vision. He remained where he was as he spoke
“You prize control. I can see that you control every aspect of your life and everything around you. Control is good when utilized for the right reasons, but in such cases, there is a deeper fear that is the cause, so we will work to expunge it from you. What do you fear, Rose?”
The straps creaked quietly as they swayed with the shift of her weight.
“I’m not afraid,” she grumbled back at him. “Why are you lingering back there anyway? I don’t like it.”
“Why? Do you think seeing me will change what happens?”
“It can,” she snapped. “Or I can at least prepare for it.”
He nodded his head. “You are afraid of being hurt…”
Rose snorted rudely. “I’ve told you already that I don’t mind a bit of pain. I’m not afraid of it.”
His mouth quirked at her obstinance, but he didn’t reply. Instead, he skated the tips of his claws delicately over the back of one thigh. She jerked in her harness, a quiver running through her entire body. Her muscles clenched and held as she tensed for another touch that never came. Eventually, they began to relax with a small shudder as she let out a pent-up breath.
“You are afraid of the unknown,” he observed. “Of not knowing what to expect and whether or not it will bring you great pain. So you seek to control everything around you to avoid that pain. You are like ice—impenetrable and fixed. There is no growth in that. We are working at dissolving that fear, melting the ice at your core, even as we
work on your obedience. It is much one and the same thing, since you are too rigid to bend.” He flicked an ear at her as he shifted behind her, his tail moving idly. “I will not lie to you. Sometimes there will be pain. It cannot always be avoided, but what you do with it will shape you.”
Rose twisted helplessly, her frustration visible.
“There is nothing wrong with my magic,” she hissed. “I told you that I was first among all the apprentices…”
“And still did not gain Mastery,” he reminded her coolly.
She snorted with an impatience that made his smile widen. Her spirit amused him. He hoped that it would be enough to sustain her. The idea of her joining the other apprentices whose remains littered the floor didn’t sit well with him for some reason. He had never cared before about the outcome other than the frustration that he experienced at failing at his task.
Again, she released an annoyed huff.
“And just how am I to do that with none of my books and tools?”
He narrowed his eyes at the back of her shoulder, his fur bristling and tail stiffening with the first sign of irritation.
“Did you attempt to continue your magical education in any sense, or did you just let it be enough so to nurse your pride and fear?” he snapped. He shook himself and drew in a calming breath. “Enough talk. I repeat, mage, summon your element.”
An angry hiss of breath left her, but she didn’t argue, and he felt her energy build as she attempted to make connection. Eyes trained on her, he waited until the moment she touched on her power before running the end of the flogger against her right inner thigh. A startled gasp left her, and she jumped in the harness, her power falling away and dispersing with a strong ripple. The faint smell of water lingered for only a moment before it too faded. A tremor like a tidal backlash threatened for a moment as she quivered there in the restraints.
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