by Sarina Dorie
She held out her hand. Her talons looked lethal. Thatch nudged me. Reluctantly, I placed my palm in hers.
I waited for her to make a binding oath with magic as I had with Odette and previously with Elric. It wouldn’t be out of character for her to deliver some kind of stipulation that if I failed, I owed her something. I prayed she wouldn’t sense the anxiousness churning inside me.
The Raven Queen stared into my eyes. “I give you my word that if you provide proof of my ally’s betrayal, your most beloved kin will not come to harm by my hand for the next five months.” She released me.
I didn’t see any bright lights. Perhaps she had performed magic, and it had been so subtle I hadn’t been aware of it.
Thatch poked me with his wand. “Explain the nature of this betrayal to Her Majesty.”
“I found a letter in an old book.” I described the details of the note as closely as my adrenaline would allow me to recall. I told her about the Princess of Lies and Truth’s bargain with Jeb to kill Alouette Loraline. “She specifically said she wanted to send you Alouette Loraline’s head on a platter so you would know you couldn’t have her or her secrets. Did someone send it to you?”
“No,” she said coolly.
Craparoni! Had that note been a forgery?
“Alouette Loraline’s body was destroyed,” Thatch said. “She was killed by Witchkin fanatics set on making the world a safer place.”
“How do I know you aren’t making this story up?” the Raven Queen asked.
“I have the note in my possession,” Thatch said. “I can retrieve it if you diminish the enchantments in this room.”
Her lips curled upward. “Is that a sneaky attempt to convince me to lower the wards in my castle?”
“It would be the most pragmatic solution.”
Thatch switched to French, waving a hand at me lazily as he leaned back. It wasn’t a version of French I understood. This must have been an older dialect.
They carried on for a while. I understood an occasional cognate like amusant or la famille or sympathique. I was certain I caught what rapports sexuels meant from the way she raked me up and down with her gaze.
He shook his head vehemently. Thatch’s expression was as blank as it usually was, his monotone just as apathetic. Only when I placed my awareness inside his body did I feel the tremor of nervousness belying his outward calm.
Using my remote skill, I was more clearly able to sense the tension in his body. I could hear the hint of deferential politeness in his tone and the subtle question in his voice each time he waved a hand toward me.
“Intimité,” he said among a stream of other words.
At last she stood. He rose to his feet and bowed. I hurried to my feet, staggering in my attempt to curtsy.
“Cinq minutes.” Her gaze flickered to me. “My servant will gift you with a potion so that you may erase her memories when you finish with her.”
She gestured to the shadows. An attendant stepped toward Thatch. The woman with the body of a bird and the head of a woman held the vial up to him. He accepted it and placed it in the breast pocket inside his vest.
The queen glided out of the room, a long train of black feathers trailing behind her. Shadows slithered out from the plants along the walls. Guards clad in black armor filed into step beside her and behind her. Some had bird heads or bird bodies while others were more human in form and aspect. More harpies followed behind. I scanned the walls, uncertain where the others had come from. After them came spindly creatures that were as flat as a sheet of paper when they turned to the side. Knobby imps and bulking creatures with spiky armor that resembled thorny plants followed.
There must have been dozens of them hidden in the garden room. How they all had fit I couldn’t imagine. I hadn’t suspected anyone else was there aside from an occasional moment when I’d heard a rustle or snicker. If I had reached out farther with my awareness, perhaps I would have sensed them. Or perhaps their magic was so strong that I wouldn’t have been able to do so.
Thatch’s expression was grim. He scanned the iron bars holding in the glass. Fewer plants adorned the walls. The ones that were left didn’t dance with shadows anymore. One place still wavered.
Thatch strode forward and grappled with something half my height. He pushed something into the light. The creature had the body of a child and the head of a boar. He snuffled and snorted as he ran after the queen’s procession. In the doorway, he turned and flipped us off.
The plants wove themselves together over the path and sealed us in. Thatch drew his wand and waved it in the air. I flinched away from the arc of magic. My muscles were still weak from the queen’s avalanche of pain, and I stumbled back.
A long line of red light shot out of Thatch’s wand, but not at me. He whipped the light at the walls. A lash of orange light followed, next yellow. He unleashed the colors of the rainbow, one at a time, muttering the words of Collinson’s Warding, one of the advanced spells Vega had told me I wasn’t ready for. After the first stanza, night melted away outside and was replaced by a warm glow as friendly and inviting as sunlight. The plants within the queen’s receiving room were illuminated as brightly as though it were day. The room was full of vivid colors I hadn’t known were there.
Thatch continued lashing out with his wand. He repeated the spell one more time. The light intensified so brightly that I could barely make out the iron bars of the domed ceiling. The crosshatching of magic he conducted into place knit together like a weaving, creating a mesh of light that sectioned us off in a dome that fit the contours of the room.
I backed away uncertainly, positioning myself on the other side of the table.
“The queen has promised me five minutes of privacy with you, but that won’t be enough time.” He leaned against the table, visibly winded. “The wards I’ve cast will give us a few additional minutes of privacy at the most. That’s all I can do. We need to hurry.”
My suspicion meter was sending me warning signals. “Why? What are you planning?” Was he truly intending to use sex magic?
He beckoned to me. “Come here.”
I stepped toward him, and then changed my mind. I shifted back behind the chair. “No. I want you to tell me what is going on first.”
He closed the distance between us in two quick strides. He grabbed my arm and drew me into his arms. “We haven’t a lot of time. I need you to listen to me and follow my instructions without question.” He pressed his lips to mine, his kiss wild and feverish.
He’d never kissed me this way before. I might have lost myself in the passion of the moment, except there was too much else weighing down on me.
I turned my head away. “Do you still work for her? Do you still serve her? Or was that an act?” My voice came out high, not sounding like my own.
He grabbed my face, about to kiss me again.
I kicked him in the shin—which he probably liked. “No. I know what you’re doing. Don’t distract me. Answer my question.”
He licked his lips. “Yes and no. I can tell you about that another time. Right now, I need you to focus on your affinity.”
He sat me in a chair, keeping a hold of my arm. “I have a plan, and it involves magic. Your magic. She wants to see what your affinity does. We will provide a demonstration to entertain her.”
I attempted to wrench my arm away, but I couldn’t. “I’m not going to have sex with you in front of her.”
“Listen to me. If I am able to feed from my magic or yours, it will make me stronger.” His eyes were still black.
That didn’t bode well.
“She isn’t going to let us go. She’s going to do something to us.”
“Don’t you think I realize that?” he asked. “This is why I need you to follow my plan so we can distract the entire Raven Court with your forbidden magic, then break their wards, and flee.”
It wasn’t an unreasonable plan to use electricity to break their wards, only I didn’t think I
could possibly find enough pleasure in myself to do so while the Raven Queen and her court watched us. I touched the necklace around my throat. Elric had warned me not to use it unless it was an absolute emergency. Only if the Raven Queen intended to kill me was it worth losing my soul.
He snatched my hand away from the amulet. “No.”
“Let go of me. You’re hurting me.” I kicked him.
“I don’t want to hurt you, Clarissa.” He released me. “But I do require you to sit and listen.”
I suddenly lost control of my arm. My fingers went slack. My entire body relaxed into the chair, but I wasn’t relaxed. My nerves were on edge. Cold washed over my skin, like a bath in a pond in winter. He was under my skin, controlling my muscles. Panic swelled inside me.
“Stop,” I said through clenched teeth.
He shook with exertion. “If you don’t calm down and listen, I won’t stop.” He took my chin in his hands and angled my face to look at him. “We are at the queen’s mercy, and we will do exactly as she commands. If we do as she bids, she might not hurt you worse. At the moment, she wishes me to entertain her. If I can’t show her I have you under my thumb—if I can’t show her I’m training you to her liking and you’re more useful to her alive than dead—then she’ll torture you, possibly to death.
“If you hint in any way at all that I’ve lied to her or protected you from her, then she’ll torture you even more and make me watch. Any hint from you that I mean to cross her, she’ll torture me—and not in the enjoyable way my affinity prefers.”
I swallowed. I tried to tell him I was calm enough to listen, but my lips were glued together. Tears swam in my eyes. I hated the feeling of being powerless. Elric would help if I called him.
Thatch released enough of his hold on me that I could speak.
“I want to summon Elric. He’ll help us,” I said.
“Very well. Call him if that’s your desire.” Some of the black in his eyes shrank away. His expression remained solemn. “He will aid you.”
I understood then. For the price of my soul, Elric would help me. He just wouldn’t help Thatch.
Thatch released the spell. His hold on my entire body was broken. I wrapped my arms around myself, trembling from the cold feeling lingering in the pit of my belly after being possessed.
“Call Elric,” Thatch said.
“No.” I couldn’t abandon Thatch. I wiped my eyes. “What do I have to do?”
“We will do exactly as she asked. We’re going to rut like rabbits. Only, instead of allowing her to collect your excess energy, I will harness the electricity produced by your affinity to leave here.” He circled his arms around me and hugged me. “I need you to attend to your own magic and moderate your pain. I’m not going to have any attention to spare if I’m going to be secretly weaving spells while doing this. We’re only going to have one attempt at this. There isn’t going to be a next time. And that’s if we pull this off. She’s going to be watching us the entire time, as will her entire court. There is no room for error. Do you understand?”
“Y-y-yes,” I stammered. Up until now, I had thought walking out of a bathroom with toilet paper tucked into my pants was the most embarrassing moment of my life. This was like that times a thousand.
“Will you consent to allow me to use your magic this way?” He pressed his lips to my cheek. “Will you trust me?”
I swallowed the lump in my throat. “Yes.”
The dome of light crackled. Thatch’s eyes narrowed. “She’s figured out that I’ve sealed her out. The court will want back in. I need you to do exactly as I ask. Can you for once follow directions without question? Without speaking?”
I nodded.
He eyed me doubtfully. He pushed the tea service off the table. The metal and porcelain came crashing down on the floor. I jumped.
He lifted me onto the table and kissed me. “When I tell you, close your eyes and don’t open them. Promise me?”
I nodded.
He took my face in his hands and kissed my forehead. “When you’re thinking about how much you hate me, try to remember I’d do anything to keep you safe and alive, even if it costs me the rest of my own soul in the process.”
“No. I don’t want you to give up your soul.” I tried to shake my head. I prayed he was going to survive this. He was the one who had foreseen his own death, not mine.
Another crackle danced over the dome. Black cracks flashed against the wards and faded. Thatch glanced up.
He kissed me again. I closed my eyes and kissed him back. I pretended I didn’t hear the crackling staccato pound against his wards. I pretended we weren’t in danger, and he wasn’t trying to get me to generate magic for him to source. This was just like any other moment he might kiss me.
He reached under my skirt and hooked his thumbs under the waist of my striped leggings and underwear. I lifted my rear from the table, and he slid them down my legs. It would have been more practical to remove my shoes first. One of my pants’ legs stuck around my Mary Jane shoes.
“Do you think I have to get completely undressed?” My voice sounded high, like someone else’s.
He fumbled with his waistband. “I will preserve as much of your modesty as I can.”
My insides tremored like a miniature earthquake had taken up residency inside me.
His lips trailed against my neck. “Close your eyes. Resist the temptation to open them. It will make it easier that way.”
I nodded and closed my eyes. I threaded my fingers through the silky locks of his hair. A crack came from above, and I couldn’t help peeking.
Thatch untied the cravat from his collar. “I know this is going to be frightening for you, but you must remember, it’s going to be easier for you to not see them.”
He tore off a length of the white fabric of his cravat and tied it around my head and pushed it in place over my eyes. I swallowed. This was my every fear layered over each other with a cherry on top.
He tied my hands in front of me, with what I guessed remained of his cravat. “You can get out of this should you have need.”
The binding was loose, but I would have to work to wiggle out of it.
He squeezed me to him, plucking kisses from my lips. I needed to focus, but I couldn’t. His erection pressed against me, but he didn’t enter me. The ward buzzed and sizzled all around us.
He stroked my hair away from my face. “Lie back on the table and roll over.”
Awkwardly, I did so. The table dug into my hips as I positioned myself. The chair scraped against the floor. He slid a cushion underneath me, softening the hard edge of the table. The fabric felt like my coat. Even now, in this horrible circumstance, he was thoughtful enough to think of cushioning me from pain. He worried about me giving away our relationship, but it was little details like this that would broadcast his affection for me. I lifted myself, threw the coat onto the floor, and shimmied my hips closer to the edge of the table.
The static crackled louder and abruptly stopped. Light no longer glowed from around my blindfold. The bright friendly magic he’d created to give us privacy was gone. Cold seeped through my clothes. I didn’t think I was using my out-of-body awareness, but I had the sense a thousand eyes watched me.
He yanked my hair back, lifting my head from the table. “Use the skills I taught you.”
I cried out in surprise and pain.
I should have focused more on his words, on reading between the lines of what he said. All I could think about was how I hated it when he pulled my hair. It wasn’t just the pain of it, but the humiliation. I told myself it was an act, part of the show to entertain our Fae overlords, but I couldn’t calm myself. Had I been paying more attention, I would have realized his words were meant as a warning. The hair pulling was foreshadowing of everything I hated.
He grabbed onto my knees, pressing my legs against his thighs, and thrust inside me. Not playfully or gently like he usually did to ease himself inside me, but u
nexpectedly forcefully. I cried out again, as much in surprise at the lack of foreplay as in pain.
Fabric rustled behind me. Something creaked to my left. I tried not to think about who was watching. Focus, I told myself, but I couldn’t. I was too distracted.
My affinity shrank inside me, as if it wanted to hide from the pain. It made it all that much more difficult to concentrate on blocking the sensation of pain.
He thrust again, distracting me with the brutality of his movement. I’d never been with a bad lover. Even the one time when Derrick had woken up in the middle of the night, and I’d thought about how disappointing it was, it hadn’t been anything like this. I’d wondered if sex could be anything but wonderful with Felix Thatch. Now I knew.
“Clarissa, focus.” His voice was a growl. “If you embarrass me and make me look like an incompetent teacher, I will punish you.” The vehemence in his words gave away no indication he felt anything for me.
That was good, I told myself.
Tears welled up in my eyes, and I had to remind myself every cruel word or gesture was an act. This was for my safety. The Raven Queen couldn’t know he loved me, or else she’d use it against him. I tried to focus on using my magic to block the pain, but his next thrust scattered my kumbaya-like thoughts, and I whimpered.
Cool breath snuffled close to my ear. Warm liquid dripped onto the side of my face. I jerked back and wiped at my cheek and temple, but I didn’t remove the blindfold. My hand brushed something coarse and prickly.
Thatch stopped thrusting long enough to swear. “Merlin’s fucking balls! Could I have just a bit more room here? I can’t concentrate with your minions drooling on us.”
Is that what I’d felt? Goblin drool? I tried to wipe my face on my shoulder.
Something cracked close to my head, and I flinched. Thatch let out a disgusted sigh and wiped the side of my face with his sleeve. The gesture was gentle, the kind of touch he usually reserved just for me.
In that moment as Thatch paused, I was able to master my body. I brought my attention to my pelvis and imagined a shield of light protecting me. Blue energy cooled the red inflammation. Pain wicked away so that I didn’t feel it, though I had no doubt he could.