Madness

by Rebecca Grey

  Swiftly, I swung my arm above my head, getting momentum and warming up the muscles in my arm. The crack of the whip was felt with the entirety of my body as I pulled my arm back and carried the motion through with my torso. As if an extension of my body, Red lurched forward as the tip created a long red stripe down her back.

  “Count,” Windre said, kicking her leg.

  “One,” Red hissed, as I tugged the length of the whip back toward me.

  Warmth traveled my body as I struck again. It had been too long since I had actually used a whip like this, and my whole physique, down to my legs, was waking up to the sensation of the movement again. Leather sliced through the air and slapped against Red’s back as I struck again.

  “Two,” she whispered a moment after crying out.

  “No, it wasn't loud enough,” Windre said. “Start over.”

  So I started again. The whip cutting into her back over and over again. Her voice was a whimpering tremble I was certain would escape her, but it never did. Sometimes her screams made me smile. Sometimes the sound of her crying ruined it.

  THIRTEEN

  Ryker

  Waking up that morning was different. Something inside me had deflated. I tugged at the fluffy comforter on my bed, soaking in some morning laziness. Sunlight shone around my closed curtains, reminding me that I had responsibilities to attend to. I ignored the nagging feeling though and rolled over into my pillow.

  My night clothes, a loose fitting shirt and cotton shorts, were bunched about as high as they could go from all my movement as I slept. But the sheets were warm enough it made up for the amount of bare skin showing. I spread my arms and legs out wide, reaching for the four corners of the bed, smiling to myself when I couldn’t touch them. It was a huge upgrade from the tiny sliver of a bed they had forced us to sleep on before.

  Two loud knocks on my door made me crack an eye, as if I could see through the door. I groaned and sat up. At this point I didn’t care who was at the door, I wasn’t getting out of bed.

  “Come in,” I yelled, pulling my hair up into a bun and securing it with a hairband I’d slept with on my wrist.

  The door opened and Dace strolled in, his eyes wandering the room looking for me until they stopped, a little surprised, on the bed. He had obviously already been up and around this morning. Black leather pants, that screamed I’m a prince again, and another sheer shirt, this time gray. Today his hair wasn’t as slicked back as it normally was, instead a few wavy strands twisted over his forehead. I hadn’t realized he had any curl to his hair before, he must work rather hard to keep it slicked down. He took a few steps forward, stopping in the warmth of the sunlight that my curtains could not hide. Under the yellow rays his skin looked almost transparent, his veins bright icy-blue like his eyes.

  “Good morning to you,” Dace purred.

  My traitorous body shivered at the words. Overly aware of my lack of underclothing, my thin shirt hardly hid the peak of my breasts, I folded my arms across my chest. “Nice to see you up and about.” I crossed my legs in front of me.

  “I actually came to see if we could do a little more of the training we didn’t get to finish last night.” He pulled yet another red apple from his pocket and held it in the light. “I could slice you off some pieces and we can call it breakfast.”

  “You want to do that right now?”

  “Yeah, I’ll just pop back and forth inside your room.” He raised his eyebrows and whispered, “No one has to know.”

  “You think you can do any better than last night?” I challenged. “You never did get around to what motivates you. Since apparently, you are in better control of your emotions than I am.” I’m a wreck, I thought to myself.

  “Well, we can see how I do these first few times, and if I don’t get any better, I’ll let you in on a little secret.”

  “Okay then, get to slicing me up some apple.” The apple in his hand did look rather nice and I remembered how juicy the last one he brought me was. Where was he getting these apples from? My mouth watered, my stomach rumbling in anticipation. “If you tried to bring me a cup of water, would it cut the cup long ways or up and down? I could really use a glass of water.”

  “Um, maybe let's not try that one just yet. I’m not trying to get glass shards on my clothes.”

  Images bombarded my thoughts. Glass shards on his clothes that he would then have to take off. Dace was far too handsome for my unchecked hormones. I smiled and placed my hands in my lap waiting.

  “Okay, here it goes.” He gave me a wink, vanishing. The apple hit the ground and rolled around where his feet had been. If he did this too many times my breakfast was going to get awfully bruised.

  The air by my door shimmered for a moment and then he reappeared, already walking toward me with the slice. “Does it look any bigger?” he grimaced.

  I took the chilled slice from his hand and looked it over. It was not any bigger. “Uh, maybe just a hair?”

  “Are you just feeding me bullshit so I don’t feel so bad that you made progress a lot quicker than me?” The tilt of his chin made the cut of his jaw extra sharp.

  “Yeah, you really suck at this.” I took a bite and smiled at the delicious flavor. Talking through the food in my mouth, I continued, “You sure you don’t want to tell me how I could motivate you to do better? Honestly, I think pissing me off is what did it so well for me.”

  Though today I could tell my magic was tired. Sore, like a muscle, it ached at the thought of being used. But I would have to, I needed to make it stronger, build it up so I could be fast, smart, and deadly.

  “Let me try again.” He backed up from the bed, scooping the apple up again and vanishing without another word. The majority of the apple bounced off my floorboards. But he reappeared again by my bed holding out the same portion of apple as before.

  My eyebrow ticked up as I took it out of his hand. “Not any better. Guess you’ll have to fess up now.” I leaned into my pillows, propping my head on my arm and popping the apple slice into my mouth. My fingers already felt sticky from the juices.

  The mattress dipped as Dace sat on the edge of my bed. He pulled his legs up straight in front of him and leaned back on his arms, looking at the canopy above us. Small curls slid across his forehead as he tilted his head back and forth.

  “Well, seeing as punishment has never worked on me, ask my mother, I can easily tell you that I work a lot better if I’m being praised and given rewards.”

  “Aren't you already praised and given enough as a prince?”

  “I don’t know what to say. I want it all,” he cracked a sly smile.

  “Okay, so you want treats and a pat on the head. Like a dog?” I snorted. Dace seemed less amused at my comment as he rolled his eyes and rolled onto his stomach.

  “I think you should come with me, Ryker,” he said seriously.

  “Come with you where?” If he wanted to use me as the apple to transport, it was going to have to be a firm no. I wasn’t getting my arm shaved off as an experiment of what he could or could not do.

  “Come with me back to the Twinity Court. Come back for the formal they’ll throw in order to give me my crown back.”

  “I can’t just leave, Dace.” I scrunched my nose, confused at the turn of the conversation.

  “If I do better. If I can get a bigger slice, will you come? Call it my treat, for being a good boy.”

  Laughter rattled my chest as I rested my body flat against the bed. I never knew what Dace was going to say and I never understood why he wanted to keep me around as much as he did. I was not nearly as beautiful as he was, even if all my training had helped to shape my body. It was weird to look at myself in the mirror now. Before the Day of Ruin, I was a child, a stick of a nymph. Now that I was healthy and thriving, the body of a woman looked back at me. It was startling.

  “Do you really think that will help you get better?” I asked.

  “I really, really do,” he paused, then stood and retrieved the apple again. “Say
you will.”

  “Dace, that’s a lot you're asking of me.”

  “Oh, come on. Just say yes,” he practically whined as he playfully stuck out his bottom lip. “Say it. Say yes.”

  “I’ll say maybe. If you can get more of that apple to go with you, then I’ll think about it.”

  “Damn, that’s good enough for me.” And he was gone. The still nearly-whole apple thudded to the ground. His boots hit the floor at the foot of my bed. He reached and handed me the slice, still the same size as before. He shook his head and darted back to the apple.

  “I’m going again. I’m gonna do this. And you,” he pointed at me, “Are coming to my party.”

  “We will see about that,” I said to an empty room. He was moving quicker now. It felt more like a challenge, the atmosphere of it becoming more intense. This time the apple fell and a noticeable piece was gone. Holy shit, there was no way this was working.

  The air next to me grew hazy and Dace smiled at me as he leaned against my pillow, with his head propped as I had been before. In his hand he held an actual thick slice, not just a tiny sliver.

  “Mmm,” he hummed. “Looks like you better pick out one of those gowns to take with you.”

  “Have you been able to do that this whole time and you're just trying to trick me into coming with you?”

  The bed shook as he chuckled, “I wish, but no. I told you, I just needed a little motivation.”

  “I could use a little motivation to get out of bed today.” I pulled the blanket up over my shoulder and peeked at Dace between the material that I gathered near my face.

  “You know it’s nearly afternoon,” he drawled and ate the apple slice. By the mother, I wanted that.

  “I know. I have to get up and get ready anyway. I told Daethian I would meet him for dinner tonight and if I back out of this again, he will probably kill me.”

  “You guys spent a lot of time together here, haven't you?” Dace looked at the back of his hand, curling his fingers into his palm and opening them back up again. It looked mildly threatening, especially when he looked at me from the side and flashed his teeth in a quick smile.

  “Yes, he’s my best friend,” I admitted. Daethian had been the only thing that kept me going most days under Ganglin’s rule. We were lucky to have each other. Without him, I would have lost my sanity or gotten myself killed, I was sure. “You should spend some time with him. You’d probably like him once you got to know each other. He is actually pretty goofy.” I smiled, thinking about the abundance of jokes he’s told me or played on me, or the way he made the keepers so pissed when he made a joke at their expense.

  “Ah, I don’t think that’s such a good idea,” Dace muttered. “Every time he looks at me, I swear he's thinking about murder.”

  “He’s just nervous,” I lied, as if I knew what was going on in Daethian’s head. He had been rather odd lately, but there had also been so much change, so quickly. Some people just don’t react well to change. Maybe Daethian was one of those people.

  “Nervous? Ha. The only thing he is nervous about is that I’m gonna come in here and steal his girl.”

  I swatted his arm, “It’s not like that.” But wasn’t it? Daethian wanted to have dinner with me, as a date. Daethian still gave me that look, the one he used to give me all the time when we were enslaved. It was a look that said he wanted to keep me all for himself. It had always scared me.

  “Are you sure?” Dace hummed, placing both hands under his head.

  “Are you trying to steal me? I thought this was an alliance thing.” My lips felt dry as I ran my tongue over them. An annoying blush heated my cheeks. I was playing dumb, a game I often chose to play. Dace’s obsession with the idea of making me fawn over him like every other girl did had always been clear. But to me, it had always just been that. Once he finally got me to fall, he would leave.

  “I mean, I’m not trying not to.”

  His smile became contagious. He rolled to his side and I followed suit. The softest hint of pink darkened his skin as we looked at each other. The air felt thick with lust. But it was likely just my own. I shouldn’t have let him get this close to me.

  “So,” he sat up abruptly, “You better get packing for our trip. I wouldn’t mind seeing you in that red number again.” His boots thudded against the ground as he swung his legs off the bed. The noise was enough to clear my head a bit as I watched him head toward the door.

  “I haven't agreed to go,” I pointed out.

  “Yet,” he sang as he strolled out of my room.

  And that was all it was. A moment of training. Some harmless flirting. And the sinking feeling that I would ask him to do it all over again if I could. This wasn’t right, logically. But it felt right.

  My hands scrubbed at my face trying to brush off my thoughts. The smell of him still lingered on my bedding. If I had to make a choice, whether to stay or to go, I would have to talk to Daethian about it at some point. Might as well get myself dressed and ready for dinner.

  ***

  The world had continued on, as it always did, even though I hadn’t left my room. It made me feel more humble about the way nymphs here were depending on me. Because in the end, they didn’t need me. They just liked having me as the face for their cause.

  Nymphs were coming in, laughing with each other, sweaty, and still red in the face from the overpowering sun. They still pushed themselves to do whatever they could to get faster and better with their magic, and with their physical capabilities, should Ganglin be able to take their magic away again. Daethian trailed behind a small group, his shirt slung over his shoulder, and a petite nymph girl talking quickly beside him. He laughed at her joke, his hand holding his flat stomach as he took a short breath in. It looked so natural. She batted her long eyelashes and smiled up at him. The girl was clearly smitten by him.

  I pushed my hair behind me and fiddled with a few curls around my face as I watched him. See, he could get along with plenty of girls other than me. I wondered if he fancied this one at all. But he answered the question for me, when his gaze flicked up to me and he did a double take. Daethian left the girl, who was still talking, and jogged up to my side.

  With wide eyes, I gave him an unforgiving glare and pointed at the girl who had stopped talking but left her mouth wide open. “Shouldn’t you say goodbye to your friend?”

  “Shouldn’t I say hello to this one?” His strong arms wrapped around me and pulled me to his chest. The salty smell of sweat was overpowering as he gave me a tight hug.

  “Damn, you need a shower.”

  “Oh, it’s good for you. I didn’t see you at all today, so I’m assuming you didn’t get a workout in. Did you spend the day primping for our date?” He looked me up and down, hungrily.

  I had spent a lot of time trying to find the perfect balance between looking like I do every day and looking like I wasn’t trying too hard for my friend who I was not planning on dating. However, the part of the day where Dace laid in my bed and talked to me, I would maybe leave out.

  “Not a date, remember?”

  “Okay, whatever you say.” The dark stubble on his chin had grown out a bit more. It was starting to look more like a real beard, making Daethian look even more like a man. How old was he anyway?

  Together we began walking down the hall. I assumed Daethian would need to stop by his room and get clean. Maybe I could visit with Randsin while I waited for him to get ready.

  “Daethian, how old are you?” I looked up at his tall frame.

  He snorted, “You don’t know how old I am?”

  “Do you know how old I am?”

  “You’re twenty-five.” He looked down at me with a frown. “I’m twenty-seven.”

  I wondered how old Dace was? Fae didn’t age quite like a nymph. Another reason why we would never make a good pair. Fae aged until they hit their stilling and then they stopped. Depending on how much noble fae blood they had, they could stop aging young, or they could age well into their sixties if the
y didn’t have much. So Dace may look barely twenty-five, but he was probably many years over that.

  Nymphs, on the other hand, typically stopped aging at thirty. Though the wear and tear of enslavement had put many of us through the wringer and left us looking older than we should. But we didn’t live for hundreds and hundreds of years. The lifespan of a nymph was, at best, one hundred and fifty. Dace acted like he wanted me, but he couldn’t have me for his lifetime. It just didn’t make sense. Another reason why he couldn’t be serious.

  “Why have I never known that?” My brow furrowed.

  “That’s a good question. You never really told me though. I just did a little bit of math.” Our steps began to echo down the hall as nymphs dispersed around us and left us alone as we grew closer and closer to our rooms.

  “You can do math?” I faked surprise.

  “I can do a lot more than math.” His carefree laughter carried down the hallway. He pulled his shirt off his shoulder and swiped it over his face and then his chest to soak up any remnants of his sweat. I tried not to watch, knowing it would only give him the wrong impression. But even though I didn’t want Daethian like that, it was hard not to appreciate his body.

  “I’ve just got to take a quick shower, then we will be off.” He pushed open the door to reveal the mess of a room he was staying in. And I’m not quite sure that the mess wasn’t his.

  The bed was still unmade, blankets pushed aside and the sheets crumpled. Clothing scattered the floor that looked and smelled like they had seen better days. Dishes of meals that he had taken back to his room remained on the long dresser and the two small end tables. Sweat rings stained the wood under many of the dishes. Even the couch looked more like a heap of blankets than actual furniture.

  A red chair was pulled up next to the only window. Randsin lounged in it, with a thick book propped open in his hand. He hardly glanced up as we walked in. His typical long uniform covered the majority of his skin, hiding the many tattoos Daethian had suggested he had under it.