by Dr. D
The shadow of men towered over him. The sensation of rough hands crawled on his skin.
“No!” Dezi screwed his eyes shut, fearing for the pain.
But the pain didn’t come. When he reopened his eyes, his body had grown bigger.
Someone spread his legs open, tasted his skin, and toyed with his rear.
Dezi started to tremble all over, but he couldn’t move. “Give me ...” He heard himself moan.
Dezi blushed with shame, but he couldn’t close his mouth. Lewd words continued to leak out of him. “Please, I want to cum.”
Men surrounded him; they pointed at him and laughed at him. Then they ripped through his inside flesh, filled his mouth with the taste of cum, ground him down to the dirt and made him beg for more.
“No, no.” Shame and anger twisted Dezi’s gut. He whipped his head and groaned.
“Dezi.” Someone rubbed his forehead gently.
The dream faded with the caress, and a slit of vision open through the darkness. “Acheron...?” Dezi let out a breath; his tense muscles relaxed for a moment, but then his eyes shot open as memories returned to his aching brain.
Acheron pressed down on him and sealed Dezi’s mouth with his own. Shaky breath tingled Dezi’s face as the prince sucked on his lips.
Dezi flinched and tried to push the prince away. But his arms trembled before he even could flex his muscles. His entire body felt unusually weak and sore, but his groin was awake well before he was. The lightest touch to his crotch still brought him too much stimulation, and his penis was already fully erect.
Dezi stared at the prince’s closed eyes with anger and parted his teeth. Acheron’s tongue eagerly delved into his mouth. The hard bulge that was rubbing on Dezi’s legs twitched and pressed deeper into his thigh. Dezi screwed his eyes shut and bit down on Acheron’s tongue.
The taste of iron spread through his mouth and the prince pulled away to breathe, but his nose was still touching Dezi’s.
Acheron licked his lips with uneven breath, his tongue red with blood, but he didn’t seem to mind.
“Get off me,” Dezi said.
There was a moment of silence.
Acheron gripped onto him a little tighter and leaned down to kiss him again.
“Just get off me!” Dezi growled and backed his crotch away from the prince.
This time, the silence was longer. Acheron drew in a few shallow breaths and loosed his arms around Dezi.
Dezi tried to sit up and rubbed his sore neck. But the contact stung his skin. Dezi looked down under his shirt, and his body went rigid. A large area from his neck to his collar bones was covered in hickeys. But what terrified Dezi was the curse of Nexis on his skin. It was very light, but the pattern was unmistakable. Mixing in with the red marks, it looked like a cherry tree had bloomed on his skin.
Acheron saw what Dezi was looking at, and he nervously pressed the shirt back on Dezi’s skin and tried to take Dezi back into his arm. “Dezi …”
“Don’t touch me!” Dezi cowered away from his hands. The lingering fear from his dream was still aching his head.
Acheron’s face turned ashen at those words, he bit his lips several times but could only murmur, “… I am sorry.”
Those words only brought the image of Stacey’s death into Dezi’s mind.
“You killed Stacy.” Dezi stared at Acheron with protruding eyes. He had seen the lightings and the damage it could do. It wasn’t something that he would ever forget. Dezi glanced down at his chest again, and his lips quivered as a chilling realization came to him. “It was you that killed your mother.”
Acheron visibly trembled.
Dezi took a second to react and then scrambled to get off the bed.
“Dezi!” Acheron clenched onto him.
“Let me go.” Dezi’s muscles tensed from being in contact with Acheron’s hands.
“No!” Acheron shook his head neurotically and hauled him closer.
“Don’t go. Don’t go. Don’t …” Acheron pressed himself on Dezi, held him so tight in his arms that it was hurting him. For a second, Dezi thought that the prince would cut him open just so he could delve deeper under his flesh.
“Dezi, Dezi, Dezi …” Acheron pulled up Dezi’s shirt and pressed his face into his warm skin.
“Hey! Stop it!” Dezi’s tense nerves flipped, and he threw a punch at the prince. He tried to fight, but couldn’t compete with Acheron’s single-minded strength. The muscles on Dezi’s arms trembled and were pinned down by the prince.
Dezi’s erection was rubbed against the prince’s body, and he could feel a moan bottled up within him. He never got the relief since he was drugged, and deep down, he knew his body craved the pleasure of penetration. Shame burned through him and left every inch of his body with the ash of anger. “Get the hell away from me!”
Acheron’s hands sunk into him with those words. He slowly loomed over him with his empty eyes stared wide open at Dezi like a pair of open wounds.
“Don’t leave me alone by myself.” The words came out of Acheron’s throat like they were dragged through a floor of broken glass.
“Wait. What are you doing?!” Dezi saw the metal collar in Acheron’s hand. “No!” He struggled violently and screamed when Acheron held the collar to his neck, but he couldn’t break free.
The coldness stamped onto his skin and the collar sealed off completely without a seam.
“What is your problem?!” Dezi panted under the prince.
Dezi scanned the bedside table and found the earth stone Acheron must have used to mold the metal.
He shoved the prince hard and grabbed the stone in his hand.
The cold stone sunk in his palm, but the earth energy in there was locked down.
Dezi’s brows furrowed as he gaped at the prince. While in similar distance, the control of an elemental stone would go to the person with higher magic ratings. Dezi knew that he had a big discrepancy in rating with the prince, and Acheron would remain in control even further away, but no amount of discrepancy that Dezi knew of could surpass physical contact.
Acheron looked down at him with his dense black eyes and reached down to take the stone away.
“Ugh!” The anger still burned in Dezi’s chest, and he bit onto Acheron’s already-bandaged hand. The bitter taste of blood filled his mouth.
Acheron was unaffected by the pain. He stroked Dezi’s hair gently and pressed a kiss on Dezi’s neck.
But it was blocked by a shiny golden collar.
Chapter 30
The air hummed with electric charge until the first strike of lighting violently shot up from the ground. The protective shield of the arena lit up in cracks with a low rumble of thunder.
Ominous black clouds sprawled across the sky above the arena, billowing as it pressed down to the earth, reaching for the source of its power. Acheron stretched his neck and straightened his back as wind picked up his black hair. Light purple lighting swirled around him as he signed in relief.
He finally let it all out of his chest.
The audience was in complete terror. Acheron’s arranged opponent never dared to step toward the stage.
Prince Andrew stared wide-eyed with a ghost-pale face and slowly sat down to hide the weakness of his knees.
“There is no doubt about it.” Lord Ronan stepped toward Andrew. “It is--”
“The magic of lighting was not exclusive to the Noxis dragons.” Tatiana placed her hand on Andrew’s shoulder and smiled at Ronan. “Lord Ronan.”
Ronan winced and bowed to the princess.
Andrew looked at his sister and stared down at the stage. Even the dragons couldn’t cast the magic too far out of reach from its body. But Acheron turned the whole stage into a massive ball of lightning and drew thunderclouds out of the sky without even lifting his arms.
“What is he?” Andrew turned to face his sister.
“Andrew.” Tatiana stroked his back. “A is the highest magic rating we have, but it is not the highest possible range
one’s talent can go.”
There were legends about great kings in the history who had unprecedented talents above the standard ranking. Their magic talent was named as S, and ranked above A.
“No, it isn’t impossible.” Andrew’s jaw was clenched up with envy. “It hadn’t shown up for generations. Mother!” Andrew wanted an explanation from his mother, but the queen was in even greater dismay than he was.
Tatiana turned and saw the queen trembling. She stood up abruptly but almost passed out.
The princess came up and supported her. “Careful. Mother.” Tatiana saw the fear in the queen’s eyes even under the black veil. It was unlikely that her valiant mother couldn’t stand the magic, but fear came from an agonizing wound in her memory that was still bleeding.
Tatiana followed the queen’s gaze and glanced down at the stage.
Acheron had slowly taken back his power. He stood on the stage for a moment, surrounded by the complete dead silence of the audience, and then left without a glance in the queen’s direction.
“The queen needs to rest,” Tatiana said and supported the queen as they exited.
As she walked out, Lord Marcel, Duke of Ushuocia, announced that Acheron would participate in the dragon hunting.
A faint smile appeared on the princess’s face.
The queen remained silent on the ride back to the palace. Once they arrived, the queen entered her bedchamber and rested herself on the bed. Tatiana entered the room and stood by her bedside.
The silence stretched thin between the them until the queen finally spoke. “Tatiana.”
“Yes, mother?” The princess smiled.
“You have no idea what you have done. ” Evdokia took off her veil and looked into the princess’s eyes. Her face was devoid of color.
“What do you mean, mother?”
“Marcel had always suspected me for his brother’s death, but he wouldn’t dare to offend me this much for a nephew he never even met. It was clear that you had promised him something.”
The princess’s smile was unaffected by those words. The curse of Noxis looked ugly and contorted like spider webs on her mother’s skin. Yet the ones on Dezi was as light as the brush of a feather.
Did even the blind lighting favor the boy?
No. Acheron had some control of his power. He even made an effort not to kill the girl during an uncontrollable outbreak of power. If this was the nature of the “dangerous monster” her mother had locked down for years, the princess was not impressed.
“I know what you are after, Tatiana, and you are the one who is most suited for it. But rules are rules. You can’t break the tradition.” The queen said.
“Rules … yes.” Tatiana chuckled. “But aren’t we both, mother?” Tatiana eyed at the small portrait on the queen’s bedside and looked into the queen’s eyes. “… Wanting things that don’t belong to us.”
Everyone thought it was a painting of the queen’s younger self. But Tatiana knew this small painting was not her mother. Diamant and Evodokia were twin sisters, and they looked very similar. Tatiana’s earliest childhood memories were filled with the image of two “mothers” side by side. She learned a trick to identify them--not by facial features, but by expressions. The one that would smile with such warmth and compassion was her aunt, Diamant.
“Get out.” The queen trembled, a tear rolling down her ghost pale cheeks.
Tatiana swallowed down the lump in her throat and left.
She traveled down the hallway and entered her own room. Tatiana took in a deep breath and gazed upon a painting on the wall. It was a family portrait. Her eight-year-old self was standing beside their father and the queen, who was holding the little Andrew as a baby.
“You wanted it no matter the cost, yet you lost everything,” she murmured to the queen in the picture. “Thanks to you, I was fortunate enough to realize, in time, that I shouldn’t go too far.”
Tatiana touched the image of the baby and her father.
It was the last time that her father showed up in the family portrait.
Chapter 31
Dezi stared down at the bowl of hot soup on the table until Acheron reached for it. The prince raised the soup in front of him and tried to feed it to Dezi.
“Why don’t you put in on the floor, so I can lick it on all fours like a dog?” Dezi gritted his teeth and flipped the bowl. “Does that please you?”
Acheron eyed the bowl that was rattling on the floor and stared back at Dezi with his blank expression. He didn’t seem to understand the question.
Dezi glanced at Acheron’s hand and looked away. The hot soup soaked the bandage on his hands and left his exposed skin red.
“I had no appetite...” Dezi softened his voice. All the cooked meat reminded him too much of a burned out human corpse.
Acheron lowered his head. There were so many tasty dishes on the table, but both of them were just sitting there without touching any.
“Your highness.” Mathew knocked the door and entered. “Lord Marcel and the rest of the court was expecting you.”
The prince didn’t respond.
“It is about the trip to Ushuocia,” Mathew said. “The princess is there as well.”
Dezi glanced up at Mathew.
Were they going to Ushuoica?
That was right. The dragons.
Acheron reached to touch Dezi’s face, and Dezi whipped his head away and cast his gaze down. “You are needed somewhere else, your highness.”
Acheron tried again, and this time did manage to touch Dezi’s temples.
Dezi took another quick glance at Acheron’s hand and pursed his lips. “You need medical attention, too.”
“Dezi….” Acheron called out to him softly.
“What? It not like I can go anywhere.” Dezi gritted out the words, barely keeping it from coming out as a snarl. He tugged hard on the chain that connected to the hook on the wall. The chain pulled tight and gave out a clank. The other end of the chain led to the metal collar around Dezi’s neck. Coated in gold and embedded with gems, it still felt ice cold on his skin.
Acheron nodded slightly in agreement.
“You!” Dezi tightened his fist, but managed to swallow down the rest of his words.
The prince hugged Dezi despite his protest and eventually left with Mathew.
Dezi waited until the door was closed and stood up. He pulled opened the closet door, dug a bag out from the back, and discharged everything onto the floor.
Dezi crouched down to fumble through the bone coins and elementals stones.
“Shit.” Dezi smashed the floor with his fist. All the earth ones were gone.
He tightened his muscles and clenched his jaw as he moved his eyes to a fire elemental stone.
Today was the day for his chef exam. He must get out of here.
Dezi took in a deep breath and pulled a necktie from the drawers. The space between the metal and his skin was uncomfortably tight, and it took him a while to stuff the fabric in.
Dezi took a few difficult breaths and grabbed the fire stone.
He needed to get his chef license. He couldn’t give up now.
“I can do this.” Dezi murmured and targeted one hook of the metal chain with the fire stone. The metal was heated up with the magic, but the heat traveled up quickly, and the collar on his neck soon started to burn, as well.
“Ugh … fuck.” Dezi grimaced at the heat but forced himself to continue.
The hot metal was scalding his skin, the pain brought more anger and frustration that swelled and ached in his chest. He wasn’t supposed to be chained up like this. Stacey wasn’t supposed to die. This exam was supposed to be a walk in the park for him. He was so close to becoming whom he had always wanted to be.
But everything just went wrong!
Dezi bore the pain with sweat pouring down his face until he couldn’t take it anymore. He bit his lips and raised a chair to pound the heated metal. veins pulsing on his forehead.
Thud. Thud. Thud. The
sound echoed in his chest and shattered the rose-colored glass that was in front of his eyes.
Finally, the chain broke in half.
Dezi stared at it, and also saw the reality that was coming down on him. The grandiose palace had become familiar to him. He knew every turn and short cut so well that he had forgotten where he came from.
This was still not this world.
“I need to get out of here.” Dezi stuffed the stones back to the bag, threw it on his shoulders, and pressed his ear to the door.
Dezi drew in a breath and suffered through the pain on his neck when he adjusted the chain and metal collar to be less visible and crack open the door.
The hallway was empty.
Dezi slowly exhaled and slipped out.
He kept his head low and footsteps steady until he passed the gate and started running like crazy down the streets.
He caught a horse carriage within a few blocks and arrived at the school shortly. He paid the coachman and headed straight toward the arena. It was getting crowded as he approached the area where all the exams were hosted.
Suddenly, he saw a familiar figure among all the students. It was Bartolo.
Dezi stopped sharply and turned his head away. He had no idea what happened afterward that day, but he was sure that his friendship with Bartolo was over when his cousin died under his care.
He couldn’t afford to have any trouble right now.
Dezi hid behind the nearest wall and prayed that Bartolo didn’t see him.
He waited for a while and peaked out for a chance to circle to the entrance. Bartolo was just standing there looking around. There were several servants with him. Dezi frowned. It didn’t look like he was here for the exam.
“Dezi?” a female’s voice suddenly called out to him.
Dezi was startled and turned his head back, wide-eyed. “Lisa …”
“What happened?” Lisa gasped and pointed at Dezi’s neck.
“Shh.” Dezi grabbed her hand and turned to look around the wall again.
Unfortunately, he met with Bartolo’s gaze.
“Seize him,” Bartolo commanded, and his servants raced toward Dezi.