by Lyra Evans
Juniper glanced at Niko now, her shrewd eyes taking stock of him in less time than it took even Hina. She tossed the bloodied bandages aside to the gravel at her feet. Niko wondered how this room was cleaned.
“You couldn’t use one of those stupid apps everyone else is on?” she said flatly. “Ember or Radar or whatever?”
Preston shook his head, looking at Niko as though he’d only just realized he was there. “Oh, you mean him?” Preston jerked a thumb in Niko’s direction. “No, no, I’ve had him for a bit. I came to pick up an actual toy. To use on him.” He pulled out the case from his pocket. “Wanna see?”
Juniper eyed him. “You didn’t drop by just to show off a tool,” she said. She held her hands in each other and made more trades, probably healing her fingers in exchange for more intense, temporary pain. Niko had a pain tolerance unlike anyone else he knew, the strange pleasure he got from it setting him apart. But Noor Juniper’s resistance to pain was on another level entirely. “Why are you here, Preston?”
Preston frowned. “I can’t just visit a friend?” he asked. “I’ve been so lonely out in the forest.” There was the hint of a whine in his words, but Juniper had no time for it. She glared at him, and he straightened his expression. “I’m going stir crazy. I came to get the toy because I needed a break. Got here before sunrise to avoid the fucking mess playing out, but I can’t leave in broad daylight.” He shrugged. “Can’t go back to mine, either, what with the recent break-in. So I thought who better to hang out with than you?”
“You’re not sleeping here,” she said, eyeing Niko again. Niko averted his gaze from hers, hoping very hard she didn’t have any kind of enhanced senses. She wouldn’t naturally, of course, but Fae made trades like that all the time.
Preston waved her off again. “Obviously. I just need to wait until dark.” He paused, eyeing Niko. “But come on. You know you want to know what I got. And if you’re lucky, I might let you have a go with it.”
Juniper walked over to them, sweating still. The inner rim of her lips was stained with blood. Niko wondered how much damage she’d taken while trying to destroy the boulder. Then he reminded himself she’d tortured and murdered Sade and tore a pipe from the wall to do so. What this woman was capable of was still anyone’s guess.
“I don’t fuck around with boys,” she said, echoing a comment she’d made the first time Niko had met her.
Preston shrugged. “I’m not suggesting you fuck him. But when you see what this baby can do, I think you’ll be pretty keen to test it out.”
Considering him a long moment, Juniper eventually sighed a long suffering sigh and nodded. “Fine. Meet me in the west playroom. You can get this one ready while I clean up.”
Preston waggled his eyebrows and yanked Niko sideways, then shoved him forward toward the door they’d come in from. Niko stumbled in the rough handling, but to play it up, he allowed the shove to knock him off balance and tumbled straight into the gravel. The uneven, small stones dug into his knees and palms as he instinctively caught himself, scratching him up just enough to sell the role and cause a tiny spike in his own adrenaline.
“Watch it, slave,” Preston ordered. “You treat my property with more care.”
Niko bowed his head and struggled back to his feet to move ahead of Preston toward the door. Noor watched them a moment before shaking her head and disappearing beyond a large boulder somewhere else. Preston pushed Niko out into the hall again, a few stray bits of gravel following them out onto the pristine white floors. The moment Preston was out of the room, the bits of gravel began to slide softly and slowly along the ground back toward the quarry. It was powerful runemagick, Niko guessed, that drew them back like iron powder pulled by distant magnets. When the door closed, there was not a trace of gravel left in the hall.
Preston shoved him along the corridor toward what Niko could only guess would be the west playroom, and Niko carefully absorbed whatever information he could from the path. But again, no one room or door seemed to reveal itself from the outside. Even straining his ability to smell, he couldn’t pinpoint a particular scent. He reached up toward his nose to make a trade, but Preston caught his wrist on the way up. He took it as a warning and didn’t try again. But with every passing step, Niko worried increasingly about this toy Preston had brought.
When the Werewolf stopped by another door, identical in every way to the training room door, he pushed it open and waited for Niko to enter first. This room was closer to what Niko expected when Noor said ‘playroom.’ Black walls were outfitted with runemagick along the ceiling and floor, meant to dampen sound and who knew what else. There were chains fixed along the walls at varying points, as well as hanging from hooks set into the ceiling. One wall was fitted with an elaborate custom-made storage unit that displayed all manner of sex toys and implements for torture and control. Scattered around the room were various kinds of furniture, including a spanking horse, various A- and X-frames, a chevalet, several kinds of swings, and then a round, leather sofa in black in the centre of the room. While it seemed relatively standard for those into this kind of kink in the regular world, small details gave away the darker depths of Juniper’s interests.
There was an empty cylinder in one corner, made of glass and large enough to house an adult. Above the cylinder was a spout, but the controls for the spout were outside the tank, lower to the ground. The floor of the tank looked solid, but a lever on the outside of the tank indicated the floor could shift to some kind of grating filter. The hint of a handprint was visible on the inside of the tank.
The tools and toys displayed along the wall included dildos and gags and floggers, but also knives, guns, stun guns, syringes loaded with various differently coloured liquids, and a defibrillator. Niko immediately moved over to the wall to study the stun guns. He scanned each one carefully, wanting to reach out and pick one up, to see if it matched the one used on Sade. But Preston appeared beside him.
“That’s not what we’re here for,” he said in an undertone. “No point wasting your time.”
Niko’s jaw flexed. None of the stun guns matched the brand used on Sade, but the fact that Noor had these on hand for ‘play’ certainly meant something. It was evidence of—of a pattern of behaviour—of—
“It’s not a waste if I find something,” Niko murmured, teeth gritted. The presence of stun guns was weak, sure, but he could certainly find something stronger if he could only—
“The only thing that will matter is a confession,” Preston said, barely moving his lips. “And that’s not happening until you get into position.”
Niko didn’t move. Preston nodded toward one of the X-frames. Niko still did not move. The frame itself wasn’t the problem. He’d been tied up before, more than once. It was the collar at his neck and the cuffs at his wrists and the fact that Cobalt was nowhere nearby. That he didn’t fully trust Preston wasn’t even his greatest concern. Juniper was a danger he hadn’t yet quantified, and the frame belonged to her. Everything here did. What if the frame held tight until its captive was killed? What if only Noor herself could unlock it? What if it was imbued with magic that would slowly flay its captive? There were endless possibilities, and suddenly, Niko realized just how vulnerable he was.
“No lasting harm will come to you,” Preston breathed, suddenly behind him. He nipped at Niko’s ear, and the surge of instant pleasure caught Niko off guard. He tried to tamp it down, tried to shake it off, but his body was traitorous. He felt his cock twitch, and he shut his eyes tight. Cobalt was soaking in a tub of water, healing burns he’d gotten from trying to protect Niko.
You belong to him.
But even as his mind tried to reassure him, the fights they’d had since Cobalt had returned—not to mention Cobalt’s long absence in the first place—played out in his mind. He was still so hurt, so angry. He was still stinging from it all. But more than anything, his chest ached, and the hollow inside it was still painfully, frustratingly, hollow.
“Get into position,�
� Preston said, and Niko forced himself to obey. He stepped away from the Werewolf toward the X-frame. A quick survey of it indicated no runes he needed to worry about, but there was little else he could do but lock himself into it. “Clothes off.”
Niko hesitated a moment, steeling himself for what was to come. He knew he looked different now. He knew the magic of the collar would keep that secret. But there were other variables at play.
He pulled off his shirt and undid his pants. Kicking off his shoes and socks, he set them aside as neatly as possible, followed by his pants and shirt. He reached for the jockstrap, but Preston’s hand on his wrist stopped him. Niko was very alert, generally. He was trained to notice things. That the Werewolf could consistently sneak up on him was upsetting. That his hand was barely an inch from Niko’s cock now was even more upsetting.
Niko looked up and met Preston’s dark eyes. He shot a warning through his look alone, but Preston answered back with a cocked eyebrow and a tilt of the head that reminded Niko of where they were.
“Keep that on,” Preston breathed. He licked his lips. “I was right. You look edible in it.”
Niko’s cock was by no means hard, but if Preston looked at him this way now, he wondered if the Werewolf would be able to keep his promise once the play began.
Without answering, Niko stepped back and into position against the X-frame. He held up his hands to the cuff connections and placed his feet in the outlines on the ground. He waited a moment, expecting Preston to lock him in, but the X-frame responded on its own. Metal pieces slid out of nowhere and connected to his wrist cuffs, fastening them into position. Similar metal pieces popped out around his ankles and tightened just enough to be uncomfortable. Niko tested the bindings, jerking a bit to try and break free, but they held fast.
“It will release you when I desire it,” Preston informed him, closing the distance between them. He had the black case in his hands now, fondling it gently.
“So are you going to tell me why you had a sex toy hidden here?” Niko breathed.
Preston smiled. “It’s not a sex toy.” Then stepping slightly back, he shrugged. “The box has some—emergency supplies—should I ever need them. I thought this might come in handy one day. Turns out I was right.”
Niko wanted to ask more, to ascertain exactly what the not-sex-toy was if Preston planned to use it on him, but just then Juniper came in. The door opened to reveal her, dressed in slightly more comfortable-looking black pants and a fitted black top. Her bronze skin glowed somehow, perhaps from the wetness of her hair, still damp from her shower and pulled up into a bun. Behind her tottled Hina and two other serving staff, both women, with platters of drinks and food. The servants set the platters down on what appeared to be nothing but air. But when they released the platters, legs grew out of them and settled into the ground. The servants disappeared back beyond the door the moment the platter-tables were set.
“Thought you might be hungry,” Noor said, picking at a plate of vegetables. She took a carrot stick and crunched on it. “I had them bring your usual drinks too. Don’t ever say I’m not a good host.”
Preston laughed and walked over to the table. He poured out a measure of deep purple liquid into a crystal glass. As he poured, the liquid smoked slightly. He took a long sip from it and hummed in pleasure.
“Elderberry and rum,” he said. “I’ll make sure Phoebe knows how you’ve improved.”
Though he hadn’t been moving, Niko felt himself still. Phoebe Linden? He watched Juniper’s face and saw the shallow laugh as she held up her own glass, filled with something clear, in a toast to him.
“See that you do,” she said. “She’s never let me forget that time I had you all over and didn’t have her favourite wine chilled. So high maintenance.”
Preston sat himself down in a lounging position on the plush black sofa, holding his glass of elderberry and rum aloft like champagne. “You’re telling me. I actually lived with her, if you recall,” he said, and though his tone was joking, conspiratorial, there was an undercurrent of loss to it. Niko wondered if he imagined it, because Noor seemed not to notice. “How’s she doing, by the way?”
Juniper downed her drink and poured herself another, plucking a canape from the tray in front of her and popping it into her mouth. “Haven’t you spoken with her?”
Preston made a show of giving her an incredulous look. “I’ve been living in the jungle, Junebug, I haven’t spoken with anyone. Lying low, remember?” He said the last with a drawn out drawl again, as though it bored him.
“You can speak to people over long distances nowadays, Prissy,” Juniper responded, perhaps pulling out the awful nickname ‘Prissy’ in response to Preston calling her ‘Junebug.’ Niko didn’t know which name alarmed him more. “They’re called cellphones. They can even let you send messages without talking. You should look into that.”
Preston sipped his drink. “Signal that deep in the jungle-forest is abysmal at best. Too much magical interference or something. I barely manage to get news updates once a week.”
Juniper pursed her mouth in mock sympathy. “Poor baby.”
“It’s been trying,” Preston said, nodding and pretending to be hard-done-by. Niko wondered if he could somehow knock himself out if he toppled the X-frame.
“Well, Phoebe’s been very busy, I can tell you that much,” Noor said, considering another canape.
Preston laughed. “Obviously. I gathered that from the scraps of news I’ve collected. The whole Court is up in arms about this murder. The entire police force out hunting down one of their own.” The Werewolf raised his eyebrows and smiled. “Pretty impressive manoeuvering. I’m almost surprised at how quickly the police were willing to turn on poor Spruce.”
A sound like a barking hyena cut the air, and Niko realized it was Juniper laughing. He’d never heard her laugh like that. It chilled him. “Don’t tell me you’re feeling sorry for that wretch? He’s like a dog catching the scent of fresh meat. Doesn’t know he’s made a mistake until he’s already biting down on the latch to the trap.” She paused and considered a moment. “No offense.”
“None taken,” Preston answered. “But dogged as he is, Niko Spruce hardly seems worth all this effort. And the time it took to cultivate the relationship with Hemlock…the favours to get him released…”
“Have you forgotten he had his sights set on you?” Juniper downed her second glass. Niko remained as silent and still as possible, determined not to draw attention to himself and derail the conversation. “Much of this was to save your sorry ass.”
Preston waved her off. “I could have dealt with a stalker cop. Besides, having someone that delicious obsessed with me could have been rather—fun.” Juniper gave Preston the hard, pointed look Niko wanted to give him. The Werewolf laughed and shook it off. “But even so, Spruce could have searched to his wit’s end and never found anything of value on me. Or any of us.”
Juniper shrugged. She hesitated, playing with the leaves of a strawberry. The atmosphere shifted slightly, suddenly more hesitant, more wary, and Niko’s focus crystallized.
“Even a blind goblin still finds gold once in a while,” she said, focused on the various fruit to choose from. Niko’s heart beat in his ears.
“True, I suppose but—” Preston said slowly, squinting at her. A moment passed, then his face lightened with understanding. “But you aren’t speaking hypothetically, are you?” He leaned forward. “He found something. What?”
Juniper’s jaw tensed. She dropped the pretense of playing with fruit and turned on Preston. “I don’t know. Whatever it is, it’s damning though. Something hard to refute or discredit. I don’t know. But it hardly matters. Spruce is a threat. That’s all. He needs to go.”
Preston eased back with a shrug. “I suppose. I only wish I’d been tapped for the job. It would have been quite the treat to take care of Niko Spruce after the ordeal at the sound stage. He left me unconscious and tied up inside a collapsing building, you know?”
&nbs
p; Juniper’s fists tightened to balls, and Niko suddenly saw her assaulting him with the same punches and kicks she’d used on the boulder. “It was not as enjoyable as I thought.”
A half-second felt like the age of a universe, from birth to end, encapsulated in one stretch of nothingness. Niko couldn’t breathe. Juniper had just confessed. Hadn’t she? That was her confessing to ‘taking care’ of Niko. Which meant—
“Hold on, you did the job?” Preston asked, feigning excitement and interest, like a kid about to hear adult stories. “You killed Hemlock?”
Juniper rolled her head to the side. “Sade Hemlock was a piece of flaming garbage so disgusting and despicable he wasn’t worth the rope he was hanged from.” She spoke with a vitriol only Sade’s victims generally knew. It was the burning loathing in Niko’s belly, the hard nub of coal under pressure in Starla’s chest. But Noor had never experienced Sade’s abuse. And what she said was no admission of guilt.
“Agreed,” Preston said, and Niko wondered how two people could be so hypocritical. Sade was a monster. But so were Preston and Noor. “Must’ve been satisfying then, torturing him. The news didn’t mention everything that happened to him, but I’m guessing you had specific points to hit?”
“What was done to him was what he had done to Spruce,” she said, carefully neutral. “In chronological order.” Her face darkened, something passing behind her eyes. “It was—a lot.”
Silence followed for a moment. Preston watched her. “That’s saying something, coming from you,” he said. It was a more gentle comment, less pushing and more understanding. “More than what you’ve been through?”
Noor fixed him with a look like a spear to the heart. “There is no more or less when it comes to abuse,” she said. “Only different.” Then she sighed slightly and looked back at her own hands. “What Spruce endured at the hands of that bastard was vile enough I almost feel for him.” And Niko floated in the comment a moment. That someone who hated him and meant to frame him for murder might also feel bad for what he’d experienced was a complex kind of sentiment he couldn’t sort through. “Almost. And then I remembered he’s threatening the safety of people I love. So he’s got to go.” She shrugged, then, as though discussing a minor disagreement over dinner. “In any case, I may have adlibbed a bit. Not strictly part of the plan, but once I had him tied up…I couldn’t let him die without fully understanding. He had to know. He had to know what it felt like. My gift to Spruce, I guess.”