“And we’re beyond the veil?” I said, my heart sinking. If I was in Faerie, then I was seriously screwed. There was no way in Hell Nic or Graham would be able to find me.
Hell, I wasn’t even sure I could remember the route out of Faerie myself. It had been years since my mother had told me the story, which was really her way of trying to teach me about all the things that went bump in the night.
And then there was the little issue of getting away from the Fae standing behind me.
His hand snaked over my shoulder and I broke free of his touch, turning to face him once more, tightening my fists in an attempt to hide the tremors that raced through my limbs.
“And still you fight? This is inevitable; you and I will do great things together…. You will be my queen, and together, we will rule all of Faerie.”
“I have no interest in ruling anything,” I said through gritted teeth.
He laughed, a sound that cut at my ears and caused my eyes to water as he threw his head back and allowed it to wash over him.
“Well, you don’t exactly have a choice in it; your will is mine. When I’m done with you, you will beg to be my queen, to rule at my side … and when you bear me a son….”
His words sent a shiver of icy terror down my spine. There was no way in Hell I would bear him anything unless ill will counted.
He took a step toward me and I moved back until my legs bumped something. Glancing back over my shoulder, my terror grew as my eyes fell on the huge bed draped in animal fur. It seemed Master of the Hunt meant he kept trophies.
“Stop fighting it, Amber. When you love me, you will enjoy my touch,” he said, reaching out and brushing his hands against my cheek.
“I will never love you,” I said, spitting the words out and slapping his hands away.
“Never say never,” he said, and lunged, pinning me beneath him on the bed, his hands holding my head still as he stared down at me.
Just like before, I felt his magic as it crawled beneath my skin. I called my own, but as it had always been, he crushed it, my power not even putting up a fight as he took hold.
I felt my will slipping away and the darkness I’d sought crept forward, but it was far too small to do anything, the demon’s voice little more than a whisper in my head, a whisper I couldn’t hear over the sound of my silenced screams.
“Sit up,” the Fae said, and I did. “Kiss me.” I leaned over, pressing my lips to his. He tasted of raw meat and wine; my stomach revolted, and I broke away in time to vomit on the floor.
“You’re strong, but that will wear with time … I can make you happy, Amber, if only you’ll let me.”
He held his hand out to me and my body betrayed me by slipping my fingers through his. I fought to take back my control, to fight the hold he had over me, but nothing I did worked.
I wanted to shake free of his hold, to run as far from him as my legs would take me, but all the commands I sent to my head did nothing at all. Nothing moved except when he wanted it to.
He spun me away from him and I wasn’t naked anymore, my body covered in a dress spun from the finest silver gossamer threads. It was beautiful, moving around me as though it had a life of its own, and I hated it, hated everything it represented. It scratched against my skin and I wanted to tear at it with my fingers, to rip and shred it until it was nothing more than tiny pieces.
The darkness faded further and the ground beneath my satin slippered feet was chequered, the red and white marble glittering beneath the light from the chandeliers overhead.
“Do you like it?” he whispered against my ear as he drew me close once more. “I created it especially for you,” he said.
“No—” I said, beginning to speak, but he shook his head at me and just like with everything else, his will became mine. “It’s so beautiful,” I gushed, the words tripping off the tip of my tongue.
Inside my head, I screamed, lashing out at the magic holding me prisoner, and as I watched his face, there was a flicker of discomfort, but it was gone so quickly I couldn’t even be sure if I’d seen it or if my desire to be free of him had caused me to imagine it.
As he spun me around the floor, his body leading mine in some sort of complicated dance, I caught sight of the people watching. Where had they come from?
The gold gilt on the walls was exquisite, convoluted art on the walls that I couldn’t quite make out as he spun us faster around on the floor. The faces blurred one into the other and my head spun faster than his movements.
“Please,” I whispered, staring up into his cold, impassive face.
“They’re watching; I want to make them jealous,” he said, the steps getting faster until my legs and feet burned with the effort of keeping up with him.
I wanted to stop. Catch my breath. My lungs burned, each breath I took agony, and I could feel the heat in my cheeks increasing. If he kept this pace up, I wasn’t going to survive the day, never mind live long enough for me to bear his children.
He had me and he could do what he wanted with me; there was nothing I could do to stop him. The realisation hit me like a punch to the stomach and my eyes began to water, the tears trailing down my cheeks involuntarily.
“Stop crying,” he ordered and still the tears fell. There was nothing I could do to stop them; I certainly hadn’t been the one to cause the tears. In fact, nothing would have revolted me more; the last thing I wanted this monster to know was that he hurt me, that I was afraid of him. However, there was one silver lining in the tears that dripped down my cheeks. If I could cry and he couldn’t stop me, then perhaps there was hope after all. Perhaps this cage of silver and violet threads he’d locked my mind inside with his power could be broken. And if it could, then I would take great pleasure in ending his life.
His cold expression changed, growing harsher; the anger flooding his gaze made me want to cower away from him. Or at least my physical body longed to cower. The real me, the me caged inside my own head, wanted nothing more than to wipe the floor with him.
“Stop crying!” He barked the order, his power lashing around me, and I felt it pulse within my skin, causing me to cry out.
He jerked us both to a halt sudden enough that my head snapped back on my neck. I’d had whiplash once before and it had felt just like this….
The back of his hand caught me across my face, the blow sending me reeling backward until my legs went from underneath me. Stars exploded behind my eyes and the fact that my head was still spinning after the frantic dance we’d just done around the ballroom floor didn’t help.
I clutched at the floor, fighting just to keep my balance despite the fact that I was sitting on my ass.
“Get up!” he commanded, and my body struggled to respond, but my legs were exhausted and no matter how hard I tried to climb to my feet, they simply wouldn’t hold me upright.
Time and again they buckled beneath me, driving me back toward the red and white marble with more and more frantic frustration.
“I said get up,” he said, standing over me, his anger beating against my skin like the desperate beat of a moth’s wing.
“I’m trying,” I said, pushing up onto my knees.
His hand closed around my throat, drawing me up until my toes brushed the floor. His hand spasmed around my throat momentarily, cutting off my air supply as he held me aloft.
“Try harder; you’re making a fool of me.” He gritted his words out through a false smile.
Lowering me toward the floor, my legs still refused to cooperate and the part of me that was caged couldn’t help but rejoice. I didn’t want to please him. I didn’t want to make him look good. If I could make him look like a fool, all the better. I wanted those watching to hate him, despise him.
His grip on me released as suddenly as it had appeared and I dropped to the marble floor once more, the jolt of hitting the ground rattling up through my spine and causing my teeth to snap together.
He stared down at me, the anger in his eyes causing even the caged part of me t
o feel afraid.
I would see him dead, but I could see the things he would do to me given the opportunity reflected in his eyes. The pain he would cause. He would break me if he could, but I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. No matter what happened, I would still be me; he wouldn’t take that from me … not now, not ever.
Reaching down, he grabbed my hair and jerked me across the floor. I slapped at his hands, fighting his grip, and it only caused him to tighten his hold but he didn’t try to stop me. He let me struggle as he dragged me back into the centre of the room.
From the corner of my eyes, I spotted the marble pillar with two manacles positioned near the top. It hadn’t been there when we had been dancing; I was certain.
He dragged me toward it and I fought harder. I could still feel his magic, but he didn’t utter a word of reproach as he lifted me in his grip and forced my arms above my head. The manacles snapped around my wrists with a finality that had me tearing and dragging at them. Chained up was not what I wanted.
“Come friends, taste the sweet magic she wields…. An offering to those of you, my closest allies,” he called out to the crowd gathered in the ballroom.
A young man stepped forward, slender and tall; his long dark hair flowed down his back and his blue eyes watched me with a hunger that sent spasms of fear racing through my gut.
“Fionn, the gift is more than we ask, but it is graciously accepted,” the other Fae said, addressing the one who held me captive. “She is a little wild; might I subdue her a little before tasting her?”
His use of the words “subdue” and “taste” sent my mind into turmoil. Reaching within, I tried to drag my power up and into my arms. It wouldn’t be the first time I’d used my magic to get out of bonds and it wouldn’t be the last, and now that Fionn didn’t seem to be that bothered about bending my will to his, I had my opportunity.
My magic was sluggish, barely responding to my call, and when it did come it was little more than a flicker of light.
Fionn nodded and I watched the strange Fae step up next to me, his hand sliding down over my cheek as I bucked and heaved to escape his touch. His hands reached my throat and closed around my neck, his grip forcing me back against the post I was chained to.
He leaned in toward me, his breath whispering against my cheeks, and I jerked my head away.
“Amber, you must kiss him if he is to taste your power.” Fionn’s voice rang out strong in the room and my stomach fell as his magic crashed over me hard enough to cause my knees to buckle. His power hung around my neck like a physical weight and no matter how hard I fought to escape, I couldn’t shake free of him.
Fionn’s words reminded me of what Madeline had asked me to do the first time I’d met her. She had wanted me to kiss her then, too, a mere taste, she had said, but she had tried to drag my magic out of my body and I’d subconsciously rebelled.
The strange Fae holding me caressed my cheek the way a lover might and a shudder of revulsion raced through me. His lips met mine, his tongue sliding over my mouth seeking entry, and I opened to him, the way a flower opens to the sun.
The kiss deepened, his tongue plundering my mouth, and I responded in kind, tasting him the way I’d tasted Fionn. Then it changed.
Something in my core tugged. It wasn’t unpleasant, but I wriggled against him as he crushed my body to the pillar. His kiss was no longer just a kiss, and he bit down on my lip with enough ferocity that the taste of copper filled my mouth.
It tugged again from my core and my back arched, driving my body into his as my magic unfurled from the centre of my being. There was a hell of a lot more of it than I’d been able to tap into just moments before and I practically choked on it as it pulsed through my body, racing up my throat and out through the kiss I shared with the Fae.
He moaned softly, his hands sliding over me as he sucked my magic down. STOP HIM! I screamed from within the cage Fionn had created in my head.
The magic faltered and crackled to life, no longer meek and mild. The Fae holding me didn’t realise and his grip on my throat tightened as he greedily searched for more of my magic to drink down.
I imagined him burning, his body erupting in flames so hot that not even his immortal body could survive.
He broke the kiss and stumbled away from me, his face a contorted mixture of rage and pain as he clutched as his guts. When he looked up at me again, his eyes met mine, holding me captive for a moment—and then he screamed, the sound ricocheting off the walls as his body ignited like the wick of a candle.
He ran in circles, beating at his own body as he sought to quench the fire, but his motions soon ceased, parts of him crumbling away into ash on the floor until there nothing left but a smouldering heap.
The others gathered in the room watched on in horror, their gazes coming to collectively rest on first me and then Fionn.
I felt his anger before I saw him; his body practically vibrated with it as he approached me where I stood chained.
“What have you done?” he asked.
“He was greedy,” I said, doing my best not to let the memories of the kiss override my brain. There would be plenty time for that once I got out of this alive.
Fionn drew back and hit me, his hand slamming into my face, and then he was on me, his hands a blur as he slapped and beat at me. Pain flared through me and I screamed as I felt his fists connect with my ribs.
“Please stop!” I cried out, unable to curl my body into the ball it so desperately wanted to be in.
Fionn stopped as suddenly as the beating had begun and stared at me. “Your human body is fragile; you do not heal the way I do,” he said slowly, as though only just realising it for the first time himself.
“No,” I said, my head hanging low. I could taste blood in my mouth and my shoulders were numb with the weight of my body hanging from them.
“Use this,” another voice called out, and a small petite woman stepped forward. I didn’t bother to lift my eyes to look at her face; I already knew she was Fae, they all were.
“This, too, will mark her?” he said, and suddenly curious, I lifted my gaze to see what he was talking about.
He held a whip, curled about his wrist as though it were a real living snake, and my body began to tremble with fear.
“The wounds will heal by morning; most effective to use on those who are breakable,” the woman said before she took a step back.
Fionn moved up toward me, his hands snaking out to wrap around my waist as he jerked me around until I faced the pillar. I fought to move back but he pressed his face against my ear.
“Be still—this is the very least you deserve,” he said.
My body halted its movements and his hands slipped down over my back. Everywhere he touched, I felt the gossamer strands of the dress slip away until there was nothing between my skin and the cool air.
The first blow came suddenly and I screamed, the feel of the leather material across my back sending fire lancing through my core. One was not enough and more quickly followed.
I bit down on my lip, refusing to cry out until Fionn’s voice was in my ear once more.
“Scream for me, Amber; do this and satisfy all who would see you punished.”
I bit down on my lip harder, but as the next blow flashed across my skin, I screamed, a long, ragged sound that tore from my mouth and echoed through the room. My brain became nothing but a haze of fog and screaming, until eventually there was nothing left in me.
Holding onto the edge of my sanity, I prayed for the darkness to stay away. If I passed out … I dreaded to think what he would do to me if I was unconscious—it just wasn’t a risk I could take.
“Give in to me, Amber; submit,” Fionn’s voice came from far away, but despite the haze of pain surrounding my mind, I tried to shake my head. “Give in, Amber,” he said again, and another flash of pain ripped through me.
“Amber….” Nic voice filled my head and I struggled to move toward him. “Give into me, submit,” Nic’s whispered the
words Fionn had spoken, and between the push of power his voice commanded and my pain that fogged head, I nodded. My submission was absolute and with one last pulse of his magic within me, the darkness crowding my exhausted body overwhelmed me.
Chapter 24
I ached everywhere. Not an inch of my body felt like it should and I opened my eyes slowly, blinking into the darkness.
Something wet and warm lapped at my wrists and as my eyes slowly adjusted to the gloom, I realised with horror that it was one of the Heart Hounds. It stared up at me with with a keen intelligence in its eyes that spoke of an ancient power and then went right back to lapping at my wrists.
Shifting slightly, I became aware of the cuffs still clamped around my wrists. The skin rubbed raw and bruised—it was that that the Heart Hound was licking. I jerked away. The Heart Hound snarled, its mouth clamping around my arm—not hurting me, but a show of dominance nonetheless.
“Leave her.” Fionn’s voice rang out in the darkness and I felt the bed shift as he moved closer.
His hands stroked down over my cheek; the Fae hound might have been scary as hell and I’d seen what its jaws were capable of doing, but it would still have been preferable to having Fionn touch me.
The cuffs chafed against my wrists as I pushed up and tucked my knees beneath my chin. I didn’t remember getting into the bed. In fact, I didn’t remember anything after hearing Nic’s voice. I was wearing the same dress and my back didn’t feel as though it was on fire anymore, but then, the Fae who had given him the whip had mentioned something about it healing before morning.
“What happened?” I asked, my voice still hoarse. The simple act of getting the words out had my throat aching.
“You collapsed, so I brought you back here and tended your wounds….” He paused and I could feel his gaze on me. “I’d forgotten just how fragile humans are,” he said finally.
I didn’t answer him; the thought of his hands on my body when I was unconscious tightened my chest, making it harder to breathe.
Wild Hunt Page 13