by Annie Eppa
She looked behind her, but Thornton was gone, and the cruel King Garrant took his place, smiling as he forced her against the stone statue, his hard length against her.
The dream shifted again, and she was once more at the auctions, facing the crowd. She was no longer dressed in her finery, like she had that night, but was instead chained to a wooden pole in nothing but a short shift, the laughter and derision of the crowd ringing in her ears. “Why bother paying for her?” Someone in the audience yelled, “Kill her instead!” The people roared their approval, and Adelai began to cry.
And then she felt arms around her, and a soothing voice by her ear. “It’s okay, Adelai. I’m here.”
She surfaced back into consciousness, into morning light shining in through the room’s windows, and realized that she really was crying, her cheeks wet with her tears. She was in a large comfortable bed, and someone was lying beside her, holding her tightly against a muscular chest. “Adelai,” he whispered, and it was enough to send her sobbing again.
“Thornton,” she wept, turning to bury her face against his shoulder, and found that she could not stop. Grief wracked her slender frame as she gave in to the stress, the sadness, and the fear that she had been keeping at bay for weeks, no longer ashamed that he would see her so weak. Thornton said nothing, but continued to murmur soft words, and the sound of his voice, rough and hoarse from his own worry, was a balm on her pain.
She must have fallen asleep again, because when she woke it was evening, and she was alone in the bed. She laid there for a moment, confused, wondering what had happened. Memory returned, slowly. She had been at the earl’s house with Daken, and they had drugged the wine….
For a moment, panic seized her. Was she a prisoner now? She sat up in bed and looked wildly about, instinct telling her to seek a way out.
“Adelai.”
She had not noticed him sitting in a corner of the room, until he had risen to his feet. She relaxed immediately upon seeing Thornton, relieved that she had not dreamed him up, but she was still disoriented and confused. “Thornton?” It felt difficult to talk. Her tongue felt like it was made of sandpaper. “Where am I? How long did I….?”
“You’re at Lady Shannika’s,” the captain crossed the room to stop by her side, hovering over her. “You’ve been sleeping for two days.”
She was stunned, tried to force the words out. “And… the earl…?”
“Arrested.” Thornton’s voice was grim, a shadow crossing his face at the mention of Sevrigne. “We found the missing girls, and both he and his son have been charged for kidnapping, among many other things. Adelai…”
Much to her shock, he knelt down on the floor before her, taking her hand with his. There were dark circles underneath the captain’s eyes, like he had not slept in all the time she had. “I would have killed them, if I had the choice,” he said, his voice harsh with self-loathing. “When I saw what they were doing to you, I….”
She was shaken to see him this way, looking broken and anguished, rather than the quiet, proud man she knew him to be. “I’m okay,” she said immediately, swinging her legs over to one side of the bed so she could throw herself into his arms, kissing him fervently. She meant it. She felt none of the soreness, no lingering pain, which bedrest seemed to have cured. She wanted to take away his obvious pain with her lips, wanted to kiss every part of him to ease his hurt, just as much as she knew he wanted to do the same with her.
He kissed her back just as hungrily, moving up until she was pressed against the cushions with him on top of her, his hands everywhere. Adelai relished his closeness, realizing just how much she had missed him, and stifled the urge to cry again.
“I shouldn’t have let you do this,” he whispered against her mouth, “I should have been selfish enough to let you go, Adelai. I should have let you have a normal auction like all your other sisters had, and never let Belair and Saleia involve you in this.”
“No,” Adelai said fiercely. If he had, she would never have been able to know him this way, intimately and passionately. “I would do it all over again, if only for the few chances that I can be with you like this.” The words spilled out of her, easier now to say than the others. “I love you, Thornton.”
With a groan, he pressed her to him again, his mouth against her neck. Her hands moved to his shirt and trousers, tugging impatiently at them, wanting to have them off him quickly, desperate to feel him inside her again and wash away everything the earl and his son had done to her.
“You need more rest,” Thornton began, making an effort to control himself, but Adelai wouldn’t let him. She wrapped her arms around his neck, her own mouth moving to lick at him there, kiss at his shoulders. Her teeth scored lightly against his skin, and she smiled inwardly to herself when she heard him groan.
“Please,” she begged. She didn’t know how long she could spend with Thornton this time, and she wanted to make the most of their time together, never knowing when the next one might take place.
Unable to resist, Thornton released her long enough to pull his shirt over his head, remove his trousers. Adelai was already wet and ready for him, spreading her legs wider when he settled in between them. Her gown was bunched up along her waist so he could remove her undergarments easier, and her wetness pooled against the sheets.
He had often been so deliciously rough with her, hard and forceful without seeking to bruise. Now he took his sweet time, aware she was still recuperating, and he entered her slowly, savoring every inch that sank into her. Her muscles clenched around his turgid shaft, milking him for all she was worth, wanting more of him even as he bottomed out inside her, sure that she could never get enough. She kissed his jaw, his cheek, his neck, any place she could reach.
He rocked into her with slow, languid thrusts, raising her hips up so he could sink down at an angle, in a position that would allow him to rub against her clit, and at the same time press so deeply in that place that made her orgasm so quickly and easily. She encouraged him, her hips rising of their own accord to meet his, but his hands held her firm by her waist, intent on doing all the work. His thrusts were slow and deep - he slid into her core, her snug sheath clasping at him when he withdrew, just as slowly.
In - he speared deeper into her, and she shuddered, desperately wanting him to move quicker, harder, faster, to put them both out of their misery, but he was intent on prolonging the torture, and the pleasure.
Out - she swore she could feel every sinew and vein, rubbing at her walls when he pulled out, until only the tip remained by her entrance.
In - he surged forward, and she groaned at being filled to the brim again, rasping at all her sensitive spots.
Out - she was all but pleading with him to finish her, to take her hard and fast. She was insatiable, knew that she would already be cumming if he would just move, but all her cries were falling on deaf ears, and Thornton’s smile told her he knew exactly how this affected her.
In.
Out.
In.
Out.
In.
Out.
She was near-mindless, aware that she was babbling rather than begging, her own words incomprehensible to her ears. She wanted sweet release, wanted him to end it, would have done anything, everything -
He lifted her legs over his shoulders, and rammed into her without warning, with the force she wanted.
Adelai erupted almost immediately into an earth-shattering orgasm, her feet kicking wildly in the air as he began to power into her, no longer caring to be gentle or slow. “That’s it, little maiden,” her captain said, the words tender if his thrusting was not, “cum for me, Adelai. I want to hear you cumming for me. So wet and tight….”
Adelai shattered.
“I love you,” Thornton said quietly, as they lay on the bed, sweaty and tangled up in each other. “I’ve loved you since our lessons in the garden, and every day since.” He kissed her again, took in her unruly hair and her exhausted expression, and chuckled. “I was supposed
to be letting you rest.”
“I’ve had two days’ sleep,” Adelai pointed out, curling beside him, wanting to be as close as she could be. “I hope I am not causing Lady Shannika any inconvenience.”
“I would think that the Lady Maestre is too busy to notice any inconvenience on your part. Khalid was injured during the raid.” He laughed again, at the look on her face. “Is there reason for me to be jealous of him now, little maiden?”
“No, but… this was all my idea. If I’d caused him harm, however indirectly - “
“It was a cut in the arm, nothing fatal or grievous. Khalid has suffered through worse in his life, and he has already shrugged it off. It seems he is finding it harder to shrug the Lady Maestre off, however. She has all but tied him to her bed, insisting that he be nursed back to health.”
The image of the brave former general chained to the bedpost, with Lady Shannika insisting on spooning every morsel of food into his mouth, made her giggle despite her concerns. “Was anyone else hurt?”
“A few more cuts and bruises among the men, but none to worry about. General Kazer has been thoroughly beaten up, however.” Adelai looked surprised, until the captain explained. “Falen caught him attempting to force himself on Kinlee. We share the same possessive streak when it comes to our women, it seems.”
Adelai couldn’t help but glow a little, when he called her his woman. “Was the general and Lady Shannika one of your confidantes?”
“Two of them, yes. I asked them to keep an eye out on you when you arrived in Sarcopia, but without arousing suspicion. Shan mentioned that you were very quick to approach her yourself, with little prompting on her part.”
“I heard about how her father treated her when he was still alive,” Adelai confessed. “I heard the rumors, and Lady Wilchestrom was quick to verify them for me. I felt like there was another reason she had paid so much for the general, and not because of revenge. I also thought that if anyone had a reason to hold a grudge against the king, it would be her. But I knew she was to be trusted when she gave me the lady slippers the first time I visited her.”
“Lady slippers?”
“It’s what we call a certain kind of orchid. Priestess Saleia told me to be on the lookout for anyone who might give me six pieces of these flowers woven into a garland. I suppose I was more suspicious about General Falen, because I couldn’t think of any motivation for him to rebel against the king. ”
“Oh, he does,” Thornton said with a smile, “but you will have to ask him about that, as it is his secret to tell. How did you know that both the earl and his son had been compromised?”
“I didn’t suspect the earl at first. Ironically enough, it was Daken who put those suspicions in my mind in the first place.” She had been keeping the secret for so long, it was a relief to finally talk about it. “And I was already a little suspicious about Daken from the start. He showed his hand a little too openly, was too quick to tell me about the rebels. Even if I was a shrinemaiden and a neutral party to all this, I didn’t think that he would so willingly talk about it just because we’d….” She trailed off, horrified at what she was about to say.
But the captain wasn’t angry, kissing her again to alleviate her fears. “You need not tiptoe around the fact that you’ve bedded them, Adelai,” he told her quietly, “I will never blame you for something you had to do, and it changes nothing about what I feel.”
She loved him so much. She wanted to crawl into his heart and never leave, contented herself with cuddling closer to him. “I told him I was concerned only because I didn’t want war to break out while I was in Sarcopia, that a shrinemaiden’s safety is paramount to any oath she might have taken. I was hesitant about telling him anything, even after he brought me to their meeting place. I suspected that it might have been a plant to let down my guard.” She paused. “But I was very sure that he had been lying all along, when I told him about the safehouse.”
“How?”
“He described the house, including the color of the gate and of the soaring eagle on top of the wall. I had never mentioned any of those to him. So I took a chance. I went to Nemar’s house and told him. Fortunately, Daken had not yet been entrusted with the names of any other people involved in the rebellion, and he could only relay so much back to his father. He thought that he could use me to learn more about the others involved, especially among the nobility and the military.”
“I heard the rest from Falen. Nemar used his thief friend to supply you with as much details about the safehouse as she was able to.”
Adelai nodded. “I asked Daken to do the same thing, except he gave me a different plan of the house. He re-assigned the guards’ positions and the placement of the rooms so that it was very different from what it actually was. If we had used it, the men would have been ambushed. I knew that they would plan to ship the girls out before that night, so Nemar and Shannika continued to keep sending spies out, and learned about the preparations to bring them to the slavers’ ships that afternoon instead. Now it was just a matter of keeping the earl and his son busy until that night, where everything would be accomplished without either of them knowing.”
Thornton’s hold on her tightened. “If we had been any slower, they could have hurt you. When I burst in and saw him with his hands around your neck, I was ready to kill him.”
“I’m okay now,” Adelai said quickly, sensing the fury that still lingered in his voice. “They don’t matter now, not anymore.”
“Do not belittle your own worth, my love.” He was still angry, but was mollified when her fingers caressed his face. “If any harm had befallen you, the earl would not be alive to enjoy his stay at the dungeons.”
“What’s going to happen now? Surely they cannot expect me to keep my contract with him.”
“Sevrigne’s household is in disarray at the moment, and his attack on you is enough to sever any contracts with him. Your priestess has already received word of this, and I imagine he and the General Kazer have been blacklisted by the temple for kidnapping young noblewomen. The Wolf has taken command of the situation. At present, all of the earl’s and the Jackal’s shrinemaidens are to be my responsibility, according to Priestess Saleia’s decree.”
Adelai sat up, staring down at him in amazement and hoping she had not heard him wrong. “You mean… I am to be…”
“Yes, my Adelai.” The captain grinned up at her, his eyes taking in the growing delight on hers. “It will only be a temporary arrangement, but it will do for now. Until you receive word again from your high priestess, you are to be taking up lodgings with me.”
He barely had time to finish before Adelai pounced him, wrapping her arms around his chest and burying her face there, so happy beyond words. “I do not know how long this can last, Adelai,” she heard him say, his hands at her hair. “But no matter what happens, you are mine, my little maiden.” He shifted her up so he could kiss her, hard.
“And I am yours,” he added quietly.
“It wasn’t very difficult,” Lady Shannika was telling Adelai, when the latter felt well enough to leave her rooms. The shrinemaiden had been embarrassed, feeling she had more than just overstayed her welcome, but the Silvermaiden was quick to disagree. “You’ve actually done me quite a favor,” she said, smiling. “All the businesses and assets the earl shared with my father have been given over to me to manage, pending his trial. If he is convicted, then all his estates fall to his next of kin - a young man I am acquainted with, nobler than his uncle had been. Should that happen, he has already agreed that I manage these on his behalf, an arrangement where we can both expect good profits.”
“He will be convicted,” Khalid grunted. A long, thin wound ran up the length of his forearm, the only sign he had ever participated in the raid, but he was clothed in a more conventional sense now, with a tunic and short breeches. He had also, Adelai had learned, spent some days in bed like she had. His grumblings about being confined had ceased since, Thornton had told her, Shannika decided to join him
there.
“It’s not yet set in stone, Khalid,” Shannika told him. “The noblewomen he and Kazer kidnapped were daughters of houses who are not quite supporters of the king’s more recent policies - and the earl knew it. There is a good chance that the king might pardon him, even despite the uproar he could cause with such a decree. Fortunately for us, the two were greedy. They took girls from inns, the streets, and in some other households as well. If they had been satisfied with noblemen’s children the common people might have not cared as much. Now public outrage from both the poor and the rich grow with every passing hour.”
“It will be another reason to protest against him,” Thornton noted. “The people do not want another war, to be forced to serve in the army and risk death. Harvest season is coming, and their crops will be left to rot in the fields. The king has exhausted the coffers spending lavishly on himself rather than on the schools and irrigation he had promised. All are now aware of his eccentricities, and call it madness. The merchants do not want another war, for it has never been good for business. Only the rich who dabbled in slavery profited from the last one with Highrolfe, as costly as it was.”
“You’re welcome,” Khalid said, with a grim smile.
Thornton looked at him. “Both Sarcopia and Highrolfe suffered heavy losses, and the outcome did not change it,” he said quietly. “I am sorry that we had to conquer Highrolfe the way we did, and I am sorry that we started this as enemies. I am sorry that you had to be coerced into helping us now, even as we plot and plan against our own king. If the circumstances had been different, we could have been friends, I think.”
Khalid stared back, acknowledged the sincerity in the other man’s eyes. “If the circumstances had been different,” he finally admitted. “And in this matter I am not being forced into anything. There is something… someone… that I wish to protect.”
Small spots of color appeared on the Lady Maestre’s cheeks.
“How very touching,” a voice by the doorway said, though with lesser derision than the words conveyed. The Wolf strode into the room, followed closely behind by Kinlee who, like Khalid, no longer wore her slave clothes, but instead was in a plain woolen dress. The slave-general scowled at him, but General Falen paid him no notice. “Unfortunately, my cousin is very astute. I have just received word that both the earl and his son had been installed in cells at the Watch’s barracks, and are being treated with more courtesy and decency than I would have liked. I believe Kazer is enjoying the same kind of surroundings - whatever he can perceive from the remaining eye he can still see with, at least.” The bleak satisfaction in his voice gave no question as to who was responsible for the Jackal’s injuries.