by Sarina Dorie
I followed the stairs to the lower levels. Although the dungeon itself wasn’t locked, Tiffany told me I would need a key to get into his cell. When I came to a door with two guards standing watch, I suspected I was in trouble. I lifted my chin, trying to look like I belonged and that there was nothing suspicious with me heading into an off-limits area.
One stepped in front of the door. He looked familiar, one of the guards I had seen in Elric’s entourage.
“Miss Lawrence, you can’t be down here,” he said.
“Why not?” I asked. “Prince Elric said I could.”
The two men exchanged knowing glances, obviously seeing through my fib. “There is a . . . dangerous individual in that dungeon . . . someone we’ve been asked to protect you from.” He said the words slowly, as if selecting them with care.
“You’re talking about the man who ‘attacked’ me last night? Felix Thatch?”
Neither answered.
“He isn’t anything I can’t handle.” I glanced at their belts. There was no sign of keys. “Were you there last night? Did you see me defeat him?”
“Well, um, yes,” one young man said.
“I don’t need anyone’s protection. If you don’t stand aside, I will be forced to use my magic on you.” I tried to sound more confident than I felt. “I might drain you. I might do something else. There’s no telling what my magic will do.”
They exchanged nervous glances. “Miss Lawrence, we have our orders. Please don’t do this.”
“Don’t make me hurt you.” It wasn’t a complete bluff. I didn’t know what would happen if I used magic.
“It isn’t the other teacher you should be concerned about,” one of the guards whispered.
I ignored this attempt to scare me off.
I wasn’t supposed to purposefully use my affinity yet, but I had the night before. As far as I knew, I hadn’t had any serious aftereffects like magical cramps in my core. I raised my hands, drawing in a deep breath and pushing my will into my affinity. I thought of that kiss between Thatch and me the night before. A second later, guilt chided me for selecting that memory of me using Thatch and trying to drain him, rather than one of mutual affection and consent between Elric and me.
Another point on the scoreboard for the wicked witch.
Shame distracted me from my mission. The electric crackle I’d been hoping for in my palms shifted. The air filled with the perfume of lemons. I threw the spell at them.
The guards ducked out of the way. The spell thudded against the door and exploded with yellow light. The dark wood turned pale and clean as hundreds of years of grime slipped off it and onto the floor in a puddle of foamy bubbles. It was the cleaning spell Josie had taught me. It wasn’t the lightning spell I had been hoping for to save the day.
That might have been all I needed to create a distraction before I called upon my true power and used my affinity on them, but I was thwarted again.
The door to the dungeon swung open. A man’s pathetic moan echoed from the shadowy depths.
Out strode one of the silver court, a beautiful woman with long silver hair. A jolt of panic shot through me. For a moment I thought it was the queen, but her circlet was too small. It was one of the princesses, but they all looked identical, and I couldn’t tell who she was. The woman regarded me coolly. It was the emerald ring on her hand that gave away this was Quenylda, Elric’s wife.
Now I really was in trouble.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
The Lesser of Two Evils
When the guard had said there was a dangerous individual in the dungeon whom they’d been asked to protect me from, I had assumed they meant Thatch. More likely they had meant the princess.
Quenylda smiled at me, but there was no mirth in her ice-blue eyes. “You’ve come to see the prisoner, I’d wager.”
I swallowed. “I wanted to talk to him.”
“You are a moth, and he is the flame. So tragic.” She didn’t look particularly sad or troubled. “Yet so predictable as humans often are.”
She stepped out of the doorway, gesturing for me to enter. I glanced at the guards. They stood stiffly at the sides of the door, not looking at me.
Her perfectly shaped eyebrows lifted, but her forehead remained as smooth as porcelain, free of lines. “You do wish to see your Felix Thatch, do you not?”
I hesitated, uncertain whether this was a trap. He moaned from somewhere within the dungeon, attesting to his presence.
“You’re going to let me go see him?” I asked.
“Of course.”
“What’s the price?”
“There’s no price. I simply wish to be entertained. There’s nothing more pathetic than a love triangle. Nothing more . . . heartbreaking. Especially for Elric.”
“Where is Elric?”
“Looking for you, I’d imagine. I’ve sent him on a wild goose chase.” She chuckled. “At breakfast, I told him I sent you to the Raven Court in a carriage. You should have seen his face.” She glided past me, leaving the door open.
Sconces lit the walls, making ominous shadows dance over the uneven stone. Another moan came from within. The light hardly touched the gloom. Tentatively I stepped forward.
This dungeon made the historical display between Thatch’s classroom and his private quarters look cheery in comparison. Colonies of mushrooms grew on the walls. Hooks and chains dangled from the ceiling next to the path. A rotting corpse hung from one, the hook harpooned through his back and protruding out of his emaciated chest. I covered my nose with my sleeve to block out the stench as I marched past. This place looked like something one would find in the Raven Court’s castle, not in the Silver Court where everything was unsullied and white.
I walked as silently as I could, not wanting to draw attention to myself if there were monsters in this lair. I cast a detection spell out in front of myself, in search of enchantments. It was a simple one I had learned from Vega. I didn’t know if it would work on strong Fae magics.
Thatch wasn’t in a cell. He stood against a wall, manacles at his wrists and feet. His body sagged in exhaustion. The sleeves of his white shirt were bloody. His shirt was unbuttoned, and he wore nothing underneath, revealing the intricate white lines of tattoos against his flushed skin. Bruises blossomed against his ribs.
He lifted his head. His eyes were bloodshot.
“Are you all right?” I rushed forward and placed a hand on his cheek.
His jaw clenched. He turned his head away, recoiling from my touch.
“I’m sorry about last night. I didn’t mean to drain you. You aren’t completely drained, are you?”
He still didn’t answer. I hated how I had lost control. He might think I was like my mother. But I didn’t know what other choice I’d had. Either I could have allowed him to drain me, or I could have fought him. I had chosen the latter.
“If it makes you feel better, we’re free from the contracts. Our souls are our own.”
His voice was rough and gravelly. “Stay away . . . from me.”
“Don’t worry. I’m here to help you escape.”
“I don’t . . . want . . . your help.” Each word came out labored and slow, as if it took all his concentration to speak.
I crouched down at his feet. “I’m not going to hurt you again. That was an accident.”
I lifted the manacle and twisted it to find where it locked. It scraped against his ankle. The gesture revealed raw sores where the metal had gouged into his flesh. He sucked in a breath. I didn’t know if he had done this to himself trying to escape or he’d done it in an attempt to give himself pain and return his magic.
“Leave me alone.” He kicked at me, but there were only a few links of chain between him and the wall, so his foot didn’t move very far. He only managed to nudge me.
“Stay still,” I said.
“Clarissa, leave. You don’t know what you’re doing. As usual.”
As gently as I could, I
shifted the metal so I could get a better look at the shackle. A metal pin held the ring in place. I slid the pin out and opened the cuff. It stuck to his wound. I cringed as it tore open a new section of skin, and he bled anew. His breathing was labored, but he didn’t cry out as I worked at the next manacle.
I couldn’t reach the manacles holding his wrists just above his head, even when I stood on tiptoe. I scouted around the dungeon looking for a stool or something I could stand on. If I didn’t work quickly, Elric or his father might come down here and find me.
“Please leave. Don’t do this.” He sounded more desperate than angry now.
“Do what? Save you?” I asked incredulously. I found a bone on the floor. It looked like an arm bone, but it had been gnawed on by something. Whatever had done that, I hoped it wasn’t still down in the dungeon.
Tears filled his eyes. “Clarissa, please.”
I lifted the bone above my head and tapped at the pin in the manacle. It was dark and high up. Thatch jerked away and moaned.
“Jorogumo venom,” he said.
“What’s that?” I asked. Jorogumo was a familiar word. It sounded Japanese. Had I heard Pinky talk about it before, or was it a term I’d heard in anime? “Do you need jorogumo venom for something?”
I held on to his arm, trying to keep him still as I pushed at the pin with the bone. It lurched out of the hole. Thatch made a noise in the back of his throat. His arms shook.
“I’m sorry. I don’t want to hurt you,” I said.
The pin was stuck. I smacked at it with the bone until it tumbled free. The metal cuff popped open, and Thatch dropped one hand to his side. He closed his eyes, leaning against the wall. His breath came in shallow pants.
“Can you get the other peg without me?” I asked.
“Yes.”
He made no move to do so. I still held the bone in my hand. I could tap the peg out if I needed to, but it would have made it easier if he helped.
“We need to hurry. It’s only a matter of time before someone tells Elric they saw me headed down here.”
When Thatch made no effort to move, I shifted to his other side, nudging the bone where I thought the peg was, but it was in shadows.
His irises looked black more than gray in the dreary lighting. The dark circles around his eyes attested to his lack of sleep.
“Do you know what they did to me?” he asked.
Had they tortured him? Would Elric have even done that, knowing pain fueled Thatch’s affinity?
He brushed my hair back from my face. His eyes were full of such sorrow and pain, I felt bad for him. He liked pain, at least magically speaking. I couldn’t imagine anything worse they could have done to him, but they must have done something.
“I’m sorry I didn’t come sooner. I would have if I’d been able to.” I placed a hand on his heart. “I’ll do everything I can to keep you safe.”
He leaned his forehead against mine. I wasn’t sure whether the gesture was meant to be intimate or he was too tired to keep his head up.
“Jorogumo venom. That’s what they used on me.”
“To torture you?” I didn’t know what jorogumo venom did to people.
His breath hitched in his chest. Tears spilled from his eyes. “Clarissa, I need you.”
It wasn’t the same as saying he loved me, but it was something.
My throat tightened, the mixture of sorrow and joy making it difficult to swallow. A whirlwind of emotions tumbled inside me, overwhelming me: fear that the Fae were listening and would use this as proof he’d cheated and our souls wouldn’t actually be our own, relief that he wasn’t as detached and calloused as he claimed, fondness, yearning for him, and confusion about what I would do about it. I loved Elric.
I hadn’t ever loved two men at the same time before. Just the fact that I’d come here to free Thatch despite Elric’s wishes wasn’t going to look good when he found me.
“I care about you,” I said warily. “You have been my mentor and my friend and . . . maybe more, but now isn’t the time to talk about this. Okay?”
He gathered my hair with a hand before yanking my head back.
“Ow! Why do you have to ruin a nice moment and do that?”
“Because I wanted to.” His lips trailed down my throat, nibbling enticingly.
I smacked at his hand behind my neck. “Let go. That hurts.”
“Stop resisting.”
I kicked him in the shin. “Stop pulling my hair.”
He loosened his grip on my hair. “I like pulling your hair.”
“Ugh! I know.”
He threaded his fingers through my hair, massaging my scalp. “Let me pull, just a little.”
“No. How would you like it if I pulled your hair and you didn’t like it?”
“Yes,” he simply answered.
“Would it help restore your magic?”
He smiled lazily.
I grabbed a fistful of his hair. The moment I jerked his head back, he moaned. Of course he would like this.
“Harder,” he said.
I tugged harder. He arched back, his erection pressing against me.
I let go. “Whoa! Hold the mayo, dude! Not okay.”
“Why did you stop?”
“You liked that way too much.”
He wrapped his arm around me and hugged me to him. I was ashamed of how nice if felt.
“I’m happy to see you too, but you need to remember two things. . . .” I closed my eyes as he nuzzled against my neck. I couldn’t remember what those two things were anymore. As his fingers dug too hard into my hips, I remembered. “I have a boyfriend. That’s one.” He stroked my back. His fingers slipped under my shirt, tickling my lower back. “We have to get out of here.”
“I need you right now.”
I leaned my cheek against his chest. “We need to leave.”
“I’m not going to stop until I have you.” His words whispered across my ear.
“You’re under a spell, aren’t you? That’s what the venom did?”
He kissed me with such passion I didn’t care if he was under a spell or not. He was bewitching me.
“This is a bad idea,” I said weakly.
He chuckled. “Then stop kissing me.”
“I can’t. You know I can’t control myself.”
“I told you to study harder to master your affinity. Your failure is to my advantage.”
A gasp came from behind me. I tried to twist away from Thatch to see who was there, but he held me too tightly. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw movement.
“Who’s there?” I asked.
Elric cleared his throat. “Who else?”
Of course.
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
Toxic Love
I tried to pull away from Thatch, but he wouldn’t let me go. I punched him in the stomach, and he moaned, but he still wouldn’t release me.
“This isn’t what it looks like. I wasn’t trying to kiss him,” I said. “He was the one who started that.”
“I know,” Elric said.
“You came here because you want me,” Thatch said, even more unhelpful than usual.
I elbowed his arm and stomped on his foot, but I still couldn’t squirm away. Elric didn’t offer to help me, and I was too afraid of what he might do to Thatch to ask.
“You came here to free Mr. Thatch,” Elric said. “He rewards you by trying to seduce you. Is that correct?”
“Yes,” I said. “But I think it’s because he’s been fed jorogumo venom.” Not that I understood what that meant.
“You seduced me,” Thatch said.
“No, I didn’t!”
“You want me as much as I want you. You need me,” he said into my ear.
“What’s wrong with him?” I asked.
Elric sighed. “Jorogumo venom is an aphrodisiac.”
That was what Thatch had been trying to tell me. This made more sense.
Elric strolled closer. “To most humans and Fae, it gives them feelings of euphoria and lulls them into compliance. It amplifies physical sensations and heightens pleasure and dulls pain. It’s similar to what spiders use to tranquilize their prey.”
“It sounds like a date-rape drug.” I remembered the context of what a jorogumo was now. “This is from a kind of spider Fae—some kind of Yokai?”
“I thought it would be a fitting punishment for someone whose weakness is pleasure. The venom will make him want sex, and he won’t be able to get enough of it, but it will be torture, and he’ll hate it at the same time.”
That was why Thatch had begged me not to let him out. He knew he wouldn’t be strong enough to resist his weakness. And Elric had done this to him? His capacity for cruelty was as merciless as any other Fae.
Thatch held my lower back against him and ground up against me. His erection poked into my stomach. He whimpered into my hair.
Elric gazed at him impassively. “Professional and collected Mr. Thatch would never allow himself to behave this way. He would never give in to passion or let the world know he is capable of feeling desire. This will humiliate him.”
Elric hadn’t been around when Felix Thatch and Gertrude Periwinkle had been an item. But Elric was right. This would humiliate him. Thatch had been so ashamed of not being powerful enough to resist siren magic. He was furious every time I had used touch magic on him—wittingly or not.
“It seemed like this was the perfect way to get back at him for using your affinity against you, but I can see now, perhaps it wasn’t as wise a plan as I had thought.” Elric sighed. “I should have known you’d come for him.”
Thatch locked his lips on mine, kissing me so deeply I couldn’t breathe. I twisted my face away, but he released my back and grabbed the back of my head. He hooked a foot around my legs, keeping me from stepping away.
I hated the way he made me melt against him. Even when I didn’t want to, I wanted him. When he at last lifted his face from mine, gasping for breath, I said, “Stop. Please, Felix.” Thatch dove down and kissed me again, his mouth so forceful against mine he made my lips hurt.
Elric spoke. “He can’t stop. He’s compelled, just like when you’re compelled. He knows what it feels like now.”