Gail’s eyes traveled deliberately over her, and Nyssa swallowed at the sweeping intensity of it.
“As much as I disliked the pair, I will admit, it was a tragedy what happened to them,” he uttered. “Such a child, it would have been the greatest weapon to ever have walked these lands. I wonder—” he reached out and twirled her hair between his fingers, the touch making her hair feel as though it weren’t attached to her own body “—do you think your mother gave this same ability to you as well?”
His rasp made her flare, but she didn’t flinch. “If you touch me—”
“You’ll what? Call your eagle?” A smug grin fluttered over his features, and his head bent towards her. “Go ahead. I’ll strike it down as I’m fucking you.”
Her spine pressed into the tree behind her.
She didn’t even know he’d been pushing her backward.
“Draven had the right idea,” he continued, towering over her. “To bring a weapon into this world that would have finally put your people in their place. It would have brought the monarchy down to its knees. Every race would have bowed to its grace. Except he was too weak to go through with it.”
“That’s not what Draven wanted—”
He grabbed her wrists and shoved them over her head. The raw tree bark scratched her skin. Her body’s response was to push back, to wriggle beneath him—
But his free hand found her face, and he pinched her cheeks in his hand, holding her jaw between his thumb and pointer finger. She could feel his breath on her skin, and it made her shudder. Her feet moved, but his chest was flush against her, pinning her and shoving her into the tree. The stern of his broad body over hers nearly made her disappear beneath his shadow.
“You know, Man wouldn’t know our kind can’t normally have children,” he breathed. “I could fuck you and then sell you. A place at the table while my child grows in your belly beneath their watch. My own personal spy in their grasp. You would teach him to use his powers. Man’s kingdom would grow around him, with me sitting at their table. And when he’s grown, I could take everything. Your kingdom and theirs. Dreamers enslaved at my feet. The Honest and the Martyrs vanished. Your precious giver torn apart. This world could truly be mine… I might even let you rule beside me. Mother to the greatest child in our history. You could bemy Queen.”
Nyssa's heart pounded at his words, his greed… Her sister’s face flashed before her eyes, and she pulled for the small part of herself she’d learned from her.
“Tell me, Venari… What would stop me from killing you and taking over?” she asked.
“You’ll like fucking me too much to kill me,” he promised.
Nyssa found herself impressed by the quickness of his banter. She lifted her chin to meet his. “And exactly how far on your knees before me does that declaration take you?”
She could see the surprise rise in his gaze. But being the true Venari he was, she knew he wouldn’t back down. The right corner of his lip quirked just so, and he growled, “Don’t tempt me,Nyssari,” in a warning tone that told her the firmness she felt against her abdomen wasn’t his hip.
Nyssa almost smiled at the feeling of it there, the power in her hands that he didn’t know she was squeezing out… drip by drip… enjoying the toy of wringing him in her hands.
“You’re an idiot,” she finally snapped.
He tensed. “Come again?”
“I said you’re an idiot,” she repeated, this time more firmly than before. “You think my mother gave a damn about simple Venari persons?”
She could see the confidence draining from his eyes.
“You think my mother would allow any being not holding a true throne to put a child in our bellies?”
Gail let go of her face.
“Those were not the beings whom she knew would bring Duarb to his knees,” Nyssa continued to spit. “Sheknewthe only children Duarb ever truly loved and gave a damn about after that fucking curse were his Infinari-marked Venari children. HisKings.”
Gail released her wholly, stepping back from her as if she’d suddenly cursed him. But Nyssa didn’t stop. She had him. Had him exactly where she wanted him. Confident and dangerously on edge. Hard and needing. Core depleting.
Nyssa stepped forward as far as the rope would allow her.
“Go ahead, Venari,” she seethed. “Fuck me until I cannot walk. Fuck me until you break me. Make me cry your name in the darkness of these trees. But you’ll never sire a child in my belly. You will never know the power of the High crown, of seeing your blood and flesh walking these grounds with a name you were able to provide. The last being to have ever had that ability was Draven. And every inkling of that power died with him.”
Gail paused, staring at her as though working out the words she’d just dared to speak to him. She didn't know if the words were actually true, but she knew he was considering that they were. She thought for sure he would have had a knife at her throat again by the end of it. That he would be seething with angst, not of his planning.
But his lips flinched upwards, and she found herself staring at the volatile smirk on his face.
“It is ashameyour giver has such hatred for us,” he finally determined. “I feel as though our people were made for one another.”
