Obedience stirred awake beneath his skin, the echo of Elashor’s magic. He bowed low before his mind could intervene, before it could even whisper the shape ofno.
Farine rose from her velvet cradle like a lioness unfurling. Perfume preceded her as she approached, a floral haze thick enough to choke on. Her fingers brushed the scar along Jassyn’s cheek, then slid into his curls, nails digging at the nape of his neck and holding him there until his scalp stung.
“My, my,” she chimed, drawing his head back to angle him into the sapphire blaze of her eyes. “We were starting to think you’d forgotten the way home. But here you are. Still beautiful. Stillmine.”
A servant appeared at her side with a silver tray. Farine plucked a fig, syrup glossing her fingers.
“Open,” she purred.
Jassyn’s jaw obeyed, coaxed apart by invisible strings.
Sweetness broke across his tongue, the kind that curdled memory. He swallowed because his body remembered how to shape gratitude from violation. How to turn the gag of bile into something that passed for appreciation.
Farine sucked the juice from her thumb, watching him with a slow, knowing smile. “Still so lovely. But this?” She dragged her palm over his chest, skating up his arms. “There’s strength now. Cavorting with our exiled prince has been hardening you, hasn’t it?”
Murmurs of curiosity passed through the nobles. Farine reclaimed his chin and tipped it higher.
“Good,” she said, the word weighted with approval. “We want our legacy pieces kept well conditioned. After all, you’ll be paraded before the king soon enough.”
Jassyn couldn’t move, but he felt the air tighten, hunger sharpening around him. Silks whispered as bodies leaned forward, attention pressing closer without a single step taken.
“They’ve missed you,” Farine murmured, voice curling toward the nobles. “And you’ve missed the rhythm. But don’t fret, darling—it always returns.”
Her hand threaded through his hair again, displaying him while her gaze swept the onlookers. “He was always our favorite. So giving.”
Chuckles drifted around the court as goblets lifted in agreement. One male ran his tongue along the rim of his glass as though tasting Jassyn already.
“He’s acquired atalent, Mother,” Elashor said, his voice sliding in from behind. “One I think you’ll find more…intriguing than his bloodline.”
Farine’s eyes glittered as she looked through Jassyn. At the novelty she owned. “Show me.”
There was no warning. The netted weave yanked inside Jassyn’s skull, threads of control wrenching him into motion. Muscles seized as the shift tore through him, violent and unsummoned.
Wings ripped free from his spine, maroon membranes cracking open in a snap of sinew. Scales crawled down his throat and arms, scraping as they locked into place. Wing talons clacked together as orbs of fire bloomed between them, his pupils slitting to blades of dragonsight.
Gasps spread through the court, mouths slackened with awe. Stardust-stained fingers reached for him and then stilled. None dared touch him. Not withoutFarine’sconsent.
Others made no pretense of restraint. They devoured him openly, eyes running over him like hands, already rehearsing what they would claim when permission came.
Desperate to scorch something—anything—Jassyn clawed for the flames with what little will remained. The fire recoiled, flickering just beyond reach. His hands wouldn’t budge when he tried to lift them, refusing to harm. Heat pressed against his ribs, banked and useless, obedience sealing it down.
Panting, Jassyn knelt in his druid form, every fiber screaming for oblivion as humiliation burned. Memory would remain. Elashor had promised.
There would be no Stardust this time. No merciful blur. No cradle of dissociation to soften the edges. Only the full, crushing weight of each moment, preserved intact and left to smother him.
Farine drifted around him, a single finger skimming along the leathered edge of his wing. Jassyn’s stomach pitched when the membrane twitched beneath her touch. He held still, because stillness had once been the difference between survival and something worse.
Her voice came low and indulgent, admiring a rare beast newly added to her menagerie. “You’ll let them ride again, won’t you?”
The claws on his wings clenched. Something inside him gave way, clearing space for the answer she expected. Yielding had always been easier than shattering.
She leaned closer, her words honeyed poison. “You’ll be generous, my little flame. And you’ll savor it.”
The command sank into his marrow, his mind powerless to object the coercion. When Farine summoned him to follow, Jassyn rose without resistance. What came next unfolded the way it always had.
The way it always would.
He crossed the garden and lowered himself onto the chaise, Farine draping herself along him. Her silks spilled across his lap as she settled between his thighs, reclining her head against his chest.
