But if I don’t, then Kari will be sold on the bidding slab, auctioned to whoever has the most coin.
Meeting his hard gaze, I lift the gold links to my throat and clip the collar shut. “We have a way in.”
“Zyla,” he warns. “There will be expectations if you wear that inside the Crystal Cavern.”
“Yours,” I tell him, putting the leash in his hand and surrendering to his control. “Yours to do with as you please.”
The carriage rocks as it trundles through the Labyrinth.
There are no wheels. Instead, it strides along on monstrous, spider-like legs as it carries us toward the Crystal Cavern.
Bael reclines on the seat opposite me, looking like he’s stepped out of some ballroom. The black velvet coat is cut perfectly to his broad shoulders, the collar straight across his throat and edged with gold. Tight leather strains over his thighs. I’d thought him dangerously appealing in his hunting leathers and shirt, grimed with hints of mud and sweat, but there’s something about the defined cut of his clothes now that makes him sleekly dangerous.
Or maybe it’s because of where we’re going.
The glint in his eye no longer seeks danger in the Labyrinth around us. No, it returns to me again and again, as if picturing exactly what is going to happen at the Crystal Palace.
He’s thinking of it.
And so am I.
“What are your limits?” he asks, stroking the leather strap of the leash handle over the curve of my breast, catching it on the tip of my sensitive nipple.
“Limits?” I let the leather curtains fall back into place. “What do you mean?”
“Mouth? Cunt? Ass?” he asks crudely, as if trying to force me to accept the reality of the situation. “Whips? Chains? For that is where we’re going, Zyla. And that’s what is going to be expected of us if we’re to make this ruse seem real.”
A shiver runs through me. “I made my choice. You won’t talk me out of it.”
He shakes his head, cursing under his breath. “No, I daresay I won’t. You’re as stubborn as a… a…”
“You?”
Our eyes meet, and I try to smother the small smile that crosses my lips at the sight of his exasperation.
Then his expression hardens. “I will not share you. Not your body. Though we will be expected to perform at least. I will share that much.”
I slide a hand over his thigh, strangely buoyed by the outfit. It makes me want to be naughty. “Good. Because I’m not sharing you either. If someone touches you, I’ll punch their teeth out.”
“Zyla,” he warns. “You’re meant to be subservient.”
I bite the leash. “When have I ever been wholly subservient?”
Wrapping the leash around his fist, he slowly winds me toward him, until I’m forced to my knees before him, resting my hands on his thighs. “This is exactly the problem,” he growls. “Nobody’s going to believe this lie if you’re spitting fire in my face at every moment.”
I bare my teeth at him, digging my nails into his thighs as I sink between them. “I’m a huntress, Bael. When I wish for it, nothing sees me coming. No matter whether it’s a forest I slip through, or a crowded inn. Becoming. That’s the secret. You have to become one with your surrounds. And if you think I don’t know exactly what we’re walking into, then you don’t know me very well. Kari needs me. And she won’t be the only one. So what makes you think me some shy maid?”
Thick lashes hood his eyes. “What are your limits? Because once we’re inside, we won’t get a chance to discuss this.”
I can’t resist taking the chance to tease him. “Perhaps I don’t have any.”
Flames of desire light his eyes. “You don’t know what you’re saying.”
“Don’t I?” I glance from beneath my heavily kohled eyelashes.
Fisting the leash close to where it joins my collar, he lowers his face until the stir of his breath brushes against my lips. “Give me a word. Something you can use if you’re uncomfortable with the direction we’re going in. Or I’ll leave you chained up in this carriage while I fucking go in.”
All of those protective urges, all for me. He thinks he’s not going to claim me. He’s lying to himself. Fuck Kasaros. This man is mine.
