ChapterTen
BONES
Silently, my brothers and I walk back to our tent, the cool desert night doing its best to trick us into thinking this place is something more than the hellhole it is during the day. Stars blink down at us as though they’re the true rulers of this realm and we’re nothing more than insects playing at being more. I can’t say that I disagree.
My gaze wanders to the darkened ludere on our left. The large oval building seems like nothing more than a collection of shadows and pain, and I can’t stop myself from wondering where she is inside of it. Is she thinking about me or my brothers? Is that other slave balls deep in her seeping pussy, ruthlessly pounding into her while she silently meets him stroke for stroke? I huff out an irritated breath as I once again grow hard. I just talked my cock down twenty minutes ago. I thought I was going to lose my mind, sitting at that table, rock hard, as I felt her eyes climbing all over me. It was all I could do not to pin her against the wall and fuck her so hard she screamed my name.
There’d be no quiet gasps or muted moans when I was inside of her. I’d show her just what her body was capable of taking while I sank my teeth into every inch of her, marking that tan flesh and drinking down the power I know is swimming in her veins. I was almost grateful when Tilleo excused the blade slaves to rest in preparation for tomorrow’s tests. Gartox, the brute of a Bruin, was pissed. He’d been staring at a crimson-haired blade slave since dinner was served. She was lucky to escape whatever nefarious intentions were gleaming in his ruddy gaze. He was staring at my Slave first, but I shut that down with a look.
I fucking hate that Bruin. His entire Order goes against the Scorpions’ core principles, and it pisses me off that we can’t simply wipe them out. I release another sharp disgruntled exhale. They better keep their eyes off of Slave from here on out. I don’t care what accords are in place, I’ll violate every one if they so much as ponder a thought about her.
Tarek—Scorpius, I immediately correct myself—looks over at my huff of annoyance. He won’t say a word until we’re in the tent and free to speak, but I can see the questions already brewing in his eyes. I inhale a deep calming breath and try to get a grip. This slave already has me so distracted that I’m breaking protocol and thinking names instead of the codes we’ve created to protect ourselves while out hunting. I know better than to think there might not be magic here strong enough to breach our tent walls or even our minds. It’s rare, but after watching that little speck of moondustshadow walkin the cellar, I won’t rule any possibility out. Tilleo’s been hiding things from us, and we need to get to the bottom of it immediately.
Skull throws the flaps of the tent out of his way, and we all stride into our usual accommodations for every Bidding. Straight away, he moves to the trunk located at the end of his pallet and pulls out a glass orb with a murky gray mist held inside. Walking to the center of the tent, he smashes the small globe on the ground. The glass shatters, immediately releasing a gray cloud that surges to the edges of our tent and then rises until it’s converging over our heads.
“We’re good for the night,” he declares, and all eyes land on me. “What has you so riled up? What did you find out?”
“The Vulpi didn’t have anything useful to say,” I start, getting the boring shit out of the way first. “They’re on high alert, something about another unknown Order stealing their signatures and setting them up.”
“Dawn Court?” Skull asks, his eyes jumping from me to Scorpius and back again.
“That’s my take on it. Someone wants us to think they’re responsible for the annihilation event in the Dawn Court. They could be trying to purge us from their trail, but none of them were up for playing, not even Kiffin, and you know how her addiction rides her. I’ve never witnessed anoout of that female’s mouth, but she was not having it today. They’re pissed and here trying to track whoever is behind the setup.”
Scorpius and Skull nod, their eyes thoughtful as they file this new unexpected information away. We all thought for sure the hunt was them, but if they’re telling the truth about their signature being mimicked, this thing is even deeper and more fucked up than it was before.
“What else?” Scorpius asks as he starts to undo the buttons of his vest and strip down.
I pull in a deep breath. “She can shadow walk,” I announce, my stare not missing the moment my words freeze both of my brothers in their place.
“Who?” Scorpius asks, but I can see he suspects exactly who I’m talking about.
“Our little Slave, that’s who,” I declare, feeling the same astonishment from them thatIfelt when I first saw her do it. “Oh, and I also watched her brain a guard with this as though his skull was nothing more than an egg shell,” I add, pulling Scorpius’s sheathed dagger from my inner vest pocket. I toss it to him, and he looks down at the blade as though it will sing to him all about its latest blood-soaked adventure.
“So she’s strong too,” Scorpius states, his eyes gaining that faraway look he always gets when he’s trying to piece out a puzzle.
“I knew she was some highborn mutt,” Skull announces, and I nod.
She has to be from a prominent noble line; they’re the only ones capable of passing down that power, but how? We keep an eye on the bastards the rulers of the four courts create. It’s not as many as one might think, but it does happen from time to time. The three of us are proof.
“Do you think Tilleo is targeting us?” Scorpius asks, his obsidian eyes now hard.
“I don’t think Tilleo even knows,” I answer, and I track the surprise my declaration sets off in both his and Skull’s gazes. “She hunted a guard in the wine cellar. He moved around like she was hiding in the crates and shelves, not the shadows. He never saw her coming,” I explain. “If Tilleo knew she had that ability, his personal guards would know too, if for nothing more than to protect him from it, but more so because they probably would have overheard him bragging about it. We all know how he is. He can’t keep his mouth shut when he thinks he has something that will make him rich.”
“Unless she’s a new weapon and he’s making a move,” Skull counters.
“A move where though? He never had aspirations beyond taking Dorsin’s place and creating his own empire,” I argue.
“Can she do anything else?” Scorpius cuts in.
“Aside from face fuck a fellow slave so hard my dick might never recover, no,” I state simply, adjusting my rock hard cock in punctuation of my point.
“Fuck, that’s all I’ve been thinking about doing since we kicked her out of the tent,” Skull admits, and I can’t help the laugh that spills out of my lips.
“I’ll be joining you now in that endeavor, brother, I can promise you that,” I tell him as I run my hand over my short hair in exasperation.
I could call for a flesh slave to help alleviate my sudden onset of tension. I know Tilleo has them ready and waiting for all of his guests, but I suspect it won’t have the effect I’m hoping for. I don’t want just any wet cunt, I want hers. I stepped into the cellar simply intending to keep an eye on her like Scorpius warned, but watching her slip from the shadows to deliver a kill so clean you could eat off it is something that speaks to me on a visceral level.
Her eyes weren’t flat or empty as she struck, not like other blade slaves I’ve observed over the past years. There was no hesitation. The spark of exhilaration in her deadly stare wasn’t there through madness or bloodlust. She was delivering justice. It was there, written in her very features. I don’t know what that guard did, although I wouldn’t have to think hard to come up with far too many disturbing scenarios, but whatever it was, ending him felt righteous to her. In that millisecond before she struck, I saw a fae who lived by the same code that my brothers and I do, and it calls to me.Shecalls to me.
