“Where is she?” I roared with the barely contained rage smoking on my breath.
I didn’t wait for her reply, yanking another curtain off its hooks, then another. Inside one enclosure, a male fae held the flaccid cock of a human man who lay on a blanket spread over the stone floor.
“This one is done,” the fae complained, not looking up from his human toy. He let go of the human’s cock and punched an empty teapot on the floor next to the blanket. “Where is the servant? That lazy moron,” he mumbled, crawling on all fours as far as his tendrils connected to the human would allow, while upturning every single dish that littered the floor. “Guards? Someone needs to bring us more tea!”
His knee landed on a clay shard of a broken dish. The sharp edge cut through the fabric of his skirt and sliced his knee open.Dark blood stained the stone floor, but he hadn’t even glanced at it, peering into the narrow spout of yet another empty carafe instead.
Mia gripped the end of my skirt, holding on to me like a child in search of protection.
I found the third human man behind the next curtain. A fae woman straddled him, riding his cock while a fae man and a second fae woman lay on each side of the human. All three shared his pleasure, with two tendrils each connected to him. All four were moaning harder and harder as he came closer to his completion.
“By gods, what are you doing here?” Mazra yelled after me, scrambling to her feet.
I yanked another curtain aside and froze.
With a moan, a male fae tried to lift his head from between a human woman’s thighs, but she had her fingers tangled in the intricate weave of his long, thin braids.
“More,” she demanded in a hoarse voice, yanking at his hair.
A female fae lay on her side, leisurely circling the human woman’s nipple with her finger. Another fae woman sat next to them, her tendrils were out but not connected to the human woman yet.Mywoman, I realized, barely recognizing Elaine with her thick hair tangled into a messy mane, her eyes shut, her brow furrowed, and her teeth bared as she growled again, “More.”
Pain sliced through me. She never wanted this. This had been one of her biggest fears. I’d told her I wouldn’t let it ever happen to her.
And I failed.
I could no longer hold the inferno inside me. Anguish erupted from me in a blast of fire. Tossing my head back, I sent the blast up into the ceiling. The curtains caught on fire.
Grabbing the man’s head, I wrenched his hair from Elaine’s fingers. I yanked so hard, his neck snapped, killing him instantly. Something about the way he wore his hair was familiar. I turned his head to me.
“Suhai,” I growled into the face of the dead mage. “Fucking traitor!” I tossed the lifeless body aside.
One of the fae women screeched, grabbing a long rusty knife from her belt. The other one jumped to her feet too, leaving her tendrils in Elaine’sleilathas. I lashed out with my tail, slicing through her tendrils. Their severed ends curled and spread, dissolving into the air around us. The woman screamed in pain, dropping to her knees.
I felt no pity, no compassion inside me.
Only the pure, burning rage.
“You demon!” the woman with the knife growled and rushed me.
Her blade sliced through my left leg. Blood burst out, drenching my skirt. But I hardly felt the pain. All my emotions, anything that was ever good inside me, had turned to stone and only the inferno of fury and hatred remained.
I wrapped my claws around the fae’s skull and squeezed until her bones crushed and her brain burst between my fingers. Then I tossed her aside and swept Elaine from the pallet of dirty blankets. She whimpered, arching her back. Her body was tense, every muscle tight like a string of a bow.
“No… I can’t…I have to…” she moaned, writhing restlessly in my arms.
I kissed her hair, breathing in her warm familiar scent, and something in my chest eased. Just holding her made this vile place feel bearable.
“I love you,” I whispered into her hair.
She jerked her head back to look at me. The haze momentarily cleared from her eyes.
“Timur?” she whispered uncertainly, as if struggling to recognize me.
Her eyes looked glossy, welling up with tears.
A fae man tossed an empty teakettle at me. The human man he was with crawled off the blankets and retched, standing on all fours. Mazra growled, charging at me with a sword. But I was done here. The most precious person in the world was in my arms now, and no one could take her away from me.
I shoved Mazra away with my tail. The human man she was with, Erik, walked out from behind the curtain, then helped the retching man up to his feet.
