I hadn’t tasted her pleasure, but I knew it was exquisite. Hers was the kind of pleasure that even the Joy Vessels of the royalsaraicouldn’t match. As word of my treasure had spread, I’d been getting requests from the members of the queen’s court, too, from the nobles who had free unrestricted access to the royalsaraiwhenever they wished. And still, they preferred the joy of my Elaine to the pleasure of all the queen’s Joy Vessels.
By now, I’d learned her moods without having to connect to her emotions. I knew by the shine in her eyes, by how soft her breathing suddenly grew, and by how subtly she raked her teeth over her lower lip that the kind of pleasure she was feeling right now was the kind that made our noble clients moan and melt into their silk cushions.
“I’ll see you soon,” she exhaled, gently brushing the tip of my nose with hers. “Please, don’t be long.”
I didn’t want to leave at all, already hating every moment I’d spend away from her. Now that she was within my reach, I hugged her and kissed her back. My lips brushed the soft skin on her cheek, but it wasn’t enough. I needed to have her closer still.
I found her lips with my mouth, stealing her breath and swallowing her moans. I had to be closer to her…inside of her…
But then I would never leave.
“Go,” she said, pressing her hands into my chest. “The sooner you leave, the sooner you come back. The sooner we…” She pressed her forehead to mine, raking her hands through my hair. “The sooner we can do all those things we do without being paid,” she finished with a smile, taking my breath away in turn.
Fuck.
It wasn’t just my cock that reacted to her words. My entire body felt like it was soaring up from my chair and my mind reeled, making it impossibly hard to focus.
Since that first bath paid for by Lord Arnaf, I’d given Elaine a few more baths in our clients’ tents. Some of them ended with my hand between her thighs as she moaned in my ear while I kissed her neck.
We didn’t sell a specific kind of pleasure, however. All agreements I made with the potential clients guaranteed nothing but their time with Elaine for a predetermined price. It was up to her afterwards what more she felt like giving to them. Often, she didn’t even know what mood she’d be on any given night until she walked into the tent and met the client or the clients, as it might be.
Sometimes, Elaine limited her interaction with them only to dinner and conversation. Other times, she was in the mood for more. She’d let me kiss her and even touch her while their tendrils drank her pleasure. Then, we adjusted the payment amount as the night went on. And so far, no client left unhappy after meeting Elaine and tasting her pleasure.
My left arm itched just below my shoulder, over the spot where I might still have a tendril left. I hadn’t tried releasing any of them for years, ever since the first one disappeared under the scales and I lost the ability to disperse into shadows.
What was a shadow fae if he couldn’t turn into a shadow?
That realization made me feel loneliness most acutely. Isolation had descended upon me since that moment, and it had been solidly around me like an impenetrable shield ever since.
Until Elaine shattered it. And she did it without any force or weapons, but with her gentle touch, her light kisses, and the soft glances she’d cast at me from under her dark eyelashes.
“I will come back as soon as I can,” I promised.
With one last kiss, I forced my arms to release her, then locked the door to the hut behind me, and headed toward the Wall.
The sun blasted the beach with light. Heat evaporated the moisture from the black sand, making haze rise over the dark shore. Most beach dwellers had already taken shelter in their cabins and shacks. Some had nothing more than a couple of thin walls leaned against each other to hide under. The few unfortunate ones who were still out at this hour hurried to the shadows of the Wall for shelter.
I pulled my hood lower, holding it with my right hand. My bone fingers felt warm in the sunlight, but there was no pain. The parts of me that had turned to bone tolerated the sun much better than those still covered by skin—a small benefit that came out of my twisted transformation. I smirked to myself at the irony of that.
Since I was no longer on Zayr’s list of people to collect money from, he wouldn’t be looking for me. If I wanted to speak to him now, I had to find him myself.
I checked all the usual places that Zayr and Ray’s other goons usually frequented to conduct business, but he wasn’t in any of them. At this hour, his business must've been finished for the day. Now, my only chance for a talk was to catch Zayr before he went up to his cave in one of the upper levels of the Wall. If I missed catching up with him on the lowest level, I’d have to try it again the following morning, since I couldn’t reach the caves above unless they were located right along the path, which Zayr’s cave wasn’t.
I steered my chair through one of the caverns on the lower level and out the back door that led into the expansive maze of corridors carved into the mountain. The intricate web of passages of all sizes spread through the Wall of Ashgate,connecting the many caves and caverns of the city, many of which couldn’t even be seen from the outside.
All water sources of Ashgate were also located here, underground. The sparse fields and vegetable gardens cultivated by Mazra’s people were positioned closer to the exits, ensuring some sunlight for the crops.
I rarely came here. Many of the corridors were too narrow or uneven to navigate in my chair. Some could be passed through only as a shadow, which I couldn’t do either. I preferred to stay in the open. But since I hadn’t found Zayr anywhere in the more accessible places, I had no choice but to try my luck here.
Unlike on the beach, the city life in the caves didn’t seem to slow down. The daily cycle of the sun didn’t affect it. The inhabitants hurried along the corridors to and fro, casting either curious or hostile glances my way.
“Get out of the way,” someone groused, trying to squeeze by my chair only to dissolve into a shadow the very next moment, then swiftly breeze past me in a dark cloud of magic and annoyance.
I peered into the crowd, hoping to spot Zayr or any one of Ray’s men.
“That’ll have to wait until tonight,” I finally heard the familiar deep voice of Ray’s main enforcer.
It came from around the corner right ahead of me, and I sped up my chair, afraid I’d miss him again. As I moved forward, however, a small group of fae rounded the corner, walking swiftly toward me.
