Timur unclasped his fingers, and the Ashgate’s Master of the Wall dropped to the ground in a heap of naked flesh and tangled hair.
“Zayr!” he yelled.
The doors to the cave opened and a guard’s head poked in.
“More tea, Ray?” the guard asked helpfully.
“Fuck off. Just get Zayr in here. Now,” Ray barked, turning away from the door to hide his bloodied face behind his hair.
“Yes, Master.” The guard picked up the teapot that Ray had tossed at the doors earlier, then disappeared behind one of the doors.
“And yesss…bring more t-tea t-too,” Ray ordered, slurring his words. “Always m-more tea, you idiot.”
The door opened wider, and two fae brought in Timur’s chair. It was odd to see it empty. But even without its master using its foreign magic, the chair looked out of this world with its buttery brown leather and its thick, bronze wheels with gears and rivets.
“What the fuck is…that?” Ray stared at it, his gaze unfocused.
The tall, bald fae, Zayr, followed the chair into the cave.
“It belongs to the general,” he said, tipping his chin at us. “Or do you want me to send it to his new cave?” He cast a sly glance at Timur, as if he already knew he got what he came here for.
“I didn’t say I’m giving him a c-cave… Did I?” Ray ran a hand over his mussed hair, tracing it all the way down to the end of the messy braid. “I don’t do business. I can’t… Shit, why is it so hard to fucking th-think?”
He sounded lost, scratching his forehead and looking around as if he’d forgotten where he was. A wisp of pity filtered through my utter loathing for this man. He’d turned into a pale shadow of his former arrogant, brutal self. He absolutely deserved everything bad happening to him and more, but it was unsettling to watch a strong, magical being like this powerful shadow fae stumble around like a toddler and slur his words like a drunk.
A drunk? It certainly looked like it. Ray’s behavior seemed impaired in a similar way as if he were intoxicated. Drunk or drugged. Was that the effect of too much human pleasure?
Zayr waited until the two guards who’d delivered the chair left the cave, then closed the doors behind them.
“Many caves are sitting empty, Ray,” he said. “The rent is down. You could use his gold.”
“Gold…” Ray repeated mechanically. “Gold is good. Mazra wants gold for the tea, doesn’t she? That bitch is ripping me off. I know she is… The beach has all the dirt, and the sun, and whatever other shit that f-flower needs to grow. Well, the Wall…the Wall has caves. And this ugly monster here has g-gold…” He turned to Timur with a shudder. “Wherever the fuck you’d crawled out of. Ashgate is such a shit hole filled with the ugliest beasts.”
Unsteady on his legs, Ray stumbled back, tripped over the edge of his bed, then fell on it backwards, spreading out his arms. His hand fell onto Mia’s head.
“Aah, there you are, my sweet thing.” He ran his hand down to her shoulder, then rolled to his side to see her. “Come on, my precious, give me some more of that beautiful pleasure of yours.”
He flipped her onto her back, palming her breast, but she only snored loudly, drawing her knees to her chest.
“Sleeping…” he lamented. “They get tired so quickly. And they’re useless when they’re tired.”
He dropped his head into the bedding, face down, his limbs spread over the crumpled sheets like a starfish.
A guard brought in a fresh pot of the cursed tea and set it down on the floor. Ray didn’t stir, ignoring both the guard and the teapot.
“Come.” Zayr gestured for Timur and me to follow him out of the cave.
I got off Timur’s lap but couldn’t force my feet to make a step away from the two humans piled on the floor like broken mannequins. They looked so utterly spent and lifeless. I wished I could take them with me, and I only hoped they’d forget everything that had happened to them here.
“We can’t leave them here,” I said.
“Then stay here with them.” Zayr scowled. “Make Ray a present. He’d thoroughlyenjoythat.”
It sounded more like a challenge than a threat. Still I shrank away from that offer, retreating closer to Timur again. Wrapping a possessive arm around my middle, Timur silently flew over to his chair, bringing me with him.
Zayr led us out into the corridor, then closed the wooden doors behind us.
Only once we were out of Ray’s bedroom did I realize that I hadn’t taken a single full breath while inside its walls.
