I nodded. “For several reasons. One is that I hope Prince Rha is a more lenient ruler than Queen Abeille. I would rather have him lead the attack on Ashgate, if it comes down to it. Also, if I’m discovered?—”
Timur shifted uncomfortably, clearly reluctant to even imagine such a future for me.
I cupped the side of his face soothingly. “In the worst-case scenario. If that happens, I’d rather deal with the prince than his mother.”
I didn’t have much to go by when judging Prince Rha’s character since I didn’t know him very well. But Dawn seemed to like him very much. I now believed she truly loved PrinceRha, and I trusted my friend wouldn’t fall in love with someone decidedly cruel.
“And finally,” I added. “Suhai said Prince Rha brought a human woman to Teneris.”
“And you think she may be someone you know,” Timur guessed.
“I’m not sure. She could be just someone he took from the queen’ssaraiin Kalmena. But if not…” I let my voice trail off, both hopeful and afraid.
If Dawn really wanted to return to our world, I wished she’d succeeded in her escape and was living happily among humans now. Selfishly, however, I also hoped that she’d stayed. That she’d gotten captured by the queen’s guards, brought to Kalmena and then was gifted to the crown prince. Because that would mean she was in Teneris now, and I could see her again.
Also, the pleasure traders who captured me never showed up at Ashgate with Ciana. If she managed to escape from them somehow, I hoped she remembered my advice to go to Teneris. If so, then the two human women I cared the most about in this world could both be in Teneris now. Which meant that was the place where I should be too.
“If we ever want to find my friends,” I explained to Timur, “Teneris is the best place to start looking.”
Twenty
Elaine
Timur was leaving for Teneris in less than a day. We’d decided he’d go alone first. He knew a merchant who might be helpful with finding a place for us while keeping Timur’s identity secret. Once that was settled, Timur would come back to get me.
I just had to survive a few days on my own while he was gone.
The evening before Timur’s departure, I woke up while he was still asleep. I reached for my glasses on the crate by the bed, then put them on. A flock of golden sparks ran along the hexagonal frames, bringing the glasses’ magic to life. The darkness around me took shape as every object in our cave came into focus.
My new vision would never cease to amaze me. The faint glow of the golden veins in the rock walls gave barely enough light for me not to trip and fall with every step before. With my new glasses, I saw everything from every detail of the baskets stacked by the far wall to every dent and groove in the cave’s ceiling high above me.
My gaze drifted to the most wondrous sight of all—to the man stretched on the bed next to me. Timur slept on his stomach with his face half buried into the long yellow pillow that he hugged with one arm. His right eye was closed only by a clear membrane, so even when Timur was asleep, it cast a red glow onto the yellow pillowcase. The top sheet we used for a cover got trapped around his right leg and slid down, leaving most of his body exposed.
Bone had taken over his right shoulder blade completely, reaching almost halfway down his back. Only a few vertebrae high on his neck were still covered by skin, including the spot over one of his three remaining tendrils. The rest of his spine had grown outward with sharp white bones protruding between two vertical ribbons of scales. The scales ran all the way down to the hard curve of his backside where the exposed spine merged with his tail.
The length of his tail draped loosely over the bedding, its tip hanging from the bed. Even completely motionless, the long spike at the end didn’t look harmless. I’d seen Timur kill and maim with his tail. I knew how deadly it could be.
His left leg lay atop the sheets, slightly bent at the knee. His skin shimmered slightly, coal-black against the pale-yellow bedding. Save for the skeletal clawed foot, this leg looked very human, with thick corded muscles in the thigh and calf. I couldn’t see the right leg, the one under the sheet, but I knew it looked very different. The outside of Timur’s right thigh was solidly covered with white scales. His right leg below the knee was only two bones that held no sinew and no skin, just like his right arm.
He couldn’t use his right leg past his knee, couldn’t stand or walk on it. So far, his right arm had retained its full mobility, however. But how long would it be until that too would be lost?I braced against the inevitable stab of pain that came with the thought, then tried to breathe through it.
Timur groaned in his sleep, rolling over onto his back. I stiffened, afraid his nightmares might’ve returned. But he just stretched with a soft moan, his cock jutting up from his groin. If my beloved business partner was dreaming, those clearly weren’t the scary kind of dreams.
I slid my gaze along the hard length of his cock. The circular bones inside its velvety soft skin remained permanently hard. When he was aroused, which happened almost always when he was around me, the tissue between these rings grew hard as well, raising his erection like it did now, straight up.
His soft groan ended with a sweet moan, and I glanced up at his face. His red eye burned considerably brighter now. And his blue one was open and fixed on me too.
“Did I wake you up?” I whispered.
“Why are you whispering?” he wondered.
“Because you’re…sleeping?” I hiked up one of my shoulders with a sheepish smile because he was clearly awake now. “Did you have a nice dream?”
“Mm-hmm,” he confirmed with a hum. “We argued about who could make each other come faster with their mouth.” He squinted at me with a sleepy smile. “You won.”
I laughed. “Sounds like a great dream.”
He rose on his arm and brought his mouth over mine.
