Underwear and pants slipped down to mid-thigh, and his cock sprang free, standing at astaggeringtwo inches. I smiled with the knife still in my mouth. My hands met his legs, and I rubbed them with sultry intention, testing to see if he’d reached max capacity, and, per my expectation, he had.
My palm met the hilt again, and I retrieved the dagger, tossing it from base to tip before solidifying my grasp and bringing it to rest flush against his pelvis. “Now that you’re bare on a filthy bathroom floor with yourlittle guyready for a play date with my pussy that you will not be getting, are you going to take me seriously, or should I start cutting?”
“W-Wait!” His shoulders dug into splintered wood as he tried to slide away from me, terror billowing off him—a fear Irelished. “It’s not that I don’t want to tell you! I genuinely don’t know! Please!”
Feigning a pout, falsified sorrow and sympathy swam in my eyes. “The number one thing you shouldneverdo is lie to a woman. And you, my love, are lying through your teeth.”
“Gods, you wretched bitch, I’m notlying!”
“Here’s the thing,Corven Storme,I knew everything I needed to know the moment I set foot in this godsforsaken building. The esteemed advisor is currently ‘eye-fucking countless women at Seirdra’s Veil, hoping to secure one for the night,’ per the conversation I overheard you having with your counterpart. You may believe that women are senseless and only good for sex, but as soon as you meet onewho is vengeful with nothing to lose, you quickly learn that your idiocy will be your ultimate downfall.”
“L-Look, I never meant?—”
“See, wearing the mask of a cowardly bitch will not win with me. I gave you the chance to be straightforward while threatening your manhood, and you elected to lie to me with a boldness you believed you’d get away with. I mean, I’ll give you credit for being prideful enough to believe something so idiotic, but because of your idiocy, you can experience not only what it's like to be dickless, but to be throat fucked with your own cock. Welcome to the reality of being a woman in a world filled with brute men.”
With a simple flick of my wrist, the sharp edge of my dagger tore through spongy tissue, blood spurting from the once-hardened and attached organ. Corven’s eyes widened, an ear-piercing scream tearing from his throat as a geyser of his life force coated his lower half and face. I snatched his detached length, shoving it into his open mouth.
He gagged, struggling to breathe while his anguish continued, though, thankfully, slightly muffled. Tears filled his eyes as he looked at me, shaking his head with his member shoved not even a fourth of the way down his throat, a clear display of how many inches he truly lacked. Thrashing against the bindings, his skin paled from the loss of blood, solidifying a reality he never would’ve expected: lying on the filth-coated floor of a bathroom in The Gutted Siren,choking on his own cock while a paid-under-the-table assassin looked down at him with a murderous grin sprawling across her face.
Pushing myself up, I wiped the polished steel against my leg before sheathing my dagger. Carelessly, I stepped over him, the sole of my boot gliding roughly across the mutilated flesh, earning yet another scream.
I approached one of the mirrors and turned on the sink before cupping my hands. Gathering a handful of water, I splashed it against my face, removing the speckle of his lineage that coated my cheeks. Twisting the faucet back, I double-checked my hair, brushing back a few flyaways before moving toward the door I’d locked behind us.
Without looking over my shoulder, my fingers curled around itsfrigid handle as the last words Corven would hear from me, or perhaps anyone at all, left my lips. “You sound so harmonious gagging on your own prick. Honestly, so beautiful that I believe I can safely say, out of all the men I’ve neutered, you’ve by far been the most joyful to listen to.”
Tearing the door open, his cries of pain followed me out into the music-filled hallway as I headed toward the tavern entrance with one thing in mind: to get to the king’s advisor.
I’d pose as a prostitute at Seirdra’s Veil and deliver his doomed fate.
CHAPTER 2
Purchased Prize
ROHEN
Adjusting my breasts in the lace crimson bustier, I swept over my reflection one more time.
Dark fishnets hugged my long legs, highlighting the minimal curves Seirdra had blessed me with. Scars of my past, etched by the hand of the man I claimed not to know, mapped my skin with no particular pattern. Each jagged line crisscrossed over the expanse of my thighs before transitioning to my freckle-covered arms.
Each unimaginable trauma I’d tried to run from lay bare before all the women around me, their judgmental eyes giving way to their opinions of my presence and all it entailed—stories of families who were supposed to love me, of beatings the male who purchased me put me through when I refused him.
Adorned with jewels and layers of cosmetics, they maneuvered through the dressing room with a womanly elegance I’d never developed. Their plump breasts and thick backsides mocked my femininity, reminding me how boyish I looked in a body that supposedly belonged to a twenty-seven-year-old woman. But even amidst their sneers of judgment, I walked amongst them with the air ofconfidence I always held—a prideful assassin, capable of killing men with her bare hands and the ability to blend in if needed.
My body was far more refined and equipped than theirs would ever be, and that was my upper hand.
Tossing my copper waves over my shoulder, I pivoted, my heels snapping against the tile with only one intention: butchering the king’s advisor and taking his head to Malrik—the boss I claimed I didn’t know when the soldier attempted to interrogate me.
After multiple failed fosters, the owners of the orphanage sold me to the black market at the age of ten. I’d accepted then that, as a punishment for a prior existence, the Goddess of Life, Ysalyne, guided me into a reality filled with abuse and neglect. And, unfortunately for me, after an entire night of torment from a crime lord who was alive at the time, Malrik walked through the doors.
He wasn’t an unknown visitor, and every lawless one who partook in the child trafficking auctions, smuggling routes, and purchasing of prostitutes whispered about his ruthlessness. They knew him not by experience but by tale. Any man unlucky enough to cross him never saw the light of day again, and he ensured it remained that way; his nature was so refined that even the most feared bowed to him.
When his eyes had settled on me, I knew I would never experience a day of freedom. His presence was an asphyxiating blanket, his hands coiling around me with a near-suffocating grip I’d never entirely escape. The moment the auctioneers completed the purchase, I became his puppet, one he tortured if I didn’t execute his commands flawlessly. In his eyes, there was no room for error; he was too renowned amongst those who walked along the dark side of life.
He wasn’t just Malrik to them; he was the Overseer of Assassins, a felon who conspired to get his way and killed anyone who stood in his path.
Malrikownedme and was theonlyman I feared.
Every second his fingertips graced my skin came back to haunt me, bile building in my throat to cleanse my body of his wretchedness. Forcing myself to swallow and blink away the watery haze that coveredmy gaze, I allowed each audible footfall to guide me back to the present. Step by step, I moved closer to the door that led to the lantern-lit lounge beyond, a space full of sin, lust, and desire, reminding myself of why I’d come here and all I had left to do.
