He pushed his thumb into my mouth to draw it open. I didn’t resist as he thrust his pulsing cock into me and pushed it against the back of my tongue. He didn’t give me a chance to draw away. He took my mouth with a punishing rhythm that trapped the air in my lungs and spilt hot drool across my naked breasts.
He caught my head as he came, forcing my mouth around his cock while my throat worked down his cum.
With a shaking hand, he drew my head away and let me go. I sagged to the ground and caught my breath.
Dray dropped beside me, curled on his side toward me. He reached out. I scooted toward him until my back pressed into the hollow space of his front, the space made just for me. He gently brushed strands of hair from my face.
“How can I take you to the butcher’s block, Elys, when I can’t even let you go tonight?”
I had words I’d ached to say for years, but exhaustion and satisfaction called me to sleep. If they’d waited so long, another night wouldn’t hurt.
Chapter Nine
The cotton blankets no longer kept me warm. Dray brought as many as he deemed safe without the other Reapers suggesting he held a weakness toward me, but the layers did little to secure my comfort now.
The king would arrive today.
An undercurrent of anticipation buzzed all the way through the cells to my lowly place near the end. Other prisoners slowly filled the cell block for the past two days and rumors of the King’s imminent arrival brushed down the chain.
Servants bounced around, sloshing soapy water across the stones in case the king wished to see the cells himself, which I’d heard he had never done. Prisoners set waste buckets outside the door and almost clean ones replace the filth – mine included.
I only felt the icy trickle of death coming closer. I wrapped the blankets tighter around myself and tried not to shake in the chill.
Heavy footsteps sounded down the hall, and the prisoners halted their whispers. They dreaded Dray’s arrival down the cellblock, though he’d done nothing to them. I shot from the cot, discarding the blankets in a pile beside the meager frame, and sprinted to the gate.
“Dray,” I said when he approached. My voice still scratched at my throat with an uncomfortable tickle, but it became less jarring every day.
I doubted he brought good news, but part of me hoped. Perhaps the King perished on his way to the Keep, or had a sudden change of heart at the fate of the curse-bearers. Either way, seeing Dray filled me with a sense of foreboding and longing, which I couldn’t quite wrap my mind around.
His face darkened when he saw me, and a wicked half smile tugged at his lips. It mirrored the one I’d seen the times we’d bedded together, but a more sinister flicker danced behind it.
A strike of fear ran through my heart at the expression. I drew away from the bars. Though I didn’t know Dray’s purpose for today’s visit, not even during the most harsh of punishments had he looked at me that way.
“Are you eager to see me, curse-bearer?” The coldness in his tone rippled over my skin like the first frost melt in springtime, just before the second ice returned.
Being mute for so many years instilled unique benefits. I rolled my tongue as I thought through what to say next. I couldn’t read the lines of his body the way I had just yesterday. I thought we’d ignited a spark between us – fragile, yes – but able to become an inferno in the future.
“Is there a reason I should not be?” I asked. Having a voice offered more issues than I expected, such as the quiver in my words that betrayed the apprehension coiling in my chest.
Dray laughed, and the sound slipped across my skin like a serpent over cowering prey. This was not the Reaper that called pleasure to my body, whether or not I wanted it. This was the Reaper of the legends, as likely to end my life as to draw his next breath.
The iron gate swung open, and Dray stalked into the cell. A wash of ominous tension followed his steps, and white teeth poked from that half smile. I retreated until my back pressed against the wall.
“I think you’ve grown too accustomed to what you wanted me to be to you.” Dray eliminated the space between us. His great form towered over me. The smoke and fire that previously sprang my nerves to life suddenly smelled like a funeral pyre. “And I’m here to show you what I’ve really been this whole time.”
He grabbed my throat and pulled until my tiptoes scraped against the floor. I circled his wrist with both of my hands, but it offered little perch for my grip. I hovered in his mercy, which seemed to grow thin.
A sound clattered outside, followed by a feminine chirp. From the corner of my eyes, a servant dropped a metal bucket when she saw Dray and then pressed her hands together as she backed away from the sight.
“Damn it, servant,” Dray spat.
“I-I’m sorry,” the woman sputtered, staring hard at the ground. “I’ll come back. I didn’t mean to interrupt you.”
“No,” Dray yelled before she could leave. “Clean it now. The condition must be pristine for the king’s arrival.” He swung his gaze back to me. “You’re not interrupting anything.”
He circled his grip harder and smiled as I gasped for breath. “I’m going out on a new mission tonight.”
I forced air through my throat. “You’re leaving?”
