The idea of them gripping me for him to have at me was horrifying. I swallowed the lump of fear that conjured. I knelt before him. Catching his forearms and drawing him down with me. I laid on my back and slowly opened my legs for him to kneel between them. His eyes narrowed on me. “Come, Mathis.” I opened my arms to him. “Have me.” Even to my own ears, my voice had become far away and haunting. Beckoning in a way that didn’t sound like me at all. The darkness seemed to rip from his eyes like a curtain lifting. Jerking and then rising until they were fully green again. He obediently crawled over me. Then hesitated. He shook his head once. Then twice. Like a wounded animal. As if trying to come back to sanity. Trying to regain that seething rage he taps into when he ravishes me so viciously. *** He retreated back down between my legs. “No!” He snarled. He put his palms to his temples and roared in frustration. He abruptly caught my hips and jerked me over onto my knees. Li
I’d seen that when he’d been taking Bethanie up in his chamber. Forcing her to rend herself on his hardness. And enjoying it. I cringed at the memory. Squinting my eyes closed and reminding myself that it’d never be me. I’ll never be that weak. I’ll never give in to him. He flattened his fingers back and let the slight callouses of his palms rub along my skin as he slid them back down my arms and over my back. Down the sway and to the plumpness of my curved hips and then abruptly gripping around the front of them. Making me gasp and jump. But I held the rings. Knowing this was a test to see if I failed to obey. An excuse to brutalize me further. *** He lifted me by my hips. Pulling me up and out until my feet no longer touched the ground and all my weight was hanging from those loops and braced in his hands. How is he this strong? He angled me upward and then brought me back against his fierce branch. Piercing into me so sharply I shrieked. My fingers clutching the loops and
I held on to those rings. Arms shaking. Muscles tight. Feeling his hardness blooming and the dark magic clawing it’s way in to steal from me. I flitted my eyes over my shoulder and found him watching my face. Every flicker of pain. Every hint of fury. He was watching each wince with interest. I wanted to turn my face away or bury it downward so he couldn’t see my expressions. And enjoy my suffering. But the pressure of him pushing me like a board toward the wall made it impossible for me to turn my face at all. Probably why he put me like this. So he could enjoy the view. Mathis was horribly cruel. Relentless. Vicious. Brutal. I could think of a million other dreadful words to describe him but only one seemed to really cover them all…Monster. There’s a monster in me too. I reminded myself again. Summoning the strength that had given me that thought. The twinkets toyed with my hair. And whispered soothing things in their tiny voices. Itty bitty hands rubbing my face soothingly
“Didn’t seem too heavy on your mind while you were shoving in and out of Bethanie.” “No.” He admitted. “It likely didn’t. Is that the hint of jealousy in your voice?” He queried in a soft voice. His shoulder still far enough between me and the crack of the door that I couldn’t get past him. And he was showing no inclination to move anytime soon. “If it soothes your strange ire, Sweet Thing. I was only giving her what she needed.” “You were hurting her.” “It’s what she yearns for now. She can’t get thoughts of me brutalizing her from her mind. She longs for it. Thinks of it constantly. Wets herself, touches herself thinking of me barking orders at her and bruising her. Inside and out. It’s the nature of this little curse…” “Curse.” I pounced. Still holding the door next to his shoulder. “Exactly what kind of curse is it?” “Ah, ah.” He released the door to wave a warning finger in my face. “Now you’re probing where you don’t belong again. Remember what that earned you last.” He n
We came to the higher level, and she made a rough sound. Tipping her head back to roll huge, terrified eyes sideways at me. Trying to tell me something. “She’s worried she has no clothes.” Mathis interjected as I gazed back at her helplessly. I felt a fool for not guessing that was the issue. Wouldn’t I be worrying about the same thing? Walking out into the night, naked? “A foolish thing to worry about really.” Mathis grumbled from behind us. But there was a brief glimmer of white light and then Triana sighed in relief. I glanced down her limping figure and saw that she now wore a long, plain, cream colored linen gown. He gave her clothes. “Have you empathy now?” I queried. He hadn’t done that for Bethanie. “Not in the least. I just have no need to fight Lithuane in order to let her go.” Lithuane? That must be the ogre’s name. I aimed for the door. “Where the devil do you think you’re going?” Mathis’ harsh voice made me jerk to a stop. “What do you mean?” I looked over m
“I don’t want her to come back. Her home is Kirkin. Take her there and leave her. But you...You come back to me tomorrow night. And I’ll give you another.” Kirkin... Though it was a shorter distance then Beddinton had been, it was rougher terrain. And I’m already exhausted. Then the full weight of his demand registered with me. My brows lowered and I felt my face harden with hatred. His dark lashes lifted as he opened his eyes, hitching his chin in challenge to stare down his nose at me. “Tell me no, Saria. See if you can leave the wraiths and save yourself. See how the nights treat you when you wonder what is happening to those that are left...Knowing you have the power to save them all.” I glared at him. My gaze roving a face which was so handsome, yet so capable of cruelty. “Here. Perhaps this will help you decide.” He swept his hand through the air and water from the bottom of the basin floated up to hover above h
I looked over at Triana and saw another spirit working on her. Waving a graceful hand over her body and seeming to make Triana’s body lurch upward and back. Bones cracking and tiny things realigning. It looked incredibly painful. Triana was gasping for air. I reached out to her. Objecting. “I thought he healed her!” Veline shook her head in the negative. “He only healed what could be seen.” She gave me a meaningful look. “Not all the things broken inside.” Those words made my stomach sink. Wondering how many broken bones, and torn muscles Triana had suffered. Or Bethanie for that matter. I have to get Udora out of there... Before she is as broken as these girls. *** “How long has he been damaging women?” “So long…” Veline answered. Her eyes becoming sad. “But I hope you will be the end to all that…” “I don’t understand what I’m supposed to do. He’s so po
Timothy nodded slowly at what his boy had said. Timothy, the tanner, looked as evil as I thought he was. With thinning brown hair which hung around his face in greasy strands. And small beady eyes which seemed sunk into his thin face. His jaw led to a pointed chin and his lips were thin. He constantly licked them as if nervous all the time. He was short and thin and always smelled of onions. He was looking from me to Triana then back and forth. He suddenly stalked toward us, and we both tensed. He caught Triana’s arm and dragged her further into the trees, pulling her behind a wide trunk and talking to her in a hushed voice. “What’s happening.” I looked at Uriah. “He’s finding out if she’s a witch!” Uriah said. Sitting on the log. “Pa can tell. He questions them and then he knows if we should go tell Mathis, we has witches.” “Why are you in these woods at night?” I asked him. “Looking for witches.” He asserted confident