“Where?” I whispered slowly. “What’s that?” Mathis asked. “I didn’t say anything!” I turned trying to talk to him but found I couldn’t bend to see him. It only made my hips swing to the side. But Mathis held them in place so they couldn’t go far. Catching them so firmly that his fingers nearly bit into the front of my pelvis as he lifted me off my knees and slammed me back down on my knees before him. I felt him straightening behind me and felt the hardness of his length rubbing along my crack. “Mmm…” He purred appreciatively. “You look so beautiful like this.” Vulnerable. Unable to fight him. His ideal prey. I thought bitterly. Feeling helpless and frustrated. As he no doubt intended me to. *** “Like what. Trapped in your stockade?” “On your knees, vulnerable…Mine to take.” He whispered. I was trying to focus on spotting the tiny gray light again but was having a hard time finding it. Then I felt the blunted tip of Mathis prodding my entrance. His slick body keeping mine

“What if you’re making this far too complicated?” I sauntered to him on bare toes. Letting my hips swing and my arms drape around me in a seductive flow. Something I’d never done before. One foot in front of the other and letting my hip drop then sway to the other side. Letting my breasts hop with each movement and turning my head slightly to keep my hair swaying around my body. His eyes were drawn to the movements like a magnet. Roving over me from head to toe, savoring every curve and hollow as if he couldn’t get enough of looking at them. It’s working. I knew that whatever odd thing had possessed me, was doing the trick because I saw something I never had before. The hint of something. Behind all that lust was something else. The hint of fear... I gloried in that. Letting my fevered body take control and keep my thoughts from trying to argue what was clearly happening. The behavior the tiny fey had incited in me. I draped myself against his bare chest. Letting my breasts and

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

“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

“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