Chapter 13
Jah’ruud
Kaelun flops back onto the bed with a groan. “Well I think I fucked that up royally, didn’t I?”
Materializing onto the bed beside him, I try not to think too hard about the rich scent of arousal in the air.
His, hers. They mingle until my head is spinning and I want to crawl on top of him and finish what she started.
Watching them silently while I hid from sight was torture.
My hand curls into a fist as I remember the sounds of her moans and the way she climbed atop him to take charge of the kiss.
She is not at all what I expected of the princess Kaelun described. And he…
He is mesmerizing, bright as the desert sun, impossible. No wonder the shadows gather to him when he isn’t watching. I am drawn to him too.
But I will not give myself to my captor.
Captivity itself is humiliating enough without providing my body as a service along with my magic.
Kaelun will be no different than the others who used and discarded me when I was no longer any good to them.
Not a single one would have sacrificed their own gain to set me free from my prison.
So instead of breathing in the salty, spicy scent of him, I turn my face away. “Yes. You did.”
The woman—Yalina—is beautiful. No. Beautiful is not sufficient to capture it. Perfect might be more apt. Since there’s no stronger word, that will have to do. Her long glossy hair, her dark eyes, the full lips that promise a thousand pleasures.
With a stifled groan, I shift and wish down my unruly cock which threatens to rise between my legs. I can no longer blame Kaelun for going to such lengths for her. She is worth it.
“I thought you were supposed to be helping me,” he says, lifting his head to rest upon one hand so he can look at me.
I scowl. “I am helping.” Do not ask me to do more. I already know this task will cost me. I do not need to be more involved than I am already.
Kaelun scoffs. “I need you to fix this. Or at least find out how badly I’ve messed up.”
I freeze. “And how will I do that?”
“I thought you were supposed to be an all-powerful spirit.”
I fold my arms across my chest. I do not like his tone. “Not all powerful. So you want me to spy on her for you, is that it?” I should keep out of this. Yet the thought of seeing more of her is eroding my good sense.
“I don’t know.” He swipes a hand over his face. “I just need a plan. I need to make her want me again.”
“That did not seem to be a problem.”
“Because she likes the way I eat her pussy.”
I make a face at his choice of words. “One does not eat a beautiful woman,” I retort. “You worship. You pleasure. You service.”
“Trust me, if you get the chance, you eat.” He sighs. “But that won’t make her choose me as a husband, and now I have competition! How am I supposed to beat a real prince? A dragon!”
I smirk. “I do not know. Perhaps you would like to use another wish and have me kill him for you?”
Kaelun sits and looks at me skeptically. “That shouldn’t be another wish. I wished to have you do everything in your power to help me marry Solha Yalina.”
I roll my eyes. “A death will cost a wish. But if you insist I shall spy on her for you. Some lover you are.”
“Don’t say it like that. I’m just accessing more information. That’s all.”
I scoff.
He frowns. “How else am I supposed to find out what she’s thinking?”
“Ask her?”
Kaelun only laughs. “You saw her. She’s not exactly in the mood for conversation.”
“Why did you not just tell her what she wanted to hear?”
“Are you kidding? She has to marry a prince. If she knows I’m a fraud, she’ll never choose me. Not when there’s a real prince available.”
I lift a brow. “You might be surprised.”
Kaelun shakes his head. “I don’t think you understand women. To be fair, how could you? Stuck inside that lamp.” His brows draw together. “How long were you in the lamp anyway, or is that your home?”
I huff. So he finally thinks about something other than himself. I am surprised he even thought to ask. “It is my prison. I was trapped there three hundred solar rotations ago.”
Kaelun lets out a low whistle. “Three hundred? That’s a long time. Haven’t you ever tried to get free?”
I stare at him, and if it was in my power to outright attack the holder of the lamp, he would have breathed his last breath already. “Of course I have tried. Nothing works. There is only one thing that will set me free.”
He blinks. “What’s that?”
“If the holder of the lamp wishes for it.”
“Oh.” Kaelun falls silent, and I’m in no mood to make conversation.
I make no move to remove myself from his bed or pay him any respect.
In that way he is easier to serve than my previous masters.
His simple background means he is less entitled.
At least there is that. One must be grateful for small mercies, I suppose.
My last master would have ordered me back into my lamp if I wasn’t being directly of use to him.
Eventually, Kaelun stands. “I had best get ready for this entertainment. What do you think I should wear? Actually, forget it. Half the things you got for me at the market are women’s clothes.
Go find out what the solha is doing but make sure she doesn’t find out the truth about me. She’d never forgive me.”
I roll my eyes. Did I think he was easier to serve?
He will have me enslaved to him forever since he seems determined to sabotage his own quest. The solha will certainly not forgive him if he keeps lying to her, but he won’t be told.
Reluctantly, I let my body break apart into a wisp of fog on the air and propel myself out of the room and through the palace, searching by taste for the solha.
It doesn’t take me long. I do not need to know my way around her palace to find her when the rich sweetness of her arousal lingers in the air all around me.
As I pass through it, it becomes a part of me until I’m bound up with her desire, aching in places that aren’t even corporeal yet.
Very soon they will be because I will have to take shape to give vent to this feeling.
I try to concentrate on my task, but my senses are clouded with her.
The taste grows richer still, sweeter and fresher, until I slip under the door of an enormous room with a large bed draped in silks and partially covered with hanging curtains.
On the bed, a figure sits with her knees tucked up to her chest and her arms wrapped around them.
I drift closer.
Yalina’s lips twist, and a single tear slides down her cheek. “What am I supposed to do now?” she whispers.
She looks so heartbreakingly sad. I let out a tendril of mist to brush her cheek lightly and wipe away the tear.
She starts. Her eyes snap open. “Who’s there?”
Guilt tugs at me. I didn’t mean to let her know I am here, but she is sensitive. If Kaelun thinks lying to her is a good plan, he has no idea. I knew I was right. “You are safe,” I whisper to her mind.
Her eyes widen, and she looks around the room. She doesn’t find me, of course. I’m invisible. Impossibly tempted, I slide over the curves of her body, gliding across them, feeling them in the only way I can in this form. I cannot help it.
She lets out an unsteady breath. “Who—what are you?”
“A friend.”
“Are you really there?”
I force a little form behind my next caress, and she tilts her cheek to one side as I brush a phantom knuckle against it. “Yes. I am here. Tell me what bothers you.” Though I’d bet another three hundred years I know what it is.
“Can I see you?”
Not unreasonable. But will she recognize me from the throne room? I melded my shape into something human—or resembling human. I could do so again, but more deception is hardly what she deserves.
Decided, I materialize on the bed beside her in my natural corporeal form.
She jumps. Scrambling off the bed, she stares at me open mouthed, but she only stares. She does not run or scream.
Keeping my movements slow, I spread my hands to show her I mean her no harm.
She circles me as far as she can while I’m sitting on her bed, her gaze fixed on me. “A friend you say? I saw you before, but you looked different. Did Prince Noreth send you?”
I wish I could speak the full truth and tell her that’s not his name, but my curse binds me. Instead I sigh. “He did. He wanted to be sure you are not upset.”
“Of course I’m upset!” She throws up her hands. “I thought—well it doesn’t matter. He’s not who I thought.”
I nod thoughtfully. “You have every right to be upset. You are trapped in a situation you do not want. You did not choose.”
Her expression softens. “Yes. How did you know?”
“Because I, too, am trapped.”
At that moment there is a tap on the door and someone outside the room calls, “The falconers await your pleasure, oh, Light of the Sun.”
“Bother. I’m still trapped, you see? Tell me one thing before I have to go, can I trust him? Prince Noreth?”
I consider my answer. I’m bound to help him wed her, but I have no desire to lie to her.
Yet it is my honest assessment that Kaelun means her no true harm.
That is not the same thing as being trustworthy, though.
Does he want to trap her into a marriage she might not choose?
Undoubtedly that is his plan. Would he do better by her if he thought he stood an honest chance? Perhaps.
She glances behind us at the door. It is clear to me she has no wish to be found alone with me. “I do not know, Solha. It is too soon to say.”
Her expression clouds. The knocking at the door comes again. “Come again to talk with me? Tonight, when the princes have retired. Please.”
I nod in acknowledgment of her request. Even the word please is music to my ears. It has been many rotations since anyone used that term for me. “I will return.”
I disperse into the mist again just as the door opens. Yalina spins toward it, and I brush past her leg. “I will be there in a moment. Please send someone to collect the princes and have them meet me.”
The servant leaves.
“I will wait for you,” she whispers.