Chapter 14
fourteen
R ox lay on his side, one leg thrown over Lynck’s thigh. Sunlight slanted through a gap in the curtains, and they were both awake, just unwilling to get up. The more time they spent together, the more the song in his heart grew, and he didn’t want to stop it, even though it was dangerous to indulge.
Thursten was in the kitchen trying to be quiet as he made breakfast, but the troll didn’t really know the meaning of the word. Lynck liked the way Rox curled up close to be held while half asleep, and he’d been content to hold him, not expecting more.
Last night, watching Rox straddle him and ease onto his cock had been a glorious sight. The way his body moved, lithe and graceful, as if they had all night. Lynck had let him set the pace, too busy touching and caressing every part of him within reach. When Rox’s dick hardened, he’d rolled his hips fucking Lynck’s hand and riding his cock, until the need to come had been too pressing to do anything but rush for the finish.
Rox’s fingers trailed over Lynck’s chest. Smoothing the hair with one sweep and ruffling it with another. His hand crept higher, touching the silver necklace. Rox lifted the disk and examined the marking, and Lynck knew the question that was coming.
But there was no lie ready on his tongue.
“What does it mean?” Rox asked, his voice rough with sleep.
Lynck closed his eyes. It meant never going home unless he wanted to lose all freedom. Again.
“It is the mark of the man who captured me.” That was the truth.
Rox tilted his head and stared at him. “Then why do you wear it?”
Lynck licked his lip. He wanted to pull away and put some distance between them. Kick Rox out of his bed. The bridle was the reason he didn’t let people close. He didn’t want to lie to his lover. And if it was only one night, the truth didn’t matter, but that’s not what this was anymore, and he wanted Rox the way he’d never wanted anyone. He wanted to write his mating song.
How could he promise a life when his life wasn’t free to give?
“You don’t have to tell me.” And while Rox didn’t pull away Lynck felt the fissure form.
“I do. It’s been a secret and a source of shame for so long that talking about it isn’t easy.” He pressed a kiss to Rox’s forehead. “Do you remember how I said I can’t shift in the human world?”
“Yeah. Because of the necklace?”
“It’s not a necklace. It’s a bridle.”
“Isn’t that what horses have?”
“Yes.”
“I’m no expert, but it doesn’t look like?—”
“Because it has magic. When I shift, it shifts with me and will become reins and wrap over my muzzle.”
“It stops you from shifting?”
“I’m not sure. I may not be able to shift in your world, regardless.”
Rox held the disk. “Why not take it off?”
“I can’t. The magic prevents me from removing it.” He swallowed, knowing he needed to force the next part out. “In the monster realm, the magic also allows him to find me.”
His human lifted his gaze. “He can’t track you through the portal?”
“So far, he hasn’t.” But if he ever came across, no matter the town or the distance, Bothvar would be able to find him.
Rox propped himself up on one elbow and studied the chain. “Were you his horse?”
“No. An obedient servant until I took my chance and fled through the portal.” He hadn’t even been sure being in the human world would protect him, but there’d been so few options, he’d been willing to risk the punishment that would follow if found.
“They attack your herd to take servants?” He raked his thumbnail over the fine chain as if seeking a break in the delicate loops of silver.
“Yes. Along with salted fish and gold.”
“Gold?” He turned the chain, and it dragged against the back of Lynck’s neck.
Lynck didn’t care. Now he was talking, he needed Rox to understand the hopelessness of the situation.
“In the rivers. As well as farming and fishing, we dived for gold that washed down from the mountains. As children, we sifted through the slit on the shore. The gold was then made into simple rings and used to buy leather and cloth and other things that we didn’t make.”
“I’m guessing he didn’t want to trade, only take.”
“Correct.”
“Bothvar Bothvarsson?” Rox looked up from the chain, one eyebrow raised. His eyeliner smudged around his eyes, and his dark blond hair mussed.
Lynck wanted to press him into the mattress and silence him with a kiss. He knew too much…he didn’t know enough.
It was too dangerous for his human to learn more, but what if there was something in the human world that could free him?
“He seems like the kind of dick who’d do something like that. No doubt his son has been cursed with the same name.” Rox rolled his eyes. “Family tradition and all.”
“Gideon Roxburgh the second?—”
Rox held up four fingers.
“The fourth?” Lynck laughed.
“Jokes on him since I’m breaking the chain.” His eyebrows drew together. “Unless he also named one of his other sons Gideon… Fuck, that’s a horrendous thought.”
“Why did he leave?”
“I wasn’t even two. He walked out and never came back, is what Mom said. She also said his family didn’t like her because she didn’t have the right parents—he came from a wealthy family, and she didn’t.”
“That’s even shittier.”
Rox shrugged. “Shitty people do shitty things.”
That was true even for monsters. “It was Bothvar.”
“The grandfather, father or son? Family dinners must be confusing.”
“The son was a child the last time I saw him. The father killed his own father to take over the family business.”
“Which is terrorizing kelpies, kidnapping, and stealing?”
“Not just kelpies. His family has controlled the trade route through the mountains for generations. It’s how they make their money.”
“Extortion? Making people pay to use the pass, or making them pay for protection?”
“All of that. It’s been a couple of generations since the last uprising, and that didn’t end well for anyone except the Bothvarssons. They made the kelpies fight their own.” Lynck sighed. “We remember battle in songs as a warning not to revolt.”
“But you fought him when you were captured?”
“That is different. If we do not resist when he raids, the punishment is worse.”
“What? That is so messed up.”
“After the failed revolt, some villages went for the peaceful option, hoping to be forgiven for their part. They were all slaughtered. Bothvar wants to give his fighters practice. He wants to kill a few and take a few. The first act of a captured kelpie is to kill one of their own. I expected to die. I did not expect to be the one bridled and forced to kill.” Lynck swallowed, knowing he’d said too much.
Rox stared at him, mouth open. “He made you kill one of your herd?”
“To ensure they never took me back. To make me a criminal and an outsider.” Not that he could go back, anyway. Because of the bridle, Bothvar could track him into any corner of the monster realm. He’d be dragged back and whipped within an inch of his life and then compelled to fight until he died. He’d been forced to watch another suffer the same punishment.
“How did you listen to me whine about my mother’s death while you’re carrying all of that? I am so sorry…you didn’t lose your herd. You lost everything, including your freedom.”
“But I have found it here. And I have found you. I am rebuilding, and while this is not the life I expected to have growing up, it is one that I am enjoying. I have seen things I could not have imagined had I stayed in the monster realm. So please don’t look at me with pity.”
“It’s not pity. It’s amazement that you came through all of that and seem so normal.” He laid the necklace on Lynck’s chest. “I’m going to find a way to break the chain that.”
“It can’t be removed. I’ve tried.”
Rox pressed his lips together. “Have you asked anyone for help?”
“No, because they might ask what it is. And some of the other monsters here might’ve heard of Bothvar.”
“You trusted me with this knowledge.”
“Because you have the right to know what kind of man you are…dating? I think we’re dating.”
Rox smiled. “We are definitely dating.”
“You need to understand. I was compelled to do things?—”
“Whatever he commanded you to do, it is not your fault. What would happen if you resisted?”
“The bridle becomes hotter, until it burns, searing the skin. It is incredibly painful.”
“You tried to resist?”
“Of course I did. I didn’t want to kill one of my herd, my family. I hoped he’d kill me. But he didn’t. The scar faded with multiple shifts, but the memory didn’t.” He moved over Rox, their legs tangling. “I do not want to talk about that period of my life. And you cannot tell anyone.”
Rox gave him a wicked grin. “Or you’ll have to silence me? Sorry, that was a bad joke.”
“I’d never hurt you.” He’d rather let the bridle burn through his body. For a moment, he was sure he smelled his own burning hair and flesh.
“Will removing the bridle hurt you? Will it kill you?”
“No. The magic doesn’t work in the human world.” He wasn’t sure what Rox was planning, but there was a look in his eyes that was sharp and bright, like a sword.
“I have access to all kinds of tools. If I can’t cut through the chain with bolt cutters, I have an angle grinder and an oxy torch. If I can cut through fucking car bodies, I can cut through that tiny chain. We will defeat Bothvar.”
He spoke with such confidence that Lynck almost believed him…but could monster magic be defeated by human power tools?
With Rox looking at him like that, it was hard to believe he’d fail.
He thought he was free, but sharing his secret meant acknowledging he still lived in fear of Bothvar finding him and returning him to the monster world. Until the bridle was destroyed, he would never be free, and that was a hard truth to admit. He kissed Rox, pushing away memories and truths and losing himself in desire.