Chapter 3
Three
Fawn waited, heart in her throat.
Was she going to have to fuck this monster? He had been searching all this time for a spouse; surely he had an opinion on her wifely duties. Or husbandly duties, if he had found himself an unlucky man.
But Zax did not descend on her, as she feared.
He wasn’t even looking at her. He was looking around the treehouse, which she doubted he had actually made.
Skullstalkers were intelligent to be sure, but not enough to craft a house of this magnitude.
There were support beams. Skullstalkers didn’t know how to nail wood, let alone know what support beams were.
“Huh?” Zax said, his glowing purple eye snapping back to her. “Oh. I will have this.”
He picked her up again and carried her over to what Fawn could only call a nest: huger and softer than any birds’ nest she had seen, lined with fur and possibly even feathers.
Zax lowered her into it. It was just as soft as it looked.
“I hope you like it,” Zax said. “I made it extra big, so we could both fit.”
“Thank you,” Fawn said weakly. “I love it.”
Zax beamed, showing all his horrid fangs.
Fawn braced herself. Surely now he would untie that loincloth and take her with whatever strange appendage he had hidden behind the shabby fabric.
But Zax only straightened and ran off toward a clawfoot bathtub in the corner of the treehouse.
“I found a bath. Because mortals prefer to bathe indoors, for some reason. And a table. And drawers for you to put things in. And books!” He gestured a clawed hand at the stack of moldy books in the corner.
His tail was wagging, she noticed with shock.
Did he actually expect her to be charmed by this?
“And I tried to find a pet,” Zax continued. “But they keep running away. And when things run, I chase them.”
“And eat them,” Fawn said before she could stop herself. She waited for his sunny expression to change, for him to growl or gnash his teeth, but it never came.
“Yes,” he sighed, his tail drooping sadly. “I am sorry for your husband. Even if he was cruel, you should not have had to watch. It was just instinct.”
Fawn eased her boot off with a wince. Her ankle was already swollen, bruising around what had to be a sprain, at the very least.
“That smells painful,” Zax said.
“It is.” Fawn placed her boot next to the nest. She was injured and high up in a tree, captured by a monster.
Her knife was long-gone. She could see nothing like a kitchen in this huge treehouse for her to find another knife.
One thing was certain: she wasn’t going anywhere for a while.
She would just have to do whatever she could to get out of here after she healed.
Or find some way to lead her husband’s family to her.
“So, you can’t control yourself?” she continued. “When someone runs?”
“No, I can. If I try very hard. I do not have the blood frenzy like some of my brothers.”
Fawn clenched her jaw, forcing down her rage. “So, you could have stopped.”
“I could,” he agreed. “But your people trapped me! Your husband poked me with sharp sticks!”
Fawn frowned. She didn’t know about that.
But several people in the Circle had crowded around the Skullstalker’s—around Zax’s—makeshift cage after they captured him.
None of them had ever seen a Skullstalker before.
Especially not one who was bound and helpless.
She could picture Renly poking at him curiously, chuckling when Zax growled.
Because Zax did growl before. He had roared and snarled and done everything they expected from a monster. But then again, wouldn’t any creature do that if they were bound? Especially if their bindings burned their skin?
Fawn forced down a small wave of pity. He was a monster, and he killed her husband. She should feel no pity for him.
“I’m sorry,” she lied. “Our leader convinced us we were doing the right thing.”
Zax made another strange trilling noise. Then he sat on his haunches, watching her curiously, and Fawn was sure she had been found out. She fisted her hands in the fur-lined nest, wishing for her own set of claws. What she wouldn’t give to hurt this monster once he leapt on her.
“I do wonder why the Titan gods picked you,” Zax said suddenly. “Are you sure it’s you?”
Fawn didn’t know what to say to that. Should she lie again?
“I don’t know any gods,” she said finally. “But I… I felt drawn there. To you.”
It wasn’t a lie. It just wasn’t true in the way he hoped.
Zax lit up, his tail slapping into the wooden floor.
Fawn watched it, incredulous. This was the horrifying monster who had killed Renly?
She had watched him skulk back into the forest, dripping with her husband’s blood, not to mention several other members of the Circle.
And now he was wagging his strange, fuzzy tail while he presented her objects like he might cry if she didn’t approve of them. What was happening?
“I did not know prayer would work,” he admitted. “I had never done it before last week. More people should try it.”
He crawled closer and sat down in front of the nest. Their nest, she supposed. At least, until she escaped.
“I will tend to your foot,” he said eagerly. “And then we can leave to get our bonding spell.”
“You don’t need to do anything to my foot,” she said in a rush as he reached for it. “Just… time and rest. What did you say about a spell?”
“A bonding spell,” he repeated. “So, we can grow old together.”
“But I’m mortal.”
“Yes! It would bind our lifespans. You will live as long as I do.”
Fear rippled over Fawn in a tidal wave. Being tied to a monster for hundreds, possibly thousands of years… the idea was unimaginable.
Zax sniffed the air. His smile dimmed, and his tail stopped wagging. “It will not hurt. The spell.”
Fawn forced her face to stay neutral. “You would do that? Tie yourself to me forever?”
“Yes!” he repeated. His tail swished again, but this time it seemed agitated, even upset. He leaned in close, and again she braced herself, but he did not touch her.
“You are my wife,” he said. “I prayed for you, and you came! I have been looking for you for a long time, and I will keep you for as long as I can.”
He sounded so earnest. If he weren’t so terrifying, Fawn might have been moved. But there was still the issue of his horrible glowing eye and his monstrous fangs that had ripped her husband apart.
He stood, looking uncertain. “We should leave in the morning. It takes several days to reach my brother in Anderfel.”
Fawn looked out the window at the distant mountains.
So Zax never lived in the forbidden Anderfel mountains; that was his brother.
Was he the source of all the terrible stories she heard about that mountain?
Surely not. There was so much about unspeakable magic, more like a witch than a Skullstalker.
But then again, the only other Skullstalker she’d met had magic, so much of it that he’d even given some to the human offering the Circle gave him…
So maybe all the stories she heard were true.
Whatever the case, Fawn had no desire to find out.
“In the morning?” Fawn repeated. “But I’m still injured.”
“You mean this?” Zax cocked his head at her swollen ankle. “Will that not be healed in the morning?”
Fawn eyed his skin, which was rippling with scars. If those injuries had happened to a mortal, they would barely be hobbling around, let alone carrying someone up a tree. Those scars looked years old, not weeks.
“It will heal in about a month,” Fawn said, hiding her uncertainty about her timeline. It didn’t feel like a particularly bad sprain, but what did she know? She wasn’t a healer.
Zax looked crestfallen. It was baffling how expressive he could be when half his face was a skull.
“But that’s good,” Fawn tried. “It will give us a chance to get to know each other.”
And for me to escape, she thought privately. When she had healed enough, she could find some way down from the tree. Or trick him into taking her down, send him away for some reason, and escape from there.
She just hoped he didn’t find her running away from him. Then she would no doubt go the same way as Renly.
“So,” Fawn said, rubbing her throat as she imagined those big fangs tearing it open. “While I’m here, what are my duties?”
“Duties,” Zax repeated.
“Yes,” Fawn said. When he just sat there and stared at her, she continued cautiously. “You know. My… wifely duties.”
“There are duties?”
Fawn blinked at him, stunned. Why had he searched so hard for a spouse if he didn’t want someone to take care of him?
“Yes,” Fawn repeated. “Like… cleaning.”
Zax looked around the treehouse, uncomprehending. “Is this not clean?”
Fawn looked around with him. It did look quite clean, now that she scrutinized it. But she couldn’t see it perfectly in the moonlight. Maybe it was dirtier during the day.
“Alright, not cleaning,” Fawn said. “What about cooking?”
“I do not need to cook,” Zax said. Then he sat up straight, his purple eye going wide. “But I can cook for you! I can light a fire. And my brother Slate taught me which parts of animals to remove so mortals can eat them safely!”
Fawn realized she was gaping. She snapped her mouth shut. So, she didn’t even need to cook her own meals, let alone his? And she would hardly need to wash his clothes if he only wore that damn loincloth. If he didn’t bring her here to keep house, that left only a few worrying options.
“So…” Fawn swallowed hard. “Children, then?”
“I cannot give you a child,” Zax said. Then he paused. “Well, I cannot put one inside you. But I can find you a child, if you want one!”
Fawn was caught between laughing and bursting into tears.
A strange feeling rose over her, inexplicable and confusing.
If she wanted children? Having children was an uncomfortable inevitability.
It was her role to provide children for her husband, then to care for them while he lived his life, undeterred.
Her own desires never factored into the situation at all.
But Zax made it sound like he didn’t much mind if she gave him any children at all.
Though… what had he said? If she wanted them, he would make it happen.
It was such a baffling offer that she couldn’t think about it for very long without experiencing that same strange tumult of emotions that made her want to cry but also giggle.
“What about…” Fawn’s mouth went dry. She forced the words out, “Satisfying you?”
At first, his face was blank. Then his purple eye glowed with understanding.
“Do you mean mating?”
Mating. Like she was a mare to be bred. Or… not bred? Fawn was still confused as to why in the hells he had bothered to get a wife if she wasn’t here to do all the things a wife was supposed to do.
“Yes,” she whispered. She cleared her throat and sat up straight, for once not wanting to look meek and forgiving.
It was an odd relief. Like she had been hiding under an ill-fitting mask and was finally free of it.
Then the reality of her situation came over her, and the relief was washed away by a wave of fear.
She waited, yet again, for Zax to climb on her. Push her down into the nest. Remove that loincloth and show her what was underneath it. She just hoped it wouldn’t hurt too much. But who was she kidding? He was a Skullstalker. Of course it would hurt.
But Zax didn’t move. He simply sat there, watching her intently.
“You are scared,” he said. He even had the gall to sound sad about it. “I will make it nice! There is another spell. When we reach my Anderfel brother, he will cast two: one to bind our lifespans, and another to make both my cocks fit with no pain.”
Fawn choked on her own spit, her gaze dropping again to his loincloth. “Both?”
“Yes,” Zax said hurriedly. “It will not hurt, I promise! Once we have performed the spell, anyhow. And before the spell, I have my tongue. You will enjoy that.”
Fawn had no reply to that. How had she ended up here?
She was supposed to be back at camp right now, scrubbing pots.
Errol and her mother-in-law, Chastity, would be worried.
Or at the very least, deeply annoyed by her absence.
It meant that Chastity had to take over the household duties, and her fingers were too stiff to scrub pots these days.
So, the Skullstalker only wanted a wife so he could fuck her. It sounded right, but Zax’s behavior was… off. If he only wanted her for sex, why was he being so kind? Why bother getting her a bathtub and books? Why offer to cook for her?
“Fawn,” Zax said.
Her name sounded so strange in her mouth. Almost… soft. As if a mouth so full of fangs could be soft. And yet he sat there, so eager for her approval. Like he truly cared about what she thought of him.
“I…” Fawn sat up, not having to fake her wince as pain laced up her leg. “I don’t know if I can do anything like that until my ankle feels better.”
She waited for him to scoff at her. Renly had not been put off when she wasn’t in the mood, so why should he?
But to her continued shock, Zax simply nodded.
“Okay,” he said. “I can wait.”
With that, he crawled into the nest with her. There was a moment when she thought he might pull her into his lap, but then he eyed her ankle and curled around her instead. His tail circled her good ankle, squeezing in a way that almost seemed fond.
“Goodnight,” he said, sounding giddy. As if this was the first night that he had ever gotten to say that.
“Goodnight,” Fawn echoed quietly. She lay back in the nest, her head resting cautiously on his torso, which was angled behind her head.
His belly was pleasantly soft, almost pillow-like.
Zax sighed happily, his breathing going slow and relaxed.
Despite herself, Fawn found herself slowly falling asleep.
She would spend the night. Maybe even a few weeks, so her ankle could heal. But one thing was certain: her new husband’s days were numbered.