39
When we met back up with Roxior and Yrrek, I kept myself as far from Amlach as the chain connecting our handcuffs would allow. The watchful glances of the Master and Mistress lingered on my disheveled hairstyle, and I had to do my best to appear indifferent.
“Is everything all right, my gladiators?” Roxior demanded, glaring at us from above the rim of his glass.
Amlach beamed at him. “Absolutely.” He focused on the woman and took her hand, kissing her knuckles once more, his expression unmistakable. “It would be a pleasure to enjoy of your company, Mistress.”
I cut my eyes at him, both devastated and furious.
Amlach didn’t even glance in my direction. He seemed utterly captivated by Yrrek.
“Very well,” she said, her voice similar to a cat’s purr. Without even looking at the Master or me, she added, “Do you mind unchaining him from the elf, Roxior?”
The man walked the wine in his mouth, letting out a guttural grumble. At last, he swallowed the liquid as though it were gall, and with a bitter scowl, he retrieved an exact duplicate of the key to our collars from an inner pocket of his robe.
I watched him wide-eyed as he freed Amlach from the silver cuff and collar.
Pleased, the Mistress stroked Amlach’s exposed wrist and then turned to Roxior, saying, "My treasurer will visit yours tomorrow morning.”
The elderly man expressed his gratitude with a courteous nod, yet his icy blue eyes betrayed a deep-seated hatred. “Have a good night, Yrrek.”
“Oh, I certainly will, my dear friend,” she replied allusively, casting me a sharp, triumphant smile as she took the arm that Amlach offered her.
A murderous instinct gripped me as never before. I fought to suppress it, feeling overwhelmed, and sought Amlach’s gaze. But he never glanced my way as he led the woman out of the room. Not even for a moment.
It was as if I no longer existed.
I wanted to scream at him. I wanted to lunge at him. I wanted to ask him how he could even consider sleeping with someone else after what he had told me, after touching me with such hunger. After being inside me with his fingers.
But I did nothing.
I stood there, staring at the doorway he had crossed with the woman who bought him for sex, feeling helpless, kept on a leash by Roxior like a dog.
“Don’t worry, Your Highness,” he reassured me, despite his harsh tone. “Whatever he asks for in exchange this first time, I’m sure he will ask for it in abundance for you as well.” He paused, and I felt his gaze on me. “He cares a lot about you.”
No, that wasn’t true. He was just a male who, after a long period of abstinence, was dying to have sex. And like all humans, it didn’t matter which female he took to bed.
I should remember it vividly. And so should my heart, now squeezed in a hold so unbearable that I wanted to take it out and toss it far, far away.
Amlach could never understand what it had meant for me to let him get so close that I almost surrendered to the idea of giving myself to him. How much he hurt me by leaving with that woman.
Because he wasn’t an elf.