Chapter 15
SAPHIRA
Ihadn’t slept a wink, and this time it wasn’t because I couldn’t get the room dark enough.
I had sat in front of my dressing table mirror all night, staring at the beautiful brand on my chest and counting the seconds.
Staring at it until it was seared on my memory.
Every intricate swirl. How the elkyn head sat within the circle.
The position of the stars between its great antlers.
The ancient fae incorporated into the design.
I had felt sure it would always be with me, but soon it would be gone, and I was torn about it.
I didn’t want them to take it from me, I didn’t want to lose the last connection to Kaeleron that I had, but at the same time, I felt it might be safer if it was gone, because then I couldn’t accidentally summon him.
But I would be alone.
Not alone. I glanced in the mirror at Dani where she sat on one of the overstuffed armchairs, picking at her breakfast. I wasn’t alone.
I touched the ring on my middle finger. Even if I didn’t have Dani, I wouldn’t be alone.
The mark was only one of the bonds I shared with Kaeleron.
The other, the one that beat in my heart—my love for him—was unbreakable.
No one could take it from me.
I jolted at the hard rap of knuckles against the twin doors.
Pushed to my feet and drew my robe closed with trembling hands. My breath shuddered as I pulled it down into lungs that were suddenly too tight.
Danica looked at me, beautiful concern shining in her grey eyes and furrowed brow.
“I’ll be fine,” I lied and didn’t force a smile.
Not with Dani. I had told her what Sylvan had planned for me today when I had returned last night, and she had been furious.
I had seen her get mad at Morden, but not like this.
Her fangs had been out. I bustled over to her, catching her as she stood, pressing one hand to her spine as I ushered her towards the doors.
“I’ll be fine. This is necessary. I’ll call for you when it’s over. Go with Meiryn. She’ll look after you.”
Meiryn had been quick to make the offer to take care of Danica for me after Sylvan had left us on the terrace and I had been fighting an actual panic attack.
Danica nodded stiffly and picked up the pace, breaking away from me.
She opened the double doors, revealing seven males and Sylvan.
So many. Nerves rose, swamping my senses, and I shoved them down, dragging on my invisible armour and sealing every route to my heart with a glittering wall of unseelie steel.
I wouldn’t give Sylvan the satisfaction of seeing me break.
Meiryn leaned against the wall on the other side of the corridor.
I glimpsed her as Danica made her exit and the doors closed behind the males, catching that concerned look in her eyes.
I steadied myself, resisting the urge to make them all leave, to push them all back out that door. I could do this.
“Are you ready to proceed?” Sylvan drawled, eyeing me like a cat eyed a mouse.
I boldly nodded, not a trace of my fear touching my reserved expression.
The oldest male, one who had to be ancient given he looked at least a decade older than Sylvan in mortal terms, pointed to the bed. “Make yourself comfortable, my lady, and this will all be over soon.”
I went to the bed. Legs trembling. Heart racing.
Sickness brewing.
I crawled onto it and blew out my breath as I laid down, resting my hands on my stomach and staring at the teal semi-circular canopy.
Four males approached me, two on either side. Two halted at the foot of the bed, while the others came to stand near my head. The two by my bare feet stretched a blanket between them, hiding my lower half from my eyes.
“Bend your legs at the knees and open them.” That command from the oldest male had my pulse skyrocketing.
My wolf side snarling for freedom.
I pulled it to heel and closed my eyes as I did as instructed, trying to block out how the other two males and Sylvan were watching, bearing witness to my humiliation.
I flinched as the male inserted something cold inside me, gritting my teeth against the pain as whatever it was grew thicker, spreading me, feeling as if it was going to tear flesh.
Tears gathered at the corners of my eyes as he prodded and probed me, not being gentle about his exploration, his breath huffing against my inner thighs.
“Have you lain with males before your time in the Shadow Court?” He jabbed at me, pulling the device upwards, lifting my hips off the bed. “My studies have been wide and varied, and I know of wolf shifters and their sexual maturity. You have reached sexual maturity, have you not?”
It was Sylvan who answered.
“Yes, she has. The wolven who sold her offered up her virginity as incentive for her purchase.”
I hated that he knew that.
The male made a low noise of satisfaction. “There is recent evidence she has lain with a male, and we must assume that since the unseelie was in possession of her, that it was an unseelie who penetrated her.”
Gods, I wanted to die.
Instead, I growled when he prodded deeper, sharp pain lancing me and shooting up to my breasts in response.
His poking eased a little, but he didn’t withdraw or apologise.
“The altercation with the Wrathful King in the mortal realm seemed to indicate that the unseelie had convinced her that he had feelings of a… tender… nature for her and that they had been intimate more than once,” Sylvan said.
Bastard.
The prodding started again, the sickening feel of the male’s breath on my thighs making me want to snap them shut on his head and break his neck.
“It would appear she was well used by the Wrathful King,” he murmured, “or their sexual intercourse was rather vigorous in nature.”
I really wanted to break his neck now.
He finally pulled that infernal device from me and moved away. “We should take precautions. We shall make the brew for her.”
Brew?
The two males who had watched me being humiliated nodded and went to my side table, doing something with the items they had brought with them, and I closed my legs and lowered them, shoving my robe down to cover myself.
The barrier between me and the others lowered and one of the males folded the piece of fabric as the acrid scent of herbs filled the air.
The sound of water hitting a cup reached me and I angled my head, trying to see what they were doing and what was in this ‘brew’ they expected me to drink. Sylvan went to them and took the cup, carrying it to me, and his cold blue eyes challenged me to deny the drink he offered.
I took it, glaring up at him, letting him see I didn’t appreciate being treated like this.
“Drink,” he commanded.
I sniffed it and pulled a face. It smelled worse than that concoction Tan’ith had used to make Braxton talk. I took a deep breath, pinched my nose closed so I didn’t have to smell it, and drank.
It was bitter and disgusting, and made me want to vomit.
“The potency of it is required, otherwise it would not effectively terminate any possible pregnancy and you do not want to bear the offspring of the Wrathful King now, do you?” Sylvan donned a concerned look.
I forced myself to shake my head and swallow the rest of it like a good girl, but it really was vile.
Sylvan’s gaze drifted to my ring. “Is that the same ring you wore that night in the mortal realm?”
He held his hand out to me.
I snapped fangs at it. “It’s mine. I bought it in a fae town a long time ago. I think it’s a wolven ring.”
He looked as if he still wanted to take it from me.
So I bared my fangs at him.
“It is mine,” I snarled. “Try to take it from me and I will be the one taking your life. It is my connection to my home.”
He studied me, calm and quiet, unaffected by my threat. “This is your home now.”
“I will always have another home in my heart.” I meant the Shadow Court, but let him think I meant my pack.
He seemed to accept that.
“She is allowed to keep the ring.” He looked to the other males and then his gaze landed back on me. “Now, we shall see about removing that mark.”
I had to tense the muscles of my arms to stop my hand from flying to the brand, had to bite my tongue to stop myself from snarling and gnashing fangs at him, and it took all of my will to force myself to nod and smile, feigning gratitude the brand they all viewed as a stain would be removed from my skin.
The males positioned at my feet and head all reached over and before I had figured out what they were doing, they had snared my ankles and wrists and pulled them towards them, leaving me splayed out on the bed as they pinned me.
“This might hurt… just a little.” The older male kneeled on the bed beside me and looked at each of the males in turn. “Do try to keep her still.”
He muttered something in ancient fae as he held his hand out above the brand on the left side of my chest, his eyes slipping shut as a faint glow lit his hand.
I edged my gaze down to it, breaths unsteady in my ears, loud as I pulled at my arms, trying to break their hold on me.
He was going to burn me with that solar magic they could wield.
He did something far worse.
I flung my head back and screamed as pain erupted around Kaeleron’s mark, tears streaming down the sides of my face as I arched from the bed.
It felt as if he was trying to pull a living thing from my flesh, and every hard word he bit out in a language I didn’t know only made it burrow its tendrils more deeply into my body.
Nausea rolled up on me, that brew they had made me drink threatening to come back up as I panted, as I struggled against their hold and sweat slicked my skin.
It beaded on my brow, my chest, every crease and crevice of my body as he pulled again, stretching those tendrils taut, and I screamed until I was hoarse.
The first tendril snapped.
Darkness swept up on me. Swept through me. I bared my fangs, snarling as the bond between me and Kaeleron stretched tight, kicking my legs and trying to break them free so I could kill the male who was trying to take it from me.