Chapter 12
When they’d finished eating, Jai brought them to a small tent. The inside was empty except for the brightly colored carpet laid out on the floor, the furs set on top of it for warmth, and two neatly folded blankets. Whatever the outside of the tent was made of, it was thick enough that it was relatively warm and quiet inside. And it was big enough to stand in and even walk around a little. Raiya was impressed.
As soon as Jai left, Azreth dropped his glamour. The color ran off him as if rinsed by soap and water, revealing his empty eyes and horns again. Raiya hadn’t forgotten what he was, but it was still startling every time. While he wore the glamour, it was easy to start to feel like he was just another person, just a man. He wasn’t.
He checked that the tent was sealed, then turned to her expectantly. Raiya was stiff as he approached. Standing directly in front of her, she had to crane her neck to look up at him.
“May I begin?” he said.
She closed her eyes and ran a hand over her face. She’d never had so much performance anxiety as she did with him. “Yes. You’ll have to give me a minute…”
“To do what?”
“To try to get in the mood. It’s not that easy to do, sometimes.”
He frowned. “You do not need to do anything. I will take what I need from you, as you’ve requested.”
“I know, but…”
Casually, his hand came up and gently cupped between her legs, as if he had every right to that part of her body. She froze. He was still looking her in the eyes as he did it.
“You may relax,” he said, his voice soft. “We’ve established that I can bring you to completion.” His long fingers undulated against her, and she drew in a tight breath, putting her hands on his arms to steady herself. She inched her feet farther apart, and Azreth’s fingers delved deeper between her thighs.
“I enjoy touching you,” he admitted.
Heat rushed through her. Moisture gathered at her entrance. Azreth’s eyes glowed brighter.
Her face felt hot. “Do you?” She didn’t know what else to say.
He brought her down to the floor, dropping to his knees over her. He pushed her robe above her hips and leaned down, touching his beautiful mouth to the lips of her sex through her trousers, as if even this scrap of her—just the scent and shape of her body through fabric—was worth worshiping on his knees. Sparks went through her as she watched him.
“I will feel your skin now,” he said. His hand clenched in the fabric of her robe as if he wanted to tear it off. “I will slick my hand with what is gathering between your thighs before I make you come.”
Raiya was trapped. His eagerness set fire to her, but also terrified her. She was afraid he would lose control, and she was afraid she would follow.
His movements reluctantly slowed, and he raised his head to peer up at her with heavy-lidded eyes—eyes of a hungry predator. He was waiting.
Perhaps it would help him absorb more power if he touched her there, skin-to-skin. Yes. Of course it would. It would be foolish not to allow it.
She nodded. “Remember the rules.”
“I have not forgotten.” With that, he slipped her trousers and underclothes below her hips and tossed them aside.
He flipped her over onto her hands and knees, and then his thighs were framing hers from behind. She felt his breath against the back of her neck as he bent low against her. His hand clenched in her robe again, and his other hand grasped her thigh, and another hand brushed through her hair.
His… other other hand? By her count, that was three.
Her head whipped around, fear spiking. There was no one else in the tent. Only herself and Azreth.
The mysterious third appendage dropped from her hair and moved in front of her. It was a disembodied hand, cut off at the wrist, made of the same transparent magenta magic as Azreth’s prosthesis. The hand lightly grasped her chin between its fingers, pushing her to face forward again. It slid down her neck and grasped her breast tightly, and then another hand appeared to hold her other breast. Yet another appeared at her hip to pull her backside tighter against him, and then another grasped her jaw again. She lost count of them. It was overwhelming, too much sensation to think properly.
Behind her, Azreth’s hips pressed against her, as if he couldn’t touch her enough, even with half a dozen hands. Just as he’d promised, his hot fingers slipped between the lips of her wet sex, and she gasped, stiffening.
“I—”She wanted to protest again, but she couldn’t.
She’d told herself that they didn’t have to touch. There was no reason for it. He could get plenty of power by touching her over her clothes. Anything else felt excessive, like they were crossing some barrier of intimacy that would make things awkward at best, and dangerous at worst. They weren’t lovers. They were coconspirators. It was a mutually beneficial arrangement, and that was all. There was nothing personal about it.
And yet, in the span of a few days, she’d gone from touching herself quietly while he waited nearby, to this. All at once, he was claiming every part of her, holding her hostage with pleasure.
As the hands palmed her breasts, flicked over her nipples, and caressed the slick folds between her legs, she felt a thumb brush over her mouth. It pressed between her lips, and it felt just like real skin but tasted like lightning. Surprised, she let her mouth open, allowing the digit access to her tongue, and Azreth gave a satisfied groan, as if he could really feel everything that the hands felt. His pelvis molded tight against her, the outline of his cock nestled against the cleft of her backside. All the while, his single organic hand was coaxing soft gasps out of her with each stroke of his fingers.
A rising tide filled her, pushing her toward the edge. Liquid heat dripped from her sex and coated Azreth’s hand, and suddenly a finger was pressing against her entrance, pushing past a soft barrier of flesh, sinking inside her and filling her, and then—
She gasped as she came. Azreth covered her mouth to muffle her moans, his finger still deep inside her as she rode out her climax.
He didn’t release her until her body had gone lax and she was quiet. Gradually, the hands disappeared, except for the ones on her back and hip. Raiya stared at the carpeted floor, still perched on her hands and knees. Sweat dripped down her temple.
Gods, that had been too much. Too intense. Too enjoyable.
This was supposed to be a businesslike arrangement. She hadn’t meant to lose herself like this. It was far more of herself than she’d ever intended to give him.
She wanted to cry. She shouldn’t have—it was foolish—but she supposed that was how emotions were. Sometimes they arrived illogically, when they were unwelcome and inconvenient.
She wiped her forehead, breathing hard as she sat back on her knees. She waited for him to call her a whore, or laugh at her, or gloat.
He put an arm around her waist, gently pulling her against him as he knelt behind her. “Be at ease, Raiya,” he said quietly.
His voice was like a soft blanket over her. Tentatively, she rested a hand on his wrist, taking perverse comfort in the heat of the demon’s body against hers. She nodded jerkily. “I am.”
She felt him hesitate, as if he sensed the lie.
“I’m fine,” she assured him—and herself.
Azreth leftand didn’t come back all night. In the morning, she found him just outside the tent.
“Were you waiting for me?” she asked.
“Yes. We should go.”
Raiya waited, tense. With Nirlan, there had been a near-instant change after the first time they’d had sex. He’d turned to her the next morning in bed, smirked, and said, You’re easier than you look. Even now, she felt the same sick, sinking feeling she’d felt then.
Azreth just looked down at her impassively, waiting for her to lead.
Giving him another cautious look, she hefted her satchel and struggled to balance with it on her shoulder. It was heavy now, laden with the supplies the Roamers had traded to them. Without saying anything, Azreth took the satchel from her and easily slung it over his shoulder. Perhaps the glamour he was wearing made him easier to read, because she thought he looked tired. His eyes were heavy-lidded and dull. She had expected him to look energized from the previous night.
“How do you feel?” she asked.
“I am healthy.”
“Yes. But are you… all right?”
He gave her a dark, suspicious look. “Why are you asking me this?”
“I thought you looked off. Did you not feed enough yesterday?”
He stared at her. Then, he slowly reached out and grabbed the collar of her robe in his fist. He pulled her closer, as if to remind her how easily he could overpower her. “I am strong enough to destroy you and half of this camp. You would do well to remember that.”
Raiya’s eyes widened. And then, she was annoyed.
“Only half?” she asked sarcastically.
Even if she hadn’t been able to see the anger on his face, she would have felt it seeping into the air. Instinctively, she started to raise her hands to try to push him away, but then she thought better of it.
“If you betray me, I will make sure you regret it,” Azreth said.
This time, she did not tease him. For the first time since they’d left the castle, she felt afraid of what he might do. And in retrospect, she should never have stopped fearing him. In her experience, men were most likely to turn on you just after you dropped your guard.
“I understand,” she said quietly.
He regarded her for another moment, as if trying to see into her mind, before he released her. He looked over his shoulder suddenly. Jai was walking toward them. She frowned a little as she approached, but said nothing about what she’d just seen, for which Raiya was grateful.
“The clan matron told me to invite you to breakfast and then see you out of the camp, if you like,” Jai said.
“That’s all right,” Raiya said. “We should be going. We’re in a hurry.”
“Oh. I’ll take you to the road, then.”
“Thank you.” Raiya wondered if they were being escorted out of politeness, or so that Jai could keep an eye on them and make sure they didn’t cause trouble. Maybe they were worried about theft.
They followed her toward the edge of the camp. It was early morning still, just past sunrise, and steam was rising off the dewy grass. Many people seemed to be just getting up, but Raiya spotted a dark figure standing atop one of the hills nearby. It was another night elf in dark armor. He looked too skinny to be very old—perhaps only a few years older than Jai. As he met their eyes, he pointedly rested his hand on the pommel of the sword at his side.
“That must be your brother,” Raiya said.
Jai nodded, rolling her eyes. “Don’t worry about him. He glares at everyone like that.”
“I can relate,” Raiya said, giving Azreth a sidelong glance. He glared back, apparently not noticing the irony.
Jai stopped by the road, turning to them. “Are you sure you want to go so soon? You could stay another day or two, if you want. I wanted to invite you to the campfire last night, but Fu-lon told me not to bother you.”
“That’s very kind of you,” Raiya said sadly, warmed by the girl’s interest in them. “But we’ve got something urgent to attend to, I’m afraid.”
“Is there someone chasing you?” Jai asked bluntly.
“Was it that obvious?”
The girl shrugged. “A lot of people end up with the Roamers when they’re running from something. For me and Madira, it was bounty hunters and Paladins. The Queen of Ardani still has a bounty on night elves, and Paladins hate us. The Roamers don’t let those types into the camps, so we’re safe here.”
“I’m glad.”
“So what are you running from?”
Raiya hesitated, not sure how much she wanted to reveal. In the end, she decided it would be useful to know if anyone had seen Nirlan nearby. “A man. He’s Uulantaavan, like me. A little older than I am. Long hair. Slender and tall, though not as tall as my companion. Have you seen anyone like that pass by?”
Jai shrugged again. “Maybe. There are a lot of Uulantaavans around.”
Raiya pursed her lips. “His name is Nirlan. He would have been wearing expensive clothes and riding a big horse.”
Jai brightened. “The lord, you mean? Some people were just talking about him last night. They say the castle’s been abandoned. The lord left in a hurry in the middle of the night.”
“Has he been seen on the road, then?”
“I’ve got no idea.” If possible, Jai looked even more intensely curious about them than before. “They say something awful happened at the castle. I heard something about dark magic.”
Raiya shifted away from her, fussing with her hair. “That sounds terrible. I can only hope we don’t encounter anything like that.”
Jai nodded, still eyeing them closely. “Yeah. Me too.”