Chapter Nine
Cipher
Cave lingers in the shed as the sun goes down. He is nervous about his evaluation, and I don’t think I’ve seen him like this before; normally he doesn’t care. I don’t know if things have changed because of Valli, or if he finally has control again and it’s thrown him off.
His first test is tonight. Nixie needs him in full control for the Harvest Moon. She needs that night to go off without any issues. If Nixie wants to keep entertaining her family of misfits, that is the one night everything has to run perfectly.
I set down the carburetor. The pieces are in removal order, left to right, so my brain can find its way back later. Then I wipe my hands and look up at him, to find he is already staring at me.
People think Cave is simple. Big and dangerous.
They are wrong. He is the most careful man I have ever known.
All that strength, yet he holds it back every waking minute of his life, with control he built himself.
No one taught him; rather, the people who should have loved him sought only to amplify his damage.
Tonight, they are going to grade that control, and he needs to let off some pressure.
“Come here,” I say.
He crosses the shed, and up close, he is like a furnace with heat rolling off him. Stopping in front of me, Cave takes my wrist as he drops to his knees and sets my hand on his head. Then he looks up at me, and I can see it in his eyes: the need to not be in control right now.
“Okay,” I tell him and curl my fingers through his hair.
He pulls my belt open and takes my cock out, then leans forward and swallows me down. My hips jerk and my free hand grips the workbench behind me.
“Slow,” I say. He doesn’t need to go fast.
Cave works me slowly, but deeply. I thought he needed to release control, but I can see now he needs to practice it.
“Look at me,” I say, and his amber eyes turn up, highlighting the view of my cock down his throat, and there is nothing wild in them anymore. Cave choosing restraint is the hottest thing I have ever seen, and I have no doubt he will be fine tonight.
Pressure builds in my spine, and I warn him I’m close. His eyes stay locked on mine while I come down his throat, my fingers locked in his hair, and a sound punching out of me that would embarrass me anywhere else.
He takes everything I give him, then sits back on his heels, wipes his mouth, and drops his forehead against my stomach.
“You will be fine tonight. I have faith in you,” I tell him.
He pulls me in closer and doesn’t let go for a long time, while I simply stand there and let him take all the love he needs.
Once the sun has fully set, we make our way to the cornfield. Valli stands at the outer edges in her work uniform, holding Nixie’s pink clipboard, the one that she lets nobody else touch. Noa stands beside her, radiating positive energy.
Nixie has only allowed a small audience for this test. Vesper will be on the security cameras in case she needs to alert the medics, while Valli reads off the terms Nixie has set.
“We need to find a volunteer to enter the cornfield. Cave gets a thirty-minute window. They need to leave the cornfield with no broken bones, and no major bleeding that a bandage can’t fix.”
Cave stands there and rolls his shoulders.
“So who is the lucky rabbit?” Noa asks, looking around. “Because I nominated myself twice and was rejected.”
“You’d enjoy it,” Valli says. “That is not the data we need.”
“I would enjoy it so much,” Noa replies, and Cave makes a sound that is almost a laugh.
“I’ll do it.” We turn and see Vero strolling toward us with his hands in his pockets, a big-ass grin on his face. “I volunteer as tribute. Someone’s gotta stress test the freak properly, and it might as well be someone with experience.”
“No,” Valli states, leaving no room for argument.
“Oh, come on,” Vero laughs. “He can handle it.”
“You’ll provoke him on purpose and spend the whole time trying to make him fail. It’s a hard no. This is not your revenge tour.”
“I’ll offer my services.”
The Jester pushes off the fence on the opposite side of the path where he has been hiding in the shadows. He steps forward in full costume, his face paint freshly applied.
“I’m new and neutral. The Scarecrow and I have no history. That’s if the corn king will have me.”
Vero goes to say something, but Valli pins him with a glare and he zips his lips. Cave nods.
“Wonderful.” The Jester unbuttons his cuffs and unpins his bells. “One request, though. Try to leave the face unmarred—it’s my money maker.”
Valli looks at Cave. “Thirty minutes and try to let him walk out alive.”
Cave holds her eye, then nods and walks into the cornfield.
“If I die,” the Jester says, “my tomatoes go to the love of my life.”
Vero cackles. “There is no way that witch will ever love you back.”
The Jester shrugs. “Forced proximity works for some people.” He winks and steps into the stalks.
Anxiety fills me. It sucks when you can’t see anything and have to rely solely on what you can hear.
For the first few minutes, there is nothing.
The stalks rustle a little, and beside me Noa has squatted down and stares into the field.
Valli stands with the clipboard pulled to her chest. All of us wait, not knowing how this will play out.
A few minutes later there’s movement, and laughter echoes around us, then everything goes still again.
“He’s herding him,” Noa whispers. “See the rows moving? God he is good! I want to be in there so bad.”
At the ten-minute mark, there is a shriek. “That was my good knee!”
Valli’s shoulders drop a little, and I place my hand on her arm, willing her not to give up on him yet.
By fifteen minutes, we are back to silence. My chest grows tight, and I check the camera feeds on my phone, then force myself to put it away. Vesper can see the entire perimeter, so if anything happens, we will be the first to know.
At seventeen minutes, the whole field shudders, radiating from the middle.
“He’s fine,” I tell them.
Almost twenty minutes down, and a new noise starts. Noa excitedly squeals and then slaps both of his hands over his mouth.
“Is he . . . throwing corn at him?” Valli asks.
“Sounds like it,” Noa says.
After twenty-five minutes, the cornstalks part, and the Jester appears. He is laughing, and his face paint is smeared. A length of rope trails off one ankle, and his hands are tied together loosely in front. He makes it to the grass and rolls onto his back, then lies there wheezing with laughter.
“That was five stars. The herding, his patience, and the restraint. He had me dead inside my head at the five-minute mark.” He holds up his bound wrists. “Also, he tied these where I could reach the release, which is the single most insulting act of courtesy I have ever experienced.”
Valli is laughing, and Noa shouts that test one was a success.
The corn parts again, and Cave steps out. His eyes are wild as he looks around, and I know that look. He isn’t done; this has merely scratched the surface. He finds who he is looking for, singling out Valli, and crosses the grass to be closer to her.
Her laughter dies, but she holds her ground, chin up. He stops close enough that she has to tip her head all the way back, and everyone goes quiet.
“Run,” Cave says.
Valli hands me the clipboard without breaking eye contact.
“No,” she replies.
The sound that Cave makes is animalistic; it’s enough to send shivers down your spine. In one motion, she is off the ground and over his shoulder.
But Valli is laughing and beating against his back as he stalks toward the corn.
“It was nice knowing you, Valli, you lucky woman!” Noa shouts as they disappear.
“So,” the Jester says. “Is that part of the evaluation?”
Noa laughs. “Extra credit.”
The three of us sit along the fence line—Vero already vanished mid-chase without telling anyone—while from somewhere in the middle of the field drift Valli’s shrieks, then laughs.
It fills my heart when I hear Cave’s voice.
“Smart men do not test my patience . . . Brave women do. You woke the beast, little thief. And now you feed him.”
“Holy shit,” Noa exclaims. “Did that not sound like a riddle and more like him actually talking?”
I nod.
“Okay,” the Jester says, jumping down from the fence. “That’s my cue to exit. Some performances are not for everyone.”
“You get used to it,” Noa says.
“Do you really?” he asks.
“No,” I respond. If I see or hear anyone else, I’m the first one gone. It gets weird and feels pervy.
The Jester leaves, but we sit and listen. Eventually, Noa jumps down and walks closer to the field, picking up a lone corn from the ground and holding it to his mouth like a microphone while wandering back toward me.
“And here we observe the island’s largest predator, returning to his natural habitat, where he just released the female to give her a head start.”
“Noa.” I sigh in exasperation.
“Pay attention to the stillness of the corn.” He sweeps the cob of corn across the field like a camera. “He is not moving, letting her sit in the silence. Experts call this playing with your food.”
Valli’s shriek ends the silence, followed by laughter.
“He has made contact—no, false alarm, he might have let her get away. Unbelievable. I have personally been hunted by tonight’s predator, and I can tell you the rising tension is part of the experience.”
“You wanted to be hunted.”
“I did, ladies and gentlemen, but today I was rejected. This is a wound we can explore later. She is running again, listen to her go . . . and she has stopped. But why has she stopped?” Noa lowers his voice. “She is baiting him. God, she is perfect.”
Cave growls.
“And he took the bait.”
The corn thrashes, and Valli’s shriek this time doesn’t turn to laughter.
Noa grabs my arm. “I think he may be using the rope.”
“You can’t know that.”
“I can imagine it. Him taking his time tying the knots.”
Her voice drifts out through the field as she moans his name.
“For the listeners at home, the female appears to be enjoying herself.”
Then the sounds get louder.
“And we have transitioned to the . . . yep, wow, okay.” Noa clears his throat. “Did it just get hot in here?”
I laugh.
“He is going for gold. Can you hear the slapping? Oh, what I wouldn’t give to be involved in that.” Valli’s cries of ecstasy echo around us. “Cipher, you have known the predator longer than everyone. Any words for our audience?”
“No.”
“Folks, I can see his ears are bright red right now.”
I shake my head at his teasing.
Their noises go on long enough that Noa’s commentary dies out, and he moves to sit back on the railing next to me with the corncob in one hand. We listen to the two of them finish, then the cornfield goes quiet.
“The four of us,” he says, looking toward the field. “How did it happen?”
“She walked in,” I reply, and he nods in agreement.
We don’t make sense on paper, but we work.
I don’t doubt that Cave is ready. It was our personal circumstances that led him to a moment of weakness, but he is strong enough to come back.
So long as no one touches what he deems his, everything will be fine.