6. Deliver Me Far away from Here
6. DELIVER ME FAR AWAY FROM HERE
RUSH
A startled, garbled grunt rose from my seated audience.
Hope , that ever perilous emotion, swelled in my chest before I could quell it. My hands stalled on the waistband of my pants as gasps skimmed across the two rows of contestants like the opening notes of an orchestra. My ears perked for whatever would come next.
Curiosity wove around my head like a band, urging me to peer through the dimness to spot the cause of the commotion.
But my instincts, those I’d honed over countless hours of training, held me steady. My attention never left the worst danger in this room.
On all fours atop the bed, the queen had stilled in the way predators did when they’d sighted their next meal and were a breath from pouncing.
“You bitch ,” one of the females wheezed before coughing hoarsely, her voice unrecognizable .
The queen jerked her head toward our spectators so violently that her body whipped along with it.
A snake . She was like a snake, her body arcing behind her in a single line.
Though the bed was lit and the rows of seats weren’t, the crown-princess hopefuls didn’t appear to notice that our murderous queen was doing nothing to hide her animal nature.
“How dare you hit her?” one of the females snarled. It sounded like Malina, the contestant who disgusted me most. She leered at me as openly as the queen. “Her Majesty will have your head for this, you know.”
“Natania, are you all right?” another asked more gently, though her tone held similar accusation. This one sounded like Coretta, the female who endeavored to smear her voluminous tits all over me as often as possible.
“Our queen will most definitely kill you for this,” added Malina in a tone cruel enough to be worthy of invoking our terrible monarch. “ Finally .”
The queen seemed to tense, to coil in preparation for her strike. But I was watching her closely, and she hadn’t moved at all.
My hands slid from my waist to my hips, where any number of my usual blades should have been sheathed. But of course, my weapons holster was absent, forbidden in this smoky den of depravity, where the wounds still to come would undoubtedly slice far deeper than any knife.
The queen hissed, and had I not been following her every slight move, I might have guessed it was an actual serpent instead of a woman. The coils of enchanted smoke that wrapped the base of the bed writhed and shuddered around her.
My muscles twitched, preparing for a confrontation I wouldn’t be allowed to fight. The queen had effectively emasculated me even as she expected me to perform like the virile man she knew me to be. She’d ensured I was incapable of protecting those I’d sworn to defend by any means other than giving my body to her.
If only I could kill her here, right now. If only I could rip her head from her body with my bare hands.
But of course, the woman couldn’t die by ordinary means. It was the curse that plagued an entire mirror world. If I were to try, I’d only secure the death of everyone I cared for in this damnable kingdom instead.
You’ve got to relax , I scolded myself. Ignore whatever’s going on over there and get the fuck out of your head. Don’t do anything that’ll cut the numbness. You need the numbness.
Umbrac poison was very difficult to come by. This far away from the Sorumbra, it was also costly. But administered in micro doses, it would disconnect my thoughts from my body. That would be worth the quail-egg sized ruby, a valuable heirloom of Amarantos, I’d traded for it.
I’d already drunk one small vial of it. A second awaited, secured to the back of a braid concealed at my nape, for whenever the queen would force me. If she noticed the tiny glass bottle, she might kill me for the offense of drugging myself to fuck her.
The umbrac poison only lasted at most twenty minutes. If I didn’t get the chance to take the second dose, I’d remain far too aware of what I was doing. As it was, the two together might not even be enough to ignore whom exactly I was being forced to fuck.
The woman had been the cause of my every torment for as long as I could remember.
If olvidian didn’t interfere with erections, I would have happily indulged in its legendary bliss instead. Apparently, riding the high of olvidian, you soared free of your body and didn’t feel a thing.
Anything not to endure what was coming next.
The queen hissed again, bringing into sharp awareness how I’d lost track of the passing seconds. How I’d lost focus.
Maybe taking the umbrac poison had been a poor idea… Without it dulling my senses, I was already playing a very dangerous game.
“How dare you presume to speak for me ?” the queen seethed out at the darkened rows of chairs.
I blinked—and she was on all fours on the floor instead of the bed. I hadn’t even registered her movement.
Fuck , I really shouldn’t have taken the umbrac stuff.
The coils of smoke slithered around her in unending loops, concealing her feet and calves save for flashes of pale, creamy skin.
“M-me, Your Majesty?” stuttered Malina, her question so soft I barely recognized it was the usually arrogant, obnoxiously promiscuous woman speaking.
“Yes, you .” The queen squatted onto her haunches, her hand to the floor in front of her swallowed up by the vibrating smoke, as if she were designed to crawl on hands and knees instead of walk. No, not crawl. To run. To charge. To leap. To destroy . As if she were as adept at the beast-like motions as she was at slinking across one of her great halls as a woman in heels and a crown.
Wait … it happened again. She was several feet closer to the chairs now.
This time, I was certain I hadn’t blinked. When had she moved? How had she moved?
In the past nearly four years she’d forced me to live at her court, she’d shocked me continually. More often at first, before I’d learned there was no limit to her unfathomable cruelty. Recently, there was little she could do or say that rocked me to my core.
But here I found myself studying her profile, the strong lines of her back, arms, and hips—wondering what secrets they held. She had never moved this way before.
“But I…” Malina said, trailing off, as if finally getting a good look at the woman who was barely woman at all.
“You what ?” the queen insisted.
With the animal-like position of her body, I expected her question to be a rasp dripping venom, blood, or both. But the seductive purr of those two words was somehow worse.
I guessed everyone in the room felt it. If the females hadn’t been sitting, surely they would have been stepping back. Ivar and Braque alone leaned forward, as if forever drawn to protect or collude with their queen.
Her crown sat precisely atop her head even as she jerked to sit onto her butt, leaning back onto her hands, spreading her legs for an audience that likely didn’t expect that view despite the fact that they’d willingly come to her bedroom. I didn’t know if she wore undergarments or not. I’d purposefully avoided looking.
Partial darkness attempted to conceal the females’ faces. But I could make out enough of them to identify their shock—at what, though, I couldn’t be certain. These women were the worst of Embermere—save Octavia Lily Rose and perhaps that Elowyn Ashira who’d stood up to the queen in ways not even her soldiers dared.
“But you … what?” asked the queen again, drawing my attention back to her, once more highlighting how sluggish my reactions were. How easily I lost my focus, zoning out to my own disturbing musings.
“But I … I’m ever so sorry, Your Majesty,” Malina finally spit out, more wheedling than I’d heard her in a long time. “I meant no disrespect. I meant only to show my admiration for Your Majesty’s haste in punishing disobedience.”
“No disrespect,” the queen mimicked, and the skin at the nape of my neck prickled, reminding me of the vial I concealed there, of the evidence I wouldn’t be able to easily erase.
“Y-yes, Your Majesty.”
I could see little of Malina, and yet I could clearly feel her terror. It coated the air. “Truly, I swear, I meant no disrespect. I mean none now, either. I … I don’t know.”
“You don’t know,” the monster in a crown repeated.
“Uhh … y-yes, Your Majesty.”
I’d pity the female if not for how many times I’d overheard her referring to me as barely more than an erect rod for her pleasure.
She could burn along with the queen.
“My queen,” Ivar said from behind me, and I swiveled in his direction, unnerved by the fact that I’d allowed the queen’s favorite viper to sneak up on me without my notice.
Oh, the umbrac poison had indeed been a very bad idea.
“It is the wretch Elowyn who hit the countess Natania.” Ivar enunciated “the wretch” as if it were this Elowyn’s title.
My gaze landed on her easily. I’d already known exactly where she sat. I’d found her the moment I entered the room, before even finding the queen, the number-one threat.
Curious, that. I wondered why. Elowyn was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. That, I’d realized the instant I first laid eyes on her, when she’d entered the Great Salon of Delicacies to sit as far away from me as possible by order of the queen. Her eyes, face, lips, body … all of her had lured me toward her as if she were a flower with the sweetest nectar and I a starving bird.
She possessed … an undeniable allure.
But she was also one of the few who was new, someone perhaps as of yet untainted by the court of Embermere. Surely, Elowyn was far safer without my attention.
When I next found the queen, she crouched at Elowyn’s feet. Several orbs floated around them, illuminating the women’s faces. The queen’s was too still, too calm, when I would wager she was contemplating murder.
In contrast to the eerie placidity of the queen, too many emotions for me to name warred across Elowyn’s face. Beneath the silver glow, her eyes were a dark and furious violet. Her nostrils flared with that same fury. Her lips were … fucking perfect, shit. So fucking perfect. They waggled in every direction as if Elowyn were attempting to settle herself. If she was, her efforts were failing spectacularly. With the hard set of her shoulders, the rigidity of that long, delicate column that was her throat. The heaving of her plump breasts pushed upward by her corset, their swells smooth, milky, enticing curves…
By dragons’ veins, I shouldn’t have let the guys convince me the umbrac poison would dull my misery.
At least I now knew if I struggled to get hard with the queen, I should picture Elowyn’s face across hers. Elowyn could forgive me for what she’d never know.
Interesting that, too. The women’s features were oddly similar. The long, dark, slightly wavy hair. The arched brows, the straight noses, the high cheekbones, and plump lips. The big, round eyes, different colors but comparable in shape.
The women could easily be sisters. One repelled me, the other drew me toward her with the promise of nectar.
Yet another time I realized seconds had slipped by and I’d missed them.
The queen had flung the skirts of Elowyn’s dress up over her knees, revealing lean, strong legs pressed into barely-there high-heels. My cock jerked at the sight of those legs and their lines of sleek muscle, and I leaned to the side to better see around the queen.
Elowyn’s thighs were also on display, yes, but so was how viciously the queen dug her fingers—nay, claws— into Elowyn’s skin. Droplets of blood trickled around the queen’s fingers, a deep, dark crimson in the dim lighting.
The anger and accusation that scrunched up Elowyn’s face didn’t waver, and I found myself leaning in her direction a bit more. Who was this strange woman who dared defy this legendary queen? Where had she been all this time?
Her eyes flicked to mine. Her brow arched in surprise when she found me staring.
The most lethal woman in the entire Mirror World was inches from her face, already drawing blood, and … the anger washed away from Elowyn’s face.
She smiled at me, and for several moments it was like storm clouds had parted to reveal the sun.
The queen drew her arm back and slapped Elowyn across the face so hard that Elowyn was left blinking in a daze. Despite the suddenness of the strike, none of the other females so much as gasped this time. Not with the queen so close to them. So ready to punish any one of them—or all of them.
They had to know as well as I did that the Fae Heir Trials was a convenient narrative for the queen to ultimately choose the heirs she wanted.
That fresh reminder of why I was here, why I was even willing to do what I’d come here tonight to do, was sufficient to loosen the fists that had balled at my sides, the tension in my jaw, and relieve the desire to run to Elowyn’s aid. It also gave me a whole new reason to want to rip the queen’s head from her shoulders.
Already, a red mark in the shape of the queen’s fingers bloomed across that perfect cheek.
After another glance at me, Elowyn tilted up her chin so she’d have to look down at the queen. A risk, and a big one. The queen’s second hand rejoined the first around Elowyn’s thighs and more blood dripped down that perfect skin.
Elowyn didn’t so much as wince, nor did she seek to soothe the sting of her cheek. Steadily—so fucking bravely—she held the queen’s stare as she said, “Even if Rush is ‘eager to please’ and he’s here of his own volition”— she didn’t bother to disguise her obvious skepticism—“that doesn’t mean anyone here should treat him with such awful lack of respect and dignity.”
Now, some of the others did gasp. I couldn’t recall ever hearing anyone speak to the queen like this.
“He’s a man , and a very good one at that. He’ll make a fine prince . You know what he isn’t, Your Majesty? A collection of body parts to be ooh ed and ahh ed over.” Her mouth twisted in disgust. “To be ogled over loudly, like he’s not even in the room with us listening to every word.” At that, she glared at Natania and Malina, temporarily ignoring the monstrous queen who was close enough to bite.
I stalked away from Ivar so he couldn’t sneak up behind me while I continued to study Elowyn. This was all about me? She was upset about how they were treating me ? Didn’t she realize I had to be here? That there was no better choice? That many others would die if I didn’t please the crazy woman with a crown who could order anyone dead at any moment for any reason or none at all? Who could withhold Braque’s treatments of Larissa among a thousand other things?
“He’s not just a dick , even if it’s a beautiful one, to take your pleasure from,” Elowyn continued to the loudest rounds of gasps yet. She spun to her right again, pointing at Natania, who craned her neck back and away. “Not for any of you.”
Once Elowyn silenced, everyone, even her and me, waited to see what the queen would do next.
After a final squeeze of Elowyn’s thighs that caused steady lines of blood to drip along her skin and to the floor between them, the queen pushed back and stood. Despite her bare feet and legs, her near nudity, she somehow still managed to appear all-powerful, and it wasn’t solely due to her crown that wouldn’t budge.
“You don’t have to be here,” the queen said too casually for the circumstances. “If you don’t appreciate the nature of the entertainment I’ve secured for you tonight, then you can leave.”
Elowyn canted her head as she hesitated. “I … can?”
“Yes. You can go and never come back.”
Ivar was suddenly beside his queen when he’d been several body lengths away.
What the dragon balls was going on here?
His glower pinned on Elowyn, he whispered, “My queen, you may want to recall what happened in the great salon. You may end up getting hurt yourself—if you don’t proceed with caution.”
The queen scowled and propped her hands akimbo, as if she stood in front of her throne instead of in a boudoir. “Well, we can’t have that.”
Were they suggesting that the … the magic of the Fae Heir Trials could actually hurt the queen, who couldn’t be wounded by any other means?
She stalked back toward the bed, turning around to face Elowyn once she reached it. “You may leave and no harm will befall you. You’re protected by the magic of the Fae Heir Trials, so go and leave us to enjoy our evening without your constant interruptions. We’re excited to get on with it, aren’t we, ladies?”
For several dangerous beats, none of them dared say anything, not even to agree. But then, Natania offered a meek, “Yes, Your Majesty.”
When the queen beamed with approval, a few of the others echoed the sentiment.
“Ivar, escort her to the rooms.”
“No,” Elowyn said.
As one, every single other person in the room, including me, whipped our attention on her.
“Excuse me?” said the queen.
“No thank you, Your Majesty,” Elowyn adjusted, her voice unexpectedly shaky. “If the … festivities will continue, then I shall remain.”
“If you remain, it shall be at my pleasure,” the queen said with an edge I’d heard hundreds of times before. Heads rolled almost every time after.
“Of course, my queen,” Braque chimed in from his seat against the wall, not one to be left out of the ass-kissing for long.
“I’d…” Elowyn sucked in a deep breath before straightening her shoulders. “I’d like to remain. Please.”
The queen stared at her for a long moment before her lips split into a delighted grin. “Why yes, of course you may.”
What the dragonfire was going on? First Elowyn complained, then she wanted to stay. The queen wanted to murder her, now she was smiling at her like they were fast friends .
“We’ve delayed too long as it is,” the queen said. “Rush.”
My head was slow to turn her way. “Yes?”
The queen tsked impatiently. “It’s time. You will finish undressing. And then you will undress me.”
All eyes, including Elowyn’s, trained on me.
I gulped. There’d be no chance for the second vial now. And screw my sluggishness, now I wanted nothing more than to be as foggy as possible for what awaited me.
“Well?” the queen snapped. “Hurry up about it. I don’t like being made to wait.”
Somehow, I got my fingers back to the top button on my pants to unclasp it. To reach for the next. Open that one. The next.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” the queen barked. “Natania. Come. Do the job for him.”
A pained cry slipped out that I immediately regretted. I couldn’t let on how much the thought hurt me. How much I’d suffer at their touch.
And then it came again. Only this time, it wasn’t me. It hadn’t been me before, I realized.
It was Elowyn. Her face was tight and determined, fierce and strong, like any warrior I’d ever seen preparing to go into battle. But her lips were pressed into a line so hard the color drained from them. And her eyes shone with unshed tears.
A pair of orbs sped to hover above her to better illuminate what must be her … pain ?
The queen laughed heartily and said, “Malina, come help too.”
Elowyn keened for several seconds before biting her lip so fiercely it bled.
And then Natania and Malina were there, their hands ripping at my clothes, trailing over my skin, tugging down my pants.
All I could do to stand it was to close my eyes and lean into the numbness of the umbrac poison.
Into the memories I’d only just collected of Elowyn’s face and body. I imagined the touch as hers and not that of these other females.
By the Ethers, deliver me far away from here.