Chapter 37 #2
“An honest human?” Moribund asks. “Oh, how unexpected.” He releases my hair reluctantly and crawls up into his flattened ash nest. The burned hair crunches under his weight as he wiggles down into it, like a child cuddling into his bedcovers.
He narrows his eyes to slits, and his voice grows dark and menacing.
“I needs to rebuild my nest since that sneaky fox-bug ruined everything.”
Nalina pivots to face the sound of his voice again.
The fae recovers his composure in an instant and frowns dramatically. “But I already have a deal with your Dead Queen. Does she know you’re here?” He asks his question with such delight, he must already know the answer.
“It’s time to trade,” Nalina presses on. “The Fox Heir for your help.”
Moribund chuckles. “The humans want fae help now, do they? The last deal I made with your queen was to keep me away, to keep me out of sight.” His voice drops low, haunting as a nightmare. “Your girlie bugs with the clean hair, for my castle.”
“You can keep that deal,” Nalina says. “In addition to this new one.”
“No!” I struggle against my chains, but Nalina doesn’t even look at me as I pull. “The Dead Queen would not approve of this, Nalina. You’re her Wolf. You serve her! She’ll see this as betrayal.”
Finally, Nalina snaps her head toward me. “I cannot serve Annwyn if everyone who lives here is dead!”
Moribund cackles like he’s enjoying this game. His black eyes move over me, inch-by-inch. My skin crawls.
“I do wants her hair.” His voice quivers. This fae is positively unhinged.
If Nalina is as disturbed as I am, she doesn’t show it. “I know,” she says. “You can have it.”
He looks up at her hungrily.
“For a price.” Nalina’s voice is sharp as a blade.
Moribund begins to salivate.
“I grew up hearing tales of your power,” she says. “Of the terror you used to wreak over this land.”
He smiles and nods, pleased. It seems the old stories were true—the fae adore flattery. “Yes, I am quite powerful.”
“Could you kill an entire army?”
“Easily.” He bats his eyes. “You are all but bugs for the squishing.”
Nalina’s face hardens. “Then help us save your castle. Protect Gwyllion and the people who live here. Kill our attackers, and you can have the Fox’s hair.”
The fae laughs gleefully. He crawls back out of his revolting nest on all fours and scurries back up to me.
Slowly, he stands. A tremor runs across his thin skin in anticipation of having me.
He presses the tip of one black fingernail to my navel.
Inch by inch, he trails it up my body, between my breasts, and pauses at the hollow of my clavicle.
He leans in toward my ear, and the smell of rot makes me gag. I swallow hard.
“That is where I will slice you, I thinks.” He sniffs the hair on my neck with a long, languid breath.
“I can’t wait to see if fox bugs look different on the inside.
If that sweet blood tastes finer than the others.
” He lets out a low, hungry rumble from deep in his chest. Beneath his tattered loincloth, something moves.
“But first, I must taste your succulent parts.” Drool drips down his chin as his eyes roam my body.
I think I’m going to be sick.
“Do we have a deal?” Nalina shifts her sword to one hand and holds the other out toward him to shake.
“No! You don’t!” I shove Nalina with all my strength.
She barely budges. “Nalina, listen to me. You don’t know what you’re doing.
” My voice is desperate, and I hate it. But right now, I have nothing to bargain with, no way out of this madness.
I turn to Moribund, tugging on my chains with all my strength.
“I scorched your lair, you filthy creature! Just think of what I’ll do next if you don’t let me go. ”
“She’s in irons.” Nalina says evenly. She tugs my chains so hard, I nearly fall to the ground. “She has no power.”
Moribund considers us for a moment, his lips pursed in a thoughtful expression.
His eyes keep drifting over my long auburn hair.
In one swift movement, the fae leans forward, grabs Nalina’s wrist, and licks the length of her palm.
Nalina’s eyes widen with shock at the touch of the fae’s tongue.
For a brief moment, I see revulsion behind her eyes, but she recovers quickly.
Moribund releases her. “Now go, so I can play with my little fox bug first.” He steps forward, pressing his body up against me. I can’t breathe from the smell of him. His skin tremors along mine like a thousand eager fingertips. His hard length presses into my thigh, pulsing.
Nalina passes my chains to the fae.
“You can’t do this!” My voice breaks and I scream at Nalina, all of my anger coming out in a snarl. I tug and pull at the chains with all my strength, but the ancient fae is far stronger than he looks. He grins at me with hunger in his black eyes.
Nalina turns to leave, then pauses. “One last thing.”
Moribund steps back to glare at her. A low growl rumbles from his throat, all childishness gone from his voice. “I will help your silly castle when I’m through.”
Nalina nods but walks back toward me. In one swift movement, she grabs my long hair in one hand and slices her sword clean through it. I’m so shocked all I can do is stare at the long auburn strands hanging from her fist.
Moribund screams. It’s so piercing, I flinch.
Nalina grins and tosses the hair at his feet.
Moribund scrambles to the ground, trying to pick up each strand. He holds my cut hair to his chest. “You defiled my gift!”
Nalina shakes her head. “Not a gift. A trade. A deal.”
Moribund’s nostrils flare, and his black eyes pin her with a murderous glare.
It’s Nalina’s turn to grin. “I said you could have her hair. I never said you could take her body or her life.”
Moribund growls. His lips flare over sharp teeth, like a rabid dog ready to bite. “You tricked me.”
“A deal is a deal.”
“How dare you try to fool the great Moribund!” Spittle flies from his mouth in his rage.
Nalina simply shrugs. “If you allowed your lust to cloud your judgment, that’s no concern of mine.”
Moribund glares between Nalina and me, back and forth, before shoving strands of my long auburn hair beneath his loincloth. “Filthy, stinking bugs …”
Then, in a blink, he disappears.
Nalina and I stand in the darkness for several long moments. My heart is hammering, and my knees are weak.
“Is he gone?” she whispers. It’s the first indication I’ve seen that she was really, truly afraid.
“Yes.” My voice cracks on the word.
She nods once, then digs into the ankle of her boot. She withdraws an iron key and holds it out to me. Her hand is trembling.
I hold up my shackles. Nalina twists the key in the lock, and the iron clatters to the ground at our feet. We both stand there for a long, tense moment. As if remembering something, she takes my silver moth knife out from her belt and hands it to me.
“I imagine you want to kill me about now.”
I nod and take the knife, gripping it so tightly my knuckles feel ready to split open. “I understand why you did it.”
Something like relief transforms her face. Her shoulders relax, and what looks like genuine grief passes through her eyes. “He’s the last card we have to play.”
“I hope he’s worth the price. He’ll make you pay for tricking him.”
She nods. “Me too, Fox Heir … me too.” She looks older than she did a day ago, as if this battle has taken more from her than just her strength. This couldn’t have been easy for her, bringing me down into this dungeon. This is where she brought her own sister to die at the hands of that monster.
For the first time, I pity Nalina.
Nalina lets out a shaky breath. “I’m sorry I had to cut your hair.”
I shiver at the memory of Moribund’s long, bony fingers running through it. “I’m not.” I sniff. “I’d have cut it off myself after that.”
She nods, understanding me exactly.