Chapter 26 #2
Movement out of the corner of my eye drew my attention to the right.
I watched the darkened brush, two red eyes glistening, intent upon me.
My pulse raced, but I kept my casual pace, wandering back and forth before the tree.
All the while, I summoned my syrenskyn magick, now beaming bright.
I didn’t have to look to see that my syren markings illuminated my skin with vibrant patterns of the palest white.
The hum of power warmed me from the inside out.
I kept singing, coming to the last verses which my grandmother had only ever sang to me, when my sisters and brother had wandered away, bored with her silly songs.
“There is one treasure of your kind. Centuries, you look but never find. When she comes to your shores, know she is light and dark entwined.”
I stopped pacing as the grimlock crept farther into the clearing, his appearance more arresting than the others I’d seen when they attacked us. More than that, an oppressive heaviness radiated from the creature, making my breath falter.
“For her gift of syrenskyn, can save all of your kin. Lest you abuse her with foul lies.” My voice vibrated with syren magick. “Then your dark ages will begin.”
My grandmother had cried when she sang the last verse, and now I knew that she bore the sight.
She wasn’t simply entertaining the lonely granddaughter who didn’t fit in with her siblings.
She was telling me that one day I would turn my back on my own kind, because they’d forced me to, that I would fight for the fae that were truly my own.
Focusing on breathing in and out, I watched the repulsive creature stalk into the clearing. That aura of gloom came with him, filling up the space between and around us.
He was much taller than the others, his red eyes gleaming with cunning and calculation.
He was an amalgamation of faekind, like the others.
His ears were pointed long like those of a dryad, his hair a mass of sticks and fungus sprouting in disarray.
He had six black horns curling out of his skull.
His grayish-green skin, more green than the other grimlocks, was scaled like a serpent’s.
His fingers were twice as long as a normal fae, all spindly and bony, tipped with needle-long black claws.
He wore no clothing at all. The others hadn’t either, but I hadn’t noted it when they attacked us. I’d only seen their claws and wings and teeth diving at us, snatching away the children.
Now, I noted that this grimlock was easily as tall as Redvyr, though much thinner.
Redvyr had thought they may not be equipped like other faekind, being more monster than male.
But he was wrong. His chest was broad, his wings closer to that of a moon fae male—tall and wide, iridescent black. And between his legs hung a long cock.
“What are you doing here, she-fae?” His voice resonated more melodiously than the screeching cries of his minions. And still, a dark power emanated from him.
Was this the master who ate the light fae for power?
My heart beat faster, pulsing in my throat. I hadn’t thought I would be using my magick on their lord.
“I have come seeking friends,” I answered ambiguously, knowing it wasn’t time to demand what I wanted. He was enthralled, that was certain, but I wasn’t sure he was completely under my syren spell.
“I will be your friend.” His red eyes glittered brighter as he took another step closer, the scent of soil and fungus and some earthy darkness I couldn’t identify upon him.
“I am a princess,” I confessed boldly, noting the excitement in his expression at this news. “I only have friends with great magick and power.”
“I am my father’s first born.” He tilted his pointed chin higher, looking down at me with wariness as well as condescension, as if I were beneath him. “I am a powerful earth fae.”
His father’s first-born? So he was not the sorcerer, but likely the strongest of his father’s grimlocks. He’d have the full potency of his father’s blood running through his veins.
“First born? There are more like you?”
“My brothers are not as superior as I am,” was his cold response.
“Only brothers? No sisters?”
“Females have no use.”
“None at all?” I asked teasingly, letting my voice drip with suggestion.
“Perhaps one.” He stepped closer, sniffing the air. “Your scent is of the sea.”
“I am a skald fae.”
“Far from home.” His mouth slid wide as he grinned, revealing two rows of razor-sharp teeth.
“I am.” My skin crawled. “My name is Jessamine.”
“Jessamine,” he hissed on a sibilant whisper, the wind echoing his voice amongst the branches above us. “I am Selestos.”
“It is a pleasure to meet a powerful dark fae like yourself, Selestos.”
The lies came so easily, falling so prettily from my lips.
“I’ve never heard a name like yours.”
“That is because I am one and only. Selestos was the name of a fallen god. Like my father.”
My heart tripped faster. “Your father is a god?”
That couldn’t be. No god would create an abomination like this creature before me. Rather than answer my question, he eased forward with that devious gleam in his watchful gaze.
“You are deep in dark fae territory, singing a song of your goddess. While intrigued by these lovely markings upon your,” he paused, perusing my exposed arms outside my cloak before dragging his baleful eyes down my lower legs to my ankles, then skimming back to my face and neck, “soft, soft skin, I cannot help but suspect you are intruding here for a purpose. I demand that you tell me, for you are a trespasser, most likely with ill intent in my woods.”
He stepped boldly in front of the tree. It was a move to block me, to protect what he was hiding inside. It was now or never.
“You are unlike any creature I have ever known,” I gushed, pouring my magick into my voice as I unclasped the hook at the throat of my cloak. “You appear so powerful and yet, so different than the other dark fae I’ve met.”
With a swift flick, I dropped my cloak from my body, my glow illuminating the clearing.
His red eyes widened, the luminescence from my skin shining on his scaly, green body.
His cock hardened as he took hold of it, still staring at me in complete fascination.
His member was a brighter green than the rest of his skin, which only turned my stomach.
He was not of this world, his body an unnatural abomination.
“You are such a bright treasure, aren’t you?” He crooned, his eyes glazing over. “You’ve come to give yourself to me.” He stated the last words, rather than ask them as a question, all while he began to slowly stroke his hardening cock.
He’d already fallen into the stage where he believed I wanted him. That was part of a syrenskyn’s power. Simply by revealing my body with luminescent markings, the victim falls into a delusion that I want them. It seems Selestos was already there.
The last time I’d used my magick, my father’s target wasn’t so obviously aroused.
He’d kept his clothes on. But this creature was…
other. He was not born into a world of civilities and proper etiquette.
He was a monster made of raw, dark materials.
He did not hide his obvious lust. I suppose that was an advantage, since I knew without a doubt that my magick was working.
My claws and fangs had already descended, but my goal wasn’t to kill the creature. It was to persuade him with my magick to do my bidding. I’d never used it in this way. The last time I’d tried with the dryad stag, I’d failed. I had to test my strength of power over this grimlock.
“That is not my purpose here,” I finally answered, “to give myself to you.” I slid my hands up my thighs and along my hips, dragging his heated gaze to the movement.
He grunted, stroking his cock harder. “But you will.”
“I might,” I said coquettishly, combing my fingers through my unbound hair and covering my breasts in the appearance of being shy.
He frowned, sucking air between his serrated teeth, walking closer, still holding his cock firmly, idly stroking.
“You will, skald fae princess. Or I will make you.”
He was nearly upon me already.
“Stop!” I shouted, thrusting my arm forward, palm out. He was so close, I could feel the heat of his chest against my palm.
But he had stopped, confusion contorting his expression. He wasn’t sure why he’d obeyed. He didn’t need to know. It was a type of magick he didn’t understand.
Suddenly, I noticed several other pairs of red eyes appearing from around the trunks of the trees farther away from the giant oak. A chittering noise, a flap of wings. The other grimlocks were venturing into the clearing, very slowly.
I had to move quickly.
“I will give myself to you,” I cooed, flicking my hair over my right shoulder so that he could gawk at my breast, the pattern of markings rounding the top in an elegant swirl. “But only after you give me a gift first.”
“Tell me,” he growled, his body trembling with obvious lust and frustration. “Tell me now.”
I didn’t hesitate.
“That tree holds a secret.” I pointed over his shoulder. “I want to see what’s hidden inside.” My voice vibrated with power, whirling in the air like a whipping chain.
“Why?” he snapped harshly, even while he was panting, slowly stroking his cock which had swollen even bigger.
The chittering and sibilant whisper of his brothers speaking to each other grew louder as they appeared out of the shadows, mesmerized by the scene.
“I love secrets,” I whispered, injecting my magick into my voice with more force, holding his eerie gaze.
My voice echoed through the boughs of the ancient tree.
Secrets, secrets, secrets.
There was a sudden pulse of vibration coming from the tree itself rather than me, as if he were responding with his own power, trying to join me in this fight.
The other grimlocks squealed, certainly feeling the vibration of my magick, keeping themselves at a distance.
My power hummed hotter than ever before, amplifying me with confidence. I’d never felt this level of magick blazing through my limbs, through my flesh down to my bones. An eerie wind blew through the clearing, lifting locks of my hair in the electric air.
“Show me your secret, Selestos,” I whispered, my voice nothing but sex and seduction, “then I will lower to my hands and knees and let you mount me.” I tilted my head to the other side, my hair cascading away to reveal my other breast. “That is what you want, isn’t it?”
He blinked, bewildered, panting in frustration. “I can have you now,” he snarled, but his voice was filled with uncertainty. “I am my father’s son. I can take what I want.”
“No, Selestos. You cannot. I am a special treasure. You cannot breach my magick. Why don’t you try?”
I swore I heard movement in the woods beyond the clearing and the grimlocks squatting on or peeking from the perimeter of trees. My clansmen. But I didn’t look, keeping my focus on Selestos.
He let go of his cock, which stood obscenely erect, as he thrust out his arms toward me, freezing with his hands halfway to my throat. I summoned from the well where my magick sprung, pulsing out a white light that vibrated from my body.
He grunted in distress, taking a step back, his hands shaking, still frozen in midair.
“You cannot take from me what I will not give.” I slid my hands up over my hips and waist, over my breasts and down my belly. “If you want me, you must give me the gift I ask for.”
Trembling, sweating, he looked over his shoulder at the oak. “You want only to see what is inside.”
“You will open the door,” my voice trailed with the essence of magickal persuasion, “and let me see what secrets are there. You will do this now.”
“Then, come!” he bellowed, stalking across the clearing, over the knobby roots to stand in front of the black, viscous mass. “Watch what power I hold, skald fae,” he hissed. “Then you will get on your knees for me.”
He held both palms up toward the otherworldly mass feeding on the oak tree and whispered in a tongue I did not know. The black mass shimmered and dripped faster, oozing with a grotesque noise of slime slicking away as it slid outward from the trunk’s center.
Goddess above!
As the black film thinned and washed away, there in the darkness of the hollowed-out trunk, several pairs of frightened eyes and pale faces turned up to look at me. The first I recognized was Bes.