Chapter 14
Zyla
Blessed Amara was many things. Mother. Maiden.
Warrior. Queen. Sage. And many others. But there was also another element to her attributes.
That of the Seductress. Those that served her at the Temple of the Blue Rose were tutored in the arts of the flesh, and would often grant their favors among the chosen few. ”
— CAROVYN HAMAD, SCRIBE OF A HISTORY OF THE GODS
Morning brings with it new resolve and a sense of peace I’ve never known. All the doubts I’ve endured these past few days evaporate like mist. The goal now is simple. Find Kari. Then go to Blackfyre Keep with Bael and see my sister again.
And if Bael does not seek to claim a mate for himself?
Then fine.
I’m going to be the one who does the claiming.
I know he wants me. And if a particularly chaotic God tries to get in our way, then I guess we’ll just have to see if there’s some way to kill a God.
But first… Kari.
By the time Teanna is through with me, I’ve been scrubbed from head to toe. She’s an expert with her powders and heating irons, providing the kind of clothes I’ve never even imagined, let alone touched before. Bael awaits me in the chambers upstairs, but this is important.
Rhykus never saw Bael’s face at the manor, but he knows mine.
Which means I must be invisible.
I must become prey.
“There,” says Teanna, finally stepping back and admiring her work. “You’re perfect.”
I suck in a deep breath, examining myself in the mirror. Teanna did her best to make me look vulnerable, but I cannot help but think they’ve gotten it all wrong. I feel sleek and sexy and dangerous.
And now it’s time to put the outfit to the test and see what Bael thinks of it.
“Come in,” he calls, when I rap on the door.
He turns as the door opens, like some sort of fairy tale beast…
And then he freezes, his gaze sliding over me swiftly, before darting back to my face as if his eyes simply cannot believe what they’re telling him.
I lift my hands to the thick velvet cloak draping my shoulders and tug the cord loose, so the cloak slides down my body with a slither and pools around my feet.
Bael’s eyes burn as he follows the path of the material.
“Do you think this will do?” I purr, enjoying the moment.
Teanna painted my skin with gold in places.
Intimate places. The gauzy black dress is draped around me strategically, leaving hints of skin.
Just enough to tempt a male’s gaze to linger.
The slit to my thigh bares my legs, and my thick dark hair has been twisted back into an elegant affair that weaves together in loose braids, until it forms a single one down my spine.
I remember the way he grabbed my braid last night, and slickness wets my thighs as I think about him doing it again.
“It will do.” The words rasps through a dry throat. “Amara’s breath. You’re… beautiful.”
Bael circles me, taking in everything.
I track his path, shocked by how much I enjoy the dark glint in his eyes. I could own this male in this moment. I knew there was currency in sexual power, but this is the first time I’ve felt that power.
He is mine.
“Are you ready?” he asks, presenting an invitation and a small circular item on a velvet cushion.
My hands hesitate as they lock around the collar. This was once anathema to my very being.
I will never yield. I will never fall to any man’s touch…
But if I don’t, then Kari will be sold on the bidding slab, auctioned to whoever has the most coin.
Meeting his hard gaze, I lift the gold links to my throat and clip the collar shut. “We have a way in.”
“Zyla,” he warns. “There will be expectations if you wear that inside the Crystal Cavern.”
“Yours,” I tell him, putting the leash in his hand and surrendering to his control. “Yours to do with as you please.”
The carriage rocks as it trundles through the Labyrinth.
There are no wheels. Instead, it strides along on monstrous, spider-like legs as it carries us toward the Crystal Cavern.
Bael reclines on the seat opposite me, looking like he’s stepped out of some ballroom.
The black velvet coat is cut perfectly to his broad shoulders, the collar straight across his throat and edged with gold.
Tight leather strains over his thighs. I’d thought him dangerously appealing in his hunting leathers and shirt, grimed with hints of mud and sweat, but there’s something about the defined cut of his clothes now that makes him sleekly dangerous.
Or maybe it’s because of where we’re going.
The glint in his eye no longer seeks danger in the Labyrinth around us. No, it returns to me again and again, as if picturing exactly what is going to happen at the Crystal Palace.
He’s thinking of it.
And so am I.
“What are your limits?” he asks, stroking the leather strap of the leash handle over the curve of my breast, catching it on the tip of my sensitive nipple.
“Limits?” I let the leather curtains fall back into place. “What do you mean?”
“Mouth? Cunt? Ass?” he asks crudely, as if trying to force me to accept the reality of the situation. “Whips? Chains? For that is where we’re going, Zyla. And that’s what is going to be expected of us if we’re to make this ruse seem real.”
A shiver runs through me. “I made my choice. You won’t talk me out of it.”
He shakes his head, cursing under his breath. “No, I daresay I won’t. You’re as stubborn as a… a…”
“You?”
Our eyes meet, and I try to smother the small smile that crosses my lips at the sight of his exasperation.
Then his expression hardens. “I will not share you. Not your body. Though we will be expected to perform at least. I will share that much.”
I slide a hand over his thigh, strangely buoyed by the outfit. It makes me want to be naughty. “Good. Because I’m not sharing you either. If someone touches you, I’ll punch their teeth out.”
“Zyla,” he warns. “You’re meant to be subservient.”
I bite the leash. “When have I ever been wholly subservient?”
Wrapping the leash around his fist, he slowly winds me toward him, until I’m forced to my knees before him, resting my hands on his thighs. “This is exactly the problem,” he growls. “Nobody’s going to believe this lie if you’re spitting fire in my face at every moment.”
I bare my teeth at him, digging my nails into his thighs as I sink between them.
“I’m a huntress, Bael. When I wish for it, nothing sees me coming.
No matter whether it’s a forest I slip through, or a crowded inn.
Becoming. That’s the secret. You have to become one with your surrounds.
And if you think I don’t know exactly what we’re walking into, then you don’t know me very well.
Kari needs me. And she won’t be the only one.
So what makes you think me some shy maid? ”
Thick lashes hood his eyes. “What are your limits? Because once we’re inside, we won’t get a chance to discuss this.”
I can’t resist taking the chance to tease him. “Perhaps I don’t have any.”
Flames of desire light his eyes. “You don’t know what you’re saying.”
“Don’t I?” I glance from beneath my heavily kohled eyelashes.
Fisting the leash close to where it joins my collar, he lowers his face until the stir of his breath brushes against my lips. “Give me a word. Something you can use if you’re uncomfortable with the direction we’re going in. Or I’ll leave you chained up in this carriage while I fucking go in.”
All of those protective urges, all for me. He thinks he’s not going to claim me. He’s lying to himself. Fuck Kasaros. This man is mine.
“Mercy,” I whisper.
“A word you’d never use.” His lips quirk. “And your limits?”
“Mouth, yes,” I whisper, turning and sinking my teeth into his knuckle. “I’m a little curious about the taste of your cock.”
He hisses.
I kiss the sting away. “You want my cunt? Then it is yours. Always yours.”
Bael tips my chin up with slow pressure on the leash. “Ass?”
Butterflies flutter within me, but not those of nerves. “Does it hurt?”
“Not if I do it properly.”
I kiss his knuckles, rubbing my cheek along his hand. “It’s not a no. I don’t know. I will admit to a certain amount of curiosity. I will leave the choice to you. I trust you.”
It seems to infuriate him even more, for he growls under his breath. “Whips? Chains? Pain?”
“Is that what you like?”
“I enjoy making a woman submit,” he admits. “But I’ve never been one for inflicting strong pain.”
“And what about… your belt?” I whisper, meeting his eyes.
I’ve shocked him once again. He quirks a brow. “You want me to take my belt to you?”
“You were right. I am a little fascinated with your belt. And you did promise a spanking.”
“I will chain you up, Zyla. I’ll mark your beautiful skin, turn it pink. But not as revenge. I’ll mark it to show you who you belong to. Mine,” he growls, capturing my lips in a hot, open-mouthed kiss. “Before we are through you will belong to me in every way possible.”
Oh, he’s so mine.
I smile as I kiss him back.
The Crystal Cavern is a palace built within a cave, and if it wasn’t for the fact of its nature, I might have found it beautiful.
Music pulses and both hunters and their chosen dance to the beat.
Everywhere I look there are women in leashes, their eyes downcast and the odd bruise marking their flesh.
A striking brunette is on the stage at the far end of the cavern, her arm drawn back as she whips a man in chains.
He cries out, but the sound doesn’t strike me as one of pain.
I have to jerk my gaze away.
There’s no sign of Rhykus, nor of Kari.
Gods, I hope we’ve made the right decision. If Rhykus went elsewhere, we’ll never get her back.
“Here we go,” Bael says, gesturing me to the right. “Here comes the baron. Remember… We have to play the game to get in, no matter how much we might dislike it.”
A man appears, his hair and pointed beard dyed blue. He’s wearing a black velvet coat with nothing underneath, and a pair of leather trousers that are positively indecent. It would look ludicrous, if not for the dangerous look in his eyes.