Текст книги "King of flesh and bone"

Автор книги: Liv Zander

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Chapter 5

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Ada

My pulse went wild.

“You may leave us, Orlaigh.” The King dismissed her with a swat before he gestured me closer. “Approach.”

My feet stumbled into motion…

…in the wrong direction.

They turned me around to face him, each step up the dais shrinking away the distance between us, no matter how hard I braced and fought. By Helfa, I wanted to be nowhere near him, yet I inched close. Closer. Closer yet.

An invisible force lifted my arm in time with the King’s. Fingers connected, and he rose to guide me to his throne. When he slumped back down, he wrapped his arm around my middle. One pull, and he bodily hoisted me against him.

Shifting onto his lap like a doxy, I sensed the hard line of his shaft pressing against my thighs and wiggled. “No!”

“Shh.” He brushed his lips over my earlobe where his breath tingled. “Remember, never evade my touch or refuse me your warmth, mortal.”

I breathed against the dread in my chest. “I beg of you, let me go home.”

“The Pale Court is your home now.” The King grabbed the jug on the floor beside him and took a swallow as a corpse limped toward the dais with a new one. “And you, little one, are here for my entertainment. Being immortal can be dreadfully boring without the company of a warm body.”

“Please, Your Grace, I have family—”

“Your Grace?” Another of his arrogant chuckles. “You can do better than that, can you not?”

My molars ground together for a moment, but pride would get me nowhere. “Master—”

“On second thought, Your Grace suits me, having been demoted to king.” He stroked his knuckles over my cheek as something unreadable came over his eyes, like the faintest flicker of concern. “Master is the one thing you shall never call me, Ada.”

“The women in my village need me.”

“If I release you, more of your dreadful kind will follow.” He sneered with such obvious disgust it made my nails dig into my palms. “They’ll bore me with their demands, their offerings, their… threats.”

Bore him?

Sudden fury surged through me. Fury and pain and a picture of John limping along the cobblestone with violets stuck to his unruly brown curls. Of the children turning in their graves. Of that sweet little boy who had pressed his damp head against my chest.

“When was the last time you left this place and saw what you’re doing to us?” I choked as much on my words as on the lump forming at the back of my throat, but this much I would say. “The night I came here, a woman in my village gave birth to a child during the full moon, not knowing if it was truly alive or if it would be a stillbirth the next morning. How cruel are you to let a mother cradle and hush a babe already dead? The ones we love wander without rest, and our grief lasts forever.”

“Hardly forever.” My skin tightened when his lips trailed along the side of my neck. “It lasts until—blessed with mortality—it dies away with the last beat of your heart.”

Cruel bastard. “Do you care nothing about our suffering?”

A pout on his lips. “No.”

“Eee-nosh…”

My heart clanked against my throat.

That voice…

Laced with misery, it drove a shiver up my spine. From there, it spread along my limbs, faster when something shifted in my periphery. My eyes snapped to one of the faces protruding from the stone, its gray lips parting so slowly, sending a wave of bile up my throat.

Helfa, no!

The corpse’s veiled gaze shifted to meet mine where he was embedded into the throne, hard features giving him away as a man, his voice as tortured as his body that snaked around the King’s back. “Enooosh.”

Enosh.

Not a grunt.

Not a wheeze.

A word.

“You’re a monster.” Disgusted by his brutality, I squirmed on his lap, trying to get away from this evil creature. “You had their souls bound like Orlaigh’s, didn’t you?”

“Now, now, stop struggling.” My muscles slackened at his command, dulled by this demon’s spell. “There, that’s a good mortal, all pliable in my hands. You want this as much as I do.”

“I’ll never want this.” The scratch on my tone exposed too much fear, amplified by how I arched away from him. “Let go of me!”

“Mmm, so much fight in this mind where every fiber of your body has been starved for my attention. How long has it been since a man touched you like this?” A single finger ran down the train of my dress, only for his hand to clasp around my calf. “Did my new plaything get herself wet? When you touched yourself…” His hand brushed up along the inside of my thigh, leaving a trail of searing heat on my skin, then cupped where I grew needy and damp. “Here?”

My cheeks warmed at the humiliation. “Was it you?”

“Who else would inspire such a wanton act in his little mortal? Oh, how you dipped into your warm center, palmed your swollen sex, ground against your hand in search of relief but… ah, your king never granted it.” The tip of his nose brushed over my temple with a deep inhale. “Mmm, and I sensed it all. Your hunger for my swollen cock laying claim to the back of your throat, your warm sheath, your tight ass that has yet to be subjugated to this kind of pleasure. Do you want me to show you?”

The way he circled my nymph ripped an unbidden moan from me before I snarled, “You’re debauched.”

“Says the woman who’s dripping with need.” He chuckled, a dark sound like heavy chains dragging over hollow wood. “After she touched herself in this… sinful way, writhing in search of pleasure only I can give. In need of my length, the thickness that will spread you wide, the hardness of my body against your soft curves. Touch yourself for me.”

No. No, I would never—

My hand shoved the silk aside. Betrayed by my body, I stroked between my legs with rhythmic movements that set my womb ablaze. I rolled my hips against the touch, sought it out like…

Like a whore.

That word pounded a flicker of wit back to life. I might have been many things—a scorned woman, a barren widow, a fool for thinking I’d had a plan here—but a whore… I was not and would never be!

I shoved my other palm against his chest, liquid rage tingling my fingers as I fought to lift them away from my folds. “You’re the devil, just like they—”

“Ah, ah, ah! Your king didn’t grant you permission to stop.” Those colorless eyes regarded me with calculated coldness as my shaky hand dove back between my legs, swirling around my drenched hole until the blood in my veins thickened with lust that shouldn’t have been there. “There, that’s a good little… No, don’t press your thighs together. Let me see how you play with what’s mine. Mine to agonize with need; mine to torment with pleasure.”

Pleasure set my body aflame with each corrupted thrust I bucked my hips against, no matter how my mind reeled, screamed, shouted that I didn’t want this. Couldn’t possibly enjoy this but, ah… Torturous heat slammed into me with such force, I arched my back, resonating the chamber with lewd sounds I barely recognized as my own. What was wrong with me?

“Yes…” The King thrust upward, grinding his hard length against my arse as he cupped my breast. “So long since I’d had a warm quim tighten around my cock and milk the seed from me. Do you deserve that, little one? My flesh pounding into yours until you come apart on my length? Hmm?”

No matter how I pressed my lips together, a moan forced them apart, followed by a mewled, “Yes.”

“Have you been a good little mortal?”

“Yes,” I cried like a madwoman.

“Are you sure?” Crrk made the silk, exposing my breast to the chill of the chamber before he roughly kneaded the flesh to aching, making my nymph tingle with the onset of release. “You didn’t try to escape me? Didn’t mark my walls with notches?”

Smack.

My hand slapped against my sex, hard, shutting down my release so completely that my entire body shook with… with what? Disappointment? Had I gone insane? Even if he stirred my hands, how could I possibly want this?

“Mmm… you can’t imagine, little mortal, how I ache to plunge into your warm flesh. To have you again and again until we’re both so consumed with need, we will redefine the meaning of eternity.” He took my hand and led my fingers to his mouth, groaning as he suckled the wet lust from each one with agonizing patience, letting his teeth scrape along my skin. “But you displeased me so, marking your way to a freedom you shall never have. Go now! Hurry back to your chamber before I come up with a punishment.”

No. No punishment!

I quickly slipped off his lap.

“A change of heart.” He grabbed my hand and spun me around. “Down on your knees.” My knees hit the ground before he spoke the last word. “That’s a good girl.”

My eyes burned with anger as I looked up at him. “I refuse to be your whore, you bastard.”

“With that insolent mouth of yours, you’d make a poor whore indeed.” He sunk deeper into his throne and gave a suggestive thrust of his hips. “Undo my breeches and take my cock out.”

I watched my eager fingers tug on the black straps, lust spiraling through me no matter how my mind reeled at the sight of flesh swelling beneath. Palms glided over soft, unscarred skin. They worked the leather down, revealing his thick length, even though he was only half aroused.

“Grip me tightly. Ah! Yes, like that, little one.” Fed by thick, blueish veins, his shaft jerked inches away from my mouth. “Mmm… look how you’re licking your lips.”

My tongue strained to taste him, no matter how my thoughts revolted. My fingers wrapped around his girth, lust and loathing fighting at my core.

He clasped my chin, bringing my lips closer to his swollen flesh. “Run your tongue from base to crown. Slowly.” His gray eyes clenched shut as I did, his groan mingling with how I hummed crooked delight. “Mmm, yes… how well this mouth of yours will serve me.”

The faintest ember of hatred glowed to life at his words, yet I lapped a translucent bead from the slit of his crown, almost purring at the saltiness prickling my tongue. When his fingers tightened in my hair, guiding my head to take more of him, I did. My lips strained around his girth, tongue twirling around the wide flare of his crown. Each time traces of seed coated my tongue, my nymph throbbed with need, almost like an echo to how his legs trembled the closer he came to release.

“Open. Let me fuck the back of your throat.” Cupping my cheek, thumb stroking the corner of my lips, he thrust his cock into my mouth, filling it with his thick flesh while the muscles on his abdomen quivered. “Mmm… your mouth is skilled. Ah, Ada, bring my seed forth and you shall have a taste of me.”

Strokes quickening, his moans shattered from the surrounding stone as he plundered my mouth until, with a raw shout, his hips first stalled, then jerked. Fingers tight in my hair, he held me still, releasing warm ropes of seed which splashed against my gums before they trickled down my throat.

“Swallow me down, my little one,” he rasped. “Yes… ah, such a good girl. Spread it across your gums and learn the taste of my seed.”

Swallow it down, I did.

And I hated myself for it.

Hated more how I smiled.

With a tug on my arm, he urged me to my feet. He gripped my waist and picked me up, sitting me back onto his lap, his erection still slightly hard beneath me. And with my mind dulled with this sense of humiliation, I let him.

“Now this… this deserves a reward.” The King took the new jug from the dead footman standing idly beside us, took a sip, then reached it toward me. “Wine? No? Ah, where are my manners…” His other hand lifted toward the footman. “Of course, my woman shall have a goblet.”

The corpse’s skin first turned a speckled green, then blackened before it wrinkled, shrank. A nauseating stench cut through the air but faded a moment later as the flesh writhed and shifted, reducing to nothing but white powder. It dusted the air like a cloud of flour before it, twisting into a funnel, swirled toward the King’s hand. There, on his palm, it shaped into a yellowish-white goblet, the stem embossed with motives of vines slinging around skulls.

Acid, rancid and sour, licked at the back of my throat. It swept onto my tongue, making me want to retch as my heart drummed in my ears. My hand reached for the goblet all on its own, nails digging into the material, forming a notch there as the King let wine gulp into it, seasoning the air with its macabre sweetness.

Not alabaster.

Not stone at all.

I’d walked on the dead, slept on them, had bathed surrounded by—

I swung a hand to my mouth, letting saliva pool underneath my tongue. One swallow. Even a drop of it running down my throat, and I would vomit onto the remnants of… people. Mothers, children, grandfathers, compacted into a bed, a tub…

…a goblet.

A goblet he prodded against my lips, demanding I drink from what had been a corpse only moments ago. “I made it just for you.”

When he shrugged and sipped from it instead, my gaze fell to my dress, all blood leeching from my veins until my limbs numbed. “And what did you use to make my dress?”

Another swallow from the goblet. “Take a guess, mortal.”

Skin.

Death covered me from my collarbone to my ankles, safe for where my breast had spilled from a rip in vulgar display. Everything around me spun, and I slipped off his lap, swaying for balance. Out. I needed out of this place.

I staggered down the dais. Blood rushed inside my ears with such force, it drowned out my steps as I hurried to the bridge. Only the King’s laugh overwhelmed it. “Ah, yes, follow the notches back to the safety of your cage.”

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Chapter 6

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Ada

Warm clothes.

Provisions.

Sturdy shoes.

I put on the slippers the King had made for me, perhaps from the hide of a cow, but it might as well have been someone’s son. While far from sturdy, they would have to do. I could still pull some boots off a corpse outside, same with a thick coat to hide from the cold. Provisions, however, proved to be an issue.

Until the door opened and Orlaigh stepped into my cage, as the King had called it. “Breakfast, lass.”

For once, good timing. “I want to bathe.”

With a sigh, she closed the door using one hand while balancing a plate on the other. A plate made of bone—like everything in this crooked kingdom—loaded with slices of bread. It seasoned the air with yeast and the heartiness of butter, the scents strangely familiar in a place this rotten.

One I would escape once and for all.

She lowered it onto my bed, then hooked her hands onto her hips. “Ye dinnae look in need of one to me.”

Yet I had never felt filthier in my life. “Where’s your master?”

“Attending dead beasts.”

Making my chances of escape all the better, no matter how slim it left them. I wouldn’t stay in this kingdom built on death, ruled by a mad… whatever he was. In spite of his determination to keep me prisoner, how likely would he chase after me, leaving a place he hadn’t stepped out of for over a hundred years? Small.

And if he followed…?

All the better.

He would bring rot to Hemdale—if I made it that far. That alone was worth whatever punishment he would come up with if he caught me. What was the worst he could do? Turn me into a chair? Weave me through his throne? He wanted me alive, that much he’d made clear—corpses presumably made poor whores.

I grabbed a slice of bread, since the walk to Hemdale would take at least a day if I avoided the roads, leaving me no time to beg for food at nearby farms. “Will you bring water for a bath?”

“Ach, lass—”

“Please help me. I’ll try to run no matter what, but…” I set my pleading eyes on her, not knowing if I could trust this corpse, but I had no other options. “With your help, I’ll stand a better chance.”

After endless seconds, she cursed under her breath and walked toward the door. “Very well. If a bath is what ye want, I best hurry for water before it cools down.”

I grabbed the bread and pushed it between my breasts for lack of better storage. My stomach hardened when I walked to the door, and not only because of the groans resonating behind the bone. If I told the priests how I’d entered the Pale Court, would they call me mad? Or would they come for the King, finally serving him the justice he deserved?

Three deep breaths bought me a sense of calm no matter how brittle. I reached for the handle, my muscles tensing, readying themselves to fight through seven corpses.

No… not seven.

Six.

One was a cup now.

I pulled the door open wide and jumped back, only to brace my soles against the ground. With a hard thrust of my legs, I let myself slam against the two corpses standing there.

A limb thudded to the ground.

Thud. And another.

Putrid and biting, the stench of what had to be rot crept into my nostrils, making me nauseous, but I wouldn’t let that stop me. I elbowed my way through decrepit bodies, ignoring their groans, the snap of their teeth, those rough nails scratching along my arms, neck, calf until—

The corpse in front of me turned his head with such speed, his tongue slapped against his cheek like a dead snake, all because he had no lower jaw. “Ay-gaaah!”

The moment he reached for me, I ducked. One kick against his shin and the bone splintered, frayed edges cutting through his parchment-thin skin. He flailed his arms for balance, but hit the ground a moment later.

I didn’t look back. Ignored the tremor in my knees, the blur in my vision, the unsteadiness of legs threatening to snap… and ran.

Straight along the hallway.

Left at the first notch.

Right at the two next.

“Ayyy-gaaah!”

My butchered name resonated the hallway, the agony on the corpses’ tone blood-curdling.

Heavy footfalls sounded behind me.

Close. Closer.

My shoes slapped the bone bridge beneath me, eyes nervously flicking to the throne. Empty. My heart matched each beat with panic until…

No!

Sharp pikes of bone shot up from the ground around the dais. I skidded to a halt, the hem of my chemise catching on them, ripping with a hrrk as I turned to the next bridge. Was it the one to the Æfen Gate?

No matter.

Out! Just out!

“Going somewhere, my little mortal?” My heart stopped at the chuckle that followed. No, this couldn’t be. Where was he? “What entertainment you’ve turned out to be.”

The ground shook, lifting and thickening. I stumbled back and fell. Rolled. Rolled again until the chamber distorted into specks of light and dark.

I crawled, squirmed.

A hand grabbed my ankle.

I glanced back.

No, not a hand.

Gray and brittle, a bracelet of bone anchored me to the ground. I kicked it with the heel of my shoe. Once. Twice. The third kick shattered it, and I pushed myself back into a run, arms flailing for balance as I headed toward the bridge.

Any bridge.

More bone roped around my calves, but the force of my thrusts shattered them all. To my left, the King strolled toward me, letting a sense of dread spread through my core. Worse was how he suddenly stopped, a cruel twitch coming over his upper lip.

“You’ll never leave me, little one,” he said as his smirk sobered into a grim line. “Now stop, or I’ll have to make you.”

He could try. “Never.”

Another step.

Crack! Crack!

Pain shot into my legs.

I staggered for an excruciating step, and another, as if on bowlegged stilts someone had set aflame. I fell to the ground, palms sliding over the porous bone, chafing me raw. What had he done? I looked at my legs, feeling my lungs deflate and die in my chest. No, I would run nowhere.

Because he had broken my legs.

They gnarled behind the blur of tears covering my eyes, taking on the crooked shape of a dog’s hind-legs, even as the pain slowly eased away. It shouldn’t. With my legs this badly broken, shouldn’t I scream in pain?

“There, there.” Strong arms lifted me, pressing me against an even stronger chest. “Look what you made me do, little one. No king should chase his runaway servant, and certainly not into lands he hasn’t stepped on for nearly two centuries.”

I didn’t want it to, but my face fell into the crook of his neck, letting tears run down his collarbone. “You broke my legs.”

“Twisted,” he corrected, as if it made a difference. He carried me over another bridge and from there, into a dark corridor. “Behave, and I’ll straighten them.”

“Where are you taking me?”

“To bathe, as my woman requested.”

Gray bone turned into what appeared to be actual stone, dark like slate, which opened into some sort of cavern. Traces of mildew clung to the humid air the deeper we ventured until wafts of steam settled damp on my cheeks. They billowed from the surface of what had to be a hot spring, the water gently bubbling against the stone edge that surrounded it.

Beside it stood Orlaigh, her chin pressed to her chest, hands fumbling with the cotton of her dress as she mumbled, “Nothing good would’ve come of it, lass.”

My head ached at my foolishness and a knot formed in my stomach for this betrayal. “So you ratted me out.”

“Ach, lass, ye cannae ken—”

“Leave us,” the King commanded as he lowered me to the ground, steadying me on my disfigured legs. “What a mess you made of yourself, little one.”

I stared behind Orlaigh as she left, if only to keep my eyes from how the King let his breeches thud to the ground. My chemise went next, which he carefully tugged over my head as I swayed on unreliable legs, before he let the fabric pool between us.

Lifting me once more, he wiggled my crooked feet until the shoes slipped off, then he climbed into the water. “You’ll never see the outside world again.”

Oh, but I would. “Never is a long time.”

Heat encapsulated me as he lowered us into the water, the way he gently wet my hair so unlike the beast who’d broken my legs. He let his hand run over my body with no restraint, washing me clean.

“You’re mine, Ada.” His dark whisper against my ear pebbled my skin. “My servant, my plaything, my woman. I’ll never let you go.”

No, he wouldn’t, but I would escape him at some point. Had to get away from this devil who—

His tongue trailed over the side of my damp neck as his fingertips ventured between my legs. They circled, dipped, seduced until I whimpered with a need that bordered on pain.

A moan left my lips without consent. “Stop.”

“Perhaps I was too harsh during our last encounter.” His finger curled inside me, pressing against my walls, creating a sense of fullness. “Leaving you unsatisfied… Tsk, tsk, how rude of me.”

Hands clasped around my waist, he lifted me from the water and sat me on the edge. I clenched my eyes shut when he prodded my knees apart, making me spread wide for him.

I jumped when his thumb circled my nymph that throbbed with ungodly need. “I hate you.”

“Only until I kiss you… right here.” He pinched the little bud, making me squirm, yet I sensed myself arch into the rough touch. “Suckle your juices and fuck you with my tongue until you beg for my cock. Has a mortal man ever given you pleasure like this?”

The question shivered through me, robbing my voice, my breath, so I only shook my head.

“Allow me.” He trailed kisses up the inside of my thigh toward my sex. Like velvet, his tongue stroked along over my entrance, higher, higher, until—

“Oh my god!”

His grin-hardened mouth covered my sex as he mumbled, “Quite so.”

“Please…”

“I’ll please you like no other can.” He suckled on my folds before his broad tongue lapped at my center, tip circling my entrance, dipping in, working me to heights I hadn’t known before. “Ah, my little mortal, how delicious you are.”

“Please…” Stop. The word rested on my tongue, creeping toward shivering lips as they parted, but all that came out was, “Mmm!”

When I dug my hands into his raven strands, grabbing it by the fistful like a woman possessed, he groaned and buried his face deeper. He ravaged me so thoroughly, the word ‘stop’ faded out of existence against the pants and lewd sounds he teased from my lips. Every nerve in my body quaked, and I cried out as if in pain when my walls flexed, spasmed, until—

“Beg.” He pulled back, lifted himself out of the water, and pinched my nipple until my peak died away. “Beg for forgiveness, little mortal, and I’ll play with you some more.”

“I don’t want your forgiveness, if this is what it gets me.” Anger rode me hard over what he’d done to me—what he refused to do—but I wouldn’t give him this. “I’d rather have you sard all my holes than take pleasure from the mouth of the devil.”

“Ah, why not say so sooner, mortal?” The ground softened and shifted underneath me, and the next moment, he flipped me around until my belly rested on hides. With his arm slung around my hips, he lifted me onto my knees, arse on outrageous display. “Uh-uh, no wiggling away. Remember? Good little mortals get their legs straightened. Given how much effort it takes me to make you kneel, I doubt you want to crawl about court. Do you? No. Now, little one, reach behind and spread your cheeks for me.”

My arms reached back on their own accord, even as rage pumped through my veins. Fingers hooked into my cheeks, I spread myself wide, presenting myself like a bitch in heat. Whined like one, too, rolling my hips, arching my back as my womb flooded with lust that wasn’t my own.

Couldn’t be. Would never.

But it was there now, making me hurt for him to push his length inside me. “What are you doing to me?”

“Oh, little one, have you forgotten who I am? You called me the King of Flesh and Bone.” He nudged his crown at my slick entrance as his fingers buried into my waist. “I am the heat between your legs, the throbbing in your cunt, the moan in your throat, the tremble in your bones, and the ache inside your belly, hungering to make me sate it.”

I moaned, relishing how he dipped into me ever so slightly, stretching me, only to pull out and let his flesh pound my entrance with wet smack-smack-smacks to complete my eager humiliation. “You’re the devil.”

“On more than one occasion, mankind has called me the devil.” He pushed down between my shoulder blades until my arms gave out. “Let me show you pleasure like only the devil can.”

A devil who let his crown slip higher.

Too high.

“Pleas– Ah!”

He thrust up into my darkest place, past untrained muscle that wanted to clench against the sudden invasion. A painful one that strangled all air from my lungs, making me dig my fingers into the hide as he forced himself deeper inside me.

“Shh, I need you to be still while I use this hole.” He shoved his length inside my arse, making it sting and burn in a million places. “You’ll learn to love this, my mortal. Will come apart from pleasure with your ass tight around my cock. Yes, you want that, my little plaything… So good with how you open up for me.”

My muscles slackened at his praise.

“Ah!” His masculine groan vibrated deep in my flesh, letting the burn around my hole morph into a warm tingle. “Yes, my woman likes this. Look how nicely you’re spreading your cheeks wider, taking me so deep. So good.” He stroked into me with quickening thrusts, spreading my hole wide, letting a second pulse pound around my nymph. “Mmm, come apart on my cock. Let your ass clench around my length. Yes, like that. I’ll leave a nice load of seed deep in your belly.”

Gradually, the hunger at my core roared into something ravenous—as did my disgust, mostly for myself. No, I couldn’t possibly enjoy the demon’s cock up my arse.

Yet I arched my back, bracing the hides each time he pumped into me, his voice ragged around each satisfied sound forming at the back of his throat. Heavens, the need in those hands that gripped me with bruising strength, the unrestrained way he pounded into me, the shifting of the muscles on his stomach when I glanced back—

A tingle crested toward my nymph. “No…”

“Yes, little one. Come with my length deep inside you.” The faster I shook my head, the faster he fucked me until, pushing to the hilt, he set me ablaze. “Now! Do it! Yes… how nicely you’re gripping me. Ah, take my seed, little mortal. Mmm, yes, this needy hole wants it all.”

Heat seared through my limbs, blazing along my spine, engulfing me so completely until, with the last fading flickers, it consumed all of me. Charred me to the shame in my bones, the confusion in my mind, and the gleaming embers of rage.

What had I done?

What had he made me do?

“What creature are you?” I asked, my voice strained.

“I am your god.” The blasphemous statement didn’t register nearly as much as how he pulled out from my arse, letting a trickle of seed run down my leg. “As old as time, born from nothing, I came into existence with one purpose: to rule and rot the flesh and bone of all that lives, so I may cleanse the Earth of its remnants and command over them. Theres’s no place, my little one, where you could hide from me. Not forever.”

A curse cast by an enraged god.

What if those old tales held more truth than the priests let on? Why else would they have burned the books, eradicating any and all written proof of this god, and let time sweep away the rest?

I struggled a swallow down my throat. “So you’re no king.”

“What a predicament in terms of proper address.” He lay down next to me, pulling me against his chest as if… as if we were lovers. “Considering what just transpired between us, I believe we are beyond formalities. You may call me Enosh.”

Like the corpses in the throne. “Enosh? What does it mean?”

“Form. Some may call it appearance.” A kiss against my temple. “It is my true name.”

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