Page 50 of Shadowbound

And then Kraven will pay and pay again for the evil acts he’s committed. I swear it!

26

Alaric

Luckily, Sylvanna’s quarters are located quite close to the Queen’s private collection. We wait until well past midnight and then steal quietly out into the hallway. I follow my Mistress as she leads me down a small, twisting side corridor until we come to a single, plain wooden door that looks like nothing more than a linen cupboard.

Sylvanna taps on the door three times and then murmurs something in the Arcane Tongue that sounds like, “Friend of the Queen.” And it works—silently, the door swings open.

My jaw drops at what I see—I expected a collection of magical artifacts like the one at the top of Sylvanna’s tower. Instead, I see a room more like the place where she’s been training me for weeks.

There’s a cage large enough for at least five submissives, several spanking benches, a kind of padded horse-like thing I don’t know the use of, and a whipping cross. There’s also a whole wall full of crops, canes, paddles, and floggers. In short, every instrument of domination one could dream of.

I feel my balls go tight and my shaft starts to get hard when I see the collection of harnesses, each one fitted with a different sized phallus. I can’t help remembering Sylvanna’s promise that she would fuck me one day, though she hasn’t yet. I’ve been wearing a tail from the beginning, but that’s different—there’s no one on the other end of a tail. No one to murmur in your ear that you’re doing such a good job, no one to thrust deep and hard, telling you to take it…take it all…

What’s wrong with me? Have I really been fantasizing about this? Maybe I have… I shake off the strange thoughts and turn to face my Mistress.

“Well? Where is it? The Heart, I mean.”

“Oh, this isn’t the Royal Collection,” she says, shaking her head. “This is just the Royal Play Room. The Collection is this way.”

She leads me through the room and I eye the equipment as we go. I can’t help remembering all the “training” Sylvanna has given me. The way she teases and punishes me and milks my cock…the way she’s trained me to come practically on demand…

Gods, I know this isn’t the time for it, but I can feel myself getting even harder behind the black leather trousers I’m wearing. For once, Sylvanna had decided to take the magical cockring off of me, saying it would be too restrictive to travel in. So I have a sense of freedom I haven’t had in weeks.

We reach the far corner of the room and I see a small door that leads to another area. But there’s a black whipping frame blocking the way, keeping us from getting to it.

I reach out to push the frame out of the way…and get a jolt of pure energy from it that makes me hiss and jerk my hand away.

“Fuck!” I growl. “What the Hell is that thing, anyway?”

Sylvanna frowns.

“I’m afraid this is no ordinary whipping frame—it’s part of a spell.”

“A spell?” I ask. “What kind of spell?”

“It’s another deterrent spell, like the one I use on my door,” she explains. “It’s meant to keep us from entering the Royal Collection room.” She shakes her head. “The Queen must have sensed herself being drawn further and further into the Glass of Distraction, so she put a spell on her collection to keep anyone with bad intentions out.”

“Fuck,” I say, running a hand through my hair as I study the bespelled frame. It’s made of black iron and it has cuffs at the top to hold a submissive in place. “How are we going to get to The Heart now?”

“Give me a moment to divine the spell and then I’ll let you know.”

She closes her eyes and holds out a hand, letting it hover over the black iron of the whipping frame. After a moment, she begins to speak.

“He who would enter must past my test

And find the way to open best

Until the Dark thrusts into Light

The Door shall always be sealed tight.

Pain alone unseals this spell

And pleasure mixed with it as well.

Try to open if you dare

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