Page 57 of City of the Lost
Elora turned her head to look at me with an arched brow, her skin rippling as scales rose to the surface like a wave that rose and ebbed. “No?”
I raised my hands palm upward in a placating gesture. “Is the violence really necessary? It’s not like we aren’t trying to get you what you want. It’s just taking longer than we’d like. I have a map to the undercity. We were actually planning on scouting underground tomorrow night. I’m sure we’ll find something. But if he’s all wounded, then it’s gonna take us longer.”
She pursed her lips. “I’m glad there is some progress. However, that doesn’t change the fact that you’ve come to me emptyhanded. Besides, Azren will heal nicely. I’ll make sure of it. I always do.”
She acted too fast for me to stop her and brought the whip down with such force the sound echoed in my bones. Azren’s skin ripped open, but he didn’t make a sound.
My breath locked in my throat, trapped around a scream, and then she brought her arm back for another blow and my body acted on impulse, running right for her. We collided just as the whip came down. The wicked barbed weapon missed Azren and licked at the stone floor with a crack and scrape, but Elora barely budged. Her body was an immovable rock. My bones cracked as I made contact, and then I was stumbling back, barely succeeding in keeping upright.
She spun at me. “How dare you. How dare you?” She was expanding, growing. Her eyes slanted, her jaw elongated, and adrenaline coursed through my veins like wildfire. The whip arched toward me. I raised my leather-clad arm to ward off the blow, hoping to fuck the enchantment made it Draconi weapon-proof, but before I could test the integrity of my dustkicker, a hard body slammed into me, pinning me to the ground. Azren’s sweet scent enveloped me, and then his body jerked as the whip cut into him instead of me.
Elora’s roar was pure primal vengeance. “No. What are you doing?”
Azren raised his head and scanned my face. “Stop,” he mouthed. And then he shoved me away and stood up. “My liege, she will not withstand the whip, and we need her to find the Shedim. If she dies, we will lose our way into Arcana.”
Elora watched him through slitted eyes and then her mouth turned down, and scales rippled across the lower half of her face. “Oh, Azren. You forget how well I know you. You forget that I can see into your very soul. You care for this creature.”
“No.” He took a step back toward me, using his body as a shield.
“Oh, yes, Azren, and you know very well how I feel about that.”
“Elora, please. I have no attachment to this creature. I am yours, body and soul.” But his words were rushed and frantic.
She watched him carefully, her chest heaving as her skin rippled and seethed. He reached for her, pressed his palm to her chest just above her breasts. “I am yours to command.”
This time he sounded sincere, and even though I knew it was an act, his words tore at the deepest part of me.
Elora looked down at his hand, and then slowly reached up to cover it with her own. She exhaled and the scales melted away. “Maybe I’ve been too harsh. Maybe I simply missed you in my bed.”
Bile clawed up my throat and I swallowed it, eyes burning at the bitter aftertaste.
Azren remained still, waiting, as if afraid to prod the beast.
Elora shrugged. “Ten lashes, my love. That will be all. And then we’ll say no more about it.”
Azren dropped to his knees and bowed his head, placing his powerful body at the bitch’s mercy. She was going to hurt him and there was nothing I could do. She was going to tear the skin from his body, and I was helpless. My scalp prickled in foreboding.
The whip came down with a sickening crack. Azren flinched and blood spattered across the flagstones.
Don’t react. Don’t move. He was doing this for me. He was protecting me, protecting us. I needed to—
Another crack.
Oh, God. Oh, please, let it be over.
Whimpers filled the chamber. Me, that was me. Shit, was I crying?
Azren raised his head, and locked eyes with me as the third lash rained down. His jaw was clenched. I’m here. Oh, God, make it stop.
The fourth lash brought me to my knees. Elora was oblivious, her attention on the ravaged flesh of Azren’s back.
Rage raced like liquid lightning through my veins, it pooled in my solar plexus, building and churning and oh, God. What was happening? Azren’s head whipped up, his eyes flaring neon green, and something inside me snapped. The rage wasn’t rage, it was something else, a tension, a power, an unknown entity called forth by my distress. It exploded outward, dragging me with it, propelling me toward Azren, into his waiting arms. It enveloped us, fusing us together.
Fire raced across my back, stealing my breath and constricting my throat, and then Azren was twisting, trying to shield me, his grip like steel.
Elora’s screech stabbed at my brain and then the whip came down again. Barbs cut into my arms, snagging the back of my neck. Pain. So much pain, but then something tugged sharply at my solar plexus, breaking, cracking, and pooling out.
Azren cried out, crushing me painfully against him.
