Page 2 of Magic Hunted
Running a fever and nearly out of my mind with hunger, I hadn’t been stealthy enough. The lure of his stronghold and the easy food for the taking had called to me. I’d crawled from the jungle, too sick and weak to climb a tree for a bite of fruit. He’d caught me when I was twelve, seen the rough diamond I was and thrown me into the Choosing. After a day etched into my mind forever, he’d honed my considerable skills for his benefit.
All the while I’d kept the biggest secret of all: Don’t touch anyone in case they should be my mates. Don’t bond. Don’t die. Hard to do when I was an unshifted panther shifter living in the middle of panther territory under the direct rule of one of The Six, but that was a fact of my shitty life.
I thanked the gods every day that Titan hadn’t recognized who I was.WhatI was. If he recognized the eight-year-old he’d tried to murder the day my parents embedded part of the Fae King’s grimoire inside me, my life and the fate of the world would be dust. My mother had hidden the grimoire well.
It wasn’t the stairwell I stepped into when I opened the door, but a leather jerkin, hard-chest and waft of stringent body odor. Rancid magic abraded my skin, telling me they’d used it to find me. Hard fingers dug into my biceps, making me cry out.
“Look what we have here. Titan’s little spy come home from her mission.” Peder smiled, but there was no warmth in that stretch of lips. His dirty blond hair was pulled back into a tail at the back of his head, and the shaved sides of his skull gleamed with perspiration in the low light.
My stomach hollowed as if carved with a blunt spade.Peder had found me!Not only him, because Kalos and Sinon were right behind him and they weren’t surprised to find me here. I backstepped as Titan’s cadre pushed me into my little room.
“I might not yet make it with breath like yours. What did you do, suck a dog’s balls?” I clenched my jaw, hoping he didn’t sense the tremor running through my hands.
Kalos barked a laugh that was much too loud for the small space we were in. I glanced over my shoulder to look him straight in his beady, mud-brown eyes. Like Peder, his greasy hair was longer on top, but he grew a short beard instead of the thin mustache Peder preferred.
“Wouldn’t laugh if I were you. Smells like you sucked his brother’s nuts. Or were Sinon’s hairy balls your first choice?” I was in for it, so there was little benefit in holding back.
Kalos’ face twisted. His lips peeled back as he backhanded me across my cheek. My head whipped sideways, and light exploded across the left side of my face. “Shut up, bitch.”
I spit out a glob of blood. “Imaginative. That’s what I like about the three of you. You’re better known for your muscle instead of your brains. Pity the only muscle you’re sporting lies flaccid in your pants.”
I wasn’t prepared for the backhand to my right cheek when Sinon stepped close. My bottom lip split when the golden ring he wore on his little finger ripped my skin. The green gem flickered with Titan magic before tears clouded my eyes. Luckily Peder had a good grip on my biceps because otherwise I’d be kissing the floor instead of hanging by my arm.
“Enough of this. Titan has waited long enough for her to return. Bring her,” Sinon said.
“You’re the biggest party pooper of your group, you know that? We were having such a good time before you spoke.” My words slurred between my swelling lips.
Sinon spun to face me. His gray eyes burned beneath the heavy brown hood covering his head. I glimpsed his neatly clipped goatee that tried to hide the thin lips, as he thrust his face in front of mine. “We can delay. There are other activities you could enjoy before your meeting with our king. Well, I don’t know if you’d enjoy them that much, but we definitely would.”
I stifled my inner shudder. Being Titan’s spy awarded me some semblance of safety from rape, but that was only tenuous. If I pushed too hard, Titan wouldn’t care if his cadre resorted to the ultimate violation to keep me in line.
I smiled, or tried to, wincing when my lip pulled. This time I didn’t hide my shudder of revulsion. “Keep them in your pants. I can do without seeing your limp dicks. Lead the way.”
That was the thing about Titan. Everyone in panther territory called him ‘king’. Or they did if they knew what was best for them. The cadre called him king because they truly believed Titanwasthe king. Why wouldn’t they? Titan was immortal. One of the founding Six who had saved Earth from the ‘evil Fae King’ millennia ago and ‘rewarded’ humans with powerful magic.
Where I got a rat-infested hole in the wall, the cadre had chambers in the upper levels of the castle with windows that opened to allow the sweet jungle air to sweep away their stench, and chambermaids to clean their mess. Titan gifted them his magic while he sent me on missions that filled me with endless nightmares where I was reliant on stealth alone.
Some of the things I’d done were best forgotten. If only I could, but those were the memories that grew hooks and embedded themselves into the inside of my skull, scaring me with each day I lived.
Where the cadre were happy to do Titan’s bidding, I definitely was not. The slave studs embedded into my collarbone, or more correctly the unspeakable pain they could wield, was Titan’s insurance I came back to him. The cadre was always happy to do his bidding, the psychopaths.
Sinon smirked. “You won’t have such a smart mouth after Titan’s had his way with you. You should have returned when you were meant to.”
Cold, slithering worms wiggled in my belly as a cold sweat broke out over my body. If I didn’t have to come back, I definitely wouldn’t be here.
“We’ve taken a bet to see how long you’ll remain conscious this time. Sinon thinks one hour, but I’ll give you thirty minutes,” Kalos sneered.
Peder twitched his nose. “Let’s get out of here. It stinks.”
“I don’t know how she lives down here. It’s disgusting,” Kalos said.
“The shit of the castle runs under her feet. Fitting. She’s a sewer-rat. She doesn’t know any better,” Peder said.
“I’d think you’d all be used to the smell of shit, seeing how close you’re connected to your assholes,” I said.
Peder’s fingers dug into my biceps so hard I couldn’t hold back my whimper. “Shut it, whore.”
If they only knew.
