Page 34 of Between Soul and Vessel
She ran her hand over my arm, her greedy eyes feasting on the sight before her. “You are so muscular,” she said, her hand moving to my length, slowly taking over. “Somasculine.” She hoisted herself onto her knees, aligning my crown with her entrance.
She moaned in delight as she lowered herself onto my shaft, seating herself to the hilt.
Then, she began to ride me.
And like the broken animal I was, I let her.
Later on, when I was back in my private chamber, I stood in the bathroom, snorting water up into my nose, trying to rinse out that fucking scent of jasmine.
It was everywhere.
Shewas everywhere.
Her hands wouldn’t stop roaming over my skin, wouldn’t stop touching me.
I grabbed the wet cloth and began to vigorously scrub, chasing after her hands and everywhere they had touched.
It wasn’t enough. I tossed the cloth onto the countertopand went back into my room, rushing over to my forge.
“Where is it?” I snarled, my hands smacking at hers, trying to get them off me. I looked through my tools, searching and searching. No, it wasn’t here. I went over to a bucket, grabbed the handle, and dumped the contents out. I knelt on the floor, looking through the various tools.
A breath of relief found my aching lungs as I spotted the wad of steel wool. I grabbed it and swiftly began to rub the abrasive metal against my skin, chewing through the layers of my flesh.
“Fuck,” I heard someone say from behind me, followed by fast footsteps.
Aryx crouched in front of me, his hand clenched around mine, the other grabbing the side of my face, forcing me to look at him. “She’s not here,” he growled. “Do you hear me? She’snotfucking here.”
I blinked, the haze slowly clearing. I looked down at my tattered skin, raw and full of abrasions, completely covered in my ichor.
Finally. . .
I couldn’t see her hands anymore.
Avriel
It was well past midnight and the festivities in the atrium were still going strong, even though the empress had left over an hour ago, Shadow before her. Their destination was the same—her private chambers.
My stomach churned. I wanted to vomit, and it wasn’t just because he was with her. It was because Iknewwhat happened in that room.
ThewholeMother Realm knew.
In the arena, the men in the empress’s harem were soul crushers, but in the palace, they were concubines—slaves to her desire, her lust, her greed. Forced to do whatever she wanted, no matter how degrading or painful.
No matter how badly it broke them.
Beyond her chamber’s opal doors, the wordnodid not exist.
Sometimes the empress requested to see more than oneat a time, but when it came to Shadow, it was alwaysjusthim. Out of all her concubines, he was her favorite, someone she would never share, even though she pretended she would.
But I remembered that night all too well, when Shadow had lost the fight and had been shipped off to a private room with a young lady, chosen by the empress. The second they’d left, the empress had grown irritated, her nails carving up the arm of her throne. She had lasted maybe ten minutes before she left the festivities and charged after them. The girl was never seen again, and Shadow had been taken back to her chambers, where he’d been forced to stay for weeks. One night, I’d grown so concerned for him that I’d created a distraction, telling the guards that there was a disturbance further down the hallway. When they left, I pressed my ear to the door, listening for any signs of life, but what I heard was so much worse—
Agonizingscreams, coming from Shadow.
As he’d cried out in pain, the empress had growled at him about daring to let the female kiss his face. As she’d scolded him, I could hear the slicing of something, like a knife carving steak. It made me sick to my stomach, and I had to cover my mouth to stifle my sobs.
His horrifying screams were etched into my mind.
Right beside my mother’s.
