Page 50 of Owned By the Fae
His relief is palpable as he comes toward me, and Dane stays where he is, watching.
‘Thank you for delaying Rikoth,’ I say as soon as he’s at my side. ‘You saved me again.’
Jak looks pained. ‘I’m sorry I did so little.’
I shake my head, but he puts up a hand to stay the excuses I’d utter for him.
‘Lay on the bed,’ he says.
I do as he says, and I feel a tingling sensation go through my body starting under his hand that’s on my stomach. It spreads all the way through me to the tips of my toes and the crown of my head.
The pain that’s been so constant begins to ebb as he heals everything at once, and I feel myself relaxing under his magick.
‘There,’ he says quietly. ‘All finished.’
I take a deep breath and stretch. The pain is gone. All of it. It’s been so unceasing since Grith gave me that first beating only days after I arrived, I’d forgotten what it was like not to feel the constant reminders of their torments on my body.
‘Thank you,’ I say, grabbing his hand and squeezing it.
And then I burst into tears.
Great sobs wrack my body, and I feel myself being lifted. I wrap my arms around Jak, my tears flowing freely and making me feel a bit lighter even though the binding still presses down on me like stones piled on top of my shoulders.
The arms around me make me feel safe for the first time since Varrik brought me back. I know it’ll be sort lived, and soon Dane will have me under him as Varrik has commanded, but in this moment, I Iet myself forget what awaits me, sinking intothe surprisingly broad chest that Jak has been hiding under his healer’s robes.
But when I finally open my eyes a little while later to thank him again, I find that it’s not Jak who’s holding me in his strong arms at all. It’s Dane.
I sit up quickly with a gasp, pulling away from him. He lets me go, looking faintly amused. A quick survey of the room tells me that Jak is gone.
Dane and I are alone once more.
I look at him with unease, but he makes no move toward me.
I try to think of something clever, or at least biting, to say, but I come up with nothing except. ‘Why are you here after … everything?’
His jaw tightens but he doesn’t offer me a reply.
A few minutes go by while we watch each other in silence.
Finally, he gets up and goes to the door.
I’m relieved, thinking he’s leaving, giving me time, but all he does is speak to the guard in the hallway before returning to the room and sitting down.
‘They’re bringing you water to bathe and some food.’
It’s so reminiscent of what Rikoth did that I can’t help my wince, and I see something like concern flash over his face before he schools it into a careful blankness.
‘Can’t you just close your eyes and pretend I’m not a human?’ I goad. ‘Why draw it out?’
He raises a brow. ‘Let’s get something clear, Harbinger,’ he murmurs. ‘I may not want to lay with you at the best of times, but I’m not Rikoth. I’m not going to haul you over the table and pretend you’re someone else while I do my duty. You stink of moat water, and you still have crusted blood, that I assume is your own, all over you along with dried mud and,’ he squints, ‘green algae all through your hair.’
He leans back in the chair slightly as his eyes take me in. ‘You will clean yourself properly, or I will bathe you. You will eat, or I will feed you. And, when that’s finished, you will submit to me, or I will make you. But if I must do it that way, you will be facing me and staring into my eyes while I fuck you, and neither of us will be pretending anything other than the truth.’
‘And what is the truth?’’ I ask.
He hesitates for a second. ‘That if we don’t do this, the punishment will be severe … for us both.’
My body gives an involuntary shiver, and I stare at him in revulsion. But it’s not his words or his threats that disgust me. It’s my reaction to them. Heat rushes through me and pools low in my abdomen, and I realize with growing alarm that I’ve wanted his touch since he refused me in Rondorai.
