Like a diamond in the rough, Darswyth was a place of contradictions. Its perfectly designed cobblestone streets gleamed after a recent rain that’d attempted to cleanse its transgressions. The variousbalconies hung with silks and finely woven clothing, and the remaining scent of their remarkable bakers lingered from the morning market.
But it contained a secret buried below the paved pathways.
Those who ventured to Darswyth knew that beneath its civility existed a network of smuggling routes, brothels, black-market auctions, and taverns steeped in blood and rum, drawing in the foulest criminals known to man. The Gutted Sirenwas only one of a few hotspots within Darswyth where corrupt soldiers drank beside pirates with massive bounties, and royals slipped inside with a cloak pulled low, seeking things their crown would never allow.
While visiting, those known for their lawlessness often also ventured to Raghar’s Spite, a hard-edged pirate haven built into the hulls of ten shipwrecks lashed together. It was where criminals, pirates, and hypocrites alike purchased rooms to engage in illegal activities without repercussion.
Prostitutes were purchased from Seirdra’s Veil, a sultry, well-known, lantern-lit brothel named after the Goddess of Illusion, Delusion, and Seduction. Those who purchased them from the brothels promised them a life beyond the land, offering them sanction on their ships so long as they remained faithful to the goddess’s concept of sin.
The olive-skinned, dark-haired male tied up before me was no exception, assuming I was another female willing to sell myself to pleasure. Drooling like a hound beneath a sun-soaked dock, he’d stumbled into my trap with near-comical ease. All it took was me pulling my blouse lower to expose the minimal cleavage I had, and he came barreling toward me like a bitch in heat.
Men were genuinely pathetic.
“Oh, would you look at that? You’re nothing more than Elaros’s carrot-topped cunt.” His spit landed inches from my black boots, staining the wooden floor with tobacco-infused saliva.
Tilting my head to the side with indifference, I slid the dagger’s tip beneath my fingernail. “Oh, honey, don’t you know better than to use the God of Death’s name in vain, or are you just as foolish as every single one of King Marellan’s lap dogs?”
“Is that what this is?” he sneered, struggling on his stomach against the ropes like a beached whale. “You believe I will give you intel on the king?”
My lips drew together in a smirk, and I crooned, “Oh no, not the king. The man who hired me hasn’t requested his head, at least not yet.”
“Who are you, and who the fuck do you work for?”
“I thoughtyouhad already decided who I was. Elaros’s carrot-topped cunt, remember?” Dropping to a knee, I traced the steel against his stubble-coated throat. “Though to answer your second question, I don’t know my boss’s name or care to find out who he is. He pays me generously to slaughter his targets, and I get to take my womanly rage out on feeble men. Just like you. I’d say that’s a win-win. I don’t have to entertain anyone’s pitiful little pecker, nor do I have to acquaint myself with a man I’m sure I’d find horrendouslyboring.”
His face twitched with amusement. “Ah, so a crimson-cursed wench who is also a virgin. I shouldn’t be surprised based on your horrendous demeanor.”
My blood-thirsty blade nicked his skin, and as soon as lineage bloomed, I brought its cold frame back toward me. Opening my mouth, I dragged my tongue up its length, cleaning his tainted life force from it. Our eyes remained locked, my gaze transitioning to the sensual innocence he wished to see. Gathering a mouthful of saliva, I parted my lips just enough that a string of it dripped down my preferred dagger, coating it like I would a cock worthy of my undivided attention.
A rarity.
I looked at him beneath my lashes, weaving my fingers through his hair. “You believe no male has grabbed the back of my head…” my grip tightened as I ripped his face toward me, “...and fucked my throat until they werebeyondsatisfied, whimpering and seeing stars?”
A gentle laugh rocked my chest as I hummed, shoving him back to the floor. “I will take that as a compliment, but let me assure you of one thing. I’d give the Goddess Seirdra a run for her money on how quickly I could make a man coat himself with his own seed, or even how slick I could make a woman just by whispering sweet nothings in her ear. Imean, unlike you, I’m sure I’dactuallybe able to make one of those prostitutes orgasm. Meanwhile, you’d glide in with two pumps and climax like thepiteousdisplay of manhood you are.”
He growled, but before his next useless insult could fill the space, my foot collided with his stomach. He lost access to valuable oxygen, and a gasp followed as I tossed him onto his back. With a stride filled with intention, I stepped over him, squatting until I straddled his lap. The hilt of the blade danced between my fingers before I brought it down, using the side of his face like a cloth to clean my lineage from the weapon.
“So, here’s the thing,” I purred, leaning back until I could feel his half-hardened and laughable size beneath me. “Even on a good day, you will never please a woman with a prick the size of a tadpole.” His brows furrowed, and he wanted to interrupt, but I kept talking. “Regardless of the areas you’revery clearlylacking in, I know a soldier like you, so handsome with these pretty gold marks on their uniform, would be well-acquainted with the location of the king’s most trusted advisor.”
“Fuck. You.”
“See, you would’velovedto.” Moving the dagger tip with intricate slowness, I traversed the hills and valleys of his neck and chest before teasing his lower abdomen. His organ twitched beneath me, and I grinned, amused by his arousal. “And by the purefeelof it, you would’ve been my lovely little toy, wouldn’t you have?”
He gulped, his throat bobbing. “I-I don’t know?—”
I cut him off before he could finish, sliding down his thighs and settling just above his knees. “It’s a shame, truly, because I love it when men kiss my feet and let me havemyway with them, and oh, you would’ve been so heavenly, but it seems your fate diverted to another path.”
Twirling the dagger between my fingers, I drove its sharpened edge under his belt, tearing through it with an ease that made his eyes widen. His chest rose with an anxious breath as he struggled against the bindings around his arms and wrists once more.
“You should know something about me.” Gliding the steel acrosshis waistline, I kept my gaze on him as the tip ghosted over his most beloved jewel. “I dislike repeating myself, but since you’ve been suchsplendidcompany, I am okay with asking you one more time before I mutilate your body beyond salvation.”
“W-What is that supposed to?—”
“I will cut off your fucking prick if you don’t tell me where the king’s advisor is.”
“You wouldn’t?—”
“Oh, by the gods above and below.” I lifted the blade to my lips, clenching it between my teeth as I wrapped my fingers around the lip of his breeches and tugged.
