Aida did the only thing she could think of. Screaming as loud and long as she could, she dug her heels into the soft bed to scuttle away from the dangerous stranger. Another shriek following tight on the heels of the first as she found herself naked and alone with the male that somehow made her skin tingle and burn like that time she’d brushed against a hot poker. Only this time it didn’t hurt.
“Silence,” the monster snarled, the hand not reaching for her halfway to his ear, as if her shrill cries hurt him.
Hoping they were painful in some way, Aida continued to scream though her throat felt as if she’d swallowed shards of glass. Not even bothering to snatch for something to cover herself, hoping Otaso would understand and forgive her, she lunged to the side to scramble off the bed and past the savage beast.
Caught by his grip on her throat once more, Aida coughed and sputtered. Lifted until their eyes met, she slapped at his chest and raked the ragged edges of her nails over his arm. Aimed for his face, though he knocked her hand aside with such ease as to make her vehemence laughable.
“I said silence.” Voice thick and rolling, tone lilting on the wrong inflections, he wasn’t from Aeslomor.
Dropped to the floor, she collapsed to hands and knees to cough and drag in ragged breaths redolent with cedar and summer. Tipping her head up she looked at the beast sidelong, her face warming as she noticed something she very well shouldn’t have. The trousers he wore were far more snug than she’d ever seen Otaso wear them. Tight fit outlining the thing she’d only ever felt pressed against her back, Aida screamed for the only savior she had.
“Otaso!”
His roar made the windowpanes shudder. Rage was far too soft a word to describe the twisted maelstrom contained in that single sound. Praying for a swift end as he grabbed her, Aida wailed as he hauled her up by the nape. Dragging her to him, he leaned close so he could growl in her face. Heavy braids twined with beads and metal rings made a curtain around them, shadowing all but his menacing gaze.
“You will never say that name again. Do you understand me?” When Aida continued to stare in panic-stricken horror, he shook her hard enough to cause her teeth to snap. Yelling at her from inches away, he demanded, “Do you understand me?”
Lower lip trembling, the first scalding tears dripped over her lashes. Dewy drops becoming a torrential flood, she sunk loose limbed and desolate to the floor to cower around her nakedness, hiding away what she little she could. Otaso was gone, if not dead. Why else would this stranger be in her room, so casual of being in her presence let alone her lack of attire? Otaso had killed for far less. He’d not allow something like this if he could. Not to his fawn, his jewel, his prize.
Sobbing into upturned knees, Aida ignored the male as he hunkered down before her. Hoping he would leave her to her misery and fears of what would come next, she understood that would not happen. Not after what Otaso tried, what he’d accused her of ruining. All these years her guardian warned her of what awaited her should he not be there to protect her, and now she would see the truth of it.
“Stop this,kou’va,” the man muttered, thick fingers winding around the back of her neck to haul her between his spread thighs. Tucking Aida into the sweltering shadow of his presence, he took her chin between finger and thumb to force her eyes to his. “I will give you something to weep about if you continue to mourn him like this.”
Eyes rounding, Aida sputtered a smeared tumble of syllables as she slapped away the savage’s hand. Seeking to put space between them, she cried out when her backside stuttered across the cold wood planks as he dragged her right back where he wished her to be. Caught in the vice like grip of his arm just under her breasts, she couldn’t even hide that part of her. Splayed hands struggling to shield that space between her legs, she cried all the harder when he raked a rough hand over the tangled knots of her hair.
“You reek.”
There was no stopping it as he locked his fist around her bicep, yanking her up to tiptoes to follow in his wake towards the bathing chamber. With a low growl of disgust, a sweep of his hand incinerated the wilted lilies and moldering petals. A turbulent skim of sunset hues rippled over the water, leaving it clean and steaming without a trace of the rancid oils or perfumes though the scent of burnt greenery lingered.
Wide-eyed gaze sliding from the bath to the man and back, Aida stood slack jawed in horrified amazement. The magic he controlled with so little effort was as powerful as Otaso’s to have done such a thing, yet it wasn’t the same bloody reds and darkness accustomed to her.
He gave her no further time to contemplate it, one hand at her back and the other slapping up between her thighs. Hefting her into the air, he ignored her shrill pleas as he stalked towards the tub. Dropping her in so she banged her hip on the bottom before surfacing with an indignant cry.
“You wanted down,” he said with a slow roll of a shoulder, the fullness of his lower lip drawing taut to twist up into a sneer. “Now wash.”
“I…” Aida crossed her arms over her chest, sinking into the water up to her shoulders. Dark gaze bouncing wild from one implement of her personal torture to the next before she looked down in something too close to shame. Not only did he expect her to bathe herself, an act she’d never performed, but she had no idea if he wished her to subject her body to the same torturous regime Otaso had.
“You what?”
“I’ve… I’ve never… myself.” Tongue twisting as the acrid ashes of her pride settled in the back of her throat, Aida huddled deeper in the water that seemed far too warm to be good for her. Perhaps that was only the heat still raging inside of her, flaring brighter each time she dared a peek at the beast measuring the length of the floor as he stared.
Muttering something in a tongue so foreign Aida didn’t even know where it might have come from, he abandoned the room to bellow an order for someone far beyond. The rustle of robes hurried towards the bathing room.
Hate was a powerful word, but the jagged knife digging into her sternum was as close to it as Aida ever felt at the first sight of the woman. An unwarranted tangle of emotions that nonetheless whipped through her, the other woman the target of every explosion of roiling bitterness. Not so much for the blue robed female as much as the way she kept her fingers over the beast’s arm, his nonchalant touch of her shoulder. Plump cheeks of tawny amber, smooth as polished glass, rose high with an incandescent smile as she looked at Aida shivering in the steaming water. Rich umber eyes fair sparkled in the bright light of the room. Every torch and candle blazing, they bathed the beauty with their warm glow as she turned to the beast and murmured something in dulcet tones Aida could not make out over the roar of her thundering heart.
Grunting his assent, the man’s lurid gaze settled on Aida, a dark brow perching high on his forehead as he looked Aida over with such scrutiny she slid even deeper into the water. They remained that way for what felt like ages, Aida chin deep as the man watched. Neither tried to speak, though the quiet splashes from Aida’s panting breaths were more than enough sound for her to bear.
“Immari,” Aida cried, lurching towards the last familiar face with a frothy wave surging over the edges of the tub. Careless of the man’s attention, ignoring the prickling heat scalding her backside as she slung a leg over the side to reach her one friend.
“Sit down,” Immari hissed, grabbing up her skirts before the rush of water coasting towards the drains by the walls could drench them.
Aida flinched, shoulders high against her ears to ward off the cruel strike of Immari’s command, easing back into the bath. Assuming her usual position with back straight and proud, Aida worried at her lower lip with the edge of her teeth. Blinked hard and fast to will away a fresh wash of tears as it left her adrift, abandoned in yet another moment of need.
Not that she should have expected anything different. Immari had never been soft or kind. Strict and sometimes cruel, she wasn’t wont to soothe Aida’s fears. Hope that their sudden circumstances would change something lying flat and dead before her, Aida fell into the pattern of her life that came so easy. A living doll, only now it appeared she had a new master to answer to.
Except the man was pulling away from the wall. Shoulders shrugged as if to loosen the muscles, a hand going to his side to play over the hilt of a blade there. Gaze fixed on Immari for a mere instant, he caught Aida’s surprise, holding onto it with easy domination as that rush of fire seared through her once again.
This time there was no hand holding her still, no grip at her throat to silence her. Low cry racing through the room, it echoed back at her in wanton disarray over the slosh of water as Aida fumbled for the edge to remain upright. Hips bucking once, twice under the churning water, she uttered a breathless squeak of dismay as something hot and thick made itself known between her thighs. Spreading over tender flesh, far different from water, Aida did not understand what was wrong with her. Shoving a hand down there, cupping over that space, she shrieked when her panicked touch sent a ragged wave of sensation through her entire body. A silent roar that suffused her with glimmering light as if she’d drunk down the sun itself.
