WhowasElla, without her father, without Alfred, without Natt? Whowasshe, when she was so alone, with no one left to trust?
She lifted her head to wipe again at her eyes — and found herself blinking at one of the carvings in the wall. The first in the line, the orc with the huge pickaxe, and with the smiling, naked woman on his arm. Akva, Natt had called her. The mother of all five clans. The goddess who, Natt had said, would bless Ella. She sees you, he’d said. She knows you.
And without at all knowing why, Ella lurched to her feet, and over to the carving. Looking at the woman’s smiling face, at the knowing, whispering warmth in her eyes. The mother of all five clans. The mother of the Grisk.
And when Ella reached out a hand, tracing her fingers against the woman’s bared belly, it was almost like the woman’s smiling eyes had fixed on hers, seeing deep inside. She sees you. She knows you.
“But I don’t know me,” Ella said, barely audible. “I’m not sure I ever have.”
But Akva only kept smiling, kept knowing, and Ella drew in a gasping breath, let it out. “I was supposed to be a lady,” she whispered. “It was my parents’ deepest wish. I wasn’t to be poor like my father, raised among sheep, weaving until my fingers bled. I was to be wealthy, comfortable, safe.”
Akva kept listening, and Ella nodded, swallowed again. “But there was a price, for this,” she continued, quiet. “I had to be all that they wanted. I had to” — she thought of Natt’s words, his truth — “I had to hide. I had to be quiet, to pretend, to learn to become all that they wished. The only time I was truly myself was with Natt, and then he disappeared, and —“
Ella’s breath was heaving again, and she impatiently wiped at her eyes, and jabbed at Akva’s bare belly with her wet finger. “Your son betrayed me,” she hissed. “Heknewme, he wanted that part of me, he told me it was safe — and then he threw it away. He didn’t throw away Ella the heiress, Ella the rich proper lady, like Alfred did. He did it to —me.”
The sobs were choking from Ella’s throat again, echoing against the stone walls. Because maybe that truly was why it hurt so much, why she felt so broken. Not only had she lost Natt, again — but it was like he’d taken her with him. Like he’d locked her away again, forever.
But Akva’s eyes kept watching, kept knowing. And beneath Ella’s sobs, beneath her hands scraping against the stone — there was the realization that there were marks, carved into Akva’s lovely form. Not flaws or cracks in the carving — it was too perfect for that — but intentional, almost imperceptible cuts. Gouged into her breasts, her arms, her thighs. One deep one spraying wide across her belly, where a son might have been cut free. One telltale cluster at her neck, that could have been teeth-marks. One over her heart.
They werescars. Not visible at first glance, but still there.
And when Ella’s eyes darted to the huge orc beside Akva — Edom, the father of the orcs — there was the realization that he had them, too. And some of them were even the same, matched together, earned together.
Even so, Akva’s body was still tucked up against Edom’s, her hand still gripped hungry and brazen around his massive orc-prick. She’d been hurt, by him, because of him, with him, and she would forever wear his scars — but she had endured. She was still there. Still true. Still herself. Still taking her joy as she wished.
I see you. I know you.
And before she quite knew what she was doing, Ella’s trembling legs walked away from the wall, and toward the door. Toward where she somehow knew she’d find — Natt. Sitting there alone on a bench, just outside the room, with his elbows on his knees, his head bowed, his black braid falling over his shoulder.
His head snapped up, his bleak wet eyes searching Ella’s, swarming with something that might have been hope — but Ella took a breath, shook her head. “I still — can’t,” she whispered. “But I should like” — she took a shaky breath — “a proper farewell from you this time, Nattfarr of Clan Grisk.”
Natt’s nod was immediate, his eyes glimmering, and he smoothly rose to his feet, looking down at her. And in a breath, a flash of heat, he grasped Ella up whole into his strong arms, and strode to the bed.
He laid her carefully down upon it, and then climbed up, and knelt close over her. Gently unfastening her cape, and then her skirt, with reverent, whispering fingers. And then tossing the clothes away, exposing her naked, bejewelled body to his watching, blinking eyes.
But he didn’t take off any of the gold, only trailed his clawed fingers against each piece, one by one. The earrings, the necklaces, the cuffs on her wrists. The new gold ring, still glinting in her peaked, reddened, swollen nipple.
“Ach, my lovely lass,” he whispered, his voice choked. “You are so bright. So kind and fair and sweet. You are all a Grisk could wish for.”
It was true, it was glittering there in his eyes upon hers, and Ella felt her shivery hand reach to cup against his dear, familiar face. Natt, her oldest friend, a stranger, who twice now had hurt her, and abandoned her.
But he had stillknownher, at least that was truth, and he turned his head to gently kiss against her palm, his tongue swirling soft against her skin. And then moving to her fingers, suckling the tips of each one, and then to her wrist, her forearm. Kissing licking biting, while Ella’s eyes fluttered, her breath hissing out between parted lips.
He did it all again on the other side, suckling even on her elbow, licking and kissing up and up. Skating his hot breath over the gold cuff she still wore, until he’d buried his face into the dark hair hidden beneath her arm, licking and teasing, tickling enough to draw a choked, twisted noise from Ella’s mouth. A sound that made Natt jerk up over her, looking down into her eyes with first concern, and then relief.
“Ticklish little lass,” he whispered, his voice wavering. “The scent of your laughter is so sweet, my love.”
With that he dropped again, his hands skirting warm as he moved down her leg, all the way to her bare foot. And then helickedit, the sight and the feel of that almost shockingly unimaginable, but of course it was, it was Natt — and Ella felt herself give another choked laugh as he sucked on her toes one by one, holding her eyes, speaking this truth.
He kissed and licked her foot all over, and then her ankle, her calf, her knee. And then all again on the other side, setting goose-pimples wildly flaring, hunger rising steady and smooth — and lancing into light as he finally, finally came up, kneeling close and purposeful between her thighs, lowering his head deep —
His first long, purposeful lick against her sent a loud, betraying moan to Ella’s mouth, her legs eagerly spreading wide. And gods bless him, curse him, because he only moaned too, his clever fingers so easily finding her swollen wet heat, and sinking deep inside. While his brilliant mouth licked and suckled and tasted, his long tongue swirling, kissing, delving, drinking. His fingers slowly slipping out, while his tongue slid in, taking their place —
And then those slick fingers trailed backwards, deeper along Ella’s crease, finding another secret place to delve into. And here was the howling, screeching, impossible sensation of slowly, purposely being pierced, fucked, in both places at once. Those fingers seeking and thrusting in back, while his filthy tongue twisted and flicked and licked in front, his eager lips suckling and slurping and kissing. And oh, that was his other hand, claws out, stroking up Ella’s bare front to find her mouth, scraping sharp against her gasping lips, seeking their way inside —
It meant Ella was filled with orc, filled with Natt, in every possible place all at once, and it was like she was firing with it, flaring bright and wide, her body desperately writhing and squeezing and suckling against him. Needing him, needing so much more of him, even trailing her tongue intent against his claw, sparking pain and blood and impossible ramping hunger —
Natt tasted the hunger, heknew, and in a swift wild jolt he was gone, every part of him snatched away from inside her, leaving her gaping and quivering and empty. And protesting, silently pleading, grasping with frantic scraping fingers at his hot sweaty skin as he loomed up over her, his entire body heaving with his stuttering breaths.
