Page 56 of Of Monsters and Mazes

I swallowed and he grinned. “Why wouldn’t you pick the ball gag?” I could handle drool better than forty lashes.

“And lose out on listening to your pretty voice?” The fox raised a crimson brow, though his delight was written all over his face. He was enjoying this whole thing way too much for a guy who tried to get himself murdered by flesh eating plants a few hours ago. “After the way you moaned through the last challenge, I didn’t even consider it.”

I’d been reasonably confident he was on my side after the first challenge. Now I wasn’t so sure.

Chapter 28

By the goddamn devil—

I fisted both of my horns and tugged like I wanted to rip them from my skull. The sickness of the serum had subsided, but what replaced it was so much fucking worse. I was either going to bleed her out and free myself from this cursed bond, or I was going to lose my mind.

I refused to relieve the tension she had crawling through me. Not with my hand, not with Master, and not with anyone. The only person who deserved my current frustration was the obnoxious girl who I was accidentally keeping alive. How was it that the one SINGLE time I made the mistake of helping a wayward human, just so happened to also be the one single time Theron decided to mark a tribute and Alessi was down to fuck one? It was almost like they sensed my blood in her veins and couldn’t resist.

My head jerked back at that realization, and I immediately dismissed it, not wanting to acknowledge that my own magical signature might have been part of what had everyone so drawn to her. Give a human a splash of devil’s blood and no one can keep their hands off her.

Devil and angel’s blood, I reminded myself. I didn’t like to acknowledge the impure half of my bloodline, but in moments like these, it was difficult not to. No one else in this realm could begin to understand my specific gifts and curses. I barely understood them all myself.

All I knew for sure was that the thoughts she was putting in my head had heavily warped the challenges in the Yellow Sector in a way I would not be discussing with anyone. I already suspected the King would want an explanation as he witnessed the exhibitionism. I’d avoid that conversation as long as possible. It would be something to laugh about long after this tribute was dead and this year’s game was over with.

I stood from my bed, and I paced and paced and paced. I hit my head against the wall once, then twice, letting the impact reverberate through my whole goddamn skull, while knocking into the stone with enough force to chip pieces off the rough surface.

The pain of a whip’s crack was a welcome relief on my back, but it wasn’t enough. Nothing was enough, because her pain spurred on the same feelings as her pleasure. This woman had fucking problems that made the rest of us look well adjusted.

When I couldn’t take another second, I turned on my heel and stormed towards the portal room. My feet took me straight to the orange twinkle on the far end. She’d be done with the Yellow Sector soon enough, so I’d head her off in the jungle.

I didn’t have a plan, but I’d figure it out when I got there.

Chapter 29

I was still rubbing my back as I followed Alessi towards the next chamber. The last of the gashes and bruises had already healed, but the phantom pain still lingered in my mental database, vividly enough that I couldn’t forget it. Any lowered inhibitions I’d been feeling in the first challenge had cleared, and I was now acutely, and unfortunately, aware.

“You sure seemed tortured by that awful challenge.” I glared at him as we walked. He tapped the folded whip over his shoulder in response.

“I told you this sector is absolutely awful.” He shrugged, not even attempting to hide his smile. Being asked to bend over in front of him was bad enough. Having to stay still as he whipped the King’s name into my back was worse. Not the least of which because I could hear the glee through his covered mouth and fake gasps of feigned disgust all the while.

Fuck this guy, for real.

“Right, this sector is the awful one.” I pursed my lips, and Alessi chuckled. I tried not to think about everything he’d made me feel in the last couple hours of our lives. Not the vibrator, and not the sharp cracks, and certainly not the part where he’d made me turn on the vibrator to distract myself from the sharp cracks. We would not be discussing the way my body reacted to any part of that. Not with my future therapist, and not between each other. That would only make this guy more smug about it anyway.

It wasn’t long before we came upon the next crossroads. I didn’t feel ready at all when, once again, the walls slammed down around us.

What fun little game would they have for us this time? Presumably, Jericho was watching us from somewhere. I bet he was totally into this shit. He was probably jerking off as I was tortured to orgasm over and over again.

Or maybe not, actually. He had probably also been hoping I’d picked the box cutter. He seemed like the type.

My only sense of relief was that it was my turn to pick. I waited anxiously for the cubby doors to appear, ready to get the theatrics out of the way and face the next obstacle already.

It wasn’t long before words started etching themselves through the gold again.

Sometimes fears are also kinks. Choose your weapon, the magical maze demanded. Not sure what I thought about that, but the nails that permanently scarred my wrists might agree somehow. Though no one had a serial killer kink, so to call my fear a kink was a bit of a misnomer.

Wait, DO people have serial killer kinks? Do I?

No, that’s crazy. I was absolutely not one of those girls who became a groupie to murderers. I just had a domination kink, which was completely tame and normal and sweetly vanilla. Maybe a being held down kink, which was similarly functional and conventional. The nails were a metaphor.

So were the headless bodies?

I cleared my throat for no one but my own crazy.