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I surprised myself by laughing a little. “Honey, you havenoidea.”
He nodded, fleshy jowls bouncing, looking more than a little afraid. “I figure as much. But I gotta do this. Do or die, right, Gwynnie?”
My lips curved into a rueful smile, cracking the chapped skin. I let out a long breath. “You’re a fool, Walter.”
“At least I know it.” He grinned and gave me a little two-fingered salute.
Then the ground rushed up and we hit the emerald green grass with a solid thunk of reality. The dragon—I wasn’t sure if it was the same one I’d “talked” to or not—labored aloft again. Stranded. And in my least favorite place in all of Faerie.
And there was some stiff competition for that honor.
“Athena, I’ll take the staff now.”
The fact that she handed it to me without hesitation and Starling didn’t breathe a word of protest spoke volumes. Don’t upset the unstable person. As if they’d planned it—who knows, maybe they had—they all climbed out of the glass coach and left me to come out at my own speed. Except for Darling, who sat quietly beside me until I was ready.
“What would I do without you?” I ran my fingers through his plush fur and he purred, sending a picture of me sitting there, bored and lonely.
“It’s true.”
He arched his back under my hand, then leaped like dandelion fluff to the floor of the coach and looked inquiringly from me to the door. The dragon had gone and I could hardly sit in here forever. Though, at the moment, that prospect seemed entirely possible and definitely more enticing. I might have done it, if only the glass hadn’t been, you know, now totally transparent and worthless for hiding behind.
I decided not to fix my hair, to face them as I was. The small defiance shored me up, oddly enough. I had nothing to hide.
So I got out.
Sounded so simple. Took every last dreg of courage I could muster.
And they waited for me, Marquise and Scourge, my erstwhile masters, iridescently beautiful as ever. Arms wrapped around each other’s waists, her bright head leaning against his dark one at identical angles, they smiled at me with sensuous warmth. They held open their free arms in invitation, as if I might join them in a three-way embrace.
I stopped right where I was.
“Lord Scourge. Lady Marquise.” I gave them a bare and formal nod. “I’ve brought you a new pupil. I expect you to treat him well.”
Marquise let go of Scourge and took a step forward, holding out lovely hands to me, her crystalline eyes like Christmas ornaments, sparkling with pleasure. “I thought perhaps you’d come back to play with us, little pet. We’ve missed you so.”
“Indeed.” Scourge followed her, laying an ebony hand on her alabaster shoulder. “Perhaps you’d like to stay for a while. The collar doesn’t have to be silver. You can obey simply because you desire it.” His voice dropped in timbre. “Because I require it.”
I studied the grass, trying to keep my gorge from rising past the hard knot in my throat.
“Or—” Marquise clasped the hands I’d refused to touch, “—you could help train the new pupil. I think you might have a knack for it. The most submissive pets often make the severest masters.”
I raised my eyes to their hopeful, seductive smiles, then made myself look at the others. Walter stared at Marquise with horrified fascination, unable to tear his eyes from her gorgeous body, fully displayed in a loose dress of copper net. Starling gazed at me with a stricken look, as if she might burst into tears at any moment. Blackbird kept a serene expression while Athena looked between me and the sadistic twins with calculation. Darling Hercules stood beside me, tail wrapped around my ankle.
“Definitely not, Marquise.”
She tilted her head, sly and pouting. “I think you underestimate yourself. You have a new cruelty. Almost animal.” She shivered in delicate, deliberate arousal. “I’d be your pet, if you asked me. Scourge would like that.”
“Ah,” Scourge rasped, “ecstasy incarnate. The new pupil will need to…stew…for several days, as you know. Come play with us. Perhaps you’ll find your cure in the poison. There are many tricks we can teach you, if you’ll let us. Ways to use your magical skills to drive a being beyond the edge of reason.”
I’d been beyond that edge and I recognized the lure in what they offered.
“I have better things to do.” Something tight broke inside me, in release and relief. The truth of it rang strong and true. Whatever else I might become, after all the ways they’d twisted and molded me, they had never touched the fundamental core of who I was. I had become someone with important things to do. Missions of my own making, perhaps, but all the more integral for that reason.
“So here’s the deal. Walter here needs to learn to maximize his magic.”
“Does he?” Marquise fastened her avid attention on Walt, who went bug-eyed with delighted terror when she ran her hands through his hair and used her inexorable strength to force him to his knees. It never paid to forget the strength of the noble fae. Their limbs might look spun-glass delicate, but that magically amplified superior leverage trumped everything.
“Gwynn!” Starling cried out and I shook my head at her. This would be the first of many humiliations for Walt, if he followed this path. Better he get a clear picture now.
