AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"Sorry!" Hazel cried out, hands raised, a sheepish smile on her lips. "I didn't mean to sneak up on you. Your dragon said you'd be down soon. They're all plotting in the study, aside from maybe Esther, who is—"
There was a bright giggle followed by a low moan twining out of one the hallways that branched off.
Hazel's lips quirked and she stepped forward, lowering her voice. "She is the lustiest person I've ever met, andIam part nymph."
I nibbled on my lip, recalling what I'd heard last night. "You are…you are my liberator," I said, staring at her.
Hazel gasped and looked away. She was lovely, tall and willowy with dark russet red hair. She'd told absurd and charming stories last night about working in the theater I'd heard of, performing entertaining sexual acts with monsters for an audience. It had been her lovers who'd told the story about the night they'd attacked The Seven Veils, and she'd fallen quiet, tucked between the imp and the demon, slightly shy of the story.
"I know you didn't do it for me," I said, wondering if it made her uncomfortable.
She spun to look at me once more, eyes wide. "I would have. If I'd…known I could've. That was a recent development. And I…"
"You went to save your demon," I said, nodding, recalling that part of the story.
She blushed and nodded, smiling softly. "I'm glad Asterion found you."
I huffed. "So am I. I was starving to death." And looking forward to it, at the time. How long ago that now seemed, as if my life was speeding up, soaking up beauty to blot out the tragedies of the past.
Hazel's eyes narrowed. "So it's true that you…umm— I can't believe I'm bashful about asking anything anymore, but—"
"I need sexual pleasure to survive," I said, offering her stumbling questions a reprieve. I thought of Asterion's finery and poetry treatment for me when I'd first come into his care. "Or pleasure of some kind, anyway. As a nymph…do you—?"
She smiled and laughed. "Not so literally, no. Has the doctor asked for some of your blood yet? He's studying us all, you know, and he's been very curious about Jude and me, since we're half-human." She stepped forward and lowered her voice. "I think he's not quite convinced Esther is all human, given how well she keeps up with them."
I laughed at that, and from whatever room the young woman and her partner were in, another great sighing cry of pleasure sounded.
"Men often underestimate women's appetites," I mused.
Hazel snorted. "True."
My hands twisted in front of me as I stared at her. I'd told Conall last night that I couldn't pass hope back to myself, but it wasn't quite true. Learning so much about the past year, about these women and their monsters and all they'd been through, all they'd done, had colored my captivity in the faintest shades. I would never forget the cracking stone of my cell, the certainty the house would come down on top of me, only to see a sudden circling twine of roots tearing my door from its hinges. I would never forget the sudden rush of air that flooded the room and my lungs, the scream of metal tearing that called to me torun.
I would never forget the moment my toes touched the earth for the first time in over a century. I would never forget the night of huddling beneath a pile of broken crates in the alleyway behind a public house and knowing I was, if only temporarily,free.
"Thank you," I gasped out, unable to keep the words inside of me any longer.
Hazel Nix was a watery blur in front of me, but she swayed and grew larger, and I did not flinch when her arms wrapped around me. I fastened my own tightly around her back too, a sob of relief escaping my lips.
"My pleasure," she answered.
* * *
I baredmy teeth and swung, a violent roar barely constrained in my throat, my arm vibrating up into my shoulder as metal crashed together. Hywel shouted and dodged away, his chest glistening with sweat between the open flaps of his loose white shirt.
"Ah! Get him, Evanthia!" Esther screamed from the sidelines.
Hywel laughed and shook his head, dancing back as I raised my sword once more. "I yield,blodyn bach. I yield!"
My arm dropped like a stone, Excalibur tilted just enough to avoid clanging against the floor. "Ughh," I said, knees wobbling.
"Oh, that was wonderful!" Esther laughed, hands clapping as she slid from Amon's embrace to come running in my direction.
Hywel reached me first, taking Excalibur from my stubbornly locked fingers, wrapping an arm around my waist as I threatened to droop. He was dewy with exertion, while I wasdrenched.
"Youwerewonderful," he murmured in my ear. "I'm very proud of you."
"How ferocious you are," Esther praised me, smiling brightly. She spun to face her crowd of men. "Why have none of you ever taken pains to teach me to fight?"
