Page 7

CHAPTER 2

I melted into the silk sheets, luxuriating as Duncan eased two fingers into my arse, all whilst Erix simultaneously twisted his tongue around my nipple. My back arched, my breath heavy with lust. There were so many hands, mouths, gazes, tongues and attentions. Duncan drew his forest-green gaze down over me, whilst Erix looked up from his devouring with eyes the hue of a newly forged blade. I couldn’t begin to focus on who was doing what to my body, as the tide of pleasure swept me away.

I was a feast for them. A banquet. A sweet piece of fruit for these two men to take bites out of, sucking the juices of enjoyment from my core. And I would willingly let them.

Both of them could take me, have me, touch me, kiss me.

I reached down to Erix, my arms slow and heavy. As my fingers touched his chin, his pale leathery wings twitch from anticipation. With a guiding hand, I tilted his head up, bringing him away from my raised nipple. I didn’t need to look at it to see the swollen pink peak and lightly bruised skin around it.

“Erix,” I breathed, desperate and needy. “My Erix.”

“Yes, little bird?” he replied.

Duncan continued his tender movement inside of me, his two calloused fingers stretching me, preparing me. He watched as I shared the moment with my royal guard, smiling with acceptance and equal enjoyment.

I didn’t want to say the words building inside of me, but I had to. “I – I know you’re not real.”

Like the shattering of glass thrown against a wall, the atmosphere changed. It always did, although this was the longest I’d ever allowed the dream to go on for.

“Yes, heisreal. At least it can be if you only ask,” Duncan sang, removing himself from my entrance, then shifting positions until he was sitting behind me. Too fluid, too easy. My head rested in his lap. My Hunter propping up my head, my guard leaning over my leg, holding them down.

This isn’t real.

“Say the word, my love,” Duncan continued, brushing damp strands of hair from my forehead. “Give me what I need, and you will have access to everything you have ever desired.”

“Liar.” I pinched my eyes closed, trying to regain composure.

“You know I do not lie to you, darling. Now, give me what I want.”

“No.” I snapped, tears falling down my cheeks. “I won’t.”

Duwar was getting desperate. Using my weakness to make me equally desperate as well. Poisoning my dreams had become their favourite tactic, and I was quickly weakening to it.

The dreamscape shifted frantically. Both men held me down on the bed with firm hands. The silk sheets had transformed to slithering vipers, wrapping around my limbs and keeping me from moving.

“Don’t you want me, Robin?” Erix asked, his voice drawn out and sad. “When you came for me today, I saw it in your eyes. You called for me, so I came.”

I refused to answer, not that I needed to. Duncan answered for me. Except the voice was not the deep rasp I’d fallen in love with, but the shadow-shuddering tone of the demon inside of him. “Robindoeswant you, Erix. You occupy his mind. Desires, needs, wants… everything I could give him if he only accepted my–”

I bolted upright in the reading chair, the knitted blanket falling over my knees and spreading across the floor at my feet. It wasn’t the type of waking that was slow and steady. My consciousness had kicked me out of the nightmare, lungs breathless, my body clammy with sweat. And yet, as I stared at the far side of the room, where the single bed waited, my body could still feel those phantom hands on it. My fingers lifted subconsciously to my chest, testing the tender nipple beneath my loose tunic, delightingandhating how real it felt.

“Another one of your nightmares, darling?” The question came from a hoarse voice from the direction of the bed. It was weak, pained almost, as if each word hurt to speak aloud.

I lifted my gaze and locked eyes with the man before me. Or what was left of the man I had known. A shell of a person, close to death and yet clinging on.

Duncan Rackley.

Every day it was becoming harder to recognise him. Once-bright green eyes had leached of the colour, leaving behind pale pools. Dark shadows hung beneath those eyes, his face sunken and pale. The scar off his eye looked angry and sore, like a fresh wound, instead of one that had been inflicted years before I’d ever met him.

“Sorry,” I gasped, rubbing a hand over my mouth. “I didn’t realise I’d fallen asleep.” I stretched my arms out, feigning some normalcy when nothing about my life was normal. “You should’ve woken me up.”

“I like to see you sleeping,” Duncan said, weak smile tickling at the corners of his cracked mouth. “You need to rest as well as I do. Maybe even more so.”

“That’s a logic I could argue,” I replied, hands trembling in my lap. “How are you feeling today?”

“Tired,” Duncan announced, monotone, forcing a smile that never reached his eyes. “Fucking exhausted, actually.”

The numb ache in my back told me I’d been out for longer than I had wanted. I don’t even remember when I had closed my eyes. One moment I’d taken my seat, waiting for Duncan to wake for his morning dosage of Gardineum, then in the next moment I was being devoured by two men in my dreams.