Page 8

Chapter Eight

brIAR

T anyl led me to a quiet bend in the Perun flanked by grassy banks and a thick forest.

The castle was a dollhouse in the distance, its towers poking above the trees and its windows glittering in the sun. The waterfalls were a mere whisper of sound.

“I don’t hear them anymore,” Tanyl said. We stood on the riverbank with the scent of damp grass rising around us. “The waterfalls,” he clarified. He looked up, his gaze on the tangle of trees on the other side of the river. “The silence is more deafening than a roar you live with all the time.”

If I’d been wholly human, I might have believed he read my mind. But the elves didn’t possess that gift. No, Tanyl was just uncannily perceptive. He studied people until he unraveled all the knots they carried inside them.

The sun beat down on my shoulders, but a breeze sapped most of its bite, leaving my skin warm instead of uncomfortable. In the middle of the river, fat flowers floated atop broad leafy islands.

“It’s similar at the Citadel,” I said. “Bells toll the Hours. You get used to them.”

Tanyl looked at me. “I remember.”

Of course. He hadn’t stayed long before we left for Saltvale, but he would have heard the bells, the solemn vibrations shaking groaning pledges from their cots all through the night. I’d kept the Hours in Saltvale, but Tanyl hadn’t. He’d watched me pray, though. Unraveling me.

“So,” he said, his tone brisk. “What’s this new method of defeating the Scarrok you’ve stumbled upon?” He gestured to the water. “Do we start walking and wait for a Scarrok to find us?”

My gut tightened. If only it were that easy. But it wasn’t. And once he saw what I’d crossed the Covenant to show him, there was no turning back for either of us.

“No,” I said, drawing a knife from a sheath under my jacket.

A bemused smile ghosted over Tanyl’s lips. “You Rivven and your personal armories.” His smile faded as I knelt at the water’s edge, my knee sinking into the soft ground.

“Briar?”

Drawing a deep breath, I drew the blade down my palm, slicing a deep furrow.

Tanyl lurched forward. “Briar!”

“It’s fine,” I said, tossing the knife aside and then grunting as he slammed into me.

“What the fuck?” he demanded, tossing a wild look at my blood running into the water. “Have you lost your mind? Get up!”

“No.” I held him off, but just barely. I’d always been stronger. Still, my size and muscle weren’t much of an advantage against his panic. “Tanyl, it’s all right.”

His eyes glowed, magic and fury mixing in the dark blue. Strands of golden hair escaped his loose braid as he tried to pull me from the bank. “Do you have a death wish? Get up before I fucking kill you.”

If the situation hadn’t been so dire, I might have laughed. Instead, I plunged my hand into the water.

Tanyl’s eyes went wide, his irises drowning in white.

In the distance, something shrieked. We both turned toward the sound.

“They’re coming,” Tanyl breathed, his careful nonchalance stripped down to raw, uneven fear. He roused, then resumed tugging on my arm. “Get the fuck up,” he growled.

But it was too late. A current formed in the river. Under the rippling blue, a shadow streaked toward us. I surged to my feet as a bloated monster burst from the river and flew toward me.

Tanyl bellowed a warning as I caught the Scarrok and went down under its weight. Razor-sharp fangs snapped at my face and neck. Rancid breath seared my nostrils as the Scarrok hissed, biting and wriggling. Tapered ears clung to its waterlogged head, and long strands of hair slapped my face. The monster’s blood-red eyes were wild and unseeing, whatever intelligence the creature had possessed long gone.

And it had almost certainly been intelligent. Because it hadn’t always been a thing . Once upon a time, it was an elf like Tanyl. Like Sylvie or any of the other members of the Spring Court. Now, it was only mindless, scrabbling hunger.

But it was also powerful, its mind missing but its magic intact. Sigils gleamed on its bleached, wrinkled skin. Lightning zapped my palms, making me cry out even as I kicked and punched. Tanyl was a blurry presence around me. On some level, I was aware of his shouts and attempts to help, but I couldn’t respond. The second I lost focus, I was dead.

Gills flexed in the Scarrok’s neck, the flaps opening and closing as it tried to rip at my throat. Moss covered its face and tapered ears. Its clothes were tatters, making it impossible to tell if it had been male or female before it turned.

My muscles screamed, and my arms trembled. Guttural noises filled my ears as the creature lunged at me over and over. With a surge of strength, I swung hard, connecting with the side of its head. Blood and bone exploded as its skull crumpled.

“Move!” Tanyl shouted.

Flinging the Scarrok off me, I sprang to my feet. The Scarrok hit the ground, flipped, and scrabbled forward on its hands and knees. Shrieking and babbling, it scuttled toward Tanyl, who threw his hands out. Light flashed, and the air split wide open as a bolt of raw energy struck the Scarrok in the forehead.

The force of Tanyl’s lighting flung it backward. Blood and brain matter burst from its cracked skull as it hit the ground. Tanyl struck again as I scooped my knife from the grass and strode toward the Scarrok.

“Get the head first!” Tanyl shouted.

I grunted my understanding, and I held back as he pelted the Scarrok with lightning. The magic wouldn’t kill it. Nothing would. But enough zaps would stun it long enough for us to dismember it.

When the creature finally lay still, I got to work, hacking through its spinal cord. I tossed the head as far as I could throw it before moving to the arms and legs. Blood soaked the ground. It climbed to my elbows and splattered my face. Sweat stung my eyes as I tore the Scarrok to pieces to buy us time.

At last, I finished, my muscles screaming and the scent of blood thick in my nostrils. Chest heaving, I bent my head and closed my eyes. “Perun rest this poor soul.” I waited another beat, then stood and turned.

Tanyl’s fist caught me in the side of the jaw, sending me spinning around. I slipped in blood and almost went down before I righted myself. Growling, I swung back to Tanyl, who glared with burning blue eyes.

“I should hang you by your stupid neck in the courtyard. What the fuck were you thinking?”

“It’s the only way,” I panted, my jaw throbbing. “I need to show you. This is how it’s done.”

A frown creased his forehead. “What are you talking about?”

My lungs burned as I sucked in air, laboring to catch my breath so I could speak coherently. Because I had to make him understand. “It’s easier if I show you.” Grimacing, I bent over the Scarrok. Using the palm I’d sliced open, I gathered as much tainted blood as I could on my hand.

Tanyl sucked in a breath. “Don’t.”

I straightened. “I can’t be turned, and you know it. My human blood protects me.”

His frown deepened, something like panic stirring in his eyes again. “You can’t be certain.”

“I am. I’ve done this countless times.” I closed the distance between us. “As you said, my weakness is a strength.” I swallowed hard. “Come to the river. I have to show you something.”

He hesitated. Then he gave a curt nod. We walked to the water’s edge, and I motioned for him to kneel with me. When I dipped my bloodied hand toward the water, he caught my other wrist.

“Don’t do that again.”

“It’s all right. The Scarrok’s blood will shield me.” For a moment, he looked like he wanted to argue. Then he cursed.

“Fine,” he said. “But I hate this.”

Again, humor tried to rise. I shoved it away as I grasped his wrist with my uninjured hand. “This will be weird.”

He gave me a dark look. “Great.”

Drawing a deep breath, I closed my eyes and plunged my bloodied hand into the river. For a second, nothing happened, and I sensed Tanyl readying to dish out a quip or more scalding reproach.

Then, my magic fired. And the visions came.

They flooded my mind, schools of Scarrok streaking through the rivers with burning red eyes. Like fish, they turned as one body, as if some unseen force commanded them. The river forked, and more Scarrok joined them.

Tanyl jerked, his gasp confirming that he saw through my eyes. I kept a firm grip on his wrist as the vision unfolded, the Scarrok turning and arcing as their numbers built. Ragged clothing clung to some. Others were older, their nude bodies covered in sickly green moss. But they all moved as one, their mouths gaping to reveal long, pointed fangs and broken teeth.

The vision flickered as the river’s current batted at my palm. Can’t delay. I’d set another Scarrok on us if I let the blood wash off. Yanking my hand from the water, I opened my eyes, cutting off the vision.

Tanyl sat hard on the riverbank. “You’re a riverseer.” An accusation formed in his eyes. “You didn’t tell me.”

“I didn’t know. Before.”

Before. It crackled between us as I stared at him, my palm throbbing. The past throbbed too, all the moments I’d tried to forget cut open and weeping the same as my hand.

“How long?” Tanyl asked.

Every day since we parted , the ache inside me answered. But that wasn’t what he’d meant.

“Thirty years ago,” I said. “Grand Master Silas says the gift takes time to mature. It runs in families.”

Tanyl nodded toward my hand. “It follows the blood.”

“Yes.” I flexed my fingers. The wound had stopped bleeding, but the meat inside was red and raw. It would heal in a day or so—fast for a human and agonizingly slow for an elf. In everything, I straddled two worlds.

“Your mother…” Tanyl began.

I shook my head. “There’s no record of her being a riverseer, nor anyone else in her line I could trace. The gift must have skipped a few generations.”

“And now it landed on you.”

I stood, and he peered up at me as I extended my good hand to help him up. He waited a second, his eyes bright and observant, then clasped my palm and let me pull him to his feet.

“You’re covered in blood,” he said, his gaze dipping to my neck.

“I’ve worn worse.” I looked past him, my stomach churning at the sight of the slaughtered Scarrok. Already, pieces of flesh twitched on the ground. “We have to scatter it.”

“I’ll send knights to do it,” Tanyl said, his voice sharpening. “What did that vision mean? What were the Scarrok doing?”

“I don’t know,” I said honestly. “But they’ve moved like that for a while. It’s like they’re…organizing.”

Tanyl frowned. “Not possible. Their minds are destroyed. They can’t follow orders.”

Frustration rose. “I’ve seen similar visions for close to a year. The Scarrok have never traveled in packs. But they do now.”

“No. My men would have reported it.”

“It’s hard for them to report what they don’t see.”

Tanyl stiffened. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“At the Citadel, we’ve heard you keep your knights close to Storm’s Hollow. This is poor judgment, Tanyl. You blind yourself, and your enemies rejoice.”

His expression cooled. “My enemies , as you call them, are brainless, blood-sucking abominations. They don’t rejoice. They devour.”

“And they grow their numbers,” I said, my frustration climbing. “They turn your people and swell their ranks. I don’t know why or how the Scarrok started moving this way, but the visions are real, Tanyl. You can’t hide in your castle and pretend the threat doesn’t exist.”

He stepped closer, and his voice slid lower. “Is that what you think I’m doing, Father?”

My chest tightened. “Don’t.”

“You claimed you discovered a new way to subdue the Scarrok. Was that a lie?”

“I said that in the courtyard. You know as well as I do that no one is ever really alone in a castle. My gift is rare. The fewer who know about it, the better.”

“But your Grand Master knows,” he said.

“Yes.”

“And he sent you here.” Tanyl’s expression hardened. “Why?”

“I don’t know.”

Tanyl stepped even closer, the toes of his boots nearly touching mine. “Yes, you do. Lying offends the gods, Father, remember?”

My heart sped up. “I asked you not to call me that.”

“You’re in my kingdom now, more elf than man at the moment. I rule here. I’ll call you whatever I wish.”

“In Saltvale, there were no kings. No princes, remember? Everyone was equal.”

His eyes glinted. “Not you.” He shoved me, the blow light but shocking because it was so unexpected. He’d moved in a blur, tapping speed I didn’t possess. “You’ve never been my equal, Briar. Just a hot mouth and an even hotter hole.”

My face flamed, and something ripped open between us. The past spilled to the ground in a torrent of baked sand and searing sun. Sweat-soaked nights and a bruising grip. Phantom fingertips trailed down my neck. A warm palm squeezed my shoulder and then pushed, forcing me down.

On your knees, Father.

Tanyl shoved me again, striking before I saw him move. “Tell me why Silas sent you.”

“I wanted to help.”

Again, he sent me stumbling back. “Bullshit. Give me the reason.”

Anger boiled up. This time, I anticipated his movement, and I brought my hands up, colliding with him. He caught my wrists, then grunted when I twisted easily from his grip. His eyes flashed, and he blurred as he struck lower, nailing me in the stomach before I captured his hand.

“Tell me why Silas sent you,” he growled, the end of his braid lashing my chest. “Give me the reason, Father.”

“Because I asked him to!” I yelled, my voice cracking. “Because I wanted to see you again!”

Tanyl opened his mouth. Shut it. He swayed, looking at me as if he teetered on the edge of something. Then he grabbed my face and mashed his mouth to mine.

His kiss was hot and demanding, his tongue a battering ram against my lips. I opened with a moan, my white flag of surrender snapping in a violent wind. Like any good conqueror, Tanyl showed no mercy as he shoved his fingers through my hair and plunged deep into my mouth. I choked on his tongue and opened wider.

He rewarded me with the sharp edges of his teeth, the sting bringing tears to my eyes as he bit my bottom lip between punishing swipes of his tongue.

My cock didn’t mind, though. It strained against my trousers, and I whimpered, shame and arousal chasing each other. They blended and swelled to something so big I couldn’t contain it, and I sobbed into his mouth as it pushed against the inside of my ribs.

Tanyl’s hands softened in my hair. Pulling back, he stroked my scalp, and he sighed as I chased his lips with mine.

“My good boy,” he whispered, thumbs rubbing my cheeks. “Always so good for me, Briar.” He moved a hand to my trousers and worked them open, his eyes never leaving mine. He held my stare as he tugged my erection free and sank to his knees.

“Please,” I croaked, my dick bobbing against his cheek. Another sob broke from me as he turned his face into it and nuzzled my length, his lips brushing the thick veins that wrapped around my shaft. I squeezed my buttocks as my balls tightened and release barreled toward me. Gods, I was going to come just from this. Just from him.

Tanyl reached up and captured my sack. He squeezed hard, and my orgasm retreated. But the desire remained, the pain a knifepoint digging into my need.

“These are so full, Briar,” Tanyl said, kneading my nuts in his palm. He tugged again, and the knife twisted low in my stomach. “So much seed you’re making for me. You must have gone a long time without touching yourself.”

My breath hitched. If he found out I’d listened to him fuck… Memories of it rushed me, Sylvie’s cries and the wet sounds of her cunt filling my mind.

Tanyl pulled harder, stretching my sack. Punishing me even as he closed his lips around the tip of my cock. He sucked gently, and a wild, humiliating sound trembled from my lips. Hot, wet pleasure surrounded my dick even as merciless fingers tugged my scrotum until the skin caught fire.

Tanyl stared up at me with glowing eyes. He bobbed on my dick, taking me deeper as he rolled my testicles in his palm. Grinding, breathtaking pain fired in my gut even as pleasure loosened my knees. I thrust into the hot cave of his mouth, my hips rocking and my trousers slipping to my ankles.

Keeping my nuts in his hand, he slid a finger over the sensitive skin behind them. More pleasure bolted through me, and I rocked faster.

Tanyl opened his jaw and sucked me to the root. My cock nudged the back of his throat, and I groaned at the sight of my shaft plunging in and out of his mouth. He took every thrust, letting me fuck his face with ungainly strokes. But even as he loosened his grip on my sack, authority radiated from him.

That was Tanyl’s mystery—and his danger. He could ruin me with a look. Torch my resolve with a lift of his finger. Even on his knees, he commanded me.

He stroked my taint once, twice, petting the sensitive skin between my balls and my hole. Then he circled my rim.

“Yes,” I whimpered, shuddering and punching my dick down his throat. “Yes. Please.”

Jaw loose, he teased my pucker. Then he pushed inside, breaching me with the tip of his finger. I squeezed around him, and he hummed on my cock.

It was too good. Too much for anyone to endure. For a wild moment, the certainty that this —this perfect pleasure—would be my end pumped in sync with my heart, every boom boom boom pounding the knowledge home. I was going to die on the riverbank, and I didn’t care. As I started to shake apart, Tanyl hollowed his cheeks and sucked hard.

I came on a shout, hips bucking furiously as I unloaded in his mouth. My fingers clenched and unclenched, clawing at empty air as bliss chewed through me. I was still coming when Tanyl wrenched his mouth off my dick, grabbed me around the thighs, and pulled me off my feet.

He caught me before I hit the ground, then shoved me onto my stomach. I turned my head, my cheek pressed against the grass as he palmed my cheeks and spread me wide, exposing the muscle he’d just teased. I jumped as his nose brushed my quivering opening. A second later, something hot and wet coated my cleft and slid down my balls.

My groan was loud enough to shake the ground. As my ejaculate pooled in my crack and dripped between my thighs, Tanyl draped his body over mine. His damp lips touched my temple, and his bare cock lodged between my cheeks.

“You rode your horse all the way from the ocean to see me,” he whispered. “I think you were missing this, weren’t you, Briar?” He thrust against me, grinding his dick up and down the furrow of my ass. He rolled his hips, wicked and filthy as he slicked my own release over my hole.

I squeezed my eyes shut and dug my fingers into the grass.

Tanyl’s laugh was affectionate as it rumbled against my back. “Now who’s hiding?” He rutted harder, taking his pleasure between my cheeks. “So hot here, sweet Briar.” He swiveled his hips, nestling deeper. More semen slid over my sack, which still smarted from his abuse. His mouth moved against my ear as he used my cleft. “I don’t even have to be inside you. But you want that, don’t you?” A hard pinch on the back of my thigh. “Answer me.”

“Yes,” I gasped, canting my ass up. Spreading my legs as much as I could with my trousers tangled around my ankles. I thrust my hips back, my breathing ragged as his cock rubbed my hole. The muscle clamped on every pass, and I could almost hear my come squishing inside as he pinned me and used me.

Begging words trembled on my lips, and I pressed them together so the pleas wouldn’t escape. Fuck me. Hurt me. A third entreaty hovered, and I ignored it before it could fully form.

My cock was a hard, aching bar between the ground and my stomach. I’d just come and yet I was ready again, my balls tight between my legs. But I couldn’t tend my needs with Tanyl’s weight on my back and his hot breath in my ear. And the denial stoked my arousal higher. I was helpless beneath him. I didn’t have to make any decisions. I only had to bend. Tanyl would do the rest.

“Good boy,” he breathed. “Such a good boy for me, Briar, with your hungry little hole.”

The praise sucked the breath from my body. I worked my hips harder, fucking my cock against the hard ground. I couldn’t get far, and the scant friction was more frustrating than satisfying. A ridiculous image of my grass-stained penis formed in my head.

Tanyl kissed my neck, the tip of his tongue like a brand. Warm skin touched my nape, and I realized he’d pressed his forehead against it. He held it there as he jerked his hips, fucking my ass without entering it.

“Gods, I missed you too,” he rasped, then shuddered as he pumped hot seed against my cleft. The scalding heat of it was enough to tip me over the edge, and I cried out, grass tickling my lips as I humped the ground. My release spread over my stomach as sticky and hot as Tanyl’s come mixed with mine, and then I was a gasping mess on the ground. My heart raced, and my balls stung. And for the first time in a long time, I didn’t ache.

Tanyl breathed on top of me, his nose buried in my hair and his fingers draped over my hip. After a moment, he slid his hand up my gambeson and undershirt, his palm warm against my ribs. He dropped a soft kiss on my neck, another behind my ear. “You all right?”

“Yes,” I said. “But…”

His forehead met my nape again, and his sigh gusted down the side of my neck. “I know,” he said, and he sounded as young as he’d been when we met.

A horn sounded, the tone low and solemn.

Tanyl and I both froze. The horn blast came again. As it died, it rose a third time. The thunder of hooves shook the ground.

Tanyl’s weight left my back. I jumped to my feet, almost toppling when I got tangled in my trousers. As the hooves drew closer, I yanked the leather over my hips and fumbled with the laces. Tanyl flung his braid over his shoulder and straightened his jacket. We looked each other over as we tucked and tied, checking for anything that might tell others we’d just fucked in the grass next to a mess of Scarrok parts.

Tanyl scuffed his boot over my semen as mounted knights galloped around a bend in the trees. Their swords glittered on their hips as they reined in.

“You must return to the castle, Your Grace,” a knight in the front said. “The Scarrok are attacking.”