The king needed him to march at Spearhead. Sorin needed to trust Lilith. He’d trusted Bianka and, the second he’d left her, she’d dishonored him and burned down his ancestral home. He could not make that mistake again. Already Lilith’s reaction proved she wasn’t happy about being left behind. Though, with her, he wasn’t worried about her seducing other men so much as her leaving him forever. Two wives who didn’t wish to be claimed by him? He shuddered to think on it.
The last few fortnights had been unlike anything he’d ever known. When he touched Lilith, he forgot everything but the feel of her skin and the look in her eyes. But not once did he imagine her to be content. He saw the way she thoughtfully looked over the distance. He heard reports of her endless questions to the servants. Had they seen any peculiar objects in the castle? Did they know how Divinity transported her there? No one told her anything and Lilith didn’t yet have a clear picture of Starian loyalty, but that didn’t stop her from trying to discover the truth.
What Sorin didn’t know was, did her desire to know mean she’d leave him if she had the chance, or was it just her natural curiosity? He was sure he wouldn’t like the answer.
Fool.
Idiot.
Weak.
Sorin watched the stoical nature of the hall. The men didn’t know of his plan to test his wife and would think his mood due to upcoming battle. Tearing off a piece of bread, he forced himself to take a bite. Tonight, Lilith’s true intentions would be revealed.
* * * * *
Lilith edged up to the door from her crouched position to peek through the bars. Tension rolled over her as she expected someone to reach out and grab her head the second it came into view. When nothing stirred inside the empty cell, she frowned and went to look inside the next ones. They, too, were empty.
Who guards empty prison cells?
Lilith wondered if they’d transported everyone out of there, or if perhaps they hid a more important secret. Her breathing deepened and she couldn’t stop her legs from hurrying down the corridor in excitement. She tried the thick, metal doors, pulling them open. Some were weapon storage, crammed full of swords and shields, crossbows and maces. Others contained mining instruments and warm pipes that led up from the ground.
There has to be more.
As she neared the end of the corridor, she reached for the second to the last door and pulled. A soft blue glow came from within, very unlike anything else she’d seen at Battlewar Castle.
Divinity.
Lilith knew that light. She’d found the way home.
Inside, the blue glow lit her way as she hurried down a long row of stairs. They led deeper into the earth before opening into a large underground clearing. The cave’s dirt matched what she’d seen on the mining instruments in the other room. At the end of the clearing, a large domed vault had been constructed to reflect the architecture of the castle. Every Divinity portal had a different look to it, but the main construct remained the same. A domed arch with a back and two side walls covered a center platform, their mass deceptively dense as to increase its own gravitational field and draw objects to it. The stone hid a complex configuration of liquid crystals, electrical currents, mirrors and vacuums. It was held in check by the wavelength of a specific blue light, which kept the portal inactive. Should the light change, a dimensional shift would occur taking whoever stood on the platform to a new parallel universe. In the early days, before the platforms, travel had been a haphazard affair, and many of the testers died by materializing inside solid objects. Now Divinity sent out microscopic probes first.
Once she found the controls, getting home would be easy. She’d simply send a long pulse of light color coded to her dimension and jump in. Though, on the other side, she’d find herself at Divinity headquarters in front of a team of their scientists. They might not be too happy with her return, but at least there would be plenty of witnesses there to see it. Maybe then she could get some answers. Maybe then she could help Jayne and the others and keep countless other women from being thrust into a strange world against their will.
Following the concentration of blue light to its source, a high beam shot from a high corner, she found the main controls mounted into the stone wall. Twelve turn dials indicated the color coding, including intensity and saturation.
Lilith hesitated as she stared at the dial. If she left Staria, she’d never be able to come back. Even if she got access to a portal, she didn’t know the right code, and it was unlikely Divinity’s directors would share the information once they authorized an origin reversal scan. She could portal jump for an eternity and never find her way back to Sorin. He’d be lost to her, forever. She didn’t plan to make this discovery today, and it might be years before she could find her way back down the dungeon steps. She didn’t even say goodbye.
How could she go?
How could she stay?
“I don’t belong here,” she whispered, trying to steel her nerves as she reached for the first dial. Turning them to the right settings was easy. She’d done it many times.
Sorin’s going off to battle. These people are not my people. I can’t spend the rest of my life in this castle. After I learn all there is to learn, I’ll have nothing to do but waste away. I can’t live in one place, not knowing all the unexplored worlds that are out there. And I can’t make this decision for just myself. The others need me to get help, to tell what Divinity has done.
So many reasons to go—logical, good reasons. One reason to stay. She turned the seventh dial into position and reached for the next one.
“You chose to leave.” Sorin didn’t sound pleased as his voice echoed over the enclosure.
Lilith stiffened, making herself turn around to face him. “There is no choice, Sorin. I don’t belong here.”
“Somehow I knew you’d fail this test.” An emotionless face stared at her, caressed by Divinity blue.
“You let me find this place.” Lilith shouldn’t have been surprised. It had been too easy—open dungeon door, empty cages, missing guards. She’d been so focused on discovery.
“Yea. I had to know if I could trust you when I was away or if you’d try to leave.” He looked at the portal. “I see I have my answer.”
“Let me go, Sorin. Let the others go. We don’t belong here. We weren’t given a choice. Please.” She didn’t try to finish dialing in the coordinates. There was no point. If he wanted he could easily stop her. The only way she was getting out of there now was by his good graces.
“You can choose to stay, my lady,” he stated. After the intimacy they’d shared she hated to see that cold expression and tense body.
“No. I can’t.” She shook her head in denial.
“So be it.” He sighed, his shoulder lifting under the effort. “Then I shall decide for you. You will stay. Come.”
“No,” she said louder, praying she sounded brave and feeling incredibly weak. “I won’t.”
“I didn’t ask.” Sorin marched away from her toward the stairs, each movement taut with rage. Lilith reached for the eighth dial. Only five more to go. She clicked the next one into place. Sorin growled, spinning around to face her. He stormed across the clearing. Lilith flinched. He grabbed her arm and dragged her behind him. “I will not be betrayed again, Bianka.”
“My name is Lilith, not Bianka,” she corrected, noting the shaking in his hands and the fire in his eyes.
He blinked heavily when he looked at her and she saw the sway to his steps. He was drunk. “I will not be betrayed, Lilith.”
“Is it so wrong to seek my freedom, my lord?” She tried to yank her arm from his grasp, but he only tightened his grip. Rage filled her at his heavy-handed treatment. “You claim Starians to be this noble race, so much better than the people you fight, but you kidnap women and force them to your will. What nobility is there in that?”
“I did not steal you, I chose you. You are my wife. My honor could not take it if you left me.” He quickened his steps, not saying another word as he met several
of the guards at the top of the stairs. He nodded once at the group before hauling her back to the main floor of the castle.
* * * * *
You are my wife. I could not take it if you left me.
Sorin’s fingers molded around the soft flesh of Lilith’s arm, but she didn’t cry out in pain so he didn’t release her. He knew he drank too much ale at the eve meal. He felt the liquor flushing his face and heating his veins. Every thought echoed in his numbed head, forcing him to act on his most primal of instincts.
Fool.
Idiot.
Weak.
Do not let her go. Force her to stay. She will be the ruination of me.
Words tried to form in his throat, unfamiliar words, ones he would never allow to be spoken. He wanted to hurt her as she hurt him. His free hand balled into a tight fist, clenching and unclenching at his side. He wanted to reach into her chest and rip out her heart. He wanted to kiss her and touch her until she felt the passion he felt, the burning ache to be near her. He wanted her to think of him as he did of her, all the time, until the maddening need to just see her face and hear her voice were too much to take.
But she didn’t feel that way. Her desire to leave him proved it. She didn’t ache or burn or have a maddening need. Sorin couldn’t imagine life without her, and Lilith didn’t even care enough to tell him goodbye.
The pain hurt so badly he screamed, letting his voice roar over the hall as he pulled her to the Black Tower stairwell. He had to get her away from Divinity’s portal, far away where she could never reach it.
“Sorin,” Lilith said behind him, panicked. “You’re scaring me. Let me go.”
He stopped on the stairs, not even halfway up. With a swift pull, he brought her to his chest and held her tight. For all his pain and torment, he had to kiss her.
Lilith stiffened for a moment and he softened his touch. Her lips became pliable beneath his as she moaned softly into his mouth. With a hard push, she slammed him into the stairwell wall. His head banged against the stone but he barely felt it.
Like a woman possessed, she clawed at his clothing, scratching his flesh with her nails in her attempt to free him from his breeches. He enveloped her breasts in his palm, rubbing the globe until it slipped up and out of the corset top. Pinching the nipple, he liked the way it hardened between his fingers.
Lilith forced her hand down the front of his breeches, locking her fingers around his cock. She drove her hand up and down, fervently stroking him. Sorin couldn’t focus beyond the taste of her lips or the feel of her hand. He wanted to shove himself inside her and slam his hips until he filled her with his seed.
Their bodies warred for dominance, continuing their earlier battle. She cupped his balls, rolling them. He inhaled a deep, ragged breath.
Sorin spun her around so her back was to him. Lilith gasped at the sudden movement as her hand was pulled from his erection. Clamping onto her hips, he forced her ass against his cock and groaned to feel the soft folds her gown padded by the firm line of her cheeks. He ground into her, undulating as she bucked beneath his hold.
Already she’d partially freed his cock and he made quick work of finishing the job. He clutched at her bodice, using the tight laces to control her. The length of her blonde hair tickled his fingers. Bending her forward so her ass arched toward him, he welcomed the vulnerability of her position. With his free hand he worked at her gown, lifting the skirts.
“You will feel me,” he swore, desperate to make her understand his claim.
The smooth skin of her ass tempted his fingers and he splayed his hand over the warm flesh and squeezed. He rocked against her, letting the dry heat capture his shaft. Needing a wet ride, Sorin reached around to tweak the nub buried in the soft folds of her pussy. He knew how to rub her, how to make her instantly wet and ready. It didn’t take much before the cream flowed freely between her thighs.
“You will feel my claim. You will know you belong to me.” He barely heard the words, didn’t care that they escaped his mouth. All that mattered was plunging inside her silken core.
Sorin pulled her over by her bodice so she had to support herself on the stairs. Then, taking her hips, he angled them up. Already the tip of his cock was wet with pre-cum.
The pink lips of her sex glistened with moisture. The erotic vision of his cock being swallowed into the folds made him bite his lip hard. He buried himself to the hilt. The tight muscles of her sex quivered and squeezed. Sorin took hold of the back of the corset to control her movements as he brought her back and forth on his cock, riding hard.
Lilith moaned, not fighting their passion. She let him have control, let him conquer with forceful thrusts. He let out an animalistic growl. Even in his anger over her betrayal, he couldn’t get enough of her.
The sensations built. He wanted all of her, not just her body. Why in all the bloody wars of Starian history did she try to leave him?
Lilith tensed, her pussy clamping down on him as she came. Sorin answered her call, spilling his seed into her, hoping it took root. He wanted to fold her tight into his chest and never let go. Instead, he released her hips and fell back against the wall. The stairwell spun around him, and he had to close his eyes as he endeavored to slow his breathing.
“You will ride with us in the morn to Spearhead Fortress.” Sorin couldn’t let her stay behind. To give orders to have her watched would be humiliating, and he couldn’t leave her unattended so close to Divinity’s portal.
“You’re never going to let me leave, are you?” Lilith asked, her soft voice hurting him worse than a dagger to the gut.
When he opened his eyes, she sat on the stairs, looking up at him with her damning blue eyes. She’d righted her clothing, but the tousled hair and flushed cheeks showed all signs of their shared passion. Sorin answered the only way he could. “No, my lady, I will never let you leave.”
Chapter Twelve
Lilith didn’t speak as they rode from Battlewar. When she told Sorin she couldn’t ride, she hadn’t lied. Straddling a giant horse as it nervously pawed the earth, she’d spent all of one minute on the creature’s back before Sorin ordered a cart with blankets so that she may be pulled behind the traveling band of knights.
The cart suited her better than the animal, as she rested in the back, curled around a blanket and praying the bumpy trip would be a fast one. She hugged her hands to her chest, cuddling beneath the covers. Her palms were raw from gripping the stairwell. At the time, she hadn’t noticed, too caught up in Sorin’s violent possession.
How could she have thought of leaving him?
How could she think of staying?
The sound of pounding horse hooves echoed on the prairie, trampling the tall grasses as they made their way to a forest path. Lilith moaned, pulling the blanket over her head to block the sunlight. When Sorin said they’d leave in the morning, he hadn’t been lying. He had her awake and packed before the sun even rose.
“So close,” she whispered, thinking of the portal. If she hadn’t hesitated, she would be home demanding answers. The “why” bothered Lilith more than anything else. Part of Divinity’s creed was never to play god.
“Are you ill?”
Lilith pulled the blanket off her face. Sorin rode beside her cart and from her angle he seemed a giant, towering beast of a man. “I didn’t sleep well.”
His mouth pulled into a straight line and he turned his eyes forward. “Signal if you have needs.”
He rode off and Lilith pulled the covers over her head once more. Right now her most pressing need was sleep.
* * * * *
After three horrible days inside the jerking cart, suffering from aching muscles, stomping horses and a husband who barely said more than ten words to her, Lilith had never been so happy to see a castle in her life. Though nothing compared to the great city of Battlewar, Spearhead had a quaint charm—for a fortress on the brink of a vicious Caniba attack.
A single tall watchtower lifted into the sky, lording over the square-sha
ped castle beneath. Thorn hedges formed a perimeter around the outside wall, surrounded by the murky waters of a moat. As they passed over a bridge to the opened front gates, Lilith swore she saw something swimming in the water. The raised stone of the bailey wall surrounded the courtyard, looping about from one side of the main castle to the other in an oval shape. Atop the wall that stood several feet wide was the walkway surrounded by battlements with corner spiral stairwells leading from the ground to the battlements. Next to the tower, the main part of Spearhead Fortress sprawled along the backside of the wall.
Shadows fell heavy over the wide courtyard and a gentle evening breeze flitted over them. Spearhead guards pushed the oversized doors of the main gate closed and latched them with a thick timber. A couple of women hauled baskets heaped with laundry, while others carried water buckets from the well.
“I see you’ve survived,” a female voice yelled as Lilith’s cart came to a stop. “I had my doubts.”
Lilith crawled out of the cart, rubbing her aching back as she tried to force her numbed legs to stand. A loud, ear-splitting whistle resounded over the yard. Lilith jerked, turning to the noise. Karre stood bound to a t-shaped post in the middle of the courtyard. A chain ran along the top, binding her wrists over her head and a large shackle held her waist to the post, leaving her feet free to kick at the dirt. Smiling, the woman waved her fingers, causing her chains to jingle at the movement.
“Great weather we’re having,” Karre said conversationally, smiling as if she sat down for a fancy evening with the ladies. Lilith glanced around the yard. Sorin’s dirt-covered knights and equally caked horses hardly qualified as fancy.
Lilith Enraptured (Divinity Warriors 1) Page 13
