Not Lena. She didn’t want it. She wanted nothing to do with that power. Her dream self was different. She couldn’t control how bitchy she was, clearly. Pouring the water before her parents’ eyes, out of their reach? Definitely a bitch move.
The guard directed her into a stone hallway, and she asked, “Where are we going?” Lena hoped to get a reply, but all she received was a grunt. That grunt told her the guard wasn’t willing to discuss it at all. Great.
The hallway let out into a great room. Whether it was a ballroom or something else, she couldn’t be sure. She wasn’t familiar with all the different rooms of the castle. Its ceiling was domed and high, three or more stories up. Draperies, three times the length of herself, hung on the stone walls, separated by portraits of the royal family. Only one wall of windows, their panes clear and clean, allowing Lena to see it was dusk.
She’d been asleep during the day? Even odder.
The middle of the great hall was filled with dozens of people. Guards, mostly. Guards who wore the shimmering College armor, their bodies stiffening when they saw her. Their hands rested on their weapons, gloves tightening around their sword hilts. Their eyes were wary—did they blame her for Kyler’s disappearance?
And his death?
Did these guards even know Kyler was dead? Lena doubted the King kept anyone informed, and she didn’t trust the Seneschal not to twist her words.
Between the College guards, Lena spotted a handful of enchanters, wearing their blue and gold robes. One of them, an instructor she’d had for a few years, Nilsan, clutched a vial of some kind.
“What’s going on?” Lena asked, her voice wavering when she noticed the guards and enchanters were not alone. Prince Cailan stood amongst them, talking and laughing as if this weren’t a serious matter. The instant he spotted her, however, his demeanor grew serious.
“Lena,” he said, putting a heavy emphasis on her name she did not understand. “I trust good old Bart didn’t rough you up too much on the walk here?” His eyes, a darker shade of brown than Tamlen’s, darted to the guard in question.
Though his attitude needed work, the guard had mostly been fine. Lena said again, “What’s going on? What is this?” Deep down, though, she already knew. This might as well have been her execution.
“My father and his most trusted advisor, the oh so lovely Henrik, believe you are untrustworthy. They think your testimony is entirely false because you’ve been tainted with dark magic,” Cailan explained, gesturing to the enchanters. “What better way to prove them wrong and save your pretty head than to send you across the Veil and have you come out whole and unpossessed?”
Lena listened to him, her mouth falling slightly. If she could resist the temptation of demons across the Veil, they’d view her as a more credible source? Taking a journey across the Veil was the test all journeymen went through when they sought to graduate to enchanter level. She hadn’t even passed her apprenticeship test, hadn’t written her blasted dissertation. This was…insane.
“This is madness,” Lena said, sending Cailan a pleading expression. “I am not even an apprentice. Do you truly believe me strong enough to send my mind to the demon’s realm?” The more she argued, the more agitated the guards around them became. Though her wrists were still held by anti-magical cuffs, they still saw her as a threat.
“You’ll be strong enough,” Cailan sounded assured. “And if you’re not, they’ll be more than happy to cut you down. Either way, my father loses a public execution, and I’d call that a win.” He grinned, but it was a mirthless grin.
“The King isn’t here.” She made a point to glance around. Neither was the Seneschal. “Is this sanctioned?”
“I am the prince. I give sanction enough. Besides, the King and Seneschal are both…occupied at the moment.”
Lena didn’t want to know what he meant by that. Had he sent some servant girls off to them for a distraction, all for her? Why? It didn’t make sense. Did he just want her to survive, to return with her mind intact and with no tagalongs so he could use it against his father? She did not like being in the middle of their family feud. Not when lives were at stake.
Her eyes fell to her feet. “I suppose I don’t have a choice,” she whispered, to which Cailan laughed as if she were some court jester.
“No, you truly don’t.” He turned, snapping his fingers. “Enchanters! What must be done to get our lovely little mage here across the Veil?”
“As you know, it is not the body that travels across the Veil. It is the mind.” It was Nilsan who spoke up, her brown hair held back in a tight bun. Bags sagged under her eyes, as if she hadn’t slept lately. Lena was dying to ask her what went on in the College, but now wasn’t the time. “Drinking this will put your mind at ease, a malleable state,” she spoke of the vial in her hands, a crystal clear liquid that looked just like water. “Once you’ve opened up your mind, with our combined power, we’ll recite a spell and send your mind to the demon realm.”
Lena watched as Nilsan moved before her, offering her the vial. She shakily took it, her wrist cuffs clanging with the movement.
“You will remain in that realm for an hour. Should you return to us possessed, there will be no choice but to cut you down. If you come back whole, you will…” Nilsan trailed off, her well-recited speech broken. “Normally you’d become an enchanter, but…”
She knew what the woman meant, so she gave her a nod. Lena wouldn’t become an enchanter, because she wasn’t a journeyman in the College. She wouldn’t be a part of the College any longer, not after what happened with Gregain. Plus, all these enchanters knew her, or knew of her. They knew she refused to cast spells, knew she was the oldest initiate. They all thought she was going to come back with a demon in tow.
They believed she was going to die.
Lena inhaled, raising the vial to her lips after twisting off its glass top, but Nilsan stopped her, “You might want to sit down. Once your mind is gone, your body will become useless.”
Right.
She sat on the stone floor, a nice, smooth marble tile. Tan with veins of black, buffed to the extreme. The enchanters formed a circle around her, linking hands, and the guards moved into an outer circle. Cailan stood on the outside, though she felt his dark eyes on her. Lena lifted the vial, downing the contents in two sips.
The liquid burned on its way down, its clear color deceiving. It tasted like stomach bile, like acid. She wanted to vomit it back up, but she kept it down, swallowing both gulps. What she’d do for some water.
Her vision grew hazy. She was suddenly so very sleepy. As she laid down, her back upon the tile, the vial rolled out of her palm. She lost feeling of her extremities, her mind quickly shutting itself off. Lena was welcomed to oblivion.
Little did she know she was its master.
Lena’s eyelids fluttered open, and she yawned. She was in a bed, utterly naked, laying atop a strong, warm man. Her head was on his chest, and all she could see was his one arm and the sheets around them. Everything else was hazy, murky. She ran her hand down his side, eliciting a moan from his throat.
It was not a moan she was familiar with.
She immediately sat up, rolling off him. Lena fumbled to grab the sheets to cover herself before turning her stare to the blonde-haired, dark-eyed man in the bed with her. Cailan. He propped himself on his elbows, giving her an easy smile.
“What’s wrong, love?” he asked her, dark eyes twinkling.
“I…” Lena glanced around them. They were in the castle, in Cailan’s room. Which was odd in and of itself, because she didn’t recall ever being in the Prince’s room before. Everything was fancy, too fancy for her blood. “I can’t—”
Cailan’s smile never wavered. “Of course, you want more.” As he spoke, three other men appeared in the room—Bastian, Tamlen, and Vale. They were all naked, their sculpted bodies hard and ready to please her.
The strangeness of how suddenly they came in the room, for she hadn’t even seen them walk in, faded when t
hey crawled onto the bed with them. The bed seemed to expand—or maybe it was always so large and she simply hadn’t noticed. Still, Lena found it a bit unsettling that Cailan was now part of their group. When had they had the talk to include him?
The men showered her with kisses, their hands roaming her naked body, tugging at her nipples and stroking the area between her legs. She was already wet, as if simply laying atop Cailan had doused her completely. Lena took turns kissing Vale, then Tamlen and Bastian. She missed them so much. Almost too much. She…
Wait. Why did she miss them? Were they separated?
Her thoughts were pushed aside as Bastian spread her legs. He lowered his mouth to her slick sex, his tongue pleasing her in ways a hand simply couldn’t do. Lena watched as Tamlen positioned himself behind Bastian, running his strong hands down his bare back, stopping only when they reached his ass. After spreading his cheeks, Tamlen pushed inside, a look of bliss on his face as he pumped in and out of him.
Lena found the sight utterly erotic, especially since Bastian’s tongue never left her. She enjoyed the moans both men were making, but something wasn’t quite right. Vale should be with Tamlen, not Bastian.
Right? She found herself growing more and more unsure, turning her head to see Vale was giving Cailan head right beside her. Cailan was on his back, Vale bent over, mouth running along his cock with eagerness.
With a moan, Bastian lifted his head, mouth slick with her juices. Below him, his dick swung with every thrust of Tamlen’s, his balls tightening. His hazel eyes closed as he let out a moan, his cum shooting all across Lena’s stomach.
While it was a sight that was beyond sexy and thrilling, she couldn’t help but say, “Uh, guys…” She trailed off as she watched Tamlen’s body shake and collapse atop Bastian’s. He slowly pulled himself out, using his muscles to spin the ex-chevalier, rolling him on the other side of her. Her eyes widened as she watched Tamlen’s head bend to Bastian’s still-erect cock and take him in his mouth.
That was…she was fairly sure it was something she’d never seen before.
The area between her thighs tingled. Watching Bastian give himself to another man was thrilling, intoxicating. Before she knew what she was doing, she had a hand between her legs, rubbing herself. Her fingers were so much softer than theirs…
As she let out a sigh, her mind went to a certain place it never had before. What would it feel like to have hands that were not hers, but were as soft and small as hers, touching her like this? What would it feel like to be wrapped up in the embrace of someone who didn’t have a flat chest?
“Don’t worry, dear,” a smooth, feminine voice spoke. “I’m here.”
Lena moved her gaze away from the men pleasuring each other, her heartbeat increasing when she saw Ingrid standing at the foot of the bed, wearing lacy underthings that hid only the most important bits.
“Ingrid, what…” Lena could not ask another thing, for by the time she’d breathed out those words, her friend had crawled on top of her and smothered her with a kiss. Her lips were soft, supple. Gentle. But—no, this was wrong. This wasn’t what she wanted. She yanked her head away from Ingrid, saying, “No.”
But it wasn’t Ingrid on top of her. It was another woman, one she’d never seen before. A woman with a slender body and a nice, supple chest with curves to match. “It’s okay, you don’t have to know me,” she spoke, a different voice, too. “Close your eyes and let me take you to places you’ve never been.” She kissed Lena’s throat, trailing down, taking a nipple into her mouth as her hand went to the folds of skin between her legs.
Lena let out a breathy moan. With the tongue flicking her nipple and the fingers working her just right…she could not stop the orgasm from coming. It wracked her body, causing her to practically cry out in pleasure. Her entire body tingled, and still the woman above her did not stop.
The woman’s mouth returned to Lena’s. “I want you to come for me again,” she whispered before crashing their lips together. Her tongue found its way into Lena’s mouth, and Lena moaned into the kiss, a willing participant, hugging the woman’s body to hers.
Just as she was about to come again, the woman pulled off her, rolling closer to Bastian and Tamlen. Tamlen had sucked Bastian dry, but still the man had an erection. Lena’s thoughts were too foggy to wonder how he could keep it up. As she looked for the woman, she found she’d vanished into thin air.
Weird…
“My turn.” Cailan practically jumped on her, pushing inside without as little as a warning. His cock was the thickest of them all, his girth unmatched. It hurt a bit when he first entered her, but she relaxed herself, allowing him to fuck her. “Yes, Celena Locke, squirm for me.”
Celena Locke.
Her full name. A name that instantly reminded her of who she was.
When she blinked, Bastian, Vale, and Tamlen disappeared. The room faded into a landscape of craggy hills with no grass or life. The sky above them was ashy, a tannish orange color with veins of blue. The only thing remaining was the bed, much smaller than it was moments ago.
She set a flat hand on the chest above her, staring into the dark eyes that wore Cailan’s face. “You are not Cailan,” Lena said, pushing him off. He fell out of her, off the bed, pushed with far more strength than she thought she had.
“No,” he admitted, standing straight, still unabashedly nude and erect, his cock dripping from her wetness. “But we were having such good fun, weren’t we?” The man who was not Cailan even tried to have the Prince’s sense of humor. Pity it was now wasted on her. He took a step towards her, towards the bed, adding, “I can do it again, make it more real. Wouldn’t that be nice?”
Lena crawled off the bed, standing on her own two feet. The moment she left the bed, it was no longer there. This place, this realm—things changed fast. As her hands clenched at her sides, her naked body was suddenly covered in a fitted yellow robe, crisp and clean. Her College robes.
She would not forget herself in this place again.
“Show your true face, Demon,” Lena said, sounding much more confident than she actually felt. The truth was, if the demon hadn’t said her full name, she might not have woken up from the trance. The temptation of this place was too strong. She was weak, but she’d do her best to be the opposite.
No demon was going to get her without a fight.
“As you wish,” Cailan said. His body started to twist, twirling once as if he spun on his feet. As he finished the rotation, his body grew in height, losing its human-like shape. Almost ten feet tall, it had no legs to stand on. Just a mound of flesh that stuck and pieced together, hovering a few inches above the ground. It had arms still, but those were elongated and deformed. Three fingers, thick like pincers, more like talons than useful appendages. The flesh making up its neck was thick and bubbly, but its face…its face was the worst of all.
As if someone sewed together skin. Like its creator had taken its lips and stretched them out, pinning them to the top of its bulbous head. It had no ears, no mouth, no nose, but it did have six eyes fashioned around the stretched-out skin. The eyes were black as night, never blinking.
“You’re one hideous demon, aren’t you?” Lena knew she probably shouldn’t taunt it, but she couldn’t help it. It had almost won. She’d nearly given in to it. She’d almost been possessed by the first demon she’d stumbled upon across the Veil.
How pathetic.
Its malformed shoulders shook. Mage, you come into my territory uninvited, and I offer you much. Everything you’ve ever wanted. It spoke straight to her mind, having no mouth to speak with.
“Believe it or not, the last thing I want is to sleep with a demon.”
It laughed noiselessly. My, my. What a feisty one you are…the feisty ones always taste the best. It reached for her, its arm extending past its already unnatural length. I shall enjoy eating your mind and taking your body from you. Those in the mortal realm will wish that I—
She held up her hand, doing her best not to sh
ow her fear. Her arm shook only a little.
The demon lowered its tall torso, its eyes dead set on her. You cannot cast spells here, mage. Your powers are useless.
Lena swallowed, ignoring how its long, clawed hand was less than a foot before her. It could shoot out and kill her just like that. Her spells might be useless, but she wasn’t only a mage. She was something so much more, if he didn’t abandon her.
“I’m not afraid of you,” she whispered, a deadly kind of fierce. She had to call upon something that was so foreign to her, something she’d tried for the last decade to ignore. The urge, the call. The power that dwelled inside of her. She tugged and pulled at the cage she’d put it in, releasing it. Her right hand was swallowed by a flickering black flame.
Blackfire.
The unnatural flames dripped from her flesh like a molten substance, burning the ground it touched even though it was nothing but orange rock. The tendrils that fell to the ground spread like wildfire.
The demon hissed even though it had no mouth. Impossible. You are only a mage. How can you… Its surreal voice erupted in a scream as the blackfire torched it from below, igniting it instantly. The blackfire swallowed the demon up, crawling across its gross, gruesome flesh, burning it to ashes.
The moment its head and multitude of eyes were devoured by the blackfire, it stopped screaming. It left nothing in its wake, only a pile of dust. Even that, the blackfire consumed.
Lena tilted her head slowly, watching as the blackfire spread, engulfing the field of craggy rocks she stood in. It did not harm her feet, nor did it catch on her robe. Her hand still burned with the flames, her fingers tingling. She inhaled the scent of smoke and brimstone as it settled in: she killed a demon. Not just banished it from the mortal plane by killing its host, but by utterly and totally purging it from the Veil.
Blood and Sorcery: A Reverse Harem Fantasy (Unfortunate Magic Book 2) Page 16
