by Sadie Dane
"Enter," the king said before she had even knocked.
She gingerly pushed the door open and stepped inside, stumbling the last few steps until she stood directly in front of the king where he sat on his cushions. She clasped her hands in front of her body and dropped her head.
"Good to see he allowed you to come."
Gia winced. That was just cruel. "He didn't," she said, though she should've stayed silent.
"Come closer, daughter."
She stepped forward, dropping to her knees in front of him. "You do know you will be punished?"
She nodded.
"Why didn't you just tell me you were fucking the prince that night? You had been so obedient before then."
"I wasn't, my king. We think I was drugged."
He narrowed his eyes. "We?" he seethed, completely ignoring anything she had to say. "You have one brain now? That explains so much!"
"Apba, please, I'm trying to tell you I never disobeyed."
"And yet my smithy is still in ruins."
She had no retort. The fact that she'd been unavailable was still the reason she was there. Even if she had been drugged, she should have been more careful. She sighed and slumped forward. He rested a hand on the back of her head.
"My sweet, child, I have tried so hard to let you feel free. I am afraid I must step in now and play the evil father, for your own good. You are experienced in the ways of the body, but not so in matters of the heart. Although it feels like right now you may love this foreign prince, I can tell his character and it is no match for yours. You will take your punishment and then return to the foreign prince. You must say whatever you need to say to him, my daughter, to make him leave."
"But there isn't anything I could say!" Gia panicked.
"My dearest flower, you know better than any woman I have ever met how to mold a man's mind. Use whatever power you possess over him, for if you fail and he refuses…" the king paused, his face contorting into an evil expression Gia had never seen before. "He will not take you from me."
She understood. He didn't need to spell it out. Corbin left or Corbin died.
Corbin left, without her, or Corbin died. She felt the tears come. They were silent and she made no attempt either to stop or encourage them. They simply fell.
"You cry now, but you will understand when you are older. Now, hand me the cane and grab your ankles."
The cane? Any trepidation she felt over the tool that was to deliver her punishment was overshadowed by the five words that repeated on a loop in her mind. Corbin leaves or Corbin dies.
She absently walked to the corner of the room where the canes and paddles hung and grabbed the first cane she saw. She handed it to him but paused. "Not in the Discipline Plaza?"
"I am not a cruel father. I don't require this punishment to be public."
At least she had that to appreciate. It was of little comfort as she bared her ass and bent over. The king stood and she immediately felt the sharp, burning sting of the cane against the skin of her thighs. She yelped, unable to hold back, even in the beginning.
The nearly blinding pain did not lessen as he continued. She counted four thwacks against her skin before he took a moment's pause. Her skin screamed and she wished he would just get it over with. This wasn't like being spanked with a hand where the skin sometimes grew accustomed to the sensation. Each hit was unique and made her feel as though her skin was splitting.
She wondered at how different it felt now to be punished by the king, and not by Corbin. One was simply that, a punishment. While the other always left her longing for so much more. They were both done out of love, but each love was entirely different.
Any distinction or comparison between the two began to lose importance as the king continued and Gia cried out until she finally lost count.
#
Corbin had watched Gia walk out the dungeon door and had never felt so helpless. He swore in that moment that he never would be that helpless again. The high general had stood, silently staring at Corbin as he paced his cell like a caged lion.
"What?" Corbin roared.
"You could fight for her."
Corbin grabbed the iron bars in a moment of blinding anger. "Let me out and I will."
"Not me, foreign prince. In the arena. It is an old Atvian custom. You may fight for ownership of your woman, of your wife."
"Fight? For ownership?" Corbin had had enough of this entire barbaric kingdom. Even more now that it had rubbed off on him. He couldn't form a coherent, logical sentence to save his life but felt like he could easily pound the king's face bloody.
His disdain showed clearly in his features. The high general straightened. "Women should be taken care of. They should have the peace of mind knowing they will be with the strongest, most capable man possible. I do not think many western women can hope for as much in their marriages."
Corbin was too angry to see reason.
"Challenge for her ownership. I believe it may be the only way to get the king's respect."
Corbin snarled at the idea of trying to get that man's respect. Just thinking of where Gia was, what was probably happening to her made him feel like he was going crazy. The howl that ripped from his throat sounded wild and dangerous. Even the high general realized there was little use in talking to him. He wordlessly left Corbin alone with his rage.
It could've been hours, or maybe just minutes, perhaps it was the length of time it took for him to blink his eye, but at some point he heard the door creak open.
It was entirely dark in the dungeon since the sun had set. Every once in a while the room would flash brightly as lightning struck somewhere near the horizontal opening in the ceiling.
"Gia?" he croaked.
It was her, though she did not look like the woman who had left him. She had changed into a tight maroon top that barely covered her breasts and a matching skirt that hung so low it would take a halfhearted shimmy to see her pussy. She had applied dark eye make-up and had also done her hair. He realized what it was that bothered him so much. She looked more like the hora than she did Gia.
"Are you okay? Did he touch you?"
She didn't answer him. In fact, she would hardly even look at him. "C'mon, we're getting out of here." She pulled out a key, Corbin had no idea from where, and quickly unlocked the door. He wrapped his arms tightly around her, holding on. She didn't embrace him back but that just made him hold more tightly. "Let's go," she said finally.
He kept one arm around her waist, latching her to his side as she led them out of the dungeon. They ran into no one as they scurried down the corridors that would take them out of the palace. The air outside was hot and seemed to sing with tension, each note came on the rumbling of thunder or the sharp crack of lightning. When they finally stopped, they were in the garden. Corbin saw his horse tied to one of the dead trees. There was only one horse.
Corbin would run alongside them if he had to.
The moment they walked through the garden entrance Gia stopped, her legs planted to the ground as if she was one of the dead trees. "You're leaving without me," she said without emotion.
He latched onto her wrist. "Like hell I am."
Gia moved so quickly he wasn't even sure what she'd done, but her wrist was no longer in his hand. "It was fun, foreign prince, but the fun is over with. It has run its course."
"Stop it, Gia," he warned.
"Don't do this to your dignity. I told you the moment we first spoke I wasn't the type to fall in love. Those weren't idle words."
Corbin remembered the sexual goddess who had uttered those words to him. His Gia was so different from that woman. That woman looked more like the impostor that stood in front of him now. "You love me," he said stupidly.
Gia smiled cruelly. "I am the Hora of Atvia. It is my job to make men think what I want them to think."
Around them a storm raged. Lightning struck so close to them his horse reared and whinnied in fear. Rain immediately followed, falling from the sky in solid s
heets of water. But Corbin could barely notice any of that.
Gia stood away from him with her hands on her hips. The rain made her hair hang in chunks and plastered her already tight outfit against her body. He searched her eyes. The rain washed away much of the dark make-up and he caught a glimpse of the loving girl who had left him in the dungeon.
"Gia," he let her name linger between them. And there it was, a softening around her eyes, a hitch as she struggled to inhale. "You’re trying to make me think what you want me to think right now." He closed the space between them, his boots splashed in the standing water. "What did he do, Gia? Threaten you? Threaten me? Leave with me, right now. We'll go and never look back."
"I don't want you," she said but there was no bite in her words. The opposite, she sounded panicked and terrified.
He grabbed her arms and she hastened to back away from him. In the process she accidentally bumped against the stone ledge and screamed in pain. Corbin hadn't thought she hit the ledge that hard. Tears of pain mixed with rain on her face as Gia struggled to maintain her collected facade.
He didn't ask for permission or even warn her. Corbin strode forward and yanked her skirt up just as a burst of lightning exploded across the sky, illuminating an image he would never forget. The back of her thighs and ass looked like an artist's unfinished canvas. Stark purples and reds, every shade of pink stained over her thighs and cheeks. Welts the size of his fingers crisscrossed against her skin.
I'm going to kill him. There seemed to be no end to his reservoir of rage. Corbin had his sword in hand and was out of the garden, stomping up the path within a second.
"Stop!" she begged but all Corbin could see was her puckered skin. All he could hear was the way she probably cried out under each hit, the idea lit every jealous, possessive fire he had.
He felt something at his face. She'd slapped him. It didn't hurt, not for lack of effort but because Corbin doubted he could feel anything at that moment.
"I liked it," she seethed with anger. "I asked him to do it. I was trying to save you from this, Corbin, trying to let you leave with some dignity. But no, you have to make me cut off your nose. He isn't just my king, he is my lover. Yes, what you and I had was fun and not all of it was fake, but in the end a woman needs to be cared for. He has always been the man to do that for me and always will be.
"Now that you know, I suggest you leave, because he doesn't like how you took my attention away from him. I think you are a decent man so I am giving you this chance, but, frankly, I am bored with trying." It was as if the rain, thunder and lightning had stopped long enough for every word to reach Corbin's ears undiluted. The hora gave him a look that clearly said she pitied him before turning and walking back up the path, never looking back.
#
Gia forced her legs to keep moving. She made it out of the garden and to the ruins that used to be the smithy before her body refused to listen to her any longer. Her stomach heaved and Gia vomited on the smoldering ashes.
She was thankful for the rain at that moment. It cooled the burning skin at her ass. When Gia was sure she had nothing left inside of her she stood and wiped her mouth.
She lifted her mouth open to the heavens and let the rain water fill her mouth before swishing it around and spitting it out on the smithy. Then, she spit on the blackened wood for good measure. If that stupid thing hadn't caught fire she wouldn't have just gone through the worst night of her life.
Who grew up not knowing the difference between coal dust and dirt or that it was extremely dangerous around high heat?
Gia could no longer stifle the sobs that had clogged her throat the moment she'd entered the dungeon. But now he is safe. She let that thought give her some comfort. It was all she had at the moment. He would be safe and eventually Gia would learn how to live again. At least, that's what she would've thought if she hadn't been abruptly hit on the back of the head by something heavy.
#
"Wake up, whore," said a voice Gia did not recognize. She tried to move and began to panic when she realized she was tied down against something hard, but also familiar. Gia opened her eyes. The back of her head felt split open and her eyesight was fuzzy but she recognized the Discipline Plaza.
That must mean...Sure enough, Gia was tied down on the table. Only, the table had been upended so that Gia was in a standing position with her back against the soft, all too familiar wood. She searched the dark space for the voice. Lightning split the sky and Gia could only see the sweet little blond potential. She looked around the girl, scared that the angry voice she heard was about to hurt her. "You're really dumb, aren't you?" the little blond said with a vicious sneer.
Gia struggled to align the soft-spoken, gentle young woman with the little monster in front of her.
"I noticed your marks when I tied you up there. I must say, even I was impressed with how you will stoop to the lowest levels of decency to please the men around you."
Gia was less interested in the girl's words and more curious about how the frail potential had hoisted her larger body up.
She'd duped them all. "Are you even an actual potential?"
The blond stomped forward so that she was right in her face, or at least she would've been if she wasn't so short.
"Look who catches on quick. If you remember I showed up weeks late. Because I killed the girl meant to come, and took her place. Poor sap, I saved her the misery."
Gia felt her face whiten. She'd been around violence and death before, but never around someone who was so flippant about it. "Why?" she asked, breathless. The rain had lessened to a steady sprinkle.
"The whore wants to know why?"
"I don't think that word means what you think it means," Gia replied, herself flippant. The girl reached up and slapped her across the face. "One," Gia counted, never breaking eye contact. The other girl stumbled back nearly falling off the platform.
"You destroyed my sister, that's why," she said finally.
"Your sister? A potential?"
"Potential," she spat the word like a curse word. "Such a sweet term for such a dirty thing. My sister never graduated, she failed."
"Not every potential is fit to serve the king," Gia replied almost by rote. "There is no shame in it, it isn't considered a failing."
"Ha!" she barked once. "That is rich, coming from the slut of the eastern world. My sister left our village a queen. Lena returned used up, a shell of who she had once been, looking to be filled up by any man who had something to spare. I had to put her out of her misery!" She huffed and puffed, reaching so close Gia thought she might slap her again. "You made me kill my sister," she whispered.
Gia could remember only one Lena. Potentials weren't addressed by their name till after they were wed. Gia remembered Lena as funny and smart, but ultimately she'd been unfit to be a bride. She'd embraced the Atvian lifestyle quickly, particularly the corporal punishment. But, when she'd started to misbehave just to get sent to the table, Gia had sat down with her and the high general where they made the decision that bridal service was not what was best for Lena.
There had been nothing deviant or dirty about her. The girl had stayed in Atvia for a few months before homesickness got the better of her and she returned.
Gia mourned for the bright, energetic life that had been taken so needlessly. Gia was the protector of the potentials and even though Lena had no longer been a potential, Gia felt like she had failed her.
"Are you crying?" the blond sneered.
Gia knew her name now, Louisa. Lena had spoken of her sister often and fondly. "I'm going to kill you, Louisa," she said simply, without malice. It was as much a fact as the sun rising every day.
Momentary panic flared in Louisa's eyes as she heard her own name, but she recovered. "Makes no difference what you know. You are going to die here, tonight, on this table you love so much. And while you are dying you will know that I am off killing your king. Of course, I'll stage it so it looked like you planned it. And who wouldn't believe a terr
ified, naive, gentle thing like me?" She adopted the tone and stance that she had so aptly faked during training. How had Gia been so easily tricked? She clearly saw the act for what it was now.
The girl grabbed a dagger and staggered forward. Gia strained against the ropes that bound her to the table. Louisa had obviously paid attention on that day of training; Gia could barely wiggle against the knots.
A burst of light blasted to Gia's right, so close she felt her hair stand on end and her clothes nearly sizzled. Oddly, Louisa burst out laughing. "A clear sign. Even the heavens are on my side."
Smoke wafted in the air. The rain had stopped just in time for her table to catch fire. Gia swore, but only silently. She wouldn't give the girl the satisfaction of knowing she was panicking.
"I had wanted to be here, to see the life leave your eyes, but I guess knowing that you are dying painfully will be just as good. No time to watch though." She snapped her fingers in annoyance. "Dinner will be starting any minute."
The fire grew quickly, spreading along the backside of the very old table. Heat warmed her body. Soon, it would burn it.
"Have a great time burning, Hora. Remember, in everything you do, make sure your actions benefit the kingdom." Having given her parting shot, Louisa strolled out of the Discipline Plaza.
Gia did the math, by the time anyone noticed the fire she'd be dead, or close to it. And, knowing what she'd left the palace to do, the king wouldn't send anyone to look for her for a few hours at least.
The king! Gia struggled, feeling real fear at the idea of that little viper slithering her way up to him. She had to get to him, to save him, if only so she could explain how wrong he'd been about Corbin.
Corbin. His was the name on her mind when the flames reached the bottoms of her feet. The pain was not unbearable, but just barely so. She doubted it would stay that way for long.
"I'm so sorry," Gia said out loud knowing she'd never get a chance to speak to who she wanted. "I was dumb, Corbin. I love you and should have fought for you. You need someone stronger than me to take care of you, not the other way arou…" Her words cut off in her throat as her skirt caught fire.
