by Alice Wilde
“Take off your shirt,” Longwei whispers against my shoulder before stepping back away from me.
I tense, not wanting to obey his order, but then I reach up and grab the back of my shirt and pull it off over my head. I hear a sharp inhale from behind me and then my skin prickles as a hand rests on my shoulder blade and makes its way to my chest as Longwei moves to stand in front of me. His eyes are focused on my torso as he drags his fingertips down my chest and across my stomach.
“Your body is magnificent,” he says under his breath. “Even better than I imagined.”
My nostrils flare as the thought of him imagining me in any way sends my stomach reeling. Was this how I…how Damien made Annalise feel?
I cry out, starting as I’m brought back to the moment at hand. Well, quite literally, in hand. Longwei is searching my face as I dare to look down and see that he’s grabbed the entirety of my flaccid dick through my pants and has begun kneading it.
“Do you like that?” he asks. I loathe it, but how am I supposed to get away with saying that to him? “You can speak.”
But I can’t, every word coming to my mind a curse on him, his ancestors, his gold, his dick… So, instead, I shake my head, deciding to be as honest with him as I dare.
“Okay,” Longwei says, releasing me, “how about this?”
I don’t have enough time to realize what he’s about to do before Longwei grabs either side of my face and presses his mouth to mine. His tongue forces its way into my mouth and I can’t restrain myself any longer, I shove him away, wiping my forearm across my mouth in disgust.
Longwei looks up from the floor, his startled expression quickly changing to one of rancor. “That’s not how this is going to work.”
“Why don’t you find someone who wants you,” I growl, still trying to shake the feeling of his kiss from me.
“You do want me,” Longwei says.
“No, far from it,” I scoff.
“Not even for Annalise?” he suggests, pulling himself up off the floor. “Doing this will help her, won’t it?”
I swallow hard, my blood boiling as he tries to use her against me. “She’d never force me to do this.”
“Perhaps not, but you want to, don’t you?”
“What are you saying?”
“You want to be her savior, to do something honorable.”
“I doubt she’ll consider this honorable.”
“She will when you deliver a dragon to her,” he says in a soft voice.
My jaw hardens at this. I have to remember why I’m in this situation, it was a means to an end…one step closer to keeping Annalise safe. At least, that’s what I tell myself.
Longwei closes the distance between us. “That is what you want, isn’t it?”
“Yes,” I answer through tight lips.
“Good, then relax, and that is exactly what you’ll get.”
“You still haven’t answered me,” I say, trying to hold his attention as long as possible. “Why not find someone who actually wants this?”
“Because… I have no interest in any of them.”
“Why? It would be far easier to enjoy yourself with someone who reciprocates your feelings.”
“Perhaps,” Longwei muses, “but it wouldn’t be nearly as satisfying…or re-energizing as it will be with you.”
His words turn my stomach. “How can you say that?”
“Enough wasting time,” he snaps. He digs his fingernails into my head and crushes his mouth against mine once again. My hands clench into fists, but otherwise I don’t resist him and stare across the room unfeelingly.
I suddenly grunt and inhale sharply, lurching backwards, but Longwei’s body moves with mine.
He’s slipped his hand down my pants and taken my still-flaccid cock firmly in his hand. He begins to tug. I will myself not to react, but my body doesn’t listen as his movements gradually make me hard.
“You certainly haven’t disappointed me,” Longwei says, allowing my dick to pop out of the top of my pants. He lets go of me, and I instantly begin to soften, much to my own relief. But my relief is short-lived as Longwei yanks my pants down over my thighs and drops to his knees, shoving my cock into his waiting mouth. I’m sweating and rock hard in a matter of seconds as he works me over, my mind and body at complete odds with one another.
Damn it, he’s going to make me come. I close my eyes and imagine I’m with Annalise.
Immediate regret.
I groan loudly, shuddering violently as my cock throbs and I come.
Damn it.
Damn him.
Damn everything.
“What did I tell you?” Longwei says, wiping his mouth with a sleeve as he stands and tries to pull me into kiss me.
“Don’t,” I bark, holding out a hand to stop him.
“Why?” he asks. “Because I’ve just tasted you?”
I turn away and vomit.
“Come now, remember why you’re here,” he says, patting me on the back.
I become rigid, realizing he’s subtly grinding his own hard-on against the back of my thigh through his clothes.
“Why do we need you anyway?” I ask, spitting.
“Because there’s only one way to get to him,” Longwei replies, “and I’m the only one who knows how…”
“How did you find him then?”
“Let’s just say I did us both a little favor. Now, how about you do the same for me?”
Longwei stops rubbing against me, turning and walking over to his massive gold chair and sitting down. He pats the seat next to him, and I reluctantly move to sit, pulling up my pants in the process.
“Oh, no, don’t do that,” Longwei says. “I haven’t quite finished with you yet.”
“One thing at a time,” I growl, sitting down beside him.
“Fine,” he says as I see him pull out his own dick from the corner of my eye. “Well?”
“Well, what?”
He huffs and then clutches my wrist and pulls my hand to his cock. “Grab it.”
I grit my teeth together and then seize his dick, my hand completely covering him as I tightly wrap my fingers around it and begin to squeeze. He lets out a strangled moan.
“Not so tight.”
“Or what?” I snarl, jerking my hand up and down once. “This is what you wanted, right?”
“Yes, don’t stop,” he moans, a sour taste fills my mouth.
I am repulsed with myself, the very idea of pleasuring anyone but Annalise, even out of necessity, twisting my stomach.
“Tell me what you want,” I say in a low, demanding voice, grabbing a handful of his shirt and lifting him further up on the chair and pinning him down so that I can straddle him. He seems to like the sudden change in dynamic and I use it to my advantage. I place one hand against his throat, gradually restricting his airway. “Tell me!”
“Take me,” he begs, gasping. “I want you to tear into me… to ruin me for all others.”
My lip curls up as I imagine all the ways I want to destroy him, none of them in the very least related to what he wants from me.
“Oh, I’ll ruin you,” I sneer, tightening my grip around his throat, “but I want you to beg for it.”
“Anything,” he pleads, “I’ll give you whatever you want.”
I release him and push myself up off the chair, and he gasps, clutching his throat his face perplexed.
“Undress, and turn over,” I command.
His expression instantly transforms back to one of anticipation and excitement as he does what I say. As I look at the naked man lying in front of me, I can’t help but think of how badly I wish I was doing this with Annalise…and instead, here is this man spoiling the whole fantasy for me. I recompose myself and grab Longwei’s clothes off the floor. Forcing his arms behind his back, I use his discarded clothes to tie them together as tightly as possible, and then I follow it up by doing the same to his legs.
“Yes,” he grunts excitedly as I push a knee into his back while binding
him. I roll my eyes, but ignore his remark until he starts pushing his ass up in the air like an animal preparing itself to mate. I decide to make the most of the moment and grab a golden rod from a nearby table. It whistles through the air before connecting with Longwei’s buttocks, a strip of bright red across his skin as I repeat the action this time aiming for a large spot on his back. He cries out in both pain and pleasure, and I can’t deny I’m actually enjoying this…simply for the release caning him is giving me for my intensifying anger.
“Tell me what you want,” I shout, my brow sweating as I struggle with myself not to strike him hard enough to break every bone in his body.
“I want,” Longwei pants, “I want…”
“What?”
“I want you to take my necklace off.”
I freeze, mid-swing, trying to process what he’s just said. “Your necklace?”
“Yes, my necklace. Take it off.”
I notice the metallic clinking of the key hanging from his neck against the chair and realize what he means. “Okay.”
Tossing the pole clattering to the floor, I reach out and grasp the chain around his neck. With one fluid motion, I jerk it toward me, snapping it in two.
“Don’t lose it!” Longwei says hastily. “I only have one.”
I stare down into my palm at the golden key, my heart pounding in my throat as I look from it to Longwei’s bound, naked body sprawled out on the chair. Time almost seems to slow as my mind races, trying to reason with me why I shouldn’t run.
“What happens if I do?”
“We’ll never get out of here alive, let alone be able to access your dragon at Heaven’s Gate.”
“Heaven’s Gate, damn it,” I mutter darkly to myself; I should have guessed.
Silence fills the room as I close my fingers over the key, and turn away from Longwei.
“Where are you going?” he calls after me, his voice an octave higher than usual.
“To find a dragon,” I say in a guttural voice, grabbing my shirt off the floor and pulling it over my head on the way to the door.
“You’ll never make it,” Longwei shrieks, in an effort to correct the mistake he’s just made.
“We’ll see about that,” I growl under my breath, turning the key in the lock and thrusting the doors apart.
“Ero!” Annalise cries, rushing over to hug me. I flinch and pull away from her embrace, pushing past the others on my way toward the rope bridge.
“Ero,” Li calls after me.
“Are you coming or not,” I bark, not looking back as I storm cross the bridge.
“What happened in there?” Annalise asks, as they all catch up to me on the other side of the ravine.
I ignore Annalise’s question as a shudder runs through me, and then I spin around to look back across the rift at the loathsome building. My lip curls, my hands balling into even tighter fists as I screw up my face and then let out a roar that echoes and reverberates over and against the chasm, buildings, and surrounding landscapes. The morning chirp of birds silenced as they soar up into the sky in startled groups, all of my companions watching me in wide-eyed shock.
My chest still heaving from my shout, I take a deep breath and yell again as I step forward and thrust the heel of my boot into the stakes holding the bridge together over and over until they crack. The entire bridge falls, clattering as it crashes against the far side of the chasm.
I pant, sweat rolling down my back as I take a moment to catch my breath and then turn away from the hellhole to make my way down the stone stairs.
“Where are you going?” Li asks.
“To get our damn dragon.”
Eleven
Annalise
Ero refuses to say anything about what actually happened behind closed doors with Longwei, but it’s obviously affecting him deeply. He won’t look Li or Roan in the eye and barely acknowledges I exist, and it breaks my heart. All I want to do is hold him, to ease his mind and tell him he’s loved, but that will all have to wait.
We left the village in such a whirlwind, I can’t even remember how we ended up with our current satchel-full of food and a selection of useful items. If I had to venture a guess, I’d assume it’s Li’s doing. In any case, I’m exceedingly grateful. Roan carries me in his arms as I devour several steamy, vegetable-filled buns and a bit of bean milk, the fog in my head lifting slightly as my stomach fills.
“Careful now, lass,” Roan whispers. “We wouldn’t want you to choke on any of that.”
I notice Ero turn his head ever so slightly toward us at this but he turns back just as quickly. We race on in silence, none of us daring to speak or bother Ero as he focuses on the task at hand.
It doesn’t take long for us to reach the camp where this whole part of our journey started just days before.
“We should take a moment to rest,” Li says.
“No,” Ero says curtly.
“Just a few minutes,” Roan groans, setting me down. “We’ve barely had any sleep or food in days. Don’t forget, Annalise is pregnant. She’s already been through more than enough strain as it is.”
Ero snorts but doesn’t argue, instead dropping down to sit on a log at the opposite edge of camp from us.
“Here,” Li says, offering him a bun to eat, “eat something.”
Ero brushes his hand aside. “No.”
“You need to eat.”
“I said no!” Ero snaps, jumping up to look Li in the eye, his nostrils flaring and his breathing heavy.
“Okay, suit yourself.” Li raises his hands and backs away. “Would you like another one, Annalise?”
I take it, suddenly hungry again and not wanting it to go to waste.
“Is this the shelter you built?” Roan asks, walking over to examine the little lean-to tucked away on the edge of camp.
My cheeks burn with heat, and I quickly turn my attention back to the bun in my hands to avoid having to look at or answer him. My thoughts immediately returning to the night Ero and I had shared within.
“What does it look like?” Ero grumbles.
“Look,” Roan says, his tone changing to one of annoyance, “we don’t know what you went through with Longwei, but this attitude isn’t going to solve things either. I should know.”
“Oh, should you now?” Ero asks bitingly.
“I mean,” Roan stumbles over his words, “I just meant that taking it out on us…on Annalise isn’t going to fix what happened back there.”
Ero looks away, his jawline hardening and his lips pressed into a thin line. I look back and forth between the two of them, my mouth agape with a mouthful of bun as I watch and wait for the scene to unfold in front of me.
“I…I just don’t want to talk about it,” Ero finally says his voice cracking and his back turned to us. “Can you…can you just give me some time?”
Roan rubs the back of his head uneasily, grimacing. “Yeah, I... sure.”
My heart is breaking for Ero, and the food in my mouth tastes like sawdust at the sound of pain in his voice. All I want to do is run to him and throw my arm around his neck, but I remain where I am, forcing myself to swallow the rest of my bun. Roan sits down beside me, and quietly eats his own breakfast. Ero is leaning against a tree, his back still to us and his face buried in his hand.
I feel sick to my stomach watching him, but I can’t tear my eyes away as his shoulders begin to tremble slightly.
Is…he crying?
I start to get to my feet, but Roan grabs my wrist and pulls me gently back down. “Leave him be.”
“But he’s in pain,” I whisper in distress.
“He’ll talk when he’s ready.”
I don’t want to listen to Roan’s advice, but I do. As much as I want to comfort Ero, the last thing I want to do is to force him to do anything he’s not ready for.
“Are you all finished with your break?” Ero asks bluntly.
“Just a moment,” Li answers, gathering our things together.
“Fine, then catch
up when you are ready.”
“Ero,” I call, but he’s already started off toward the mountain without looking back.
“Let me carry Annalise for a while,” Li says, holding a hand out to help me up.
“I’m fine,” says Roan, cracking his neck and stretching as he stands.
“Perhaps, but you shouldn’t overdo things after what you went through earlier with your injury.”
“Li is right,” I chime in, “allow him to give you a break, just for a little while.”
Roan sighs but then agrees, and Li scoops me up into his arms as we set off once again.
“Can you see him?” Li calls.
“No,” Roan answers, looking back and brushing his red curls out of his face as the wind whips around us.
“He can’t have gone far. Are we sure he came this way?”
“He was definitely here, look.” Roan crouches and plucks a bit of torn fabric from a bramble by the mountain’s edge.
We’d spent the whole day working our way higher and higher up the mountain, I hadn’t been able to keep my breakfast down and the closer we get to the top, the more often I fall sick.
Roan tried his best to get me to stay below with him and let Li go on ahead in search of Ero, but I wouldn’t allow it. I’m tired of us being separated from one another. Every time the world pulls us away from one another, horrible things happen. Everything they’ve done, everything they’ve sacrificed has been for me…and I’m not about to let a queasy stomach keep me from any of my men.
“We’re nearly at the top as far as I can tell,” Li remarks.
“Not quite,” Roan says, his face falling as he rounds a bend in the narrow path.
As Li and I turn the corner, we see what he means. Ahead of us is an even steeper rise, a jagged trail winding its way to the top which is where the mountain no longer looks like anything I’ve ever seen. At the highest point of the path, there’s a vast hole in the middle of the peak straight through to the other side of the mountain. Misty clouds swirl and pour out of the opening and over the surrounding mountainside like a thick, slow moving waterfall.
