Lies of Murk by Eva Chase

21

Talia

Silky sheets slide across my limbs. They feel like a warm breeze licking over my skin.

I roll over on the bed, and Corwin is there beside me. He slips his arm around my waist and tugs me to him, love shining in his dark eyes.

My heart swells with joy and longing. I hug him to me, abruptly choked up.

He’s here. My soul-twined mate, with me again. It’s been so long. I started to wonder if I’d ever—

The thought shivers up from some distant part of me that this doesn’t make sense. How can I be with him? Where even are we? There was— I’d been—

The doubts wash away with another rush of warmth and a deeper longing. I can’t focus on anything except the hunger to get closer to the man I’m lying next to.

The same desire echoes into me from Corwin. He grasps the sides of my face and pulls me into a kiss.

Our lips meld together, our tongues tangling, and heat flares low in my belly. I want to be with him in every possible way, to feel him around me and inside me, to have him flood my body with all the amazing sensations I know he can bring.

As if in answer, Corwin wrenches down the sheets. I’m nearly naked underneath, only my panties on. He dips his head to suck one of my nipples into his mouth, and the pleasure I was seeking rushes through me. I press my head into the pillow with a gasp.

He works me over with strokes of his tongue that draw the tip of my breast to a hardened peak and squeezes my other nipple between his fingers. Giddy sparks shoot through me straight to my sex. I squirm against him, whimpering, eager for more.

“Please,” I mumble. “Please.”

With an urgent noise, Corwin pushes up to kiss me hard on the mouth. At the same time, he yanks at my panties. They whip off me with a snap of torn fabric. Then the hard length of him is pressing against me. I lift toward him, bliss throbbing through my core where he’s rubbing against my slickness, encouraging him on. An instant later, he’s thrusting right into me, stretching me, filling me.

I’m so wet already that he slides in deep with a burn that’s nothing but welcome. A moan escapes my lips. I buck to meet his thrusts, claiming every ounce of pleasure he can bring to my body. We’re here in this together, passion searing between us, and nothing will ever break us apart again.

My release comes with such force that I shudder and cry out, my back bowing up against the sheets. As Corwin reaches his peak with a stuttered breath, three more figures gather around us.

All my mates have come to me. Sylas’s mismatched gaze raises more heat as it travels over my naked curves. Whitt licks his lips, which have curved into a wicked grin. August’s strong hands descend to pull my face to his.

In a matter of moments, I’m lost between them, kissing one and then another, arching into their caresses, more whimpers and gasps tumbling out of my mouth. Whitt enters me with one quick thrust while Sylas works me over from behind to prepare my other opening. August fondles my breasts. It’s all so much I can barely catch my breath.

Bliss rolls over my body in waves. I writhe between them, tipping over the peak only to be tossed up toward it again, soaring higher and higher with every burst of heady delight—

And then a raucous laugh rips through the haze of pleasure. I flinch, and my eyes snap open. The cocoon of passion and love I was wrapped in an instant ago vanishes, though my body is still throbbing with desire.

The sight around me snuffs out any lingering hunger like a bucket of icy water dumped over my head. I’m lying on my side at the edge of Orion’s dais, the erratic orange light of the Murk’s Heart wavering over me. A small crowd of fae has gathered in the throne room around the platform, all their eyes fixed on me. Many are leering, several are chuckling. It’s one of them whose laugh woke me up.

From a dream. My hands drop to my sides, with a surge of relief to confirm that unlike in that dream, I’m fully dressed. But I— Did I fall asleep here?

My head feels muddled—I don’t remember the last moments before I drifted off. It’s hard to imagine being relaxed enough to doze off here. Did Orion carry me from my house… to put me on display…

As I push myself into a sitting position, my heart beating wildly, the king steps up beside me. He grins down at me with a twinkle of vicious amusement in his yellow eyes. “Thank you for that lovely performance, my pet. My people have found it very entertaining—and provoking.”

Performance? Provoking?

A few of the watching fae make gestures that mimic sex, and my stomach plummets even as scorching heat shoots to my cheeks. There’s nothing lustful in that heat now, only shame.

I might not be naked, but I must have been making some of the sounds from my dream in reality, maybe even moving my body without realizing it. And they all watched…

“I—I—” I stammer, but I don’t know what to say. My face burns even hotter. I pull my legs up in front of me as if to shield me from all those stares.

“All right,” Orion calls out. “The show’s over. Get back to work—or if you haven’t got work to do, maybe you’ll be inspired to enjoy each other as much as my pet enjoyed her dream.”

The fae around the room start to turn, drifting toward the entrance, but their leaving doesn’t give me much relief. A shiver wracks my body.

Orion crouches next to me, still with a sharp smile on his face, and speaks low enough that no one else will be able to hear. “Nothing in your mind is safe from me. This is only one of many demonstrations I could offer.”

I cringe away from him and bump into the legs of someone who’s come up at my other side.

“I think she’s gotten the message,” Madoc says, his voice casual but with a thread of tension running through it. “Maybe we should let her get some proper rest now?”

Orion straightens up and waves his hand dismissively. “Do what you like with her. I’ve had my fun. For now.”

He saunters away with his tail swinging as if I’m a toy he’s done playing with. I can’t contain another tremor that races through me.

Madoc peers down at me, a frown tugging at his mouth. He saw all that too. He saw me moaning and squirming with desire in my sleep…

Another rush of embarrassment nearly suffocates me. I rub my hands over my face. I just want to curl up into a ball tiny enough to drop through a crack in the floor and never be seen again.

But that’s not an option. Madoc waits without speaking as I gather myself. Part of me wants to ask just how bad it was, how much of the dream I acted out in front of the audience of Murk, but I can’t bring myself to even mention the topic with him.

He probably thinks it’s awful that I’d still want my mates at all, even in a dream, after everything I’ve seen and heard about the fae of the seasons.

Slowly, I pick myself to my feet and limp alongside him toward the door. I’m not sleepy—and from the glow of the magical lights, it seems to be daytime by Murk standards—but my sense of time has been upended. Still, I’m exhausted in a way that has nothing to do with wanting sleep. The uncertainty and fear I’ve been living with, amplified over the past few days, has been wearing away at my inner strength. I hate how weak I feel.

“No one will remember it in a day or two,” Madoc says in an obvious attempt at being reassuring. “They don’t really care. It was just Orion wanting to remind everyone of his power.”

“Especially me,” I mutter.

Madoc pauses as we come out into the tunnel. The fae who watched my humiliation have totally dispersed—there’s no one nearby. He ducks his head. “It was a horrible way to do it. Do you need anything? Food, or something to distract you?”

The fact that he’s trying to help in his hesitant way only makes me feel worse. He can’t do anything for me. Would he even want to try anything that would actually get me out of this nightmare when it’d bring Orion’s rage down on him—destroy everything he went through so much already to gain? I doubt it.

It’s probably a risk even admitting he doesn’t agree with his king’s tactics.

I glance up at him, a strange mix of affection and anger twisting in my chest. I’m glad he’s at least trying and frustrated that he won’t do more all at the same time. He offers me a pained smile, which brightens the planes of his not-at-all-unpleasant face just a little, and an even more horrifying thought strikes me.

If Orion can peer inside my head and manipulate my dreams, what else could he compel me to think? To feel? To do? He’d probably delight in the idea of forcing me to betray my mates with one of his inner circle—or maybe even with himself?

My skin crawls at the idea. I step a little farther away from Madoc. I don’t know if there’s any real chance of what I’ve just imagined happening, but even considering it is making me jumpy. I don’t want to be near any of them right now.

“I think—I think I just need to walk a bit and clear my head,” I say. “On my own.”

Madoc opens his mouth as if to say something and then closes it again. After a moment, he nods. “Of course. If there is anything I can do, just seek me out.”

At the nearest station, he moves away from me to speak to a few of the fae carrying boxes through a doorway. My gaze lingers on the entrance for a moment, my memories stirring.

I have to get out of here before I find out just how far Orion is willing to go. Is there a way I haven’t tried yet that would be even easier than the air vent?

As innocently as I can manage, I wander around in the other direction and head toward the far end of the Refuge where the maintenance room is.

As I step into the final tunnel, voices ahead of me catch my ears. I creep closer, staying close to the wall. A glimmer of light illuminates a fae face for just a moment before the three shadowy figures at the far end of the tunnel vanish.

I wait a few minutes to be sure they’re really gone and that no one else is coming, and then slink over to check the end of the tunnel. There is a doorway there, one I thought was just part of the tiled wall that closes off this section of the Refuge. When I run my fingers over the grout, I can now feel a thin seam around one chunk of them that must open up.

But it won’t open for me, no matter how I press and pry at it. I can’t get any grip with my fingers at all. Even if I could, it’s most likely sealed with magic as well.

Hugging myself, I step back before anyone can come through or otherwise stumble on me tugging at it. Orion might enjoy terrorizing me, but that doesn’t mean he’d want to know I’ve gotten so desperate I’m trying to leave. How would he punish me for that infraction?

I can’t just stand around doing nothing, though. My restlessness drives me over to the air vent. But as I scramble up onto the machine beneath it, I catch a rustling sound somewhere nearby.

I freeze, my pulse hitching. The rustling comes again—not so close I’m worried anyone’s seen me, but it could be right near the entrance to the room. A Murk in rat form patrolling the borders of the Refuge?

Hell, it might even be a normal, not-at-all-fae rat, not that I’d be able to tell the difference.

I crouch by the machine for several minutes, but the rustling continues. It starts to get a little louder, coming this way. If it is a sentry, what will they think of me hanging around here? How closely might they examine this place if they suspect I have a special interest in it?

Gritting my teeth in frustration, I push away from the machine and meander back to the tunnel.

Isn’t there anything I can do to get closer to escape? With every passing minute, the darkness feels more constricting, the air thinner. My heart is still beating fast, and sweat is forming beneath my shirt even though I’m far from hot.

I limp onward, desperation nipping at my heels. If I could even just get a few seconds when I was sure I was completely alone, that no one would hear me…

Halfway down the next tunnel over, I pass a workshop room that’s currently unused. The furnace is still running, its crackling thrum filling the room. A smoky, metallic scent trickles into my lungs, but a flicker of hope rises up at the same time.

I dart into the room and squeeze behind the furnace where I can’t be seen from the tunnel and where I can hope its noise will cover any hint of my voice even to fae ears. There’s no one nearby right now, but someone might come along at any moment. I have to be fast.

I cup my hands over my mouth, picture Whitt’s bright eyes, and whisper, “Wye-con-ell,” with all the hope and anguish in me.

An ache opens up down the center of my skull, but a glimmer of my mate’s presence catches in my awareness at the same time. Whitt, I think at him, ignoring the quickly building pain. Whitt, hear me. Speak to me.

His voice carries to me from so very far away. Talia! We’re trying— —think we’ve narrowed— Are you—

The connection I’ve been able to forge is so tenuous his words are already fragmenting. I have no idea how clearly he’ll be able to hear me. I’m trying to find a way to escape. Still no clues about where I am. Be careful. The Murk have a Heart. They have so much more magic than we thought. I—

Anything else I’d have conveyed to him is lost in a sharper sear of agony that feels as if my scalp is literally peeling away from my skull. A choked gasp breaks from my throat. I drop my head, pressing the heels of my hands to my forehead.

Whitt’s voice and any sense of him I had vanish. There’s nothing in my head but a thrashing pain. It’s all I can do to hold back a sob.

Tears trickle from my eyes anyway. Even this physical distress isn’t enough to drown out the anguish swelling through me.

Did I manage to tell him anything useful at all? Why couldn’t my magical abilities be just a little stronger?

I wrap my arms around my knees and bury my face against them, my tears soaking into my pants. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to get out of here.

What if I never can?