“It is hard to say.” News of Idria’s impending marriage to the new Rutharian king had surprised even me when I learned of it. My lady told me much—but even I had not been privy to information as terrible as her intention to join our race with that of the Rutharians. “Do not worry yourselves of any of that, though. It will all work out in the end.”
“How do you know?” Gallix barked at me.
“I am a specter, Gallix. I know many things.” I glanced between them, then cocked my head toward the door. “Now that you’re awake, you may as well make yourselves useful. Dress and meet me in the gardens. I need your help with something.”
“Something Atlanta-related, I’m sure,” Gallix said with a rough laugh.
I merely smiled.
Now that I had Atlanta exactly where I wanted her, when you got right down to it, most things I did, I did for her.
11
Atlanta
I didn’t know why I thought things might’ve changed after, well…
Getting down on my knees for Apex and putting his dick on my tongue?
Sucking Apex off in the shower until he came in my mouth?
The incident. I guessed that was what I was calling it.
But they hadn’t.
No good morning kisses. No tender words or loving caresses after we were so rudely startled awake by Lieja. No kindness. No heartfelt confessions. And definitely no I love yous—though, even I wasn’t naive enough to expect that.
Lieja had barged into Apex’s room and demanded that I dance for her again, and Apex had offered me up to her like a hunk of meat on a silver platter.
Nothing had changed at all.
I paced in the garden, looking up only to see if Apex was finally coming to find me. He’d said he wanted to meet me here, and here I was. Showered, dressed, and completely alone. The sun was just starting to rise over the palace walls, and part of me wondered if I shouldn’t try to run again. This was my first opportunity after my last failed attempt, after all. But before I even began to seriously consider escaping, I knew it was a bad idea.
Lieja’s guards were posted along the walls, and occasionally some of the other courtiers who lived here would come out from the palace to take a stroll. After the way my last bid for freedom had ended, I knew better than to try another before I had a plan. Thanks to all the walking we’d done yesterday, I knew the gardens pretty well now, but as for the palace itself and the landscape around it? I didn’t have a freaking clue.
If Apex didn’t find me, someone else—either Lieja’s guards, Votan, Razael, or worse—would.
Given the way that the other people here stared at me when they crossed my path, like I was some kind of peculiar animal at local zoo, I was actually relieved when I finally spotted Apex coming down the path. He was wearing the same all-black outfit that he always wore. A few steps behind him were the other Lunarians, Ronan and Gallix. The nice ones whose dicks I hadn’t been dumb enough to suck. They wore the same outfit that Apex did, only in white. Somehow, it made me feel like they were the good guys, and Apex was just some kind of villainous creature who’d been sent here to torment me with his handsome features and his awful little smirk.
It was just as well that we weren’t going to be alone today. If Apex spoke to me one on one, I was pretty sure I was either going to wind up hitting him, hitting on him, or maybe just bursting into tears.
Of course, one blowjob wasn’t going to change anything. The small amount of power I’d felt with my lips around Apex’s cock was gone the second I woke up, almost like the whole thing had happened in a crazy wet dream.
I was still a slave. He was still my master. And no matter how I might’ve liked to pretend otherwise, the collar around my neck was an ever-present reminder of the fact that I was still a prisoner here. No amount of sucking or fucking was going to be able to change that.
“Good morning, gorgeousness!” Gallix raised his hand to wave at me as they approached. I didn’t have the hots for Gallix, but at least every time I’d spoken to him, he’d been consistently nice to me. The same couldn’t be said for Apex himself. If I’d been in a better mood, I might have been flattered by the compliment.
Actually…
“Good morning yourself, handsome.” I fluttered my fingers at him and gave him a broad, beaming smile—then immediately relished the way the little exchange made Apex’s nose twitch.
Surly bastard. Even when I was openly flirting with his buddy, he didn’t have the good grace to frown.
“Enough of that.” Apex waved Gallix back as he came to stand right in front of me. He was keeping his distance, which, on a metaphorical level, I guessed was a nice touch. “Are you ready?”
“I might be.” I looked over Apex’s shoulder at Gallix and Ronan, then shrugged. “But I didn’t agree to dancing for an audience. Or am I just your little toy ballerina now? You wind me up and I dance whenever you want, for whoever you want?”
“You are not being asked to dance at all.” Apex’s voice was as cold and hollow as I’d ever heard it. “You are training.”
“What’s the difference?”
Slowly, that wicked little smirk appeared on Apex’s lips. Even though I was cross at him, it made my heart flutter a little bit and sent my stomach doing cartwheels.
“I suppose that is something you will soon find out.”
“Harder!” Apex roared as sweat dripped from my brow. “Faster! Are you even trying?”
I panted and bent over. My chest was on fire and every muscle in my body was aching
