“What happened to you?” she asked breathlessly.
His jaw tightened, and he pushed off the wall to go towards the tub. “I’ll show you,” he said. “Tomorrow night. In the meantime, drink your potion and get back in bed. I need you well enough to not have to worry about your safety in the Forest tomorrow night.”
Aydra rose to her feet, and she hobbled around to the front of the desk. “So demanding, Venari,” she mused. “Should I look forward to this kind of dominating leer on our journey?” she attempted to banter.
The rate at which he was suddenly in front of her made her gasp. Papers flew onto the floor. He grasped her hips and pushed her to the top of the desk, his hands pressing her wrists into the wood as his torso came flush with hers. Her breath caught, and she found herself frozen to the spot. His hair tickled her shoulders as he stared down at her, his face only inches from hers.
“Careful what you ask for, Sun Queen.”
Her heartbeat throbbed in her ears at the noise of his growl. She swallowed hard, and in that moment decided to play his game. Her head tilted up at him, exposing her neck. Her thighs squeezed around his hips, pointed toes and heels digging into the backs of his thighs, and she felt her mouth open just slightly as her eyes darted from his sage orbs to his lips. She swore she heard a low groan emit from his throat as she her thighs tightened around him.
“Remember who you’re playing with, Forest King.”
His eyes fluttered for only a moment, and then a small smirk rose on his lips. He glanced down at her lips before suddenly taking a step away from her. “Right,” he muttered with a raise of his brows.
Aydra’s breath returned, and she stared after him as he finished crossing to the tub, where he started pumping the water into it.
The raven flew inside and landed on the desk, where it tapped its beak on the potion cup. Aydra snapped out of her daze and grasped it in her hands.
She shot the rest of it back into her mouth and pushed herself to the bed before she could allow her feet to go to the tub with him.
It was much past dark when Aydra awoke to the noise of a lullaby echoing through the forest. She recognized it immediately, and welcomed the one whom it belonged to. She hobbled out to the deck and sat on the lounge chair so that she could better hear it. She’d heard it once before, a very long time ago, when she’d been taken to the Forest with Zoria.
It was the sweet melody of the Bygon, Samar. The only one left of her kind. She lived in creeks and waters, taking form during the Deads to lure wandering men into her grasp. Her lullaby would rock them into a slumber they didn’t want to be parted from, and then she would devour their blood while they slept.
Her voice grew louder as Aydra snuggled further into the blanket around her on the chair. And when a brisk wind swept through the balcony, Aydra looked towards the misting fog in front of her.
“Hello, Samar,” Aydra called.
Samar’s womanly figure appeared from within the fog. She rose out of it not as smoke appearing to figure, but as bone first, followed by muscle and blood, until the skin wrapped around her, creating the corporal being that came to sit on the railing.
Samar smiled dreamily and twirled her stark straight black hair in her fingers.
“Queen Aydra,” Samar purred with a nod. “It has been a long time.”
“Your lullaby is even more beautiful than I remember,” Aydra said.
Samar smiled. “To what do we owe the pleasure of your company on this turn of the Deads?”
“Shadow thieves.” Aydra pointed to the whelps around her ankles. “What about you? I did not think you to venture inside their homes when you’ve so few nights to hunt.”
“I come on occasion of the King’s call,” Samar replied.
Aydra frowned. “I did not hear the horn.”
“That’s because he does not have to bellow or body the horn for my attention. The horn carries many different songs. One simply has to learn them. Draven has near mastered them all.”
“And why does the King call you?” Aydra asked.
“He asks for my lullaby when he cannot sleep. I oblige any way I can.”
Aydra frowned. “What exactly would he be having nightmares about?”
Samar’s lips twisted smugly. “Who said anything about nightmares?” she asked with a tilt of her head. “And what of you, Queen? Why do you not sleep? Has my lullaby not worked for you on this night?”
“You know as well as I that even your strongest of songs cannot put me to sleep.”
Samar jumped off the railing and knelt in front of Aydra then, her breath an inch from the queen’s. “You know I have other ways to help in such times,” Samar whispered, her hand pressing to Aydra’s cheek. She moved her hair off her shoulder, revealing the pale skin of her neck. Aydra’s body shuddered as she felt Samar’s mouth on her skin. Feeling the Bygon’s flesh was different from sharing with a being. Samar’s touch was of fog on your flesh, whispers of touch on your body. She could shift into that which you wanted the most.
So when Aydra found herself lying on the bed a few moments later, legs splayed open as she almost reached her climax, and she looked down to find Draven’s face between her thighs, she nearly jumped out of her skin.
“Sweet Arbina— Samar!” Aydra hissed, grabbing her hair.
The Bygon shifted into her self again and wiped her lips of Aydra’s wetness as she grinned over the startled queen. “Something wrong?” Samar asked innocently.
Aydra drew the knife from the bedside table and pushed it to Samar’s throat. “What are you playing at, Bygon?” she hissed.
Samar’s eyes danced, a thin brow raising on her face.
