Page 72 of Garden of Poisoned Delights

“I’ll get you something from the shop,” Declan said, before Arwyn could distract the poor teenager at the till and steal half the figurines on the counter. Arwyn gave him a dry look.

“The pirate captain doll doesn’t even look like me,” he said, slipping one up his sleeve. Declan sighed. “Did you see what they said about us turning to piracy for food? They’d shit themselves if they knew about the farms.”

“Or the witches.”

“We still have those. There’s a coven not far from here. Remember those three old women who banned me from their garden?”

“I can’t imagine why they would,” Declan said, watching Arwyn steal a vial of “authentic wyvern tears” from a shelf. He towed him out before they could be apprehended by a pair of hapless teenagers, and winced as they emerged into the light. The street outside was bustling with people heading for the bars and restaurants for the evening, and as soon as Declan ushered Arwyn out, the door clicked shut behind them.

“Banned from our own ship,” Arwyn said, “again.”

“We aren’t banned,” Declan said. “They just…” He spotted one of the teenagers glaring at them and gesturing at the shelves through the window. “We should walk quickly.”

“Oh, they can try to arrest us,” Arwyn said, with a smile that wasn’t altogether human. Declan shivered, but he suppressed the thrill running through him and grabbed Arwyn by the elbow instead.

“I wasn’t aware there would be so much manhandling when we made this agreement,” Arwyn said, with the hint of, and you’ll pay for it later.

“Sometimes you’re like a feral cat, Shadow,” Declan said, and that did the trick. Suddenly, Arwyn was far less interested in robbing tourist traps and entirely focused on Declan. He took Declan by the arm instead, dragging him behind a closed stall selling glass jewelry. The whole stall jingled as Arwyn shoved Declan against it.

“You only call me that when you want me,” Arwyn said, but it wasn’t Arwyn, exactly. It was what he really was, the thing in the Well, rising with the scent of salt and lending a rattle to Arwyn’s silky voice. Arwyn ran his hand up Declan’s chest and trailed his nails over his neck, watching him closely.

“Thought it might make you restless.” Declan felt like he was speaking to two people, sometimes, when Arwyn got like this. “Seeing what we used to be.”

“What we are.” Arwyn smiled. “Our trappings change, but we remain. Do we not?”

“Seems like.” The stall jingled with glass again as Arwyn shoved his thigh between Declan’s legs.

For a moment, it seemed as though Arwyn was going to take Declan apart right there in the street, in full view of everyone. But the sound of laughter and singing and carousing grew louder, and Arwyn contented himself with a lingering kiss, a bite on Declan’s lower lip and a quick rub of his thigh against Declan’s hardening cock, just to make sure he was uncomfortable and a little too turned on to be in public. It reminded him of being paraded around Port Abyssian, and maybe Arwyn was right—maybe it was only the trappings that were different. Not that he’d tell Arwyn that. His Shadow was insufferable enough as it was.

Hekate’s Eye had turned into quite the entertainment district over the years, with shops, inns, brothels and pubs lining the well-lit streets. Arwyn was in his element in this place devoted entirely to humanity’s vices and excess, and Declan wasn’t surprised to find himself occasionally dragged behind buildings or into empty alleyways. He didn’t mind, even if he pretended he did because that wound Arwyn up even more, convincing Declan to want what Declan had wanted from the very first. Arwyn knew desire and Arwyn knew him, but Declan didn’t mind playing along as if it were some monumental task to make him want to kneel on uneven cobblestone and suck his cock.

He would have done it—Arwyn could hide them if it were a problem, though he rarely bothered to—but Arwyn was too much in his element, reveling in his power the same way his brother Astra did in the dreamworld. Arwyn was as flighty and selfish as ever, wanting to both show Declan off like some expensive courtesan and then snarl and draw a dagger on anyone who dared to appreciate the sight.

He was half-under from all the teasing when he realized where Arwyn was heading—Madame Mori’s Emporium of Delicious Desirous Delights. He raised his brows as Arwyn pushed open the door, whistling out of tune, dragging Declan by the hand toward the back where a variety of phalluses were showcased on little silk pillows.

“No,” he said. “Shadow. No.”

Arwyn, as usual, acted as if that word did not exist and studied two different toys with rapt attention. “Which of these looks more realistic, do you think?”

“They’re both shaped like a cock,” Declan said. He had a terrible idea he knew where Arwyn was going with this.

“Yes, thank you, I know. But which one would you never in a million years mistake for a pestle?”

Declan stared at him. “You said you were going to leave it there.”

“Yes, but Dex, it was mine.” A hint of the Shadow’s growl escaped, and Declan tried and failed to hide a shiver. Arwyn’s smile was too wide, his eyes not quite red, but not quite human, either. “I want it back. If they’re going to get it wrong, they might as well get it wrong with someone else’s fake cock.”

Declan shook his head. He knew there was no talking Arwyn out of this phallus heist. “Why did you tell anyone where the ship was if you didn’t want it to be found?”

“Don’t be so dramatic, Dex. I’m merely offended and want to make sure everyone knows,” said Arwyn, and Dex snorted with the irony. “Fine, I saw the phallus and remembered fucking you with it, and now I want it. That’s the only reason I need.”

“If we’re caught committing larceny, you’ll need more than that,” Declan tried, but he knew from experience it was useless. “This is going to be Katoikos all over again.”

“Oh, don’t be like that. Prison wasn’t that bad, we were out in what, two, three years?”

“It was two hours,” Declan reminded him. “You fucked me and then were horrified at the idea of sleeping on the floor, so you bribed the guard with whatever it was he wanted and we were out before the sun set.”

“Well, it felt a bit like years, and I would know,” Arwyn said, having chosen between two of the phalluses, which looked nearly identical. “I spent quite a lot of time locked up, you know.”

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