Page 74 of Garden of Poisoned Delights

Declan held out the not-a-pestle without comment. Arwyn took it and studied it thoughtfully. “When I fucked you with this before, this island didn’t even exist, I don’t think.” His eyes gleamed. “Our room at the inn has a balcony. You know what that means.”

Declan did, indeed. “You’re going to wash that off, first.”

“Why? It’s been underwater for centuries. Oh, don’t look at me like that. Yes, fine, I’ll clean it off for you first.”

“What was that you said, before? It’s the point of the thing.” Declan wasn’t surprised when Arwyn shoved the phallus at him. “Why aren’t you carrying it? This was your idea!”

“My pockets are full,” Arwyn said, shifty-eyed. “I picked up a few other things while I was in there.”

Declan groaned. “Arwyn! What exactly—mmph.”

Arwyn kissed him, mouth warm, hands on the sides of his face. “You’ll see, my knight. You’ll see.”

As they headed back to the inn, Declan tried to imagine what else Arwyn had carried off and what he’d left in its place. He didn’t think Arwyn would have taken any of the floggers—too damaged, and they had plenty—but one never could tell. He was probably in for quite a long night, if the glint in Arwyn’s eyes was anything to go by, and he couldn’t say he wasn’t looking forward to it. He’d enjoy himself, as much as he protested, and they both knew it.

“They probably won’t even notice,” Arwyn was saying, as they climbed the steps to their room in the inn.

“You could sound less disappointed about that,” Declan said, and finally started to laugh. “Here I thought you’d left piracy behind with the Maelstrom when you scuttled her.”

“It said it right on the sign in front of the museum, my knight. Nothing’s lost forever, it’s just waiting to be found. Now let’s wash this off so it doesn’t offend your sensibilities, and see how loud you can be when you come for me on that balcony.”

Declan might have protested, but it sounded a lot more fun than larceny. He reached for his shirt laces, but he did say, “Just make sure you use some soap,” before he started to strip.

“Bold of you to think I’m going to be doing the washing when I did the stealing, Dex.”

Declan could have pointed out that Arwyn wouldn’t have gotten to the window to steal anything without his help, but he knew from experience that was pointless. At least this way, he could be sure the thing was properly cleaned before Arwyn fucked him with it.

* * *

In the morning, the museum staff arrived to an inexplicably open window, a missing pestle some joker had replaced with a dildo, and a comment card tacked onto the plaque with chewing gum that showed a simplistic yet crude drawing of a stick figure bending over and being ravished by the missing pestle.

“What do you think it means?” asked Tiernan O’Malley, who worked the morning shift in the gift shop.

Ren, who would rather be reading the newest Scout of Thalassa adventure novel than working, shrugged. “Either someone has a sick sense of humor, or people on this ship used pestles for uh, something else.”

“Maybe that’s why they never found the mortar that went with it,” Tiernan suggested, gingerly removing the comment card to clean the gum off the proper plaque. She frowned. “There’s something here, it says…people fucked.”

They stared at each other, at a loss, until finally Ren pulled out their book and said, “I don’t get paid enough for this.”

“Me neither,” said Tiernan, and threw the note in the trash.

CHAPTER 14

Begin the Ritual

The fog had moved in while Levi was out fishing, slithering silent and heavy over the beach. He made his way to the house he shared with Iason and Sophie and a very spoiled water dragon, the sand cool on his bare feet, a net of fish bumping against his back and the evening air ruffling the perpetually tangled strands of his oil-slick hair.

The house was well-lit and warm when he went inside, through the back deck, since there was a small container of water and a rough-hewn rug there. It was mostly for Levi, who understood the need for clothing, but still found shoes to be a waste of time. Sometimes he didn’t bother, enjoying the spark of heat in Iason’s pale eyes when he saw Levi tracking sand over the tiles, the crack of magic electric in the air as Iason metaphorically—and sometimes literally—whacked Levi in the back of the head for it.

Levi didn’t mind. At this point, he’d learned what Iason considered playful, and they’d long ago mastered the silence wards around their bedroom to not cause Sophie undue embarrassment at breakfast. It wouldn’t matter tonight—Sophie was off with her friends to visit the sirens for a few days, and they had the house to themselves. Levi still cleaned his feet, because while Sophie and Argo weren’t in the house with Iason, he could feel that someone else was.

“I’m not sure I understand,” Iason was saying, as Levi strolled into the kitchen and tossed the net of fish on the new large, butcher-block island that had been a gift from Summer and Tanis. Iason liked to cook and Sophie liked to bake, and Levi liked to watch them and sample, even though he still found cooked fish to be about as useful as shoes, and just about as flavorful. Soon, he and Iason would shift forms and go swimming toward the mainland, and Levi could have as much raw fish as he wanted.

“I’m so sorry,” came the reply, which sounded muffled as if spoken into a teacup, and more than a little miserable. “I didn’t…quite mean for it to happen.”

Iason sighed. Levi knew the other person at the table was Lazaros, the representative for the mages in the newly-formed Mislian council, but that was probably not what he was here about. Iason had made it more than clear he had no interest in politics, and kept his attentions firmly on helping people rather than trying to govern them. Other than assisting Summer and Tanis in the archives, Iason was mostly an apothecary who would discreetly help you with overgrown garden plants or critters eating unripe tomatoes off the vine.

Lazaros looked up when Levi entered, his face going red immediately. The younger mage had mostly stopped blushing every time he saw Levi, but the bloom on his cheeks happened so fast this time that Levi actually glanced down at himself, frowning. “What? I’m wearing clothes.”

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