Page 7 of Dead Crown
He tilted his face to feel the little pricks of ice as they landed on him. How long would it take if he stripped, lay in the snow, closed his eyes, and waited for death to take him? It’d be quicker than the slow march toward it called life.
He headed toward the covered hallway to his left, intending to go by, and he swung his coat in one hand. He’d sleep and do it allagain tomorrow. Just like the courtiers. He barely registered the shadow or the glint before a hand was over his mouth, and steel touched his neck.
“Come along quietly,” said a familiar voice.
Lumi almost stumbled as he was hauled into the hallway that was open at both ends. Why would the Prince take him like this? He could have Lumi on his knees with a snap of his fingers. Unless he had a fantasy about attacking someone and finally decided the pleasure slave would work.
Prince Jaki kicked the double doors shut as soon as Lumi was in his sitting room. “You’re awfully relaxed for someone who has a knife to his throat. Do you realize I could take you like this? I could bend you right over my bed and explore your tight little ass.”
Lumi tried to laugh through the hand against his mouth as he dropped his coat. About damn time.
His breath caught before he forced his heat. His cock thickened, and his face and chest grew warm. Prince Jaki loosened his hand before he dragged the knife downward, although he didn’t quite cut skin. The top button of Lumi’s shirt surrendered to the blade and plinked on the floor. He pressed himself against the Prince, and when a finger touched his lips, he let his tongue out to lick it.
“Do you have any idea what you do to a man?” hissed Prince Jaki.
“Whatever they want,” whispered Lumi. “If you want to cut me, go ahead, Prince Jaki.”
The Prince’s fangs grazed his neck, and Lumi shivered. If the Prince fucked him, he’d surely dig his fangs into Lumi’s neck. A good deal of cat fairies did when they fucked. It would make Lumi’s slick ass even wetter.
“Do you want me to fight so you can hold me down and bite me? Or do you want me to behave and beg for it while you breed my ass? Anything you want, Prince.”
“Hmm.” Prince Jaki pushed him forward, spun him around, and slung him over his shoulder.
Lumi bit back a smile as he fisted the back of the Prince’s coat. Finally, the one he wanted most of all, and he’d own everyone. In the Prince’s bedroom, done in soft greys and gentle blues, Lumi was flung down on the bed and wasn't given time to look around. Prince Jaki straddled him and grabbed his throat. Lumi ground his erection against him while his ass grew wetter and ached to be stuffed. He wanted the Prince in and on him and everywhere at once.
His wrists were pinned as the Prince leaned down to thrust his tongue into his mouth. Maybe he’d tie Lumi down and use him for hours. Once the heat wore off, Lumi would bring it again and beg for his ass to be filled with cum. He’d beg for pain if that was what the Prince wanted. Lumi would let himself be run ragged so that he could know he was doing it right and being exactly what Prince Jaki wanted.
Prince Jaki ran his mouth along Lumi’s jawline and back again. When their lips met again that time, the kiss was tainted with something small, bitter, round, and familiar.
Lumi instinctively tried to spit it out, and the Prince clamped a hand over his mouth and pinched his nose shut. “Swallow.”
Fuck. Lumi had seconds before it fully dissolved, and the bitterness had already started to spread across his tongue. Terror overwhelmed him as he tried to shove at the Prince and plead with his eyes. Prince Jaki’s cold, furious gaze locked onto him.
“Swallow it, or we’ll see how long it takes before you run out of air.” His ears pulled back. “If you pass out, I’ll just bring you around. Don’t you want to play? You’re the one who has beengetting into my lap and prancing your ass around in the hopes I’d take it. I thought you liked games.”
Lumi tried to kick and twist out from under him. The resin wouldn’t work like Prince Jaki wanted, and when he realized it, he might simply kill Lumi. He knew something.
The urge for air grew to be too much, and his chest tightened as the bitterness spread further. This wasn’t how he wanted to go.
Lumi swallowed.
He couldn’t tell if it was the resin or the lack of air that made him grow light. The Prince wasn’t heavy anymore, and he could barely feel the hand holding his chin. It was definitely the resin. He could breathe, but each lungful he sucked in didn’t bring him back. He couldn’t understand what the Prince was saying, and the taps on his cheek were probably smacks.
The hand on his throat normally would have been arousing, but he might float away. The blurry room wasn’t real. Nothing was, and the years he’d been through didn’t exist. Someone was talking or demanding something from him, and he couldn’t make out a single word.
Lumi was sure he was being moved and dragged out like the trash that he was. The cold air was nothing more than a tickle, and white rushed up to slam him in the face.
Chapter Two
White and cold. So it was in the beginning, and so it was now. Where had Lumi read that? Where the fuck was he, and why was he so damn bloody cold?
Every muscle in his body protested as he tried to move his limbs, and his tail ached. His fingers, brittle and numb, scrambled at the white stone flooring he could barely feel.
Even a fairy who had grown up in such a cold country wasn’t meant to lie in an open hall with barely enough clothes for hours. The air from each end nipped at him as he struggled to his knees.
It would be easy to let himself collapse and close his eyes. Someone would soon find him anyway. He wanted to go to his room and be alone without a fluttering maid or a guard sneering at the court’s whore.
The faint light at either end said the day had arrived. Prince Jaki would come out soon, and Lumi didn’t have the energy to keep up the facade. He just had to get to the wall, and then he could use it for support.
