Page 122 of Rogue's Possession (Covenant of Thorns 2)

In Which I AmCornered

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The longer I am around magic, the more it becomes clear that it manifests with as much unpredictability, complexity and sheer variety as any organicsystem.

~Big Book of Fairyland, “Rules ofMagic”

The room didn’tgo silent or anything, so I barely heard what Rogue said. Fortunately our little drama was but a small piece of the larger play. I clamped my thoughts down as tightly as I could, pushing as much of myself behind that wall of silence I’d learned.

I knelt at Titania’s feet demurely—submissively, even—not allowing myself to reflect on the irony that this skill too, came in handy. If we’d worried about her recognizing me, the moment pointed up how silly that had been. She barely glanced at me, far more interested in some display across the room. Naked, as always, she wore only a mask. An elaborate living mask that I quickly realized had been the face of some unfortunate fae, borrowed for the night. The ripped edges of flesh bled freely, dripping blood over her voluptuous breasts and running in rivulets down her sweet flesh.

Knowing the owner of the face likely couldn’t die, I imagined him screaming in agony somewhere locked away in her beautiful palace of glass and light, waiting for her to return his face. If she ever did.

Thankful that playing meek meant I didn’t have to look at it anymore, I sank myself into submitting. Biding my time.

Rogue stroked my hair affectionately, trailing long fingers along the nape of my neck. The touch, so familiar, so veryhimand still nothing. Finally Titania shifted her attention. I felt it in the change in Rogue’s demeanor.

Titania sighed loudly enough to be heard over the tumult. “Really, Rogue. Aren’t you tired of playing with humans? I thought you’d gotten enough from your little mortal tart.”

“She’s tasty. I thought perhaps you’d like to share her.”

“No. Go slake your thirst if you must, but be back by midnight. If she survives your attentions, you can display her later. A little whipping before she’s passed around to the others, perhaps.”

“Thank you, my queen.” Rogue tugged me up by the wrist and towed me from the room. In an act of supreme faith I let him, praying to the gods I’d never believed in that this was the right thing to do and not my last night alive before the fae gangbanged me to death. Walking briskly, he dragged me down a hall and into another wing, into a set of rooms made entirely of clear glass and set out over a drop to the chasm below, brightly lit by the moon.

Rogue tossed me onto a bed and pounced on me, pinning me with his long body, and holding my wrists together in one hand above my head. He kissed me breathless, yanked off the Dog mask—thank goodness—and kissed me again. Then he pulled off my mask and stared long and hard into my face.

I’d wondered, back at that first feast, what it would be like to see his face above mine in the night, the black thorns spiking around his mouth and eye, the mask of a predator more than the Dog’s had been. Now I hovered in an aching space between one thing and the next, poised above a figurative abyss as much as the literal one.

Would he try to rape me and would I be able to stop him? Or was he still in there?

He closed his free hand over my throat and I gathered the magic, calling the cat to the surface.

Poised.

“By Titania’s rotten womb, idiot Gwynn—I expressly told you not to look for me.”

A bubble of the sweetest relief bubbled through me, and I pulled my wrists from his slackened grip and wrapped my arms around him, sobbing out his name.

He rolled onto his back, bringing me with him and stroked the back of my neck. “I didn’t think you’d forgive me.”

“For which thing?” I teased, giddy with seeing him again.

“I hope you have a plan for getting out of here.”

“Not so much,” I said against his chest. “I was kind of winging this.”

I wouldn’t have heard his sigh, but I felt it in the deep rise and fall of his chest, the falter in the rhythm of his heart.

“Can’t you ever just do as you’re told?”

I raised my head to look at him, the dark sorrow creasing his face. “As I’ve told you lo, these many times—not my forte.”

He sat up, tumbling me to the side, and stood, gazing down at me. “Well, I hope your strength is in escape because you’d better get out of here immediately. I won’t be able to help you. If you’re incredibly lucky, she won’t make me stop you.”

“She has that much control over you? I find that hard to believe.”

He laughed, short and bitter, folded his hands behind his back and began pacing. “You’d better start believing and fast. Midnight looms. I don’t think you or that fool Starling could survive what happens then.”

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