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Strokes quickening, his moans shattered from the surrounding stone as he plundered my mouth until, with a raw shout, his hips first stalled, then jerked. Fingers tight in my hair, he held me still, releasing warm ropes of seed which splashed against my gums before they trickled down my throat.
“Swallow me down, my little one,” he rasped. “Yes… ah, such a good girl. Spread it across your gums and learn the taste of my seed.”
Swallow it down, I did.
And I hated myself for it.
Hated more how I smiled.
With a tug on my arm, he urged me to my feet. He gripped my waist and picked me up, sitting me back onto his lap, his erection still slightly hard beneath me. And with my mind dulled with this sense of humiliation, I let him.
“Now this… this deserves a reward.” The King took the new jug from the dead footman standing idly beside us, took a sip, then reached it toward me. “Wine? No? Ah, where are my ma
The corpse’s skin first turned a speckled green, then blackened before it wrinkled, shrank. A nauseating stench cut through the air but faded a moment later as the flesh writhed and shifted, reducing to nothing but white powder. It dusted the air like a cloud of flour before it, twisting into a fu
Acid, rancid and sour, licked at the back of my throat. It swept onto my tongue, making me want to retch as my heart drummed in my ears. My hand reached for the goblet all on its own, nails digging into the material, forming a notch there as the King let wine gulp into it, seasoning the air with its macabre sweetness.
Not alabaster.
Not stone at all.
I’d walked on the dead, slept on them, had bathed surrounded by—
I swung a hand to my mouth, letting saliva pool underneath my tongue. One swallow. Even a drop of it ru
…a goblet.
A goblet he prodded against my lips, demanding I drink from what had been a corpse only moments ago. “I made it just for you.”
When he shrugged and sipped from it instead, my gaze fell to my dress, all blood leeching from my veins until my limbs numbed. “And what did you use to make my dress?”
Another swallow from the goblet. “Take a guess, mortal.”
Skin.
Death covered me from my collarbone to my ankles, safe for where my breast had spilled from a rip in vulgar display. Everything around me spun, and I slipped off his lap, swaying for balance. Out. I needed out of this place.
I staggered down the dais. Blood rushed inside my ears with such force, it drowned out my steps as I hurried to the bridge. Only the King’s laugh overwhelmed it. “Ah, yes, follow the notches back to the safety of your cage.”