Spire of Shadows Read online

  And if history was any indication, she always did.

  Rohen grimaced and ran his hand back through his short blond hair. Arranging a meeting with the Lord Vigilant without Jess around would probably be impossible. For one, Rohen didn’t know Lord Arinthal all that well; for two, Jess wouldn’t want to let him out of her sight until morning, and even then she would probably insist on keeping him at her side. She had always treated him like her own little pale-blooded puppy. He would have been insulted if the sex wasn’t so good…or so frequent.

  The only realistic strategy he could see here was to convince Jess first, then work on the Lord Vigilant. There had to be some way to get through to her—for all her faults, Jess wasn’t a monster. She embodied all the best traits of the Tel Bator and only some of the worst. He couldn’t bring himself to believe that she would knowingly unleash the Chol upon the north.

  Then again, he hadn’t believed her father capable of doing that, either…

  “Guardian guide me,” he whispered as he turned and looked up the stairs.

  Time to make a decision. Either I run back to the girls and give up on everything—the Culling, the Purges, the Templar—or I stand my ground and try to do something to stop this horror show before it begins.

  Rohen closed his eyes. If he did nothing, he knew he would be haunted by the lives needlessly lost here for the rest of his life. If he intervened, Jess might somehow learn the truth about Delaryn. He couldn’t live with himself if he allowed something to happen to her…but he also couldn’t live with himself if he just walked away.

  What would Zin think of me if I turned my back on the sorcerers here? He had always tried to help them whenever and however he could. He would want me to do the same—and so would Sehris.

  “Damn it,” Rohen swore, banging his gloved fist against the wall before he started back up the stairs. The few Keepers milling about the halls tossed him odd glances when they saw him return after just a couple minutes, but once again, they didn’t stop him. Rohen almost wished they would confront him and throw him out of here. At least then this impossible decision would be out of his hands.

  He returned to Jess’s quarters and paced around the small room, his arms crossed and his stomach fluttering. He would have felt a lot better about his chances if he’d had a few days to prepare a strategy beforehand. Coming out and accusing her father of treason wouldn’t go over well, to say the least. He needed to do this slowly and carefully and pray to the gods that she was willing to listen to reason.

  I know her better than almost anyone—the real her, not the imperious Sanctori Inquisitrix who terrifies everyone who looks at her. She’s opened up to me plenty of times before…usually after collapsing in exhaustion from two or three rounds of “confessionals.” Maybe there’s some way to get through to her and skip that part…

  “All right,” Rohen murmured, rubbing his hands together. “This will work. All I need to do is—”

  He paused when he heard the unmistakable click of Jess’s golden heels approaching the room. Her meeting with the Lord Vigilant must have been quick—that, or something had gone horribly wrong. Either way, Rohen would have to improvise…

  Jess looked vaguely distracted as she pushed open the door, but when she noticed he was fully clothed and standing in the corner, her dark brow immediately furrowed. “What in the bloody void are you doing? And why are you dressed? I told you to strip and get on the bed where you belong!”

  “I know,” Rohen said, taking a deep breath and bracing himself. “Look, Jess, we really need to—”

  “I don’t like being disobeyed,” she said, her voice hardening as she closed and locked the door behind her. “Especially by corrupted pale-bloods who should be down on their knees begging for my favor.”

  He sighed and tried to avoid looking at her chest…or her hips…or her long legs and heels. “Look, we can’t—”

  She reached out and clamped the golden claws of her right hand over his mouth. “You’re trying to be naughty, aren’t you? You think maybe I’ll go easy on you because we haven’t seen each other in so long.”

  Rohen started to protest but knew it was pointless. When she got into this kind of mood, there was no stopping her…at least, not without playing along.

  Shit.

  “Well, you obviously need a reminder about who you’re dealing with,” she said, licking at her lips. Her amber eyes glittered for a moment before her left hand flashed beneath his brigandine coat and grabbed his crotch. His manhood instantly stirred at her touch.

  “Ten minutes and you already have more sins to confess,” she said, clucking her tongue. “That cursed blood of yours is truly vile.”

  When he mumbled a response into her hand, she squeezed his crotch harder, forcing him to sharply inhale.

  “Ah-ah,” she scolded, shaking her head. “You need to be properly chastised for your disobedience. I want you to strip—now!”

  She released her grip and leaned away, her foot tapping in anticipation. Rohen almost wanted to slap her until she saw reason, but he knew that wouldn’t work—at least, not until she inevitably started begging him for it later…

  Swallowing, he unclasped his scabbard and tossed it aside before starting in on his armor. Jess intensely watched every one of his movements with gluttonous glee, and he couldn’t even begin to imagine how thoroughly soaked she must have been right now. By the time he had stripped down to his smallclothes, he could actually see her breasts heaving.

  “That’s it,” she said, eyeing his sleek, muscular body up and down as if he were a slab of meat. “Now, get onto the bed where you belong!”

  She shoved him onto his back with surprising strength. Rohen was tempted to fight back—he always found it enormously satisfying to overpower her when she got like this, and he knew she secretly loved being taken from behind. But he didn’t want to take even the slightest risk of annoying her right now, so instead he played the role she wanted him to play.

  The moment his head touched the pillow, Jess practically lunged to the floor and reached beneath the bed frame. He wasn’t the least bit surprised when her hands returned holding several long, leather straps.

  “I should have tied you down before I left,” she said, grabbing his left wrist and pinning it to the side of the bed frame. “I would have thought you’d learn more discipline serving among the Templar.”

  She grinned sadistically as she secured one wrist, then started on the other. Every few seconds, she would surreptitiously brush her knee over his manhood as she worked, and when she turned to strip off his smallclothes and secure his ankles, she made sure to give him an unobstructed view of her bare thighs and panties. .

  “Perfect,” Jess said, dismounting him once she was finished. “I should really keep you here for a few days just to make sure you’ve been properly cleansed.”

  Sinking down to her knees at the side of the bed, she eyed his naked body up and down. She gently dragged the tips of her claws across his muscular chest with one hand while the other ran up his thighs to his stiff, throbbing stem. He groaned in anticipation when she slowly closed her fingers around the shaft.

  “Father said you’ve spent a lot of time in the north these past few months,” Jess said, hovering her lips close enough to his cock that he could feel the heat of her breath. “All that time alone without me to protect you from sin…and the cold.”

  Leaning in even closer, she tortuously dragged the tip of her tongue from the base of his stem all the way to the tip…and then practically dove forward and swallowed his entire length in a single frenzied gulp. Rohen cried out in ecstasy when the scorching heat of her throat enveloped him, and he had no idea how she didn’t gag. When she curled two claws around the base of his cock and began stroking him, he nearly flooded her mouth with his gratitude for the second time tonight.

  “Gods!” he gasped, tugging at his restraints. The leather straps held him firm, however, and Jess snickered when she eventually came up for breath.

  “
There’s definitely more corruption hiding in there somewhere,” she said, licking at her sopping red lips. “I just hope I can exorcise it in time…”

  She dove back onto his cock, though this time her fingers pumped him even harder. She was testing his resolve—ever since their first time together, she had enjoyed seeing just how many times she could make him spill. Rohen was tempted to just let himself go, but he knew he didn’t have all night. He needed to get her tired enough that she would actually open up about her father and his plans…

  “Oh…” Jess moaned as she came up for air again. She turned and smiled down at him while her hand continued stroking his shaft. “Your corruption is being stubborn today, isn’t it?”

  “It’s buried deep,” Rohen said, panting. “Help me, priestess.”

  She chuckled and licked at her lips again. “Don’t worry, you know how seriously I take my duties.”

  “Too well.”

  Jess flattened the claws of her right hand over his chiseled abdomen while her left began stroking him harder. “Tell me something, pale-blood: how often did you think about me these past few months?”

  Rohen swallowed and clenched his teeth as his cock swelled and swelled in her grip. “All the time.”

  “Mm,” she cooed, pumping him harder. “When you were lonely?”

  “Yes.”

  “When you were forced to pleasure yourself on cold, aching nights?”

  “Yes.”

  “You’re lying.”

  “What?” he gasped, frowning.

  Jess roughly squeezed his cock as she swiveled her amber eyes upon him. “You spent most of your time thinking about that Whitefeather bitch, didn’t you?”

  Rohen’s breath caught in his throat. “N-no,” he stammered. “I didn’t—”

  “Never lie to an Inquisitrix!” Jess said, raking her claws across his belly and leaving searing marks of pain in their wake. “You thought about her all the time; I’m sure of it. I never understand what you saw in that half-barbarian cunt.”

  He opened his mouth but nothing came out. Sudden changes in mood were nothing out of the ordinary for Jess, but she didn’t usually have him pinned and helpless with her claws around his cock when she got angry…

  “Now that dark elf, on the other hand,” Jess went on, smiling and slowly starting to stroke him again. “A truly vile creature, that one, but that at least she knows her place.”

  Rohen groaned as an unbidden shudder of pleasure rippled through him. Jess could have made him explode at any moment, which was, naturally, precisely what she wanted.

  “I bet you’ve fantasized about her, too, haven’t you?” Jess asked. “Her blood is even more corrupted than yours.”

  Rohen shook his head. “I…I grew up with Sehris. She’s practically my sister.”

  “But she isn’t, is she? Come now, surely you’ve thought about her heretical gray flesh pressed against yours.”

  “No.”

  “Liar!” Jess snarled, painfully raking her claws over his chest again. “You’re a man, and men are weak by nature. They are slaves to their passions. Yet another reason you need to be cleansed.”

  She began pumping him so hard it almost hurt. When she licked her lips again, he expected her to dive back on top of him and swallow him whole, but instead she pulled her right hand from his chest and slipped it beneath the folds of her red-gold tunic. He watched, mesmerized, as she pushed her panties to the floor, then slung her left leg over his waist to straddle him. Her fingers stopped pumping his shaft, and she steered his yearning manhood up to her smoldering sex.

  “You’re lucky I understand you so well,” Jess said as she eased his throbbing tip inside her folds. “You don’t need a submissive drow slut to bend to your every whim. You need guidance. You need discipline.”

  Jess groaned and bit down on her lip as she sank all the way down on top of him. “You need me.”

  Rohen barely held himself back. Her cunt was as wet and scorching as her throat but immeasurably tighter, and it took every scrap of willpower he could muster not to erupt once he was all the way inside her—especially once she braced both her clawed hands upon his chest and began slowly grinding her hips against him.

  “Oh, yes,” she breathed. “Confess your sins to me, pale-blood!”

  “Nnn,” Rohen groaned, his wrists tugging at the restraints so hard it was a miracle they didn’t break. He forced himself to close his eyes and not look at her—the mere sight of her bobbing up and down on top of him would have instantly set him off.

  “All truths are revealed in the Moonmaiden’s light,” Jess said, churning her hips and driving him deeper inside her. “The wicked shall fall before the righteous, and this world shall be delivered from sin!”

  Gods, why is she is so fucking insane? And why does she have to feel so good?

  Rohen shuddered as she rode him harder and harder. He felt his control slipping away as an explosion built inside him, and he knew there was no turning back. His eyes reopened, he stared up at her heaving chest and perfect body—

  “Confess!” Jess snarled, stabbing the claws of her right hand into his chest. “Pour your sins into me!”

  The pain was so intense Rohen actually cried out—but then the searing agony suddenly and inexplicably transformed into pleasure. He erupted uncontrollably inside her, causing her to shriek and throw back her head as a climax took hold of her as well.

  “Yes!” she shouted. “Give me everything!”

  He did. His manhood fired at least a half a dozen times, flooding her with volley after volley of his seed as her cunt tightened around him. When he finally came down, he felt as weak and powerless as a kitten. Jess continued writhing on top of him for several seconds, her claws clutching at her breasts and her teeth biting into her lip so hard he actually saw a trickle of blood on her chin.

  “Oh, gods,” she panted as she leaned forward, her white hair spilling all over him. Her mascara had started to run just enough to make it seem as though she were crying black tears. It made her look even crazier than normal. “I had almost forgotten how good you felt…”

  As Rohen came down, panting for breath, the burning across his chest became impossible to ignore. He hadn’t even realized what Jess had done until he lifted his head and stared down at the long, thin trails of blood covering his stomach.

  “Shit!” he hissed, wincing and tugging helplessly against his restraints. “What did you do?”

  “You’re fine, pale-blood,” Jess said without even looking. She remained lost in bliss for what felt like a small eternity before her eyes finally fluttered back open. She giggled at the sight of the blood and gently tapped her claws over his belly. “Does it hurt?”

  “Of course it hurts!” Rohen protested. He could just see the wounds out of the bottom of his vision, the small, bleeding holes in his chest rising as he inhaled.

  “Good,” she said, snickering as she lifted a bloody claw to her tongue and licked several drops from the tip. “Let the pain purify your wicked soul…”

  “Jess, enough,” he grumbled. “Please tell me you keep some healing salves in here.”

  She cocked a black eyebrow at him. “Now why would I do that?”

  “Then can you please go and get some from the infirmary?”

  “That won’t be necessary,” Jess told him. “Not anymore.”

  He was just about to ask what in the bloody void was wrong with her when her hands began to glow. He gasped and flinched away from the brilliant golden light, shocked and confused, before he felt a cool, soothing wave suddenly crash over his entire body. His tensed muscles instantly relaxed, and a groan escaped his lips as the pain of the bloody punctures was washed away.

  “Maiden’s mercy,” Rohen breathed as he watched the small holes close one by one. “How…?”

  Jess giggled impishly. “I am a Sanctori Inquisitrix,” she told him. “The righteous power of the gods flows through me.”

  Rohen’s eyes widened in disbelief as every single one of hi
s wounds sealed without leaving behind a scar. Her hands had become as warm as smoldering coals, and within seconds, he felt as renewed as after a full night’s sleep. His manhood even began to swell inside her again…

  “Jess, what is this sorcery?” he asked.

  “It’s not sorcery,” she said, still chuckling. The glow finally faded from her hands, and she tickled the tips of her claws across his chest again. “It is so much more.”

  He slowly shook his head as his mind raced through the possibilities. Magic wasn’t just something a person learned by reading a book or reciting an incantation—only those born with the Aether in their blood could properly tap into its currents. Or at least, that was how the world worked now.

  The Tel Bator priests occasionally mentioned stories about founts of great power built by the Avetharri elves. Mortals who were exposed to such energies could sometimes learn to tap into the Aether almost like sorcerers, albeit in a limited way. Rohen had heard countless tales about such channelers once existing in the city-states of Highwind and Vorsalos to the west, though that was many years ago and hundreds of miles away…

  “A miracle has happened,” Jess said. “The gods have granted my father a gift.”

  Rohen’s stomach instantly sank. “What kind of gift?”

  She chuckled again, and she smiled so wide she almost looked like a completely different person. “After years of watching him toil selflessly on their behalf, they have reached out from their prison within the Pale and imbued him with their divine might. He is more than just the Voice of the Guardian—he is now a vessel of Escar’s holy power. Through him, they will raise a new army of the faithful.”

  “A vessel?” Rohen whispered, trying to remember bits and pieces of the sermons the priests had given at the orphanage. Before the rise of the Avetharri Wyrm Lords, the gods had allegedly imbued their chosen followers with great power, transforming otherwise mortal men and women into something greater. These vessels—these Conduits—could then empower their own followers with the Aether. While the Conduits themselves could never truly rival the might of sorcerers, especially Wyrm Lords, they could create entire armies of “Bound” channelers to do their bidding…