Total pages in book: 47
Estimated words: 43557 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 218(@200wpm)___ 174(@250wpm)___ 145(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 43557 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 218(@200wpm)___ 174(@250wpm)___ 145(@300wpm)
But of course I didn’t. I trusted him, and possibly worse, I believed in myself. Not in a good, healthy way, but in an inflated manner. I thought I was truly something special. But nobody is that special.
“Tell me about your world again,” I prompt Zayne.
“What do you want to know?” He smiles down at me indulgently as I lie naked on his chest. We are joined, his flesh inside mine. Occasionally he takes a languid stroke inside me, but for the most part we are simply enjoying the sensuality of being physically connected.
“Everything.”
“Well, I told you before that it is a volcanically active plateau, but one rife with life. There are hot springs in abundance, and though tectonic shivers often make the ground rumble, it is a peaceful place. Or it was, before Scowl’s people came and bought it for the mineral rights. Now it is a cratered remnant of what it once was, and the people who once lived free on the ashen planes are now slaves in the mines.”
“So fucked up,” I whisper. “I knew Simon was awful, but I had no idea that he was this bad.”
“Not for much longer,” Zayne reminds me. “We will end him, and with him, his line, and we will free my family, and my world.”
That is why we cannot stay on this freighter, even though there is a part of me that never wants to leave. This is a simple place, a place where I can forget. But it is also a kind of purgatory where nothing changes and nothing can be resolved. And staying here means Zayne’s family and his world remain in the cruel claws of Simon Scowl.
If it was only about me, I would never face that creature again. What he did to me was a complete assassination of character, and worse. The situations he created put blood on my hands. I have a bodycount now, and I will never be able to forgive myself for that. I want to forget, but I know I can’t.
“Zayne?”
“Hmm?” His golden eyes turn to me, his arms wrapped tight about me. I feel him surge inside me, his thick, scaled cock nearly driving all noble thoughts from my head. I have been able to withstand an entire universe of craziness because of this creature and his ability to make rough yet tender love to me, driving back the forces of chaos and fear with his powerful body. My toes curl with every thrust, inching me inexorably toward orgasm. But I have to keep my head about me. This conversation is important.
“Whatever happens, I want you to get your family’s lands back. I want at least one good thing to come from all of this craziness, you know?”
“What do you mean, whatever happens?”
“I mean, we’re going to go up against Simon. Things could not go well, possibly. He might even know we’re coming somehow. He’s not stupid. I’m just saying, if anything happens to me, get that deed to your lands. I want… no, I need something good to come from this.”
“Nothing is going to happen to you,” he says. “I’m going to keep you safe.”
I don’t want to burst his bubble, but he has only ever barely managed to keep me safe. Without him, I would certainly be dead, but I am hardly unscathed. And now we are heading to the lair of the king himself. He is not likely to sacrifice himself. He will fight, and he will be on his home turf. Zayne is gripped with desire for vengeance and to free his family. I don’t have anything so lofty to fight for, and I have the feeling that I am little more than a fly charging into a spider’s web. With Zayne by my side, I’m a fly with a flamethrower, but still. This isn’t going to be as easy as we want it to be. Nothing ever is.
13
Lyric
I never thought I would see planet Earth again, at least, not for three years at least. And maybe forever, as my tour was supposed to land me on the other side of known space. All those plans have been unwound now. For the last several weeks, Zayne and I have been traveling incognito. It has not been hard. Nobody on the Schlorp ship is stupid enough to get curious about who other people are. We’ve travelled with all kinds of people, some of whom I thought I might recognize, all of whom I’ve had the basic decency to not recognize.
“Are you ready?” Zayne holds me by the arms and looks into my eyes. He is starting to get concerned, because this is starting to get very real.
I say yes, even though I am not ready at all. We are about to execute the last stage of Zayne’s plan for vengeance and setting all things right. I have managed to scavenge some business-type clothes from others on the freighter, so I look suitably dressed to attend a meeting with Simon Scowl.