Gilded Cage (Legends and Lovers)

In a panic, I step away, unsure if there are beasts underground finding their way to the scent of the fresh food.

Giant worms. Blind basilisks. Some other ancient monster from books and stories no one thought real. It would be fitting now, wouldn’t it?

“Meina!” I shout, aware that she will never hear me from here, but needing to feel like I’m doing something.

I whip around, the candles sputtering with the sudden movement of air, deciding to flee through the doorway. But before I can take a step, the deafening sound of stone and dirt collapsing freezes me and I scream.

CHAPTER 4

Rian

I rush forward and catch her before she hits the floor, cradling her delicate little head in my calloused hands, knowing this instant could be my last but holding her for my last breath would be worth it.

But, I don’t burst into flame. I don’t even feel warm. My instincts were correct. I can live here, below the ground, away from the wood and the sun and she…she clearly does not freeze down here either.

So long as she has her candlelight.

I stare in amazement, the wonder of the moment almost stopping my heart. She looks so tiny against me, each one of my fingers large enough to encircle her throat.

The very thought makes me grow hard.

I snatch her candelabra as it falls, setting it on the ground then wrapping my other hand around her back.

It is my every dream come true, because I’m holding her. I have her in my arms. Calliope, the woman that lives in my soul. The person I just dug through sheer rock to get to, and here she was, as if she knew I was coming.

“Please wake up,” I growl, unsure if her unconscious state is simple terror at the manner of my arrival or another part of this damned curse that’s kept us apart. Will she now sleep for a thousand years, until the only people left alive are the cruel and heartless elves? “Calliope, my red songbird, wake.”

I stroke her hair, dragging my nails over her cheek, pulling a gleaming strand off her face and tucking it back, more aware now in the candlelight of the brutish appearance of my fingers, nails cracked and torn from working the rock. I know my face must look the same, filthy with earth and thick with orcish gristle. Was that why she screamed? Looking upon me would scare most, but I’d hoped, my red songbird, my Calliope, would see the man, not the shell encasing him.

She stirs and I clutch her to me, hiding my features in shadow as best I can.

“Rian? Is it…is it you?”

For a moment, I hold my tongue. I’ve heard my voice. I’ve heard the grunt of my words, the hissing rumble that underlies my pronunciation. More beast than human, that’s how Odette described it as she laughed and the curse took every element of my humanity, leaving only a monster where the man used to be.

It’s almost worse to be here, so close to her, to know she will see me and confirm what we had will be forever gone.

“Rian? Please, answer me. I can’t…”

“Calliope,” I rumble, trying to keep my voice steady. Even if she screams again, even if she calls for her guards, I’m not sure I will let her go. I’ll bar the door to this cellar and trap her here with me rather than watch her leave. I’d rather die than release my hold on her now. “You’re cold,” I say, and turn so that the candlelight is cast fully upon her.

But that same candlelight illuminates my face. Darts of hot pain dance under my skin, but it’s not unbearable. Daylight would kill me, but this is tolerable. There is so much more pain I would take to be with her.

She reaches out for me, and I flinch, half expecting her to strike me with the flat of her palm or cry out in shock. Instead, she gently traces the ridge of my cheekbone, the protrusion of my chin.

“It’s really you,” she whispers, but I pull away. “I can see you.”

“I am a monster.”

She shakes her head. “Don’t say that. You are still the same Rian I see behind those eyes.” She smiles. “Although, I think you’ve grown an inch or two.”

I grunt in disbelief, my cock swelling at the word grown. Fuck. “More than an inch or two, baby.” I didn’t focus much on what the changes did to me below my belt until now, but I wonder if Calliope has any idea what an orc cock looks like.

How it functions.

I’m just finding out myself but it’s a far cry from its human counterpart.

Amazingly, she laughs, and it’s like she doesn’t even see how monstrous I’ve become. I see the same desire reflected in her eyes that I feel inside. “I meant, well, what are you now? Nine feet tall? Five hundred pounds? Six hundred?”