Serpent's Claim (Serpent's Touch 2)

AMIRA

I’d lost track of how many times I’d changed hands, who’d sold, bought, or gifted me. Now, apparently, I was the gift from Lord Adriyel to King Zeldren of Lorsan.

“Is she really a human?” the king gazed at me skeptically, an empty goblet dangling in his fingers.

“Yes, Your Majesty.” Lord Adriyel took my hand and slid the veil up to reveal my bare arm.

The king leaned forward, studying the skin on my arm that was dull and matte compared to the glow of the fae.

“Interesting.” He took my hand from Lord Adriyel.

The snake-skin pattern on the back of his hand was dark brown. The rest of his skin was the color of golden sand with the glow of magic pulsing through it. My hand seemed like a piece of pale clay in comparison—plain, dull, and rather uninteresting.

The king kept turning my hand in his, clearly intrigued. “This is remarkable. So…earthy looking. Is it true that humans are completely void of magic?”

Lord Adriyel looked pleased with the king’s interest in me. “Yes, Your Majesty. They are.”

“What can she do, then?” the king asked, as if I was a curious mechanical toy presented to him. “Can she dance?”

Lord Adriyel glanced at me, and I shook my head.

“No, Your Majesty,” the lord replied for me. “She doesn’t dance.”

“Sing?”

Another glance of the lord to me. Another shake of my head.

Lord Adriyel narrowed his silver-gray eyes at me, and I wondered if he already regretted his purchase. “No. She can’t sing, either.”

“So, what good is she for?” The king tilted his head.

Lord Adriyel stepped behind me and placed his hands on my shoulders. “Isn’t she lovely, Sire? Humans don’t live long. They age quickly. Their youth lasts years instead of centuries. This is her prime, but it will pass quickly. It’s like catching the river orchid bloom before it withers and dies. Fleeting and rare. Enjoy her for as long as she lasts.”

He skimmed his hands down my arms. The king’s gaze followed the lord’s gesture down my body displayed under the veil.

The look in the king’s amber eyes grew heavier. It paused on my breasts, then on my hips.

“Leave us,” he ordered.

Lord Adriyel inclined his head in a bow. He peeled his hands from my arms slowly, almost reluctantly. With one long look at me, he departed, closing the doors behind him.

“Well,” the king drawled. “You should be good at something. Let’s see what you can do.” He thrust his empty goblet my way. “Get me some more wine.”

I took it from him. It was large and heavy, inlaid with colorful gemstones. The crystal decanter he gestured at stood on a small three-legged table by his chair. I filled the king’s goblet, then passed it back to him.

“Here you go.”

He raised his eyes to me. “You didn’t grow up in a noble court, did you?”

“No.”

“It shows,” he scoffed, taking a swig of wine. “You’ve no idea how to address your king.”

He set the goblet on the table and leaned back in his chair, then opened his red-and-gold robe to expose his velvet-clad crotch.

“Well, since you can’t dance or sing…” He unclipped his belt, then opened his dark velvet pants. “Come here, sweet thing.” He gestured for me to come closer. “Lift that veil up to your neck. I may as well play with your tits while you suck my cock.”

I stood there, rooted in place.

Suddenly, something mattered to me again. And it mattered very much.

People could look at me naked all they wanted. But touching was different. No man had touched me but Kyllen. The memory of his hands on me was the only one I wished to have. No one would soil it. Not even the king.

If he wanted me to lift my veil, I’d do it. But I’d lift it all the way up. If he forced himself on me, cold stone would be the only thing he’d get to touch tonight.

“So?” He stared at me expectantly. “What’s the matter? Isn’t that what you came here for? To pleasure your king?”

I didn’t come here on my own. I’d been taken, dragged, and led. I’d been caught like a dry leaf in a current, tossed and twirled. And I let it all happen to me because nothing had mattered. But now, it did. I cared about what happened to me next.

The king gestured at me impatiently, urging me to come to him. I stepped closer to his chair, but didn’t lift my veil, disobeying his order. He grabbed my hand and yanked me down, making me drop to my knees.

I crossed my arms over my chest, shielding my breasts. My heart beat frantically in the place that held nothing but a dark empty void until now. Fear jolted me, bringing me back to life.

“So, are you going to use your mouth, human?” the king demanded.

He slumped back in his chair, his knees spread wide, his pants undone. He seemed relaxed, but there was a droop in his shoulders and a dullness in his eyes.

The king was dying. In addition to the strikingly dark pattern taking over his skin, there were other signs that confirmed it. Stiffness crippled his body in the same way I’d seen in Udren, the High Lord of Ellohi, Kyllen’s aging brother.

“I can do many things with my mouth,” I croaked.

“So you say,” he snapped, yanking his pants open wider and exposing himself to me. “Yet I’m still waiting.”

The king’s penis was shriveled and limp. The dark diamond pattern seized it, covering it whole. In its flaccid state, the king didn’t even reach a quarter of Kyllen’s length or half of his girth. But then again, Kyllen had never been flaccid when naked with me.