Cranking the door open, there was a small, wood-paneled room beyond. Roran pulled me inside and cranked the door closed.
Pressing a button, the whole thing shuddered and started to ascend.
I slammed myself against the wall, terrified. “Roran! What the hell is this?”
“A lift,” he chuckled. “Do you really think the household workers carry linens up five flights of stairs? Or the kitchen staff drags those carts up the stairs?”
“I’ve never… it’s…”
Roran couldn’t stop laughing at me. “You are a treasure, Kimber. Really.” He sobered after a moment. “There are three of these in the building, and we’ll be at the top floor before they are on the second. Dorian will delay the walk so we can get to the rooms.”
The lift clunked to a halt, and Roran pulled the doors open, ushering me out.
I hoped I would never use that dreadful contraption again.
It was, however, convenient, and we were only a few doors away from my old rooms. Hurrying through the halls, Roran pulled out a key and let us in.
Rilen was standing in the door to the bedroom and motioned us over. “Quickly.”
We all ducked into the closet, and the folding doors weren’t quite shut so we could peer through the cracks.
“Masters,” I whispered, “doesn’t it bother you your mate is purposefully attempting to cheat on you with my former bedmate?”
“It’s not cheating,” Rilen whispered.
“It’s with our blessing, my sweet.” Roran’s voice was barely audible.
“Why? Why would you ever encourage this?”
They exchanged looks with each other over my head and turned back to the room.
“Always for the magic, Kimber,” Rilen said. “We claim to be temple masters, but we listen to the magic first.”
“To preserve that, this must be allowed to happen.”
The door clicked open in the foyer, and the three of us fell silent.
I could hear the panting and rustle of clothes, and eventually, the footfalls to the bedroom.
Elex walked in, already naked and erect.
Master Dorian followed, pulling his pants down.
My stomach clenched.
I didn’t know what was going on, and I didn’t know if this was something I wanted to watch.
I was trapped, though, and I was transfixed.
Once again, I was reminded how well-endowed Master Dorian was.
Yanking Elex back against him, he leaned into his ear. “Listen to me, boy. This is fucking. Nothing else.”
Elex reached behind and grabbed Master Dorian’s lengthening shaft. “That’s all I need. Your dick in my ass.”
“On the bed, all fours. Face away from the headboard.”
I put a hand over my mouth and stepped back, afraid he would see me in the closet.
A feeling of foreboding ran down my spine.
Master Dorian wanted us to see this.
There was no gentleness in him in the next moment. Master Dorian spiked himself into Elex’s passage without any warning.
The shriek of pain was ear-splitting, and I shrank back.
I saw the twins flinch. Of course, they did—they knew a very different side of the master.
Starting slow, he drew out of Elex and then pushed back. Elex whimpered again and dropped his head to bear the pain. A few more strokes and he was getting used to being stretched.
“That’s got to hurt,” Rilen whispered.
Master Dorian’s eyes snapped right to the closet, and he started moving faster.
“What is it about Kimber’s pussy that has you disinterested?”
I wished he wouldn’t talk about my lady parts while he was balls deep in another man’s ass.
Elex whimpered, and I saw tears streaming down his face. “Not disinterested.”
“What then? I will kill to sink into that pussy.”
“A little torture.” Elex grunted.
Master Dorian’s fingers dug into his hips, pulling him back on his cock. The look on his face was dark and intense.
I wondered just how much he was enjoying himself if he was at all. I couldn’t imagine this deceit brought him any joy.
But males worked differently, and there was a chance he was just enjoying having his erection in someone.
Gods, I didn’t know what to think.
“Torture?” Master Dorian didn’t slow his strokes at all. He was performing his own form of torture.
“Magic needs sex. I want to see how long she can go before she cheats on me.”
Another quiet gasp from me, and I felt hot tears in my eyes. He wanted to force me to cheat on him?
“To what ends?”
The motions of the two men seemed to find a more comfortable rhythm.
“An experiment…oh, yeah…” Elex’s eyes rolled back in pleasure.
A grunt of satisfaction came from Master Dorian, as I could hear the slap of flesh.
“That is raw,” Rilen ground out in the quiet of the closet. “He cannot be enjoying that.”
“I think they both are.” Roran’s voice was gruff.
“Are you two okay?” I whispered.
“Fine,” they chorused.
Master Dorian grunted again. “Just an experiment?”
“She’s weak—oh!—and I think she’ll either cheat on me or she’ll be so stubborn, she won’t have the power to control the magic in the Spine.”
“You’d like that.” There was no question in Master Dorian’s statement.
“The Spine should fall when—fuck!—when it’s ready. Not when some little fancy, spoiled twat says it should.”
It felt like he was driving a spike into my chest, again. I had never been anything but good and kind to him. I thought he enjoyed my company and our friendship…and our bedroom romps.
Master Dorian didn’t like it either. His hands moved to Elex’s shoulder, and he scored the flesh there, deeply. His fingers dug into the wound and blood ran down Elex’s arms and chest, dripping to the bed.
Elex barely seemed to notice.
“It’s her job,” Master Dorian said.
“It’s not her job,” Elex grunted. “The Spine just needs to fall and take with it whoever the Lost God wants.”
The rocking of the mattress picked up. Master Dorian was driving into him, his face growing redder with each hard thrust.
“The Lost God is lost.” Master Dorian’s breath hitched as he glanced up at the ceiling. As he swallowed, I saw his throat bob and a look of near-completion on his face. “We listen to the magic. Not some accursed god who fled through the gate.”
What did that mean? Accursed?
“The Spine—shit—should still fall as it will!”
Master Dorian leaned forward, still slapping his hips hard against Elex’s ass. With one arm holding him up, he wrapped the other around Elex’s neck.
“You like breath play, boy? While my cock drills you?”
“Yes…” It was a strangled answer.
His hand closed tighter on Elex’s throat, and his face went red.
I saw the twitch of Master Dorian’s hand at his throat, and a fingernail scored across the line of Elex’s neck, opening the critical vein that led to the heart.
It seemed nothing more than a quick nick, but that spot would kill him, drain him of his life’s blood.
I had to choke back vomit.
“The Spine will fall when the Breaker says it will fall,” Master Dorian ground out.
“No one should have that say,” Elex managed.
“Only the magic has that say.”
“Why give that power to a stupid little cunt like Kimber? That’s proof enough—gaaaaahd!—that it was not meant to be controlled.”
The grip on his throat changed, holding his windpipe even tighter, and Elex was suddenly staring straight at the closet.
And then, he was staring at me.
Roran and Rilen had pushed the doors open.
Elex’s face was a mask of terror. But Master Dorian didn’t give him enough air to speak clearly, to get out more than a few words at a time.
“Kimber.”
My chest heaved, and my face was soaked with tears as I stared at him. Master Dorian held him still while he still pumped in and out of him.
“I would have done nearly anything for you, Elex.”
“…lies…”
“No, I won’t hear it. I heard it last night and in the lounge downstairs. I know the truth.”
“…S’kir must die…”
I stepped out of the closet and walked toward the bed. “You say that, but what do you really know? You’re a liar, you’re a rebel, you’ve got no clue what the magic tells me.”