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ONVIER HAD BEEN PICTURING the fantasy he was about to act out for the past few weeks. Sadistic glee rose inside him as he used magic to draw a dagger from his conjuring den to his hand. He grabbed Nilanthy by the throat and lifted her off her feet. He pushed her against the wall, then drove the dagger through her right wing, pinning it to the wall. She shrieked in agony and ineffectually clawed at his face. He called another dagger to his hand and pinned her left wing to the wall. It took eight daggers to keep her suspended a few inches above the floor.
As the fairy sobbed and begged to be released from her torment, Onvier stripped his clothes off, then slapped her hard enough to stun her to silence. “Watch,” he ordered her as he forced himself into her. “Watch me take you while you’re pinned to the wall like a butterfly.”
Tears streamed down Nilanthy’s face as she obeyed his command. Blood dripped from her torn wings. She bit back moans of pain as each thrust made the jagged tears in her wings larger. Her only consolation was that it was over quickly. The elf gasped in release and stepped back to admire his work. “Will you let me go now?” she whispered brokenly.
“Of course not,” the elf said with a smirk. “The night is still young. I have plenty of energy to enjoy this new position for several more hours.”
Nilanthy began to weep again. She only stopped when Onvier choked her unconscious. She fled to the dark recesses of her mind where the evil elf couldn’t find her and torment her with his sick obsession.
Her torment lasted for more than three hours, but she was thankfully unconscious during some of it. When she woke up for the final time, she was lying on the couch, covered by her cloak. Her dress and undergarments were sitting on the floor beside her. Onvier sat on an armchair, drinking wine and staring at her. “You will move into my house tomorrow night,” he informed her.
Nilanthy came close to vomiting at the thought of being in this monster’s clutches night after night and shook her head defiantly. “No, I won’t,” she said in denial.
“You dare to argue with me?” the elf asked, rising to his feet threateningly.
The fairy sat up and pulled her cloak on. After the torture he’d just put her through, she knew she couldn’t live with him. He would grow worse and worse until he would eventually kill her. “You’ve used my body against my will, but you don’t own me, Onvier,” she told him. He lifted his fist to punch her for her insolence and she jutted her chin out. “Go ahead!” she said, mustering up all the courage he thought he’d beaten out of her. “Beat me to death to teach me a lesson! Then you’ll have to find someone else to join your triumvirate. Your plans to rule Nox will die with me and you’ll have to start all over again.” Azazel was an evil bastard, but he’d put the seed of rebellion inside her with his offhand comment about Onvier needing them both.
Onvier clenched his hands and dropped his fist to his side. “I may have gotten a little carried away tonight,” he said stiffly.
Nilanthy stared at him incredulously, noting the wallpaper had been repaired. Her blood was gone from the wall and floor and her wounds had healed while she’d been unconscious. “I’m going home,” she said and bent to gather the rest of her belongings.
“Make sure your servants pack everything you can’t live without and have them delivered here come nightfall,” he ordered as he followed her to the front door.
The fairy opened the door and stepped outside wearing only her cloak. She turned to face the orange-eyed monster. “I’m never going to live with you,” she said, staring him directly in the eye. “You are my Guild Master and you blackmailed me into giving you my allegiance, but I don’t belong to you.”
Rage flared on his handsome face, but she just turned and walked away. He wouldn’t risk hurting her where others might see it. The elf had a reputation to uphold and he didn’t want to tarnish it.
A carriage pulled up and the fairy climbed inside after giving the driver her address. Shock set in as the skeleton drove her to her house in a slightly less wealthy area. She was shaking in reaction when she stumbled into her home. Her vision began to swim and she sank down to the floor of her foyer. A human witch who did various household tasks for her came running. Vivian called out to the other servants who worked for the fairy.
Nilanthy didn’t weep as the magic users carried her upstairs to her bed. Although she wasn’t sporting any wounds, they knew something horrible had happened to her.
“You need to report this to the Immortal Triumvirate, my lady,” Vivian said in pity. A head taller than the fairy, she had short brown hair and tired brown eyes. Like most of her kind, she was too thin.
The fairy laughed even though she couldn’t stop shuddering. “They wouldn’t do anything even if I told them what that bastard did to me,” she said. “No one can stop this from happening. I just have to deal with it.”
“Xiara Evora could put a stop to it,” the witch whispered. “I bet she’d behead the man who hurt you. She’d put his head on a pike and parade it around the city.”
Nilanthy broke into hysterical laughter when she pictured Onvier’s head on a pike. Her mirth soon turned into tears. The servant she thought of as a lesser being held her close, stroking her hair while murmuring a soothing lullaby. “Will you stay with me, Vivian?” she asked when her sobs petered out. “I don’t want to be alone right now.”
“Of course, my lady,” the witch said in surprise. She shared a house with half a dozen witches and wizards. It would be nice not to have to sleep in cramped quarters for once. “I’ll stay as long as you need me,” she added. Although she was only in her thirties and her employer was hundreds of years old, if not older, she felt the need to mother her.
Nilanthy’s house was her sanctuary. No one could enter it uninvited. Not even Onvier could breach her walls, thanks to the magic of Nox. She was safe, for now, but she knew it wouldn’t last. Onvier would just keep calling her to his office, or to his house so he could abuse her. Eventually, he would kill her. Her future was bleak, but she made a plan of her own to thwart him. She would make sure he would never get to rule Nox. A bleak smile appeared on her haggard face. She fell asleep with the witch still stroking her hair and crooning a song beneath her breath.
