Trinket (Reverse Harem)

Ding Dong Guess Who

"We aren't?"

He tugged me closer. "I think I should make love to you. Because I sense that you do not believe how much I love you."

"I--"

Someone banged on the door downstairs.

clang, clang, clang!

Ormiss' grip tightened as his lightening intensified, cascading over both of us. I pulled at Ormiss, who held me firm, listening for the downstairs door to be opened. His eyes narrowed. My ears strained to hear what was going on below us. Voices, no, not voices--Songs.

"Soir," Ormiss snarled. He released me just to entwine his arm around mine, and he summoned his staff with a quick gesture.

"What is he doing here?" I whispered, not that Ormiss could possibly know.

"I intend to find out. Stay here."

"Like hell I'm staying here! I can walk down the stairs, no matter what Asund might think."

"Theia, we need to keep you out of sight--"

"Don't you think that's going to be more conspicuous than me not being seen?" Besides, I wanted to see him and see if his voice still pulled at my scars, or did anything weird to me. Soir was a mystery, and he might be the one mystery we actually had a chance of solving.

I tugged myself free and headed towards the steps. My leg didn't want to bend going down the stairs but I ignored the sharp pain. Ormiss rustled after me and somehow shifted my arm around his so that I leaned on him without looking like a horse with a broken leg stumbling down a hillside.

Something in my caught when I saw Soir standing in the foyer, all fluttering black silks and delicate gold-twisted-and-clamped braids. And that something was a strange tug in my scars and down the side of my face and a feeling in my chest like I couldn't breathe. He twisted to look up at us as we descended the stairs, Marcus standing slightly off to the side but still between us, while Yanice and Deliah, mused and flushed from all the what is my life now, clamped their hands in front of themselves and kept their heads down.

"Here to collect your Steward?" Ormiss inquired as we were halfway down the last flight of stairs. His staff made that strange metallic rumble each time it struck a stair. I dug my fingernails into his iron forearm and silently wondered where the hell Asund was. I felt him nearby, but didn't see him.

How the hell did that wolf just disappear like that? He was so damn big.

"Is he proving unsatisfactory?" Soir replied, fingertips pressed together so that the very tips of his manicured nails clicked. He held perfectly still, but his bound clothing fluttered around him in some unseen wind, flickering in a dozen version of inky midnight.

"I am not here to train your household staff, Raven."

"What a strange comment, considering you have no household staff save what the Lord-Ambassador and myself have supplied you." His eyes narrowed slightly. "Surely, between five consorts the lot of you can manage to honor her better?"

Ormiss' lightening crackled. "Are you still here to plead your sad and pathetic case?"

"I do not give up puzzles or their solutions easily." Soir's words bit down into my skin. I held tight to Ormiss and focused on not hiding behind him. Not because I was afraid of Soir (I was too stupid to be afraid of him, apparently), but because I didn't want whatever... this was.

Ormiss glanced at Yanice and Deliah. "Leave. I'm certain there's something for you to turn your new-found skills to at the other house for an hour."

Quick curtesies and they fled out the front door. Marcus glided over to it and closed it with a soft click before they slammed the doors shut.