Olethros

six - azriel

Rhysand was awake when I returned to his room. He pinned me with a questioning look, but I ignored him and dropped onto the other side of his bed. Cass and Mor were gone, leaving us alone. That had me nervous.

"Are you still feeling the effects of the whiskey, or just pissed off like usual?" He asked, shifting to sit up. I rolled my head to the other side, looking out the window. I didn't like keeping something like this from him, but what other choice did I have? I knew how they treated her. Odessa, her kind self, was strict with Freyja. She was held to a certain standard in preparation for her future; I wasn't even sure she knew what that future was. Hearing what she told me left a sickening feeling in my stomach. She had told me that it was her choice that brought her there. Her fucking choice. I knew what that meant well enough. She wanted to do what Mor had done. Worse yet, she was choosing a random male and not someone she knew and trusted. Gods, I felt ill.

"Yeah, okay, let's go get that anger out and spar," Rhys muttered, climbing from his bed. I watched him as he walked to his wardrobe, stripping his clothes and gathering clothes suitable for training. They weren't his leathers, but they would do. I groaned as I sat up. I had too much emotion built up after my conversation with Freyja. It wouldn't be wise to spar. I needed to get my tension out a different way.

"You and Cass go ahead, I have some things to do."

Rhys snorted as he tugged on his pants. "Yeah, okay. Pay her some extra for the shit you do."

I rolled my eyes as I stood. He and Cass knew what I got up to in the Hewn City. There was one female in the brothels that was willing to go some extent for my pleasure. I had yet to find one in Velaris that didn't cry out a safeword when I started to lose control. I needed to pay her a visit after these past few days.

"I'll meet up with you later," I muttered, willing myself to enter the shadows. I imagined myself in front of the one building I knew she frequented. My feet found the solid cobbled road. I let out a breath, staring up at the dark home. It was early, early enough that she may not be awake yet. I needed her, though. Fuck, I'd pay extra just to have her come in early. I tilted my head, cracking my neck as I walked up the stone steps. The door swung open before I could touch the handle. Danielle, the madame stood in the doorway, smoking tobacco hanging from her red smeared lips.

"Welcome back, Azriel."

I grunted in response to her gritty voice. She always tried to get me to recruit females to her brothel, telling me if any 'lesser' females were kicked from the village, they could find pay here. I knew what would happen to those females in the hands of a High Fae. Danielle stepped back, allowing me to walk into the dark house. It reeked of sex, tobacco, and spilled whiskey. It would smell of sweat and blood soon. I glanced up at the stairs, turning back to Danielle. I didn't have to ask.

"Flora is up there. She may be asleep, but she's in her usual room," she rasped, blowing her smoke into my face. I ground my teeth, holding back the disgust. I turned and marched up the stairs, my boots unusually loud on the old wood. I passed several doors, some open to reveal naked females strewn across beds, some closed with the sounds of moans and grunts behind them. I went to the familiar room at the end of the narrow corridor. I knocked, the only offer of respect that Flora would get today. I heard a muffled moan and then a soft, "Come in."

I twisted the handle and stepped into the room, shutting and locking the door behind me. As though she had been waiting, Flora laid across her bed bare and already with her fingers between her thighs. My eyes fell to her hand, cock already swelling at her soft moan. She didn't bother hiding what she was doing, it didn't matter. She'd be a mess by the time I left.

"You're here early. I haven't seen you in a while," Flora panted, her midnight hair falling over her shoulder as she sat up. My eyes lingered on her full breasts that rose and fell with her heavy breaths.