A Kiss of Fire (A Kiss of Magic #2)(80)

They went to her room and Mariah put together a fresh outfit, folding the clothes neatly for the trip back down the corridor to the master’s bath. Plumbed and tiled, this bath delivered hot water into a huge square tub sunk into the floor of the room. Sin had insisted she use it instead of having a cramped copper tub in her room. She had been happy to oblige him.

Mariah filled the tub with gas heated water, although Ariana could have easily heated the water for herself. She drizzled bath oil into the water until the room smelled sweetly of wildflowers. Ariana undressed and sank into the water. Mariah gathered her discarded clothes up and went to leave the room and give her some peace and privacy.

Ariana relaxed, letting the heat of the water seep into her muscles. She was just dozing when she suddenly felt a hand wrapping tightly around the loose curls of her hair. Her head was jerked back and she felt the unmistakable edge of a knife at her throat.

“If I see so much as a flicker of flame,” Mordol hissed into her face, “I will make a new hole for you to speak out of.”

Ariana remained calm.

“What do you think you can gain here?” she asked him reasonably. “I should like to know your goal.”

“Well, my first goal is to shut you up.” The knife left her throat so the fist that held it could punch her square in the face. Blood burst from her nostrils and her teeth cut the tender flesh of her upper lip. Dazed, she had to struggle to keep her head on straight. Suddenly Mordol yanked on her hair, dragging her bodily out of the tub by it. Her wet body slid across the cold tile easily. The knife was at her throat again as he came around her body and straddled her. “My next goal is supposed to be to gut you. From top,”—he dragged the knife in a straight line down her body, starting at her throat and ending at her pubis—“to bottom. But I think I’m going to take the time to sample what the raja has had. What does it feel like to fuck a girl the raja would go to such lengths to obtain? There must be something pretty special about your pussy, and I’m going to find out what that is.”

She would burn him to a crisp first. But she had to plan it carefully. She had to wait until that knife was in a less dangerous place. In the time it took her to ignite him, he might still have the opportunity to cause her some damage. Worse comes to worst, she would take the stab and hope she survived it…because there was no way she was going to let him get away with what he was planning.

“What do you mean you’re ‘supposed to’ gut me. Clearly this isn’t your idea. Whose is it?”

Mordol huffed a snort of laughter. “Wouldn’t you like to know?” He pressed the knife hard against her windpipe, cutting the skin there, making sure she knew how sharp the blade was. “But that’s not the way this is going to work.” He freed his hand from its punishing grip on her hair and went for the buttons on his fly of his breeches.

“If I’m going to die anyway why not tell me?” she asked her teeth chattering as if from cold. But she wasn't cold. She was angry. She was going to roast this pig like he was on a spit. What she wanted was information.

The challenge cost her. He punched her square in her face again and she became dizzy from the impact.

“Don’t you know I’m Jadoc? I can hear all those little thoughts rolling around in your head. You think you’re going to roast me. You think I’m that stupid.”

Ariana suddenly felt as though all of her limbs were paralyzed. Her body went numb and she lost control of all movement and could not focus her thoughts. Jadoc! She had not known he was Jadoc! He had seized her mind. Taken control of her body. If she tried to set him ablaze he would know it before she did it and would wrest control of her powers away from her. Now she was in a panic. She watched helplessly as he freed his cock from the fly of his breeches and maneuvered himself between her legs.

She tried to scream, tried to burn him, but it was no use. He had total control over her.

Then suddenly he jerked, his eyes going wide as his knife hand came up to clutch at his head. He whirled around, a garbled sound coming out of him. Ariana saw what he did.

Mordol. Mordol was looking at a perfect duplicate of himself. The new Mordol was staring at the one on top of her with a cold calm. The man on top of her began to seize, blood running out of his nose.

It was over in seconds. Mordol collapsed onto her body, his full weight hitting her and knocking the wind out of her. But now motor control had been returned to her and she shoved and kicked at his body until she was no longer beneath him and she was standing, breathing hard, staring at the remaining Mordol.

Then there was a flicker and her perception changed. Suddenly Mordol was no longer Mordol. His face was now one she was very familiar with.

“Dendri!”

“Shh,” he said shortly. “I am here to bring you home. I have been waiting for an opportunity to get close to you and let you know I am here, but none presented itself to me. Until now. I have horses waiting for us outside in the temple gardens, close to where you and Mariah were just walking. We almost overtook you there, but you turned back before we could reach you. Where is Mariah?”

“She will return shortly.”

“Dress yourself, Triumvir,” Dendri said softly, reminding her that she was nude and wet. She grabbed for a towel and rapidly dried herself. She dressed, but was left barefoot and without a cloak. She wouldn’t get very far like that. If they were going to journey back to Saren, she would need to be better prepared.