Courts and Cabals 2 G.S. D'Moore (the little red hen read aloud .txt) 📖

to break free from my chains. They groaned under the pressure, but held fast; which only made Aveena laugh harder.

“You should have seen her face when she realized I set her up,” Aveena mimed terror and anger. “I made sure she was sent to prison, and would forever have that stigma attached to her.”

“Fuck you,” I spat, but my attempt was just saliva dribbling down my chin.

“It’s not who fucks me you need to worry about,” she smiled viciously. “If Lilith is lucky, she’ll get fingerbanged by Crazy Eyes. If not . . . well . . . federal prisons have a certain reputation,” she laughed as I struggled against the chains, but resistance was futile.

She was still laughing when a knock sounded at the door. The boar-dude went to answer it, and spoke quickly with a less impressive blue giant. This one just had his sizable junk swinging in the wind. Like my ego needed to take any more hits today.

“The Lady will see us now,” boar-dude informed.

“Of course, she ruins all my fun,” Aveena looked peeved, but she reached up and undid the chains locking me to the ceiling. “Thank you, Godric.”

“Stupid bitch!” I roared, pivoted, and drove the heel of my foot toward her temple.

Power surged in me as I channeled everything I had into the single strike. I wouldn’t be able to take boar-dude, but I’d settle for caving in Aveena’s fucking skull.”

My heel made contact a heartbeat later, but not with her skull. She’d moved her arm to block so fast I couldn’t even track it, and even worse, she just rolled her eyes at my attempt. With casual ease, she picked me up, swung me over her head, and smashed me into the ground . . . repeatedly. She went full Hulk, and it didn’t take much imagination to figure out where my other injuries had come from.

It felt like half the bones in my body shattered, and I struggled to do something as simple as breathe. I was able to scream just fine when she wrenched my arms behind my back and up over a metal bar that went under my armpits. My hands ended up chained to the end, crucifix style. To add insult to injury, she put a collar around my neck and gave it a tug as she headed for the door. I took a header into the ground, and was dragged into the hallway before I could get my feet under me.

The boar-dude fell in behind me and glared. I hadn’t even ruffled a hair on Aveena’s head, but he obviously didn’t like that I’d taken a shot at her.

“Ain’t life a bitch,” I lamented as I was led around the stronghold of the Lady of Winter like a fucking dog.

***

“Come on, really,” I growled, as Aveena yanked my leash like I was some ill-trained puppy who’d pissed on the carpet one too many times.

I stumbled, and had to twist to avoid doing a face plant. Despite my Fae gifts operating at one hundred percent, I still felt like I’d stuck my body in an ice bath. I hissed and rolled off the floor; leaving a bit of skin behind in the process. It was fucking cold; the kind of cold that makes your nuts shrivel up and try to hide inside you.

My teeth chattered as I looked up. Aveena and Godric had stopped walking because the path ahead of us was barred by a big-ass door. Door was an understatement. “Great googalamoogala, Tolkien called and wants his shit back,” I gaped.

The door looked like it should be blocking the path into Mordor, not stopping a nobody like me from getting wherever it was I needed to go. It was at least fifty feet tall, and even for a race of giants twice my height, that was just too big. It was the source of the cold, and seemed to radiate ill will along with the perpetual chill that worked its way into my bones. Being naked wasn’t helping, and the shrinkage was reaching an extreme. I was just thankful I’d rolled when I fell, and didn’t have to reenact A Christmas Story with my dick.

With a yank, Aveena jerked me back to my feet. I gagged as the leash constricted around my throat, coughed, and imagined the bruise I was going to have in the morning.

“I’m not going to have a morning,” I reminded myself, and tried not to let the depression set in. If I was going to die, I’d do it on my feet while flipping Aveena the bird. Anything less was unacceptable.

She turned her head to glare down at me, like she knew what I was thinking. “Don’t embarrass yourself, Cam. Try and die with some dignity.”

“Try and die with some dignity,” I mocked in a high-pitched voice, but it was drowned out by the door opening.

The seemingly impenetrable mass of black and blue parted down the middle and slowly rolled aside. The hustle and bustle of whatever was going on inside abruptly cut off as I straightened my spine, and walked forward before another yank could throw me down. I thought I saw Godric grin, but then I was surrounded.

“So, this is a Fae court,” I gulped as the room resolved into what was unmistakably a throne room build for a species that was far greater than humanity.

If anything I’d learned from history was true, the back of the room, farthest from the throne, was where the courtiers with the least favor stood. I took one look at these creatures and snaped my head forward. I’d seen a thing or two in my day. A big, swinging-dick troll, the sharktopus that tried to kill my ass in New York, hell; I’d even sat across from an honest-to-gods dragon. They looked like the Muppets compared to these ugly-ass, Fae fuckers.

It