me than I was of him.
“Jane, you stupid little cunt,” he articulated in a tone that was paradoxically friendly and light. “What on earth do you think you’re doing?” Graeme backed up his words with a wave of juju poured directly at me. It was so strong that I staggered, whimpering as visions of sex and pain crowded into my brain on a wave of magic.
Focus, Jane, I scolded myself, bracing myself both physically and with my power. Trying to keep my shields up and intact, I pulled Gus closer to me. I wasn’t sure if I was trying to protect him or to remind myself that I wasn’t alone with Graeme.
“You’re not meant to be here fighting like this,” Graeme’s voice floated toward me, and with those words came more images, more suggestions. I shook my head violently as my shields wavered.
What the hell is this? I thought, frantically. I’d never dealt with anything like what Graeme was doing. Physical assaults, sure. But mental? I didn’t even know that was possible.
“Jane’s not a fighter,” came that voice, again, the words searing into my mind. “Jane’s meant to be tied up… fucked… like the little slut she is.”
I’m not a slut! my brain insisted, that word jarring me enough that I managed not only to solidify my shields, but also to raise a mage ball that I lobbed at Graeme’s head.
And what’s wrong with being a slut, anyway? grumbled my libido, as Graeme’s shields absorbed the impact of my missile. But he did step back a few paces, giving me some breathing room.
“I think you mean some other Jane,” I yelled, hiding my growing fear behind bravado. “ ’Cause this Jane’s gonna kick your ass!”
Okay, it sounded a bit lame, even to me. And Graeme’s only response was a chuckle so evil it raised the hair on my arms another inch. I must have looked like a scared cat or a porcupine, at that point.
“Slut,” Graeme hissed. “Just a little slut, built for your pain, my pleasure.”
I growled, lobbing another couple of mage balls that I pulled out of the air with practiced ease. Anger was making me strong, but I needed to watch my power levels.
Unfortunately, Graeme was able to deflect my barrage and keep talking. Behind him, the spriggan had backpedalled toward the boulder, where he was doing something I couldn’t quite make out. It was a testament to how badly Gus was hurt that he didn’t even seem to notice his rock was being man-handled.
“Don’t act like I’m lying, little Jane,” Graeme said loudly, trying to refocus my attention on him. And succeeding at it. “I know it’s what you want, what you crave…”
Again, images assaulted my mind: bodies bent, chained, whipped, bruised, cut… blood and semen dripping across lacerated flesh and I moaned.
“That’s it, Jane… open your mind… drop the inhibitions that fetter you… let… me… in.”
And with those words, Graeme’s magic rolled across me so powerfully that I fell to my knees, my head feeling as if someone were forcing a chisel into my skull.
I groaned, putting my hands up to my ears to block out his voice… but the voice was inside my head… It was Graeme… but he was inside… and I had to block him out, but the more I tried the more I realized… the voice is yours, Jane.
The voice was mine. And I did want it… I was his slut, his fuck toy, to be used and discarded, and only his pleasure mattered because his pleasure was my pleasure was his pleasure…
Graeme’s searingly cold blue eyes were right in front of me, so I crawled forward, toward him… your lover…
… my lover…
And then his hands were in my hair as he jerked my head up so that I knelt in front of him. Gus’s small fists pummeled at my lover’s torso, but they were ignored until, with a negligible flick of his wrist, Graeme flung the stone spirit away with his power.
In that second, his power divided by Gus’s assault, Graeme’s hold on me broke just enough that I struggled, hard, suddenly remembering who and where I was. And that Graeme was anything but my lover.
In that split second, two things happened.
The first was that Graeme grinned evilly as he hauled me up to my feet and toward him. But instead of biting me, as I’d expected, he only whispered in my ear.
The second was that Nell’s power blossomed through the glade like a mushroom cloud. The force of her