The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

Finding the prince was the difficult part. He and his aids had done a good job of covering his tracks, but that was to be expected. After all, one does not conspire to ruin a House and murder a queen and then just stand there waving and waiting patiently for retribution. Tracking him was a matter of a bribe here and a judicious use of magic there to follow the bread crumbs of information and learning, over time, how they planted their disinformation. People stick with what they think works or has worked in the past and are often so sure of their intellectual superiority to others, particularly when they were nobility, that they followed their routines pretty rigidly, safe in the knowledge that no one could suss them out.

Prince Kudan had traveled far from his own lands, probably not entirely by his own choice. What was not known was how far the conspiracy threaded through the family and its operatives. While the Royal House of the Kingdom of Kressin would have been happy had the plan worked out and taken advantage of the ensuing chaos, but it was too bold a strike with too much risk of failure to have been cleared by the ing. It was far more likely that Kudan hatched it himself in the hopes of ingratiating himself to his father, or even as a means of usurping him in the never-ending, mad rush for advantage. Once it failed, the family moved to protect one of their own and that meant getting him as far away from retribution as possible.

That only meant that it took longer to find him and less than it might otherwise have without more of the understanding of magic that Bryana was making her own. Once done, the rest was simple. Days of observation quickly revealed that he was happy to slip away from his bodyguards fairly regularly to visit to a tavern by the docks where he would drink and or gamble and to a string of apartments populated by courtesans. An enchanted whisper got her one of the rooms and a shifting spell coupled with a tight black corset got her Kudan’s attention.

She’d spent most of the next day observing him and, finally, preparing herself. The room was opulent in its own way with a massive bed, a clean quilt of intricate design, a small dresser, a vanity that had clearly seen better days, and a full-length mirror on wheels for ease of positioning that, no doubt paired with the mirrored ceiling. It was the mirror that she stood before at the moment, now in a simple red gown that, while not a corset, had something of that effect in that it hugged her hips and pushed out her chest in an inviting fashion. She admired herself even as she chanted. It was a stream of sounds that to someone overhearing would have thought was a lullaby that the singer barely remembered.

As it went on Bryana felt the prickling sensation in her fingertips that she’d been waiting for before beginning to comb her fingers through her hair, front to back, over and over until her hair began to darken to the darkest black as it lengthened from a bit below her neck down to the middle of her back. As her fingers came to her face and trailed down in perfect symmetry, darkening her brows to match and changing the very contours of her face as she slowly became the sultry tavern wench he’d met the night before. Her lips turned fuller and took on far more of a pout with a ruby luster, looking as though they were now only fit to kiss or suck. As she continued the spell she thought with fondness about the play with lovers over the years that allowed her to perfect the spell. Her hands firmly pressed down her chest and belly, working downward as the tingling sensation spread through her flesh, not needing to see it work to know that the magic was covering the symbols of power and her guild that adorned her body. Her outside now matched her mind in that both hid the truth beneath an illusion. The Bryana that plotted this night was cold, merciless, and reveled in her power. But she also reveled in being the black dagger of General Neral Jaye.

She stood at the mirror and waited, focusing on her own heartbeat and prepared to tap the flows of magic she would need. She stood almost as a statue for nearly an hour before the pounding on the door shifted her focus. She saw a predatory grin reflected back at her before she went to the door opening it just as the second wave of pounding began. She smiled warmly to greet the prince.

Kudan stood only slightly taller than her with hair nearly as dark as Bryana’s now and the look in his brown eyes, and even the way he stood spoke to his brashness. He wore a well-tended mustache and goatee to distract from his slightly hooked nose. He looked at her with glassy eyes before wrapping an arm around her waist, spinning her into the room as he slammed the door. “And there’s the best looking whore in Idin,” he blustered, staggering slightly as the spin took its toll on his balance. “What was your name again?”

“Annissa.”

He nearly shouted at the revelation. “Ah, yes, that’s it. Anissa, the whore of Idin.”

Ready to fall face first into his own vomit and the sun is barely down, she thought. No matter. Her tone was playful, “Do your babysitters never care to look for you?”

He pulled her to him roughly and made no effort to not bathe her face in his liquored breath as he growled. “I have no need of babysitters, wench. I am a prince and heir to the throne of Kressin. I go where I please. I do as I please. And right now, I please to spend my night doing Annissa the whore.”

He prattled on so much the night they met that she almost expected him to shout who he was and why he was there in the middle of the tavern before demanding challengers. The Bryana that was would have executed guards so incompetent, but their witlessness or fear of Kudan served her this night. He bit her neck and she squealed and laughed before prying him from her neck and pushing him to arms length, “First things first, my prince. Where is my going away money?”

He half-smiled in his confusion, “What are you on about, whore?”

She returned to him and gave his neck bites in return as she spoke seductively, “If a man wants to fuck, any woman will do and any woman can be found. Linger at that tavern you like at closing and you will find women so drunk, without shame, or both, they would spread for their horse, much less any man that happened by.”

She punctuated her next words by sliding a hand to his trousers and cupping him firmly enough to feel the pressure through the fabric in a way that made him sigh. “One does not pay a courtesan to fuck, one pays a courtesan to go away afterward and not bother a man with love or bastards begging for a piece of his holdings.”

He grinned at her, pleased by her whore’s wisdom, “True.” He reached into his pants to remove a small pouch, tossing it to the vanity where it landed with some weight. Bryana went to it, pouring the coins into her hand, letting the light reflect off the gold, “The prince is generous.”

He looked her up and down, no doubt imagining it as he asked, “How many more of those to see you fuck a horse?”

She resisted the momentary urge to burn a hole in his chest and gave him a smirk before redepositing the coins, “One transaction at a time.”

She put one heel before the other, prowling towards him as he stood drinking her in, honestly thinking of how beautiful she was. Born into a good family she had the makings of a fine princess. She was almost too pretty to be the cum dump she was. The fate the Goddess demanded, he supposed. Her disdain, my gain. When she reached him he brought her close once again, being careful to keep his lips from hers, as women like her were not for kissing. If she noticed or cared she gave no sign as she ran her tongue down his neck while unbuttoning his silk shirt while he unzipped her dress, peeling it from her to reveal her fair, unblemished skin.

As soon as his shirt fell to the floor he took as much of one of her grapefruit-sized breasts in his mouth, biting the flesh before swirling his tongue around the pink areola before pulling at the nipple with his teeth. When she moaned he nipped harder, which made her shake in his arms. Bryana stayed focused on the task at hand, but admitted to herself that his drunken slobber had a certain primal appeal.

She took a handful of his hair and pulled him from her breast. In response, he snarled and looked for an instant in his drunkenness that he might strike her for it, but the anger changed to a look of anticipation, wondering what she had in mind. Bryana met met his smoldering gaze with her fierce, heated glare, “Stay standing, my prince.”

He dug his fingers into her now partially exposed ass and she grunted at the sudden dull pain, “You dare order me?” He was clearly more excited than angry.

She put her arms around him and gripped him in similar fashion. “I dare to suck your cock, prince.” Her hands went to the fine tangle of hair on his chest and played her fingertips through it, her voice purring, “And there is no other way to do it. There is no other way I do it.

His breath caught with those full lips kissing across his chest. “Why is that, whore?”

“Annissa,” she corrected gently.

That drunken arrogance returned in his response and he squeezed her ass flesh again, harder this time, “I believe I’m also paying you not to give a fuck what I call you, whore.”

The corner of her mouth turned upward, “I suppose so. It is a great intimacy, prince, greater than the kiss that you find whores unworthy of.”

Even though he really didn’t care what she thought he still felt a flush of embarrassment at being caught in it.

“The woman takes the man into her mouth, caresses it with her tongue. She actually tastes him. She subjugates herself to his manhood and to him. He should stand before her, male and in control and powerful.”

His cock hardened at the words. He loved the way she thought and his mind raced from one image to the next, “And she should be on her knees like the submissive nothing she is. Any hole he demands, when he demands. The cunt is property.”

Her lips nearly met his, “Paid for, my prince.”

Kudan looked at her lips so very close to him and was unsure in that moment he would have balked if she’d tried to kiss him. Those eyes that looked though you. Those lips that begged you. That mind that knew its place, unlike in Erette where that cow Evaline ruled and lesser women had far too much power. Once the dust settled, he decided, he wasn’t done with them no matter what his father said. When he succeeded, his father would forgive the previous failure. But, first things first, “Submit to me,” he hissed.

She took the cue, stepping away just long enough to shimmy out of her dress, leaving her in nothing but red heels that laced up above the ankle. Before he could begin to miss her, she returned to him, kissing the tender flesh of his throat as her fingertips made small circles at the base of his skull in a way that was oddly relaxing even as his excitement stayed piqued.

Bryana’s tongue traced a pattern down his breastbone before diverting to his heart as the fingers at his spine followed downward, changing their own movement ever so slightly. Pursing her lips just above his skin she blew slowly, the air from her lungs warmer than it had any right to be though Kudan didn’t notice anything but the delicious heat spreading from his chest and rolling slowly over every nerve, causing his cock to push painfully against his trousers.

His hand rested on the whore’s head. Ordinarily he’d have pushed her head down and demanded she get on with it, but even the foreplay felt so good at that point that he couldn’t muster the strength to apply much pressure, lest she stop doing what she was doing. In fact, so as not to risk that he dropped both hands to his sides. Had his mind not already been addled by drink he might have felt that something was strange and been able to at least protest.

Maybe.

But her tongue seemed to spark on his flesh and her fingers on his spine would cause the long muscles of his back to tense almost to the point of pain, but when they finally released, it was like a kiss from the Goddess. He looked down to see her head finally level with cock. His cock twitched eagerly, begging to be freed in the only way it could beg.

His eyes locked to hers. Goddess, the way the lamp light played of the flecks of color in her eyes it seemed as though they twinkled on their own. When he looked deeper she smiled Her smile is so very pretty, he thought as she unlaced his leather boots with both hands without looking down. All he could think of were those sparkling eyes and that smile and that cock that couldn’t stop throbbing and couldn’t stop needing. “Submit to me.” The words felt hollow somehow, but that stopped mattering as soon as the air of the room hit his liberated cock, so hard now that when it bobbed pre-cum dripped audibly to the floor.

One hand slowly and methodically milked his cock, firmly from the base upward before twisting slightly at the tip and grazing her palm over the slit to make him shudder and spread the fluid. While her voice took on a weak, almost childlike tone as though she were deathly afraid of displeasing him, her eyes narrowed, focusing on that which only her mage’s eye could see. “I submit.”

“Mmmmm...yes. Yes you do, whore.”

She sped up the work of her hand only a bit more. “I submit. But I’m afraid, my prince. I am such a weak cunt, but I’m also stubborn and willful.”

He found embers of anger amidst the haze of arousal. “You all are. You’re all so weak...think you know every fucking thing.”

“I—I’m afraid of such a strong man. I might try to escape.”

He looked at her but barely seemed to see her, “No…No, you can’t. I’ll never let you go.”

Her eyes saw the magic as a luminous, sickly green worming its way inexorably through every vein and capillary, carried forth by his glowing, pulsing heart, the runes her fingers traced into his skin pulsing in time with his heart. She grinned, her voice carrying panic. “I don’t want to go, but I’m willful. Lock me away, my prince! Lock me deep in the center of your mind so that I can never, ever escape!” She sped up her milking and began to lick the tip of his cock in slow, languid licks and Bryana watched as his mind began to take on a faint green hue.

“Never escape me, whore,” he snarled. “Mine always.”

“Yes. Yours always. I will be yours always if you help me. Think of my obedience.”

His green heart pulsed.

“Think of me doing as you command without question or hesitation.”

His words slurred together, “Yes, I will whore you for my own ends. You will never escape me. You’re mine.”

Her voice turned from fearful to hopelessly aroused “And I will obey because I am inside your mind and I cannot escape. I must obey.”

Pulse.

“Think of my submission. Think of how every part of me submits to you will. I cannot escape the center of your mind. I will be anything you wish. I will do anything you wish because your will is my will because I cannot escape. That my will is your will brings you nothing but pleasure. When you use me is the only time I feel whole.”

Pulse.

“Think of my submission.”

Pulse.

“Think of my obedience.”

Her tone became the sound of menace, “My will is your will.”

His pupils were so wide they seemed to obscure the iris entirely.

“Obedience.”

His lips silently mouthed the word.

“Submission.”

Kudan managed a whisper, “Submission.”

“My will is your will.”

“My will is your will.”

“I am inside your mind and you cannot escape.”

Kudan’s dark brow furrowed as he found a thread of lucidity in the fog that seemed all around him now. That isn’t right?

Bryana pushed away her anger as it tended to cloud her thinking and the spell. He barely had any will to start with and he was going to squander what remained in futility, “My will, is...” she began harshly, as she closed her eyes and lifted his cock to cradle his balls in her mouth, her tongue bathing them even as it wrote on the lair of his very essence, mage’s eye watching it fall to the corruption as well. Even after she was certain it was done continued relentlessly until the pleasure whines began to grate on her ears and his body began to quiver so that only the magic held him upright.

Her long, pink tongue followed a trail of veins to the tip of his cock before engulfing it’s full length and holding it inside. The “Uhhhhhhhh” she heard from him then was nearly monotone and, when she opened her eyes, it pleased her to see that his body was a monument to the dark magic. Her next words were sharp as blades. “My. Will. Is…?”

“Your will.”

For the first time in days, she actually liked Prince Kudan. She ran him through the mantra again and again. In the middle of the fourth recitation, she took him into her mouth again, slathering his cock in her saliva and pumped her head on his shaft with machine-like precision as the fingertips of both hands played together, weaving pattern over pattern at the base of his spine.

When the pleasure became so great that it broke his chain of words he grabbed her head with both hands and began to thrust his hips into her like a wild beast. This taking she allowed happily, for, if he wished to hasten the sealing of the spell, she would hardly object. She let her arms hang limply at her sides and, ironically, for a few precious moments, Kudan actually had the submissive that he’d hoped for, though he was too far into a magicked fugue to care.

His moans grew in frequency and intensity until he fell silent, whole body in spasms as rope after rope of his cum filled her mouth to the point where she wondered if it would overflow. She endured the necessity even though it disgusted her. As soon as he finished she grabbed his wrists and pulled his hands from her head almost as one would adjust a mannequin. The top of her head felt cold and she put her hand to it. Looking up, she could see a none too thin line of drool from his lips swaying to and fro in mid air.

She looked left and spit and coughed up his seed as she frantically wiped her hands on his trousers. She worked up a ball of saliva and expelled more before fishing through his trousers to find his gold flask. Rising and rushing to the vanity, she filled her mouth with the burning liquid that reminded her of licorice and spit it into the basin, followed by another, longer swig. She looked at him standing there dead-eyed, cock still at full mast. Wretched waste of skin. She hadn’t lied to him when she told him that, to her, nothing was more intimate than mouth-fucking. It was an intimacy, one he didn’t deserve and one he would never have again.

Calming herself, she circled him with almost a dancer’s glide, waiting for him to come back to the world. Only a few more tasks to perform with him, and then she could shed all of this and return home to Neral. He was most fortunate he was not dead, as some of the others involved already were, but he’d be infinitely more useful that way. As she moved behind him once again his head jerked as though he’d been shocked.

When she entered his field of vision Kudan could have wept as an angel of the Goddess stood before him. She was perfection and she had chosen to own him. In anything she asked he would submit and obey. His eyes basked in the glory of her body and he longed to even be worthy to continue looking upon it.

She stepped one step backward towards the vanity and looked at him as though he were just this side of ridiculous, “What is my name, slave?”

He whispered it in reverence, “Annissa.”

“Very good. What is the only name you will ever call me again?”

He didn’t hesitate. “Mistress.”

She nodded her approval before glancing down at his feet and shaking her head in annoyance, “Standing there with your trousers around your ankles you look like an idiot. Out of them.”

Seeing a chance to please he nearly tripped over himself scrambling free of the boots and the now wadded fabric. He stood before her, hoping she found him acceptable. He prayed that she did. Her next words were the greatest gift he’d ever received or ever would.

“Come fuck me as you please, slave.”

He bounded to her, cock pressing against her belly hungrily. He kissed her over and over, nearly surrendering to another orgasm as his tongue met hers. He ran his fingers through her hair and down her back before reaching to lift her thigh against him. “Let me make love to you, Mistress. Let me worship you. I beg it.”

“Worship me by letting go. You came here tonight needing to rut, so rut.”

His obedient mind flipped a switch and he lifted her to him effortlessly as Bryana wrapped her slender legs around his waist and let him carry her to the bed. Plopping her unceremoniously down and following after her after she’d barely had time to position herself in the center, the only thing on his mind was fucking. Pressing his full weight on her, he groaned and lifted his hips just enough to guide himself to her folds. Pushing forward, his jaw dropped and his eyelids fluttered. One single slow thrust into that warmth redefined the meaning of sex for him. She was part of him physically, joined to him in a way that complimented the binding of his mind to her. She had commanded him to rut so his cock lingered for but a moment before pulling back until just the velvet tip was hidden by her flesh before ramming it back home. She locked her ankles around him which only spurred him to greater heights of ecstasy as he felt even one more bit of her control.

There was pain for her as he slammed away, straining the bed with the force of his body and she was grateful for the sensation as it reminded her of who she was not. The old Bryana, part of the job or not, would have taken her time, enjoying the fucking as much as the knowledge that she had conquered him. She would have wallowed in her power. Now though, there was none of that. Taking him was necessity and, perhaps the greatest vengeance.

He peeled from her, barely slowing down as he stood on his knees over her, watching his cock go in and out of her, heedless of any discomfort he caused because he was following her will. He watched her face and she propped on her elbows to watch his. I would have thrilled at my power,” she told herself. but I have no power. That simple thought curled her toes and set her juices flowing around his shaft. My power is theirs. My power is hers. Goddess, how it felt to be her lover, her toy, or her blade. To be her anything was to be complete. Her nipples stiffened painfully as the thoughts took her. The only thing ruining the moment for her was his face, so, to remedy that, she lifted enough to take him by the shoulders.

Pulling his body to hers, she stared at the image in the mirror. A thought let her see herself as she was in her reflection and another made the body Deres. The image of her all but obscured by him and his smoothly, frantically pumping ass and the feeling of fullness in body and soul that went with it was familiar and pleasing beyond words. Whimpers escaped her red lips.

Closing her eyes, she saw Neral, brown hair loose and flowing kissing up his back and making her way to Neral who whimpered in wait. That body was all warrior and to see that armor and that fight shed and that woman giving herself to her passion only made Bryana hunger more.

Her mind’s eye brought Neral to her side as life had and she felt that hand on her body as though it were actually so and the sorceress could taste the musk of Neral on her lips and tongue.

Neral’s hand drifted downward and, in response, Deres lifted himself just enough to giver her access and those fingers began to pinch roll and caress her clit as only they knew how. That was nearly too much when whispers entered her ear; whispers that Bryana was filth and a slut for loving and craving that which was Neral’s first and always. More whispers came asking how it felt and the joy flowed from her lips as she responded to every thought. Still others were whispers of love and, with those, Bryana felt warm tears roll down her cheeks in that whore’s apartment. She knew it was so. She could touch Neral and touch Neral’s mind and knew it was true. I love you, Neral. I love you both. I am yours in all things. I am your pet and protector and your love. I am these things until I die, and beyond. Yours…..Yours in all thi….

She could feel her pussy clench as the waves of bliss claimed her, causing her already straining thighs to spasm. When her back arched, Kudan wrapped his arms under her keeping him to her as she rode it out.

Opening her eyes to see the whore she was tonight once again, she smiled up at the image, feeling what took her. She had no power. She was theirs, so she would do what needed to be done at their bidding or in their name and thrill at her thralldom.

She winked at herself, Just as good.

Focused again at the task at hand that was Kudan, she brushed his mind to find it completely open as she expected. As it was, he would have told her anything that she wanted to know, but it was far easier and faster to see, and, unless the mind were emptied entirely there was always some reflexive resistance. Sex distracted the mind nicely.

She closed her eyes as the bed continued to rattle and looked for the conspiracy and its players. She saw the plot hatched in a private room with Kudan, one other noble, and some of their friends. She followed the threads and names and faces as the pieces were put together. Some she knew, like the Kressin adviser that had approached her guild and her in order to carry out the plot. Some she did not and they would be sought out. Some played such a minor role that they did not matter.

Her brow tightened with one of the images in particular. In order to cover their tracks, money was sought from different sources and passed through many hands. Kudan’s curiosity got the better of him one day so, rather than send a trusted lackey, he’d waited for hours behind an outcropping of rocks at Kesik Beach, almost twisting himself unnaturally to stay in concealment. Finally, the woman came. She came and looked around to make sure there was no one about as the paranoid often did before burying a pouch in the gray, wet sand under the equally gray sky before hurrying off down the beach. She wasn’t so far away that he couldn’t get a good look as he peered over the rocks. It was a face Bryana didn’t know before she’d turned.

But it was a face she knew now, even if Bryana didn’t yet know her name. She’d seen her briefly when they had ventured to one of the upper markets and Tessa stayed behind for a moment to speak with her. She was Tessa’s counterpart from another House of Erette. Panic rushed her heart for a moment at the thought of a potential threat that close, but consoled herself with the truth that Neral was in no danger. Physically, she could take care of herself, and, if need be, Deres would crater the city for her.

Even though she believed she’d retrieved from the prince the most important pieces he possessed she lingered longer to be sure. Once she was satisfied that was so, she opened her eyes and pushed him up, seeing that his face was still a mask of near mindless bliss and his body was covered in sweat.

One more task.

She wrapped her arms around him, flipping him onto his back without effort. He slowly stopped thrusting on his own because, feeling her body ride up and down on his shaft, he took it as a silent command that she wished control. He grabbed her breasts, pawing them as though he were still drunk.

Her voice was like ice. “You will listen to my words and obey.”

“Yes, Mistress.”

“I will tell you things and they will be true because I said they are so.”

“Yes, Mistress.”

“Your mind will remember and obey.”

“Yes, Mistress.”

“You may see me next week, or in a year. You may never see me again.”

He began to cry. “No, Mistress, Please. Don’t leave me, I...”

“Shhhhh...” It actually sounded comforting and she intended it to be.

He fell silent but still looked pained.

She gave him a sweet smile, “It is all right. It is all right because I am forever trapped in the center of your mind and you cannot escape.”

She gave an approving nod as the bliss returned to his face.

“You will soon sleep, and when tomorrow comes, and with every day after, you will wish less and less drink until you want none, save what tradition demands.”

“Yes, my Mistress.”

“When tomorrow comes, and with every day after, you will discipline yourself more and more. You are allowed to take your pleasures, but your focus first and always will be on being the son your father expects. Your focus will be on growing your power and your reach because to do so grows Mistress’s power and reach and that will please her.”

He thrust even as he acknowledged her. He wanted nothing more.

“You will never strike at Erette again, or allow others to do so if you can prevent it. You will never strike at General Neral Jaye or those close to her again, or allow others to do so if you can prevent it.”

“Yes, Mistress.” He swallowed as worry crossed his face, “What if I can’t prevent it?”

“Then you will send word at once. If the time ever comes, you will know how.”

“Yes, Mistress.”

“If I ever come to you again, you will obey. If send someone to you in my name you will obey them in all things as though I were before you.” She twisted her hips now each time she reached the base and squeezed, milking him, making him pant like the rutting dog he was.

“Yes, Mistress.”

“When you cum, you will sleep. and all I have told you, and the things I will tell you as you sleep will be so.”

“Yes, Mistress.”

“Cum, slave. Cum so that you may sleep.”

He grabbed her hips, thrusting like he was trying to break free of chains rather than bind himself forever. She placed her hands on his chest and, for the first time, actively fucked him back. His eyes darted from hers to the ceiling and it was impossible for him to resist for long, giving in with a scream so loud that, in any other time or place, people would have thought a man was being murdered, but stranger noises had no doubt come from this place.

The sounds slowly faded from his throat, turning from screams, to moans, to childlike whimpers, to whispers. Finally, his hands dropped from her hips and his world was black.

She lifted from him and set to work on both Kudan and the room, working his mind and then setting to clean all traces of magic from it and the room. There were spells she now had that would collect the energy from the room and transfer it to her, leaving nothing for a guild mage to trace. They were base spells that Bryana had learned, but she and Deres had been able to augment them. It gratified her that she wasn’t completely bereft of unique skill before meeting him. She would not retake her own form again before she saw home.

Hours later, in the dark of night, her work was complete and she allowed herself to think of home. She would return to Neral and Deres, not to mention a scalding bath and a bleach gargle, and all would be well until it was time to act further.

The lamp was moments away from empty so she chose to let it burn out. She took the pouch of gold, knowing she would donate it to someone or somewhere upon her return. She tightened her grip on the doorknob before turning to look at Kudan one last time. His lanky frame hadn’t stirred from where she had lifted from him. They had considered killing him, but, once they realized it was possible, this option was infinitely better. Erette now had a direct line of intelligence into, and influence over, a grave threat. And that influence would only grow over time.

His chest rose and fell. He was hers now. Whether or not she ever used him it was so, and, if nothing else, he would grow to be less of a pig, so that was something. In any event, he was hers and she was Neral’s, so, by extension, he was Neral’s.

He was Neral’s.

She huffed, sounding for an instant all of the wicked mercenary mage she once was before letting go of the door to go to him. She lifted one edge of the quilt to drape over him and repeated the action from the other side of the bed before rushing for the door.

Some days I wish I were still evil.