I settled for driving her mindless with my fingers. I’d pleasure her until she broke, sobbed, cried out my name, muffling the word against my hand.

Her hips were rocking against me now, shamelessly riding the waves of pleasure I was giving her, lost in sensation.

The girl playing the Bloodmaiden was nearing her climax, too. Her cries of pleasure were filling the courtyard.

The masked highbloods had given up their semblance of stiff disregard. They were disrobing one another, forming pairs and trios and piles of naked flesh. Coupling one with the other, men with women, women with women, men and men, like writhing masses of tangled snakes. I lost count of the breasts and cocks and tongues spread out over the white marble floor, atop their discarded black cloaks. Only their masks remained, tightly fitted to conceal their faces.

“I could slide my cock into you right now, little dragon,” I whispered, unable to help taunting her. “I could fill you up, spread you wide. Would you like that?” I stroked my fingers in and out. “Would you want me to part your hips, slide my cock into your wet pussy? Would you ride me like you’d ride a dragon? Like that girl is doing down below?”

She gasped, her body jerking at the sound of the words. Just the idea of my cock inside her was doing this. I felt myself grow harder at the knowledge that I’d turned her on that much.

I circled my thumb over her clit as I rocked my hand against her, fucking her with my fingers as hard as I dared.

I felt her groan against my palm as her frame shook. She was close.

Down below the blightborn girl was, too. I watched as she arched backwards, her breasts damp with her own blood as she rode the highblood man harder and harder.

“That's it,” I whispered in my little dragon’s ear. “Come for me. That's what you’ve always wanted, isn't it? To come hard for me?”

I felt her clench around my fingers. The cliff was beckoning.

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CHAPTER 43 - MEDRA

My head was swimming. Below us, the courtyard had become a blur of black masks and flowing naked flesh.

My breath came in shallow pulls. The bloodwine. It had made a haze of every thought, knotting my mind into a cloud of confusion and heightening my worst desires.

Letting Blake touch me had been a very, very bad idea.

I should have run when I’d had the chance.

Would he have let me? Or would he have held me here and forced me to watch?

It didn’t matter. He hadn’t forced me. I’d stayed.

I hadn’t elbowed him in the stomach or shoved him away. I’d let him slowly undress me, baring my body to the air as he ran those strong hands of his wantonly over it.

Now he was inside me. Fucking me. His fingers thrusting in perfect rhythm. And all I could think about was how good it felt, how sweet the release would be when he finally let me come.

I was close now. My body was responding to him as if it had been waiting for this all its life.

I hated myself for my reactions. But even more, I hated how I didn’t want him to stop.

Each touch of his fingers sent a torrent of flame dancing across my skin.

My eyes flicked back to the courtyard where the girl rode up and down on the highblood’s lap as he fed on her, lapping at her blood with a predatory yet seductive hunger.

His feeding was somehow heightening her sensations. Is this what it would be like with Blake? I tried to imagine his fangs sinking into my flesh.

I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the blightborn girl even though I knew every bit of this was wrong. Watching her was like watching my own transgressive desires unfolding. Raw and unfiltered for everyone to see.

Blake’s hand rocked into me, his fingers thrusting again and again. I arched backwards, a moan stifled against his hand. It was humiliating to have him quiet me. But there was something incredibly erotic about him holding me captive, too.

I whimpered as his thumb skimmed over my clit.

His name was on the tip of my lips. I’d come so close to saying it already. Somehow, I’d managed to hold back.

Down below the girl had reached the peak of her frenzy. She slammed her body down onto the highblood’s cock again and again, her cries of pleasure filling the courtyard as she rode him.

The sight of her there, the sound of her, the knowledge of her ecstasy–all of it was driving me straight towards the edge. The pressure built up inside me, hotter and hotter.

I was almost there.

“Come for me, little dragon. Fly over that cliff and fucking soar,” Blake murmured in my ear.

And then there it was. I was coming. I was lost in the feeling of heat rushing through me. Rich warmth flooding my body. I was a dragon, exploding in fire like a shooting star in the night sky.

I muffled a scream against Blake’s hand, my body throbbing in the overwhelming rush of release.

Below us, the girl’s cries rocked the marble chamber as she climaxed, her pleasure unleashed, completely wild with abandon.

Emotions flowed through me as I came back down to earth, my heart beginning to settle into something like a normal tempo.

Relief. Shock. Awe.

I had never come like that before. So fast, so hard. Not for anyone. Not for any of the awkward stable boys who’d put their lips between my thighs, hardly knowing what to do. Not for any of the young courtiers I’d let slip into my bed.

It had never been like this before. So intense. So fucking good.

Of course, it had to have been Blake.

He slipped his hand out from me, as if with the utmost reluctance, then slowly drew the bodice of my dress up over my breasts and helped me slip my arms through the straps.

I could smell myself on him. The raw scent of sweat and salt and desire. It turned me on even now to know I was all over him, coating his hand with my slickness.

It was primal and crude. He’d marked me, entered me, filled me up with himself. But I’d left my mark on him, too.

If this was how good his fucking fingers felt, I could only imagine how... No, I was not going to let myself think that. I wouldn’t, couldn’t go there.

Blake’s mouth was hot against my ear, his hands tight and possessive on my waist. “You're mine, Pendragon. Let another man touch you like I just did and you’ll find out just how much of an asshole I can really be.”

I jerked away from him, the aftermath of pleasure suddenly shifting to disgust. “You just had to ruin it, didn't you?”

He shot me a look of confusion, as if I’d wounded him somehow. “Wasn’t it good for you?” He shook his head. “You were perfect. Incredible. Everything I’d ever imagined.”

Part of me wanted to admit he’d been pretty good himself. But instead, I looked down at the courtyard.

Something had happened while we’d been standing there talking.

The girl. What was happening to the girl?

“What the fuck is this?” I hissed, my voice brittle. “What the hell is going on?”

He moved back towards me, standing at my shoulder as we looked down at the scene below. His hand hovered at my waist, still possessive, but this time I made no move to push him away.

Suddenly, I was too afraid for that.

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CHAPTER 44 - BLAKE

It was a good fucking question.

What were they doing?

I’d never actually attended an Adoration Rite. But I hadn’t wanted to let Pendragon know that, lest she feel even more uncertain about staying where she was.

I knew the rite involved a blightborn girl who would freely give an offering of her body and her blood in front of the congregation–now predominantly made up of my uncle’s most loyal followers and the top ranking nobles from each of the four houses.

Afterwards, the girl was promised riches and glory. Her family was well-compensated but she could never return to them. She would spend the rest of her days in the Sanctum, cared for by the votaries of the Bloodmaiden.