← Samuel the Rogue: Where the Feathers Fall

Chapter 10: The Harpy-Magnet

Chapter 10: The Harpy-Magnet

We should have left right then. Aeolin had said so himself. But he didn’t move from the shadows under the overhang, and when I looked up from the ring, he was smirking at me, his green eyes bright. I’d figured he would be disgusted with me for what I’d just done with the pink-feathered harpy out there in front of everybody.

“I’ve never seen that one so... thoroughly satisfied,” he said. “She usually tears her partners to shreds.”

My face went hot all over again. I thrust the spear toward him to change the subject.

Aeolin took his spear back and ran his hands down the shaft, checking every inch of it. “You did it,” he said, his eyes never leaving mine. “You faced her down, took what you wanted, and left her chirping. That’s not the work of a frightened human. That’s the work of a... well, something impressive.”

He kept looking at me, and I could tell he’d liked the show. A lot. His cock was standing straight up, and he made absolutely no effort to hide it.

“You’re...” I gestured vaguely toward his cock, which was standing up and glistening.

Aeolin glanced down, then shrugged without a hint of embarrassment. “Of course.” He looked back up at me. “In harpy culture, watching is as natural as participating.”

The near-kiss in the alcove was starting to feel like an appetizer. My blood was still pumping from the fight, and I wanted him bad, worse than I was going to say out loud.

I cleared my throat and looked away, focusing instead on the ring in my palm. It glinted in the daylight that reached in under the overhang, and I could see small runes etched into its surface.

“Curiosity suits you,” Aeolin said, watching me examine the ring. His voice had dropped low, and it made the hair on my arms stand up.

Feeling bold from my “victory” and Aeolin’s obvious approval, I turned the ring over in my fingers. It was beautiful work. Every kid in the village school got warned about magic rings. The stories ran from cursed rings that could turn you into a shade or wipe you out of history to rings that made their owners stinking rich.

“I wonder what it does,” I muttered, more to myself than to Aeolin.

Before he could respond, I slipped the ring onto my finger.

It kicked in right away.

A chime rang through the Aerie. I felt it in my bones more than I heard it. The entire arena went dead silent. Hundreds of harpy heads snapped in our direction, eyes wide and suddenly focused, and my skin crawled, because every one of them was looking at me.

Aeolin’s smile vanished, and every feather on him puffed straight out.

“Oh, no,” he whispered. “Samuel, what did you do?”

The ring spoke inside my head, smooth and cold: “Behold. The prize.”

All at once, I could understand every shriek and call around us. What had been meaningless bird noise turned into clear, terrifying words:

“The Consort! He wears the Mating Sign!”

“Mine! I will claim him and the ring!”

From across the arena, a huge female with golden-amber feathers let out a furious shriek that made my balls try to climb back up inside me: “THIEF! I’LL HAVE YOUR GUTS FOR GARTERS!”

I didn’t need to ask to know that was Zephyra, the ring’s rightful owner.

Over all that screeching, I heard Iris’s heartbroken, possessive cry: “He’s my mate! He came for me! I’ll kill you all!”

“We have to go. NOW!” Aeolin shrieked. He caught my forearms in his talons, hard enough to bruise, and with his spear still in his hands he launched us into the air just as the first wave of harpies descended on our hiding spot.

The jerk knocked the breath out of me as we shot upward. Aeolin’s wings pounded the air, carrying us up and out over the edge of the arena. I looked down past my bare feet and saw dozens of harpies burst off the branches and come after us.

“What’s happening?” I yelled over the wind and shrieks.

“It’s the ring!” Aeolin shouted back, banking sharply to avoid a diving harpy. “It marks the wearer as the most desirable mate in the Aerie! It’s meant for ceremonial challenges, not for—DUCK!”

I tucked my head as Aeolin swung his spear in a wide arc, forcing back a harpy that was reaching for my ankle.

“Can’t I just take it off?” I tried to pull at the ring, but it felt like it had shrunk, clinging tightly to my finger.

“Too late! Once activated, it won’t come off until the mating flight is complete!”

“The WHAT?”

Aeolin didn’t get to explain, because three more harpies came at us from different directions. He spun and jabbed with his spear faster than I could follow. As far as I could tell, he only wanted them off us, so he blocked their grabs and used the spear’s length to shove them away.

I dangled from his talons with my whole body hanging out in the open, but at least my hands were free. I pulled my dagger from my belt and slashed at the first thing that came near me, which turned out to be a hanging vine. By dumb luck, it dropped across the harpies behind us.

“Left!” I shouted, seeing a harpy approaching from that side. “That one wants to mate with your spleen!”

Aeolin banked hard left, then dove through a narrow gap between two massive branches. His flying was incredible, weaving through the tangle of branches so neatly that it would have impressed me if I wasn’t terrified for my life.

As we spun and twisted through the air, I noticed Aeolin’s cock was still standing at attention.

“Seriously?” I craned my neck to glare up at him. “STILL?”

Aeolin actually laughed. “Can’t help it! It’s the adrenaline!”

“Well, it’s distracting!” And mortifying, though I didn’t add that part.

“Focus on not dying!” He sounded far too amused for someone in a life-or-death situation.

I kicked wildly at a harpy that got too close and, by pure luck, caught her square in the chest and sent her tumbling back. “I’m trying! You’re the one who’s... you know!”

“Consider it a compliment!” Aeolin let go of my arms, rolled clean over in the air to dodge a diving attacker, and grabbed my forearms again before I’d dropped more than a few feet. My stomach tried to come up my throat.

From what they were screaming, I figured out that the harpies chasing us had split into three gangs that wanted different things. The largest group, led by the furious Iris, wanted to claim me as their prize.

Another group, led by the golden-amber Zephyra, was focused on the ring. They were more vicious, using spears or sharp rocks to try to knock me from Aeolin’s grasp.

A third, smaller gang of males acted like this was the best hunt they’d ever had. My guess was they wanted to show off by bringing down the “thief” and his guardian. They worked together, cutting us off every time we tried to climb.

“They’re herding us!” I screamed up at Aeolin as another pack of them dropped in above us and forced us down again.

“I know!” he panted, sweat running down his forehead. “But we can’t get above them!”

They kept pushing us lower, down toward the thick, dark tangle where the branches grew closest together. Even Aeolin couldn’t fight off dozens of them forever, not with me hanging off him as dead weight.

One bold bastard managed to grab my leg. I swung my dagger at him with my eyes half shut and somehow opened a cut on his wing. He screeched and fell away, but three more immediately took his place.

One of them, a female with rust-colored feathers, raked her talons across my thigh, tearing through my pants with a vicious swipe. The fabric shredded, leaving a gaping hole that exposed most of my leg. I yelped in pain as her claws grazed my skin.

“My pants!” I wailed.

“Worry about your skin, not your clothes!” Aeolin yelled, twisting us out of another harpy’s reach.

Another harpy swooped in, this one grabbing at the torn fabric. With a sharp tug, she ripped away another large section, and what was left of my pants hung in tatters. The cool air hit my newly exposed skin, and I was suddenly very aware that half my ass was hanging out over a jungle full of horny harpies.

“Aeolin!” I cried as talons scraped my back.

Aeolin spun us around so hard and fast that our attackers lost their grip and went flying. He was laughing again, the crazy bastard. “Hold on tight, Samuel!”

“To WHAT?” I screamed back. I was dangling from his talons with nothing to grab onto except his ankles or his cock, and I wasn’t grabbing his cock up here.

“Just don’t let go!” And with that, he tucked his wings and dove.

My stomach stayed behind somewhere up in the branches as we plummeted straight down through the canopy. The ones chasing us shrieked in surprise, some diving after us, others pulling up short.

Wind rushed past my ears as we fell, branches whipping by so close I could feel leaves brushing my skin. Aeolin kept his wings pinned to his body so we’d drop as fast as possible, and he knocked branches out of our path with his spear, and every single branch came straight at my face first.

I had never been so terrified in my life. And yet, from the noise he was making, Aeolin was having the time of his. He let out a wild, joyous cry as we plunged, the sound somewhere between a battle cry and a laugh.

“You’re insane!” I hollered up at him.

“Probably!” he crowed.

The ground was rushing up at us fast. Just when I was certain we were going to become a smear on the jungle floor, Aeolin snapped his wings open, catching the air with a jolt that nearly dislocated my shoulders.

We slowed down a lot, but not enough. We were going to crash, and I was the one hanging underneath.

“Brace yourself!” Aeolin bellowed.

We hit the ground hard, tumbling in a tangle of limbs and feathers. At the last second, Aeolin twisted and took the hit on his side instead of landing on top of me, which I only worked out once I could think again. His spear went spinning off into the ferns, and we rolled several yards before coming to a stop against the massive root of a tree.

For a moment, we just lay there, panting and dazed. I was sprawled half on top of Aeolin, his wings partially wrapped around me protectively. Every part of my body ached, and I was pretty sure I had leaves in places leaves should never be.

“Are you alive?” Aeolin wheezed, his chest heaving beneath me.

“Unfortunately,” I groaned. “You?”

“Never better.” Despite everything, there was a grin in his voice.

I pushed myself up on my elbows, wincing at all the new places that hurt. Sure enough, he was beaming up at me.

“You enjoyed that,” I accused, rolling off him with another groan.

“The flight or the crash?” he asked, sitting up and shaking leaves from his feathers.

“Both, apparently.”

“It was exhilarating!” He stretched his wings, checking for damage. His feathers were fine, and that made him look even happier. “We should do it again sometime.”

“Hell no.” I got to my feet, swaying. It would have sounded tougher if my voice had held. The fear was draining out of me, and it left me shaking down to my bones.

Aeolin laughed. He was still wound up from the chase, and his feathers kept twitching. He looked damn good like this, wild-eyed and windblown, and I had trouble looking anywhere else.

“You’re bleeding again,” he said. He got up and stepped closer, frowning as he reached out to touch the panther gash across my chest. It had split open again when we crashed.

His fingers brushed against my skin, and the simple touch sent a jolt straight to my groin. It was the same pull I’d felt in the alcove, only a hundred times stronger now that we’d nearly died.

He was standing close enough that I could smell the sweat on him, sharp and musky, and I liked it way more than I should have.

My breath hitched. His eyes left my wound and locked onto mine. The smirk was gone, and he looked at me as hungry as any of those harpies up in the trees.

“Samuel,” he whispered, and then he waited for me.

My heart hammered against my ribs. All the confusion, all the jealousy, all the fear from the last few days boiled up into one big wave of wanting him. I was done fighting it. I was done questioning it.

I closed the distance between us.

Our lips met hard enough to knock our teeth together. All the panic of the chase, the fall, and the relief of still being alive went into that kiss. It was hungry and messy, all tongues and teeth. His hands came up and took hold of my face, firm and possessive. I gripped his waist, pulling him closer.

He tasted of salt and that strange, sweet fruit he’d fed me. He broke the kiss to gasp for air, resting his forehead against mine. His green eyes were blown wide, pupils huge, and he looked shocked and delighted. A faint flush colored his sharp cheekbones, and I felt stupidly proud that I’d done that to him.

“Well,” I said, my voice shaky and breathless. “That was...”

He cut me off with another kiss, deeper this time, slower. He took his time with my mouth, and my knees went weak. His wings rustled and folded around us, a wall of green feathers that shut out the whole jungle.

When he finally pulled back, my head was spinning. My lips felt swollen and tingly.

Aeolin’s grin came back, smaller this time, and it hit me just as hard. “Definitely worth exploring,” he said, finishing my sentence for me, his voice gone hoarse.

He offered me a hand. I took it, and our fingers laced together.

“Come on,” Aeolin said, giving me a wink. “Let’s get you back to the nest before you bleed all over my jungle. You’re still healing, after all.”

He leaned hard on the word “healing,” and I went hot from my ears down to my bare ass. As he picked his spear up out of the ferns and gathered me up for the flight back, one thought kept going around in my head.

My mission had been to steal a harpy egg. So far I’d stolen a ring I couldn’t get off, lost most of my pants, and kissed a harpy, and I wasn’t sorry about the last one.