Rise: A Gay Fairy Tale (11 page)

“No. Like I said, I’m simply curious. I thought…” Jack shook his head and rolled off the bed. “Forget I asked.”

Sudden tension filled the air. They’d avoided speaking of anything but the past, trying to pretend the world didn’t exist. Perhaps the peace they’d found was more delicate than Rion thought, for now it seemed to have shattered. “I’m not supposed to tell anyone.”

Jack laughed harshly. “I doubt you’re supposed to fuck an Outsider from one end of the castle to the other. Somehow I don’t think Mummy and Daddy would approve.”

Rion clenched his jaw and sprang from the bed, dressing with jerky movements. “Don’t speak of them in such a way.”

Sighing, Jack rubbed his face. “I’m sorry. Truly. I had no right. Forgive me?”

After a moment, Rion nodded. “I’m hungry.” He strode out and made his way to the kitchen, clattering the dishes and pans sharply as he cooked breakfast.

Jack appeared just as Rion ladled out two bowls of porridge. “Thank you.” Jack took his bowl and sat at the table.

Rion sat across from him, and they ate silently for a few minutes. He cleared his throat. “There’s work I should get back to today. Repairs that need doing.”

“Can I help?”

“No.”

Jack pulled his spoon through his bowl, but didn’t eat. “I don’t mind. Put me to work.”

“It’s not necessary.” Rion knew he was being a grump, but perhaps some time alone was just what he needed.

“What shall I do with myself?”

“Whatever you like.” He tried to lighten his tone and smile. “There are hundreds of books in the library. Or you can explore to your heart’s content.”

“You’re not afraid I’ll find the treasure after all?”

Rion’s smile vanished, and he gripped his spoon. “I told you—you’ll never find it.” He bent his head to his breakfast.

“I’m sorry. It was a poor joke.” After a few moments, Jack said, “Rion.”

He met Jack’s gaze.

“I won’t look for it. I’ll stay in the library. I promise.”

Rion nodded. The porridge was a lump inside him, and he pushed his bowl away. “I’d best get to it.”

“Rion. Please.” Jack opened and closed his mouth, and then reached his hand across the table. “I’ve misspoke more than once this morning. I am sorry.”

He sighed, unable to resist clasping Jack’s fingers. “I know.” He stood and leaned across the table to kiss Jack lightly. “Enjoy the library.”

As Rion hurried away, he hoped Jack would be true to his word, and tried to silence the worry that he was being a fool and trusting all too easily.

Firelight danced over Jack’s skin where they lay naked on the hearth in Rion’s chamber, cushioned by velvet and fur. After the morning of awkward silences and harsh words, there was peace between them again. It was though they could speak with their bodies the things that tied their tongues.

Late that afternoon, Rion had found Jack curled asleep in the library with books piled around his chair, and had woken him with kisses. Now, Jack rested his head on Rion’s chest, and Rion teased the ends of that fine hair, which gleamed with rich scarlet and burnt orange in the low light.

“You’d done this before,” he said. “Lain with other men.”

Jack’s breath tickled Rion’s chest. “Yes. Does that bother you?”

“No.” Rion huffed out a little laugh. “All right, yes. Perhaps a little.” He skated his fingers over Jack’s shoulder. “I don’t like to think of others touching you this way.”

It was Jack’s turn to laugh. “Don’t worry—they never did.”

“What do you mean? I thought…”

“It doesn’t matter. Forget it.”

Rion shifted, turning onto his side to face Jack. “I don’t want to forget it. If you were so hated by your people, who were the men you dallied with?”

With a sigh, Jack rolled onto his back and watched the ceiling. “It was only one man. Adair. I knew him as a boy.”

“And…if he didn’t touch you like this…”

The fire sizzled beyond Jack, and his profile cut through the flames. His voice was flat. “He fucked me. It wasn’t like this.”

“But…I don’t understand. We’ve fucked. We did less than an hour ago right here on the hearth.” They’d taken each other in their mouths at the same time, lying head to feet to form a kind of circle of fervent sucking. Rion had felt as though he didn’t know where he ended and Jack begun, pleasure in every pore.

Gaze still on the ceiling, Jack swallowed hard. “Adair is the baron’s son. When we were still at school, one day he followed me into the woods. He… It wasn’t like this.”

Tension snapped through Rion like a plucked string on the old harp abandoned in a dusty corner of the castle. “He hurt you?” He tentatively slid his hand over Jack’s heart, which thumped beneath his palm.

“Sometimes.” Jack was rigid.

Rion resisted the urge to tear something apart, and instead pressed softly against Jack’s skin. His throat was dry. “He forced himself on you?”

“No. I was willing.” Jack squeezed his eyes shut. “All too willing. I got on my knees for him or bent over whenever he snapped his fingers. It was shameful. I was desperate for it, no matter how badly he used me. I wanted his cock all the same. Despite how he treated me.”

“And how was that?” Rion asked quietly.
Adair
. One day he’d find this man, the baron’s son. And he’d make him pay.

His eyes were still shut, and Jack’s hands curled into fists. “He fucked me—my mouth and my arse. He never permitted me to do the same to him. I asked once if I might. He struck me, and I never asked again. But still…I returned to him over and over. Snuck into his chambers and serviced him in any way he commanded.” He took a shuddering breath. “So there, now you know what I really am.”

“And what is that?”

Blinking, Jack turned his head to gaze at Rion. “I just told you. I’m little better than a whore.” He laughed bitterly. “At least they get paid.”

Rion smoothed his palm over Jack’s chest. “You’ve told me nothing of the kind. You’ve told me of a terrible man who used you most cruelly. A man I will make suffer if given the chance.”

Jack’s brows drew together. “But…I let him. It was my fault. I wanted it.”

“Or did you want to be shown some affection? To be touched and have human contact? You said your mother despised you. I imagine she didn’t hold you or show you kindness.” Rion thought of his mother’s warm embraces when he was young, and how she’d smelled of orange blossoms.

“No,” Jack whispered. “My sister either, not once she grew old enough to realize I was hated.”

“How lonely you must have been.” Rion drew Jack closer and pressed kisses to his face. “Struggling with your desires, and eager to take any attention given. Any touch.”

Jack shuddered, and his blue eyes glistened. “Yes. It was better than nothing.” He buried his face in Rion’s neck and huddled in his arms.

“I would have surely thought the same.” He kissed Jack’s head and rubbed his back. “You aren’t to blame.” He felt the dampness of Jack’s tears on his skin, and wanted to tear this Adair limb from limb with his bare hands. “No one will ever hurt you again.”

Jack’s voice was muffled. “He forced me to wear my cap. Even when I was naked, I had to cover my hair.”

“Bastard,” Rion grit out, going rigid. He breathed deeply. The time for retribution would come. Now was the time for comfort.

“He married my sister in the end.”

“Perhaps they deserve each other.”

Jack only burrowed closer, and Rion took him to bed, practically carrying him. Under the blankets, Rion held him tightly, murmuring soothing sounds as Jack’s tears finally dried, and he slept, his breath warm and steady on Rion’s skin.

Chapter Eight

“I want to show you something.”

Rion led the way out to the terrace the next morning. The sun seemed to be all around, its heat soaking into Rion’s skin, and the glare making everything impossibly bright. There was a small door built into the stone against the castle. He opened it and pulled out the interlocking, folded pieces of oak. The silk sails were a vibrant blue.

Jack frowned. “Some kind of kite?”

“In a way.” Rion unfolded the two main parts of the frame, locking them into place. When he did, the kite came to life under his hands, sliding open on the terrace until it resembled a huge bird with wings spread.

Jack watched with awe. “It’s enchanted? It flies?”

“Yes.” Although he’d never been across the sea, he’d known from a young age how to use the magic kite. Rion lay down across its frame, and pieces of silk wound around him tightly. “It won’t let its riders fall.” He whispered an enchantment, and the ties fell away as he stood.

“This will take you all the way across the sea?”

“Yes. It’s the last one. When I have children, they’ll each have their own.”

“How? Where do the kites come from?”

Rion shrugged. “The castle provides what’s needed. This is the only one left now that my brothers and sisters have all gone. When my mother brought my father back, their kite vanished, since the castle knew they’d never leave again.”

Jack crouched and stroked the silken sails. When he looked up, his eyes were bright. “Let’s go. Today. Now.”

Rion’s stomach clenched. He forced out a laugh. “Nonsense.”

“I mean it.” Jack leapt to his feet, electric with sudden energy as he raced to the terrace ledge.

Rion joined him, and they gazed out beyond the distant cliffs to the far-off waves through a break in the clouds. Sometimes it was difficult to tell where the sky ended and the water began.

“Let’s go across the sea, Rion. Start a new life there.”

“You don’t even know what
there
is like.” Rion smiled and shook his head, his pulse beginning to race. “Come now, let’s go back inside.”

“If not there, then somewhere else.
Anywhere
. We could go as far as we want. See new worlds. Different lands!”

The thought lit a flare of old yearning in Rion’s chest, but he tamped down the feeling. “It’s impossible.”

Jack turned to him. “But why?”

“
Why?
” Rion could hardly believe his ears. “How can you ask why? I have told you of my parents. I am duty bound to protect the treasure.”

“What good does that treasure do, moldering here in the clouds? We can start a new life for ourselves.”

That’s all he wants. The money. Not you
. “Is this…so you’ve just been biding your time until you could talk me into giving it to you?” The hurt twisted like a rusty blade in his gut.

Jack jerked back. “No. No! Rion, I don’t care about the money. Dash it to the bottom of the sea. Just don’t stay here, wasting your life.”

“It’s not a waste,” Rion hissed. “I honor my family. My ancestors. My feckless brothers and sisters all cared more for their own happiness. But I will do my duty. It falls to me.”

“Your duty to whom? How did this treasure come to be? This giant’s charade? Was there ever really a giant? Do you even know?”

“Of course I know!”

“Then tell me.” Jack took a step closer, his eyes beseeching. “Please. I only want to understand.”

Oh, and how Rion yearned to be understood. He leaned over the ledge and gazed down into the valley far beneath them, seeing hints of green through the clouds. Jack stood beside him, waiting, their shoulders brushing. Rion exhaled and began the tale. “There was a giant once. He came from your land, where he was mistreated and abused, considered a freak as he kept growing, heads above the other men.”

Jack laughed without humor. “A familiar tale thus far.”

“Yes. But the giant—Balor was his name—he left the valley. Braved the cliffs and the waves, and survived. Across the sea he was welcomed, and found his fortune mining deep into the mountains. There are elves there who granted him the gift of magic in return for a favor. If my family ever knew what it was, the knowledge has been lost over the centuries.”

“How did he come to build this castle? Why return to the place he was so hated?”

Rion shrugged. “Revenge, I suppose. To lord his riches and magic over the people who had tormented him so. Do you never imagine your own revenge?”

“Sometimes. Yes. But…”

“What?”

“But I’ve wanted happiness more. Escape. Revenge would bring a satisfaction that would be cold in the end, I think.”

Rion considered it. “Perhaps that’s true.” He smiled ruefully. “Balor wouldn’t agree. Although he brought back a wife from across the sea and had many children that begat my family line, taunting the people of the valley was his passion. That’s why the beanstalk exists.”

“To dangle the possibility of riches before them.” Jack shook his head and rubbed Rion’s back. “He was more successful than he could have dreamed. All these generations later, the people of the valley obsess over the stalk, and you’re still hoarding the treasure, a slave to revenge.”

Jerking his head up, Rion knocked Jack’s hand away. “I’m no slave!”

“But you are. Don’t you see? Your ancestors turned the people below into villains that controlled your family’s destiny. Even after Balor and those who ridiculed him were but ashes, it goes on. Your Outsiders are raised to hate and fear the greedy giant in the clouds, and you stay here guarding a treasure that only grows old.