Chapter Five (Part 1)

*thanks to BasicDilemas for your support!!*

cw: discussion of prostitution

My watch ended sometime around two in the morning and Idris took over, leaving me to slump against the trunk of the cypress tree and feign sleep. I had difficulty sleeping in my cozy king-sized bed at home, let alone against a bumpy tree with tiny feathery branches dangling from the trunk that kept trying to slide into my mouth. Not to mention, now that the sun had gone down, it was fucking freezing and I hadn’t bothered to bring a jacket with me. It was the tail end of winter, easing into spring, and I didn’t get cold easily, so I didn’t think I would need one. And while I had brought a bedroll with me, I’m not sure why I bothered, because there wasn’t really room to spread it out without dipping it in the water. So there I was, shivering against the tree with my eyes squinched shut, hoping Idris wouldn’t notice.

After half an hour, a particularly hard shiver wracked my spine, and I heard Idris shift and stand up. I immediately went stone still, listening intently while forcing my breathing to remain even and relaxed. Idris climbed carefully over the roots, stepping so lightly I almost couldn’t hear him until he came to a stop right next to me, boots creaking against the bark. He paused for a moment, long enough that I considered opening my eyes and pushing him into the pool to take his chances with the Butterfly Root and the poisonous swamp fish. Before I could open my eyes, however, something warm dropped over me, resting over my shoulders and covering my chest.

I remained absolutely still, waiting until I heard Idris making his way back to his spot before I dared to peek an eye open.

Idris’s white denim jacket lay over me. It still had residual warmth from his body, making it incredibly cozy, and it smelled heavily of rosemary and cedarwood. Part of me wanted to fling it into the swamp water, but the smarter part of me reigned it in, enjoying the warmth.

Kind of annoying that he thought he needed to do this. As if showing me kindness was going to win him any favors. Nothing he did or said was going to make me like him, and he knew that, but he still put on this goody-two-shoes front that everyone else in the universe fell for, hook, line, and sinker.

But I knew the truth. There was a dark side to Idris, some sick twisted part of his soul that he kept under lock and key. No one was that good, that pure. Everyone had darkness. Everyone had a balance of good and evil, even me – even though my darkness usually outweighed my light.

And I may not have personally seen Idris’s dark side, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t laying just under the surface of his skin, begging to come out and play. Idris kept it locked up so tight that I knew one day he would snap, and the results would be catastrophic because he wasn’t just any god playing the part of a saint. He was the king, and a king never did anything on a small scale.

Eventually, now that I was warmer, I fell asleep. It was dreamless, like usual. Amani may look sweet and cute, but she didn’t bother to give evil gods the luxury of a dream. Nightmares, occasionally, but never dreams. My sleeping mind was blank. It would offer me no reflections of myself, just the same as mirrors.

When I woke, it was dawn. Faint streams of light pierced through the thick tree cover and right into my sensitive eyes, causing me to sneeze viciously three times.

When the fit was over, I uncurled from my position to stretch, only to spot Idris already looking at me with faint amusement. I stared back blankly, sniffed hard, and wiped my forearm across my nose, unashamed.

Idris didn’t seem disgusted. If anything, he seemed to be fighting back a smile. And thankfully, he had grown a brain and taken his jacket back sometime before I woke up, probably knowing that I would destroy it. And if he didn’t want me to know that he’d lent it to me, then I would pretend I was none the wiser. Unless he tried to do it again. In that case, I might have to smother him with it.

I stretched my arms over my head until my back cracked loudly, and I sighed at the relief. Idris also rose to do the same, rolling his neck from side to side.

First order of business – breakfast. I rifled through my pack until I found a couple apples. I tossed one in Idris’s direction, not bothering to see if he caught it before biting into my own. I didn’t hear a splash, so I assumed Idris caught his breakfast, which was confirmed a moment later when I heard him bite into his apple.

We ate with only the sounds of the swamp breaking the silence. Off in the distance, there was a sharp, delighted scream that sounded eerily similar to a woman being murdered. I kept eating, unbothered, but Idris flinched, taking the apple from his mouth.

“What was that?” he asked, alarmed. “Is there someone out there?”

I gave him a deadpan stare, finishing a bite of my apple before responding. “No.” I didn’t elaborate, and shortly after there was another scream, which actually made Idris cross over to my tree to get in my face.

“That sounds like a person, Rook,” Idris said urgently. “Shouldn’t we go see if they need help?”

How cute. And how noble. I turned to face Idris, getting into his space the same way he was getting into mine, but he didn’t back up, staring at me sternly. “That was not a person. Not a god, not a person. I told you. Peace, Wisdom, and I are the only people living in this forest. That was a shadow creature.” I inched closer to Idris until we were practically chest-to-chest. I looked up into those worried sky-blue eyes, and licked my lips, letting my expression become seductive, heated. Idris’s lips twitched, and his breath caught.

“And from the sounds of it, that lucky shadow creature is getting fucked hard and fucked good,” I said lowly. Idris’s eyes flashed. “I’m honestly kind of jealous. Now tell your white knight complex to calm the fuck down. There is nothing out here that needs or wants to be saved, especially by you.”

I rolled my eyes and backed off, dropping back to sit on the roots again. Idris was still standing stiffly to the side.

“Oh,” he said quietly. I snorted.

“Yeah, oh.”

Idris fell silent, sitting down on the other side of my tree, which was still too close for my tastes, but whatever. I finished off my apple and flung the core into the pool, watching the silvery bodies of the fish converge on it like a bunch of piranhas. In seconds, the core was gone, seeds, stem, and all.

“…You’re jealous?” Idris asked quietly a moment later, and I paused to figure out what the fuck he was talking about. It came to me a moment later, and I glanced at Idris, who was sitting with his legs crossed, spine straight and proper, staring out over the water. I smirked wickedly and leaned over to blow on his ear.

Idris, king of the gods, actually jumped like a tender little virgin, whirling on me with wide eyes. I couldn’t help it. I burst out laughing, falling back against the tree, which once again sent out little feathery branches to wiggle into my mouth, slurping my saliva. Seeing that Idris was watching, I flicked my tongue over them, getting them nice and wet and making them writhe in pleasure. Idris cursed and slapped the branches away, pulling me away from the trunk by my arm. I was laughing even harder now, and it was getting hard to catch my breath.

What a fucking prude. Idris was definitely the type to only sleep with a lover, and even then only under the covers, at night with the lights off. I bet he only did it in the missionary position, too. Idris definitely wasn’t a virgin, not after so many millennia and definitely not given how many girlfriends he’d had. But with the way he was reacting, whatever sex he had experienced was probably boring as hell. I almost felt bad for him.

Once I managed to catch my breath and calm my laughing fit, I shrugged Idris’s hand off my arm. Idris was watching the little branches with a glare, daring them to try and climb back inside me.

“Yeah, I’m jealous,” I said finally, still a little breathless, making Idris’s eyes snap back to me. “I haven’t had a whore in ages. I’m overdue.”

Prostitution wasn’t super common, but certain kingdoms allowed it because some people truly wanted it as a job. And thankfully, prostitutes were usually less familiar with my face than the gods or other noble citizens, so they didn’t know who I was, and I wasn’t going to tell them. Scared whores were no fun.

I didn’t usually have many opportunities to go out and let off steam like that, though. Maybe once or twice in a century, I was able to sneak out to get laid. The gods didn’t really welcome me in their kingdoms, and they usually knew when I was there and would come to chase me off. The exception was Ren. He was very open about allowing prostitution in his kingdom, and though he was well aware of my visits there, he didn’t bother to stop me. I was a paying customer, and Ren was pretty liberal about sexual expression, so he didn’t begrudge me attending to my needs. He probably thought it would make me less likely to snap and, you know, kill a bunch of people, and he was right. Best of all, he wasn’t a snitch. He didn’t gossip about my private affairs, so it wasn’t surprising that Idris didn’t know about this.

And now that he’d found out, he looked like I’d just told him I ate puppies raw. His lips pursed into a thin line and his eyes darkened. He sat back, tense and stiff.

“I wasn’t aware that you did such things,” he said, tone even, but like he was forcing himself to be cool. “I didn’t think you were interested.”

“What? Interested in sex? Everyone’s interested in sex, in one way or another.”

Idris seemed to concede to that, nodding slowly. “I suppose that’s true. I just can’t imagine…”

“Imagine what?” I asked dryly. “Me having sex? No one’s asking you to imagine it. It happens. It’s none of your business. I know you’re the king of the gods and that makes you nosy as hell, but that’s between me and whichever whore I choose.”

A moment of silence stretched between us as Idris thought about that. Someone with more shame might be embarrassed by this conversation, but I’d long since lost the capacity for such an emotion.

Enough time passed by quietly that I thought Idris had given up on conversation again. I was about to suggest that we walk around the pool and look for anything out of place when Idris cleared his throat awkwardly.

“And what kind of whore do you choose?”