Chapter 5

Kerr pulled a ring off his right pinky-finger and handed it to her.

He then banged it down on the table in front of Micky. The ring had a wide gold band and had five long, emerald-cut gems in a row on it.

In the centre was a large, dark green Quaz crystal. The two gems on one side of the crystal were a rare aqua coloured emerald and a sparkling, teal quartz. On the outside were a pale-blue coloured diamond and a pale azure hued amethyst.

“Here, put this on your middle finger of your left hand, since I’ve noticed you favour that hand. It’s broken, but anyone who sees it will think you are a mage and my bonded partner since I wear a similar ring,” Kerr told her as he showed her his ring on his right hand.

Micky noticed Kerr’s ring also had the dark green gem in the middle. Two of the other gems were different stones to those on the ring he offered her. She also realised that his ring was broken, or at the very least it wouldn’t claim Kerr as its owner.

She knew from her magical studies that the special crystal in the middle should be a lighter colour and shine if the ring was active. Plus, she had seen a true magician’s ring before.

She also knew that the ring would appear as a simple band if it was active. Kerr was an idiot for wearing a dead ring in public. All who saw it would know he had no magic, or he hadn’t been blessed by the Gods.

A second servant interrupted them as Micky took the ring from the table. The man handed a new scroll to Kerr that seriously upset him when he read it. He because quite agitated.

Distracted, Kerr didn’t notice Micky’s reaction when she slid the ring onto her middle finger. She quickly covered the glowing central gem with her right hand as she told it to disappear and she tried to regain her composure.

After reading the scroll, Kerr scowled at Micky as he rolled the scroll back up and put it in his inner coat pocket. He leant over her as if he was going to kiss her and then pulled back with a frown after he sniffed her. He grimaced and cursed his luck.

“My man, Miles, will take you to a room. I shall allow you the ten days of our trip to grieve while we travel, and then you will really have something to grieve about when I make you mine.” He smiled maliciously down at her, as he conveyed the final part of the message.

Kerr liked to use his height and breadth to try to intimidate her since she was a good 15cm shorter than himself and barely half his width. Kerr grinned at her stony countenance. He knew how to bring her to heel.

Kerr produced a platinum linked chain from a pocket. Hanging from it was a simple rectangular tag of the same metal. It had a large pea-sized, teardrop-cut, obsidian gem embedded towards its top and an empty diamond-shaped hole in its middle.

Micky shivered violently when the chain dropped over her head, and she knew the medallion had a spell on it that was not meant to be nice to her kind. Micky looked down so Kerr couldn’t see her face. She couldn’t tell him that he had just seriously fucked-up.

If Kerr had put the chain on her before he gave her the magical ring, she was sure that the entity in the ring wouldn’t have been able to connect to her. The medallion had a magic dampening spell on it.

However, because the entity in the ring had joyously connected with her and boosted her considerable innate abilities, they were able to nullify the spell on the stone together. In fact, the entity gave Micky the impression that she had also claimed the medallion as one of Micky’s magical items.

Micky felt even more in control of her newly found magical abilities. Micky didn’t know what the new gem would do for her, but not having her one avenue of escape taken from her was a huge relief.

Kerr had sniggered in delight at Micky’s reaction to the present he gave her. “It’s just to make sure you can’t fly off on me. If you behave, I’ll take it off you when we get to where we are going. The delay in dealing with your obnoxious parents has put me behind schedule.”

“We leave for the Crossroads in the morning. Pack for cold weather travel. While it’s not snowing here, I’ve had reports that the high country has already had snow. Sleep well, dear, as you will need it.”

Micky nodded, but she didn’t reply, wish him good night or look at him as she got up from the table. Her uneaten meal was long forgotten. As she followed Miles up to her temporary accommodation, she was secretly smiling.

Micky was glad that her mother made her study magic even though she doubted she would ever be able to use most of what she had learnt. Yep, as far as she was concerned, Kerr had just made a serious mistake.

Taking her to the Crossroads would be his next mistake. As much as she hated travelling in a coach, she would endure it to gain her freedom.

She wasn’t happy that she couldn’t retract her wings to make sleeping easier as they had to be visible when she was woken in the morning.

The next morning, Micky had been taken home and had packed a trunk.

They were on the road soon after lunch. While Micky wondered why they were going to the Crossroads, she didn’t ask.

Her parents’ carriage that Kerr now claimed as his, met up with the wagons that were travelling with them, at a coach house near Amethyst Dale five days later. The wagon was spelled to make it easier for the lankys to pull, so they had made good time.

Surprisingly faithful to his word, Kerr hadn’t bedded her while they travelled. Even though Micky felt that he would like to change his mind several times as the tedious days of travel wore on.

He had run his hands over her breasts quite a few times and even squeezed and rubbed her arse. However, each time after he sniffed her, he had restrained himself from going further and left her alone. Micky thought his inappropriate touching was all part of his sick and twisted way of tormenting her.

Since he couldn’t bed Micky, Kerr took to screwing his manservant and her maid in his tent every night and even in the carriage towards the end of the trip. Micky was sure the servants were more vocal than they normally would be at his insistence.

She was amused to observe, due to the shadows that a lamp threw onto his tent wall that her, dear husband, got his pleasure screwing his manservant, Miles, while Miles screwed the maid, Jen. She was even slightly less surprised that Kerr ended up as the man in the middle the next night.

She was not even remotely surprised when the swapping reverted on the third night. It was an interesting trip for the added sex education that she received on the way. Micky did have a bit of fun speculating as to who was sucking on who’s cock some nights.

She was reasonably sure that Miles gave Kerr a good suck each morning if Jen had come back to her tent to sleep. She did wonder if Kerr intended for her to replace Jen in the long term or if he’d just abuse her when he felt like it. She also wondered if Kerr knew that Jen didn’t always come back to her tent after she left him.

Micky was amused to learn that Jen was just as happy to finish up in a certain guard’s tent if she could. Jen wasn’t the only servant or guard who swapped tents or beds if they did get to stay in a waystation.

Micky didn’t really care who slept with who as long as they left her alone, as she had study to do.

Micky was startled from her light sleep.

She found travelling in the carriage very painful and exhausting. Her wings were designed for flying with, not being smashed against the back of a hard seat in a carriage. After the second painfilled day, she resorted to kneeling on the bench seat and placing her arms over the back of it to rest her body.

Behind the rear seat was a short ledge for items to be put on and a rear window was above the ledge. Because of the backrest’s height; it gave Micky just enough room that she could rest her head on her arms to sleep.

She could also put her book on the shelf and read it without the others seeing what she read. The position was hard on her knees, but she could stand inside the coach and stretch when it got too bad.

She wished she could absorb her wings. Most Fayle who had strong magical ability, or a magical item could absorb their wings when they wished. She had been able to do it for years even though she hadn’t reached her coming-of-age.

Micky was still a half a year from her twenty-first birthday. Hence, she hadn’t yet received the Quaz ear stud that most Fayle received on this birthday to indicate they were legally capable of making their own decisions.

The earring was also supposed to awaken their magical abilities and would change colour to show their most potent ability. Kerr knew that by making Micky wear the spelled medallion and because she hadn’t been initiated, she was supposed to be powerless even if she did have latent magical talent.

Interestingly, magical Fayle who managed to be accepted by a power item before this birthday were considered adults from that day. However, Kerr forced her to marry him before her coming of age or giving her the magical ring. If she could get to a magistrate; she could get the marriage annulled.

She did wonder if Kerr realised that or if he thought that she was too stupid to know her rights or too cowered to act on them if she did.