7 Glow

That night Ceryll was quite bubbly at the dinner table. She smiled, gave Amere what were likely the best ear scratches of his life, and she didn't snap at the Innkeeper once. It was like she was a completely different person. Upon coming to terms with the fact that he couldn't anger her, the innkeeper placed his chin on his folded hands, his fork hanging loosely from them while he watched her.

Her usually dull umber skin donned a soft shimmer, creating a stunning contrast with the snowy waterfall that loosely fell down her back and framed her slender face. Ceryll seemed to notice his staring because she turned to meet his gaze after a few minutes of it. Silver clashed with black and gold in that instant.

Despite her positive mood she still didn't like him and she never would. Little did she know he was actually quite interested in her at the moment. The way her silvery gray eyes flickered with little flecks of irritation left him in wonder and the brightness of her aura was so blinding, he couldn't look away. Amere watched the two for about a minute before adding his input.

"Ceryll, aren't you tired of fighting with him?"

"That's a bit hard when he's so damn irritating." Her disgusted tone and wrinkled nose only emphasized her distaste for the man. "But I am tired for the day so if you'd excuse me..." Her chair loudly scraped against the wooden floor, announcing her departure "I'm going to bed." The innkeeper let his eyes roam her body while she walked off then gave a miserable huff.

"She's beautiful isn't she?" sighed Amere adoringly but his acquaintance felt the need to say otherwise. With a flick of his hair over his shoulder and narrowed golden irises, he scoffed at the opinion and voiced his own.

"She was pretty before but that glow...it's stunning. It's like she wants me to hate her. "

"Well, I guess since she hates you too, it all works out." The innkeeper didn't say any more on the topic, excusing himself for bed. Amere left soon after. Once he reached the room, the jaguar didn't bother beating the around the bush.

"What happened while you were gone?" Ceryll giggled and turned around to look at her precious familiar.

"I got a real job and the woman who hired me for the day gave me this." She opened up a small velvet pouch to reveal 70 silver coins hands shaking from excitement.

"What did you do to earn so much?" Was all Amere could utter as his throat felt tight.

"Well I cleaned her entire mansion for one and acted as pleasant company, so she decided to give me a little tip."

"Little?" Ceryll laughed and finished getting dressed for bed. Amere's heart swelled with anxiety, he hadn't wanted her to get a job. He wanted to go back to living in the luxury he was used to but there was no avoiding the slums now. However, the joy in the woman's sterling grey eyes left him with no choice but to give in. Her joy had been so fleeting lately, so who knew when he'd be able to support it again? With this in mind, he reluctantly decided to start learning to accept the mediocre food and lack of groomer trips. The idea of not getting pampered monthly elicited a groan that was so miserable, it could only be described as the purest sound of dismay yet Ceryll was oblivious to it due to how wrapped up she was in the fact that she'd finally found a job that would pay.

It seemed that things were finally turning up for her. 'I deserve this.' She'd repeat in her mind, trying to suppress the dread that had been relentlessly constricting her heart since the night of her banishment. Though their reasons differed vastly, she, like Amere, also had mixed feelings about her securing a job.

Her issue was that she didn't know if this new job was pleasing to Reid. He'd always treasured commitment and modesty which were two impossible values to keep by working in a brothel. Every job she'd gotten felt like a rebellion against him in some way or the other causing her self-doubt to grip her heart like a vice, even as she drifted off.

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Reid's soft lips trailed up the curves of Ceryll's body while his large slightly calloused hand firmly gripped her waist. His warm yet dominating presence was always welcomed by her devoted submission and that only enticed the man to draw the most sinful sounds from between her lips. With every passing second, his teases became more torturous, causing the woman beneath him to squirm, desperately spouting pitiful pleas for him to touch her where it mattered.

"You'd like that wouldn't you?" A gentle kiss was pressed against her stomach but his chocolaty brown eyes were trained on her immodest expression. "What have you done to deserve any more than this, love?"

"I've been good." Her back arched against the satin black sheets that draped off the sides of their bed to meld with the rippling darkness of the floor.

"Oh? Tell me how good you've been."

"I've loved and served you well my lord. Even when you leave me on important business, I don't do anything to displease you." Though she was speaking, his teases relentlessly continued, escalating by moment, eliciting more sinful moans from the depths of her throat. "I even abstained from touching myself to you."

"I see, yet you have no qualms with going into a profession that is solely meant to entertain men." Reid's pretty brown eyes which had looked at her so loving, quickly clouded with death, as his youthful, well-sculpted face melted into a paler, more wrinkled version of itself. Even his long black locks were tinged gray with age. It was disturbing to watch however his cold skeleton hands choking her left her unable to look away. "You disgust me. Imagine how I'd feel if I were still alive?"

"But you're not! You died! You abandoned me!" Her voice was ragged, much like her breathing which seemed harder and harder to control with the slowly increasing pressure on her slender neck. She struggled, using her nails to claw at him in a desperate attempt to make him release her yet his dead hand didn't relent despite the way the meat of his arm tore away.

"I loved you!" He bellowed. Black tears trickled down his sickly pale cheeks to fall onto her dark brown ones. A raw cry escaped her as they sizzled against her skin like acid. "I loved you!"

Suddenly slimy claws of death creeped out of the mattress to pull each of her limbs in opposite directions. The force with which they pulled felt as if they could rip her to shreds and they nearly did before she was jutted back into reality.