Page 64 of Queen of the Shadow

“Scáthach!” He cried her name as she rode him. He longed to take her hips in his hands, to guide her movements and prolong their pleasure, but he could not free his wrists, and when the pain his struggles caused began to burn through the fog in his brain, he closed his eyes and turned his face away, trying to concentrate on the wrongness that waited so close, just on the other side of the foggy confusion that held his mind captive.

“No!” Her voice sharpened. “You must look at me!” She took his chin in her hand and forced his gaze to her. “I am she and she is me.”

Scáthach filled his vision. How could this be wrong? He’d wanted her since the moment he saw her. “Yes... yes, my queen.” Cuchulainn forgot his bound wrists and ankles, forgot he was a prisoner, forgot everything except Scáthach.

“I am she. She is me.” She kept up the litany as she used his body.

“Scáthach!” he shouted when his seed spilled into her.

Then she was gone. He couldn’t see her. He couldn’t feel her. He didn’t know where he was. Didn’t know who he was. Sentanta. He was Sentanta. Wasn’t he?

His head was in that merciless grip again. His nose was held closed. His mouth was forced open and more sweetly bitter liquid poured down his throat. He gasped and choked, but had to swallow and swallow and swallow...

The room swam around him. The firelight called living shadows that danced and laughed and seduced.

“Scáthach?” Surely that wasn’t his voice. He’d never sounded so weak, so pleading, so lost. Was his queen somewhere in those shadows? “Queen of Shadow? Are you there?”

“I have not left you, Cuchulainn my love. I am she and she is me.” The mesmerizing words echoed around him again as Scáthach returned, coaxing his body with her hands and mouth to hardness. “I am she and she is me.” The words filled him as he filled her. “I am she and she is me.” Over and over and over until he was so drained he ceased to know anything except the taste of the bitter liquid she kept pouring down his throat, the sound of her voice, and the feel of her body. “I am she and she is me.” She awakened his body again and again and again. Finally, all Cuchulainn knew was the painful pleasure she continued to demand of him and her scarlet-tinged words.

Chapter 15

That night seemed never-ending. Sentanta struggled to think, to see, to comprehend exactly what was happening to him. Scáthach was there—and then she was not.

The drink. It did something to him. Blurred his vision. Addled his mind. Cocooned his body from reality.

But what was real? His befuddled mind only understood two things. He desired Scáthach more than anyone. And so he clung to the second thing, the words she spoke over and over and over... I am she and she is me.

* * *

“It was a trap!” Tabiti shouted as she and Taog carried Amage from the little boat to the shore.

“Cuchulainn?” Scáthach asked. Beside her, Uathach rushed into the water to meet them.

“Th-they s-set the trap for Cu.” Amage trembled with shock and pain, but her gaze was clear. Tabiti had broken off the end of the arrow, but the arrowhead and part of the shaft were still embedded in the back of her thigh.

“They took him,” added Tabiti.

A chill skittered through Scáthach. “Did he not call the berserker?”

“He tried,” said Tabiti as they placed Amage gently on the bank. “They cast a weighted net over him so that he couldn’t dive to safety in the loch.”

“The berserker can tear a man apart with his hands. He can definitely rip open a net,” said Scáthach.

“Yes, and he would have, but they did not come at him with swords and spears and arrows,” said Tabiti. “They pinned him to the ground and then beat him unconscious with clubs.”

“Oh, goddess!” Uathach gasped. “Is he alive?”

“I believe so,” said Tabiti. “I watched as much as I could. They stopped clubbing him when he went limp, and then they dragged him to the wall and hauled him up and into the fort.”

“Th-they s-said it.” Amage wrapped her arms around herself, trying to stop the violent shivers that had overtaken her body as she spoke through chattering teeth. “S-said to kill th-the women and t-take Cu alive.”

“But why?” Uathach asked.

“Perhaps Aife means to trade him for something or someone of value,” said Tabiti. “Like you.”

Uathach scoffed. “My mother would not be so stupid.”

“No, I would not, but Aife doesn’t know me so she doesn’t know that capturing one of my students will only ensure she will not hold him or Dùn Dòbhrain long enough to attempt a trade,” said Scáthach. “Make a litter!” she called to the Shadow Guard. “We need to get Amage back to camp and tend her wound.”