5. Skylar

Chapter five

Skylar

I could hardly say I was living my best life. Thriving? Not a chance. After my excursion to The Magic Shop, I took to lazing around in a lawn chair by the motel’s over-chlorinated pool, nursing a Mind Eraser from the bottle while all up in my feelings. As usual when I found myself in these situations, I started to reflect, going over all my mistakes, all the times I’d excused my ex’s bad behavior and convinced myself that his jealousy and controlling tendencies had only meant that the intensity of our love made him insecure.

Needing some reassurances of both my decision to leave him and my sex appeal, I decided to summon my best friend Monica, which I could now do, thanks to the enchanted vintage compact I’d “borrowed” from The Owner of The Magic Shop earlier that day, unbeknownst to him or the handsome but infuriating minotaur. Despite Hiero's bad opinion of me, running into the stern- faced leather daddy from last night had been a sweet little bonus, evidence that the Goddess above favored me.

About damn time.

I popped open the pewter contraption and looked past my reflection in the mirror, imagining my best friend’s full-lipped, heart-shaped face while murmuring her name until she finally answered.

“Skylar,” she said, her brown eyes widening with surprise. “I’ve been looking all over for you. He’s been looking all over for you.”

“Cedrych?” I asked, altogether too hopeful and too flattered.

“He came by my place yesterday with the royal guard and practically interrogated me.”

“What did you say?”

“I said that if you’d left, it was probably because of him. That he’s been treating you like garbage for as long as you’ve known him and you deserve better.”

Goddess bless my best friend, Monica. If only I’d listened.

"So, where are you?" she asked.

“I’m in the Dragonback Mountains, holed up in a place called the Purple Pegasus."

“Why would you go there?” she asked with a look of horror. According to what we’d been taught, the shifter clans were wild and lawless with their own brand of justice that involved bare-knuckle brawling and feats of strength, not my forte exactly. But everyone I’d met so far had been perfectly pleasant. Even the minotaur who’d tempted then rejected me hadn’t laid a hand on me in harm, though the blow to my ego had smarted aplenty.

“It called to me,” I said. I’d also not had enough coin to go much farther in my journey, and the Pegasus’s proprietor said she’d take my first payment at the end of the week. “I’m safe for now, but I need some reminders,” I said to Monica because my flesh was weak and the urge to take Cedrych back was strong. It wasn’t that I missed him , exactly, but I missed knowing what to expect, the routine he provided, and the occasional comforts he gave me that I guarded like a dog with a bone.

“Well, aside from the most recent disgrace, getting betrothed to someone else , remember the time he forgot your birthday?”

Both times he’d forgotten actually, which had been hurtful, yes, especially since I’d reminded him. “The first time we’d only just met, and he made up for it the second time with that expensive sapphire bangle,” I said.

“That’s how he always makes up for it, Skylar, by giving you pretty trinkets that cost him nothing. He probably doesn’t even pick them out himself, simply has one of his minions do it for him.”

Cedrych had looked surprised when I’d opened some of his gifts, as if he were also seeing them for the first time.

“Remember that time he came back with a hickey from some skank in the elvish territories?” Monica painfully reminded me. We didn’t actually know if the elf in question was indeed a “skank,” only assumed .

“It was a diplomatic mission. Queen Gwyneth wanted a treaty.” We’d broken up for a spell because of it. Then and now, Cedrych’s excuse had seemed flimsy.

“Remember that time we went down to the Bristol Falls, and he got all pissy about you sunbathing in the nude and made you cover up the entire time you weren’t in the water?”

“He hadn’t thought it befitting for a royal suitor to show so much skin.”

“It’s your skin to show or not, Skylar, and my sweet baby boy, real talk now, you were never a suitor to him. Not really. You were a beautiful distraction from his boring daily life at court. He never treated you as an equal, as a partner. He never invited you to royal functions or did the things you wanted to do. He kept you like a doll on the shelf, and you were stuck waiting for him to decide when to play with you.”

She wasn’t wrong, and she also wasn’t saying it to be mean. But I’d also had power over Cedrych, knowing that even when we were in a fight, he wouldn’t be able to stay away for long. He’d come crawling back eventually with a half-assed apology and something glittery to get back into my good graces. What a toxic relationship we had. Mind games and jealousy and (if I was being honest) mediocre sex that always concluded with a peck on the cheek and some tight expression of gratitude from His Royal Highness. Rarely did Cedrych even undress fully, blaming the complexity of royal clothing as the reason. I forgave him his repression. It was to be expected, having been birthed from the steel-trap cunt of Queen Gwyneth, may the Goddess keep her.

It was the way he’d treated me outside of sex that made me feel worthless.

“He made your world smaller, sweet pea,” Monica continued. “And the world is so very large. You deserve someone who can give you adventure and thrills, who makes you feel special and adored. Not someone who only pays attention to you when it’s convenient for him.”

“I’m having a hard time here, Mon. I know he was shitty to me. I know I should be grateful he did something so unforgivable that I can’t go running back to him this time, but I’m so tempted. I’ve built my whole life around him these past two years, and when I think about walking away, it seems like I’m cutting out a part of myself too.”

“Maybe that part of you needs to be cut out, Skybear. Cedrych was a huge pimple on your otherwise flawless face that needed to be popped. Exfoliate that mess of a man from your life and move on. You are a treasure, my angel, and you need to start valuing yourself as such.”

I nodded as a wave of gratitude enveloped me. Monica had been my one constant since I was a fledgling. Both my parents were ether addicts, and I’d never been registered with a labor guild, which meant that due to the draconian laws of Emrallt Valley, I’d had to get creative when it came to feeding myself. I’d met Monica while pickpocketing the upper echelon in Templeton Square. (It was also where I’d met Prince Cedrych a few years later.) Monica and I had hated each other at first, having to compete for marks and turf, and then we’d gotten smart and banded together, making twice as much coin while watching each other’s backs.

Nowadays, Monica no longer had to steal to survive. She’d found a tattoo artist to take her on as an apprentice, and I’d let Monica use my skin as her canvas while she was learning the trade. Her work was incredible, and she now owned her own tattoo parlor as one of the most sought-after skin artists in Emrallt Valley. And I’d found Cedrych, who had elevated me, temporarily it seemed, from my life of petty crime.

“I’m right back where I started,” I said, recalling last night when I’d been banned from the local biker bar for pickpocketing.

“You’re wiser now, Skylar. You know what you want, someone who values and appreciates you. You have so many skills, and outside of Emrallt Valley, you can work a normal job without having to go through the Guild. Do you need money? A place to stay? You know you can always come back here and sleep on my futon.”

Monica would take me in if I hit rock bottom, but I wanted to try and make it on my own for once. Tonight’s wet t-shirt contest was a start. Maybe I could convince the hot leather daddy to give me more permanent employment. I could tend the bar or wait tables or even wash dishes if that’s what was needed. I wasn’t fussy about the work so long as I wasn’t mistreated.

“I’m going to stay away a little longer, Mon, until the worst of my cravings pass. I’m afraid if I return too soon, I’ll let Cedrych convince me to take him back.”

“I think that’s a good idea. Hey, have you seen any hot shifters up in the mountains? I swear, every time I hear them howling on a full moon, my panties get wet.”

I laughed at her bawdiness. “Not yet, but I did meet a fine leather daddy last night who has a couple of massive… horns.”

“Horns? Sounds kinky. Did he have a tail too?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t get a good look at his ass. He caught me stealing from a couple of ogres and kicked me out of his bar. But I think I convinced him to give me a second chance.”

“If anyone deserves it, it’s you, sweet pea. You know what they say about bad breakups, don’t you?”

“What’s that?”

“The best way to get over someone is to get under someone else.”

Goddess bless Monica and her very practical advice. We said our goodbyes, and I lay back in my lawn chair soaking up the sun’s warmth. Closing my eyes, I imagined myself again in that alleyway behind the bar with my stomach flattened against the stone wall and Hiero right behind me, panting in my ear while rearranging my insides, telling me to take it all, slut in his stern Daddy voice. His rough hand on my cock would chafe in just the right way as he used me for his pleasure. My nipples hardened, my wings tingled, and my dick jumped in my skimpy swimsuit.

What might it take to make my fantasy a reality?