Tortured Silence Read online

  Tortured Silence

  The Goblin King - Book 3

  Written by Michael Clement

  http://www.michaelclement.me

  https://facebook.com/MichaelClementAuthor

  Cover Design by DesignzbyDanielle

  Copyright © https://selfpubbookcovers.com/DesignzbyDanielle

  All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission of the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not buy it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  All Rights Reserved

  Copyright © 2019 Goldenfire Media, LLC

  Books written by Michael Clement

  The Goblin King

  Into the Darkness

  Blood and Madness

  Blood of the Fae

  Swallow the Bones

  Bury the Ashes Deep

  Midnight’s Broken Promise

  Touch Me Bloody

  Take Another Bite

  The Dragons of Nagon

  Conquering Her Darkness

  Master No More

  Broken By Pride

  The Bloody Road to Heaven

  The Coldness Within

  My Lady of Bones

  Lost in the Dark

  Murdering Her Light

  Blood in the Sky

  Tormented Desires

  Other Novels

  Blood Covered Kisses

  Awakening Her Beast

  Quote

  I should have slept with her sister.

  Bazal

  Contact Links

  Booksprout

  If you want to read any of my books for free, before I release them, sign up for Booksprout and follow me on there!

  Facebook

  Goodreads

  Bookbub

  My website

  Author Notes

  Bazal’s adventures continue to surprise me. Unlike a lot of authors, I don’t plot my stories out in advance. Usually, I just create some sort of problem, and then I watch as Bazal comes up with solutions to his predicaments. Sometimes his ideas work out, sometimes they don’t, but they always entertain me. When I tell my wife that my main character did something that annoyed me, she tends to look at me like I’m crazy. Bazal has a mind of his own, and usually, it is focused on magic, or women, or both.

  The focus of the Goblin King has always been, get to Ashmouth, mainly because in the real world, Ashmouth’s name is Asheville. My wife and I went on a vacation there, and I really wanted to write about the city. Now, Bazal, to his despair, has reached the end of his long journey. I can’t wait to see what happens next!

  If you are like this series or any of my other books, please consider joining my newsletter . Don’t worry about me flooding your inbox with email. I tend to spend most of my time writing, and very little promoting my works. It is a failure of many authors. We just have a super hard time leaving the worlds we create to interact with this one. Lol.

  Speaking of advertising, reviews on Amazon and Goodreads are critical to independent authors like me. It is one of the only ways that Amazon will introduce my stories to others. A review only takes a few minutes, and it makes a significant difference. So, please tell other people what you like, and dislike about my books. It is the only way that I will know if you dislike something. Focusing on what my readers enjoy is very important to me. Enough said about that.

  I hope you enjoy Bazal’s adventure :)

  - 1 -

  I turned over and groaned.

  Where the hell was I? The last thing that I remembered, Lady Shufen, had just told me that my wife Brynn had been abducted.

  And that my father was going to kill her.

  Sitting up, I rubbed my eyes. I felt like I had been sleeping for a month. I had been exhausted after the surgery. Touching my ribs, I didn’t feel any pain. They should have still ached from having six of them replaced.

  The air was thick with spices and incense. The odors felt like they were there to cover something else up. Frowning, I looked at the bed that I was in. It was huge and covered in green silk. The fabric flowed from one bedpost to the next, making a false ceiling that surrounding me in a forest of green material.

  Someone shifted next to me under the covers and let out a loud, snuffling snore.

  Who was in bed with me?

  I could see long, thick female hair, but that was all. Lush green and blue blankets covered their body. The material was expensive and softer than anything that I had ever touched. In fact, the mattress itself was so plush that I felt like I was sinking into pure softness.

  On the other side of my mystery lover was a stand that was filled with white sand. Thick black matches that were about six inches had been rammed into the sand, so they stuck out like quills. Flames smoldered on their tips, releasing the musky smell.

  The curtains by the window shifted and moved in the breeze.

  And… the sunlight was drifting into the room.

  Shit.

  I was in the Light.

  But how? The last I remembered, I had been in Columbia.

  The sunlight looked warm and comforting. The intense arcane taint of the Darkness that covered most of the Earth was absent. Its bitter texture in the air… shit, I missed it.

  My head felt woozy, and my mouth was dry. Climbing out of bed, I suddenly felt cold. Looking down, I realized that I was naked. My skin showed the symptoms of arcane-poisoning. Instead of Caucasian, it was light gray, displaying my father’s goblin heritage. Dark black nubs were beginning to press out of my skin from my upper chest as well.

  Reaching up, I touched my chin. Instead of a human’s beard, I felt a thick bristle of black horn hair on either side of my jaw. It was hard and sharp like a porcupine’s quills at the moment. Later, if it kept growing, it would twine into two tiny horn-like protrusions.

  Dammit. I hadn’t had this much Arcane Radiation in my system in a dozen years. I had looked mostly human for decades. Now, I was displaying my half-blood for everyone to see. Shit, even my hair was a thicker texture, like a horse’s mane.

  I took a step toward the water basin. Then, I stumbled and grabbed the bedpost.

  Shit. Walking hurt. My backside ached and throbbed like I had a boil on my ass. Reaching behind me, I felt a thick blister that poked out and was tender to the touch.

  Dammit.

  I felt a wave of excitement and dread roll through my mind. The blister was covering a goblin’s tail.

  I had left the Darkness before I could grow one. Pride and resentment filled my mind at the same time. My human mother would have been horrified while my father would have smiled.

  Sighing, I carefully lurched over to the water pitcher and poured myself a glass. I needed to stay out of the Dark or have another Mage draw the radiation out of my body. I was used to looking like a human, and my lovers were as well. I wasn’t sure how they would react if they saw me as a goblin instead of a man.

  The water was cold and refreshing, easing some of my pain.

  “Goo
d Morning, Lover,” Mockery mused from under the covers.

  I sprayed water everywhere.

  What was Mockery doing in my bed? Lady Shufen’s daughter was supposed to be imprisoned in Columbia.

  The covers shifted as she slipped entirely under them. Turning, Mockery wiggled to the foot of the bed and peeped out at me like a trap-door spider under the blankets. I could see wisps of her dark brown hair peeking out at me, but her eyes were shrouded in darkness.

  “Why don’t you come back in here?” she whispered, pushing a bit of magic into the question. I felt her fingernails rasp on my naked skin.

  Crap.

  I was naked.

  Mockery let out a low, wicked chuckle.

  “I know that you can smell my excitement,” she murmured.

  Mockery was right.

  I could.

  The incense wasn’t completely covering the smell of a woman in heat. Leaning back, I took in a deep breath. The air was drenched in her pheromones… and someone else’s as well. Another female’s scent was permeating the room just as strongly. It was an older, more mature smell.

  And, it was very similar to Mockery’s.

  “Shy?” I asked.

  Mockery smiled again, like a cat with a canary in her mouth. Shifting, she moved forward so that I could see her beautiful, Asian features. Her light brown eyes laughed at me in the sunlight, daring me to ask again.

  Shit.

  My face dropped, and I shuddered.

  “Yes,” Mockery whispered. “Mother.”

  Shit.

  “You had a bad reaction to the artifacts that she inserted into your body,” Mockery said, sitting up and leaning her chin on her hands. My breath caught in my throat. Her breasts mocked me from the bed, as unattainable as redemption.

  Seeing my reaction, she shifted again, pressing them forward.

  I couldn’t breathe. My bite mark was throbbing on the side of her right breast. Somehow, I knew it was mine. I could feel a connection between us now. But, it wasn’t through the bite itself. Something else had formed a bond between us.

  My side began to ache.

  Taking a deep breath, I rubbed it.

  The connection between us throbbed stronger.

  “Mother had to cut you open again,” Mockery informed me. “The infection was… bad.”

  I shut my eyes and concentrated.

  The six new ribs were all still in place. Seeing a representation of them in my mind, I gasped. Each of the bones held four spell sigils. They floated inside of me, scaring the shit out of me.

  Twenty-four new sigils.

  I only had fifteen of my own, or partially mine. Some of them were because of my links to my lovers.

  Then I found the seventh rib.

  It wasn’t mine. And, like one of my sigils that connected me to my women, it was pierced with a golden cord. Touching it with my mind, I realized that it was a tether that flowed back to Mockery.

  I looked at the woman in shock. Her mother had connected us. I was as bonded to her as I was with any of my lovers.

  Mockery smiled.

  Her full name was inscribed on the rib.

  Liu Tang Shufen.

  Her family nickname, Tian, was scrawled underneath it.

  Wrapped around the rib were lines of power, siphoning Tian’s unused energy and harvesting it. I could feel the strong flow of magic coming back to me.

  Looking into the portion of my mind where my magic resided, I gasped.

  Six new sigils floated in my mind.

  The number shocked me.

  Tian sat up, keeping the blanket wrapped around her like a cloak. She was wearing a red nighty with a white bow that took my breath away. Tian looked so young and beautiful.

  “How old are you?” I asked. To me, she still looked seventeen, which was way too young for me.

  “Sixteen,” she whispered.

  - 2 -

  I blanched.

  “Twenty-three,” Tian murmured a second time.

  Then, “Twenty-seven,” and finally, “Fourteen.”

  I scowled.

  Each age tasted right. Tian could be any of them or all of them at the same time.

  “I practiced lying to you… each and every day, while we fucked,” she said with a giggle in her voice.

  Smiling, you sat up a little more, pulling her legs underneath her so she was kneeling on the bed.

  “You can command me…” she whispered. “But do you really want to know the truth?”

  No.

  I didn’t.

  We were bonded, probably for life. I could feel her rib throbbing inside of me.

  And, when I concentrated, I could feel mine inside of her.

  I would have to have a stern conversation with her mother when I got back to Columbia.

  I shook my head at Mockery. Goddess, I hoped that she wasn’t younger than eighteen… because we were tied together, no matter what her correct age was.

  Dammit.

  I’d feel better if she at least told me the truth. Then, I could deal with it.

  Mockery shifted again, crossing her legs.

  Her… maidenhood was clearly visible… and she knew it. There was no way that she was fourteen, that had to be a lie.

  “I’m not telling you the truth,” she said, answering my question before I asked.

  “Why did your mother do this?” I asked.

  “You were dying,” Mockery said, “and, I am a disappointment. Mother is convinced that someday, you will be the King in the Darkness, and she wants me to be your Queen or at least one of them.”

  The King in the Darkness.

  Shit.

  “That’s just a myth,” I sputtered.

  Mockery shrugged, exposing one of her breasts.

  Dammit.

  They were almost perfect.

  Her soft pink nipple drew my eye like a magnet. I could see them through her nighty.

  Swallowing hard, I looked up and focused on her face.

  Mockery was grinning at me.

  “My eyes are up here,” she said, teasing me.

  Then, Tian became more serious. “You were dying,” she said. “Shy had booby-trapped the ribs, and mother didn’t catch one of her spells. Somehow, my sister knew that you would get the ribs someday, and she wanted to hurt you. She can be a real bitch, sometimes.”

  “How did linking us save me?” I asked.

  “You’ve been feeding on my life force for over a week,” Tian said. “Without my strength, you would have sucked your wife’s energy until they died. Then, you would have perished as well.”

  I looked at her and tried to decide if she was lying or not.

  Something quivered under the covers.

  Then, that fucking spider slipped into her fingers.

  I took a step back.

  I hated that thing.

  Tian began to stroke its fur as it preened in front of her.

  “Why don’t you like, Nibbles?” she asked.

  “It’s a fucking spider!”

  Mockery laughed.

  Suddenly, fucking her was a lot less exciting.

  “Then, you will really hate my retainer, James,” she said, pointing to the left.

  Something moved in the shadows.

  Then, the businessman that Mary had eaten shuffled forward. A dark cloak hid his face, but it was him. James’s dark black hair had begun to fall out, and his face was a pasty white. He still had dried blood all around his mouth from when Mary had killed him.

  And, his eyes were full of life and hatred.

  The zombie moved forward into the light, and I saw that Mockery had stitched his mouth shut with a thread that looked like it had been made from black metal. A deep groan that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up slithered through his stitched up lips.

  The fucker remembered me.

  “Be good, James,” Mockery insisted. “Bazal is my husband now.”

  “What?” I shouted.

  Mocker began laughing. “Gotcha.”
>
  My heart was hammering in my chest. I was already married, and I had three lovers. Having a second wife terrified me.