Chapter 17: The Necromancer Queen's Awakening
The first light of dawn crept through the ruined roof like a thief, thin and grey and tentative, painting the dust motes in pale gold. The wind had died sometime in the night, leaving the watchtower wrapped in a silence so complete it felt like held breath.
Leliana's eyes snapped open.
She didn't gasp. Didn't bolt upright. Didn't do any of the things a body was supposed to do after clawing its way back from the edge of oblivion. She just lay there, still as carrion, and let the world reassemble itself around her.
Stone above. Dirt below. The taste of copper and something else—something burnt—coating her tongue like wax.
She blinked.
Her fingers twitched. Found the edge of a blanket. Wool. Rough. Not hers.
The Codex.
The thought hit her like a fist to the sternum.
She remembered everything. The book opening under her hands. The words crawling across the page like living things. The power—Gods, the power—pouring into her veins like molten lead, burning away everything she'd ever been and leaving something else in its place.
Something hungry.
Something that had laughed while men died screaming.
Leliana's stomach lurched. She rolled onto her side, and the world spun, and for a long moment she just breathed. In through the nose. Out through the mouth. The way her mother used to teach her when the nightmares came.
Her mother was ash now.
Had been for twenty years.
She sat up.
The watchtower resolved around her in pieces. Crumbling walls. Rusted iron bars where windows had once been. A cold hearth, long dead. And in the corner—
Fox.
And Arielle.
They were tangled together like animals seeking warmth. Arielle's tunic was unlaced, her breasts half-exposed, her golden hair spilling across Fox's chest. Fox's trousers were still undone, the laces loose, his belt coiled on the floor beside them like a dead snake.
The smell hit her then. Sex. Sweat. The particular musk of bodies that had recently been joined.
Something dark and possessive twisted in Leliana's chest.
She remembered.
Not everything—the Codex had burned holes in her memory, left gaps where moments should have been—but enough. She remembered the way Fox's hands had felt on her skin. The way his cock had filled her while the book screamed in her skull. The way he'd looked at her afterward, like she was something broken he didn't know how to fix.
And now—
Now he was sleeping beside another woman.
Leliana stood.
Her legs shook. Her head throbbed. Her mouth tasted like death. But she stood, and she crossed the room, and she didn't stop until she was standing over them.
Arielle stirred first. Her eyes fluttered open—half-elf eyes, too bright, too knowing—and then widened. She reached for her dagger. Instinct.
Leliana kicked Fox in the ribs.
Not hard enough to break bone. Hard enough to hurt.
He jerked awake with a grunt, hand flying to the knife at his hip, body coiling for violence. Then he saw her. And froze.
"Leliana—"
"Get up."
Her voice didn't sound like her own. It was flat. Cold. Dead.
Fox sat up slowly. His eyes were red-rimmed, exhausted. His chest was a map of scratches—some old, some new—and she recognized the marks. Her marks. From the tent. From when she'd clawed at him while the Codex rode her like a puppet.
"You're awake," he said.
"No shit."
Arielle was on her feet now, dagger in hand, eyes darting between them. "Leliana, listen—"
"Shut up."
The half-elf flinched.
Leliana didn't look at her. Couldn't. If she looked at Arielle—at the mess of her hair and the flush on her cheeks and the come drying on her thighs—she'd do something she couldn't take back.
"You had him while I was under." The words came out quiet. Almost gentle. "While I was drowning in that fucking book, you had him."
Arielle's jaw tightened. "It wasn't—"
"I don't care what it was." Leliana finally turned. Met her eyes. "Now it's my turn."
She grabbed Fox by the collar of his ruined shirt and hauled him to his feet. He was bigger than her—taller, heavier, stronger—but he didn't resist. Just stared at her with those grey eyes, hollow and haunted, and let her shove him against the wall.
Stone bit into his back. He grunted.
Leliana's hands went to his belt.
"Leliana—"
"Don't."
She unbuckled it. Rough. Angry. The leather was still warm from his body, and when she yanked it free, the sound cracked through the tower like a whip.
Arielle took a step forward.
Leliana froze her with a look.
"Move and I'll put this through your throat."
She didn't have a blade. Didn't need one. The promise was enough.
Arielle stopped.
Leliana dropped to her knees.
The stone floor was cold against her shins, rough against her palms. She didn't care. She pulled Fox's trousers down—just enough, just past his hips—and his cock sprang free.
Semi-hard. Still slick from whatever he'd done with Arielle hours ago. The smell of sex hit her again, stronger now, and something ugly curdled in her stomach.
She took him in her mouth.
Fox hissed.
Not from pleasure. Not yet. Her teeth grazed his shaft—just enough to hurt, just enough to remind him that she wasn't gentle, that she wasn't kind, that she wasn't the girl he'd known twenty years ago.
She sucked him like she was trying to punish him.
Hard. Fast. Brutal strokes that took him to the back of her throat and held him there until she gagged. Then she pulled off, gasped for air, spit on his shaft, and went back down.
"Fuck," Fox ground out.
His hand found her hair. Tried to pull her back.
She wouldn't let him.
She deep-throated him again—nose pressed to his pelvis, throat working around his cock—and held it until spots danced in her vision. When she finally pulled off, strings of saliva connected her lips to his shaft, and she looked up at him with eyes that were half-mad and half-desperate.
"You left me," she whispered.
Fox's hand tightened in her hair.
"I didn't—"
"You left me to that thing." Her fist wrapped around his cock, slick and brutal, jerking him with short, punishing strokes. "You let it take me. You let it use me. And then you fucked her."
"I didn't let it—"
"You didn't stop it."
He had no answer for that.
Leliana took him back in her mouth.
She worked him with her hand and her lips and her tongue, a rhythm that was less about pleasure and more about possession. Every stroke said mine. Every swallow said you don't get to leave. Every graze of her teeth said I will fucking destroy you if you try.
Fox's breath came in ragged gasps.
His hips bucked. His fingers twisted in her hair. He was close—she could feel it in the way his cock swelled, the way his balls drew up tight.
"Leliana—"
She sucked harder.
"Fuck—I'm going to—"
She didn't stop.
He came with a choked groan, spilling down her throat in hot, bitter pulses. Leliana swallowed every drop. Kept swallowing until he was spent, until his cock twitched weakly against her tongue, until his hand finally released her hair.
Then she pulled off.
Wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.
Stood.
Her knees ached. Her throat burned. Her eyes were wet—when had that happened?—but she didn't let the tears fall.
She turned to Arielle.
"He's not yours." Her voice cracked on the last word. "He never was."
Arielle's hand tightened on her dagger. Her knuckles were white. Her face was pale, but her eyes—her eyes were steel.
"I never said he was."
"You fucked him."
"So did you."
The words hit like a slap.
Leliana's mouth opened. Closed. Opened again.
"That was different."
"Was it?"
The half-elf took a step forward. Just one. But it was enough to close the distance, to put them face to face, to make the air between them feel like a drawn bowstring.
"I didn't know what I was doing," Leliana said. "The Codex—"
"The Codex didn't make you spread your legs."
Silence.
The wind picked up outside, howling through the broken windows like something dying. Somewhere below, waves crashed against the cliffs. The sea didn't care about any of this. The sea never did.
Fox was still against the wall, trousers around his thighs, breath ragged. He looked like a man who'd been run through and left for dead.
"You're right," Leliana said finally. "It didn't."
Arielle's dagger lowered an inch.
"But that doesn't change anything." Leliana's voice was quiet now. Tired. "He's still mine. He's been mine since we were children. Since before you were born, probably."
"I'm not a child."
"You're acting like one."
Arielle's face flushed. "You don't know anything about me."
"I know you're jealous." Leliana stepped closer. Close enough to smell the sex on her skin. Close enough to see the tears she was trying not to shed. "I know you want him. I know you think he'll save you from whatever you're running from." She shook her head. "He won't. He can't even save himself."
"He saved you."
The words hung in the air like smoke.
Leliana's throat tightened.
"From the Codex," Arielle continued. "From the goblins. From whatever the fuck was happening in that tent." She sheathed her dagger. Slow. Deliberate. "He carried you here. Did you know that? Two miles through fog and darkness. He carried you because he thought you were dying."
Leliana's eyes flicked to Fox.
He was looking at the floor.
"He did?"
"He did."
Something cracked inside her chest. Something she'd been holding together with rage and spite and the desperate need to feel something other than empty.
"Why?" she whispered.
Fox didn't answer.
Arielle did.
"Because he loves you, you idiot." Her voice broke on the last word. "He's always loved you. And you're too blind to see it."
She turned. Walked to the door. Paused with her hand on the rusted frame.
"I'm going to find water," she said. "When I get back, we're going to talk about Everly. About the Codex. About what the fuck we're supposed to do next." She looked over her shoulder. "And if either of you tries to kill the other while I'm gone, I'll poison your breakfast."
She left.
The tower fell silent.
Leliana stood in the middle of the floor, her knees still aching, her throat still raw, her mouth still tasting of Fox's come. She didn't know what to feel. Didn't know if she had the right to feel anything at all.
Fox finally looked up.
"I'm sorry," he said.
"For what?"
"For everything."
She laughed. It came out broken—a shattered sound that didn't belong to anyone. "That's not an answer."
"It's the only one I have."
She crossed the room.
Knelt in front of him.
Took his face in her hands—dirt and blood and stubble and all—and pressed her forehead to his.
"I hate you," she whispered.
"I know."
"I hate that you left me. I hate that you fucked her. I hate that you're the only thing in this world that feels like home."
Fox's hands found her waist. Pulled her closer.
"I'm not leaving again."
"Promise?"
"I promise."
She kissed him.
Soft. Tender. The kind of kiss that comes after the storm, when the wreckage is still smoking and the dead are still unburied and the only thing left to do is hold onto whatever's still standing.
When she pulled back, her cheeks were wet.
"Everly," she said.
"What about her?"
"We have to stop her."
Fox nodded.
"Together?"
He looked at her—really looked—and something in his eyes shifted. Hardened. Softened. She couldn't tell which.
"Together," he said.
Outside, the wind howled.
Somewhere in the fog, Everly was becoming a god.
And Leliana—broken, desperate, terrified—was still alive.
For now, that was enough.