The Dark City rose around them like the carcass of a dead deity: broken spires, streets paved with black glass, air thick with the smell of rust and dried blood. The sky above was a bruised red, the sun was only a dim, as if it would stop any second now.
Sunny and Nephis moved in silence, boots crunching over shattered bone and rusted metal. The seaweed bikini had dried stiff and dark green on Nephis's body, clinging to every curve like it had been painted on. Salt, sweat, crushed heart-fruit, and the raw scent of hours of fucking still clung to her skin; every breath Sunny took was laced with it. His cock had been half-hard since the boat, and the closer they got to civilization, if this could be called that, the worse itched to drag her behind a pillar and finish what the sea had started.
They turned a corner into a small plaza and stopped.
A fire crackled in the center.
Over it, on a spit made from a broken spear, a hulking carcass turned slowly: some six-legged abomination, skin charred, fat dripping into the flames with wet hisses. Behind the fire stood a woman so tall she had to duck under the broken archway. The light from the campfire reflected from her flawless olive skin and her beautiful brown hair. She was wearing a light set of armor, a hooded cloak thrown back, arms thick with muscle and veins like old battle maps.
Effie.
She turned the spit with one hand, the other resting on the pommel of a massive spear propped beside her. Her hazel eyes took them in with lazy, predatory interest.
Effie's POV
Well, well.
Two little lost puppies wandering into my kitchen.
First the boy. Short, lean, all sharp cheekbones and cocky grin. His dishevelled hair black as sin, onyx eyes. Weak. Cute. The kind of pretty that made you want to pin him to a wall and watch him squirm while you rode his face until he forgot his own name. His trousers were doing a piss-poor job of hiding the bulge he was sporting. Someone had been having fun.
Then the girl.
Holy shit.
Silver hair, long legs, body built for war and sin in equal measure. That ridiculous seaweed bikini had seen better days, but it framed her tits and ass like a gift. Dried cum and fruit juice streaked her skin in places the sea hadn't quite washed away. She moved like a blade, but there was a flush on her throat, a heaviness to her eyelids, and the air around her smelled like someone had fucked her raw for days and she'd loved every second of it.
Effie's mouth watered. Not for the meat on the spit.
The boy's hand was behind the girl's back, fingers shamelessly kneading one perfect ass cheek, hidden from view by the angle. The silver-haired beauty didn't stop him; if anything, her hips tilted back into the touch, subtle, greedy.
Effie grinned, slow and wolfish.
"Fresh meat," she called, voice a smoky drawl. "The edible kind, I mean. Though…" She let her gaze drag over them both, lingering on Nephis's stiff nipples, then Sunny's obvious hard-on. "I could be persuaded to sample something else."
Sunny's fingers flexed possessively on Nephis's ass. Nephis didn't flinch, but her eyes narrowed cold, regal, dangerous.
Effie laughed, low and delighted.
"Relax, girl. I don't bite unless invited." She winked at Sunny. "But I do share my fire… and my food. Come sit. You both look like you've been fucking instead of eating. Can't have that. Growing boys need protein."
She patted the broken stone beside her like it was a throne.
Sunny's grin turned sharp. Nephis's expression didn't change at all, but Effie caught the way her thighs pressed together, just once.
This was going to be fun.
Sunny and Nephis shared a look, then sat around the campfire on anything that even remotely resembled a seat. Effie gaze lingered on them for a while, more when her attention shifted back to the still cooking meat of the six-legged abomination. An silence settled between them before it was briefly broken by Sunny.
"Are you an awakened?" His eyes scanning Effie observing for anything suspicious.
Effie stayed quiet, but Sunny did observe a slight frown on her playful grin that he swears hadn't been there a moment before. Then She skewered a hunk of charred meat with her dagger and took a massive bite, chewing slowly as she eyed them both. The fire popped and crackled, casting flickering shadows across her dazzling face. She swallowed, wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, and leaned forward, her playful grin fading into something harder, more serious—like a blade sheathed but ready to draw.
"Haven't seen you guys around, you guys new" Effie spoke avoiding Sunny's previous question. Her gaze turned to Nephis, trying scanning the girl, who was still rubbing her thighs trying to be subtle.
Nephis seem to have regained her composure as she stopped rubbing. Then nodded.
"Yes. We just arrived in this city."
Effie's eyes widen just for a brief moment before regaining her playful grin. Sunny and Nephis where still staring at her as if demanding an explanation. The corner of Effie's lips rose even higher.
"Alright, cuties, I have no idea how you survived the labyrinth for 2 whole months. Fun's over. You two reek of sea brine, so I'll assume you're fresh out of that hellhole." She pointed towards the labyrinth, with piece of meat she was devouring. " Welcome to the Dark City. Or as I like to call it, the Junkyard of the Dream Realm." She gestured vaguely at the crumbling ruins around them, the black glass streets reflecting the starless sky gloom like oily mirrors. "This place is a nightmare wrapped in a curse. No dormant nightmares, no stars, just this endless bullshit. And the worst part? No Awakened. None. Everyone here's a Sleeper—stuck in the dream realm, no citadel, no saints, just raw survival on wits and whatever scraps they can scrounge."
She tore off another bite, talking around it. "The city's divided. Up there—" She jerked her thumb toward the distant silhouette of a towering fortress perched on a jagged cliff, its spires glowing faintly with unnatural light. "That's the Bright Castle. Home to the Bright Lord, Gunlaug. Calls himself a king, but he's a immature child with a golden spoon-No Golden Armor, actually never mind. Rules with an iron fist, backed by his 'generals'—a bunch of glorified thugs. They hoard all the good shit: food, water, memories. If you're useful, you might get conscripted. If not... well, you're slum fodder."
Effie paused, her hazel eye seeming to stare right through them. "The slums are down here. Filthy, crowded, full of desperate fucks clawing over each other for a crust of bread. dirt, starvation, people that'd slit your throat for a sip of clean water. And Gunlaug's got his little perversions too—keeps a harem up in the castle. Pretty things he collects, breaks, and discards. Rumors say he feeds the rejects to the Nightmare Creatures that prowl the outskirts. Dreadful doesn't even cover it. One wrong move, and you're either his slave or monster chow."
As Effie droned on, her voice low and grave, Sunny nodded along, trying to look attentive. But his mind was a storm. More people. Shit. So many eyes, so many temptations. Nephis had been insatiable on the Barrows—her cunt dripping at the slightest touch, her body yielding to every filthy whim. Here, in a city full of Sleepers, how the hell was she supposed to control those desires? Gunlaug's harem? That sounded like a magnet for her starlit fire. What if she got ideas? What if someone else caught her eye? The thought twisted his guts with raw fear, his cock twitching traitorously at the edge of panic and possessiveness.
All while this happened, Nephis had shifted subtly beside him on the broken stone bench. She'd lowered herself onto his waiting hand, her ass cheeks spreading just enough for his middle finger to slip under the dried seaweed strip and nudge her tight little asshole. No one could see—Effie's view blocked by the angle of their bodies and the fire's glow—but Sunny felt everything. Her pucker clenched greedily around his fingertip as he pushed in slow, deliberate, the ring of muscle hot and velvet-smooth, still slick from their earlier messes. Nephis's face remained perfectly stoic, silver eyes fixed on Effie as if she were discussing the weather, but her breath hitched ever so slightly when he twisted his finger deeper, knuckle-deep now, stirring her insides with a filthy curl.
Sunny's heart hammered. Fuck, she's soaked back here too. His thumb brushed her pussy lips from behind, feeling the fresh gush of wetness that betrayed her. She ground down harder, impaling her asshole on his digit while Effie gestured at the castle, oblivious. Nephis's inner walls fluttered around him, milking his finger like it was his cock, her tits rising and falling a fraction faster under the bikini.
Effie leaned back, oblivious, and popped another piece of meat into her mouth. "So, what's your plan, lovebirds? Join the slums and rot, or try your luck storming the castle? Either way, watch your backs—and your fronts. This place eats the weak alive."
Sunny forced a grin, his free hand clenching into a fist to hide the tremor, while his buried finger pumped Nephis's asshole in slow, punishing strokes. If she loses control here... we're fucked. Literally.
Effie licked grease from her thumb, eyes flicking between them like she was already pricing their worth. Sunny and Nephis looked very tense, their plan had entirely depended on Cassie's vision about the castle, assuming it was a citadel. Now the mood between the couple was grim at best. Effie looked at them enjoying their despair before she broke the silence.
"But well, there is a simpler option". Her words instantly attracted Nephis and Sunny's attention, as she paused for the dramatically theatrics.
"Rent in the Castle," she said, voice casual, almost amused. "One Awakened soul shard per person per week. Sounds steep until you realize the alternative is sleeping in the slums with rats-like-abominations chewing your toes off while something worse chewing your face off. Food, clean water, actual walls, no abominations crawling up your ass at night… honestly, it's the best deal in the whole damn city."
She leaned forward, elbows on her knees, gaze sliding to Nephis with open appraisal.
"And you, princess," Effie drawled, "with that face, that body, that whole 'fuck-me-or-I'll-burn-the-world-down' aura… Gunlaug would snap you up for his harem in a heartbeat. Probably waive the fee entirely. Hell, he'd pay you in shards just to keep you warming his bed. Girls like you don't pay rent here; they get paid."
The words landed like a blade between Sunny's ribs.
His heart slammed against his chest so hard he was sure both women could hear it. The thought of Nephis, his Nephis, spread out on silk sheets for that golden-armored bastard, silver hair fanned across pillows while Gunlaug's hands… No. Fuck no.
Nephis didn't answer immediately. She just sat there, perfectly still, expression unreadable, starlit eyes fixed on Effie. A beat. Two.
Then the corner of her mouth curved, tiny, cruel, beautiful, aimed straight at Sunny.
No words. Just that smile.
Sunny's vision tunneled.
His buried finger, already knuckle-deep in her tight little asshole, twisted viciously. He added a second without warning, stretching the ring of muscle wide, pumping both digits in a sudden, brutal rhythm. The heel of his hand ground against her soaked pussy lips at the same time, thumb finding her clit and rubbing hard, merciless circles.
Nephis's breath caught, sharp, audible. Her thighs jerked wider on instinct. A low, broken moan slipped out before she could stop it, soft, filthy, unmistakable.
Effie's brows shot up. She glanced between them, lips twitching like she'd just solved a very entertaining puzzle.
Nephis's composure cracked for half a second eyes fluttering, hips rolling back into Sunny's hand, chasing more. Then she clamped down, forcing her face back to serene ice even as her asshole clenched greedily around his fingers.
Sunny didn't let up. He leaned in, lips brushing her ear, voice a dark whisper only she could hear.
"Don't You even think about it," he hissed, scissoring his fingers wide inside her, "and I'll fuck this greedy little hole until you forget Gunlaug's name exists."
Nephis turned her head just enough to meet his eyes. The smile was still there, sharper now, edged with fire.
"Try me," she mouthed, silent, daring.
Effie cleared her throat, clearly enjoying the show. "So… I'm guessing that's a no on the harem, then?"
Neither of them answered. Sunny's fingers were still buried to the hilt, pumping slow and deep, while Nephis's cunt dripped openly onto the stone beneath her, the air thick with the scent of her arousal and the promise of violence.
The fire crackled. Somewhere in the distance, something howled.
And Sunny's heart kept racing, terrified, furious, and so fucking hard he could barely think.