Fae Champion (Royals of Embermere #2)

11. Worst Timing in the Entire History of Timing, AKA Complications Could Suck It

11. WORST TIMING IN THE ENTIRE HISTORY OF TIMING, AKA COMPLICATIONS COULD SUCK IT

Now that he was decided, Rush didn’t waste another second on hesitation. Before I could properly register what all was happening—and that after so many years of anticipating the moment when I’d finally lose my maidenhood, it had arrived—Rush lowered to his knees in the water, once again giving me that spectacular view. The head of his erection was swollen and slick with his desire.

He slid a muscled arm around my waist and bent legs and pulled me toward him. I slipped along the tub bottom as he sat and lifted me onto his lap. He guided me to straddle him, and perhaps truly one minute after he decided to give into temptation, nothing but a bit of water preserved my virginity.

“I’ve wanted this since the moment I first saw you,” he growled, tangling his fingers in my hair and yanking me forward, halting with his lips so close to mine that I could taste his breath—crisp and clean, with the faint aroma of sweetgrass that clung to him even when naked.

“When you opened the door to your chambers that first day, and I was standing there, ordered to guard you … do you remember?”

I nodded, my upper lip catching on his plump lower one, unable to grasp the words to better reply. My flesh zinged all over. I couldn’t relax.

“You looked at me like I was some weird stranger you wanted nothing to do with.”

No, I’d looked at him like he was the most stunning man I’d ever seen.

“Your enemy,” he added.

“I had just been kidnapped,” I said.

He stilled. I sensed he was moments from pushing me away at the fresh reminder of how dangerous our predicament was, how opposed our allegiances were.

Shaking my head around his fingers, I clamped my thighs around his. “No thinking. No more talking either. For right now, we’re not the queen’s prisoner or guard. There are no Fae Heir Trials. Nothing outside of us. Okay?”

His eyes remained distant, as if he were running through a list of all the reasons this was a bad idea.

“Rush.” His troubled eyes flicked up to mine. “I want this. I really fucking do. But if you can’t handle it…”

“I can handle it,” he retorted immediately, gruffly.

“You want this?”

“So bad I can fucking taste it.”

“Then screw the queen. Screw the king too. They don’t own us.” Even if it felt a bit like they did. “We get to have this. We get to live our own lives. They can never own our essences.”

He arched his brows. “Are you suggesting we’re connecting on a … spiritual level?”

“Maybe. If you can satisfy me the way you swear you can … that sounds transcendental to me. But then again, maybe you’re all bluster and no?—”

He smashed his mouth against mine, sweeping his tongue between my lips, and I was lost to his insistent heat, our commingled moans, and the promise of his hard body beneath me.

He pressed our chests together, groaning when my breasts splayed against his muscles. He broke our kiss and bowed his head toward my nipples, but I rose to my knees, preparing to impale myself on him.

“No, not yet,” he said urgently. “You’re a virgin. We need to take it really slowly. I don’t want to risk hurting you.”

Ironic coming from the man who seemed convinced his destiny was to do exactly that.

“I don’t care,” I said.

“You should. In this position, I’ll go too deep, and my girth’ll stretch you too much. In time, you’ll learn to love it, but for this first time?—”

“I thought there was no future for us.”

“There isn’t. It’s just that…” He trailed off as I lined up the tip of him with my entrance, knocking it in place. “El, don’t, seriously. Let me get you dripping wet first…”

Obviously, in the water, the man was oblivious to the full extent of my reactions to him.

Ignoring his cautions, I winked at him cavalierly and lowered myself slowly onto his shaft. My breath hitched at the overwhelming sensation of fullness, and didn’t immediately resume. A part of me was instantly overcome and wanted to stop. Another—more insistent—part wouldn’t allow it. I never shrank from a challenge.

His fingers dug into my hips as he attempted to slow my descent, but I refused to stop until my thighs were flush with his. Until I’d taken all of him.

“Holy fuck,” he groaned, his eyes rolling upward, his mouth slack.

I pinched my eyes shut at the stinging pain so he wouldn’t notice, and swallowed the gasping wince that was rolling across my tongue.

“You feel … you feel so incredible. I had no idea … no idea it’d be like this.”

A warrior never reveals pain , Zako had taught me, and I’d learned the lesson well enough. Pain is weakness. It creates a target for your enemy .

I’d swallowed many agonized groans over the years during my harsh training.

But I’d forgotten how observant Rush was.

He pulled me into his chest again, only this time he kissed me gently, soothingly, as if wanting to take away my discomfort. His lips brushed across mine as if we’d been lovers for ages instead of moments.

He hadn’t been exaggerating. The thickness of him pressed against my inner walls as if wanting them to give way, and I might have sworn his dick was an inch from poking my ribs…

Rush brushed kisses across my cheekbones, the bridge of my nose, each of my eyelids. “Are you all right? El?”

Words far out of reach, I nodded, my eyes closed dreamily so he wouldn’t see all that was circling within.

“I need to see your eyes to be sure.”

I let them flutter open.

His brow furrowed instantly, and those beautiful lips of his tugged downward. “I hurt you.”

“You didn’t,” I croaked.

Footsteps padded softly beyond the bathroom, its door slightly ajar. I hadn’t heard anyone enter Saturn’s chambers. I tensed, wondering, Friend or foe?

“Rush?” someone whisper-called. West, I guessed. I relaxed, but only slightly.

Rush groaned nearly silently and allowed his head to fall to the edge of the tub. “Worst timing in the entire history of timing,” he told me heavily before answering, more loudly, “In here.”

My eyes widened. “No, not ‘in here,’” I called hurriedly out to West. “I mean, he’s in here, yes, but don’t come in.”

“Too late,” came West’s voice from directly behind me .

If I didn’t turn, perhaps I could pretend the drake of Encarantos wasn’t getting an unimpeded view of my naked ass sitting astride his friend.

In a harsh snarl, West accused, “What in dragon’s veins are you thinking, Rush?”

While still impaled on Rush, I glared at him from over my shoulder, suddenly uncaring that he’d get an eyeful of boobage. “What’s that supposed to mean?” I snapped.

But West didn’t meet the anger brimming in my stare. He looked only at Rush.

“What about Larissa?” His tone grew sharper, more condemning. “Or Ramana? D’you forget about them?”

“I never forget about them,” Rush answered with a deadly calm. “Everything I do’s for them.”

“Apparently not everything.” Then, West did trail his gaze across me, but it seemed more to make a point than to leer.

“Fuck off, West,” I said. “Leave and close the door.”

“I’d love to. But your lover there, against my better judgment, talked me into helping you escape, and there’s been a complication.”

“What kind of complication?” Rush asked, and just like that I knew my first time was over before it hardly began.

Rush had the foresight to bring me fresh clothes along with the food. But since women at court only wore dresses, and he surely hadn’t had opportunity to ask Pru for the tunics and britches she’d earlier secured for me, the pants and shirt were ill-fitting. They had to have belonged to a small man, as they hung loosely beneath my armor. But at least they didn’t smell of a four-day stay in a musty dungeon. I was spotting thanks to the loss of my “innocence” and Rush’s sizable girth, but it wasn’t enough for anyone else to notice, and britches were essential for an easier escape.

I reclined on the chaise lounge, devouring the fruit, cheese, and bread Rush had brought me while he, West, Hiroshi, and Ryder either stood or paced Saturn’s bedchamber. Roan and Reed kept watch somewhere beyond this room. No one had mentioned Finnian.

West had refused to reveal the “complication” until Rush and I were out of the tub and dressed, and by then the others had arrived. Without so much as a greeting first, West had told them in which compromising position he’d found Rush and me. But he was the only one to continually cast condemning looks at us, and Rush was his main target.

When the four of them appeared intent to speak amongst each other in hushed, hurried tones and leave me out of it, I grabbed a fruit I had no name for, which was juicy and wonderfully sweet, and walked over to them. As one, they turned to face me .

“I realize we’re probably in a hurry, but thank you all for helping me,” I said.

“Rush didn’t give us much choice,” West bit out, when he’d never been rude to me before today.

Hiroshi tsked and swung his way, bringing my attention to how one of his sleeves wasn’t quite full. My eyes widened, but he was already saying, “Knock it off, West. Rush gave you the choice and you made it all on your own, just like the rest of us.”

“Yeah,” Ryder said. His pale hair hung in a single thick braid along his back. “And don’t act like you and Ramana didn’t go at it often enough to risk getting stuck together.”

West’s cheeks colored, framed beneath short dark hair. “That’s different. We intended to forge a life together.”

“And how do you know Rush and Elowyn won’t?” Ryder asked.

West scowled. “Because it’s not fucking possible, now is it? Don’t play dumb with me. I know better. Not a one of you’s stupid enough to believe the two of them have any chance of being together. Elowyn’s a dead woman and you all know it.”

The bite I’d been chewing lost its flavor. I swallowed awkwardly and forced my chin higher as I asked Hiroshi, “Your arm … what happened?” When even West looked at me, I added, “If we have time for bickering, we have time for me to ask how he’s doing when he’s been hurt. Are you … gonna be all right? ”

“He’ll be fine,” West answered for him. “He’ll regrow it.”

“Really?” I asked, making sure to look at Hiroshi instead of West so the intended man would answer my question this time.

“Yeah.” Hiroshi shrugged, one of many lavender braids sliding over his shoulder to rest against his chest. He flicked it back. “I’m not gonna lie and say it was fun?—”

Ryder snorted. “I imagine not.”

“But I’m glad it happened to me and not any of these jerks, or they’d be permanently out an arm.”

My eyes were wide. “You can really regrow it?”

“Yep, and it’s a damn lucky thing too. That bastard Breccan sliced it clean off in our fight. He took it off just below the shoulder. Fucking lucky strike,” he grumbled.

I must have looked shocked because he added, “My power allows me to affect the physical forms of living things. It’s how I was able to give Braque a well-deserved beak and chicken legs, and it’s how I’ll regrow my arm before the week’s up.”

“Wow. That’s impressive. How … how’d the rest of the fights go? I’m glad to see you all here, even you, West, though you’re being an asshole.”

“She called it there,” Ryder said with a snort.

Rush circled them to reach me, placing a gentle touch on my waist. “Everyone else is either eliminated or dead. There’s only one fight left, the final. Tomorrow.” He looked at the others. “Which is why we have to get her as far away from here as we can before then.”

“Why? Surely I’m disqualified by now.”

“No. I’m to fight you tomorrow. Azariah announced it today. I’m guessing the queen thought you’d either be dead by then or weakened. Either way, she would have been pleased.”

A phantom piece of fruit caught in my throat; I coughed a few times to clear it. Voice rough, I said, “But the competitors were supposed to fight every day.”

Rush’s eyes grew stormy again. “The uneven number of fighters at the start meant that one of the contestants would skip the fights of days four, five, and six. Who those people were was supposed to be random.”

“So obviously the magic of the Fae Heir Trials isn’t as impervious as you thought, then, huh?” Appetite gone, I walked over to toss the half-eaten fruit on the now mostly empty tray.

“Obviously not,” Hiroshi said, “or the queen wouldn’t have been able to try to kill you so many times. Glad to see she failed.” He offered me a smile.

I smiled back for a split second before I realized tomorrow I’d be in the ring with Rush—unless I escaped.

“So if the Fae Heir Trials magic isn’t a true thing anymore, then I can escape, right? Then I won’t have to fight Rush.”

“That’s the hope,” Rush said, but his face was a mask of torment.

“What? What is it?”

“The queen knows you slipped the dungeon. That was West’s news. Which means we can’t chance the previous escape route. It’ll be too obvious. She’ll be anticipating it.”

“Then you guys should all go. Right now. Before she realizes you’ve helped me.”

None of the guys, not even West, moved to leave. Their expressions were a mixture of tension and resignation.

“Oh no,” I breathed.

“We shouldn’t have helped her,” West said.

“Hey, dickhead,” I snapped, “just because you have a problem with Rush and me having sex?—”

“It’s not that.” He rubbed a hand over his face, offering me a perhaps apologetic sigh. “I wouldn’t want you to die alone in that cell, obviously not. It’s just that … the cause is greater than any one of us. Every single one of us here, and Roan too, we’re prepared to die to help faekind. To bring the mirror world back to what it once was. What Embermere’s supposed to be. If the queen knows we’re helping you, and Rush especially, it’ll change everything.”

“How exactly?”

“At this point, Rush has to be the next heir. We’re so close to making it happen after all these years. Whoever his new wife is won’t matter. He’ll get her to agree. But it has to be him. He’s the only one of us left in the Gladius Probatio. ”

“If the queen doesn’t trust him anymore…” Ryder left the unspoken threat hanging.

“She’ll still have to accept him as the heir though,” I said, feeling desperation mounting and not liking it. “Those are the rules of the trials.”

West frowned. “When have you seen the queen follow the rules the way she’s supposed to? Even when they’re her own rules?”

“She’ll figure something else out,” Ryder said. “If she’s already been messing with the spell of the trials, then who knows how she’ll do it. She’ll get someone like Lennox to take his place.”

I scarcely breathed. “You mean she might kill Rush?”

Rush met my panicked eyes then, but in his I found none of the fight I hoped for. He really did think he was broken, a victim of her cruelty. “It’s the only way I can think of for her to replace me with someone else.”

“I won’t let that happen,” I barked. “You swear to whatever you guys find holy in this twisted, sick, fucked-up place and tell her you didn’t help me. And it’ll be true enough. I’ll get Xeno and Saffron and find a way out all on my own. If you don’t tell me which way to go, you can tell the truth when you say you didn’t help me leave the palace at least. And then wherever I pop out will probably be unexpected.”

Of course, the more knowledge of the queen’s actions and reactions I possessed, the better my chances of survival. But at least I’d had Rush lead me around the grounds before the Gladius Probatio. What I’d learned then, which wasn’t much, would have to be enough.

“Maybe,” West said. “But don’t waste your time going for the dragonling and shifter. They’re goners.”

My heart stuttered. “What?”

“Smooth, man, real smooth,” Ryder scolded as Rush ran a hand through his hair before frowning sorrowfully.

“Oh no,” I breathed. “Tell me they’re not dead.”

The others looked to Rush, who exhaled loudly. “If they’re not, there’s nothing left of them worth saving.”

“No.”

“I’m sorry, El, but yes.”

“But … how? Why?” Questions I knew already didn’t much matter when dealing with someone as heartless as the queen.

“I told you, I thought you were in the fae dungeon. I went looking for you there.”

When he didn’t immediately continue, I prompted, “And?”

Another sad exhale. “There weren’t many I couldn’t identify. Of those I couldn’t, one was a man who’d been flayed alive.”

“Flayed,” I parroted numbly.

He met my eyes, but I barely registered the sympathy brewing in his, hardly saw anything at all. “I couldn’t be certain at that point, but I think it was Xeno. He had short brown hair?”

I nodded, my throat thick with regret, lament … and so much rage. “And what of Saffron? The dragonling?” My hope was no more than a croak.

“I found pieces of a dragon, and from the parts I saw, he was small.”

I yanked my gaze away from his to stare at the empty space behind him. “Saffron’s scales are yellow, like gold.”

“The scales were already fading, but they could have been that color.”

I pressed my lips together to keep from … I didn’t know what, screaming my righteous fury at the queen? Hurtling her way every curse and death threat I could conjure?

None of it would make a lick of difference. Xeno and Saffron were dead.

Because of me.

No, because of the nasty, evil, horribly despicable, dark motherfucking cunt of a queen .

I’d already been wondering if I could maybe climb out one of the many windows lining Saturn’s chambers. Unlike in my own rooms, it was unlikely Braque had spelled them to prevent my exit.

But now I looked at each of the men, scanning the hard lines of their youthful faces, how much sorrow their eyes contained, how heavy the burdens they carried were, and declared, “I’m not going anywhere, not till the queen pays.”