Chapter 20 #3
Fuck, do not let him think it’s anything more than a boyish infatuation.
Drake grinned at me tauntingly, clearly pleased to hear that truth. “Get that look off of your face this second or I might have to give you a smack for lusting after my woman.”
“I do not simply lust after the princess,” I snarled, the magic of this place forcing me to add the ‘simply’ because I couldn’t deny that I did so even though I knew I shouldn’t. But it wasn’t simple at all, it was the most complicated feeling I had ever endured. “I protect her as is my duty.”
“Sure, then why are your britches looking so tight right now?”
I looked down in alarm and Drake burst out laughing, making me spit curses at him as he gave me that cocky expression again.
The britches were tight so he hadn’t lied but not through any act of arousal from my body.
Damn him. He was giving me a look like he had won the pageant already and I knew in that moment that there wasn’t anything I wouldn’t do to keep his hands off of the princess if fate fell that way.
I’d let him play in the pageant as a pawn in a game of my own design, but it would be me who’d be controlling the pieces.
“She could be mine soon, mate,” he taunted, a smirk pulling at his lips.
My jaw tightened and I had a mind to slam my fist into his nose for the way he'd just claimed her.
Like all the suitors did. She wasn't property and I already despised the fucking pageant. An age-old tradition to win the hand of the emperors’ daughters throughout all the centuries Osaria had stood.
Where was her say in the matter? Who said she even wanted to be won by some stranger and taken to his bed whether she desired him or not?
I will cut off every cock of every man who goes near her.
Something dark and villainous was rising in me, like it sometimes had in the past when I’d gotten too close to her.
When I’d lingered a moment too long in her company, when I’d drawn in a breath laced with her scent.
Something about Princess Austyn turned me from a man with integrity to a devil with no morals.
Protecting her became the fiercest instinct within me to the detriment of all else.
If the instinct had ended there, perhaps I wouldn’t be a sinner, but it didn’t, not even close.
Sometimes, when I let my thoughts drift and didn’t adjust my imagination to what was appropriate, I thought of her, of freeing her from every damn piece of silk that clung to her body like chains.
Then I’d worship her, idolise her flesh and feed her so much pleasure that she’d know the true meaning of liberty.
I blinked hard, forcing back the want in me which I wished I could cut out. Because despite all my training, sometimes that desire felt so close to taking over, I feared one day it would break free and I’d never be able to cage it again.
“As if I'd ever lay claim to the princess,” I muttered, the truth of it resoundingly clear as I was allowed to say it in this place.
“Tell me about her body,” Drake said with a devilish look.
I scowled, shaking my head in anger but I could feel the words pushing at my lips.
“Tell me,” he demanded, and I hated him in that moment. I didn't want him lusting after Princess Austyn. The idea was abhorrent, so I kept my words as straightforward as I could without revealing my more shameful thoughts about her body.
“She's lithe, generously curvaceous in the right places.” I'm an arsehole. But at least I'd phrased it in the least seedy way I could. “But she wasn't naked when I saw her so she could be covered in scales for all I know.”
“Doubt it,” he said eagerly, biting into his lower lip with desire in his gaze. “You swear she's the most beautiful woman in Osaria?”
“To me she is,” I confirmed and my heart sank like a stone. “And no doubt to most men.”
“Do you think she’s been fucking any of the guards or is she as innocent as they claim?”
“No man has ever seen her face aside from me, I can assure you she has not been lowering herself to share her body with any of the men in that palace,” I snarled and he laughed.
“No need to get so antsy over it, mate,” Drake teased, grinning wickedly. “I’ll soon show her what she’s been missing – I have an Affinity for fucking so she’ll be in good hands with me.”
He clapped my cheek with his palm and I glowered at him for the patronising gesture and the fact that he clearly believed he had an Affinity for sex as he’d managed to speak that claim in this place.
I did not believe in such a thing, but I had to assume his conquests had believed it too and the thought of his sexual prowess was not something I wished to think on.
I smacked his arm away, fighting the deeper urge to behead him with my sword for those words, but this had been my plan, so I had to put up with his bullshit to get myself back into the palace.
And if I struck at him, he might just decide on a different course of action with that coin.
“I'm allowing this for the sake of the kingdom,” I said, my muscles rigid as I kept myself from attacking him. “If you cross me, I will kill you.” It occurred to me that if I simply killed him now maybe I could claim that coin for myself and use it to achieve my goals much more simply.
Drake backed up, raising his dagger again as if he registered that thought crossing my mind, arching a brow at me as if offering me the chance to try my luck.
I released the thought with a sigh. I needed him as a cover.
While he was distracting everyone in the pageant, I would have time to hunt for the evidence I needed to bring down Magdor.
I just had to figure out how to disguise myself first because I wasn’t going to go unnoticed by the guards I’d worked alongside for years.
I’d find a way somehow, I’d just use Drake to get me in and figure out the rest later.
“Take me with you and I'll teach you how to pass yourself off as a count for the pageant.” I thrust out my hand and Drake's brows raised.
“What’s in it for you?” he asked, his eyes narrowing suspiciously.
I picked my words carefully, knowing I couldn’t lie here but I wasn’t going to tell him my plan. “I want a chance to prove myself. To exonerate my name.” Which I will do by exposing Magdor.
He nodded, knowing I had to give him the truth in this place and he sheathed his dagger before grabbing my hand and shaking it firmly.
“Looks like we have an accord then, Cass,” he teased, the greed in his eyes shining clearly as he made no attempt to disguise it from me. “I guess we have a lot of work to do.”
When he released me, he took the coin from his pocket with an air of anticipation. He seemed to have accepted the fact that I was no longer posing any kind of threat to him now that we had come to our agreement, though he had no idea he was playing right into my hands.
“Every dream I've ever had is finally going to come true,” he breathed to himself, flicking the coin off his thumb into the air and drawing my gaze to it as it spun over and over, seeming to trail light all around it as it moved. The power the thing held was truly breathtaking and I couldn’t help but acknowledge the shiver of fear that tracked down my spine as I watched it.
I just hoped that I wasn’t making a terrible mistake with this plan, relying on a thief and a magical creature which could potentially turn on us.
I would treat it as if it were a Fae woman, offer it respect and hope that kept its ire from us.
Drake caught it with a confident grin and an ounce of pity gripped me that he'd never had so much as two coins to rub together for most of his life. I was leading him down a path that would most likely get him killed by Kahn. Magdor’s son had been known to do it before in other fighting tournaments and there was no law to stop him doing so in the royal pageant.
In theory, the men taking part could yield, but there would be no repercussions if a killing blow was struck.
Everyone entering knew they were putting their lives on the line by doing so and they were willing to take the risk for the chance at being the emperor and ruling over The Twelve Kingdoms, not to mention gaining the hand of the most beautiful woman in all the land as their bride.
But Osaria had to come first. I couldn't start feeling sorry for some pickpocket who didn't pay anyone else any heed. One man’s death would be a small price to pay if it meant that I could remove Magdor from the royal family for good.