Chapter 31 #2
I threw myself down onto the soft red cushions with a groan. I’d never sat on anything this comfortable in my entire life and I was pretty certain that I could get all kinds of used to it.
“Where is the coin anyway?” Cassius asked ever so casually like he had no plans at all to steal it from me, which I doubted. Sneaky motherfucker.
“It’s safe, mate. Don’t worry about it,” I replied dismissively.
“It’s just that, like I said, Magdor was desperate to possess it and if it fell into her hands then I can’t begin to imagine the damage-”
“No chance of the empress getting her hands on it. Or anyone else for that matter,” I added, fingering the necklace as I caught his eye with a challenge in mine.
“Is that it?” he asked, seeming impressed by the means I’d already gone to disguise it.
“Sure is, and this chain can’t be broken. So unless someone rips it off of me or removes my head, it’s not going anywhere.” I grinned, pretty damn pleased with myself and Kyra for coming up with this.
Cassius seemed satisfied with that, and I leaned my head back, sighing as I soaked in the opulence of the rooms I’d been given.
The central space was wide, a long terrace with wooden shutters leading out to a balcony thick with potted plants coated in large, pink flowers situated ahead of my position on the cushions, the open grounds of the palace gardens beyond it should I wish to sit out there and take in the view.
There was a heavy wooden table behind me, a bowl of fruit left out on it alongside a pitcher of water which looked to have honest to the Fallen ice floating within it.
The space itself was painted a pale sand colour, four archways leading off of the central room, each with double doors set within them which all stood open, offering glimpses of bed chambers and a bathing chamber with a huge copper tub sat at the heart of it.
Luxurious didn’t come close to describing it and somehow, it was all mine to use as I pleased. The common street thief a guest of the royal family themselves.
A breath of disbelieving laughter escaped my lips as I just sat there and took it all in, resisting the urge to pinch myself and check if this was all real and not some dream.
But even my most ambitious dreams couldn’t have conjured something this divine.
This place wasn’t meant for the likes of me.
And yet here I was, my lower Fae arse resting upon cushions worth more than I could guess, and my eyes set on the throne which had sat above me and all those like me for generation upon generation.
If I truly did manage to claim the thing for my own, I might just keel over and die of shock.
But in the meantime, I intended to enjoy each and every decedent luxury which this opportunity presented me to its fullest.
Cassius moved to sit on the other end of the cushions, lifting the cushions there and moving them aside like he couldn’t even allow himself that simple comfort and sitting just as rigidly as always once he got himself into position.
I could feel his eyes on me as I pushed my hair back out of my face, but I let the words he wanted hang in the silence between us, tipping my head back and looking up at the elaborate candelabra which hung from the ceiling instead, watching the way the metal frames around the candles cast ever moving shadows flickering across the curved ceiling above.
“So?” he asked stiffly, and I could tell he was practically bursting to know how the Unveiling had gone.
I kicked my feet up onto a dark coffee table which sat before us, and I could feel him trying to contain a cringe. Imagine the horror; a filthy street bastard placing his boots upon a table in the palace.
“Yeah, she’s a sight to behold,” I said, placing my head in my hands and spreading myself out to get more comfortable.
“A bit forward for a virgin, I have to say. I was pretty surprised when she begged me to come to her chambers tonight and make a real woman of her. But I told her she’d have to wait ‘til our wedding night for that.” I smiled to myself, wondering how much he could take before he’d strike me, and I swear I could actually hear him grinding his teeth in fury as he fought to contain himself.
“And she didn’t even mind about your face?” Kyra breathed, her eyes widening as she crept closer, taking a seat on the back of the cushions close enough for me to be able to see her even while I kept my eyes on the ceiling. “That’s so romantic.”
“The princess of Osaria would never invite you to her bed like that,” Cassius snarled in outrage, ignoring my little goddess, which was a good thing because her words were enough to incite my own irritation.
I released a bark of laughter, my blood heating, and the desire to keep pushing at Cassius building in me beyond the point of fun as I considered goading him into a fight simply for the thrill of it. “Well at least not until I marry her after the pageant, eh?” I taunted.
“To do that, you would have to win the pageant and I highly doubt that a low born criminal like you would ever-”
“There’s the truth then at last,” I said, snapping my fingers as I pointed at him and pushed myself to sit up again. “At least now you’re willing to admit that you think I’ll lose.”
“I never said I thought you’d win,” he stated haughtily.
“But what if I do?” I asked and the question hung between us. He knew what I could do in a fight. He knew it wasn’t impossible, and yet he’d brought me here all the same despite the fact that he clearly hated the idea of me winning this thing so much that it was eating him up inside.
“Then I suppose that will mean that you’re worthy of her hand,” he said in a tone of voice that made it clear he didn’t believe any such thing.
In fact, he looked inclined to rip my damn head off for the mere suggestion of it, and I had to wonder just how deep his infatuation with the sweet little princess ran.
“I’m not a fool, Cassius. I know you aren't just going along with this without a reason. And I know you manipulated me into participating in this pageant despite the fact that you don’t seem at all enthusiastic about the prospect of me taking part, let alone winning.
So that means you wanted to come back here for your own reasons.
I only went along with you because your plan actually seems like a better one than any I could have come up with to take the power and authority of the emperor.
In fact, the pageant will make it all too easy for me to gain everything I ever could have wanted with as little effort as possible.
So come on, tell me why you were desperate enough to try and trick me into coming here.
Tell me why you worked so hard to trick me into this position and make your own way back here.
Tell me why you thought I was stupid enough to believe you wanted to come here and ‘exonerate your name’ when you’re a criminal in the eyes of the crown and I know full well no pardon would ever be given to you. ”
“You’re right,” he said, dropping any pretence he’d been clinging to and just owning his actions. I respected him more for that much at least.
Kyra watched our exchange with wide eyes, but she didn’t seem to want to voice an opinion. Or maybe she didn’t have one. I guessed what we did or didn’t do mattered little to her.
“So what is it then? What’s so important to you that you wanted to come back here and be amongst the people who sentenced you to death for simply looking upon a pretty face?” I pressed, unwilling to let this go now that he was finally facing it.
Cassius didn’t seem to want to answer but I was done with playing this game. We were here in the thick of the biggest con I’d ever attempted, and I refused to carry on without my eyes open to all components.
“Magdor,” he growled, her name a curse on his lips.
“Ever since she arrived in the kingdom, everything that the emperor had planned to do to improve our beautiful country has been tossed to the wayside. He’s different since he married her, and I know it’s more than infatuation with his empress.
She is using sorcery or something even more sinister to manipulate him to her own purposes, and I fully intend to get the evidence I need to see her executed for her crimes so that Osaria can be free to prosper once again. ”
I raised an eyebrow at his impassioned speech and let out a low whistle.
Sure, he’d made a lot of grand statements about the way he thought things should be and hadn’t been at all shy about voicing his dislike of the empress before this, but I hadn’t realised he was actually fool enough to try and stand against her.
“Magdor asked me to fetch the coin that housed Kyra, that alone is evidence of her witchery,” Cassius said gravely.
“She wants me?” Kyra breathed and I nodded.
“And in the wrong hands, I believe you could be most dangerous,” Cassius said. “Am I wrong in that?”
“No,” she said, a tremor to her voice and horrors in her eyes which made my hackles raise. “The wrong hands have held me before. They have done such terrible, terrible things with my power.”
I didn’t like the sound of her being forced to turn her magic to the advantage of monsters, and I stared at her in discomfort for a long second before returning my attention to Cassius.
“Don’t want much then, do you mate? Just the death of the damn empress,” I muttered.
“Says the street thief who is trying to claim the hand of the princess and the crown to Osaria itself,” he tossed back.
“Fair point,” I conceded, the fight going out of me as fast as it had begun to rise.