Chapter 25 #3
My skin slithered at the memory of his hands on my body, his mouth against mine, his cock inside me. Had his fiancé known he would be bedding the enemy in his mission? Did she care?
And more to the point, why did I care? I’d known he’d used and tricked me.
I’d known that nothing he’d said or done with me had held any truth to it.
But knowing that all the time he’d spent taking pleasure in my flesh he’d been betrothed to another somehow heightened my disgust for him even further.
“Did you love him?” Evard asked curiously.
I scoffed, my gaze snapping from the image of Septa Thorngrove to the eyes of the man who had made me his wife.
“Love?” I spat. “I have only ever felt that emotion for two people in this world and he is the one who tore them from me. I was tricked by him, yes. And he spun pretty words which made me feel wanted and stole a little of the loneliness from my soul for a time. But it was never anything close to love.”
“I’m glad for you then. At least you don’t have that burden upon you.”
I had no words in reply to that so I flipped the next page of the ledger while Evard went on.
“Unfortunately I have little else. His allegiance is to Earl Tarlord so we can assume he returned to him but my eyes within the Earl’s court were unfortunately severed before any word of Alestro’s return might have made it to my ears.
Everyone is fearful while the Void roams The Waning Lands and I have not been able to confirm his location for you… yet.”
“Earl Tarlord rules from the Stone Castle,” I said, snapping the ledger closed, my mind briefly turning to the memory of the bloodstained warlord I’d seen on the battlefield at Cinder Vale.
Earl Tarlord’s reputation was a terrible thing and seeing him in the flesh had only confirmed the fact that he’d earned it.
But the Earl wasn’t my target so I dismissed any concerns I had about facing him.
“So that seems like as good a place to start my hunt as any.”
“He doesn’t actually. Or at least he isn’t in residence there at the moment. I know that much. He took Cinder Vale and remains there–”
“All the better. Pyros is closer–”
“And then the Void took it from him in turn. I am yet to discover if he perished in the battle or escaped it. If it’s the former then Alestro might be among the dead too or–”
“I cursed that bastard as he ran from me and the power of that magic still remains strong in my blood. I can feel it. He hasn’t met with death yet.”
Evard nodded, accepting my word on the matter.
“Good.”
“Is it?” I asked.
“Yes. You need to take his head yourself. Any other fate would be too easy for him.”
I eyed the prince with suspicion, uncertain why he would show such understanding to my cause.
“What do you want for this?” I asked, my gifts coiling around him as I hunted for his desires, his motivations.
He was a complicated man and his wants were muddled.
Ruling them all, I felt his ambition for the throne of course, but as I pushed that aside and hunted for the other wants of his haunted soul, I found some more interesting desires.
He was hungry for knowledge in a way that was admirable, keen to see the war ended and peace falling too – which truthfully surprised me as I’d found most other men in positions of power like his to be fond of warfare and bloodshed.
When I dug deeper, hunting for the desires he held in regards to me, I was surprised to find he really did wish to see me seize my vengeance.
He also wanted me at his side when he claimed the throne – a little of that desire was for petty victory over Dragor but part of it was because he enjoyed the idea of raising a Sinfair into the position of Queen and making a statement to the entire kingdom which spoke of equality within Stormfell.
I looked for lust, tugging with my gifts to try and unearth it, wanting to know if he’d been lying to me when he denied wanting sex, even if the desire was buried deeply.
Evard could clearly feel the pull of my gifts though and he sighed.
“I told you plainly I do not wish to consummate this marriage. I assure you that the knowledge of our abstinence will not become widespread but I suppose it would serve you to understand a little of why I have no desire to bed you, or any other Fae for that matter. As well as to make it all the clearer to you as to why this union will be more than beneficial to you.”
“I assumed you just had no interest in the act,” I admitted, letting my gifts fall away. “I’ve never sensed any lust on you.”
“And you won’t. I don’t feel any. Not since…well, let us simply say that I loved someone once too. It was a secret guarded so absolutely that I believed no one at all knew of it. Until of course I was gifted her head in a box by a man I should have realised was my enemy long before that day.”
“Truly?” I breathed because surely such a story, such a scandal, would have found its way around the court like wildfire. How had I never heard a whisper of such a thing before?
“Yes. And none know of it, so I shall know if you speak it beyond this moment.”
“I won’t,” I told him, though why I was offering him my word on anything I didn’t know. “Did you get your vengeance?”
“In some ways yes, in others…not yet. But I will. So you see, I do understand your need for revenge. Can you trust that I will help you claim it?”
I stared at him, peering into his eyes as if I might pick apart his soul in the process. My gifts tangled around him, hunting for any sign of duplicity but all he seemed to want from me was allegiance.
“Yes,” I said finally.
“Then work with me. Our union puts me in the same position as Dragor so far as inheritance is concerned to my father. We both have wives able to provide Heirs and neither of us have gotten them pregnant.”
“How do you know his wife isn’t pregnant?”
Evard gave me a cunning grin. “Because I may or may not be responsible for slipping a contraceptive potion into her tea once or twice a week. Believe me, I’m more likely to get pregnant than she is while consuming that concoction.”
I breathed a laugh, knowing it was wicked to do so but Dragor had only taken that bitch for his wife because she was supposed to be good for breeding. How long would he continue to stomach her while she failed him in her only task?
“You are a far more powerful match than he has made with Alexandrius. He was a fool not to see that before. Our father doesn’t give a shit about noble bloodlines but he has noticed you.
Your legion of Sinfair are already proving themselves notorious in battle.
Join them with my forces and our tactics will see us surpassing all of my siblings where warfare is concerned and truly, that is all my father cares for.
He wants to win this fucking thing and I do too.
I’m bored of endlessly fighting. I want it done and I believe that with you by my side we might see that happen.
I don’t want to die before I see peace like so many of my ancestors have. ”
“So I’d be your wife in name only? You won’t expect me to make you an Heir eventually?”
“I told you, I am not capable of such and have no desire to ever be. But you can take lovers as you like. Perhaps we will find one among them who could do the job of producing an Heir for us too. I think perhaps that is the only kind of love I might ever be able to feel again. That of a parent... But if you don’t wish to birth your own children then we can claim an orphan or five. ”
“You don’t care if I take lovers?” I asked suspiciously because why would a prince of Stormfell have no objections to his wife’s adultery?
“You’re a Succubus. I’m sure we can spin it so that it appears to be the most natural thing in all the world, whether I’m royal or not. We can even give them titles. The royal harem. Whatever you wish. Anything will be within our power – just so long as we make it to the throne.”
“You’re mad,” I said, shaking my head in disbelief. “You think the kingdom would love a crossborn queen who keeps a harem?”
“I think the people of our kingdom will love whatever they are told to love. Take a good look at my father and you’ll see the truth of that. He is not so very lovable but he wins battles for them, so they praise him as their beloved monarch. And if we won them the war…”
“You really think he would choose you as his Heir?”
“With you at my side, I think we have a real shot at it, yes. So what’s it to be?”
I thought his offer over. It really was madness, but for some reason it was tempting too.
If I looked at this as just another promotion, then all I was really accepting from him was more power.
He wasn’t asking for any kind of commitment from my flesh, he didn’t want any attempt at romance.
And on top of that, he might just be the key to me finding and killing Cayde.
After that, all deals would be off regardless.
“I’ll take your word that you will deliver me all the information I need for my hunt the moment you receive it.
You won’t delay or weaponize it, hold it over me, or use it to gain further favours from me.
Nor will you try to stop me when I have all the information I need to go after him.
” I offered the prince my hand for a star bond, and he eyed it with interest.
“Fine. But in return, I’ll take your word that you won’t betray, sabotage or assassinate me.”
I gave him the smile I reserved for my victims, and he gave me a cunning grin in reply. We weren’t so very different, this prince and me. Just monsters wearing different skins, both wickedly corrupt beneath them.
“Deal.”
“Deal.” His hand clasped mine and magic crashed between our palms, binding us to those promises.
And just like that, I became a princess of Stormfell.