Chapter 22
Twenty-Two
The forest is a dangerous place to travel. The skies are hunted by birds of prey. The forest floor by jungle cats.
How can I offer her peace when the world is filled with death?
- King Richard
As the crowd starts to disperse out onto the branch, those of us onstage head through the door leading further into the castle. We will leave via a quieter exit, then head up to the aviary to fly to the next town.
“Well done!” Arienna says as she looks first at me, then at Petre. “I think you both brought up some great points.”
“Her points are ridiculous,” I say tightly. “The idiots she speaks of will still have to prove they understand what they are voting on.”
“No, they only have to prove they know the answers to the questions,” Petre says sharply as she walks on the other side of my queen. “And those questions will be very basic, not proving any understanding at all.”
“As a collective, people are smarter.” The morons at the bottom will be evened out by those at the top.
“As a collective,” Tanya sneers from behind me, “people follow whoever is the loudest.”
“This is why everyone should have a voice.”
“They have a voice,” Coo says as we take a corner and head for the double doors opening out onto the west side of our tree. “You hear them every morning.”
“And when they write to us about their grievances,” her twin sister, Chi, adds.
My jaw tightens in irritation. That is not enough.
I only hear a fraction of them, and what do I really know of their troubles when I live in an entirely different world?
I do not know how hard it is to farm or what it is like to go hungry.
I make my decisions with zero empathy – sending a wave of soldiers in to die so we can hold a strategic point elsewhere; massacring the children of the Alzans so we can scare them into running rather than fighting, thus saving more of our own; committing war crimes and framing the Jokeni so I can drum up more support when it wanes; slaughtering an entire town to stop the zombie fungus from spreading rather than using the resources it’d take to cure our people; and killing my own sister.
She chose me to take her place because I was better suited to war.
I am heartless and cold and do what needs to be done.
But a tyrant does not have a place in this new world.
It needs someone who will listen to the people they don’t like or agree with, and considering no one like that exists, it needs a collective of voices.
“Well,” Arienna says cheerfully, “I think you both did a fantastic job of educating your people. Although, I have to say, I don’t quite understand why people are against taxes.”
We step outside, and I pick her up in my arms. She gulps as I spread my wings, but I don’t take off yet.
“What is your question?” I ask her, knowing she will be scared to mention it while we fly.
“If no one wishes for things to be free here – like food and housing. Then how come they’re against paying for the services the monarchy provides them?
” She glances around at all the stern members of the Court before looking at me.
Staring into my eyes, she finds her strength to continue.
“When you buy an apple, you’re not just paying for the apple, right?
You’re paying for the labour to pick it and the costs of the business to keep it fresh.
So I’m a bit confused about how taxes differ to any other bill? ”
None of us say anything.
“Because it’s stealing,” Coo finally answers.
“How?”
“Well, because not everyone wants all the services the money is used on.”
“But if I don’t care if my apple has a bug in it, I still have to pay for someone to quality check all of them because it’s part of the business, don’t I?
Or if I don’t think the CEO needs a new wardrobe this year, but she increases the price anyway, then I still have to pay the difference?
And if they then use their profits to lobotomise –”
“Lobby,” I correct.
“To lobby for war and other unhelpful things, then is that all stealing too?” she asks, genuinely confused.
“Well,” Coo says, then looks to her sister.
Chi shrugs.
“It’s not literal stealing,” I say slowly even though I’m not entirely sure how to explain this in a way a brownie will understand either. “But it’s harder… for people to see the return… of what they’ve... purchased when they don’t see the labour.”
“So why not just show them the labour? You do a lot of work for this kingdom.” She looks around at the others. “You all do.”
“Of course we do,” Tanya says. “And yet, your husband is still trying to kill us for it.”
“I could change that law if you’d let me.” I would prefer to retire them with my sword, but if that’s all it takes for them to get on board with this, then fuck it. I’m tired of fighting. All I want is to spend a life with my queen. I want to see her pregnant and laughing and safe.
Fuck. I want to see her pregnant.
“Traditions should be upheld,” Tanya sniffs.
“Then do not complain when it kills you.” Spreading my wings, I launch into the air. Arienna clings to me, burying her head against my chest as she squeezes her eyes shut. My heart beats as fast as hers as I focus on what I let myself finally think about.
Children.
With her.
Growing up in a world that won’t see them kill each other for this fucking throne.
Clenching my jaw, I lock those dreams down. Hope is nothing but a curse from the gods.
As soon as we land in the aviary, I whistle for Maeve.
My queen clings to me, weak and shaking, but she doesn’t resist when I pick her up and put her on the crow.
Basking in her trust of me, I calm a little.
Maeve nudges me with her head before I climb up myself, and I take a moment to stroke her beak.
“Who’s a good girl?” I say softly to her.
She ruffles her feathers with pride.
Arienna mutters something.
“What was that?” I ask, lifting my head to look at her.
“Me,” she whines, and I fight so hard not to laugh. With the Court all around us, it feels too much like an ambush. It isn’t safe to let my guard down.
By the time I settle in behind my queen, the rest of our group are on their own steeds. Holding Arienna’s hands, I press my heels into Maeve. She hops along the branch until she has the space to fly, then she spreads her wings and takes off.
My queen tenses, and I kiss her neck while moving her hands up into my hair.
She grabs hold tight, but the sharp pain at my scalp is too pleasurable to correct.
Cupping her breasts through her dress, I rub the cum still spread across her bruised skin.
“Did my little slut like having my cum on her in a crowded room?”
A shiver runs through her, but her fingers don’t loosen in my hair.
“Did she like feeling the chocolate on her leg? Knowing that if she’d just been a good girl yesterday, it could’ve been licked up, then replaced with more cum?
“Does she want,” I say, feathering my thumbs across her nipples, my cock rising as they do, “to be covered in it by the end of the week? To have Jace undress her, finding each and every drop she wears so well?”
Panting, she pushes her ass against my cock. I groan as I slide my lips across her neck, letting her hear how much I’m suffering. “I asked you… a question, my queen.”
Her grip loosens ever so slightly. Her breathing quickens fast. And the knowledge that her entire focus is on me and what I can do for her is making me fucking weak. I want to order Maeve to land, then fuck my queen in the privacy of the nearest shadow.
“Yes,” she rasps.
I growl into her neck, nearly undone from her simple admittance. With the Royal Guard around us, I take my time teasing my queen on top of her clothes. Her hands loosen in my hair, and I guide one of them down to my cock. As she reaches behind her to touch me, I cup her over her chastity belt.
“When I take this off you for lunch,” I rasp against her neck, “you’re going to sit down on my face. And you’re not going to leave the table until – Left!”
Maeve barrel rolls with a loud caw.
Arienna screams.
I wrap my arms tight around her as a jungle cat jumps off the branch of a tree. It misses us, but grabs Echo’s bird, and I dig my heels into Maeve to order her to climb.
Instead, she banks hard to the right. A slash of talons grazes her middle. Another set grabs her by the face. The hawk flaps its wings and twists, trying to overpower Maeve, who’s frantic to get away.
Arienna grabs hold of her feathers on another scream. I look over my shoulder, debating if we should bail. If we tumble, I won’t be able to spread my wings. We might hit one of the branches before I can right us.
Jace’s bird swoops past, its talons aiming for the hawk’s eyes. Another guard joins in, and as the three of them fight, Maeve is turned upside down. Arienna slips off her, and I follow suit a second later, my arms still tight around her.
As we rush towards the ground, I try to twist us around. We smack into a large leaf. Arienna scrambles to grab on as we slide down it, but I’m on the bottom, and she’s making this really fucking difficult.
We free fall once more. Her screams are ripped away by the wind. Spreading my wings, I finally manage to right us. She scrambles in the air, her arms and legs swinging. “Put me down!” she screams.
“It’s not safe.”
“Dying isn’t safe! I’m never flying again.” She shrieks as I twist to the left. An arrow whizzes past us. For fuck’s sake! How many fucking assassins are hitting us at once?
The hawk is the steed of an infamous bitch who calls herself Hawk. What she lacks in imagination though, she more than makes up for in her ability to kill. But she always works alone.
The newcomer fires another arrow at us. I barrel roll, then drop. Arienna’s wild panicking is making it hard to fly smoothly, but it’s also making it near on impossible for our assassin to shoot us.
Dropping her bow, she draws her sword and charges for us instead. The rest of my guard is behind us, dealing with what seems to be the entire guild of assassins.
Forced to drop Arienna onto a branch so I can fight, I veer towards the closest one.
“Hide,” I order as I turn around and pull out a knife.
I throw it at the assassin’s chest. She isn’t as fast as Jace, and she gasps as it slams into her ribs.
Her sword drops as I unsheath another blade.
Already flying over to her, I slice open her neck. She falls, and I turn back to my queen.
To find yet another woman already there – sneaking up behind my wife.
“Arienna!” I shout as I fly towards her.
But although she turns to face her assailant, she doesn’t know how to fight.
With one easy shove, the assassin pushes Arienna out of the tree.
I dive as she screams. Another arrow aims for me. If I dodge it, I’ll lose the precious time needed to save my wife. If I take the hit, I’ll lose her anyway. Then I’ll be dead too and unable to avenge her.
Yelling in anguish, I twist to the side. The arrow splinters apart in front of me as a rock slams into it from the side. A crow dives past me, heading for my wife.
I fly after it, my heart in my throat as the forest screams with clashing blades and whistling arrows.
A ball of magic explodes somewhere behind me, but all of my attention is on the crow in front of me.
It’s blocking the view of my wife. We’re too close to the forest floor. It isn’t going to make it.
Spreading its wings, the crow catches itself right before it hits. I cry out, expecting to see Arienna’s splattered body on the ground, laid out across the root of a tree, but there's nothing there. Just the life of the forest.
I look up at Petre’s crow and see it clutching my wife in one talon. She screams as she kicks her legs and holds on tight to the claws wrapped around her shoulders.
“I want to be on the ground.”
But Petre’s bird flies up.
I whistle as I rush after it, praying that Maeve is alive. My heart tightens when I don’t hear an answering caw.
And then there it is.
Full of irritation and ruffled feathers, but it's strong. Both of my girls are going to be okay.
Petre’s crow deposits my wife gently on a branch, then lands beside it. Arienna drops to her hands and knees, clutching at the bark. The Dragon stands guard over her, two knives drawn, as the rest of the Court and my guards battle it out a few trees away.
“Arienna,” I say as I land, then kneel beside her. She flops onto the branch, with her arms and legs spread out as if she’s trying to hug it with all four limbs.
“No! No! No! No! No! I’m staying right here!”
“Are you hurt?”
“Yes! That was terrifying!”
“Physically?”
“No.” Then… “The belt is digging into my vagina. I think it’s halfway into my belly by now.”
“You need to get up.”
“No.”
“We need to get out of here.”
She whines.
“I need you to trust me.”
Shuddering, she lifts her head. Her eyes are wide and fucking terrified. “I do, but I can’t move.”
Another fairy lands beside us. “Get up, or I will kill you here, then resurrect you later.”
“Echo –” I say as I stand.
“We’ve lost two guards and a Dragon, and my steed is dead. We move now.”
I don’t argue. If it was anyone other than my wife having a panic attack, I would’ve knocked them out already. So I grab her, ignoring the fact that her entire body is shaking. Spreading my wings, I take to the air. She starts to cry. I ignore that too.
Lock it down.
Freeze all emotion out.
As we race to the safety of one of our trees, I wonder if Jace is amongst the casualties.