Chapter 24
Twenty-Four
A good little slut protects those she cares about.
Which is mightier? A sword or a dick?
- Arienna
“You’re fucking insane. I’m not waiting that long!
” Fabia’s voice pounds through the wall as I hurry towards the room she’s in.
Over a dozen guards surround me, with Jace at the forefront.
The hallways are packed with even more guards but not a single civilian is here.
The castle’s been completely secured, and yet, it still feels so vulnerable.
Fabia might sound like herself, but Jace said she took an arrow to her chest. The world won’t feel safe or right until I make sure she’s okay.
“What’s insane is thinking you’re fit enough to go back to being a guard! You’re not even out of training!” Nicholas shouts. “You could’ve died today!”
My heart jumps as we reach the group of armed women outside their door.
“If it wasn’t for me, you would have died, you ungrateful asshat! Did you never learn the words, ‘Thank you?’”
“You don’t thank idiots. You correct them!”
The door swings open, but I don’t think either of them notice. They’re in each other’s faces, their eyes locked on as tightly as their horns. Her hands on her hips, Fabia yells at him, calling him the real idiot. His hands flexing at his sides, he leans in, and –
“Fabia!” I shout as I throw myself at her.
She turns, then grunts as Nicholas yanks her out of my way. I stumble, then fall flat on my face. Jace picks me up, and I turn to see her trying to pull herself free while his grip fastens like iron.
“Get off me, you ungrateful asshat,” she growls as she pries at Nicholas’ hand.
“You’ve used that insult already.”
“It’s so very fitting. Now get off.”
“Not until she knows not to tackle you. You just took an arrow to the chest, for fuck’s sake.”
My eyes bounce between them before landing on my friend. “I thought you were healed?” I say, my eyes watering as I look at her in horror. I could have hurt her. I could have killed her with a simple hug.
“Oh, now look what you’ve done.” Exasperated, she gives up trying to free herself as she turns to face me. “I’m fine, Arienna, I swear. The healer was really good. There’s no more pain or even a mark on me.”
“Let me see.”
“No.”
“Strip, Fabia, that’s an order.”
“Arienna –” she growls low as Nicholas’ hand tightens on her bicep, his knuckles turning white. She looks at him as she winces, but instead of letting her go, he pulls her even closer. His nostrils flare. His eyes dip to her lips and –
“You can’t refuse a direct order,” Jace says cheerfully.
Nicholas jerks back, his jaw tight.
“That’s right!” I say, desperate to see for myself that she’s okay. “So strip. Right now.”
“Jace,” Nicholas snaps, “get out.”
“Can’t.” He grins. “I’m not allowed to leave her side.”
“Fabia,” I say as I reach for her shirt. “Let me see you’re okay.”
She steps away from me, swatting at my hands. Nicholas lets her go as he moves away from her too, crossing over to Jace. “Fine,” she snaps, “but you two” –she points at the two men– “turn around.”
“I’m not allowed to take my eyes off –”
“I’m going to take your eyes –” Fabia starts at the same time Nicholas reaches for him.
“Jace!” I shout, my pulse screaming as loud as we all are. Well, minus Jace. He’s the only one who seems happy and calm right now. Chuckling, he steps out of Nicholas’ reach and turns around. Richard’s brother stands stiffly beside him, his arms crossed, his back to us too.
Looking at Fabia, I take a step towards her again. “I need to see you’re okay.”
“I told you I’m fine.”
“Let me see.”
“Arienna –” She sighs as I start to shake. Tugging her shirt up past her breasts, she shows me smooth skin.
“Where did you get shot?” My eyes roam all over her.
“Here,” she says, vaguely waving at her right side.
“Where?”
“If you can’t tell, then clearly I’m okay.”
“Where?”
Exhaling sharply, she points more precisely.
I gasp in horror. “Right through your boob?” Reaching forwards, I snag the material to check her over, but she slaps my hand aside as she drops her shirt.
“I’m not taking off my bra, Arienna!”
“You could give her another order, Your Majesty,” Jace says helpfully.
“Fabia –”
“Arienna, I swear to the gods, if you make me take off my bra with Jace here, I will not speak to you for the rest of the day.”
I huff out a breath, warring with my need to make sure she really is okay. “Fine,” I say. “Then you will answer my questions instead.”
“Deal.”
“Have you lost sensitivity in your nipple?”
“Arienna!”
A low, strained noise comes from behind me; it doesn’t sound like Jace.
“You said you’d answer my questions!”
She grits her teeth. Her eyes dart over my shoulder as she shakes her head slightly.
“Have you checked?”
If looks could kill, I don’t think we’d need a single other guard to protect the castle – for surely, there is more than enough venom in her to take on thirty assassins.
“I don’t need to check –”
“Yes, you do! You need to make sure they’ve healed you right. Remember when King Morningstar got his dick cut off in your book –”
“That’s fiction, Arienna!”
“– The King With the Unsatisfied Dick, and when they reattached it, he didn’t check if they did it right, and it started fucking everything within reach –”
“Arienna!” She grabs my arms, but I’m shaking too hard to keep the words in.
“– including Prince Ni–”
“ARIENNA!” She yanks me into her arms and smothers my face against her chest. I cling to her as I shudder.
“Next time, just let Nicholas get hit.”
“Wow, talk about monster-in-laws,” Jace mutters.
“It’s my job –” she starts.
“No, it’s not! You’re my guard, not his, and you can’t defy an order. So I’m ordering you to… to jump behind him if –”
“No.”
“But –”
“No.”
“I can’t lose you,” I rasp.
“You won’t,” she murmurs as she hugs me tighter.
“You don’t know that! People die so fast here.” My heart trips, then falls flat on its face – so clumsy these days, just like me. “And I won’t even be able to hug you afterwards now because they don’t do funerals here.”
“For the last time, you’re not taxidermying me, Arienna.”
“But I’ll miss all your hugs!”
“I barely hug you now.”
“Which has been okay because I knew I’d get them all in eventually.”
“Arienna...”
I turn my head to the side, wiping my tears across her tunic. As she tries to comfort me, I open my mouth, then latch my teeth onto her boob.
She yelps.
I find her nipple beneath her clothes and flick it hard with my tongue.
She shoves me away from her, and I stumble back in relief. “You have feeling in your nipple! Thank gods!”
“What the fuck, Arienna!” she shouts as the two men spin around.
Nicholas moves towards her, then stops. There’re so many emotions on his face, but my attention stays on my friend.
“You’re really okay,” I say as I start to giggle.
“Your nipple was already quite hard.” I freeze as understanding dawns.
She said she was only against taking off her bra in front of Jace.
Which means she wasn’t against taking it off in front of Nicholas.
Excitement starts to drown out my worry. Because if they actually get together, she’s going to be my sister, and that’ll make her a princess, and then she can’t protect anyone. She’ll need to be protected. By a whole host of guards.
“Arienna, I swear to the gods, if you say one more word, I will stab myself just to see what it feels like. Because I was thinking while I fell off my crow,” she says, advancing like a jungle cat, “that I have been describing the feeling of being shot wrong all this time. It’s not a sharp stabbing pain that makes you scream.
It’s more like being hit by a giant fist that knocks the wind out of you.
The arrow is so fast, you don’t feel its cut, only the pressure of its impact. ”
I gasp, remembering all too clearly how she drank poison just to make sure she described it accurately in her books.
“They have really good healers here,” she threatens.
Knowing she is dumb enough to follow through, I press my lips together. Fine. If I can’t play matchmaker directly, then I’ll do it sneakily. Smiling wide, I nod.
Her eyes narrow, but she doesn’t push – perhaps worried I’ll continue this conversation.
Turning to Jace, I ask, “When’s dinner with the ladies and lords?”
I skipped lunch, too upset to eat, but now my stomach is growling. And the gears in my head are turning.
“In about an hour.”
“Will Richard be back by then?”
He shakes his head. “Probably not. The debate ends in half an hour, then he’s meeting Evangeline.”
“So you’ll need to attend in his place?” I ask Nicholas.
His jaw tics, but he nods.
“I shall attend as well,” I say, clapping my hands together.
Fabia pins me with her signature look. The one that says she thinks I’m acting highly suspicious.
But I don’t care. I’m going to protect her the only way I know how. I’m going to get her to fall in love with Nicholas.