Chapter 53
Fifty-Three
A king trusts his queen.
I will never doubt her again.
- King Richard
The air buzzes with a current of unease, strengthening with every second Arienna stays gone. Nicholas fidgets behind me, causing the pew to creak rhythmically. Jace glances in all directions, undoubtedly planning a way to escape. Even the Dragons are starting to show signs of stress.
I, on the other hand, trust my wife completely. Whatever is occurring, I’m certain she’ll figure out a way to deal with it.
She is the queen of Raza.
When the doors finally open behind me, the tension in the room rushes out, as if through an open dam. The Court looks up as one, and I pivot to face her fully. At the sight of her, I see red.
Literally.
She is absolutely covered in it.
Her eyes on me, she giggles.
My four wings snap open, and I’m in front of her in a heartbeat. One hand grabbing her chin, I tilt her face up. “Is any of this yours?” I demand. If anyone laid a hand on my wife –
“I don’t think so. I mean, I could be on my period as they are really irregular and I don’t keep track.
But it might’ve been over four weeks, I think, and my whole body aches as if it’s started, so –” She swallows.
“But I think… I think the back pain is just from the stress? Does your body do that when it sees a room full of blood, or do I need to go check my underwear?” She giggles harder.
“Though I don’t have any panty lickers with me, but gods, can you imagine how many panty lickers it’ll take to clean me up right now?
” She takes a deep, shuddering breath. “But –”
“What happened?” I murmur.
“Yon–” She stops, her eyes going wide. “I don’t want to lie to you?” she whispers instead, repeating what I told her after I stabbed Lief.
My heart softens. “Whatever happened, you can tell me.”
Her mouth opens and closes as her eyes plead with me.
“Your Majesty,” Petre says. “Where are our seconds?”
With a deep shuddering breath, Arienna pulls her chin from my grip. Trusting her to be okay, I step back despite every part of me wanting to fly her away from here.
Turning, she gestures for Fabia and Irin to come inside. Her best friend looks at me grimly. She, too, is covered in blood, though not as much as my wife. I can see maybe one or two spots that are free of any stains.
As Fabia and Irin march between the pews, carrying large bloody bags in each hand, my stomach twists.
I walk behind the three of them, up to the podium.
There, I stop, flicking my eyes to Jace.
His hands rest near two of his blades, and the look he shares with me is a clear warning.
I am walking out of here a free man one way or another.
Arienna signals for the other women to drop the bags. She picks up one of them, her arm muscles flexing under the strain. Lugging it up to the table in front of Petre, she places it on the ground, then goes back for the others.
With the last one, she lifts it onto the table. Takes a short break as she breathes hard. Then she opens the bag and lifts it higher before tipping it upside down. Three heads fall out, landing with solid thumps before rolling across the table.
Under the stunned silence of the Court, she releases the contents of the other bags. Some of them are so disfigured it’s hard to tell who is who. My stomach twisting, I look at the back of my wife, wondering for a fleeting moment if she is going to end up like Seqora – a woman lost to madness.
Feeling Jace’s eyes on me, the same worry mirroring mine, I shake my head.
My queen is nothing like my older sister.
Whatever happened, I know she didn’t kill them herself. Someone else must have done it, and she’s protecting them.
Fabia, perhaps.
Or Evangeline.
But not my wife.
Not my sweet, innocent wife who keeps wasps as pets because she sees the good in them.
“There,” Arienna says, her voice cracking under a soft giggle.
“I have released them. From the bags.” Another giggle.
“You never said they had to be ‘alive’. Probably because you didn’t think they’d die, but that’s a you – yous?
” She tilts her head to the side, pausing her fast ramble for a second, then nods.
“Yous problem. Richard didn’t think Evangeline would decline his marriage proposal.
He literally told me she wouldn’t. Yet, she did, so… ”
She giggles loudly this time, one hand slapping at her knee.
“And he didn’t think I could handle a bit of blood, but let me tell you –” She breaks off, raising her hands to her mouth as another giggle escapes.
“There is a lot of it. Like a lot, a lot. You go into the room and you think, oh my gods, a hundred people have died, but no. Just these twelve.”
Her hands gesture wildly at the heads on the table.
“And honestly, one of these might actually be a butt or something. It’s really hard to tell given the squish is so bad.
Ha. The squish.” She turns to look at me, panic behind a mask of madness, making my skin feel tight across my body.
She’s going into shock, and the urge to protect her from herself is only kept in check by her earlier plea for me to trust her, to let her prove she can be queen.
“Is that how you say it?” she asks.
“It’s squished,” I say strongly, keeping my concern for her hidden so she won’t break.
She turns back again. “Given the squished is so bad.”
I start to correct her, but she’s rambling so fast again, I think it would be better to just let her get it all out.
“Like bad. Really, really bad squished. But I did pick up one of the eyes to hopefully make up for that.” She snorts this time. Then reaching across the table, she picks up a wayward eye and tosses it to Coo.
Coo does not catch it.
None of the twelve members move.
No one behind me does either.
“So yeah,” Arienna says as she steps back. “That’s the deal done. I will be taking my husband home now.”
Turning on her heels, she walks towards me. She holds out her arm as she reaches me, and I take her hand in mine.
I half expect someone to call out as we leave, to claim the deal hasn’t been upheld, but there’s nothing but silence.
Squeezing my wife’s hand, I look at her. She’s starting to shake, and when she glances at me, her eyes are so wild, I want to cry for her.
Lifting her hand to my lips, ignoring the blood crusted there, I kiss it. She is not a monster.
Despite the doubt in her eyes, I want her to know that.
A small smile cracks her lips, and she nods. Her mouth moves in a silent, “Thank you,” and seeing her trust my opinion makes my chest ache.
“I love you.”
Tears burn her eyes at my words. She stops at the door to the hall, staring at me for a moment.
A calm slowly washes over her, glazing over the mad panic in her eyes.
Turning to look at Petre still sitting frozen at the table, my queen smiles sweetly.
A brilliance lights her pale-pink eyes. “Don’t you ever threaten my family again,” she says.
Holding the dragon’s gaze without flinching, she waits for her to say something.
She doesn’t.
No one does.
Widening her smile, my queen inclines her head. “Thank you for your time, everyone. I hope you have a lovely night.”
Her fingers tight on mine, she leads me from the hall.
“Holy fucking shit,” Fabia says as we landed on the balcony to the royal chambers.
Nicholas sets her down, but I keep Arienna in my arms. She started to shake as soon as we took flight, and she hasn’t yet stopped.
Cradling her against my chest, I press a kiss to the top of her head as our group strides down the hall.
“You should’ve seen that room. She –”
“Not now, Fabia,” I say, my eyes on my queen. With the rush of adrenaline having left her system, she merely looks exhausted and horrified.
Jace and Irin hurry ahead to clear our room. The door is opened for me when we reach it, and I head straight for the bathroom to put Arienna in the shower. Skirting in front of me, Jace opens the door so I won’t have to put her down.
I start to nod my thanks at him, but then I catch sight of a bound and gagged fairy passed out on the toilet. The lid is closed underneath him, but his trousers and boxers have been yanked down to his ankles. I don’t need to try to move him to know he’s stuck there with magic.
But although Evangeline has fixed the state of Redric’s massive balls, lifting the curse she put on them two decades ago, he now has an angry erection that I suspect has been there for days.
If I’d been sleeping in this room, I could’ve freed him ages ago, but it’s felt too empty without Arienna in it, so I’ve been crashing in my study.
“Fuuuuck. You two are into some kinky shit,” Fabia says from behind me.
Ignoring her, I turn to Irin. “Free him and heal whatever needs to be fixed. Then move him to another room on this floor. Don’t let him leave though until I speak to him.
” Allowing him to migrate over so he can try to kill Evangline might help fix this mess of hers, but I won’t overrule Arienna’s decision.
So we’ll discuss it later, and if she still doesn’t want him to be here, I’ll figure out another way to soothe his wounded pride and cool his anger.
“He might be too far –” Irin starts.
“He won’t be.” Evangeline would’ve cast a spell on him to let her know if he was dying. She wouldn’t have risked a Vylian wariq’s life just for a prank now that his death could lead to another war.
Leaving my guards to deal with him, I head for the shower. The fact that Arienna hasn’t reacted to Redric at all worries me. I want to believe she can handle this life – my life, but –
I shake my head, shoving out such thoughts.
She is Raza’s queen.
She will be fine.
But when I try to place her on her feet in front of the shower so I can take off our clothes, she clings to me with a whimper. My chest tight, I kiss the top of her head.