Chapter 56
Fifty-Six
A king respects his queen’s wishes, even if they’re about a dumb dress.
She’ll be down on her knees soon enough.
- King Richard
My skin feels like it wants to crawl off me as I stand under the prodding, jabbing hands of Ajax, the royal dressmaker.
His daughter is with my wife, helping her get dressed in the other room.
The Court wanted us to wait another three weeks until coronation, but Arienna’s waited long enough for her crown. I will not keep it from her any longer.
“This would go faster, Your Majesty” –Ajax pricks me with a pin– “if you’d stop moving.”
“It’d be faster if you fixed my old suit.” Arienna ripped off all the buttons and tore a bit of the fabric while trying to get it off me the first time we had sex. I’m certain it doesn’t need much doing to it –
“That suit isn’t worth fixing,” he says as he pins in the fabric of my trousers for a smoother fit. “It’s so last season.”
“I wore it a month ago.”
“And it made you look like an idiot. All the fashion mags are still writing about that horror show.” Stepping back, he studies me with one hand on his chin. “Spin.”
Begrudgingly, I do so. I’ve long learned that just shutting up and letting him do his thing, within reason, is the fastest way to get off this damn dais.
“Nando, suit jacket.” He snaps his fingers, and a young man walking with a cane strides over with a “pearl” –“not white, you heathen”– jacket. It’s the same colour as the trousers he made me put on. But white or pearl, neither are favourable colours.
I like black.
And colours dark enough to pass for it.
But at least the inside of the jacket is black.
Black and silver thorns are also embroidered half-way down the jacket’s left side and half-way up the right. A single line of them runs down both sides of my trousers too, much to my annoyance. Wordlessly, I shrug the jacket on.
“How is he treating you?” I ask Nando as his boss starts to walk around me, his hand still raised to his chin.
This is Nando’s first civilian job, having served for six years in the Vylian war. He’s just spent two years in rehab, learning how to walk again after the intensive damage he suffered to his wings and spine.
“Well enough, my lord.”
“Well enough?” Ajax scoffs. “You’re fucking spoiled working here.
” He cocks his head to the side, studying my attire.
“The jacket fits. It’s the trousers that need bringing in.
” Leaning in with a piece of chalk, he marks the parts he wants to change.
Then he straightens and holds out his hand. “Take them off.”
I do as he says, keen to see my queen before we’re expected downstairs. Stepping out into the hall in just my boxers, I head for the other room.
“Out,” I ordered Ella, Ajax’s daughter, as soon as I enter.
She’s bent over the skirt of my wife’s dress. Arienna has her back to me, facing a trio of mirrors, and as she turns, I stop mid-stride. Her lips stretch into a smile, radiating with happiness and hunger as her eyes dip down my body.
But despite having come in here for exactly what she’s thinking about, my mind is a complete blank of utter awe. This gorgeous woman is my queen.
Movement passes me, and I’m vaguely aware of the door shutting behind me, but the world is still sluggish and slow outside of the pinpoint radiance that is my wife.
Arienna lifts up her skirts – pearl with black and silver embroidered thorns crawling up the hem. Tiny feathers hug her waistline and flare up to her breasts. No straps hang from her shoulders, and I know one tug will bare her to me, naked and perfect.
Pearl, I decide, is my new favourite colour.
“What do you think?” she asks, lifting her eyes up to mine.
I blink, and the world starts moving again at the right speed. Finding us alone, I stride over to her and offer a hand.
“I think,” I say as she steps off the dais, “that I can do this” –I reach for the top of her bodice and start to pull it down– “and then suck –”
“Hey!” She swats at my hand. “Don’t mess the feathers up. Ella spent ages getting them just right.”
“Then she can redo –”
“No.” Her eyes narrow. “I am not standing on that dais for another hour because you can’t keep your hands to yourself.”
“It won’t just be my hands that I –”
“No. And don’t think you’re ripping this off me later either. It’s too gorgeous for that.”
Pearl, I suddenly decide, is a horrible colour. The worst fucking colour, and come tomorrow, I’m banning it in Raza.
Laughing, she grabs my hands as she lifts herself up on her tippy toes. She kisses the tight line of my lips. “But just because you can’t touch me right now does not mean I can’t touch you,” she teases as she slides down my body to kneel in front of me.
“Eyes on me,” she murmurs as she trailed her lips across my bare thigh and then across the bulge of my boxers.
My fingers tighten on hers. I keep my gaze where she wants it despite the urge to peek down her bodice, where her breasts are pushed up delectably.
Her lips have just brushed my cock when some fucking asshole knocks on the door.
“Get your ass out here, Your Majesty,” Ajax says. “Your trousers are done, and I want to check them one last time.”
Giggling, she places a light kiss through the boxers, then rises to her feet and kisses my cheek. “He’s coming!” she says.
“Not even close,” I mutter as I follow her out.
But she’s waited long enough to be crowned.
And I have a lifetime to have her down on her knees smiling up at me.
The hall in Morrighan Manor is packed with nobles from all over Raza. Commoners line the branch outside, trying to see inside. In two decades, Raza hasn’t seen a queen. And in over two millennia, it has never been ruled by a brownie.
The murmurs whispering through the crowd are an equal part excitement and trepidation.
Will she be the queen they were hoping for all this time?
Or will she lead us into ruin? Her power will trump mine in all things, and if she wants, she can rule without any input from me – something I was terrified of when I’d first been forced to take a wife.
But now?
As I stand on the dais with my queen, I know Aurelia would have been happy about this. This is the future she wanted – where someone like Arienna could live here and be happy. Perhaps, she would’ve even been happy for me…
The man who killed her.
Reaching over, Arienna squeezes my hand and smiles at me.
My chest tightens along with her fingers as I look at Jace.
He’s standing with the other guards, off the dais, in front of the crowd.
He wanted to be up here with us given the twelve Court members are all standing in an arc in front of us.
They each have a sword in their hands, pointing down at the ground.
But having a guard behind each courtesan would have made everyone uneasy.
Jace nods at me, a wide smile on his face despite the pain in his eyes. This time every year, we would’ve been locked in some room, broken over Aurelia’s death. And yet, here we are on her day, celebrating.
My stomach twists as guilt floods my veins.
But I wanted her day – needed her day to be one of change, the kind of change she would’ve wanted. It’s time to remember my sister not with pain but with a hopeful look towards the future.
Turning back to my queen, I squeeze her hand.
Petre steps forwards, the sword she’s holding hailing back to Queen Raza’s rein, owned by her ancestor, one of the original Dragons of Kholar. “You will devote your life to this kingdom. You will protect it from all invaders. You will uphold its laws and rule justly. This, do you swear?”
“I swear.”
She holds my wife’s gaze for a moment, then stabs her sword into the floor.
Dropping to one knee, she bows her head, and the other eleven members do the same.
Together, they vow, “We will advise you to the best of our ability, work with you to protect this kingdom, and uphold the laws of this land.”
Lifting her head, Petre stands tall once more. Two men step forwards, one of whom is holding a crown atop a dark purple pillow. She hands over her sword, then takes the crown.
Kneeling, Arienna releases my hand, and Petre rests the crown atop her head. Looking down at her, I try not to imagine us standing in the crowd alongside Nicholas and Fabia while it’s Aurelia who’s becoming queen.
I cannot change the past.
But I damn well can change the future.
“Then rise, Queen Arienna.”
As she climbs back to her feet, she grabs my hand again, her touch chasing away the pain. Turning to her, rules be damned, I pull her close and kiss her.
She opens for me immediately, a little sigh passing her lips and into mine. Reaching around me, she squeezes my ass, and I half-wince, half-smile with the knowledge that soon everyone would know what I let her do to it.
But fuck them and their judgement.
All that matters is my queen’s happiness.
Lifting my head, I smile at her. Together, we turn to face the crowd. My eyes catch Jace’s again. He’s staring at my wife, pain quickly hidden, and I know he imagined Aurelia in her place just like I did. The queen that should have been.
Meeting my gaze, he smiles, then turns to lead us out of the hall and to an adjacent room, lavishly decorated for the party. The nobles follow us, and soon conversation buzzes up to the rafters.
Nicholas slips away immediately, off to the table of cakes and sweets. Fabia turns to Arienna and gives her a quick hug before stepping back.
“Congratulations on kicking ass.”
“I’m fucking queen,” Arienna gushes, her eyes bright. “And you’re a princess. Of Raza. You’re like a character in your books now.” Her eyes slide over to my brother. “A hot marriage of con–”
Rolling her eyes, Fabia walks away.
Giggling, Arienna turns to face me. “I think they’re going to have fucking hot sex soon.”
“I’m not talking about my brother’s sex life.”
“Okay, I’ll only tell you about Fabia’s.”
Shaking my head, I turn to greet whatever noble has appeared beside us.