Chapter 36
Guinevere
The longer I am awake, the more the memories of what I saw at Thornvale haunt me. Townsfolk casting blame on each other. Fear in the old woman’s eyes as they tied her to the stake in the square. The child’s scream.
The cat whose poor dead body I borrowed shook with the force of my anger where it hid in the shadows.
I couldn’t stand by and do nothing. I had to act.
These are my people. The only reason they’ve been forced to speak out against their so-called queen is because she is starving them.
I heard and saw enough to see that things are grim. Even worse than I thought.
It wasn’t a conscious choice to raise every dead thing in the town. I wasn’t even sure what I had done at first; my mind seemed split into a million pieces. I suppose it was.
“Would you like us to prepare a bath for you, princess?” Raban’s soft voice breaks through my tumultuous thoughts.
I shake my head and he bends to help me with my boots. “I must go to Blackthorn.”
He frowns. “You have only just returned.”
“And look how close you were to not returning to us.” Corvin folds his arms across his chest.
I’m surprised when Alaric joins in to lend his support. “He is right. You need more training.”
I glare at him. He may be right, but people are dying. Every day we wait could cost more lives. “I must act.”
évandre places his hands on my shoulders softly. “You help no one if you fail because you were not ready.”
I sigh. He is right. There is another consideration as well.
After this morning, I can’t go through with my plan to destroy Alaric.
But if I take him with me, there’s a good chance Melantha will find a way to use that against me or harm him if she sees what he means to me.
And until I recapture his heart, that’s a very real risk.
I need a little time to plan how to convince him to stay behind.
“Very well, but I will not delay long. I was unprepared last time. I will not make that mistake again. I will need a disguise and more weapons.” I turn to my gargoyles. “Can you prepare that for me?”
“Of course.”
“Good. And I will practice borrowing.”
Alaric scowls. “Do you think it wise after what just happened?”
“Well clearly you do not.”
His eyes darken. “I do not want to lose you again.”
“Then I must practice so I can perform when it matters.”
We glare at each other a moment longer. None of the gargoyles moves, and eventually Alaric swipes a hand over his face. “Fine, but not without me. And not too many at once.”
I step closer, reaching up to grasp the back of his neck and pull him down until our noses almost touch. “Tell me again who is in charge.”
His muscles tense under my fingers, and a low growl tears from him. “You, princess.”
“Then I will do exactly as I see fit. And you will do as I tell you.”
“Yes.” It’s clear he doesn’t like it, but that only excites me more. He doesn’t have to obey, but he will. Can I trust that he would stay here if I told him to?
I release him, still mulling it over in my mind. “Come. We have practice to do.”
He visibly relaxes at the acknowledgement that he is allowed to join me and follows me out of the tower.
On the way down the stairs, I admire the gargoyles’ handiwork.
The steps are perfectly aligned and each tread is smooth.
As we descend into the courtyard I look around, surprised to find the rest of the castle still looks much as it did before.
It only highlights how much they have achieved in a small time.
“We could do this from the comfort of your tower,” mutters Alaric as he ducks his head to step out of the arched doorway behind me.
“We could, but I want to get a better look at the effect.”
He narrows his eyes, but before he can ask, I draw on the power inside myself and reach out, searching for the empty vessels I know are waiting out of sight.
It’s easier every time I do it. It hardly takes any time at all before I locate the first ones—a little bird with a bent neck, a rat, a hare who staggers to its feet on wonky legs. That’s not enough.
The problem last time was I took too many, but that made me see what’s possible, and there’s power in scale. In the chaos that will come from raising many at the same time.
“Princess.” Alaric’s low voice is a warning, but I ignore him, reaching beyond the castle and surrounds and out into the woods.
Cool hands close over my shoulders and there’s a steadying sense of his presence behind me.
For now he’s watching, lending me strength.
It works too. My reach stretches further.
Soon skeletons crawl from the soil and the forest swarms with a host of dead bugs and flies and then I find it.
The headless body of the wyrm Alaric killed the night he brought me into the Gloamwald.
It slithers upright and joins the mob of creatures at my disposal.
The rotting, stinking army of creatures lurches toward the castle, drawn to my call.
I’m still not satisfied. I need more.
I reach out further. Alaric’s fingers dig into my shoulders, but I ignore the silent warning. My vision starts to black so I close my eyes and find I can go further. More dead things rise to stumble toward us until the courtyard starts to fill with them.
I only realize I’m shaking when his arms wrap around me to hold me still. “Stop, Guin.”
“No.” My hold slips, and for a moment the creatures drop to the ground.
I have to concentrate hard to reanimate them again, to have them drag themselves up to keep going, shuffling and hopping and limping toward the castle.
“Enough.”
I grit my teeth. Just a little longer.
“Please.”
The desperation in his tone jolts me from the trance and I gasp. On instinct, I reach for the vessels again but my mind slips away, unable to grasp hold of anything. I’m trembling so badly that Alaric scoops me into his arms. The look on his face is stark.
I probably pushed myself too far, but I must. If I don’t act soon, too much is at stake. And I must keep working harder. I cannot rely on having him there to help me.
It feels strange now to rest. I haven’t rested so much since I died.
After only a few hours in bed, I am restless.
Alaric hovers, chiding me with scowls if I move or sit.
One by one my gargoyles finish their tasks and come to sit watch over me too.
Even the hounds curl up on the end of the bed.
It seems I am the only one who cannot stand being idle.
Finally I throw back the covers with a huff. “I cannot just do nothing!”
“You must rest. You overtaxed yourself.”
I fold my arms over my chest and glare at Alaric. “Then come to bed and make it worth my while.”
“Princess.”
“I mean it. All of you.” The bed is large enough to fill half the generous room and would easily fit us all. I pat the mattress, and Raban’s face lights up with his usual grin.
He climbs onto the bed immediately. “Done.”
The others join him soon after. All except Alaric, who is still standing scowling down at us all.
Ignoring him, I pull Raban into my arms and welcome the others as they join him.
“You should be resting,” Alaric mutters.
I see the longing look he casts at us as I drag Corvin in to kiss Raban, who is nestled between my legs.
I love the little moans Raban makes while Corvin slicks his tongue into his mouth and bites his lip.
I reach up to pinch Corvin’s nipples and he gasps.
évandre crawls closer so I can take his cock in my hand and stroke it slowly, still watching the other two.
Alaric is still hovering. I don’t know why he is still holding back. “Come here,” I call to him.
He sighs. “You are not going to listen to my advice, are you?”
I laugh. “I am fine. Stop worrying. Come and fuck these pretty holes with me or else I shall be forced to do it all myself.”
I knew that would work.
He tugs his shirt over his head and is naked a moment later, dropping his trousers to the floor. His cock is hard, jutting out from his body and revealing how much the scene has already excited him.
“Start with my sweet Raban,” I tell Alaric, who moves onto the bed behind my gorgeous gargoyle. “Do you want him?” I ask Raban.
I love the look of hunger in his eyes as he glances behind to take in the sight of Alaric kneeling over him then looks back at me. “Yes.”
My pussy grows so wet thinking about how it will feel for him when Alaric slides his big, hard cock into Raban’s tight hole, that by the time I push his head down between my thighs I can feel a trickle of moisture slide through my lower lips.
Raban groans as his tongue swipes up my ass and inner thigh, catching the slick, making his way up to the source. Then again when Alaric grips his hips and positions himself ready to take my pretty boy.
“Be gentle with him,” I tell Alaric.
I expect him to complain. Instead his expression grows serious—tender almost. He strokes a hand down Raban’s back, between his feathered wings. “Of course, princess. He is too beautiful to be otherwise.”
I’m surprised, but as I watch Alaric touch him lovingly, I realize I’m holding to a perception of Alaric that is obsolete. He is not the monster I once thought he was. There is far more tenderness and self-awareness there.
Above me, évandre and Corvin lean in to kiss, putting their cocks within my reach. I hold them together, loving the swell and twitch of the two hard members in my hands and the way they thrust and slide against each other in my grip.
Raban’s hands tighten on my hips. He lifts his head from my pussy, and I look down to see his mouth fall open and his eyes roll back in his head as Alaric pushes into him. He gasps as Alaric works further inside his ass. My pussy throbs as I remember how pleasurable it felt to be filled like that.
“Does it feel good?” I ask him.
He whimpers, too consumed with it to answer.
Alaric twists a hand into Raban’s hair, lifting his head further, forcing the slimmer male to arch his back. “Our princess asked you a question. How do I feel inside you?”
The flush on Raban’s cheeks is adorable. Alaric increases the tempo of his thrusts until it shakes Raban’s body. “So good. You feel so good,” he chokes out.
“Good,” purrs Alaric. “Then get back to work and do not leave her neglected.” He guides Raban’s face back to my pussy, but my pretty gargoyle hardly needs any encouragement.
As soon as his lips mean my wet slit, he mons again and begins licking and sucking me frantically while Alaric keeps pumping into him in a steady rhythm.
He looks so hard and intimidating with muscles and tendons in his neck and shoulders standing out starkly.
But I see the softness beneath. The care he puts into fucking Raban for me is the perfect example.
I see him watching and listening to make sure he’s bringing only pleasure.
I see the tender way he touches the other male.
évandre and Corvin lie down one on either side of me and take my nipples into their mouths, and for a moment I’m lost in my own sensations of pleasure.
Firm suckling on my breasts from both sides and determined licking on my clit has my mind scattered and warmth welling in my core.
As my orgasm swells to take me over, my gaze flies to Alaric and our eyes lock.
His are like blue fire, burning into me even as he thrusts into Raban, so that when I climax I can see the exact moment he realizes. His rhythm falters. His eyes widen and he devours my pleasure as I roll over a precipice and tumble through the sweetness of my release.