25. The Nightmare Prince
Chapter 25
Skadi was wholly irritating.
On the fifth set, I landed twenty paces away, skin cold from the lingering mists as they faded into nothing, breath knocked from my chest.
Hands in the air, I closed my eyes. “No more. Gods, no more.”
I hadn’t even landed a decent strike and had sparred since I was old enough to hold a knife. I was not the only one. Von held a cold herb press to his brow after landing on his head.
Isak’s mesmer was cruel and dreary. He could blind the mind into darkness. Skadi half-swallowed him in her affinity before he came close, his legs visible, head in the mist, until he kicked viciously enough she released him.
Tova abandoned the field, insisting she had to see to K?re.
Junius laughed and declared she was not mad enough to face the woman.
Fiske was a Hypnotik, he could bleeding see flashes of future moments, and Skadi still leveled him after she’d feigned a need for reprieve, then kicked out his ankles and let her mist toss his sword beyond the gates of the field.
“All right, lovey.” Raum spun a dagger in one hand, a short blade in the other. “Shall we?”
Skadi crouched, taking note of Niklas prowling on the opposite side of her, and Lynx and his thick body on the other. Three on one. For the first time, Skadi seemed uncertain.
I slunk to where the defeated were lined near the water, licking my wounds.
Sander propped his chin on his fist, studying the set up. “If Lynx can get behind her, he could calm her to sleep.”
Another Hypnotik, the man could soothe the mind so fiercely, his victims fell asleep before he robbed or slaughtered them, depending on the scheme.
“It’ll take Nik tossing some fire powders. Maybe venom clouds to choke her a bit.” Von offered, no doubt, seeing the potential marks. “Distract her, you know?”
“She might mist them away before they even fall,” Fiske grumbled, wiggling his fingers.
“Raum could see her moves and maybe stop her.” Sander shook his head. “Ack, doesn’t seem likely. May the gods bless their souls.”
I grinned, sitting on the grass, and let my head fall back against the leg of the table. Come on, Fire.
Smugglers, thieves, warriors, the three men were not simple foes. Raum snapped his teeth once, then threw his dagger toward Skadi’s heart. It wasn’t to strike her, the way they closed in, it was clearly a distraction.
Skadi closed her darkness around the blade, and had to spin quickly to block Lynx’s strike with his sword. He tried to swipe at her head, likely planning to use mesmer, but she spun away. Niklas was there to meet her.
Sly and vicious, Niklas had coated his palms in one of his elixirs. In most spars, he tossed things. With this, he had another trick—he wanted to touch Skadi. Incapacitate her, perhaps? Did he have something that could block her power like the herbs she’d worn during the negotiations?
Sander and Nik had read more than anyone on elven folk, it was possible.
“Forgive me, Princess,” Niklas said as he attempted to close his hand around Skadi’s wrist.
Her face burned with levity, free and bright. “No. Forgive me.”
Niklas disappeared in the next breath.
Von sat straighter. “Where the hells did he go? Usually there’s another cloud of her magic.”
“She’s holding him.” Three hells, she was utterly mesmerizing. “Her affinity works like a door opening and closing if she desires. Whatever void is in her magic, Niklas is being held there.”
“I mean, she’ll let him go, right?”
I chuckled. “We’ll see.”
Skadi was laughing with joy, not villainy. It was the first time I’d seen her so alive. I glared at Dorsan who looked on at his princess with a bit of befuddlement.
Raum curled his lip. “Tricky, tricky, little princess. But can your darkness match darkness?”
The sparring field descended into shadows. I clambered to my knees, noting where my mother stood, five paces behind my wife. Her hand was outstretched toward walls of shadows surrounding Raum and Skadi.
Von clapped and laughed.
“Skadi!” I called out. “At your back.”
“Traitor!” Sander shoved me away.
My fire spun around and let out a sharp shriek. From the wall of shadows, my father took my mother’s hand, emerging from the darkness. More than Daj stepped through—Tova had returned, Bard, Hanna, who was Ash’s younger sister, and Junie who kept her eyes to the sky, a little frantic to see her husband again.
Surrounded, exhausted, Skadi held up her palms, and let her blade fall.
In the same moment, her mists opened beyond Daj’s shadow wall and Niklas fell to the lawn with a grunt.
It took a moment before he shot to his feet. “Bleeding brilliant! Gods, I have so many questions. So. Many. Damn questions.”
I strode across the field to the fading ring of darkness.
Shadow walking as a boy was my favorite part of my father’s mesmer. Fueled by a certain vow with my mother known as alver vows, my father’s magic could reach out and find his wife, shape a wall of shadows, then bring him and anyone with a fear to wherever my mother was waiting.
Skadi never saw them coming.
She laced her fingers behind her head, breathless. “You . . . you have darkness too, Highness?”
My father leveled me in a glare. “Have you not explained about titles?”
“Apologies, Daj.” I clasped my hands behind my waist. “My father adores being called Wondrous King or Glorious Majesty only.”
Daj opened his palm and before I could move, one of his ribbons of darkness curled around my ankle, ripping my feet out from under me.
Fear of looking foolish. Well, he dug deep into my adolescence to find that one.
I coughed when I flattened on the grass, but was lucid enough to hear him grumble, “We should’ve had daughters.”
More than one boot nudged my leg as my folk, those who’d raised me, loved me, trained me, merely laughed at my defeat. A shadow passed over my face. Skadi’s braids fell across her shoulder when she held out a hand and heaved me back to my feet.
Chest to chest, I studied her. Dirt and sweat coated her skin, but my fire was there in her eyes, blazing. “You are beautifully terrifying. Do you feel the emptiness?”
“No.” Skadi stared at her palms. “Strange. I learned the blade back home, but rarely was allowed to use my affinity.” She hesitated. “The coldness is strongest when I steal anything through greed, pain, hate, battle. In those moments people fear me, and it is as though my affinity turns beastly from their apprehension and makes me care nothing about them.”
“But you wanted to defeat us here,” I said, voice low. There was something off about the consequence of coldness, it didn’t settle right in my blood. “You laughed, you . . . looked happy.”
“I don’t understand it,” she admitted.
“I have a theory.” Sander shoved between us, his logic in full view. “There are consequences to all magics, right? What if yours is tangled with intention. The more brutal the act, the more your affinity pulls you in?”
Or what if folk had merely convinced her she was horrid?
Skadi considered the idea. “Could be. I didn’t start feeling cold on Natthaven until Arion and his supporters ensnared the Ever Queen and wanted me to harm her.”
“The light elf sees you as a weapon,” Sander said. “He would use you for his own cruel ambitions, but you pay the consequence. Dark acts would change any heart.”
“It’s interesting to think about,” Skadi admitted.
Sander tapped his chin. “I’ll read up on it and let you know what I find.”
“I already have a shipment of new writings from the Ever Kingdom on the way,” Niklas said.
My mother sighed. “An honest shipment, Nik? Peace with sea fae is still rather new.”
“Why does everyone assume every shipment is smuggled?”
“You’re a wise man.” Maj rolled her eyes. “You tell us.”
Niklas waved her away and hooked an arm around Sander’s neck, already lost in their theories.
“Would you like to know something baffling, Husband?” Skadi said, back toward me, watching them go.
“I love to be baffled.”
“We are to go to Natthaven next week, and I . . . almost wish we weren’t.” Skadi paused for a breath. “I think I might miss your lands, your folk, and I hardly know them. I have never felt so accepted, I suppose.”
“You’re not a creature to them, Fire.” I stepped close to Skadi. “They are not studying your affinity because they fear you.”
“My people fear me. It is strange to be around those who don’t, even if they should.”
“Welcome to the Black Palace.” My mother strode past, a devious glint in her eyes. “We all embraced our darkness long ago. It is home now.”
Alone, Skadi seemed completely confused.
“What my mother meant is you will never be shunned because of magic you never had a choice in receiving.” I tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear. “We know it is not the power that makes a monster, it is the heart. There is nothing wrong with your heart, Fire.”
“Do you mean what you say?”
“Every word.”
Skadi fiddled with a ring on her finger. “You do not know how much that matters to me.”
I took one of her hands and squeezed. “The alliance was not because I feared you, Skadi. I feared the light elves and how they would use you.”
“Arion and his court were always fascinated by my affinity once it was made known.” She shook her head. “I tried to be good as a girl, obedient, docile. I knew what people believed me to be, I knew the fear of me. It is rather lonely.”
I cupped one side of her face. “Now you have vowed into the most meddlesome house in the fae realms. You won’t even know they are there, yet they will know everything about you.”
“I don’t think I will mind.”
My smile faded. “About last night?—”
“Please.” She turned away. “I can’t bring it up without wanting to fade away from embarrassment.”
“You were upset because you saw a woman with me.” I nudged her arm, turning her back into me. “Before all this, I did not refuse lovers often.”
“You don’t need to explain yourself.”
“I want to.” I took her hand and rubbed a thumb over her knuckles. “There were still some who believed I would be the same, but I made it clear I would not betray you.”
Skadi shook her head. “I hardly know what to make of you sometimes. You are a strange man, Jonas Eriksson.”
“Better than being dull and uninteresting.”
She arched into me, like she might be leaning in to kiss me, but changed her mind at the last moment. Skadi stepped back, chuckling nervously. “I, uh, I should wash. I’m filthy.”
She was stunning to me.
“As you wish, Wife.” I placed a hand on the small of her back. “That, I can do for you while I hide away, ashamed at being bested again.”
“I warned you.”
I smiled, a little softer. “Trust me, I will never forget what you have done to me today.”
I patted Kjettil on the shoulder after he finished helping fill the deep wash basin with steaming water. The man had a toothy smile, one tapered fae ear, one with the alver curve, and no one truly knew what sort of magic lived in the man’s blood.
He never gave it up, and we stopped asking.
“For the lady?” he asked.
“This is for the lady.”
Kjettil lifted a wooden box from one of the washroom cupboards. “Petals and herbs and pink salts. No idea what they do but they smell rather nice. Hear the ladies enjoy them.”
I took the box, all at once realizing this was a first for me.
Preparing this room.
In my chamber.
For a woman.
Part of me felt like a bastard for being so disconnected to others, another part was alarmed at the delight that Skadi was the only one.
Alas, a first meant I was vastly out of my comfort with such things as how many dried petals or fragrant salts ought to be added to water. By the end the surface was floating in dark bloody red petals and the water looked a little milky.
A tentative knock rapped on the door. Skadi poked her head inside, hair loose, a lavender silk robe around her shoulders.
She was beautiful. A vision in the dark, and the way she kept glancing at the ground I doubted she heard it often.
“I can’t take my eyes off you.”
A cautious smile curved over her lips. “I hope it’s not because there is something on my face.”
“No. I find you beautiful, Fire.” I rubbed the back of my neck, turning away. “Anyway, water’s ready. Might be too hot, maybe filled with unknown foliage. Likely all of it, but should wash well enough.”
Skadi sat on the stone edge, dragging her fingers through the petals. She demurely peered over her shoulder. “It’s perfect.”
I swallowed through a scratch, returned the wooden box to the cupboard, and stepped toward the door. “I will be out here if you need anything.”
A bridge of pink brightened her cheeks. She nodded.
I faced the door before I embarrassed myself by giving up my half hard cock. Gods, it was as if I was unacquainted with a woman. No. I was unacquainted by this insatiable, near obsession with my reluctant wife.
“Jonas.”
My name on her tongue was soft as a night breeze, almost reverent, maybe a little frightened. It burned through my veins like an inferno.
Hand still tight on the door latch, I kept my back to her. “Yes?”
“I do need to ask your forgiveness for last night.”
“There is no need.” I faced her. “If you think I have not overindulged on br?n more than once, you’re quite mistaken.”
Skadi hugged her middle. “You carried me home.”
Home.
Another step closer. “I am your husband. It will always be an honor to carry you should you stumble.”
She tangled her fingers in the tie of her robe. “Why do you say such things when you did not want a wife?”
One final stride closed the space between us. I dragged my knuckles across her cheek. “I petitioned your grandfather for vows in a political alliance, true. But you must stop pretending nothing has changed.”
“Has it changed? Are we not still pieces in an alliance?”
“A great deal has changed. My loyalty is not to an alliance.” I brought my hands to her face. “It is to you. I want you.”
I kissed her. My tongue slid across the seam of her lips until she parted them and let me taste her. One hand went to her waist, drawing her against my chest, the other held the back of her head.
Skadi arched her hips into mine, moaning and rubbing over my swollen length. Gods, I would not last long if she kept doing that. She stumbled backward, striking the edge of the washbasin, and sat on the wide ledge.
“Jonas,” Skadi breathed against my lips. “I am still filthy.”
“Sorry.” Our brows touched. “I lost my head. I’ll leave you to it.”
Before I could leave, Skadi grabbed my arm. Her eyes were dark with a new sort of desire. Her breaths heavy. “I . . . might need . . . help getting in. I’d hate to slip, after all.”
“Wouldn’t want that.” My voice was stupidly rough, as though I swallowed sand.
Skadi stood, her breasts pressed to my chest.
With painfully slow fingers she unlaced the tie of her robe. I let out a strangled gasp, holding her waist when she deftly shrugged her shoulders free.
Gods, bared to me, I could hardly form a thought.
Ink coiled in beautiful vines and pale blossoms wrapped around her ribs, beneath her breasts, ending in the center of her chest. I pressed a soft kiss to the petals over her heart. There was roughened skin there, but her scars would be explained when she wanted.
If she wanted.
She shifted her hips side to side until the robe pooled around her feet.
I drank her in, all soft curves and edges. I kissed her sweetly, dragging my teeth along her bottom lip when I pulled back. “You rob me of breath, Fire.”
She smiled, holding out a hand.
Body ablaze, I helped her step over the ledge, watched her sink beneath the petals, then knelt beside the edge.
Skadi looked at me through heavy lashes. “Husband?”
“Wife?”
“I very much want you to kiss me again.”
My mouth twisted into a half grin. “With pleasure.”
Then I crushed her mouth with mine.