Chapter 16
Noth
Ikept my smug smile firmly on my face as we tromped back downstairs.
Not only because the sex with Maggie was actually the best of my life, but because the annoyed expressions around the table were just a delight.
I still couldn’t quite believe Maggie let my Nightmare do that to her.
And she enjoyed it. It also kept any pesky fears from leaking out when I needed to be at the top of my game for what I had in mind for Severin.
The man himself turned in his chair to give me a satisfactory glare. “Can’t your ridiculous powers swallow sound, Leaf Licker?”
“Don’t be mad, mine are so big, Twinkles.” I held my hands about a foot apart because we were definitely measuring dicks. “I’m sure yours works just fine.” My finger stroked along each piercing in my ear for good measure.
“They do,” he said as Yaya poured him another cup of tea.
She winked at me in what I hoped was a ‘good job’ kind of way.
Maggie sat at the table, her usual collected self, as if we hadn’t been fucking like monsters upstairs.
I slapped a piece of Yaya’s breakfast cake on a plate and took it to her.
I could breathe again when she looked up at me with an emotion I didn’t want to name.
The world narrowed to her expression until she yanked the plate out of my hands and wordlessly started devouring cake.
I crashed into the chair next to her, mentally making my chess moves. This fellow King fell into my lap. I could definitely use him but not for his fighting skills.
I smiled wide, just to get under his skin. “How about you go back to the palace then and let Brad coddle you into complacency?”
Severin stiffened. “Manipulation? Really? That human has to die. He’s going to destroy the Harrowlands. Even you are better than that.”
“Was that a compliment? Aw, I had a whole ‘enemy of my enemy is my friend’ speech ready.” That would certainly be better than crashing into Brad myself. Maybe they would take each other out. An Elf could dream.
How could a man sneer and not move his face? “This is pathetic. You didn’t finish the job, witch.”
I felt Maggie’s claws digging hard enough into my leg to draw blood before I realized I was halfway across the table.
Yaya had wisely slid Severin, chair and all, out of my reach.
I didn’t like his knowing smile as I sat back down.
‘Attachments were weaknesses’ was hard to drive from my brain after so many years as King.
I knew Maggie could handle herself, mostly.
I just didn't know how she would fit into this - my world of politics and deadly intent.
“The spell worked,” Maggie said, wiping the crumbs from her mouth that I was immediately jealous of. “But we all might have underestimated him.”
“I would have taken the Siren beaches of Morran before I killed the sniveling fool.” Severin was heated if he was blurting out his plans. A vein pulsing in his temple was usually his only expression of ire.
“I won't help you wage war against the Siren Queen, but I hear a trading opportunity has just opened up in Portsgrave Harbor.”
Maggie watched me from under her lashes, doing her best to contain her smile.
I had centuries of practice but she did pretty well.
I kissed her to ensure everyone thought she was smiling at me, not my play to keep the Fae busy with the Siren Queen if Brad couldn't take him.
If it covered my little breach of her territory, so much the better.
“That nowhere spot in the South?” Severin asked.
That was right. He was too young to remember when it was a bustling harbor.
“It’s been renovated,” I told him. “In times gone by, it was a prime location for exporting Oco Gorse, fishing and pirate activity. With applied pressure, you could be a part of the ground floor trade rebuilding there.”
Maggie looked at me like I grew an extra head.
Did she think I just sulked in my territory all day like I had at Ward’s keep?
I knew how to negotiate a treaty, even with a Fae.
Luckily, I had Severin as King and not his brother, a more typical, irrational Fae.
I heard the man already had four wives or concubines or something.
I looked at Maggie. What did one do with four wives? I shuddered. Well, I would be dead.
Severin tapped on the table to regain my attention. “And why wouldn’t you keep this for yourself?”
“I’m generous like that,” I told him.
“He’ll want your blood oath,” Maggie said bluntly.
The Fae scoffed. “She speaks for you now, Leaf Licker?”
Yaya’s mouth formed the word ‘mate’, but my glare had her scurrying to the oven to bring more tea and cake.
“Dick measuring has been all well and good these past hundreds of years we’ve been at it, but Brad is a different creature. He doesn’t stop. We’ve already tried to kill him multiple times now.” Maggie folded her arms over her chest, disappointed with herself.
I unfolded them and put her hand in my lap.
“Yeah, no use dick measuring, Twinkles.” Playing with Maggie was fun. Her bluntness was a valuable counterpoint to the maneuvering I usually had to do. “And a harbor will be more useful and easier to defend than a beach. Offer going once…”
Pressure didn’t work with the Fae so I injected a little Nightmare into my voice.
“Going twice…”
Severin’s eyes shifted, his Fae brain calculating, the only part of him that moved.
I put my hands on the table. “That’s fine then.”
Maggie stood up and actually started to pull me away as if we were about to do something filthy. Wait. Were we about to do something filthy?
“Fine,” Severin huffed. “My blood oath to help you regain your throne in exchange for the harbor.”
That it wasn’t even my territory was a minor quibble.
No one had touched that place in years. When I turned back, I made a point of scoring a line across my palm with my dark claw.
There was something in Severin that rejected everything dark and out of control and I couldn’t help but show it to him in me.
Severin took out his dagger to make a cleaner cut than mine.
We clapped hands on the magic binding the oath.
Did I trust Severin? Not at all. But I knew ‘Oathbreaker’ wasn’t on his list of titles.
“So how are we going to kill him?” I asked.
“Stay out of my way.” His nose lifted back in the air. “Find some leaves to make out with.”
I could out-arrogant anyone but his pride was only to my advantage. If Brad finished him off, I wouldn’t have broken the oath. I slung my arm around Maggie’s shoulder, my bloody hand dangling above her breast.
“At least let me watch,” I said.
Maggie pushed away my hand and I put it back.
“Don’t interfere, and I don’t care what you do.” Severin straightened his clothes like they could get any more pressed and perfect.
Maggie took my wrist and flung it off her, spraying her with a bit of blood.
“Ew, gross,” she said.
It was only a bit.
“Whatever you say, Twinkles.”
I put my arm back on her shoulder. Maggie ducked under my arm and tagged me with a bit of stinging magic that went straight to my cock. What would she say if I wrapped my bloody hand right around her throat?
My pupils must have dilated because she snapped, “Stay on task, Rat Face.”
She was right, but I tucked her under my arm again anyway.
“You want to take the mercenary?” I nodded at Jax, who had his mouth crammed with cake.
“Hey!” he protested. “I’m not on loan.”
Severin gave me a condescending look. “And have him recognized in the first thirty seconds? You could be a little more subtle about trying to get me killed.”
I shrugged. “Worth a shot.” My smile full of sharp teeth just made him roll his eyes.
“You’re infuriating, Noth.”
Oh-ho! I must be if he used my name.
“Stay here, or not. We’ve wasted enough time talking.” Severin’s wings twitched and golden dust formed a cloud around him. I clamped my mouth shut against the words I wanted to say but Maggie’s snort of laughter said it for me.
I gave Severin a good head start as I faced Yaya and Jax. I eyed Yaya rather hard as she sent a speculative glance toward the mercenary. There weren’t many well-built men immune to her charms.
“Stay out of trouble, you two,” I said.
“I thought we were going to let him handle it?” Maggie asked.
“That’s like trusting a wolf inside your sheep pen. Besides, don’t you want to watch?”
Maggie averted her gaze like it was a dirty secret. She still didn’t quite realize that this was what I loved about her.
“Yes,” she mumbled.
I knew the shadows of my own palace like the back of my hand. It would be easy to find a hidden perch to see Brad get his just desserts. We wouldn’t reveal ourselves.
“Come on, Pumpkin. Let’s go watch a regicide.”
I dragged her into the shadows in the furthest corner of Yaya’s kitchen, rushing through the void as my Nightmare ran over Maggie in a torrent of smoke and darkness. Did I hear her moan? My glowing eyes lit the nothingness.
“Wait until you see this, Pumpkin.”
I would try the private reception chamber first. It was gaudy enough that Brad would still use it. I rushed forward, death on my tongue and mayhem on my mind, right into a wooden door. I staggered back into Maggie, rubbing my forehead.
“Did it leave a mark?” I bent over so she could look.
Maggie smirked and ignored me. “What am I supposed to see again?” She gestured to the closed door.
I adjusted us a couple of feet to the right, out of the closet I accidentally smacked into and peered out of the shadows. My opulent reception room was full of clothes!
“What the fuck?” I snarled.
A cheap jacket was using a five thousand year old chair as a hanger.
Under clothes sat in a pile on the floor.
Sweaters and beige trousers spilled out of boxes stacked on top of my vampire-crafted side table.
Was that a sock in my chandelier? None of it had seemed important before I saw it used like this.
I would kill him myself if the Fae was too weak.