Chapter 24 Maggie
Maggie
Even though I knew, rationally, magic was going to hold up this dress, I couldn’t stop hauling it up over my securely covered boobs. It was absolutely backless and my shoulders remained completely bare.
“Whatever dance you’re doing better be just for me, Pumpkin.”
He could squawk all he wanted. Noth wasn’t in a revealing dress so deeply red it was almost black. I wasn’t an insecure person in public, especially with how I looked, but I wasn’t so sure about the power play we were about to pull off.
Evie had been so generous with her time, attention and lessons on Queen-ing but when it came down to it, Harrowood was not Allfenheim. She could only help me so much before I had to put on my big-girl panties and, apparently, flash them to everyone.
I fussed with Noth’s very sexy, but very tight clothes instead.
His pleated trousers, long-sleeved tunic, all midnight black, dressed him in shadows.
The cut was Elvish. The color was all Nightmare.
His vest wasn’t lying flat after he gained a bit more weight and today it mattered.
The royal cape would cover it all, and Noth would be topped by his crown and as much regalia as we could fit on him, but I fussed anyway.
He slipped on more jewelry. Why were there official royal bangles? He would clink when he walked.
“Are you nervous, Pumpkin?” he asked as I pulled on the fine fabric for the tenth time.
I wasn’t nervous. I was terrified. “Nope.”
Noth stilled my hands, wrapping them in his own. “Bad girl. You know I can feel an echo of your emotions. You can’t lie to me. Want to try again?”
“Nope. Nervous implies I have a chance of still being alive after this and I don’t know if that would be the truth.”
He crushed my hair in his hands, ruining all the careful braids Jax wove into it. Noth wouldn’t trust anyone else with the knowledge I was here, or to help us get ready.
“I would never let anything happen to you. My Nightmare wouldn’t think of being parted from you. You have my sword, my life, my vow.”
“That’s why I’m not running for the hills,” I said.
“Don’t think about it too much. You’ll know what to do.”
Noth stepped back to grab the diamond-studded collar from the rumpled bed. I looked at it longingly–the bed, not the diamonds. I had a ridiculous number of them now. Maybe I should have taken that opportunity to be a faceless concubine while I had the chance.
As Noth clicked the collar around my throat, my power rose up to fill it, pulling more from the endless pit Noth and I seemed to generate together. The diamond-studded leash he attached glowed when he snapped it to the collar.
I flicked a sigil into my hair to set it to rights and couldn’t think of a Goddsdamn thing I might do to make this moment last. I had spent a week locked in this room, but this time it was to prepare rather than because we were trapped and now I didn’t want to leave it.
“You look beautiful.” The red glow of his eyes made those words mean more than they ever had. “And powerful.”
Heat licked through me at the declaration but it was dampened by all the ridiculous King bling Noth lugged around.
“This is all wrong.”
I grabbed the cape and flung it onto the bed. His bangles went next, in a heap with his crown. The rings and ceremonial belt came off - even most of his ear piercings on one ear. I left one starburst at the tip and the ones pressing against his trousers as I manhandled his ears.
His hands stroked my bare back. “I wish we had time, Pumpkin.”
I gained enough space to grab the vest too, stripping him down to pure darkness against the menace of my dress. He wore his power instead of his clothes proclaiming it. My eyes quickly scanned him, with his tousled hair and spreading smile on display.
Noth took my breath away.
“Better. Much better.”
“I’ll walk out naked for you if you take out the last piercings.”
Noth kissed me so thoroughly I forgot his request for a moment.
But he let me up for air long enough to get my hand working again and he sank to his knees in a puddle of nightfall, his short hair gleaming.
I made a production out of taking out the rest of his piercings, gliding the pads of my fingers along every whorl and curl.
Noth clutched me to him like I was his life raft in a demon storm.
“I don’t want to come in my trousers… again. But I also don’t want you to stop.” His ragged breathing said he would.
I licked a long line up his ear just because I could and because denying him gave me the confidence to do this.
“You’ll have to finish this little play for me to continue.”
“You’re a cruel, cruel mistress, Pumpkin,” he said into my thighs.
Standing up in a rush, he grabbed my hand. “Let’s get this over with then.”
Noth all but towed me out the door and I had no more time to second-guess myself.
Noth switched his grip to the leash dangling off my collar as we plunged through the palace shadows and stopped just before the entrance to the Council chamber.
In the days before the Godds, when the Harrowlands were shrouded in darkness, Nightmare Walkers had no dreams to enter so they would feed on light and will instead.
They kept the balance of growth and life from overrunning existence.
While much of that power had faded over the centuries, Noth and my connection was a whole new thing.
We had practiced this grand entrance a hundred times and still it gave me a thrill when I fed him enough power for him to snuff out so much light that it blinded even Elven eyes.
We silently glided through the pitch-black room, where the tension lay thick as a wool blanket.
No Elf outright screamed, but when I drew the sigil on the floor and lit the witch light, more than a few Council members started in their chairs.
I glimpsed Yaya barely restraining herself from clapping.
The flickering green light of the unholy fire danced off every diamond studding my form.
The effect was eerie as hell. Noth and I experimented enough to make this completely over the top.
We had a message to send and it needed to be said as clearly as possible.
“Not the witch again,” someone complained. It was Nemian, the Councilor from the garden. He had wheedled his way out of the dungeon, bribing and promising in a way that left Noth helpless unless he wanted to look like a monster. Luckily, I already was one.
I had to put a hand on Noth’s shoulder to remind him how this needed to go.
“I think you mean my mate,” he said as he stepped out of the dark and into the unsteady light. His glowing eyes contrasted with the bright green magic about the room. “You might have left your cage, Nemian, but the Council didn’t approve your return. Did they?”
The murmurs wouldn’t be contained this time.
“I’m persuasive and the others would agree. No one wants our traditions destroyed. That’s why I’ve taken it upon myself to cancel your treaty with the Fae and set up a defense at the Pass of Good Brothers. Someone has to keep order.”
Noth lessened the oppressive darkness but used his shadows to separate the Councilor from his seat.
I watched him hesitate to finish Nemian once and for all, even for a violation like this.
The viper would never stop undermining Noth.
The former Councilor did well to hide his fear, but the others weighed every action and non-action so closely, I knew we had to act or Noth would lose his crown forever.
“And this is why we will die, Nemian. Our traditions only serve our people if we have a people left to serve.
I've worked to be a fair leader, earn your trust, but I neglected one large piece of me. That's been rectified now. I would tell you, you will all benefit, but you’ve never taken me at my word.”
Noth had a rational answer for everything. That is why he was a wonderful King. But these jerk turkeys entrenched themselves in emotion disguised as unassailable culture. I had no fealty to Elven legacy, only Noth.
“You keep your mate on a leash like a dog?” Nemian sneered.
I kept my smile in check, staying silent. That took less time to bring up than we thought.
“Oh, that? That's for your protection. See what a gracious King I am?”
Nemian’s presumption emboldened the others.
One of the Council stood. Nemian nodded his support. “Who cares about the slag? You can bed whomever you want. The Fae presumptuously showed up at the palace while you were off playing footsie with this witch. We needed a show of strength at the Pass if you won’t provide it.”
We did a lot more than play footsie this past week. No wonder Noth had such a hard time wrangling them. Near-immortal beings were a pain in the ass. Brad and now Nemian gave them the freedom to voice their worst impulses.
Noth’s eyes pulsed a dangerous red. “You would address your Queen in this way?”
The darkness came rushing back into the room as Noth lost his temper. Arms, hands, limbs, tentacles and wisps grew from the walls. Eyes dripped from the ceiling on waving stalks of darkness. The bass rumble of Noth’s Nightmare reverberated through the space. I had a hard time not squirming.
So handsome, I whispered in his mind.
Noth’s voice was still terrible, but he ground out, “We've discussed this, Aeerol. I left to retrieve my Queen, who will make us stronger. The Fae are owed a debt for saving us from the fatheaded disaster you were cheering on from the sidelines.”
“A Queen that runs at the first sign of trouble. She manipulated the Calix for a neat parlor trick. Nothing more.”
I wasn’t angry. I wasn't. They were just going to make up whatever they wanted. First, I was too powerful for using the Calix. Next, I was just a show pony. The movement of my dress drew their attention. “I needed to make sure that I would be a worthy monarch for you. You won’t appreciate the effort, but you will accept it. You can clap or bow. Whichever you prefer.”