Chapter 25 Step Two Slaying the Dragon
Step Two: Slaying the Dragon
“Why don’t you just climb the tower, slay the dragon, and throw him over your shoulder?” Dy drawled with oozing sarcasm.
“Believe me, if that direct approach would work, I’d do that,” Cha retorted.
“Arguably, I already climbed the tower—several times—but steps two and three are more of a challenge. Unfortunately, this has to be accomplished by subterfuge because Prince Charming can’t or won’t cooperate.
I had to dance around promising that I’d stay long enough to see him fulfill his duty and marry that demon and that I’d then leave Citrine tonight and say goodbye to him forever. ”
“How much dancing?” Dy asked with a narrowed gaze. “Did you promise that?”
“Yes. Well, no. Mostly.”
Dy gave her long hard stare. Even Katu flopped over onto his back and dangled his head as if in despair for her good sense. “Tell me exactly what you promised.”
“Not that it matters as I’m not fae and can lie whenever I fucking well please,” Cha replied, exasperated with both of them. “I promised to leave Citrine tonight.”
“And that’s all you promised,” Dy confirmed flatly.
“I’m not an idiot. I know to keep my promises clean and free of complications.”
“You are an idiot because you forgot that you’re in a fae realm, making a promise to an actual member of the fae which makes your promise binding as all hell,” Dy pointed out. “Or did you skip that class at academy too?”
Possibly so, because Cha didn’t really recall that exact rule. “Good thing I kept the promise clean then. I will leave Citrine tonight, but I’m bringing Prince Charming with me.”
Dy shook her head sadly. “He won’t thank you for this.”
“Because the fae don’t do gratitude,” Cha agreed cheekily.
She decided not to mention that he had thanked her, but for the entirely wrong thing.
No, Dy was right: Azul was going to be incandescently pissed about this, but…
“I have to do it,” she said simply. “He’s being extorted into this marriage because of me.
I won’t be able to live with myself knowing that I’m the lever they used to lock him into this prison. ”
“Honey,” Dy said softly. “He was locked into this marriage long before he ever met you. Remember? You picked him up the first time on his literal wedding day. Whatever is going on here, this isn’t your problem to fix.”
That sounded like another version of fae politics being beyond her ken. “I’m doing this,” she stated with all the stubbornness in her. With or without your help.”
Dy threw up her hands. “Of course it’s with my help.”
Cha nearly sagged in relief. “Oh good, because I seriously need your help.”
“We’ve never smuggled a man before,” Dy mused, baby blues twinkling with interest. “This will be fun. What are your ideas?”
“For somehow rendering a fae prince unconscious enough that we can somehow between us get him out of the Citrine palace past all of these hostile fae and out of the grounds to where Betty and Warg are waiting for us? And all in the next six hours before anyone comes looking for him for not showing up to the wedding.” Cha considered. “I have no clue.”
Dy sighed heavily. “Okay, let’s start with how we knock him out.”
*
“How’s it going?” Cha asked Azul.
He was staring out the window that wasn’t really a window but led into the trap of the atrium.
With his arms braced on the window frame, wings folded neatly so none of the white-violet showed, with just glimmers of deepest orchid to keep them from looking pure black, their relaxed drape a sharp contrast to the tense lines of his body, he looked deliciously broody.
Probably his angst shouldn’t be attractive to her, but there was something about the way Azul deeply cared about his responsibilities that appealed to her.
Which was odd since she wasn’t the poster child for responsibility to anyone or anything.
Still, seeing him like that, reminded her nostalgically of the time she’d sent him into Big Jo’s diner while she gassed up Katu and walked in to see him sulking in the booth and scowling at the perfectly yummy bayberry milkshake.
He hadn’t thought much of the “peasant food.” That thought only reminded her of her own growling stomach—and terrible thirst—cravings she firmly set aside.
If her shitty childhood had prepared her for nothing else, she’d certainly learned to go without food for a couple of days or five.
One trick was to not think about it. Instead she thought back to that day and how unhappy he’d been.
Now she knew what had truly plagued his thoughts: that the expectation that his family would meet with and help him would be disappointed.
Indeed, that had been the case. The fell wolves had caught up with him and no telling what might’ve happened to him if Cha hadn’t been there to come to his rescue.
And it seemed that his family was still leaving him to this terrible fate.
She didn’t think that only because she detested Lenorae and was maybe a little bit jealous, but because she had a terrible feeling that this wedding would somehow imprison Azul in a way far worse than she could imagine.
Whatever Lenorae’s people wanted from Azul—because Cha didn’t believe for a hot second that this was about Lenorae wanting Azul for her own self, though she’d probably enjoy that aspect to the utmost—Cha worried it would destroy him.
She suspected he worried about that, too.
In fact, so deep was he in his brooding that he hadn’t responded to her question, innocuous as it had been.
He might not have even registered her presence, though that seemed highly unlikely.
She went to him and—partly because she knew how much he liked it, but mostly because she couldn’t resist—she stroked a hand down the near finger-bone of his wing.
The sueded-silk texture was truly mouthwatering, addictively so.
He shivered under her touch, accepting it without a word, maybe relaxing ever so slightly, so she continued petting him, pleasing herself, but also offering what little comfort she could.
She dearly wished she could reassure him that this wedding wouldn’t happen, that she and Dy had a solid—not quite gold, but decently thought-through—plan to get him out of Citrine.
But soon he’d be free. He might be furious with her, but at least he’d be out of this corner she’d been part of backing him into, and then he could at least make his own choices.
“Lenorae sent your outfit for the wedding ceremony,” he said tonelessly, then sighed. “You’re going to hate it. I’m sorry.”
“I thought I could just wear my current awesome look.”
He barked out a humorless laugh. “Not a chance of that. She’s making a point—to you and to me. You’ll see.” He unfolded his right wing to point in the direction of a chair with a pile of glinting stuff on it.
Hmm. Cha went to it and found an amethyst collar the twin of Katu’s, only large enough for a human neck.
Somehow she was not in the least surprised.
Fucking Lenorae having to drive her point home with a sledgehammer.
A long length of chain attached to the collar.
Besides that, there were a few scraps of what looked like silvery chain mail embedded with amethysts.
“Where’s the rest of it?” she asked, mostly to be a smartass as this was obviously all there was to it.
“That’s all of it.” He sighed again and turned to face her, crossing his arms and clearly bracing for a fight. “You don’t have to wear it.”
“What happens if I don’t?” She was curious on that point.
He met her gaze evenly. “If you show up for the ceremony wearing anything but that, she’ll likely have you stripped and put in worse chains.”
No surprise there either. “Is it me she wants to humiliate or both of us?”
His lips twitched, a hint of startled humor. “She’s not stupid. It works effectively to strike at us both at once.”
“Yeah. What I figured.” Cha plopped her butt down and pulled off the amazing boots. Then stripped off her jacket, sorry to let the badass outfit go. “I don’t suppose I can keep this?”
“Yes.” He waved a negligent hand as if the outrageously expensive costume meant nothing to him, which it probably did. “What are you doing?”
She continued undressing. “Changing clothes. I know we mortals have to do it step by step instead of in one magical flick of the fingers, but I thought you’d at least recognize the process.”
“You’re just going to put it on…here. Now?” He’d lost his combative stance, instead watching her with increasing hunger.
“We don’t have that much time,” she pointed out. “The pixies aren’t here to help and it’s not as if you haven’t seen me in the altogether. “Unlace me?” She went to him and turned her back so he could undo the laces on the corset-style bodice.
After a moment’s pause, he did so, delicately picking the knots apart so the whole thing loosened.
Holding it up, she started to step away again, but he feathered his fingers over her bare upper back.
She shivered at the sensuous caress, as if she had sensitive wings, too.
In truth, his least touch seemed to arouse her.
Maybe it didn’t matter why; it just was.
“I didn’t expect you to agree so easily,” he said quietly, and she knew his words expressed the gratitude he couldn’t verbalize.
She turned to face him. Trailed a finger along his cheek.
Maybe this gesture would go some way toward mitigating his inevitable fury later.
There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you, she wanted to say, but that would be terribly unwise.
Shimmying out of the corset and the pants, she posed naked for him and gestured to herself.
“Azul, we might as well own it. I have no false modesty. If your blushing bride thinks I’ll be humiliated to show off my extremely hot body for the Citrine Court—sexiness, by the way, that I come by naturally, with zero glamour—then I’m happy to oblige.”
Since he seemed to be momentarily speechless, for which she congratulated herself, Cha plucked up the bits of chain mail, figuring out the drape of them.
Two little triangles to (barely) cover her nipples, suspended by finely wrought chains around her neck and back.
A low slung girdle of amethysts with narrow mesh panels fore and aft that dangled to her upper thighs, barely covering her pussy and ass-crack, leaving the rest of her hips bare.
Good thing they kept it warm inside the palace.
As it was, her nipples stood taut, brushing against the fine metal mesh in a way that would no doubt become torturous in a few hours.
Striking a similar pose for Azul, who appeared to have been struck dumb, although she knew for a fact he regularly saw more nudity than this, she asked, “Do I have it right?”
He cleared his throat. “Yes,” he answered hoarsely. “Let me tighten this.”
Gesturing for her to turn, he clipped the back chain a little shorter, which indeed kept the triangles from swaying back and forth so much. He smoothed his hands over her hips, then cleared his throat again. “There.”
“Appreciate it,” she said, tossing him a grin over her shoulder. She picked up the collar and held it out. “I think you should do the honors.”
He stared at her a long, humming moment, then took the collar from her. “You think I wouldn’t do it,” he murmured, undoing the clasp.
“On the contrary,” she purred back. “I think you will do it and, more, I think you’ll enjoy it.”
Slipping the collar around her throat, he held her gaze. The feel of it did crazy things to her already jumping nerves. Never breaking eye contact, he snapped the clasp closed, snugging the collar tight around her throat. She nearly came right then and there.
“I admit to certain fantasies related to this,” he said, long fingers stroking her throat, “though not under these circumstances.”
“The circumstances suck,” she agreed, “but we can enjoy the ride.” She took one of his hands and guided it down to her pussy, conveniently open to the elements, letting him feel the slickness on her thighs and leaving it up to him how much higher he wanted to delve.
“Maybe I should keep this outfit, too, just in case we meet again some day.”
“We won’t meet again. This has to be goodbye,” he said raggedly, enough that he sounded uncertain of that. His fingers stroked her inner thigh, almost of their own accord, it seemed. His wings unfurled, wrapping around them in a violet shroud of privacy.
She didn’t mind a bit being able to test his restraint, helpfully spreading her legs wider.
“Then maybe you should give me something to remember you by,” she invited silkily.
When he took her up on the invitation, sliding his fingers into her slick folds, she clutched his shoulders and dropped her head back on a gasp. “Fuck me, you’re good at that.”
He slipped a finger under her collar and tugged a little while continuing to tease her pussy with light strokes, not quite enough to make her come. “I wish I’d known sooner how hot this would make you.”
Lifting her head to look him in the eye again, she asked, “Would that have made a difference?”
“No,” he admitted, teasing her closer to climax, “but a fae can dream.”
“Do fae dream?” she asked, though she was trembling with need. She really knew so little about him. Dreamy, he’d said to Lenorae when she described the wedding, dancing, and ensuing sex. Why did that stick in her head and niggle at her?
“No questions. Just this.” He lowered his head to trail lips along her jaw, driving her even closer to the edge.
“This is good,” she agreed mindlessly, fully lost to the moment. Just so long as she kept her head for one thing.
“This is better.” He bit the underside of her jaw and shoved her into a climax so potent her eyes rolled back in her head. She shuddered in the throes of it, holding to him tightly, raising her hand to the back of his neck, pressing her new ring to the spot Dy described.
Azul went rigid, his head snapping up, shock and anger sparking fire in his suddenly crystalline hard blue eyes. “What did you—” he began, then slumped to the floor.