20 Zarev
Rapunzel tries to distract herself for the rest of the day. I purposefully shadow-jumped us a few miles away from the bird, deciding that distance is key. If for any reason that giant swan did have something to do with Princess Odette, that’s one more problem we don’t need to handle. Using my magic too many times in a row makes the gold in my chest ache as though it’s fighting against my shadow magic altogether. That’s just another reason that this stuff needs to get out of my skin, literally.
Rapunzel seems distracted and I’m sure her mind is lost in the letters she read. They opened up quite a mystery, one that the princess and I don’t have answers to. The only things I ever heard about before traveling to Tressa were about the golden princess. Nothing about twins, and certainly not the loss of a baby until I was inside the kingdom. Those rumors are secretive, yet the woman who wrote those letters is in on the gossip like she knew everything intimately and firsthand.
But that strange room in the royals bedroom slips into my mind, the room with two cribs. I assumed that both were Rapunzel’s. Now I’m not so sure. Maybe that room is hidden behind a cabinet for a reason.
As we walk, I try to contact Legs again. She might not be happy that I’m bringing a missing princess wanted by the Mad Queen to see her, but I’m not sure Rapunzel will listen to reason. She’s insistent that the gardener in the letters is Legs, and to be honest, I think going to see her is a good idea. If Rapunzel’s magic can’t help me, perhaps Legs has some sort of plant that’ll help push the gold out of my chest once and for all.
“We’ll shadow hop after your lunch settles,” I tell Rapunzel, interrupting our silence for the first time in hours, “then we can camp out on this side of The Barrens. We should be at the garden by tomorrow.”
Rapunzel nods, her eyes skating over me. I’m beginning to realize that as fun as rolling around in bed with her is, sex is as much of a distraction as it is a release for this girl. She opens her mouth to say something, but a sound carries on the wind, catching my attention.
Voices.
I grab Rapunzel, dragging her in close to me, and she moves without complaint. The shadows wrap around us, hiding us, and just in the nick of time too.
“...high treason,” a man says, bursting through the trees just steps away from where we’re hiding. Immediately I recognize the green on their coats, the crest sewn to the breast. “He’s going to go after the King and can’t be bothered to send us along on a ship.”
“Not everyone will fit,” another man says. “Too many people are needed to seize the Kingdom of Gold. Now, I ain’t sure if Modred is worth all the trouble, but it’s a nice excuse to get the King to make his next move. That princess did us a favor.”
“No, she cursed us,” another argues, glaring at the first two. “Now we have to do Arthur’s dirty work.”
“If we find her, Arthur says we can use her,” another guard says, and it’s alarming that this is the second time I’ve heard a member of Camelot say those words. Arthur isn’t afraid to trade in skin to get what he wants. “I know the girl’s got some magic, but I’d like to show her my personal gift.”
My brow twitches, and Rapunzel’s hands grip over mine, keeping me from reaching for the scythe.
“She’s not going to sleep with you,” another says. “And I wouldn’t risk upsetting Arthur. He’s on a bender until he has Midas’ head.”
“That’s why we’ve got to let the Flowerborne go in first,” the first voice says. They’re almost past us and around the bend. “They can mimic enough people to climb the walls of Tressa and infiltrate. Let the flowers do the hard work, I say. The people are nothing but puppets. They will die for the King.”
“They better,” the second man says. “I ain’t gon’ be in Tressa if the Mad Queen tries to infiltrate. I told Arthur she’s using us for grunt work and she will swoop in if she sees something that interests her. We’ll spill the blood yet she wants to be the one to claim Tressa.”
My eyes widen. Arthur retaliating against Midas after the death of his nephew is one thing, but listening to talk about the Mad Queen storming in and taking the land for herself is another. That would give her control points on both the north and south end of Mystica.
If that happens, she could expand further than the Red Woods and into the Endless Sea. It can’t be allowed to happen.
The gears in my brain spin, and if I didn’t need to call Ray before I absolutely do now. There’s still the sounds of footsteps in the distance, and that small group is nothing compared to what else is coming across the land.
They are going to try and seize Tressa any way they can. As bad as that is, only one crucial point sticks out to me.
The Queen is on the hunt, and so is Arthur. If Rapunzel intends to go back home, it will be infinitely harder to sneak her in with two conflicting armies at the walls of Tressa.
She does a good job pretending the conversation we overheard didn’t rattle her. She stays calm as I hold onto her, shadow hopping us out of the danger zone before she can protest. Her voice seems to disappear the closer we get to The Barrens, and I know she’s lost in thought.
As bad of a place as it is, Tressa is her home. And her loyalty to the kingdom is unmatched. She continues to worry her bottom lip as we travel, dragging her fingertips over my skin from time to time like she needs the connection.
Usually, I hate excessive touching but she is the only exception.
“You’re not my first kiss,” she tells me, shattering the silence that blanketed us for over an hour. “Not by a long shot.”
I glance at her. That’s nothing like I imagined she was going to say. I quirk a brow in her direction. “Oh? Did the palace guards risk life and limb to play with the princess?”
She blushes, but there’s a tiny smile on her lips. “Occasionally. They never stayed long. Anyone who meant harm to me was banished from the castle, and it took a lot of work to even get close to me in Tressa. But when I was about ten, I kissed a kitchen boy for sneaking me an extra snack. He did it three more times before he was moved to the guard squad.”
“How sweet,” I groan. “Nice to see you weren’t a complete recluse in that tower. Some physical touch is good.”
She shoots me a look, picking at her fingertips as we move. “It wasn’t so hard to find a guy to sleep with me either. They were eager the older I got, and none of them were dumb enough to brag about it for fear of the King’s wrath. I got two of the palace guards to come to my room when I was a teenager and spend the night with me. They were… nice.”
I snort. “Nice like me?”
“No,” she says immediately, her gaze sliding to mine. “Nothing like you.”
“Well, to be fair, Golden Girl, they were barely at the crest of adulthood. It’s not fair to compare the two of them to me.”
She sticks her tongue out, breaking some of the tension between us. I thought those guards and the encounter with the swan would put her into a mood well into tomorrow. This banter was a nice surprise. “Once I was old enough to start seeking a husband no one would touch me. Too much danger for a princess who no one particularly liked. I tried a few times with the guys from before, and even a few of the palace guards, but they wouldn’t bite. The fear of Midas was greater than any of the temptations I could offer.”
“Shame. They obviously didn’t get a good taste of you if they so easily let you go.”
She shoots me a bemused look for that one. “Nothing that scary happened to me when I was little. Midas and Dorah treated me like a gift until I grew older and started thinking for myself. The tower felt too much like a prison, and the more adventurous I got the more limiting they became.” She bites her lips, reaching out to run her fingers over my hand. “There’s a lot you don’t know about me, Zarev. I’m not just the trapped princess you stole out of a tower.”
“Stole is a bit severe, Princess.”
Rapunzel stops walking, her hand wrapping around my wrist. For a moment I think she’s seen something until she spins and backs me up to a tree.
My eyes narrow as she steps closer, her body pressing to mine. There’s a spark in her eyes I’ve only seen once before. “You took me to the roof and I could’ve easily died. Then you pulled me over the wall and changed my life. You stole the life I was supposed to lead.” She paused and I opened my mouth to argue but she quieted me with a finger on my lips. “I’m not upset about it.”
Her touch turns rough, shoving my arm to the tree. I raise a brow, watching her try to exert the strength we both know she doesn’t have. But she presses up to her toes, her lips sealing over mine, and I forget to care.
Her kisses are soft, not assertive like her body language, although I like when she takes charge. Her claims are sweeping, and she might be exaggerating her experience.
A smile curves across my lips. I think my mind is starting to break beneath the stress, and I’m going mad for the princess. I could curl her beneath my shadows and keep her forever, wrapped in nothing but me. I grip her waist, and she clings tighter to me. All at once, I grab her and flip us, spinning to slam her back into the trunk of the tree. She grunts in pain but doesn’t stop, her teeth nipping at my lips.
I chuckle against her kisses, gripping the base of her neck in one hand, keeping her face tilted as far back as she can go. She offers a contented sigh, sinking into the bark, and while she’s distracted I flex my hand, letting the shadows rise up around us again.
She gasps as I skirt them beneath the dress, climbing up her thighs. “Zarev,” she says in a sigh.
“What happened to the shy princess who was ashamed of letting her clothes get torn?”
She hesitates, biting her lip. “I don’t fear you anymore. Before I didn’t know if you would decide to kill me. Now I don’t think you could stand it.”
I smirk, dragging the shadows further up her dress. She gasps, the touch close to a caress, and her eyes widen as she stares up at me. “Death is a part of me, princess.”
She sighs contentedly as the shadows continue to explore her skin, caressing her thighs like another hand. Her eyes are wide, gasping as I tease her legs open wider. “W-what about the guards wandering the forest?”
Huffing, I throw out my hand, and the shadows wrap around us, closing in. Her hands dig into my arms even as she moans, and I turn to swallow the sound with a kiss. She pulses against me, clambering to get higher on the tree, and when she stretches her neck I drag my tongue down, nipping at her pulsepoint.
“If they want to interrupt me right now,” I growl, grinding my hips against hers, “They deserve the hell I’ll raise. Nothing will stop me from getting inside you, Princess.”
She moans when the shadows tease along her sweet center, kicking her legs wider as they shove aside the shreds of her clothing to play with her clit. I press a hand over her lips when she moans again, nails scratching red lines down my arms.
“But that doesn’t mean I need them finding us,” I continue, her fingers flying to my cloak. She tears it off, the brown material pooling around us. Next her hands start working at the fastenings of my trousers, and my hands skate down the front of her dress, gripping the neckline.
“Don’t tear it,” she gasps, her hands digging into my pants. “I don’t have a spare.”
Chuckling, I let the shadows tease her thighs again, and her head falls back. “You’ll be fine, Princess.”
Her moan is feral when I snag the fabric, tearing it halfway down her torso. She glares up at me, but her hips prove she isn’t that distressed, still rocking against my touch.
“Finish undressing me,” I tell her, sliding my hand down to pinch her hard nipple. It’s already red and hardened before my mouth finds the peak, and she grabs the back of my head to keep me there as her fingers fight the ties.
I slide to the other breast as she keeps pulling, finally tugging them free when I bite at her other nipple. She cries out, the sound fueling my need, and I grasp her throat to push her back further into the tree.
Pulling back, I smirk at her. “I took it easy on you the last time. Only one cock to play with. Now, let’s see how many holes we can fill.”
Her eyes bulge, legs shaking when I grasp her hip and slide her up the bark. She hisses and arches at the pain in her back, her hips snapping against mine desperately, looking for relief. The princess has an adventurous side I can’t get enough of, and once I’ve pressed her hard against the tree, two shadow hands appear around us.
They touch along her breasts, her eyes widening as she peers down. As they pull and tease at my command, she shivers as I slide my palm down her body, the heat of her core calling to me.
My hands replace the teasing shadows, shoving the skirt up her thighs. She whines at the loss, and I nip at her again. “Patience, Princess. You’ll be whining for a different reason soon enough.”
“Big talk. Back it up,” she hisses, and I can only laugh.
The dress is a little annoying, and if I didn’t need to worry about guards finding us when she screams I’d shred it off. Instead I dig my fingers into her skin, sliding my thumb over to tease along her clit. The shadowy hands continue to tease her, making her pant as her hooded eyes watch me.
Tracing along her pussy lips, I slide a finger into her willing body. She arches, eyes widening, and I lean in closer to her. “Don’t think because my hands are full that I can’t keep using you.”
I twist my finger inside her,and the shadow joins me. Rapunzel gasps, digging her nails into my skin. I stretch her with my magic, watching her mouth fall open as I push into her, the shadows moving in time with my hand as I add another finger.
She gasps, eyes watering. “Zarev!”
“Oh, what’s wrong?” I taunt, and she bites down into her lip. “I thought you wanted me to back up my words.”
The other hand flexes on her thigh, and then the shadows climb up and curl over the back of her leg, teasing at her ass. She jolts, blue eyes turning desperately up to me.
I lean in, breathing into her ear. Every little thrust from her rubs against my cock, and I’m going to make her pay for that. “Shadows don’t stretch like my cock will, Princess. I can fuck both your holes this way.”
I let the shadows spread her, her legs shaking, and ease the tip of a shadow inside her, spreading the magic to stretch her wide.
She screams, and I lean in to swallow the noise. Easing the shadow out of her pussy, I play at her clit as we kiss, grasping my cock to rub along her lips.
Pulling back as I work deep into her ass, she wraps her arms tightly around my neck. “All at once.”
Before she can ask, I shove into her, letting some of her weight drop to impale her on my cock. My free hand slams over her lips, wrapping the shadows around her face to keep her quiet. Her body pulses against mine as I let the shadows play, fucking into her ass even as she’s pushed to the tree, her head thrown back as she takes everything I give.
“There you are, my little golden mess. Let’s see how many times I can get you to come.”
Her eyes roll, and I snap my hips forward into hers, her back bumping the tree with every move. She doesn’t seem to care, her hair flying free of the braid as we move together.
“Zarev,” she moans, her voice adding fuel to the fire. Fucking her ass dry with the shadows doesn’t cause the same pain my cock might, and I can push the limits with her like this, stretching her ass wider until she gasps, eyes turning glassy at the feel. “More. More of that.”
I chuckle, slamming harder into her as the shadows grip her hips, forcing her to stay in place. “Shh, Princess. I want to see those tears so I can lick them dry. If you make too much noise we might have to pause.”
There’s no argument in her eyes, and I press the shadows tight to her face. When her eyes roll, her hips fighting to meet mine, I drag the shadows lower, bracketing them around her neck.
When they squeeze her throat, and stretch her ass in tandem, she comes undone with a muffled scream.
I grab her hips, slamming my cock deep into her as the feel of her clenching around me makes my head roll back. I can’t paint her full of cum, but she will take every inch of me until she can’t.
“I like playing Life and Death with you,” I grunt, massaging her clit as she comes down from the high. “Because just like this, I can show you what it’s like to be saved by Death.”
I shift the shadows, letting the strain that’s fucking with her ass speed up, banding another shadowy rope around her eyes so she gasps. My hands massage into her hips, pushing her harder in the tree.
Rapunzel’s head lulls, her body giving into me, and a few more strokes sends me over the edge.
I drop her, the shadows carrying her body so she doesn’t fall. They shift her to her hands and knees, her ass still spread wide, and I pump my hand a few times before flexing my fingers, removing the shadows over her mouth and eyes a moment before I color her lips in cum.
She gasps, and I ease up on her rear as she lets me coat her, before reaching out to stroke her face. The shadow slowly eases out of her body, and she collapses forward into me, an utter mess.
I bend down, pressing a kiss to her lips. “And that, Golden Girl, is how Death breathes Life back into your soul.”