Chapter Seven
I entered the throne room later that morning, and my brows climbed for another reason.
“What’s this?” I swept the bare, quiet, near-empty room. “Is the heat cycle over?”
“No, Lady Ana.” She tipped her head to Alisdair, secretly smiling. “He saw that they bothered you, and ordered all but the guards on duty away.”
“Oh,” I said simply.
Such a thoughtful thing to do, I thought, gazing upon the whole and handsome Shadowsoul once again. Must mean he’s about to do something I’ll hate even more.
The guards clapped their hands over their noses, pressing their backs harder against the walls. I had a feeling they’d run out of the room if they were able. The night before, Alisdair covered me with so many mating marks, I had breaks all over my skin like the brush marks of the painting.
“What do I smell like?” I asked. “Is it a bad scent?”
“Just the opposite.” Aeris brushed an ant-sized speck of fluff from my shoulder. Meya forbid I look less than perfect on her watch. “You smell like rain, pine, and almond pastries baked with honey.”
Like Alisdair.
The man was a filthy, rabid beast who belonged on a leash... but he didn’t smell like one. He smelled like every free, good, and delicious thing in this world.
Just another quality I hated about him.
It was the trick of the predator. The wolf with the soft, inviting fur. The lion with the cute wet nose and majestic mane. The fierce beauty of the leopard. All of it designed to lure you in, getting you close enough until there’s no chance to scream because they’ve already ripped out your throat.
“It’s having a much different effect on you than it is me.” Bradach marched on my other side—stiff-backed and jaw clenched. “Although it might not be bad, every sense is screaming at me to get as far away from you as possible,” he gritted.
“So listen to them,” Aeris snapped, dropping her sweet tone immediately.
Bradach’s grin couldn’t be killed, not even among his obvious discomfort. “And deprive you ladies the gift of my presence? I wouldn’t dare.”
“I assure you, we’ll survive.”
I smothered a giggle.
Bradach held up his end of the bargain, despite humiliating me in the process, so as promised, I announced that he was to be my personal guard.
Well, to be accurate, he announced it when he blew into my dressing room in the middle of me changing. He and Aeris had been bickering ever since.
I studied them both out of the corner of my eye. It was hard to figure their relationship. Bradach flirted and threw himself at her every chance he got. Aeris rebuffed him every time— hard . But in the short time I’d known her, I got the sense that if she really wanted something to stop, it stopped.
Did she enjoy his attention and making him work for it? Or had I sold my soul to another smirking devil for nothing?
As I climbed the dais, Alisdair’s tail grew from his body, wrapped around my throne, and drew it closer to him. I took one look at the thing and blushed. He took one look at me, and smirked.
Kakka , I mentally spat, though I was too busy staring at the floor to speak it. I did not want to think about the part that tail played in last night’s activities.
Foalan was already posted at his side. Bradach claimed a spot next to me, standing even further away than the day before.
“Let them in.”
Aeris heeded Alisdair’s command, opening the doors to a new wave of villagers. They poured in—a familiar face among them.
I sat up a little straighter, fighting to keep the smile off my lips. Plan B.
I’m coming home, faywens. This promise I will keep.
He maneuvered his way to the front of the line and bowed to Alisdair. “Riordan, my lord. I’ve come to accept the job of royal traveling merchant,” he said, “and thank you for the opportunity.”
“I don’t recall bestowing such a title on you.” Alisdair slid a look to me. “Care to explain, my queen?”
I smiled wide. “We spoke of this yesterday, Alisdair, don’t you remember? Someone who can pass as Lyrican will pose as a merchant, and open trade between our kingdoms.” I produced a scroll from the folds of my skirt. “I have the merchant license right here. He can leave immediately.”
“Can he?” Alisdair gave me a long, measuring look. “Why did you choose him? Do you know him?”
“No,” I said simply. It was the only thing Emiana’s mouth would allow me to say. “I never saw him before the day we rolled past him in the square, but I chose him because he’s unchanged. What other reason would there be?” I asked. “Is there a problem? We did discuss this.”
“So we did.” Amusement laced his tone—both confusing and worrying me.
Why did it always feel like he was seeing right through me?
“Very well.” Alisdair snapped his fingers and the merchant license flew out of my hands and into Riordan’s. “Your cart and horses will be prepared for you to leave tomorrow. Go.”
Riordan claimed the scroll and scurried out, sparing me a single glance on his way out. I kept the grin off my face.
Alisdair was watching me.
“Let go! Let me go!”
A man with a gorilla’s face appeared in the entrance, and disappeared just as quickly. Grunting, he came back dragging an elbow, then the furry-faced boy that came with it.
Furry ears on top of his head; burnished-red fur starting on his forehead, continuing up his head, then down his back; an unnatural lengthening of his nose and mouth. He was obviously a fox faeriken, and even more obviously, he couldn’t be more than ten years of age.
“Get off me!” He launched at the man and sunk his teeth in his arm.
“Argh!” Pain wracked his face, but the man did not let go. “My lord,” he gritted. “I am Jotham. I request... to be seen f-first.”
Alisdair flapped a hand at him. “Proceed.”
Jotham hauled the boy in front of us and kicked the back of his legs, dropping him to his knees.
“Easy,” I cried. “You don’t need to be so rough.”
“There is every need, my queen.” Jotham was a portly man with the face, legs, and feet of a gorilla, but the rest of him was fae. It made him an even odder sight than the rest. “This little demon stole my entire basket of strawberry jam, then in his escape, slipped on the ice and broke them all.”
“Geroff!” The boy pummeled his fist, straining to bite Jotham again.
“I used the last of my strawberries to make that jam,” he continued. “They’re my best sellers. The food and coin he’s cost me— My family was relying on it! Because of him, we’ll starve until the next harvest.”
Jotham shook him. “I demand he be punished in the strictest sense. These thieves don’t care who they hurt, who they ruin. I have a hungry boy too. Why should he starve because this brat refuses to work for a meal?”
Alisdair’s expression hadn’t changed throughout his entire speech. I doubted mine was as cool. I darted between the three of them, nearly tipping off the edge of my seat from wanting to grab that poor boy away from him.
I was once a hungry child who grabbed food off the back of a cart and didn’t pay for it. Someone grabbed my wrist just like that, and hauled me before a man as terrifying as Alisdair. That was the worst day of my life, and I’ve had many.
“Let him go,” Alisdair said. “He won’t run.”
Jotham obeyed, and the first thing the boy did was run.
He didn’t make it a step.
Shouting, he dropped flat on his face—his left foot glued to the floor. His furious glare hit Alisdair right in the face.
“Where are your parents, boy?” Alisdair asked.
For a spell, I thought he wouldn’t answer. “Dead,” he finally snapped. “Brother, too. It’s just me now.”
“I see.” He looked to Foalan. “Cut off his hands.”
“What!”
The boy burst into tears as Foalan stepped off the dais.
“Foalan, don’t move,” I barked, shooting up. “You’re not cutting off anything. You’re not putting hand or magic on that boy!” I whirled on Alisdair. “What is wrong with you! Are you insane?”
Alisdair picked at something under his claw. “Being an orphan doesn’t excuse thievery, little bird. Destroying a man’s livelihood must be punished. The law is unforgiving, but it is the law.”
“What law!”
He looked me straight in the eyes. “Me.”
I clamped down hard on my jaw, penning in a string of obscenities that would’ve made half the room faint.
“No,” I forced out, “being orphaned doesn’t excuse thievery, but it does explain it. He’s alone in the world and he needs our help. We’ll help you,” I said, turning on the little boy. “And, Sir Jotham, we’ll pay you what you would’ve made for the jam.”
I clapped. “Bradach, Aeris, will you see to it that Jotham gets his payment, and that this boy—”
“Sentence denied,” Alisdair sliced in. “Foalan, continue.”
Foalan converged on him, ratcheting the boy’s screams louder.
“I told you not to fucking move!” I jumped between them, and tore Foalan’s sword from its sheath. I leveled it directly against his heart. “Why would you reject my solution?” I demanded of Alisdair, but stayed fixed on Foalan. Commander of Lumenfell’s army, I knew I only disarmed him because he let me. When he made a move to get his sword back, I had to be ready.
“There’s no reason for you to say no.”
“There’s every reason. This isn’t an orphanage or a charity. Once word gets out that you’re throwing coin at every merchant with a down-on-their-luck story, and taking in every weepy beggar child, we’ll be inundated with pleas—and then despised by everyone rejected.”
My eyes narrowed to slits. “Don’t give me that horseshit. When the bird faeriken were stealing, coin and housing are exactly what you gave them!”
“In exchange for work,” he bellowed back, slamming his fist on the chair arm. “They couldn’t fight their instincts. This boy has no such excuse. Foalan!”
I growled at Foalan when he dared to twitch. “I’ll shove this sword so far through your heart, it’ll come out your ass!” Little arms threw around my waist, hugging me in a death grip. “You’re not hurting this child, Alisdair. You think it’s some kind of problem if other orphans find out I helped him, and come with their hands out?
“I say nothing would make me happier, not even if Meya parted the clouds and struck you down dead. Me and all the forgotten children of Lumenfell will toast your death with the golden goblets collecting dust in your front hall, while wearing the diamonds, necklaces, and crowns rusting in the hall above that one!”
“Diamonds don’t rust!”
“Argh!” Swinging my arms up, I lobbed the sword across the dais—flinging it directly at his head.
“Tiresome woman!” Magic stopped the tip an inch from his nose, and sent it soaring away.
Bradach cawed, jumping out of the way. The sword stuck in the wall, pinning his feather to the stone.
“Fine!” Alisdair broke the chair arm slamming his fist. It was made of pure bronze. “Since you’re so attached to the thieving little beggar, he shall receive your sentence.
“Aeris, send him to the slave marts!”
I backed away, keeping both Foalan and Aeris in my sights. The boy stumbled back with me. “That is not what I said.”
Alisdair’s grin was nasty. “You said he should be treated like the bird faeriken.”
“Oh my Meya, you enslaved them?” I rasped. “You— You— Monster!”
“Aeris, you were given an order.”
I held him tighter. “If you dare try to sell him, I’ll buy him myself. Then I’ll set him free with a sack full of your riches, and your worthless severed head!”
A loud, dangerous snarl ripped from his throat—tumbling out with his lengthening fangs.
My grin was even nastier. “Those don’t scare me, husband, they’ll be between my legs soon enough.”
Alisdair threw up his hands, making me lurch back. Something flew through the palace entrance and slammed into his palm. He threw it at Jotham. “Very well, the blessed queen of Lumenfell has spoken. We have bought your problem off your hands, and he now lives and works here—or he dies.”
Jotham fumbled catching one of the very golden goblets I spoke of.
“Aeris, take him to the kitchens.”
“Wait—”
Alisdair snapped his fingers and both Aeris and the boy were gone.
We glared each other down for a long, tense silence.
“I will find him,” I hissed. “I’ll set him free.”
“A hollow threat. You can’t even free yourself.”
Deep, seething, corrosive hatred burned my soul to cinders. I ached to get away from him, or grab another sword and keep throwing until I hit something that hurt.
Lifting my chin, I climbed the dais and gingerly reclaimed my throne.
“Uh, my lord?” Jotham held up the goblet. “I don’t know what to do with—”
“Get out,” Shadowsoul roared, the beast ripping through his handsome visage in an instant.
Jotham stumbled over his feet running away.
In a way I could claim victory. I finally tore his calm, cool mask to shreds. We both flung back in our seats, throwing glowers and bared teeth across the divide.
Jotham blew out the door, nearly colliding with a newcomer. He sidestepped the fleeing man and entered the room, blowing through my rage.
“Seems I missed something interesting.” He smiled at me. “Hopefully not so interesting it’s put you in a bad mood, Queen Ana. I’ve come to request your favor.”
“Brother.” Foalan advanced on him. “What do you think you’re doing here?”
Meallan pulled a face. “Brother? Who are—? Oh, Meya. Foalan, is that you? I didn’t recognize you without the leash.”
Growls erupted from Foalan, which set the naked Meallan off too. They appeared on the edge of ripping each other’s limbs off.
Definitely not close siblings.
“You don’t belong here, Meallan. Leave!”
“No, you don’t belong here!” Meallan jabbed his chest. “You’re a wolf. One of us! Yet you run around here playing lapdog to a king, when you should be king. You should be alpha!”
Foalan’s eyes flashed. “We are not wolves, Meallan. We’re men!”
“We are gods,” he growled. “Stronger, faster, better than man and wolf. We are—”
Alisdair flicked his finger. That was it. A single flick, and Meallan and Foalan blew apart, crashing into opposite walls.
“T-too right, my lord.” Foalan staggered to his feet, his forehead openly bleeding. “Thank you for punishing us for our disrespect.”
The only response from the pile that was Meallan was angry growls, snaps, and roars.
I winced looking at him. He was unfortunate enough to fall ass over his head. His cock and balls flapped around like two rotund people straining to stick a pole on top of an ass crack.
“You test my already strained patience.” Alisdair struck a glare through me to belie the words. “You will tell me why you’re breaking the truce by crossing territories, or I’ll move straight to killing you for it.”
Meallan righted himself, mouth practically foaming with rage. He was nothing like the odd, smirking, calm stranger I met in the winter woods.
“You wouldn’t dare,” he barked, blowing my brows high.
With what kind of confidence, strength, or secret magic weapon did he speak to Alisdair that way? And where did I get it too?
“I am not here for you, toy king. I’m here for her.”
I looked from Meallan, my surroundings, then back to him. The fact remained he was looking at me. “Excuse me? Here for me?”
“That’s right, Queen Emiana, ruler of nothing and owned by no one.” His brows smoothed out as his grin returned. “Surely you remember me? Why, wasn’t it just the other night we had a delightful, naked interlude in the woods?”
A low, hair-raising, blood-chilling sound filled the room, tightening my grip on the chair arms. I’d heard Alisdair growl many times, but this was worse. Much, much... worse.
“Watch yourself.” Bradach stepped forward. His grin was nowhere to be seen.
I blinked at him. I’d never seen such a murderous expression on his face before. Its closest match was Foalan’s as they both converged on Meallan.
“Disrespect my queen again, and I’ll introduce Foalan to his new sister .” A blade appeared in Bradach’s hand. He swiped his tongue across the tip, driving his point brutally home. “Go on. I dare you.”
“Absolutely not, Bradach,” Foalan said smoothly. “If anyone is going to turn this cur into a pup”—two swords were in his hands in a blink—“it’ll be me.”
Meallan laughed, further shocking me with his confidence. I didn’t say how I knew, but Bradach and Foalan weren’t joking.
“Settle down, pets. As I said, this is between me and Lady Ana.” His gaze trapped mine over their shoulders. “You swore if we met again, you’d honor your debt and gift me a favor. That night has come.”
Alisdair half rose from his seat. “Favor?”
“Correct.” He shoved past Bradach and Foalan. “Your queen broke the truce and entered our territory. Not only did I spare you the death I was owed by rights, but I offered her shelter, and then aided her on her way when it was denied.”
“What? That’s nonsense. Lies,” he barked. “You wouldn’t do any one of those things. You’d skin your own mother and wear her for a coat if the breeze shifted. Not for a moment would I believe you spared and offered her sanctuary .” Alisdair laughed nastily. “Get out, or I’ll castrate you my—”
“But it’s true.”
All eyes flew to me. Alisdair’s, Bradach’s, Foalan’s, and the watching villagers. Shock twisted their faces.
“What? What’s wrong?” I asked, skin prickling. “He did offer to shelter me among his people the night I tried to outrun you and the runes. I said no, so he taught me how to mask my scent.” The conversation came back to me. “I also said that I would help him like he helped me if I ran into him again, but, no offense, Meallan, I was hoping we would not see each other again.” I turned a burning sneer on Alisdair. “Because it meant I didn’t escape him .”
“My deepest apologies, Lady Ana. Believe it or not, even though I’m here today, I did ask Meya to bless your feet, and curse his.”
A large, dark figure was suddenly between us, overwhelming my nose with pine, rain, and nutty shaela bread drizzled with orange jam.
Yes, I thought, inhaling deep before I knew what I was doing. That’s Alisdair’s scent. Empty, deceptive, a lie.
“You come here today for your death. She was not my mate when she entered your territory, or when she granted you favor.”
Meallan tsked. “Come now. You know as well as I those distinctions only would’ve mattered if she succeeded in escaping the mating bond. Now you are one. Your soul, your power, your promises are bound by magics we cannot comprehend... or defy.
“I will ask my favor, and it will be granted, or by rights I will claim the life I spared.”
The sentence penetrated, clenching my jaw tight. Did Meallan just say he’d kill me if he didn’t get what he wanted?
“There’s no need for this. Enough with the shouting and threats.” I pushed up and stepped out from behind Alisdair. “I swear, I’ve been in rowdy taverns filled with pissing, puking drunks that behave with more decorum.
“What is your favor, Meallan? Ask it already.”
He bowed low. “Of course, Lady Ana. It is a simple request. One that in time we’ll find is best for our people. Will you—?”
“No,” Alisdair sliced in. “Now get out.”
I shoved around him. “Will I what?”
“Will you dissolve the invisible border and allow the wolf faeriken to rejoin Lumenfell, its people, and your rule?”
Foalan dropped his swords. I thought I knew what shock looked like on his face. That expression blew it out of the water. “Dissolve the— You jest,” he cried. “This is a trick!”
“It is no trick, it’s sire’s wish,” Meallan replied to him, but looked at me. “Too long we’ve been separated, and we’re both suffering for it. The successful union of your king and one of the stunted’s princesses showed us we were wrong.”
Stunted? They call normal faeriken stunted!?
“We can exist as one people,” Meallan continued. “No matter which animal calls to us. So, what say you, my queen?”
My queen. Not Lady Ana.
“Will you end the conflict and unite our people?”
“No!”
I blinked and Alisdair was in front of me. Towering over me. Growling at me. Beseeching me. Begging me.
Imperceptibly, he shook his head. “Princess,” he whispered. “Don’t.”
War raged in my head. Something was going on here that I didn’t know or understand. Why was it a bad thing to end the conflict between them, and bring all the faeriken together? It was only the day before that Alisdair ripped the throats of two crocodile faeriken for committing the very sin of not working together. It wasn’t a bad thing, except—
Alisdair’s eyes said in every way that it was. At least with this fae-wolf and this conflict, the answer had to be no.
“Yes,” I said, confident and clear. “I end the conflict, dissolve the borders, and unite our people.” I smiled into his darkening eyes. “Meallan, your favor is granted.”
Meallan said something. Foalan said something. Everyone in the room sounded, yelling and shouting on top of each other. All of it faded around us.
Alisdair closed the distance, bumping my chin against his chest. He spoke one word.
“Why?”
I balled my fists. Rising on tiptoe, I brought the venom etched in my face as close to him as it would go without seeping into his body. “I wanted you to free that boy and save him. Seems that neither one of us is granting each other favor today, husband.
“Huzzah, huzzah, my people, shout huzzah,” I rang out, my voice echoing through the cavernous room. “For Princess Emiana has achieved the purpose for which she was solely born. To be the bargaining token for the end of war.”
Alisdair’s anger was a palpable, oppressive atmosphere—more oppressive than the marking pheromones that choked half the guards. Slowly, he turned his back on me and reclaimed his throne.
“My queen has spoken,” he announced in the throne room, surprising me. “The wolf territory is dissolved and reclaimed for the wealth and prosper of Lumenfell. We are one people once more.”
If I expected cheers and huzzahs, I did not get it.
No one moved. No one spoke. After a beat, Meallan dipped his head in a semblance of a bow. Turning away, he left without another word.
Alisdair was similarly silent watching him go. When the door slammed shut, he flicked to Foalan.
“You know what to do.”
Foalan deferred him a proper bow, and strode out of the throne room.
I glanced at Alisdair but he didn’t glance back. I sensed I had gone too far.
The boy’s cries rang in my ear. So did he.
“A tip, my husband,” I said lightly. “You can easily be rid of me and these innocent mistakes, if you run slower.”
He didn’t reply. I wasn’t sure he heard me.
A mousy woman approached the dais. Yes, mouse. Twitching nose and whiskers drew my eyes, though I tried not to stare.
“Ethna, my lord.” She bowed low, then didn’t make it all the way up—hanging her head. “We have but one request.”
“We?” I asked. No one else stood at her side, or looked in her direction.
“We ask that you allow us to kill the stunted queen.”
I froze, eyes blinking rapidly. I couldn’t have heard what I thought I did.
“What did you say?” Alisdair hissed, obviously suffering from the same roaring that sounded in my ears.
“When we heard that she broke the treaty and destroyed our chance for peace, we knew she was dangerous to you and Lumenfell, my lord. Now after what we’ve just witnessed? Her dissolving the borders so that the wolves can descend and devour us all...” She shook her head. “It’s clear her only goal is to ruin us. The stunted have taken so much from us”—she raised her head, revealing an expression that wasn’t nervousness, but hate—“they will not take anymore.”
“Guards,” Bradach roared, but it was already too late.
The entire line of villagers burst into action. Half split in every direction, running to meet the guards. The remaining, including Mousy, ran straight at me.
Scales, fangs, claws, feathers, fur, and cursed hybrids I couldn’t begin to name rushed me in a horrifying parade. Clapping their hands together, they ripped them apart. Stone broke off from the wall dozens of places, shaking the throne room on its foundation.
The stone collided together, then flew at me.
“Aahhh!”
“Ana!”
A flash of feathers, then a hard force smacked into me and threw me out of the chair. I screamed as I was lifted into the air. This was the end. After everything I’d done. One day away from escape and freedom, I would die.
I kept going up, and up, and up. Why aren’t I falling?
Prying my eyes open, I came face-to-red-face with Bradach. He held me tight, forehead dripping sweat, and soared away from the madness below. “H-hold on—"
“Are you okay? Why are you—? Ahh!”
Claws sunk into his back, hooking into muscle, bone, and sinew. The cat faeriken grinned at me with sharpened teeth. “Release your prize, little bird.”
I shuddered. I didn’t think anyone else could make that awful pet name sound worse.
The stones pummeled my throne, burying it under a brutal grave that was meant for me. One by one they fell off the pile, took to the air, and narrowed on me.
“Bradach, look out!” I screamed, but as the cry left my lips, I knew it was too late.
He was slowing down—wings beating furiously to carry me, and our hanger-on.
Stones converged on us from all sides, flying together to crush us into nothing. Fur flew at my face, making me shoot back screaming as she sunk her teeth into Bradach’s neck.
Bellowing, his wings crumpled.
We fell.
Bradach released me. Hand slicing through the air, a wave of magic blasted my body—plunging me cold. My descent slowed. The rocks slowed.
Bradach didn’t.
“ Ferramenta! ”
The dais rushed to meet him. Out of nowhere, a large mass erupted beneath Bradach and the platform, catching, then bouncing him groaning to the floor.
A sofa? Where did that—?
His hold on his magic broke, and I plummeted. A rain of stone fell to meet me.
“Ana!”
Arms caught and held me to a hard chest. We collapsed on the dais, and the rocks fell—pummeling his body too hard and brutally, I felt every strike resound through his body into me.
Alisdair pulled me in tighter, shielding me so completely with his arms and body, he had no protection for himself.
The last stone struck... and silence fell.
My chest heaved—eyes rolling in my head. I almost died. They tried to kill me! If it wasn’t for Bradach. If it wasn’t for... Alisdair.
He saved my life. Protected me. When only minutes before, he glared at me like he hated me, and wanted nothing more than to go back and plunge the sword through me at the altar.
“A... na?”
My breath caught. I didn’t dare to move. To think.
Alisdair lifted his head as far as he could, resting his forehead on mine. A true grimace of pain ravaged his features. “Are you... okay?”
“Yes,” I whispered.
I tried to stop myself. With every ounce of will and hatred in my soul, I rebelled against my body, but I couldn’t stop the hand cupping his cheek. I couldn’t stop the words leaving my lips.
“Thank you.”
Yes, he was a terrible, brutal monster who killed innocents and chopped off children’s hands, but I couldn’t get back to my family if I was dead. He saved me. He saved them from believing for the rest of their lives that I ran away and abandoned them. How could I not say—
“Thank you, Alisdair.”
He tensed.
“Alisdair?”
Head snapping up, he inhaled deeply—growls leaking through his growing fangs.
“Shit!” Bradach shouted.
Alisdair leaped off me. I flipped over as he launched at Bradach, claws lengthening to tear him limb from limb. Bradach took to the air and flew out the village entrance—Alisdair hot on his tail.
I pushed up on shaky knees. A guard—a female guard—came quickly to help me on my feet.
Leaning on her, my eyes took in the sight before me. “Furniture,” I blurted. Nothing smarter came to my lips, but it didn’t have to. Furniture summed it up.
All of a sudden, the throne room was filled with chairs, tables, chaises, and lounges. I blinked to see those were the large pieces. A broom and mop leaned against the wall where there previously were none. Two new rugs fell across the dais. Resting on the remains of my throne was, of all things, a teapot. Sprinkled around the pot were the smashed remains of a few teacups.
The strange new additions scattered about the throne room, and everywhere they were, a purple bud grew out of fiber or stone, flowering in the most impossible place.
“Is this—?” I croaked. “Are these the...?”
“Villagers,” the guard said, leading me out of the room. “Yes.”
“But...” My throat was dry. “Magic to transform one living being into an inanimate object would take so much out of you, it’d kill you. To do all of these people at once... I don’t...” I trailed off, words failing me.
“Your husband, our lord, is a great and powerful man,” she said, pride leaking out of her. “Nothing can stop him. No one can stand in his way.”
“Yes,” I rasped as the doors closed behind him. “I’m beginning to see that now.”
“ARE YOU SURE HE’S OKAY ?”
Aeris scoffed. “That fool is fine. Do not trouble yourself over Bradach, my lady.”
Sitting me down at the vanity, Aeris began the process of unloosing my braids, and combing my hair until it shone.
“But it’s my fault he’s now banned from the castle until the marking scent fades,” I argued. “I should’ve chosen a personal guard who could touch me without getting killed by my husband.”
“You have such a guard.” She nodded to Eadaoin in the mirror, who waved back. “That idiot knew he wasn’t your guard. He was hanging around you for no reason, just seeking out trouble where he can find it.”
I bit my lip, guilt burning my gut. Bradach was hanging around me, because he wanted to be closer to you. “Aeris, the only trouble he got into today was risking his life to save mine.”
“I—” Hesitating, her frown softened. “I know, I know. Forgive me. Bradach did well today. He showed bravery I didn’t know he had in him, and put your safety ahead of his own. He just... scared me,” she said under her breath. “And surprised me. I don’t like it when he does either.”
It was funny, but I knew exactly what she meant. Alisdair both scared and surprised me that day too, and hours later, I couldn’t sort through my jumbled feelings to understand why it unsettled me so much.
After Alisdair chased Bradach out into the village and sent him flying for the mountains, court was closed. I spent some time catching my breath in our freezing bedchamber, before changing and heading down to the war room. Part of me thought that Alisdair would breeze in while I studied the maps of all the places I dreamed of going.
It was Aeris who finally stuck her head in. She summoned me for a bath and dinner in my dressing room—alone.
Alisdair and I left things in such an odd place. He went from furious at me, to saving my life, then trying to kill an innocent man for touching me. What was I supposed to make of all that? What would I say to him that night when he came for me?
“Aeris, can I ask you something? What is this?” I produced the purple flower I tucked into my pocket that morning. It was so pretty, I couldn’t resist. Part of me hoped to bring it home to Mama and my faywens, and plant a whole bush of them on our patch. “I’ve never seen a flower like this.”
She glanced up, eyes bugging.
“It’s obviously a magical flower but—”
“My lady!” Her shout made me jump. A quick wave of her hand, and the flower crumbled to dust.
“Aeris,” I cried. “What was that for?”
“I’m sorry, Lady Ana. I didn’t mean to startle you. It’s just that by law, we have to destroy those flowers on sight.”
“Wait, what?” I slapped at my hand. “Is it poisonous?”
“Not to us,” she muttered.
Aeris tipped my head down, going for the braids along my neck. I wanted to ask her why she went through the trouble of doing my hair into intricate braids in the morning, only to undo her work that night. I wanted to ask, but I sensed I already knew.
The life of a paper princess is as tedious as a paper queen. We did all these pointless, time-wasting tasks to distract me from the fact that this kingdom survived without me for a century, it continued on during my presence, and would carry along just fine long after I left.
“That flower is poisonous to our Lord Shadowsoul.”
My body went rigid. “Excuse me? What did you say?”
“The All Mother demands a balanced world. All things are born. All things die. She will not stand for an immortal being—although many have used magic and curses to achieve that very end.”
I stared at my lap, listening close.
“Lord Lumenfell may very well be the most powerful being in this land or any other, but Meya always has the last word. Whenever he uses great amounts of magic—those flowers spring up. As I said, they’re poisonous to him.”
My mind spun. “Are you allowed to tell me this?”
“If you were anyone else, no. But you are his queen,” Aeris replied. “You have to know so that you can protect him in battle as he will protect you. Husband and wife. Mate and eternal mate. Your weaknesses end where the other’s strength begin.”
“Too right you are,” I murmured, gazing at the ash. “Thank you for telling me, Aeris. Thank you very much.”
Soon Aeris finished combing my hair, then braided it into a single braid for bed. Meya knew the mattress called to me louder than it ever did before. How could it not when I spent the last two nights beneath Alisdair, instead of beneath the sheets.
I wanted sleep, but that would have to wait.
I paused at the threshold. “Eadaoin, are you coming with me?”
“I am, my queen, but if I smell him coming, I will have to leave. I may be your guard, but you made promises to your mate before Meya. No one is allowed to come between that.”
It’d be a long time before I got used to the word mate. These were such old words, for old traditions, borne in an ancient world we left behind when we left the forests and decided we wanted to live like the humans.
“I understand. This is between me and Alisdair.” Bradach flashed through my mind. “I don’t want anyone else hurt for standing between us.”
I set off, knowing Eadaoin would follow.
“Will you be running through the village?” Eadaoin asked. “I’m sure all the plotters were taken out in the attack, but in case there are more lurking in the village, a disguise wouldn’t go amiss.”
I shook my head. “I’m not going into the village. I’m not running at all tonight.”
Her white whiskers twitched. “You’re not?”
“No need. I’ll be on my way tomorrow night. I’ve waited this long, I can hold out for one more night.”
“Then where are we going?”
“I was hoping for a tour of the castle. More specifically, the servants’ quarters.”
She gave me a funny look, but shrugged. “As you wish, my queen.”
EADAOIN LED ME THROUGH winding halls, reaching staircases, and grand rooms.
I asked to see the servants’ quarters, but she took her time, leading me on a tour of the castle. With every minute that passed, I relaxed... because Alisdair wasn’t coming.
There was no way he couldn’t find me. I wasn’t hiding or masking my scent. He was free to pounce and straddle me any time. Either he wasn’t because arguing with him about the fox boy and granting Meallan his favor pissed him off so much he wanted rid of me. Or, he was seriously injured when he shielded my body from an avalanche of falling stone, and he was holed up somewhere recovering.
I wasn’t sure which truth I wanted it to be.
“—and this, my queen, is the servants’ hall.” She threw open double doors. “This is where we take our meals and our breaks. Although, we don’t have to break in here. Our lord gives us freedom to roam the castle. I myself prefer to lunch in the gardens.”
“Uh-huh,” I croaked, eyes darted around. “It’s nicer here than I expected. The servants’ quarters in the castle Lyrica is— It’s— It’s—”
I tried to speak of the plain, undecorated, utilitarian space I was forced in that fateful night in the castle, but the words wouldn’t come out. That’s when I realized Emiana had no idea what the servants’ quarters were like in her own home. She never bothered to look.
“I don’t know what it’s like,” I finished. “But I’m going to guess it’s nothing like this.”
“Hmm. Because the bookshelves, couches, and art?” Eadaoin asked. She gasped. “Or are their quarters even grander? All of Elva knows nothing can rival the beauty of the Crystal Palace.”
“Uhh, no.” I flushed hard. “That wasn’t the difference I was thinking of.”
The faeriken man finally lost—or won?—the tug-of-war with his cock, and threw his head back, glutes tightening. He perched on the dining tabletop, roughly ejaculating on the face of a pretty young woman with brilliant white feathers where hair should be. Said woman bent over the table, balancing on tiptoe, while another guy pounded her ass from the back.
It had been like this in nearly every room we walked into, and more than a few of the open hallways. Faeriken in heat going at each other like the continuation of the species depended on them.
Continuation of the species? a voice scoffed. Unless these three need a conversation from their mamas on where babies come from, they know full well none of the things they were doing would result in a baby.
This wasn’t out-of-control heat cycles driving them to reproduce. This was sex. Pure and simple.
The man behind spread her legs apart even farther, and started pumping like a madman—ratcheting her moans to deafening.
I tried to look past them, and the couple on the couch in the corner, and commit this room and its place on my mental map to memory. It was quite nice with its long, communal table, overflowing bookshelves lining the far wall, comfy couches to recline, and paintings of rolling green hills and verdant forests.
“It’s a good thing that I haven’t seen any children yet,” I remarked, “but where are they? Do you have your own rooms? Would a child servant have his own room? Or do you share living quarters?”
“We have our own rooms,” Eadaoin replied.
Begs the question of why these sexual proceedings aren’t taking place in their rooms.
“But the children don’t, nor do they share a living quarter.”
“Then where are they?”
She gave me a knowing look—decipherable even under her orange fur. “I know who you’re looking for, Lady Ana, but I don’t know where he is. Sometimes my lord employs children to work in the castle, but they never do.”
“Never do?” I stopped dead. “Never do what?”
“Work.” She looked away. “I’ve never seen them making beds, sweeping floors, or bringing down food trays. They’re never running through the gardens, or clearing snow off the paths. Children come to Castle Riagin, and then they just... disappear.”
I stared at her, trembling. “Disappear? How can they disappear?”
“I don’t know, my queen. This castle has many secrets. That is one of them.” She turned around and continued on.
I glared at her back. “What does he do to them! What does he do while you all hide your heads and sing false praises!”
She whirled around, glaring right back. But on her, with her two-inch fangs, it was more effective. “I don’t know that he does anything to them,” she snapped, “and neither do you, so I’d refrain from impugning my honor and the honor of our lord.”
I clenched my teeth, throat burning. It wasn’t the first time it struck me that the servants in Castle Riagin were much more comfortable speaking to their royals as equals. Kaelan was Emiana’s lover, and he still snapped his jaw shut on a single look from her. Faeriken were not so cowed.
Of course they weren’t. Dozens of them just tried to assassinate me in front of Alisdair.
Swallowing my anger, I spoke in a more even tone. “Where could they be if they’re not in the castle? How do I find him?”
“I think you know there’s only one person who can answer that.”
I balled and unballed my fist, bursting with the urge to hunt him down and get that answer. Tomorrow was my last day in Lumenfell. I either found him before I left, or I came back for him after rescuing my family. Either way, this was another promise this liar had no intention of breaking.
“Let’s go,” I finally said, brushing past her. “You may not know where he is, doesn’t mean no one else does. Shadowsoul ordered Aeris to bring him to the kitchens. We’ll start there.”
Eadaoin didn’t fight me. Our tour continued on to the kitchens, which was filled with more rutting couples, threesomes, foursomes, and fivesomes. I tried asking a few of them questions about the boy, but got the hint and scurried away when a woman with a lot of teeth, a lot of claws, and a lot of fur snapped at me.
Eadaoin clapped me on the shoulder. “Are you sure you aren’t in need of my sexual services, Lady Ana? It seems our lord has left you to your own pleasures tonight, and you are very tense.” She held out her arms. “This is why I’m here. To make sure your every need is catered to always.”
I studied her, cutting the instant rejection off on my tongue. “Eadaoin, what do you think of fae?”
“Pardon?”
“Fae like me,” I said. “Unchanged fae. Do you think me stunted? Different? Wrong?”
Discomfort etched into her face. “Well... yes,” she replied, surprising me. “How can you not be, my queen? Your magic was bound and stolen from you, and there’s a slow and torturous death awaiting you because of it. Of course you’re wrong.” She gently touched my elbow. “Don’t you think so as well?”
My lips parted, but nothing came out. Of all the reasons why I thought they called us stunted, that wasn’t on the list. It wasn’t all of us they were speaking of. It was just the faewomen. It was just me.
“Why aren’t women bound here?” I heard myself ask. “Not that you should be. I guess I don’t understand how Shadowsoul can bestow kindness with one hand, and pain with the other. Which man is the true one?”
“I don’t know,” she confessed, voice soft. “Is it kindness, or is it the nature of what we are now? In nature, the males attract the females. They dance, flaunt, gift, and woo them for the mere chance of mating, and when they do mate, they don’t betray their partner for petty jealousies and insecure needs for control.
“Any man who stole my magic from me would lose out on every potential mate, seconds before he lost his throat.”
The corner of my mouth curved up in a smile. I already pitied the man who tried to take a single thing from Eadaoin. Even if it was just the bread roll off her plate.
“It is a long, lonely, bitter life to be cut off from love, sex, friends, companionship, family. All those things would be lost if we became a society like yours.” She squeezed my arm. “All those things are lost in your society.”
I was quiet for a spell. “I agree with you completely, Eadaoin. It just amazes me... that Alisdair does too.”
Thump.
I spun around, brows crumpling.
Thump.
“What was that?”
“What?” Eadaoin asked.
“Didn’t you hear that?” I took a step. “It sounded like a thump or a thud or something.”
“I’ve been hearing lots of thumps and thuds on the other side of these doors.”
I tipped my head. “Very true.” Crossing to a window, I gazed out over the ice and snow. “Anyway, back to what you were saying. Does that mean you don’t want the curse on Lumenfell to be broken?” I said it out loud, and was thankful I did. As long as I could speak of the beast curse, it hadn’t taken me. “You don’t want to rejoin the Elvan nation, and be a summer fae again?”
She blew out a breath. “If it means having my magic bound, my title stripped, and my future ripped away so that I can become a forced sexual companion—fuck no.”
I snorted a laugh.
“But.”
“But?” I asked.
“But... if we could keep our land and our freedom, then I think I would like”—she touched her face—“to be beautiful again.”
“Oh, Eadaoin, you are beautiful.”
She flushed red under her fur. “Thank you, Lady Ana.”
A wandering hand grasped my backside.
“Not that beautiful!” I swatted her away. “Behave yourself, you saucy minx.”
She burst out giggling, which set me off too.
We continued our walk, lapsing into conversation like old friends. Eadaoin told me of her childhood growing up in Lumenfell. Or I should say, what became of her childhood after the village that used to exist a few miles away was consumed by the curse.
I told her of the childhood that wasn’t mine—the words falling easily without me having to strain to recall. It was getting easier and easier for me to access Emiana’s memories. What did that mean for me? When would it get harder for me to access my own? And would I even realize when it did?
“Oh,” Eadaoin cried out, running ahead in the sandstone hallway. “I can’t forget. This is the commander’s barracks. If you’re ever searching for Foalan, you’ll find him here or in the training yard.” She tapped her ear. “Although, he is a wolf, so yell loud enough, and he’ll find you.”
“Good to know, thank you.”
Eadaoin tipped her head. “He’s in right now. Let’s say hello.”
“Oh, no, we can do that some other—”
She threw open the door, revealing the activities on the other side before I had a chance to close my eyes. I guessed the activities on the other side, and I still wasn’t prepared.
Foalan was lashed to the bed with so many ropes, I didn’t know where he ended and the hemp began. Two naked bird faeriken stood over his ass, whipping it with riding crops.
Foalan saw me and smiled through the gag. “Hmm. Hmh phff nnm—”
“Lovely to see you too, Foalan,” I squeaked, slamming the door shut.
The noise brought a head out of his room, surveying the hall for the source. I recognized him only a second after Eadaoin.
She pushed out her chest, whiskers twitching and a low, soft purr rumbling out of her throat. The guard who had his way with her in the hall the other day gave her the same look back.
I knew where this was going.
“Eadaoin, I can take it from here. Consider yourself off duty,” I said. “Go enjoy the rest of your night.”
She bit her lip, winking at guard man. “Are you sure, my queen?”
“Yes, I’m—”
She took off running, leaving me and my goodbye in the dust.
Leaving everyone to their night, I crossed to a window, gazing out over a snow-covered courtyard. Frozen raindrops fell from the sky, casting a hazy curtain over the rolling black mountains. There was a peace and quiet in Lumenfell that could never be achieved in Lyrica. Something about this place—this land the stars forgot—made me feel that if I stopped and listened closely, I could hear Meya whisper her secrets on the wind.
I breathed deeply, inhaling the staunch, unforgiving chill into my lungs. Even the air fought back in Lumenfell. A kingdom where every creature demands to be free, even if it means growing wings and soaring through the trees.
Lumenfell was beautiful. I’d never utter such a truth outside of my mind, but it was truth all the same. It was wild and free and ruthless. It was the jungles and forests our race was born in. The life we abandoned for riches and society. Yes, it’s beautiful—
“But it’s not home,” I whispered. “I am going home tomorrow night, but not to the same life. And not alone. Where are you, little boy? This is one carriage ride we can’t afford to miss.”
I lit on something through the curtain of white. “Is that...?”
A glass dome stuck to the end of the east wing. I assumed it was the east wing because Eadaoin started our tour in the west wing, and we didn’t happen upon any room that doubled as a conservatory, sunroom, or greenhouse.
If the little fox boy was still in the castle, then searching the east wing until it turned me out into the conservatory was my only chance of finding him.
I continued on by myself, making my way out of the soldiers’ barracks. On my way, I lifted diamond necklaces off their displays, gold rings out of their cases, and a silver dagger with a pearl inlay hilt off its pedestal, and tucked it away inside my bottomless pockets.
Now I understand why princesses wore all those heavy skirts and cumbersome gowns. To hide all the weapons.
“Not just the bleeding kind.” I grinned, twirling an emerald-and-gold tiara around my fingertip.
I was going back, packing up my family, and we were leaving. Leaving poverty, leaving Gutter Galley, leaving Kirwan, and leaving Lyrica. Maps upon maps collected dust in that war room, charting out the many lands where we’d be free to live in peace, or with plenty of coin to buy peace, if we were so inclined.
Leave it to the real Princess Emiana to determine if there was goodness beneath Alisdair’s brutality. Let her repair the cease fire she destroyed. Lumenfell was an interesting place with many mysteries, but only one was mine to solve. The rest was her fucking problem.
I wandered the halls, sticking my head in doors, calling for little fox boys, and stealing everything that fit in my pockets. The little boy couldn’t come with me to a land where he’d be jailed on sight as a faeriken spy, but half of these jewels would give him a new life in one of the outer-lying towns of Wind and Wild. I was suddenly thankful Alisdair saw fit to show me where they all were.
If there’s time, I’ll drop him off on my way out of this frozen enigma. If there isn’t time, it will take longer, but I will see to it that he gets somewhere safe.
I paused beneath a ceiling-high window, and looked upon the soldiers’ barracks—stark and staring across the way. I was heading in the right direction and searching every room along the way. No sign of him. Did this castle have a dungeon? Entirely possible considering the man I was dealing with.
Thump-thump. Thump-thump.
I spun around, my head whipping this way and that. It was that sound again. Despite what Eadaoin insinuated, it didn’t sound like lustful noises. The noise was both close and far away. Like the whisper shared across the room that’s trapped in a dome and escapes to you.
It sounds like...
I pressed the heel of my palm to my racing heart. “Heartbeat.”
Thump-thump.
My feet moved on their own power, carrying me to the end of the hall. I touched the cool stone blocking my way, announcing a dead end, and slid to the right. Stepping lightly, my slippered feet told no tales.
My hand reached the end of the wall where stone was supposed to meet stone... and slipped through.
I couldn’t stop a smile. It was clever. So very clever. At first glance, all you saw was three, bare stone walls—nothing special. Only by getting close did you see that two corners didn’t quite meet, leaving space for a secret.
I pulled back and darted into an empty storeroom. Moving quickly, I upended my pockets, removed all the stolen trinkets, and hid them away behind an old, battered tin bucket. That done, I returned to the secret entrance.
Wedging my shoulder through, I squeezed in—coming out into darkness.
I felt around blindly. Stone. Stone. Stone. Air.
My hand fell through the air, finding a break in the wall. Shuffling forward, my foot hit the bottom step. Maybe this was it? This was where Alisdair hid the boy.
Thump-thump.
Or something else.
A heady mix of nerves, surprise, and excitement sped my pulse and quickened my breath. I didn’t dare to believe I’d ever find Shadowsoul’s cursed heart. Such a thing never entered a mind consumed with finding a way home. But what if I had stumbled upon it?
Our lands have been at war for over a century. My father died on a battlefield fighting to see the heart found and destroyed before it wiped out our home. Now the army had its sight set on my sweet, dreamy little brother, Jaclan. Tomorrow I would run away and leave this land of winter and ice behind, and with the heart in my pocket, tomorrow could also be the day the war between Elva and the kingdom of Wind and Wild ended.
I pressed tight to the wall, climbing higher—climbing faster.
Thump-thump. Thump-thump.
A faint glow filtered down the winding passage—signaling a torch ahead, and something that needed lighting.
I was running then. Bursting to the top of the stairs, I came to challenge with a large, oak door with brass panels, a brass knob, and a small keyhole.
Thump-thump! Thump-thump!
The beating heart was deafening. It called to me. Demanded me. Needed me.
I reached for the knob. “Dare I hope...” I grasped and turned.
The door swung open to my cry of delight.
Pushing it open, I took a step.
THUMP-THUMP.
The world spun on its head.
I barely got a scream before I was shoved against the wall, and the door slammed shut—snuffing out my glee like the light blown out behind Alisdair’s eyes.
“Tsk, tsk. Naughty, naughty.” Alisdair molded to my body, slipping his legs between mine. He snapped his apart which tore my feet off the floor and pressed both my thighs to the barrier blocking my escape. “A lost little bird will find the most interesting places to land, but I confess, I don’t much care for where your curiosity has taken you tonight.” His eyes flashed. “How did you get in here?”
“I walked,” I lofted, smirking despite the fact I had not a single advantage over him. “Now it’s my turn to ask a question. What’s in that room?”
“None of your concern.”
“I’ve made it my concern.” I shoved against his chest. “Get off! I’m going in.”
“I think not.” Alisdair waved a hand, and the door dissolved.
“No!” I cried, but it was already too late. It melted into stone, leaving no entrance, no room, no mark. “Argh! Tell me the truth, Alisdair. Is he in there!”
“He?” His brows smoothed out. “Aww. I see. This is about your pointless, irritating quest to be that fox boy’s champion and borrowed mother. How very stupid.”
My face heated. Kicking and wiggling, I strained to get my feet between me and his body so I could kick the bastard through the wall! “It isn’t stupid to fight for the protection and safety of those with none! A kingdom isn’t measured by how it caters to its strong, wealthy, and privileged. It’s measured by how it gives voice to the voiceless, stands up for the vulnerable, and does what’s right for all people, instead of what’s convenient for some.”
I scoffed. “But I wouldn’t expect you, Lord Beast, King of Blood and Torn Throats, to grasp such a simple concept. You’re too stupid.”
A beastly growl ripped from his throat, chasing a shiver up my spine. “You are a special breed of hypocrite, Princess. You dare to lecture me on the measure of a kingdom and its king?!”
“What’s that supposed to mean!?”
“Your kingdom is barbaric!”
I don’t know when we started shouting, but we were each doing it as well and better than the other.
“Mine? Ha!” My insane shriek of a laugh blew his brow up. “You slaughter people as soon as you look at them, and treat my body as your personal buffet. What right have you to speak ill of my people?”
“I have the right to speak ill of anyone who looks upon you and sees anything less than absolute magnificence,” he threw back. “They stole your magic because you’re a woman, but you are magic itself. Your body will carry our children. Your wisdom will lead our people. Your nights in my bed will soothe me at my most savage.
“Your people are worse than barbaric for underestimating you. They’re plain fools.”
My heart pounded my rib cage, banging its reply against his chest. My jaw worked trying to form a response, but he did it. He struck me silent.
Did Alisdair truly see me that way? Magnificence? Magic itself? Did he hate the summer fae all the more for what they did to me?
A million blushing thoughts raced through my head, then... he smirked.
Red descended on my vision.
“Enough,” I bellowed. “I am sick of your games. Your manipulations. You don’t believe a single word of the nonsense you’re spouting. Not a minute ago, you were calling me the fool!”
Alisdair barked a laugh. “Both and all of those things can be true.”
A snarl peeled from my lips. The beast curse was changing me, because my growl was positively feral. “I said enough. No more games. Tell me where the boy is now.”
“How about this—?” Alisdair snapped his fingers, and I fell.
“Ahhh— Uh!” I bounced off silk and cotton, shocked to find myself in our bedroom.
On our bed.
Alisdair bore down on me, planting his hands on either side of my head and grinding his middle between my legs. A moan fell unbidden from my lips.
“—I’ll tell you where the boy is if you ask nicely.” His cock found its home, pressing against my entrance. “Very nice.”
Grinding my teeth, I fought my body’s reaction to him. I inhaled a deep breath and let it out slow. When done, my smile returned.
“All right. I’ll be nice.” My hand snaked between our bodies. “Downright sweet and pleasant.” I reached between our middles, and squeezed.
Shadowsoul stilled.
“Easy now, husband.” I pressed the knife tip to the back of his neck. “I’ve got you by both ends.”
“A dagger?” His voice was calm. “Here I was believing we hadn’t yet come to the point of needing props in the bedroom.”
My lips curled in a semblance of a grin. “We need this one. I helped myself to Eadaoin’s while she was busy feeling my backside. You see, I realized my mistake was stabbing you through the empty, rotted cavity where your heart used to be. I should’ve stabbed you where it hurts, and now that I know you do hurt...”
My grip tightened on his testicles, ripping a groan from his chest. “I will stab this through your neck, and rip out any chance of you spreading your demon seed, unless you tell me where the boy is”—the words pulled out of me—“and what’s in that room at the top of the tower?”
“Little bird—”
I dug the knife in, feeling it pierce the skin. “Now.”
“No.”
My grin melted away. “Excuse me?”
“I said no.” He sighed. “Oh, my queen. When will you learn to stop bargaining when you have nothing to offer?”
“Nothing to— I will do it!”
“Go ahead.”
“This isn’t a bluff,” I cried, shaking. “I’ve stabbed you once before. A second time won’t weigh heavily on my conscience.”
“Undoubtedly.”
“Tell me where the boy is,” I burst out. “Tell me or you won’t be having any sons of your own!”
He blinked lazily. “A lesson, Princess, once you start shouting your threats instead of delivering them, you lose all sense of authority.”
Snarling, I crunched his soft, fleshy bits to burst—
Or at least, I tried to.
My hand wouldn’t move. Neither hand would move. I lay stiff and frozen, mentally shouting commands at my nonresponsive body.
“Oh, little bird.” Alisdair slid free and unharmed. “You are a unique and marvelous specimen. You make it so hard to resist you, but tonight, I must. You caused me no end of aggravation today, and I’m hardly going to reward that with multiple orgasms.”
Reward?! Did this man think he was punishing me by denying me sex? As if I was the wanton minx chasing after him every night!
“You’re done exploring for the night.” He turned his back and walked off. “Take the time to think about what you’ve learned.”
A blanket whipped out of the wardrobe and fell over me. Alisdair slammed the door on my internal shouts.