Chapter 15 All Hail the King
All Hail the King
Asilence as heavy as Luna’s heart drowned the halls as Clyde escorted her back to her rooms. When they arrived, she slammed the doors behind her, leaving him to assume his usual position outside her room.
Finally alone, she sank to her knees and allowed the tears she had been holding back to fall. Her mind clouded as if she had entered a fog; the life she had been living was all a false reality. How could she be so dumb to believe the lies she had been fed?
She wasn’t sick.
Wasn’t human.
And now she was expected to use the powers she didn’t even want to protect a kingdom that had only ever lied to and excluded her.
The light from the candle lit on her nightstand refracted in the small gems of Nina’s ring, drawing Luna out of her self-loathing.
She brought it to her chest, cradling it against her as if it could soothe all the years of abandonment and dishonesty.
It was all she had of her birth mother. Holding it up to the light, she inspected the gems. She’d never heard of objects being able to hold memories, but with magic, everything seemed possible and the visions she had seen further cemented her decision not to help the king.
Longing for the comfort of softer clothes, she walked to her wardrobe and chose a silk nightgown.
She paused to dry her tears before reaching behind to tackle the pearl buttons of her dress.
As she did, her clammy fingers wrestled with the smooth, elusive buttons, struggling to coax them from their fastenings.
Normally, she would have asked her sister to help, but that wasn’t an option available to her anymore.
Positioning her back to the mirror, she used it to help guide her fingers.
She almost succeeded in getting one button through its loop when her arm gave out.
Screaming in frustration, she stomped her foot; she was going to have to sleep in the damn thing.
A quiet knock sounded on her door, followed by a pause. “Are you all right in there?” Clyde asked, his voice soft.
She groaned and it almost turned into a growl. “I can’t get my dress off.” The door creaked open, and Clyde peered in. She turned to show him the pearl buttons. “It’s these stupid buttons,” she explained, her hands still behind her back, fumbling with them.
He looked a little too eager as he asked, “Want me to help?”
Did she have a choice? Admitting defeat, she hissed, “Fine, but don’t you dare look—and don’t think this means I forgive you.”
Clyde nodded and shut the door behind him, walking over to her. He closed his eyes and ran his fingertips from her slender waist to her back, slowly working each button.
Luna’s body betrayed her; the feeling of his rough knuckles against her delicate skin sent shivers down her frame.
He seemed to work purposefully slow as he undid the buttons from bottom to top.
Goosebumps trailed down her spine; how she had missed his familiar touch.
She drew in a breath when he finally undid the last button and began to slide the dress down her body.
As he did so, his hands grazed the outline of her breasts, careful not to touch fully without permission.
His slow movements paused, hovering at her hips before he let the fabric go and it pooled on the floor.
With his eyes still closed, he bent his head down towards her neck, his lips just above her skin, like he was about to kiss her.
His warm breath sent tingles radiating to her core.
She grabbed onto his arm . . . whether to draw him closer or push him away, she did not know, but they stood in that position for a while—stuck in a moment of desire and hesitation—before her brain caught up to what was happening.
She turned away, grabbed her nightgown, and threw it on. “Did you peek?”
He grinned, leaning casually against her wardrobe. “I wish I had.”
Without realizing it, her gaze drifted across his body, lingering on the sculpted contours of his muscular physique. She admired the defined lines, tracing the powerful curves of his broad shoulders and muscular arms.
He chuckled, flashing dimples he did not deserve, and she bit her lip; the temptation to seek comfort in his arms, in their familiar warmth, overwhelmed her.
Their eyes met, and he broke the silence. “Your beauty is beyond words, Luna.” He moved closer, intensifying her already ragged breathing. In a low whisper, as if he were admitting to his deepest, darkest secrets, he murmured, “It captivates me.”
Her cheeks warmed, and she looked away, not wanting him to see the effects he still had on her, but he grabbed her hand, swirling her towards him. With their bodies pressed together, his head found the crook of her shoulders.
She gasped but didn’t move away. His scent filled her and drowned her senses, blurring her thoughts.
In a low, seductive voice, he added, “I’m under your spell.”
His warm breath crawled over her skin, lifting the hairs on her arms. The only thing she could focus on was the heat pooling in her core. Her arms wrapped around his neck, and she leaned her head to the side, giving him better access to the space between her neck and shoulder.
Ever so softly, he brushed his lips against her collarbone and kissed her bare neck like he had a million times before.
She groaned. She should stop this. She was mad at him . . . for something . . . but what had it been? “Clyde . . . I can’t.”
Forcing herself to take a deep breath, she took a step back. Her heart was going to beat right out of her chest. “There’s no spell.” Her legs wobbled, and she was forced to grab one of the bed frame posts to steady herself.
“You’re a gift from the high skies,” he said so sweetly; it would’ve been easy to believe he meant it. Perhaps he did, but she was more than just Luna now. She was the kingdom’s future—their saviour, if she only tried to get past everything they’d kept from her.
The space between them was awkward, and she yearned to close the gap. To pull him close and kiss him. To feel him lift her, toss her onto the bed, and take control. Only in his comforting embrace could she escape her worries and lose herself.
As if he could read her thoughts, he closed in on her. Leaning over her, he tilted her chin upwards, forcing her to look into his beautiful brown eyes.
There was hunger there—a predatory insatiable hunger. As his gaze trailed over her form, she cursed herself for picking such a thin nightgown to wear; she was practically naked.
“A man only has so much strength,” he growled before finally pulling away. “I want you to be mine.”
His words made her heart flutter, as they always had. She wanted him too, missed how things used to be, but she wouldn’t say that . . . she couldn’t. It was too pathetic of a statement to admit it out loud. So instead, she looked away.
Silence stretched before he bowed his head and retreated, leaving her in a state of unfulfilled desire.
Sleep was near impossible, and after hours of trying, she got up and opened one of the books the king had brought to her room earlier. Flipping open to a random page, she began to read.
Even beings as horrid as the unicorn should be studied.
Unicorns are notoriously difficult to capture alive; in fact, in our recorded history, this has only been done once.
The process of taking down the unicorn requires an army, and many resources have been lost in the attempts to capture one.
Until we have a more viable option to collect unicorns, our knowledge is bound to their corpses.
Extracting a unicorn’s magic from its body is a difficult process, but once complete, the magic held within its horn and bones can provide for many.
When the material is consumed, it can help increase the length of one’s lifespan; when dissolved in water, the materials purify it, and when it is ground up and mixed in soil, the crops grown are more plentiful, taste better, and feed more.
Luna’s stomach rolled. She slammed the book closed and threw it at the wall with a grunt. Why had the king given her this to read? The answer came to her quickly; it was to show her that she wasn’t human—only a beast to be studied, to be experimented on.
A shiver ran down her spine.
From her studies with her tutor, she had learnt that unicorns had many useful properties, but the information had become twisted and vile now that she knew she was one herself.
The morning light filtering in from her windows brightened her room, signaling as good a time as any to dress for the day ahead.
With a sigh, she went to her wardrobe and selected a powder blue silk dress.
The dress, perfect with its open back, was chosen specifically to avoid a repeat of last night’s fiasco with Clyde.
Songbirds chirped and sang beyond the window, drawing Luna towards the sill.
She took a seat on the ledge, gazing lazily over the bustling palace grounds while absentmindedly spinning Nina’s ring on her finger.
As she watched, she pondered what her life might have been like if Nina were still alive.
A commotion at the palace gates caught Luna’s eye.
The knights dispatched on the night of the protection ceremony appeared to be returning with a captive: A man, wrists shackled and a black cloth bag obscuring his face, was being led by horses towards the barracks.
The horses and knights seemed to be struggling; their every attempt to move forward was met with resistance, causing numerous steps backwards.
A knock sounded on her door and Luna whipped her head around to see Clyde peering in, his fingers tugging at the edges of his perfectly pressed navy tunic. “Ready?” he asked, brushing his hand over the golden fleur-de-lis embroidered across the chest.
“For?”
“King Hendrix has asked the court to gather in the main gardens. He has an announcement.”