Chapter 23 #2
“Home.” Daire juts out his chin, challengingly.
“I was going to say a mess. Why have you stuck weeds everywhere?”
Daire’s eyes flash. “They’re wildflowers. Our Spark decorated the room to brighten it. I should have guessed that someone like you would judge nature that was free as worthless. Is that why I am nothing but a savage that should be exterminated?”
I wince.
“They’re pretty,” I attempt.
I am shit at this. What do I know about flowers apart from Mother’s rose garden?
“Hmm, luckily I am more interested in your upcoming coronation and wedding than your views on my decoration skills.” Freya raises her brow.
I grab Freya by the shoulder, shoving her next to Daire on the blankets. Then I pin Daire down as well.
“Hey, what?” Daire protests. “Still can’t take a little criticism, boss?”
“Shut up.” I wind my shadows around his wings, binding him in place, before he can protest further. My shadows surge around the room, darkening it. “We should assume that we are being spied on. But if anyone sees us now, then they’ll assume—”
“That you’re dominantly fucking us like the arsehole you are?” Daire demands.
“I’m glad that we are on the same page.” I pin both their hands above their heads.
“So, let us be quick. The coronation and wedding occur in two days. Major preparations with little expense spared are underway. Your outfits will be delivered here, as if everything is going according to my uncle’s plan.
Yet I have my own plans.” I lean down, brushing my lips against Freya’s.
By the Shadow Gods, how I have dreamed of their taste since she was separated from me.
“Because I will burn my kingdom down before I marry Liviana. You are the only Empress who shall sit on the dragon throne.”
Freya is breathing fast. Her pupils are blown.
She turns her head and exchanges a glance with Daire.
He hesitates, before he nods.
“Slip your hand into the pocket of my dress,” she whispers. “But don’t take out what you feel there.”
I frown in confusion.
I mask the movement to do as she said, by sliding my hand down her front, brushing her breasts and then her hips.
Freya whines, pushing up into my touch.
I stealthily edge my fingers into her pocket and touch something small, cold, and metal.
What in the name of the Shadow Gods is that?
I hide the discovery by continuing my teasing exploration down to edge up the front of Freya’s dress.
She is breathing fast now. “Something I found in Blood Kingdom.”
“Found?”
“Stole.”
My smart wolf.
“You’re incredible.”
“Aye, she’s brilliant,” Daire adds. “Our Thief Queen.”
Freya blushes.
I reward her by pushing her dress up further and brushing over her clit. Her cheeks become flushed.
My cock hardens, but I ignore it.
“Anti-metallicum,” Daire explains. “It can break your uncle’s cursed magic.”
I almost drop my shadows and my act in my shock.
Something that can break my uncle’s magic?
Hope surges through me.
Is it possible?
That changes everything.
For the first time in my life, I would have a real choice.
My eyes light up, and I meet Daire’s dancing gaze. “Tell me you mean that.”
He ruffles his feathers, as much as he can when I am pinning his wings. “Unseelie don’t lie.”
“It’s only in the experimental stage,” Freya warns.
“That doesn’t matter.” My mind is racing. If that is the only piece of this material we have, then what is the next step? “I’ll test it on myself if I need to.”
“Step down, hero. It was already tested on me. I could have died, but it looks like I have as many lives as a cat,” Daire boasts.
“Lucky us.” I still reward him, however, by caressing my shadows up and down his wings.
I enjoy the way that I can make him lose control.
His eyes become glassy, and he tents his robe.
I must keep up the charade, right? “We need to find someone skilled enough to turn this into a weapon. Not only could it undo his magic, but it could kill Maximinus. In battle or the moment that his life is threatened, he surrounds himself with his cursed metal. This could pierce it.”
“It would have to be someone that we trusted, however, and that means someone outside this court.” Daire is panting. “I have a friend who could do it.”
“Why should I trust someone I don’t even know?” I challenge.
“Do you have a choice?”
Who is Daire talking about? A member of his featherglass?
Why does it cause a pang in me that he talks casually about another friend?
I speed up my strokes on his wings, while I push a finger into Freya’s pussy.
Freya moans.
I don’t need to touch my cock. I have never felt a high like this.
For the first time, I have a true advantage over my uncle.
I lean down, kissing Freya. She pushes up into the kiss. She is already a mess under my hand, as I add a second finger into her pussy and crook them.
I catch her gasp of pleasure, kissing her more deeply.
“You may have just won our entire war.” I crook my fingers again, speeding up my movements in and out.
Freya arches up against me.
I study her face, loving watching every single tiny change of expression, as she comes in my arms.
She smiles, sleepily.
Slowly, I pull away from her, before lowering her back into the blankets again. I draw my shadows back from her, and she snuggles into the bedding with a happy sigh.
“Unless,” Daire struggles to say, still caught in my tormenting shadows, “someone from Blood Kingdom has secretly contacted him. Heka invented this stone. He kept it a secret but he’s a bastard.
I had to tell Maximinus about his experiments, although I pretended that it was a mistake that it tore the iron from me.
For all we know, Heka has told Maximinus the truth. ”
I turn to Daire, caging him beneath me. I press my hand over his chest, where his heart is rabbiting.
Our gazes meet, as I ruthlessly work my shadows over his wings.
If he expects me to let him come…even if he begs, and I know that he won’t…then he must think me more merciful than I am.
“This Heka is another one of your friends, I assume?” I ask. “Do you enjoy making enemies everywhere you go?”
“Are you sure that you’re not talking about yourself?” Daire replies. “Also, he’d have warmed up to a lovable rogue like me, if he hadn’t discovered that I was the fae who’d killed their queen. It’s hard to make people like you after that on charm alone.”
“Maximinus could be double bluffing us.”
“Since you captured Sin, Blood Kingdom will have been taken over by the Void Cult and Ruin, aye?”
“Unfortunately.”
“It’s no surprise that the Bloods aren’t going to war to demand their King’s release. Ruin is a snake. He’s likely playing both sides, whatever gains him the most bloody power.”
“Then we hold off using the anti-metallicum, until it has been forged into the most powerful form. It is our greatest, secret weapon. We will likely only get a single shot with it.”
Daire and Freya have their strengths. But I’m the military strategist.
This is my call.
To my relief, they both nod.
I withdraw my shadows, edging away from them both onto the cold stone.
Daire looks betrayed, pushing himself up onto his elbows.
“May the Shadow Devils forever make your balls blue if you stop now.” Frustrated, he gestures down at his hard cock under his robes.
I battle to keep my expression stony and not smile smugly. “Stop what? I was only brushing your wings like you were brushing Freya’s hair. I can’t have an unkempt King, can I? Your blue balls are nothing to do with me.”
“You’re as merciless as Spark is,” Daire mutters, pushing himself to sit up.
Freya grins. “Wild wolves and ruthless dragons are cruel, huh?”
I slip my hand into my pocket.
Then I kneel in front of my nestmates.
I must do this right.
Freya’s eyes widen. She pushes herself upright amongst the soft blankets.
I take a calming breath.
This is the moment that I have dreamed about for months.
In fact, the moment with Freya that I have craved since the golden threads bound us three years ago.
“I swore to crown you both as my King and Queen. And I will.” I reach into the pocket of my tunic and pull out two heavy rings.
When I open my hand to reveal the golden dragon rings that match my own resting on my palm, Freya gasps.
Daire is watching me intently. “These belonged to my great-grandparents. They are known as the forgotten generation because they fought no wars nor performed any great feats. Instead, my great-grandfather married a pearl dragon who he fell in love with rather than a silver one. Together, for that single generation, they ruled over a prosperous kingdom of builders and merchants. Tarquin despised them. No one writes stories about them. Only one song remains, and it is about their sincere love. I admire them.”
There is so fucking much more that I wish I could say.
I want to reassure Freya and Daire that they will wear these rings, while I crown them as Emperor and Empress alongside me.
I wish I could ask them to trust me that we will return our kingdoms to forgotten ones, where the tales are of our love, rather than our wars.
But I can’t.
Without saying anything, as if they understand my thoughts anyway, Freya and Daire hold out their hands.
Like we are in a private marriage ceremony beside the warmth of the hearth with the brightness of the wildflowers surrounding us, which I can now see the beauty in, I slip the dragon ring on Freya’s finger and then on Daire’s.
They gleam in the fire’s light.
In my heart, we are now married.