Chapter 19
TAUREN
For a moment, I think my wife has poisoned me. Kissing her usually tastes like sin, yes, but the good kind of sin. Like dark chocolate, cherry wine, or the creak of a leather whip handle in my palm.
But just now, her kiss tasted like dirt, stale water… mud?
When a tadpole slips from my lips, I realise what just happened. Queasiness rolls over me.
The mud-stained gown. The damp pond smell in her hair. The wicked grin on her lips before I pulled her closer for a kiss. I should’ve known it was coming.
You little monster.
“My lord, should I call for the doctor?” A guard hurries up to me. I’m still doubled over, trying not to think about the foul taste in my mouth.
“I’m fine,” I croak. “Where is my wife?” Her little grin is all I can think about. That, and what I’ll do to her when I strip off that awful-smelling gown later. To think, I’d hoped our wedding night would be romantic.
“She’s gone, sire,” the guard replies. “She ran off into the gardens, and the little dog followed her.”
Anger swells inside me. “What?” Standing up, I ignore the nobles in the front row panicking about the pond water on their clothes. “Search the grounds,” I bark at the guards. “Find her or so help me…”
They scatter before I can finish my sentence.
Tonight was supposed to be perfect. I’d paid Girabalt to bring her a beautiful gown. I’d spent half the value of my castle on pink and red dahlias from the faerie kingdom. I’d woken hours before moonrise to hang orb lights in just the right spots to make this wedding ceremony fit for a princess.
I suppose I forgot how little that description fits Princess Dahlia. My now wife.
Fifteen minutes pass before an out-of-breath guard sprints down the aisle towards me. I’m sat on a stool, thinking up a million different ways to thank Dahlia for her little gift.
“Put her in my bedchamber,” I grumble at the guard. “And for fuck’s sake, keep guards outside the door.” I’d prepared a feast for after the wedding, a banquet with all her favourite foods. There was to be a chocolate fountain, too.
If she pleases me later, perhaps I will still let her enjoy it.
“We can’t find her, sire,” the guard wheezes.
My blood turns to ice. “What do you mean you can’t find her?”
“We’ve searched the entire grounds, and there are men searching the castle, but we can’t find her!”
“Then keep looking,” I bark. She can’t have gone far. She’s most likely hiding somewhere. “Have you checked each stall in the stable?” I can imagine her there, dipping her fingers into her skirt. She’ll know what’s coming. Need shoots below my belt just thinking about it.
“Well, you see, that’s the problem, my lord,” he stutters. “We’ve checked the stables, and… your horse is gone.”
“My horse is what?” I breathe. She wouldn’t dare. Her collar—
But then I catch sight of the thin red collar still a mess at the base of the arch. The collar that is no longer on her neck because I trusted her.
Stupid fool.
“Prepare Claren’s horse for me,” I bark at the guards, my voice straining. It doesn’t matter what I planned to do to her tonight. If she’s made it into the forest she’s already dead.