Dark Throne, The

by Raven Willow-Wood

  He made no attempt to talk to her, took the peace for the blessing it was and began to study the papers a councilor had handed to him an hour or so ago. It dealt with a disturbance on the borderlands, some fools had started a riot with the soldiers on the frontier. What did they expect? To be patted on the back and allowed to attack?

  Shaking his head at the thought and at the waste of the ten lives that had been lost and the other six who might as well have died, Jenderian law was very firm in such situations. Those half a dozen would be in jail until their hair was as grey as their arses.

  He disliked sentencing people with such high punishments, but it was the Jenderian way. The way of protecting and preventing crime from occurring. He was proud to say that their jails weren’t full and they only had three in the entire country. So they were doing something right.

  Time passed and Setta still sat there in silence. He was accustomed to his wife’s presence as he worked and while she possessed the wherewithal to only disturb him from his studies with light chatter every now and then, such silence was strange.

  “What has happened now?” His voice was gruff and he knew, bored.

  They’d lost out on their only child’s life and Henrik could only surmise that it wasn’t the ill they’d always believed it to be. Setta, quite clearly, couldn’t handle being a parent. This was something that came as a shock to him, for whatever task she set herself to, she usually did it well.

  Of course, the situation was a difficult one for everyone involved, but they did hit mothers the hardest.

  As such, he sought and found patience and chided her, “Come, Setta. What is the matter?”

  Her mouth trembled and as she turned to him, his breath caught in his chest. She was as beautiful as the day he’d wed her, even with her eyes puffy and red and her mouth slightly raw from having bitten and gnawed at her lips in anxiety.

  “She hates me. And I can understand why. Entirely. As soon as the words leave my mouth, I flinch at my own stupidity but I cannot help myself. I might think one thing, those words might be on the tip of my tongue but as soon as I speak, I say inflammatory things that drive her away.” She shook her head, when he opened his arms to try and bring her closer, a silent encouragement for her to come and sit on his lap. “I hate myself for talking to her the way I do and I hate that she’ll bring up something from her past and that something will die inside of me, because of what she said.” Setta swallowed the sound thick in her obviously dry throat. “Did you know she almost died? Did she tell you that?”

  Henrik frowned. “No. She didn’t. What do you mean?”

  “Apparently, there is something called bullee-mea on Earth.” She pronounced the word carefully and tightened her lips again. “It made her so thin that she almost died.”

  His eyes widened. “But she is okay now? This disease won’t return, will it?”

  “No. I don’t know. Maybe. Her words seemed to imply that it relies upon her state of mind. And of course, I just had to say something that would upset her.” Her chin wobbled. “She shouted at me and I totally deserved it. I told her to lose some weight, because of her dress.” He grunted and she winced. “My mother told me the exact same thing, Henrik. A bride can never be too slender… those were her words. How was I to know that they’d cause her suffering?”

  “We are unaware of the details of Heather’s childhood, Setta. We must approach her past with care and diligence. Such a situation as this one is explosive and undoubtedly, there are more like this.”

  “I fear that you are correct. The idea of Heather suffering is like a knife to the stomach. We weren’t there for her and as soon as Fade takes her to wife, we shall lose her again. A part of me wishes that we had never bonded them as children, but he makes her so happy that I feel hideously guilty for even thinking of that.” She sighed, the sound shaky.

  “It is past, Setta. We cannot change what is already set in stone and neither should we want to. As you have said, Fade makes her incredibly happy and knowing of his childhood and adulthood, I imagine that she provides the same succor for him. They will make a good match. Plus without him, Heather would never have returned to Mearth. You should be grateful to him.

  “The only danger we have of losing our daughter again, Setta, is if you fail to hold your tongue. I understand that you think it is some subconscious trick, that no matter how you try to keep quiet the words burst free from you, but you shall have to cease such thinking. It is time to make amends, wife.

  “There is no reason for them to live in Haden. No reason at all. Indeed, I would imagine that Fade detests the country, after all, it is the source of his shunning. Here, we are more free, more open. Even our lowest-born serfs do not cower at the sight of his wings. I know for a fact that the people of Haden have not been kind to their Crown Prince. Of course, that no doubt stems from the blood lost in battles instigated by his father in an effort to bind himself to a wife who could beget him another male heir.” He shook his head at the other King’s folly. “You must change your ways, if you do, then they will spend time at this palace, rather than living entirely at the seat of the Dark Throne. You want that, don’t you? To be a part of her life? To see the children that come from their match?”

  “Of course, I do.” Setta’s words quivered with longing.

  In her gown of teal and silver milen, a smooth and silken fabric that clung to her still-shapely form, she was as tense as rabbit in the hunter’s sights. Her hands were clutching a sodden handkerchief that had obviously mopped many a blau tear. Colored tears were unique to a Mearthen mother, Setta’s obvious distress upset him greatly.

  With the advent of their daughter’s nuptials, with her presence after living so long without her, any tears Setta shed should have been a bright yellen for happiness. Not the cerulean blau of sadness.

  “Then you must find a way to control your tongue. Surely that cannot be so hard. You have reigned as Queen for a handful of decades. You were taught diplomacy at your mother’s teat.” She flushed at his crass words, but it was the truth and he felt no shame for using such a term. “You must use your head, because I will be sorely angry if we lose our only daughter for good.”

  He hadn’t meant to be churlish with her, he truly understood the difficulties she was having in adjusting to their daughter’s presence in their lives. When they’d last seen her, Heather had been a toddler, edging out of that phase of her life and into her fifth year. And now, here she was, fully grown and ready to live. Yet again, without their full presence in her life.

  While he did understand, he could not diminish the fact that she would be at fault for driving Heather away.

  “I shall try, that is all I can do, Henrik. I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be a fool, Setta. You can do more than try. This is our daughter, for the sake of Mother Mearth. If it means not opening your bloody mouth, then do it. I’m old, too old for this squabbling. I want peace and tranquility. Not all of these fights.”

  She bowed her head, but twitched it in a faint nod.

  He sucked in a breath and settled back in his chair. The pair of them sat there in silence until another advisor came with another set of papers requiring Henrik’s attention.

  Heather moaned as Fade’s cock pierced her pussy with its thick, almost bulbous head. It filled her to capacity and that should have frightened her, or at least terrified her vagina. But instead of any hesitation, it welcomed his dick with warm, sticky juices.

  Her back arched, neck tilting backwards so that the crown of her head was resting on her pillow as he pumped deeper. Branding every swollen inch of her pussy with his hardness. When he was fully seated, she inhaled sharply and released the breath slowly. He was so wide and long that there was a faint discomfort, but it was well worth it.

  Any pang of unease at being so entirely penetrated so much so that she felt sure he was nudging her throat, dissipated as soon as he wafted his wings.

  He did it sometimes, not often, but she thought it was a way of seeking c
ontrol. He tensed the muscles in his spine, which urged those of his wings into action.

  Of course, her reaction was to cream instantly and for her senses to spike with tingling heat.

  Christ, the scent of him, his essence did more for her than orgasms had in the past.

  As her body reveled in it, she closed her eyes and shuddered as now blinded, her other sensory organs came into play.

  Her nose could pick up that faint tang of Fade as though it were a pungent smell. Her ears could hear the bristle of his feathers as his wings moved. Her skin was slick and almost glued to his. Their mouths had broken apart at his penetration, but the taste of him was heady on her tongue.

  She was lost in a quagmire of sensation and she groaned, when he broke it. Only that groan shifted into a high-pitched mewl, when he dragged his hips backwards and then shoved them forwards. He did this for endless moments, his cock pulsing against weeping, aching tissue. When he pulled out, his cock head actually breaching her entrance- only in the wrong direction- she grunted and tried to force him back by digging her heels into his butt. He was stronger than her, damn his hide, and so managed to inveigle his way out of her hold.

  Heather was on the brink of shouting at him, frustration riding her hard, but when his head sank down the length of her torso and disappeared between her thighs… well, Heather thought her nerves were about to pop, so tense were they with expectancy.

  That first brush of his tongue had her panting. The slight suckle of his mouth about her clit had a keening cry bursting from her lungs. She thought she was about to explode but her body seemed intent on denying her. Every part of her thrummed with tension, as his tongue began to fuck her. The tensile muscle branding her as efficiently as his dick had but with a delicacy that had her blood throbbing through her veins. So intense was the sensation that she felt faint.

  She gasped when he came to a halt with a final suckle on her clit. She was a few seconds away from a climax. She both dreaded and longed for the thrust of his cock. When it finally came, when his thickness pummeled into her, she gave a silent scream. Her breath escaped her as the orgasm burst upon her. It attacked her with its ferocity. Searing nerve endings that had never before been touched.

  Every part of her tensed, as the sensations built up to tidal wave proportions. With one more thrust the implosion commenced, the water, or in this case juices, gushed. Her entire body remained locked in a pose that had all the sinews and tendons in her musculature screaming. It didn’t take long for the delicious burst of Fade’s cum to splash against the quivering walls of her sex and rather than ignite another climax, his release calmed her, unlocked those clenched muscles and enabled her to breathe again.

  Claimed.

  Once again, she’d been claimed as his.

  When he fell on top of her, his far heavier weight pressing her into the mattress, she sighed with relief. To be surrounded by him on all sides was too delicious for words and soothing with it. After such intensity, the burden of his weight was the perfect post-coitus accompaniment.

  Of course, it was difficult to breathe, but it was worth it.

  “Should move,” he grunted, the words muffled against her shoulder and the bed linen.

  “I don’t want you to,” she retorted immediately. Her voice was almost unrecognizable, so deep and husky, it shocked even her. “I like you right where you are.”

  He nuzzled his face into her jaw. “I can’t deny that I like it too.” He bit down against the thin flesh of her throat and she felt his lips shift into a smile at her squeal.

  “No fair. No biting.”

  “Says who?”

  “This princess and all her daddy’s army,” she retorted and grinned at his snort.

  “It is good to see you smile, Heather. We will not be here for long. Of that I promise you.”

  She sighed. “I wish I didn’t long to be away from here. This has just not worked out how I’d thought. I mean, don’t get me wrong. I haven’t had years to think about meeting my parents, I haven’t had to work myself up to meeting them. I had a few days to really make sense out of all this. It’s just, the woman who wrote to me on that enchanted paper is so unlike the woman I keep clashing with. They’re like two different people. Although I can’t deny, ever since our altercation with the wedding dress, she isn’t as astringent as she was. In fact, she barely talks to me.”

  She stared overhead, studying the fresco of two men with wings on their backs frolicking about the sky. Had she been on Earth, she would have thought the subject point to be about angels. But on Mearth, it was about the antecedents of the Elfen. The people who looked like Fade and for whom he was called a throwback. Absentmindedly, she pressed a kiss to his head and wondered why the people of Mearth failed to be turned on by such displays of brute strength. Because to her, the wings represented that. Such fierce machismo housed within butter-soft feathers and gnarly, rope-like muscles.

  Yum. And Christ, she was from Earth. So why his own people had failed to spot that, she didn’t know. From what she’d heard, he’d been rejected by his father and because of that, his own nobles. And as his father sought a new heir, one that wasn’t a throwback, he’d started endless battles between different kingdoms as each new bride he took, eventually died within mysterious circumstances, when they failed to provide said heir.

  Hell, she thought her mother was bad.

  Grimacing, she pressed another kiss to his temple and tightened her hold on him, trying to embrace him with her entire body. She wanted to say, ‘You might not have known love before, my darling, but you’ll never be without it. Ever again.’

  She’d never been the mothering sort and while the emotions Fade inspired in her were anything but that, she wanted to cosset him and shower him with her love and affections.

  Her only consolation was that they had a long life together for her to do just that.

  As it was, a few days or so wasn’t much to endure. She had to stop being a wuss. Fade and her father were treating her with kid gloves, because of the transition between Mearth and Earth. But Heather could no longer use that as an excuse. Mearth felt as homely as Earth had. And how weird was that?

  Yes, there were still odd sights to be seen and she had plenty of questions, but her subconscious seemed to have come to the rescue. Every now and then, she’d have a slither of recall. A bit of déjà vu. She’d walk into one of the rooms of the palace and know where a secret passage was. She recognized one of the cooks, who once upon a time, when she’d been naught but a young toddler, had given her gooey cakes and treats. The maze-like corridors of the palace held no difficulty for her and yet, they did for Fade. Every now and then, he’d have a hard time of finding the dining hall from wherever he was in the palace. Whereas she was like a homing pigeon. She knew where everything was.

  This sensory memory made her feel right at home.

  And with her mother giving her the silent treatment, life wasn’t so bad here in Jender. The only downside to everything were the damned phases. The stupors that overtook her mind and everything else. It didn’t matter that the doctor said they were perfectly normal in such a long-awaited transition into her true Elfen self. They were bloody irritating.

  “Heather?”

  Fade called her name twice more and she finally heard it, recognizing that once again, without even realizing it, she’d fallen into one of the stupors. She sucked in a breath and willed herself not to get angry. These stupid phases would come to an end soon. Her ears were fully grown, something that had been the hardest thing to accustom herself to- spindly ears, that with one suckle from Fade’s talented mouth and tongue, she’d climax.

  Talk about eye-crossing.

  “Sorry, Fade,” she whispered around a sigh. “It must be as annoying as hell for you.”

  “Don’t be silly. You can’t help it.”

  “I thought with all the sex we’re having that they’d have stopped by now.”

  He jerked himself away from her and glared down at her with his arms brack
eting her shoulders. “Is that all you want me for? My seed?”

  At his mock-outrage, she chuckled, then reached up and patted his cheek. “You keep thinking that, honey.”

  “Honey? What is this word?”

  “It doesn’t translate?” At the shake of his head, she pouted. “Crap. I love honey. Firstly, it’s a term of endearment. But it’s actually a food substance too. There are these insects called bees and –my biology was never very good- but I think they eat the pollen in flowers and then, somehow, they create honey with it. They’re very smart for tiny little flying insects.”

  He frowned. “I think we have something akin to this. But it is not called hun-nie.”

  His careful pronunciation had her hiding a smile. Sometimes, the best parts of her day were clarifying words she’d spoken and having others repeat them. Jenderians really butchered some of the words.

  “What’s it called?”

  “Malkie.”

  “Malkie?” At his nod, she rolled out from underneath him and strolled, naked, across the bedroom and towards the bell pull. She tugged it and had ten seconds to return to the bed and grab the top sheet, before a knock sounded at the door. She curled the sheet about her nude form and said, “Come.” The door opened and one of her maids curtsied. Heather would never get used to the curtsies or the lack of eye contact, she still hadn’t trained some of the staff to look her in the eye. It was disconcerting for them to be staring at the bloody floor, when she was talking to them. “Ah, Beli, could you bring me some Malkie please?”

  This had Beli’s head shooting up and an eyebrow lifting. “Malkie, your highness?” she croaked. “Alone? Just a pot of Malkie?”

  Heather turned to Fade and enquired, “What do you eat Malkie with?”

  “We usually have it on cakes.”

  “There you have it then, Beli. On cakes, please.”

  Beli smiled, bobbed another curtsy and rushed off. Within five minutes, there was a tray laden with a variety of Malkie-laden cakes sat atop the bed.