I didn’t want to admit it for some reason, to give him the satisfaction of knowing he’d saved our lives, but I still felt I owed him the truth. "Yes."
"Stop the dance!" the Storm King shouted above the crowd. Fear liquified in my bones, despite the smile on his face. "My sons have returned! This calls for a toast!"
A row of servants rushed in, passing out small tin goblets of fruity pink wine to the attending guests, while a different servant passed out fancy crystal glasses to us royals. I eyed it carefully, sniffing its contents and wondering if it wasn’t poisoned. Then I glanced around the room to all the smiling faces. No, the Storm King wouldn’t kill us in front of everyone. He loved being revered during the day and reviled during the night.
I nodded to the brothers, and they nodded in return, silently telling me they figured the same thing—that, at least temporarily, we were safe. I turned to Chrissen and held up my glass. He did the same, though to say he looked nervous would be the understatement of the year. The Storm King had apparently done a number on him already.
"To my sons, all five of them, and even our dear princess. Long may Storms reign."
"Long may Storms reign!" the crowd echoed back, and as a solid unit, everyone downed their wine.
I took a quick sip and swished the mixture around in my mouth, searching for any hint of a strange taste, but I found none.
Relax, Lex. He’s not stupid. He’s not going to off you in front of everyone. Just chill.
After giving myself that cheerful little pep talk, I downed the glass in one final gulp and returned it to the servant’s tray.
"My lords and ladies," the king began, smiling wide, "commoners and merchants, I appreciate every single one of you for coming to Chrissen’s inaugural royal ball. It was an important day for us Storms, and we’re honored to have shared it with you. I pray you have safe travels back to your manors and villages, and we hope to see you all again very soon. Good night!"
The crowd clapped and cheered, and servants began ushering people down the stairs.
That’s when the king’s snake-like eyes landed on me. That’s when I could practically see the forked tongue and venomous fangs from behind his cunning smirk. That’s when I knew I was in for a punishment like I’d never received before. It made my blood run cold, crackling through my veins as if it were chased by ice.
"What’s wrong?" Chrissen asked, putting a broad hand on my shoulder to steady me.
I shook my head. "Nothing. I just... have a bad feeling about our time here."
He nodded. "I feel that way every single day of my life."
I glanced at him and forced a smile. "I’m really sorry, Criss, for dragging you into this. I just have to believe it happened for a reason. If not, you’d be dead."
His brows rose, and for a moment, I was pretty sure he was going to say death would be the better option, but he didn’t.
"I don’t know what the Storm King might’ve tasked you with doing," I began hesitantly, "but you’re going to have to stick with us from now on."
He blinked, and I could feel his jealousy and incredulity leaking into the air. "No, thank you. I’d hate to be a... sixth wheel? I don’t even know..."
I cocked my head and put a hand on my hip, the silver and gold tassels of my gown shimmering in the chandelier light. "Are you magical?"
"What kind of question is that?"
I rolled my eyes. "Yes or no."
He sighed heavily, but instead of answering, he simply shook his head.
"That’s what I thought. And that means you’re going to need our protection. And yes, it will be mutually beneficial. We have ulterior motives, such as keeping you alive so that you don’t accidentally drain us all of life somehow."
His blue eyes hardened. "I’m not a child, Alexis. I have no need to be babysat. I’ve done quite well at staying alive thus far in my life, and I certainly don’t need your help now."
With that, he walked away, but before he could leave the room, the Storm King stopped him.
"Chrissen!" he called, waving him over. Then he turned to me. "Alexis, you too. It’s time for the real party to begin."
Cal and I shared a hopeless, knowing glance.
This was it. The moment of truth. The moment in which I stood up to Zacharias motherfucking Storm and refused to let him manipulate me in such a vile way ever again.
"What’s this about?" Chrissen asked me quietly as we joined the others.
I could barely even breathe, let alone speak. "You’ll see soon enough."
"Calvin, Alexis," the king said, calling us to the front. When we reached his side, my hands were shaking uncontrollably. He led our group through the passageways to the outdated section of the castle where that dreadful red bed would be waiting with an audience of kidnapped queens held at knifepoint. "I trust you were able to secure the chimera egg?" he muttered in a deep whisper.
My heart raced as I nodded, and Cal opened the messenger bag at his side. A large, white egg covered in big, brown spots peeked from the shadows within, and the Storm King’s eyes filled with sparkling fire.
"Excellent."
Hopefully that meant he wouldn’t be able to tell our fake egg from the real thing.
We passed through the ancient hallway with the mounted animal heads and antique paintings, and the dread I felt this time around was ten times worse than before. Maybe I should have felt better now that I knew what lay before me, but I could only feel trepidation. It filled me to the brim, spilling over me in waves.
Like last time, once we entered the room, the king’s guards grabbed the guys, pushed them onto their knees, and held a blade to their throats.
"What the fuck is going on?" Chrissen demanded, thrashing violently in his guard’s grasp.
He hadn’t been there last time, so it was no surprise to me that he was the only one flailing about and trying to break free. Even though it was my doom about to play out, I couldn’t help but feel bad for him. This couldn’t be much easier to watch than it was to experience.
"Silence!" the Storm King shouted, his malevolence echoing off the stone walls of the circular chamber. Now that his citizens were gone, he clearly felt no need for benevolence.
Chrissen’s mouth snapped shut in an instant, and his bluish-hazel eyes scanned the room with suspicious shock.
I followed suit, glancing from Caroline to Delilah, from Bibi to Rosemary, from Ashlynn to Francesca, then over to a woman I didn’t recognize, one I assumed must’ve been Chrissen’s mother. She was pretty, but it was clear her life hadn’t been easy. Her features were hard, rough, and worn out despite the sad and horrified look in her hazel eyes. Her dark hair didn’t shine; her tanned skin didn’t glow; her off-white teeth didn’t sparkle.
But that was all who I saw—the queens.
No Gemma. No little Lilah or her mother. Their absences terrified me. Each passing second was like another heavy stone being added to my pile of fears and worries.
I spun around and faced the king, who seemed to be waiting on my upcoming question. "Where is Gemma? Where’s my cousin and her mother?"
His smile stretched, crinkling the corners of his eyes with warm madness.
"You had one month to return with the egg," he said easily. "When you failed to uphold your end of the deal, I was forced to uphold mine."
No!
My heart shattered like glass, and my mind crashed to a halt in an instant. The whole room narrowed into a darkened tunnel as my vision distorted and my breathing shallowed. My limbs shook like branches in a storm, and I was suddenly freezing cold all the way to the bones.
My throat was wound so tight I thought my vocal cords might snap from the strain.
"You killed... a baby?"
Chapter 29
My question was barely more than a whisper of pain, and his cruel response was a metaphorical slap to the face.
"No, Alexis, you killed a baby, and her mother, because you were careless and irresponsible. You didn’t take your duty as Princess of Black
wood seriously, and despite the fact that you knew the price, you refused to cooperate anyway. It’s a travesty."
A scalding hot tear dripped from my eye, landing on my cheek with an inaudible hiss.
"And Gemma?"
As soon as the bastard’s smile broadened, I knew he would say she was gone.
I had no chance in hades of stopping the sobs that wrecked me. My knees gave out, and I crumpled to the floor in a boneless heap of misery and despair. Cal quickly dropped to a knee to help me, but I couldn’t even feel his touch. I was so numb.
"Gemma had a rather unfortunate run-in with a wolf," the Storm King informed me.
"You’re the wolf!" I screamed, hatred and anger burning through every cell in my body. "You’re the hideous beast with vicious claws and venomous teeth! You’re the sadistic bastard who makes his son fuck in front of his mothers and brothers, the sick asshole who kills children for fun, the tyrant who rules with a silver tongue of lies and an iron fist of injustice—"
As I spouted off the last word, his fist connected with my cheek hard enough to split my skin. I crashed to the ground, seeing colorful spots dotting in and out of my vision.
Cal rushed to protect me, daring to challenge his father for the first time in years, but despite his strength and mountainous size, the Storm King took him down in an instant. He hit the ground with a sickening crack, the back of his head connecting violently with the stone floor. My eyes went wide with terror, but as I scrambled over to him, I was relieved to find he was still conscious.
No way in hell was this normal or even possible... without magic. But the Storm King wasn’t supposed to have magic. Something was seriously not right here.
"Do not ever say such vile things about your king again," Zacharias threatened me, rubbing his knuckles before shaking them out. Mine and Cal’s blood coated his skin, and it somehow made me feel violated. "As for the servant, Gemma, she really was eaten by a wolf, you can ask anyone. Chrissen?"
I turned to him, staring through the one eye that hadn’t begun sealing itself shut. Raw emotion poured from his eyes, reaching for me in a way I couldn’t understand. Then he nodded.
"Ladies?" the king asked his wives. One by one, after carefully waiting for the blades at their throats to lower, they too nodded.
It was strange, not knowing what to believe. I sure as hell wouldn’t defy that psycho if I had a blade to my neck, and yet, there was something so painfully honest swirling in the depths of their eyes that I was terrified it was actually true.
Gemma was... gone?
My very best friend, the girl who was there for me when no one else was, the girl who made me laugh no matter how dark our circumstances seemed, the girl who made me feel at home and at ease no matter where we were as long as we were together... was gone?
Her image pervaded my mind. A beautiful girl with bouncy blonde curls and cheerful blue eyes, a smile bright as the sun, and a soul full of wisdom well beyond her optimistic years. I could practically hear her laughter echoing against my skull, haunting me—a sound that I’d never hear again.
"Get up," the king commanded Cal and me, "and get in the bed. We don’t have all night."
The two of us slowly stood, but as Cal removed his shirt, my fists tightened at my side. "No."
The Storm King smiled—an actual fucking smile, as if he’d been hoping and waiting for me to defy him this whole time. "Oh?"
Cal grabbed my bicep and tried to yank me back to my senses. "Alexis, please. Let’s just get this over with. We survived it once; we can survive it again."
But I held firm, my gaze locked onto the king. "Who will you kill this time if I refuse?"
The king sighed and removed a scroll from the inside pocket of his robes. The parchment unrolled and stretched out across the floor a few feet. My heart clenched. The son of a bitch had clearly done more research since I first arrived.
"It would appear you have another aunt left on your mother’s side—Marianne. She has a husband, three daughters, and one son. I think they’ll do nicely."
The children in question ranged in age from three to ten. How could he be so disgustingly cruel? As the gods-awful images of murdered children passed through my mind, I was slammed with a tide of guilt and nausea. I bent over, squeezed my knees, and puked on the stone floor.
If I was ever going to survive this man, I was going to need a stronger stomach.
The king tsked disapprovingly. "That’s unfortunate for you, eh, Calvin? Now you get to smell and taste vomit while you sully her."
Cal growled from my side, and I could tell he was thinking about having another go at his father, despite the fact that he was clearly magically endowed at the moment. "It’s not like that, and you know it. I would never do anything to hurt Alexis. She’s my wife. That means something to me that it never meant to you."
"All that means is that you are weak."
"He’s not," I said calmly, rising back up to my full height. My composure was eerie, even to me. "None of your sons are weak, and neither am I. You’ll not be controlling us like this anymore, or ever again."
His smile broadened as his dark eyes narrowed. "Are you refusing to bear Storm heirs?"
I swallowed hard. "No. But I’m refusing to do it this way. I am not an object for you to manipulate, and I am certainly not your monthly sexual entertainment."
The Storm King sniggered. "Trust me, Princess, I’ve seen better sexual entertainment from the squirrels in the woods. Don’t flatter yourself. But, regardless to whatever you may or may not be thinking or feeling, I am still, in fact, the King of Blackwood. You will listen to me, no matter how ridiculous or appalling the request, and you will do it however I see fit. So if I order you to strip...."
He suddenly turned violent and enraged, clawing at my gown and tearing it down the front.
"Then you will strip!" His face reddened, and an angry vein bulged in the center of his forehead. "And if I tell you to fuck my son while the queens watch, then you damn well better fuck him!"
Shocked, I tried to cover myself, but he grabbed my arm and threw me toward the bed. I half landed on the silky red sheets, but I quickly slipped off and crashed to the floor. Cal lost his shit and attacked savagely, throwing a punch at his father’s head, but the Storm King dodged it with unbelievable ease. While Cal recovered his balance from his missed swing, Zacharias ducked down and jabbed his son in the side, probably hard enough to crack a rib.
As they fought, the other Storms struggled to escape the guards. In addition to the knives at their throats, their hands had also been tied behind their backs, so it was no easy feat. But they seemed to be making headway, so I directed my attention back to Cal and Zacharias.
A snarl escaped my mouth, and my lips curled furiously.
"Fire!" I cried, but was horrified to find no curly peach flames erupting from my palm.
The Storm King threw his head back and laughed, a belly-shaking thing that rattled me to the bone. He’d somehow stemmed my power.
That motherfucking wine! It must’ve been laced with something—not deadly, but something equally as dangerous. A touch of chimera venom, perhaps? A potion from his insidious sorcerer? Some other plant or animal or mineral I’d yet to discover? Nothing was off limits anymore, nor would anything surprise me.
"Try again, Alexis," he taunted as he wiped the laughter tears from his eyes. "The look on your face was absolutely priceless."
Rob was the first to break free from his guard, headbutting the man hard enough to send him crumpling to the floor in a boneless heap. He quickly turned to his father and closed his eyes, searching the astral plane—or so I assumed—for any sort of spirit he might be able to manipulate in our favor. But when his eyes snapped open and fury radiated through the stormy gray depths, I knew he too had been unsuccessful in using his power.
He quickly changed tactics, spinning on his heel and helping Dan break away from his own guard. Once Dan was free, they helped untie Ben. And after him, they loosened the bonds of the
queens and even Chrissen.
Rob rushed to help Cal fight his father, while Ben and Dan tried to clear the rest of the room.
"Run!" Dan shouted at them.
The queens didn’t hesitate to flee, scampering from the room in a delicate, single-file line. But Chrissen lagged behind, staring at us as if he wanted to join the fight.
"Go!" Dan shouted, jabbing a finger toward the exit.
"You’re going to need my help," Criss protested, his chest puffing out a bit as honor seemed to fill him.
Ben put a hand on his shoulder and made meaningful eye contact. "The best help you can give us is by staying alive."
That’s when Ben’s words seemed to dawn on him. The likelihood that we would be slaughtered was surprisingly quite high, given the circumstances, and the only hope we had of survival was sharing any drop of life Chrissen could spare us.
"Go to your room and lie down," Ben instructed him. "I have a feeling it’s going to be a rough couple of weeks."
With that, Chrissen nodded and darted from the room.
By the time I turned back around, Cal and Rob were both on the floor, struggling to get up.
Ben and Dan acknowledged that as their cue to take over the fight, and they both attacked at the same time. It was an absolutely bizarre sight, watching that tussle. While their fists and knees and elbows did make contact with the Storm King’s body, there wasn’t any bodily reaction from him. It was as if his very skin was made of steel, unbreakable, unfeeling, and untouchable. Or perhaps there was some magical aura surrounding and protecting him?
Either way, every last one of the guys were down a few minutes later, and then it was just me. I squared my shoulders and widened my stance, waiting for him to attack me. It seemed smarter than rushing to my death; though in hindsight, maybe it would have been better to just get it over with.
The king circled me, like a snake about to squeeze and suffocate his prey, and I twitched like a cornered mouse unsure if trying to run would somehow kill me faster.
"You never should have said those vile things about me," he chastised coldly.
Stormy Nights (Storms of Blackwood Book 2) Page 24
