revelations 02 - on a white horse

by corwin, monica

  Chapter Ten

  A STRANGE PRESSURE BUILT in Victor’s chest. He shifted around to try to loosen it. It couldn’t have occurred during the whipping Bianca gave him the previous night. She usually liked to hurt his legs or arms, never his torso, and besides, it ached deep in his chest. A buzzing sounded in his ears, and he couldn’t shake it out. In a moment of sheer panic, he picked up the phone on his desk and called Bianca. She answered after two rings. “Hello?”

  “Something is wrong.”

  Muffled feedback before Bianca asked in a loud whisper, “what is it?”

  But he didn’t answer as someone pressed a finger to the end button on the phone’s cradle.

  Victor looked up the length of his arm and into a stranger’s face, and somehow his body shifted as if he were a puzzle that never fit together right. Suddenly, that last piece fell into place. When he spoke, the man’s voice was deep, throaty, and richly accented. “Did you get disconnected?”

  He sat on the edge of the desk. “You’re much more beautiful than my last one. The others will be jealous.”

  Victor swallowed but couldn’t speak. Fear bloomed from his initial panic, and his mouth wouldn’t form words as his heart beat roughly in his chest. A deep yearning had taken root inside him. A need to please this man, make him happy, and do his bidding. Like a well trained dog, Victor could sense he was meant to love this stranger.

  “We will wait for your pony, yes?” the man said, shifting off the desk and into a more comfortable chair opposite from him.

  He played scenarios in his mind. If the man had set a trap for Bianca, then Victor had to warn her off and make sure she didn’t show up. No doubt she’d already left by the way he’d hung up.

  “I don’t know what you mean?” Victor said, attempting to moderate his tone to bored and calm, but even he didn’t believe it with the fear leaking in his words. “Who are you?”

  The corner of the man’s lip twisted up. “Well, love, I can be your savior or your damnation. Depends on the answer I receive.”

  “The answer to what?”

  Victor’s office door burst open a second later and Bianca stepped in, stopping dead. “You.” Her eyes flew wide as she regarded the man sitting across from him who, in turn, noted her presence with a nod.

  The man smoothly glided from his chair and bowed before her on one knee. She stared down at him as if she were the Mistress and he her slave. “My lady,” he said, taking her hand and kissing it gently.

  Something feral surged from within him. Victor wanted to rip the man open for touching her. The animosity of it shocked him back to himself, and he squeezed his eyes shut in hopes it could be a dream. “What is happening to me?” he whispered.

  He opened his eyes to find the man standing over his desk. He didn’t lean in to intimidate, but to study him with a serious, contemplative regard. “Maybe you are coming home.”

  Victor shook his head. “What do you mean?”

  “I am Gwyn Ap Nudd, and you’re leaving with me.”

  Bianca surged forward and turned the man’s face to hers. Victor stared open-mouthed as she met his eyes for a second from over Gwyn’s shoulder—then a vision overtook her hard and fast. She shook violently, doubling over. Victor jumped to his feet, intending to catch her, but Gwyn got there first and grabbed her waist before she fell to the floor. A few seconds of silence passed, and then Victor retrieved a cloth and wet it from the soda water at his bar. He handed it to Gwyn, who placed it across her forehead, and Bianca came back to them, flailing. She realized who held her, and she twisted out of his arms.

  “No. No. No,” she said it over and over, hugging her torso and rocking back and forth.

  “It’s the only way,” Gwyn whispered, reaching out to her, almost sounding regretful.

  She swatted his hand away and glared at him. “This wasn’t your choice to make. There could have been a different way, but you didn’t let me find it.”

  “Do you think you’re the only one who can see things? I rule Anwyn, and I see all there is to see in this world and the other. It is the only way.”

  Victor had enough with the mystical talk. Whether they or Bianca liked it not, he was stuck in the middle of this absurd situation. Frustration continued its assault through him, and his skin began to itch and burn along his arms as his anger grew. “Will one of you tell me what the hell is going on here?”

  He realized he’d shouted and took a deep breath. This wasn’t him. He didn’t shout; he didn’t get irrationally angry.

  “Tell Victor already, or I will,” Bianca said, gesturing at Gwyn in annoyance.

  The man rolled his eyes before turning to Victor. “You are now a Cwn Anwyn. A hound of Anwyn and part of the host.”

  Victor shook his head. “It’s like your speaking English, but I can’t quite understand what you’re saying.”

  Gwyn sighed dramatically and began miming wildly with his hands, like Victor was a child. “I am Gwyn, King of Anwyn and leader of the Wild Hunt. You are now a hound of Anwyn, part of the Wild Hunt.”

  Victor knew of the Wild Hunt from fairy stories as a child. He sat down hard in his chair. If everything Bianca had told him was true—the horsemen, the Underworld, hellhounds—there was no reason the Wild Hunt couldn’t exist too. “Why me?”

  “Now you’re asking the right questions.”

  Gwyn glanced back at Bianca, and Victor followed the track of his gaze. Victor jerked as he found her staring at him. “I’m so sorry. This is all my fault. If Hel’s PMS flares up, she’d break my seal and end the world, but Gwyn created a different path, even if I’m reluctant to follow it.”

  “What is the plan?” Victor asked, still trying to wrap his brain around it all.

  Gwyn broke in now, “Bianca will become my queen and join the host. My power is more ancient, stronger, and it will trump her own. I knew she would not come without you, her little pet. So I did the only thing I could to ensure she would.”

  Victor stared between them. “What the hell have I gotten myself into?” He turned away to stare out the window. The city lay below him surrounded in fog. A tangible lifeline to normalcy. He’d made a choice when he took up with Bianca, and when he didn’t run away screaming the moment they revealed the truth. But he did not choose to join them. He didn’t choose to be bitten by some dog, nor did he choose to become part of a spectral hunt.

  Part of him wondered if there was a way to undo it, and another part of him wondered if this would mean Bianca would be his. That she would no longer have whatever hesitation she harbored holding her back.

  He didn’t notice at first, but she’d stopped bossing him around, a trait he actually enjoyed when spending time with her. She’d also touched him differently, as if she feared she’d have to give him up any second and didn’t want to let him in.

  He took another deep breath and tried to shake the growing itch in his skin before realization struck him. “Is this you?” he asked, turning to Gwyn, who sat at Bianca’s feet. He lifted his arm, revealing the bite but Gwyn didn’t even look up.

  As he took in the scene, another though left him cold. For a submissive…even one who lived a dominant lifestyle, becoming a slave at the hands of Conquest itself would be a fantasy. One he lived, at least for a little while.

  He watched the pair of them. She sat glaring at Gwyn like she wanted to smack the living daylights out him, and he looked at her with a delicate balance of admiration and something Victor would almost call fear.

  ______

  Bianca glanced back and forth between the two men. One a stranger and one a lover. Two men who demanded her attention, yet they demanded it in such a way that required her to play the Dominant. A role she didn’t hate, but it would seem chose her instead of her having chose it.

  The look on Gwyn’s face told her all she could want to know about him. The need for someone to take control of him. The need for her to crush him and enjoy it. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and summoned that part of her. Opening her
eyes again, she could regard him more clearly. He had an aura of power spread around him, and he wanted her to take it and use it for herself. She stood, and he remained kneeling as if he knew he was no longer in the presence of Bianca, but before a horseman.

  “This is not a one and done deal, Gwyn Ap Nudd. Make this bargain, and you surrender yourself to me. You not only surrender yourself body and soul, but your host as well. I will be your queen. I will reign, and I will conquer.”

  Her voice rang throughout the room, and her power beat under her skin, begging for release. All she needed was his agreement, and then she could push it back before it went too far. Gwyn opened his arms and bared his throat to her. She placed her foot against his neck and pushed his head to the floor. “I claim thee, Gwyn Ap Nudd, King of the Fairy, and ruler of Anwyn, as my husband.” She glanced up to find Victor kneeling, and then the world snapped back in a rush. She returned to herself, and her hands began to shake. She still held Gwyn down by his throat and part of her wished she were the type of person to crush him there. Before she let him up, she had one more thing to say to him. “As queen, I take Victor to be my consort if it is his wish.”

  She met those deep eyes, and Victor swallowed before answering. “Yes, Mistress. I will be whatever you wish me to be.”

  Gwyn growled low in his throat, but she pressed it harder until it cut off. “You have no choice husband, as you gave me no choice. I promise you, when this night is over you will regret your decision…and every night…for eternity.”

  She lifted her foot and he sat up, slowly massaging his throat. “Mistress, it will be my pleasure to be punished by you for an eternity.” Gwyn turned to glare at Victor, and then climbed to his feet before smoothing his shirt. Once sufficiently quaffed, he sat back in the chair with a rakish smile. One Bianca couldn’t help but admit was sexy.

  Victor stood as well and sat behind his desk. Bianca took the final chair. “I suppose we need to figure this out,” she said, straightening the edge of her dress. This whole day seemed surreal at this point. She doubted anything else could surprise her.

  “Um…what exactly is a consort?” Victor asked, and she couldn’t help but crack a smile.

  “A consort is a partner to a reigning monarch. Usually a spouse, but can also be in addition to a spouse. You have the same level of rank.” She shrugged. “…in my bed and presence as Gwyn does, but you obviously can’t run over a fairy host.”

  Victor blinked and stared between them before swiveling in his chair to look out the window. She turned to Gwyn. “Didn’t expect that, did you?”

  He nodded his head in a salute. “I knew you would take over from the moment you agreed. I am at your mercy, My Queen.”

  The reality of the situation grew more and more absurd as she sat there, all three of them, arranged around the office like they gathered for a friendly chat. The energy in the room was less than friendly, however. Gwyn kept glaring at Victor’s back. They were both submissive, but they both had a claim on her. She sighed and shook her head.

  “You boys are going to have to learn to get along and share or no one will be playing in this sandbox.”

  Gwyn gave her a look before laughing. “Did you compare yourself to a piece of playground equipment?”

  Victor turned back to face them, and Bianca gave him a soft smile. “Did it get you and my consort to stop giving each other death glares?”

  “Touché, my lady. I have a feeling I will be ascending to you often.”

  “Only if you want to survive.”

  Chapter Eleven

  GWYN INVITED BIANCA AND Victor go to his house. At first, Bianca wasn’t sure about the prospect, but it wasn’t often you become the Fairy Queen and get to visit the Fairy King’s house. So while Victor looked wary, she put on an expression that said it was no big deal in order to offer him some reassurance. She couldn’t tell if it was working, but she had to try. The poor man had been thrown to the lions, and he didn’t even have a chair between him and the teeth’s razor edge.

  It turned out Gwyn lived in a penthouse condo on the Upper East Side, and his place loomed even more magnificent than Cloris and Hades’ apartment. She entered like she owned the place, and she supposed, according to Fairy law, she did. The fey magic washed across her skin as she entered, and it took a minute to steady herself as the new strange power mixed with her own magic. She prayed it wouldn’t make her visions worse than they already were.

  “This is nice,” Victor offered once they all entered the living room. Gwyn bowed his head in a regal yeah, I know manner and said nothing, but they weren’t killing each other, so it was a start.

  When she visited the club, the intention was to take the edge off. She never expected to be controlling two very powerful men, one of which was an immortal. Did she have the fortitude for that? What if he didn’t like her after he really got to know her. She shook her head and forced her mind away from the doubts. Gwyn didn’t have a choice…he married her basically under duress, and now he would live with that.

  She wandered around a little. “Don’t go too far,” Gwyn said. “These halls have a way of changing their mind.”

  Great, not only did she have to move into a new place, but now the place would have to move around her too. “I just want to see my room.”

  Gwyn leered at her, and she took pleasure in shutting him down. “My private room.”

  He waved a hand and a door down the hall glowed as if someone on the inside turned on a light. She walked toward it and opened the door. It took a second for her vision to clear, and then she realized she was not in New York anymore. There was a waterfall off her balcony for goodness sakes. “Gwyn,” she called.

  He bounded in like an eager puppy. It was a little unsettling. “Where the hell is this?”

  Gwyn frowned, deep lines appearing around his mouth. Like frowning was a foreign concept to him. “Anwyn.”

  “So…she waved her hands around, encompassing everything, and he got the gist of her question. He was a smart boy.

  “Wherever I am, Anwyn follows.”

  Bianca shook her head,“well, obviously.”

  Victor trailed in and stopped dead. “Woah.”

  Bianca nodded. “I know.”

  Victor stepped forward and cupped her hand in his. That comforting contact helped bring her down a few notches. She hoped she would survive Gwyn. Hell, with the events of the past year, she hoped to survive until the next year. But holding Victor’s hand in the midst of it all brought her a level of comfort she’d not had in a long time. That he would choose to stand with her after everything and not run away sent her heart beating frantically. She didn’t think he technically had a choice, but she preferred to think he stayed for her. She stopped her mind from wandering and gripped his hand tight.

  Gwyn cleared his throat, and when Bianca met his gaze, the loneliness and sadness was naked on his face. It was clear as day. Her heart ached for him, and she released Victor’s hand, walked to the bed, and scooted up to sit on the edge. Then she patted both sides of her and the men followed to sit on either side of her.

  “Boys, we are going to have to chat about this arrangement. You are both submissive to me, and that is fine, but neither of you will be higher in my regard than the other.” She eyed Gwyn. “You, sir, will not throw a fit over anything, ever, or you will be out of my bed and my favor so fast you won’t even remember my scent.”

  He swallowed and nodded, “yes, My Queen.”

  She turned to Victor. “I know this is hard, and ridiculous, and you didn’t have a choice in this. I get that. But I now have to be a new person, and I hope you still like her. You will have to deal with Gwyn in your life just as I do.”

  Victor bowed his head and nodded, “yes, Mistress.”

  She caressed his cheek and planted a soft kiss on his lips. “I remember we talked about your hard limits, and I will not force you to do anything if you don’t want to.”

  He nodded as a sheen of tears pooled at the corner of his eyes. She t
urned back to Gwyn to allow him a moment to compose himself. “We need to talk about you now.”

  He straightened up like an eager dog, ears practically perking with him. “What are your hard limits?”

  Gwyn blinked. “I don’t have any.”

  She laughed. “None. You will allow me any liberty? I can do anything to you I want?”

  He nodded.

  “Men?”

  He nodded.

  “Nymphs?”

  He winked and nodded.

  Smiling, she narrowed her eyes. “What about satyrs?”

  He pursed his lips and shook his head side to side in consideration, but then shrugged, “anything.”

  Well, it would be fun learning how far she could push him. She cupped his cheek gently and drew him in to her. The first touch of their lips ignited through her. His power fused with hers, creating a heat inside her. She couldn’t identify or even name it, but it resembled a rock placed on her heart. He delved a hand into her hair and pulled her in harder. Victor took her other hand, and a triumvirate formed between them. The power coursed from Gwyn, through her as a conduit, and into Victor as well. When she pulled away from Gwyn’s mouth, her breath came hard and fast as if she’d done a mile around a race track in a convertible.

  “What the hell was that?”

  Gwyn licked his lips. “I like the taste of you.”

  She waited for his answer.

  “It was our magic. We share magic as king and queen, and it is natural your consort has some power too. If he didn’t, he would become a target. Other members of Fairy would seek to usurp him.”

  Anger bubbled up. “How do I make sure that doesn’t happen?”

  “You need to lay claim to him and ensure no one else tries to take him as their own or kill him to take his place.”

  A growl bubbled up from her chest. “I would rip the head off anyone who tries.”