In the Flesh

by Livia Dare

  “The lieutenant has come with news from the palace. An emissary from Sari arrived unannounced this evening with a message from the king. It appears Gunther is willing to meet with me. But it must be tomorrow and it must be at the coordinates he specified.”

  “Is that normally how such matters are arranged?”

  “No. Summits take months to prepare for. The king has declined to meet with me these last six weeks. Now, he’s had a change of heart and wants to see me immediately.”

  Sapphire turned under his arm to face him fully. “I don’t like it. It doesn’t feel right. I don’t want you to go.”

  His thumb circled soothingly against her neck. “I promised you to do my best to resolve this rift. The king is hot tempered and rash. He’s already shown his willingness to go to war over matters that could easily have been mediated. If I don’t go, I could exacerbate an already combustible situation.”

  “Then, I’m going with you.”

  “No.” His gaze narrowed. “I won’t have you anywhere near him.”

  “Wulfric. You and I are bound. What can he do?”

  “I don’t want to find out.”

  “I’m coming with you, or you’re not going.”

  A reluctant smile tugged at his lips. “Is that so?”

  “That is.”

  Wulf looked at the lieutenant. “You heard the Princess Consort. Go to the palace. I’ll rely on you to gather our formal attire and accoutrements. Return in the morning with everything we need to progress from here to the location specified for the summit. Sabine will assist you. And send a battalion to the coordinates to ready the site for our arrival.”

  The lieutenant bowed. “I’ll see to it, Your Highness.”

  “Excellent. Good night, Lieutenant.”

  “We’re staying?” she asked as the officer departed.

  Wulf’s gaze was both tender and filled with seductive promise. “The king’s not ruining my binding night.”

  “Good, because I’m famished.”

  “For me?”

  She hefted the bio-packs and flagon. “First food. Then Wulf.”

  “They warned me about marriage,” he grumbled.

  Sapphire huffed back to the blankets, allowing the one draped over her shoulders to fall to the ground. She heard him whistle appreciatively and she tossed a smile over her shoulder. “You haven’t seen anything yet.”

  Chapter 20

  Raising the field-sight lenses to her eyes, Sapphire scanned the profusion of blue domes only a few kilometers away and the large force of troops just beyond them. She pivoted slowly, moving the lenses in a wide semicircle, studying the terrain while mentally mapping vulnerabilities and strengths. She knew her father was responsible for determining the location; the tactical advantages were overwhelmingly in the Sarian camp’s favor.

  She lowered the lenses and released a deep breath, her stomach churning. Here she stood, firmly on the side of D’Ashier, while her beloved father made the necessary arrangements to engage her husband in war—should that become inevitable. Wulfric was also preparing, his camouflaged domes a sign of his warrior’s mind-set. When she’d left him—just moments ago—his handsome face had been grim and the mouth that had pleasured her mere hours before had been tight with tension.

  “This is hard for you, isn’t it?” a deep voice murmured behind her.

  She stiffened at the familiar but unwelcome intrusion. Turning to face her brother-in-law, she retorted, “Of course it is.” She couldn’t bear to be around Duncan, so she moved to pass him.

  “Wait!” he said hastily. “Please.”

  Pausing, she stared at him. They both wore dammr-suits to protect them from the fierce sun. The tiny gold stitches around their lapels subtly proclaimed their status as members of the royal family. She studied him carefully, noting that his boyish frame had filled out with muscle since she’d seen him last. He remained smaller in stature than Wulfric, but that would change. Already, she could glimpse the man he would become. He’d be handsome, like Wulf. A pity that his looks would exist only on the outside.

  “What do you want, Duncan?”

  “To apologize.”

  Sapphire turned away again.

  “Damn it!” he snapped. “Listen to me for a moment.”

  Her lips thinned. “Who do you think you’re talking to?”

  “No one, because you won’t stay still long enough.” He ran his hand through his hair and for an instant he looked like Wulf. That brief flash was enough to remind her how important it was that she at least attempt to tolerate him.

  “I’m begging you.” He met her gaze directly. “Give me a chance to say my piece.”

  “I’m listening.”

  “Thank you.”

  Duncan turned away from her then, looking out over the landscape as she had just done, although from this distance he couldn’t see the Sarian camp without the aid of lenses.

  “I’m sorry for the way I treated you, Katie, and for the things I said. They were lies, every one of them.” He released his breath in a rush. “I was jealous.”

  “Why?”

  “You’re an only child. You have no idea what it’s like to try to live up to an older sibling. That alone would be hard enough, or so I’ve heard.” He shot her a glance over his shoulder, his mouth curling derisively. “With Wulfric, it’s impossible. He has always been the best at everything. Not just better than me, but better than most men. He won’t do anything if he can’t do it precisely.”

  Sapphire watched Duncan as he spoke, noting the slightly defeated slump to his shoulders and the hint of despair that colored his words. To compete against Wulf was folly. When Wulfric put his mind to something, nothing less than perfection would do. And this young boy had attempted to compete with that. Something Wulf, most likely, still didn’t know.

  Duncan returned his gaze to the endless dunes. “From the time my brother was a young man—younger even than me—it was obvious to everyone that he was born to rule. Our father is too hardheaded and rash to be an effective monarch. He gladly passed responsibility over to Wulfric. From that day on, D’Ashier was everything to my brother. He had no time for anything else.”

  “No time for you,” she amended.

  The young prince barked out a derisive laugh that did nothing to hide his pain. “Wulfric is only a decade my senior, but he’s always seemed like more of a father to me. I wanted him to teach me how to be more confident, more talented with a glaive, more appealing to women…Damn it, more like him. But he never had the energy when his day was over.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “Until you came along.”

  He kicked the sand. “Suddenly he talked of nothing but you. Your aptitude for stratagems, your intelligence, your fighting skills. He was so damn proud of you, like he’d never been of me. When his day was over, he seemed more energized than when he’d started and eager to get to you, not me.”

  Duncan looked at her over his shoulder. “I hated you for being the one he cared about. Then, he chose you over me and sent me away, and I hated him, too.”

  “Wulf loves you. Surely, you know that.” The picture he’d painted of a young boy with a hero who had been too absorbed to spare even an hour or two with him was moving, but her antipathy would not be so easily soothed.

  “I do know that, Katie. I knew it then, too, but I just…”

  He faltered and swallowed hard, before continuing with fervor. “I don’t know. I just wished he’d eat dinner with me at times, search me out like he did you and talk with me for hours. I took my frustration with him out on you and I’m truly sorry for that. My behavior was unforgivable, but I must ask you for forgiveness anyway. I love my brother. I want him to be happy, and you make him happy.”

  “You abused me, Duncan. You deliberately set out to wound me in every way possible. You tried to destroy me. That isn’t something I can forgive offhandedly.”

  “I know.” His dark green eyes were open and earnest beneath his furrowed brow. “But if you’ll allow me,
I’d like to attempt to repair the damage I’ve done. For Wulf’s sake, as well as ours.”

  “Why now?” she asked bluntly. “What’s changed?”

  “We’re family. We’ll be living and working together for the rest of our lives.”

  Sapphire rubbed the space between her brows, fighting the tension headache that was quickly forming. It was still difficult to grasp the thought that she and this petulant boy were related now, but the fact remained that they were and Wulf loved him.

  There was a huge gulf of anger and animosity between them. The distance between her and the royal family weighed heavily on Wulf, and she knew that if she could mend the rift, it would bring him peace.

  “We’ll start over,” she conceded. “Forgiveness is earned with me, Duncan, not just handed over in exchange for a few words of regret.”

  “I’ll earn it,” he promised.

  Sapphire nodded. “Then, I’ll give you a chance.”

  “You’re not going with me, Katie. That’s final.”

  Wulf watched his wife’s chin lift in the stubborn cant he adored. He smiled. Katie would never be tamed. It was one of many reasons why he loved her so much.

  “You think this is amusing?” She turned away, her hands clenching into fists. “You won’t find it funny when you sleep alone.”

  His grin faded. Now, that was a threat he’d be doing away with immediately. “Don’t push me, Katie. I have sound reasons for insisting you stay behind.”

  “Perhaps I have sound reasons for sleeping in my own dome.”

  Wulf tugged her into his embrace. He stared into her beautiful upturned face with its clever brown eyes and lushly carnal mouth. A mouth that did things to his body that enslaved him. He meant to berate her and teach her a lesson. He meant to firmly establish that he would lead and she would follow.

  Instead, he kissed her senseless.

  He kissed her until she went limp in his arms, kissed her until her curvy body melted into his, kissed her until her fists unclenched and her fingers entwined in his hair, holding him close. He kissed her until his body ached with it, until he couldn’t think or remember what they’d been arguing about. When he’d accomplished all that, he pulled away and nuzzled his nose against hers. “I need you here in case something goes wrong. You’ll know what to do to protect the camp and the troops. It would be one less thing to worry about, knowing they were in your capable hands.”

  “General Petersen is here for that,” she grumbled, her eyes opening slowly. “But I’ll stay. That was underhanded of you, Wulf. You know I can’t think straight or stay mad at you when you kiss me like that.”

  “I feel much better myself.”

  Katie attempted to push away, but he held her tight.

  A frown marred the space between her brows. “I don’t see why I can’t accompany you.”

  “Because I don’t trust him.” He licked her lower lip.

  “Then don’t go.”

  “I have to.” He brushed her hair back from her face. “If he’s serious and I reject his offer, we may never see a treaty signed in our lifetime. This feud has already continued for generations. I want to spare our children as much of it as possible.”

  The palm of her hand came to rest over his heart. In her expression, he could see her love and worry for him. Despite his nagging uncertainty regarding the meeting ahead, he felt a deep peace that all was well between Katie and himself at last.

  “You think the king still wants me?” she asked.

  “Yes. I can’t take the risk that his decisions could be affected by his feelings for you.”

  “Will you return by this evening?”

  He brushed his mouth across hers, relishing the feel of her wrapped in his arms. “Of course. I have no intention of ever spending a night away from you. Negotiations won’t be finished today, but I’ll return to you, regardless.”

  Her lips clung to his, conveying a wealth of feeling. “Promise me.”

  Wulf lifted her feet from the ground and deepened the kiss. “I promise.”

  Wulf had been gone for hours and the sun was slowly beginning to set. Sapphire paced the dome, her dinner untouched.

  “You need to eat,” Duncan said from his seat at the small dining table.

  She shot him a quelling glance.

  “You’re worrying yourself sick.” He attempted to act nonchalant. He failed. “Wulfric knows exactly what he’s doing.”

  “It’s not Wulf I’m worried about.” She stilled her fevered pacing. “I can’t shake the feeling that something’s off, and I always trust my instincts.”

  “I feel it, too. Something isn’t right. They didn’t care for each other before. Once the Sarian king learns that you’re bound to Wulfric, that dislike will worsen.”

  “I hate this. I—” She paused, cocking her head. “Do you hear that?”

  “Hear what?”

  “That buzzing!” She exited the cooled dome to the heated desert outside. The noise grew louder.

  Spinning, Sapphire scanned three hundred and sixty degrees, attempting to discern where the sound originated from. The volume rose and her sense of foreboding increased along with it. Shielding her eyes from the setting sun with her hand, she saw it—a black cloud rolling in with ominous speed. She sprang into action.

  Rushing back into the dome, she passed a startled Duncan and pounded her fist on the alarm. The wailing of the siren rent the quiet desert dusk.

  “What’s happening?” he shouted, freeing his glaive-hilt from its holster.

  “We’re under attack!”

  She grabbed the dangling facial shield of her dammr-suit and covered her nose and mouth before bursting out of the dome to help rouse the troops. As General Petersen rushed to meet her, she engaged her blade.

  His voice crackled through her mask headset. “Skipsbåts. A hundred or more by the sound of them.”

  “His Highness—?”

  Petersen set a large hand on her shoulder. “I heard them coming a moment before you sounded the alarm. I’ve already dispatched two companies of men to extract Prince Wulfric.”

  She nodded, but the fear that gripped her didn’t ease. Wulf was at the neutral meeting dome halfway between the two encampments, but if the King of Sari was willing to arrange this bold attack, what else would he be willing to do?

  Sapphire didn’t have time to contemplate the danger further, because the skips were upon them, thick like locusts in the air, their guns blazing blaster fire.

  By necessity she tuned out the screams of wounded men and the acrid smell of smoke, concentrating instead on saving her own life and the lives of the men who battled alongside her. Some of her adversaries wore the Sarian uniform, but most did not, and she understood that mercenaries had been hired to supplement this assault.

  It was difficult fighting in the sand, despite her lengthy training in similar situations. She needed a skip if she hoped to be most effective, but all were in use. When an enemy rider approached at a moderated attack speed, she took the opportunity presented.

  Sapphire ducked and rolled when he attempted to cut her down, then swung her blade as he passed over her, cutting the line that connected the throttle to the engine. The sudden loss of speed sent the driver flying over the handlebars. He was quickly captured by D’Ashier troops, freeing her to commandeer his skip.

  Mounting the bike, Sapphire reached into the engine compartment and transferred the throttle signal from the right pedal to the left, which was an emergency brake. Testing the success of her hotwire with a tentative push of the pedal, she smiled grimly when the skip leaped forward. Pulling back on the handles, she forced the bike to climb into the sky at full speed.

  She circled and approached the battle from the north, hunched low to make herself less of a target. She was preparing to swing at an oncoming rider when the rear of her bike was rammed by another skip, sending both her and her bike spinning violently. Losing her grip, she fell to the sand. As she rolled down the steep slope of a berm, her glaive fell fr
om her hand and her mask dislodged.

  She cursed as she came to a stop at the bottom. Her body ached from the force of the crash, but the pain was mitigated by adrenaline. She leaped to her feet and searched for her weapon.

  “It’s lovely to see you again, Sapphire.”

  She tensed at the sound of the familiar voice. As the blond man approached her, she instinctively reached for the glaive-hilt that was absent from its holster.

  “Surprised to see me?” His smile didn’t reach his eyes. “You and I have unfinished business. You had to know I’d come for you.”

  She wanted to find her weapon, but knew it would be a deadly mistake to take her eyes off him. She pulled off her mask to reply. “Not here. Not like this.”

  “No one expects to die when they do.”

  Her returning smile was grimly determined. “Well, Gordmere, that won’t be a problem for you.”

  “Oh?” The mercenary palmed his glaive-hilt.

  “You can expect to die now.” Sapphire lunged at him.

  Wulf drummed his fingers atop the ridiculously long table and glared at the king seated some distance away at the opposite end. The whole meeting was slightly ridiculous, right down to the separate twin entrances, as if they couldn’t enter the summit tent the same way. Presently, the monarch was stalling. Wulf had more productive things to do.

  He stood. “Perhaps you should study my proposal in private,” he suggested.

  The king arched a blond brow. “In a hurry, Wulfric?”

  “As a matter of fact, I am.”

  “I thought this treaty was of great importance to you.”

  “They are all important to me,” Wulf reiterated, “but it’s unnecessary for me to sit here while you read.”

  “Maybe I’ll have a question to ask,” Gunther pointed out with suspicious innocence.

  “Write it down. I’ll answer it in the morning.” Wulf turned toward the exit, gesturing to his guardsmen to follow.

  “Your manners still need improvement,” the king bit out.