Shadows of the Night (Kingdom Key Book 2)

by TylerRose.

  “Travel to do what?” he asked.

  “Are you being intentionally obtuse?” she asked, stepping backwards away from him.

  “No. I simply want to know what you think you’ll be traveling to other worlds for. Certainly not to work.”

  “Says who and why not?”

  “Says I, as the person you accepted as Apogee,” he calmly reminded her. “Did you not realize that meant you would actually have to do what I said now and then?”

  “You like pissing me off,” she concluded, turning away.

  His hand around her wrist, hard and tight, stopped her from going a single step. He pulled her chest to chest with himself, held her closer by the beads in his other fist.

  “What I like is treating you like a fully grown adult, not coddling to prevent you being upset. I say what needs saying. If it upsets you, then you will have to deal with that. I will not placate you. There will be no mincing of words between us. I will say how it is. Always. Do we understand each other?”

  “Are you going to fuck me or not? You know rough handling turns me on.”

  He smiled broad and more than a little dangerous. “Yes, I do know that.”

  The force of his thigh between her legs and his hand under her elbow lofted her the few feet to the bed. Barely had she bounced before he was atop her, pinning her down and taking her with the force he knew she enjoyed as much as he did.

  During dessert, Mariah called to say she was going to start work again. Right now. She’d had enough of doing nothing and wanted to get back to work. Julian was teaming her up with one of the other couriers since Tyler had quit.

  “Chi and Saber can’t come to work with me and it’s stupid to have them waiting around all night for me to get back. What should they do?” she asked.

  “Tell Chi to call me. Have a good day at work.”

  Mariah ended the call from her end and within twenty seconds, Tyler’s phone was ringing.

  “Orders, Ma’am?” he asked when she answered.

  “You and Saber should go to K’Tran for a couple days. If you want to come back and be my guards until all this shit is settled, I would appreciate it.”

  “Going home for a few days. Call us when you want us,” he said, Tyler able to see in her head Saber nodding vehemently his agreement to the arrangement.

  She put her phone down and slouched back into her chair, her confinement more evident than ever. She would have enjoyed a few days on K’Tran.

  “What is the matter?” Shestna asked.

  “I hate being told I can’t go where I want to go,” she replied.

  “Hopefully it won’t be for long. You have all of Voran to travel as you please. As 1st Princess, you and your escorts and guests don’t pay to get into anything. Every museum is yours to explore for as long as you like, whether they are open or closed. Every temple is yours to visit. Every school yours to learn from.”

  “Pisod is going to look for classes and things.”

  “Good. Tomorrow you will speak with the Emperor’s attorneys and give whatever evidence and information you can. Go dress in something nice. We’ll go to the theater tonight.”

  A new play was opening. Young lovers in love. Her family supporting the match but his not and he ran away to live with her family.

  “For all your hardness about the place of a female, Voranians are a romantic bunch,” Tyler said when it ended happily ever after with the son’s parents smiling over a newborn grandchild.

  Shestna smiled and kissed her hand.

  “I need to stop by my home a moment, give a few orders to the Neverseens,” she said as they descended from their box.

  They walked together, fewer people bowing fully since they weren’t as recognizable in the dark. Inside the door, she called the Neverseens.

  “Have the men left?” she asked.

  “Yes, Mistress. Mariah has been in her room,” one of the females said.

  “In her room? She told me she was going back to work tonight?”

  “There have been no such phone calls, Mistress,” the male Neverseen told her.

  Tyler rushed to the door to the walking path and ran to Mariah’s room. The door was locked. She teleported to the other side. Lights were on, including in the bathroom.

  “Mariah? Are you here?” she asked, trying the bathroom door.

  It was locked. She teleported to the other side and saw Mariah in the bathtub, clothes completely soaked in her own blood. Her arms were no longer leaking blood. She’d sliced herself across the wrists and straight up both forearms. Eyes staring to the wall, slumped.

  Tyler sank to her knees, weak with mortification, and sobbed hard. Mariah had contrived the story of going to work in order to get rid of the guys and give herself time. Tyler had been within Shestna’s aura and had not sensed Mariah’s physical and psychological pain. Away from him, the energies in the room from the last few hours slammed her like a freight train.

  “Femina, what--? Oh no.”

  Shestna blocked Tyler from seeing the bloody mess, physically picked her up to remove her from the room. The Neverseen were already there, staring in horror at what Mariah had done.

  “Mistress, we did not know—“

  “It is not your fault, Neverseen,” Shestna said quickly. “Call the resident Sistarian Ambassador to come here at once. Call Prince Dorn and tell him to bring the Palace physician. And Pisod as well. Do not touch her. Do not go in the room.”

  “She was doing so well,” Tyler said.

  “That is how it is with the Rovan, Femina. She was fine and coping. And then she was no longer fine and could not cope. That is the horror of it. It never ends. Nearly all survivors take their own lives.”

  Pisod was there first, and looked into the bathroom. He took Tyler across the walk to her own bedroom and held her close as she mourned for the girl who had been like a sister.

  Dorn arrived with the physician and the Sistarian Ambassador. Shestna explained the situation, the Rovan dosing and recovery on the AASTT, and took the physician and Ambassador into the bathroom.

  “Looks like she did this two hours ago,” the physician said, and picked up a small, thin blade. “With this.”

  One of the fingernail blades Tyler had lost in the yard the day Solomon had appeared and she’d sliced and beaten the hell out of him. Shestna rubbed his forehead, releasing a long, slow sigh, knowing he would have to be the one to tell Tyler.

  She did not take it well, at once doing her best to twist and rip a nail off. Pisod grabbed her wrists to stop her.

  “Walk it off!” she heard her uncle Stevo’s voice as loud as if he was in the room with them.

  She shoved Pisod back with a blast of psychokinesis and started walking. Through the library and front room, out the door, and she followed the road in the dark. Stomping footsteps and uncontrolled tears, she walked right out of the Principality. Pisod was with her every step, just out of her periphery.

  “What?” he answered his phone when they were about 40 minutes out of the Principality.

  “Shestna says to bring her back,” Dorn told him.

  “She’s not done yet.”

  “So. Stop her and bring her home.”

  “I’m content to let her walk it off. You come stop her and take her home, Royal Brother, if he wants to deal with her in this kind of mood. I’m not about to engage her when she’s this angry.”

  Dorn arrived next to him and was at once left three paces behind and had to jog to catch up. His hand on her arm was tossed off. He turned in front of her, hands on her forearms.

  “Stop.”

  Her hands went down out of his grasp and then up between his to knock them aside. He countered by stepping in to knock a foot aside and push her the opposite direction. The foot knocked aside came up, knee hitting him in the ribs. Her left fist came in as the foot went down. He blocked and punched. She blocked and punched harder. All body shots.

  Pisod watched, and dialed Shestna.

  “They’re fighting in the stree
t. I’ll bring her home after she’s done kicking his ass.”

  Dorn got her off her feet and onto the ground and pinned her.

  “Tyler, stop it!”

  “Oh, surprising,” Pisod said. “I thought sure she was going to—yep, there it is.“

  She flipped Dorn off and got to her feet. Turning back, she headed for the Principality. Dorn jogged to catch up and engaged her again. Harder hits but all still to the body, they traded blocks and punches with blinding speed. He got her on the ground again, this time with her knees parted and trapped under his shins and her elbows pinned under his hands.

  “Stop this,” he said, eyes close over hers.

  Heaving for breath in that way that meant more than exertion, she stopped struggling and kissed him. He responded, and was the one to end it.

  “Are you done now?”

  Her face screwed up and she burst into fresh tears. Deciding she was done, he pulled back to kneel in the road. She sat up and fell against his chest. One arm around her, the other stroking her hair, he was silent calm until she was cried out.

  “I was told I would have to be prepared to give up everything and everyone I know. I did not know that would mean they would be destroyed one by one.”

  “Not everyone,” Dorn said, his cheek resting on top of her head. “Some of us will be here for a very long time. Some of us have to see you through, don’t we? Count on us.”

  She looked up to him, trying to figure him out. He wiped the tears away with his thumb.

  “Why are you being like this?” she asked.

  “Like what?”

  “Yesterday you could hardly stand the sight of me.”

  “Yesterday you hadn’t fought me better than any man I’ve ever gone against,” he said, and kissed her as tenderly as a Voranian ever could.

  Parting, she came fully to the moment and glanced around. The road. Dark of late night.

  “Where are we?” she asked.

  “On the road heading back to Shestna’s Principality,” Pisod replied. “He’s about ten seconds from us in his car.”

  She got to her feet, getting into the back seat when Shestna stopped the vehicle. Pisod sat with her, Dorn taking the front. At the speed limit, it would be twenty minutes to Shestna’s home. Within five, she was asleep against the seat. Rather than disturb her, Pisod teleported directly to Shestna’s bedroom and put her in bed.

  Dorn held back a moment in the front seat of the car, told his brother how his wife had fought him.

  “You did tell me she was a warrior. I didn’t believe you.”

  “She won’t hesitate if she feels threatened,” Shestna said.

  “Well…the next time she expresses an intimate desire, call me,” Dorn said, and teleported back to the palace.

  For the first time since his young wife died, he went to the Lesser Concubine courtyard. Kept for the amusement of the many princes, these women were available for sex whenever a prince wanted it. One was awake, walking in the garden. Dorn had her right there, bent over a low wall, and was done in two minutes flat. Tyler had gotten his blood up so intensely that he needed the quick release. He left the concubine where she was, not even bothering to get her name.

  Chapter Eleven

  Tyler gave every instanceshe could think of. Every manipulation, every lie Earnol had ever told her. Meeting her at the Tower of London, while a shitty thing to do to a telepath who sensed the dead, was only a manipulation. Not a crime. Sending her back in time, out of her place in time, to keep her from a place where she should have been? Now that was a crime; but it had to be proved that was what he was really doing. Denying an emerging Eminent the help they needed to understand, develop and master their abilities was also a crime according to Sistarian law. It applied because she was, in her DNA, more Sistarian than human and Earnol was a citizen of Sistair, which was also the leading citizen planet of the Congress. Kidnapping her without a proper warrant of arrest was another crime.

  “Julian might know more about sending me back to Crecorday. None of this is going to get him any serious jail time, though. Is it?” she asked. “It wouldn’t on Earth.”

  “Likely not. It will get him removed from office and sent back to Sistair in shame, with loss of interplanetary travel privileges and Ambassadorial status. He might be unable to leave Sistair,” the attorney informed her. “Basically, he’ll be forced to retire from public life.”

  “But not stopped from interfering in my life if he really wanted to,” she said.

  “We can insist on a restraining order.”

  Tyler snorted. “If they are as ineffective here as they are where I come from, don’t fucking bother.”

  Shestna made a hissing sound that meant he didn’t like the use of a curse word. She looked over to him, getting a warning expression. Mind your mouth. He had changed somewhat since absorbing the energy from Jerome. Or was it because they were married and he was beginning to treat her like a Voranian wife?

  “It may only be a piece of paper, Your Highness, but it can be a useful tool in getting one’s point across,” the attorney said. “I will go over all this with my fellow partners and we will levy every charge we possibly can and file as soon as we have the charges finalized. Some may end up dropped but there will be enough that is actionable. I promise you that.”

  “Thank you,” she said.

  She left the office to wait outside in the sunshine with Pisod. Shestna followed in a moment.

  “You cannot use your foul language as frequently as you do, Tyler. I had to apologize for your use of it just now.”

  “I would have if you’d told me to.”

  “I don’t want to have to tell you. I want you to stop using it. I received a message while we were with the attorney. Mariah has been cremated. Her funeral was today on Sistair.”

  Two days after her death, the meeting with the attorney having been put off a day for Tyler to pull herself together after finding her friend dead in the bathtub.

  Shestna took her home, stopping outside her own residence.

  “Father is insisting we should have a proper wedding feast. Go in. Get ready. A special gown has been brought for you. You have two hours. I asked Mankell to send the other two men who had watched over you during your visit. They are already here.”

  “Docku and Tegan?” she said.

  “Yes. Dorn will supervise your preparations. He waits within. You will allow him to do anything he says he must or wants to do.”

  “Anything?” she said, about to launch into her standard hard limit list.

  “The harshest of warriors can sometimes be the most attentive of lovers,” he told her. “At the appointed time, he will accompany you to the market. We will have to have an official ceremony of words since he was our only witness on the ship. After we have fulfilled our traditional duties, he will escort us home and stay the night to share our joy. Do not look for demons where there are none.”

  She took in his meanings, thinking back to how long ago it had been since she’d had two men at once. A very long time.

  “He kissed me the other night, in the road; and I kissed him.”

  “I know. He has expressed a new willingness to participate. I am allowing it. He may be able to be the Conduit that Jerome was. So I give you these two hours to get to know each other more intimately before we three are alone together. I think also that I should institute a weekly beating session for you. It is common, as a form of punishment for transgressions known and unknown; but for us, it would a day for our most intense private pleasures.”

  “Is it also expected by the Emperor? He would expect Dorn to witness at least one such punishment, as before?” she asked.

  He returned her smile, tilted his face down to kiss her with his thumb nail pressed into her throat to trail a sharp line down the front of her neck.

  “Perhaps I should have Dorn whip you for me as my Tribulator, while I watch you suffer.”

  “Now you’re talking dirty,” she grinned.

  He reach
ed past her to open the door. “You had better go now before I shred your clothing off you and you must walk nude to your door.”

  “Naked in my wedding beads? Would I not be perfectly dressed for any occasion?” she asked, and swiveled to stand.

  The driver closed the door behind her. The car did not pull away until her front door shut. Having been alerted to her impending arrival, the three men and all three Neverseen were waiting, and bowed with her entrance. Except for Dorn.

  “Go outside and whittle,” Dorn told the K’Tran.

  They looked to her, not moving until she nodded her approval. They went through the rear door into the back yard.

  “Is this a common thing?” she asked when they were alone. “For a wife to be pushed into the arms of her brother-in-law?”

  A small ball of energy formed between his finger and thumb. He flicked it at her, hitting her in the chest. She gasped with the exhilarating sensation, so similar to the euphoria she’d felt when close to Jerome.

  “There is no pushing when you will come willingly.”

  He turned around, heading through the library to her room.

  “What energy is that?” she demanded to know, following him. “That’s Jerome’s energy. How do you have it?”

  “Shestna gave it to me this morning. Some of it. Like we take power from the crystal. One of these days, he will give it to me permanently.”

  “And leave him a broken heap like he left Jerome?” she asked.

  “No. It did that to Jerome because he was being hostile,” Dorn explained patiently, taking off his royal jacket while kicking off his boots. “He was lucky Shestna didn’t take everything and leave him a pile of dust like Jerome did to the Earth invader.”

  He sat on the side of her bed, looked over to her not moving.

  “We do not have a lot of time. We can argue about it tomorrow if you like.”

  “I’m sure we will,” she said, walking over to stand between his knees. “Should we wrestle again?”

  “I’d rather not. You’re tougher to beat than you look.”