by A. M. Hudson
“Just dance, girl. Or this will end with you tripping and accidentally snapping your ankle—rendering you useless for the evening.”
I shut my gob then and just danced, letting out the breath I’d held when the song finally ended and Mike stepped up to take over. “May I?” he said with a bow.
I grabbed his arm and practically ran away with him.
“You okay, baby?”
“He threatened to snap my leg,” I whispered, leaning close.
Mike laughed, turning to face me. “Why?”
“He wanted me to shut up.”
“Did it work? Did you shut up?”
I nodded, glancing back at David; he was holding Emily close now, the girl throwing her head back, laughing at something he whispered into her hair.
“Well, I’ll have to remember that one,” Mike said playfully.
“Don’t you start.”
He just laughed again. “You know he wouldn't actually do that, Ara, right?”
I felt myself shrink a little. “I’m not really so sure about that.”
“Aw, Ar.” Mike dropped my hand from position and wrapped me up in a very informal hug. “If he does anything to hurt you or upset you, you come tell me.”
“Why? What can you do about it?”
“We’re still buddies. I’ll talk to him.”
“Don’t. Otherwise he’ll think I’ve been complaining about him.”
“So?”
“So, then he’ll just make life harder.”
“Harder?” He raised a brow. “What’s he doing to make it hard now? You two are never even in the same room.”
I wanted to roll my eyes. “Nothing. It doesn’t matter.”
“No, it does matter.” His voice peaked higher on the end. “What’s going on, Ara?”
A few guests passed us and offered congratulations on the baby, Mike and I taking a moment from our conversation to humour them, and as they danced away again, the music stopped suddenly, Mike looking off to his right when a man tapped his shoulder.
“May I?” Jason asked, stepping into view.
“You may.” Mike laid my hand in Jason’s, patting his shoulder. “Just return her in one piece this time, mate—unlike the last ball.”
Jason stiffened, catching my eye quickly. “I—”
“He was just joking, Jase.” I smiled, watching Mike blend in with the crowd.
“It wasn’t funny,” he said, taking me up in his arms like I was some precious stone.
“I think he’s just trying to show us that he’s passed all that now.”
“No, he’s not. He’s just holding it together for you tonight.”
I nodded, feeling my crown brush Jason’s jaw. “How did the meeting go today—before I got there? Were they nice?”
“Surprisingly?” he said, pausing for a second. “Yes.”
“Was Mike?”
“He was quiet, but I think he knew there was no point arguing my position.”
“Good. I’m sure he’ll have something to say about it in private, but I’m ready for him.”
Jase shook his head, smiling distantly. “Just don’t upset yourself over it. I can always counsel you privately, if need be.”
“The need won’t arise,” I said, and left it at that, focusing on the rhythm of our dance for a while instead. Jase always was such a magnificent dancer. He had a kind of grace and fluidity that David lacked. I guess it came from being so in touch with his emotions—not being afraid to feel or being seen to feel. There was this strange sensation that always came with it, too, much like that connection David and I had one of the first times we went out to the lake: the . . . gravitational pull.
“Has anyone told you how beautiful you look tonight?” Jase asked, distracting my thoughts.
“Of course.”
He leaned down a little and kissed my head. “When I saw you up there—” he nodded to the top of the stairway, “—I was sure I felt my heart beat for the first time in a century, Ara. I mean, every time I look at you, I think you’re the most beautiful girl in the world but, tonight, even you’ve outdone yourself.”
I blinked back the tiny pool of tears around my lashes. “Thank you, Jase.”
His lips pressed firmly into my head again. “You’re welc—”
“Break it up, you two,” David snapped, drawing us suddenly apart.
“David!” I shrieked, looking around to see if anyone noticed. Only a few people looked up, but politely went about their own business.
“You both know the rules.”
“Rules?” Jase asked.
“You two are not allowed contact.”
“Who says?” Jason stepped between David and I a bit.
“I do.”
“You have no say who she—”
“David, Jason is one of my council members now. We can dance if we want.”
I went to step into Jason again, but David grabbed my wrist, yanking it away. “That’s it, you’re coming with me.”
“David, let go of me.” I tugged against him.
“Stop wriggling. You’re making a scene.”
“You are the one making a scene, brother,” Jason said, blocking his path. “You have no right to order her around this way.”
“No right?” David asked in a high tone. “I am her husband. I have every right.”
“No.” Jason moved closer, lowering his voice so it came as just a whisper through his teeth. “You left her. You are bound only by a contract that states she is queen and you are king. Nothing else.”
“Precisely.” David shoved past him, dragging me along again. “I have every legal right to do with her what I see fit.”
“If you touch her, I’ll—”
“Go ahead, brother.” David spun around, warding Jason off with an icy gaze. “Hit me. Give me a reason to arrest you.”
“Jason,” Arthur called, sending a very stern gaze across the crowd and into Jason’s intentions, altering them. Jase didn’t move or shift in any way, but something in his eyes said he’d backed down.
“Yeah, I didn’t think you’d have the guts,” David said, and led me away.
I stumbled along, checking over my shoulder, but Jason was gone. “We were just dancing, David.”
“To dance, one does not need to kiss.”
“You were watching us?”
“I noticed,” he said dully and shoved me into a chair in the corner under the stairs. “There’s a difference.”
I landed hard, my teeth clucking as the chair slid an inch and hit the wall. No one looked up. No one even noticed. Or maybe no one really cared.
“You will stay here for the remainder of the evening, Ara, unless I say otherwise.”
“But—”
“I said sit.” He forced me down again by aim of that stern, pointed finger. It made no physical contact, but I wasn’t willing to challenge it. “I want you where I can keep an eye on you.”
“You can’t make me sit here.”
“I can, and I am. I will not have you making a slut of yourself in front of all these people. Now sit here and behave.”
He turned away, dusting his hands off, and I heard the tail end of some smart remark about disciplining his wife, shrinking into myself when everyone nearby laughed. They waited until he walked away before casting their judging eyes on me, sending shrink rays onto the surface of my body.
I turned in my seat, hunching over a little. I didn’t care if my posture slacked or if I looked less than noble. I just wanted to hide in the darkest corner I could find.
“Would this pretty little girl in her party dress care to dance?”
I looked up to Arthur’s kind, smiling eyes. “Arthur, I can’t. David said I have to stay here.”
He drew my hand toward him anyway, helping me stand. “Let’s see him challenge his old uncle, ehy.”
I smiled, but it wasn’t Arthur David would challenge; it was me. Except, I knew he’d wait until we were alone. “I’m trying not to make him mad right now. He n
eeds time to—”
“He can have all the time he needs to heal, Amara.” He drew me closer, positioning our arms in an elegant sweep outward. “But he does not need to hurt you and degrade you in the process. Now—” We moved away and stepped onto the dance floor. “Let us dance.”
As we circled the room, couples dancing nearby bowed their heads, stepping in wider circles to give us room, as if I were some kind of royal entity or something. I smiled up at Arthur, so grateful he’d come along when he did. I wouldn’t challenge David in a room full of people: he’d only make more of an effort to hold strong and put me in my place, and that would just create a massive scene, degrading David’s pride even more in the process and hindering any hope I had of sorting things out with him. But Arthur, I could tell, was more than up for that challenge. Except, David wouldn’t dare challenge his uncle. I wondered what it was about him that the boys feared and respected so much.
“Ow.” Arthur laughed, looking down at his foot.
“Oh my God. I’m so sorry, Arthur.” I smiled sheepishly.
“Never mind, my dear. I imagine your centre of gravity has shifted slightly with the being you now grow inside you.”
I looked down at the gap between Arthur and I where our bodies remained apart because of my bump. “No, it’s just that I can’t really concentrate on the steps tonight.” I glanced over my shoulder. “I can feel David’s eyes on me.”
Arthur’s lips and brow crinkled as he looked over at his nephew, and the feeling, the energy of David, faded.
“Did he look away?”
“He did.”
“Thank you,” I said, exhaling the breath I didn’t know I was holding.
“I will talk to him about this, Amara. It won’t go unaddressed.”
“What won’t?”
“His behaviour toward you tonight.”
“It wasn’t that bad.” I shrugged.
“It was. He was cruel, Amara. And I’ve heard several people mutter the same thing.”
“You did?”
He nodded, tilting his head then as if listening to something. “If you can spare a moment, Jason wants to see you.”
“He does?”
“He’s waiting for you on the balcony.”
“Oh, I . . . I can’t. David will have him arrested if we keep seeing each other.”
“Worry not, my dear. I’ll distract David. You need to hear what Jason has to say.”
We circled the dance floor again, my feet finally obeying my brain, but I stayed quiet, wondering what Jason wanted. When we reached to doors to the balcony, Arthur made a cheeky turn and swept us out of the room, twirling me straight into Jason’s arms.
“All my prayers answered in one twirl,” Jase said, both arms gently wrapping me up.
I stood on my toes for a second and touched my nose to his. “I’m sorry about what happened before.”
“Don’t apologise for anything, Ara.” He kissed my nose. “David was the jerk.”
My heels touched the ground again and I turned to thank Arthur, but he was gone. “Where’d he—”
“He’s playing Distraction with the king.”
“How will he keep him away?”
“Don’t you worry your pretty little head about that.” He tucked a curl behind my ear. “I need to talk to you about something.”
“What?”
“I can protect you,” he said, his eyes round and so dark with hope. “I could have legal right to step in when he’s mistreating you.”
“How?”
“Marry me.”
I laughed. “Jase—”
“Ara, the queen is allowed more than one husband. Make me your second. Let me protect you, love you, be there every time you’re hurt or sick.”
“You are now.”
“No. I get shut out—told I have no right to comfort you or make decisions for you. I am the one person here who cares more about you than myself, and I—”
“Jase, I know, okay,” I cut in, pressing my hand flat to his chest. “But I’m not marrying you just so you can be my bodyguard.”
“Do you think that’s the only reason I’m asking you?”
My smile copied his.
“Ara, that’s my convincing argument to make you say yes.”
I laughed through my nose again, wiping under it after.
“See, I love you even if you snot on yourself every time you laugh.”
This time I blew the laughter out through my lips, and stepped into him, slowly sliding both arms along his waist. “I said I didn’t want to love you, Jase, because I needed to make a decision. I needed to choose and commit to one guy, for once in my life. And I know it’s too late for David and I, but this is my commitment, whether he wants me or not. I won’t marry another while he’s still breathing, even if I legally can have two husbands.”
“I understand that.”
“See, I don’t think you do. I think you know that you and I make a much better couple and that you’re better for me in so many ways but, Jase—” I looked through the doors at David, distracted by a group of Lower House members. “You have so much heart and you’re so easy to love. And, David . . . he’s got a darker side that I worry for—that I don’t think anybody else in this world understands. I just feel like. . .” I looked at Jase again, moving my shoulders up once. “If I don’t love him, who will?”
Jase let out a hot breath across the night sky and twirled me gracefully into his arms, cradling my spine to his chest, both of us just watching the candlelight from inside flicker shadows around the garden below us. “You're going to be okay, you know.”
“How do you know?”
He pressed his lips to the top of my head, his warm breath making me hold mine. “Because I'm going to make sure of it.”
“And how will you do that?”
“One day, things will be different for us, Ara. I believe that somewhere out there under those stars is a future for us, and maybe it’s decades away into eternity, but I love you. I’ve loved you under the most insane conditions, and I won't ever give up hope for us.” He turned me to face him again. “Things are going to get worse before they get better, but I'm here, and I just need you to know that you’ll always have a home to come to in my heart, Ara. It belongs to you eternally.” He touched his chest. “Just hold onto that when things get dark.”
I nodded, standing on my toes as he pressed his lips to my head. “You’re a good man, Jase.”
“No. I'm the man who destroyed my brother. I'm not good, but I love you, and I’d die for you.”
“What is the meaning of this?” David roared, thrusting both doors open at once.
We broke apart, Jason tucking me safely behind him. “It’s not her fault, David.”
“I don’t care whose fault it is. She is to come inside at once.”
“We’re just talking. She—”
“Do not test the lengths I will go to to keep you and her apart, brother. I will—”
“It’s okay.” I patted Jason’s arm, stepping out from the shadows. The moonlight moved up from the ground, over my dress and lit my face, and the anger in David slowly simmered down. “I’ll go inside now.”
“You will do no such thing.” David rushed forward and grabbed my arm. “You’re to go to bed. Now.”
“But I’m not tired.”
“I don’t care.”
I tried to twist my wrist from his grip, searching everywhere for one of my Guard. But they were all distracted—even Falcon. “You can’t make me go if I don’t want to.”
“Try me.”
“I. . .” I studied my feet. “I’ll tell Arthur.”
“And what’s he going to do about it?”
I looked David right in the eye this time, pursing my lips, then said, “Try him.”
“What’s going on here?” Falcon cut in, wrapping my hips and drawing me away from David.
But David wouldn’t let go. In one tug, he yanked me back onto his side of the line.
Falcon�
��s hand fell onto the sword in his own belt. “Where are you taking her?”
“To bed,” David said coldly, then motioned to the guards by the door. “See that my brother makes it back to his room, and stays there.”
“Yes, Majesty.” They bowed, and the jig was up.
“Forget it, Ara,” Jason said with a dismissive headshake. “He’s not worth it.”
I nodded. Jase was right. We could sort this mess out tomorrow. Now wasn’t the time. “It’s okay, Falcon. I’m just gonna go to bed.”
“But you haven’t even eaten yet, you’ll—”
“She can grab an apple on the way out.” David turned and dragged me along behind him, snatching a red, shiny piece of fruit from a bowl as we hurried out the doors by the fireplace, the painted Lilith looking down on me like she found it all so amusing.
“What are you smiling at?” I asked her spitefully.
***
“I don’t like having to treat you like a child, Ara,” David said, pulling me up the stairs by my wrist. “But you can’t expect me to stand by and let you fraternise with the very man who ruined your marriage.”
“He didn’t ruin it, David. I did.”
David stopped walking and looked back down at me. The music lilting out from the doors of the Great Hall just in front of us carried all the joy and excitement of those still allowed in the room. I felt cold and empty and left out from where I stood now. “It takes two to tango,” he said coldly.
“Yes, but his reasons for “dancing” in the first place weren’t the same as mine.”
His brow slowly creased in the middle and he moved down a step so our eyes aligned. “What do you mean?”
I tried to wriggle free from his grip, but it tightened. “He wanted me to carry his child.”
“Why?” he asked, his voice cracking with confusion.
“Because then he could use the Dagger and kill Drake, and I would never have had to lose you.”
His grasp on my wrist loosened, but didn’t drop. “But the law doesn’t work that way.”
“I know. But we didn’t know that at the time, and—”
“That’s what he tried to tell me—that day in Eve’s room, wasn’t it?” He stepped closer, grabbing my other wrist, the apple tucked between his pinkie and his ring finger. “Ara, that’s what he wanted to say. He—”
