Daphne wasn’t the ball-busting bitch that she’d become later. She was a kid, a needy one, and the attention of the handsome older guy fascinated her.
They sat on a hill, overlooking the ocean, and he talked while she just listened. He liked books, music, and learning, none of which the royal family felt the need to ensure the ignored princess need learn. He didn’t talk down to her, though.
“Do you read?” he’d asked.
She shook her head, still afraid, for some reason, to speak.
“I could teach you. There’s adventure in stories. Princes who did great battles, places like you’ve never imagined, love…”
He trailed off, his dark face serious. Looking back, Daphne realized she never did get around to learning to love stories like he did. He was an academic, and she was someone who lived for adventure.
But he’d kissed her in the moonlight.
She never saw him again, never knew his name, but that was kind of a turning point for Daphne. Not that she’d tell him that, but it had been. Someone saw her. There was a chance, if he could see her, others could, too. She’d found a whole world, since then, of people who could see her.
And where was she now? Locked in a damn magical palace facing off with the one boy who ever saw her when she was invisible…and now, he thought she poisoned his king.
Giving up, she flopped down on the wet stone.
“You probably don’t remember me.” Callum spoke again, jarring her out of her misery.
“Yeah, I remember you. Thought you were a peasant.”
“I thought you were a peasant. So, in that, we’re even.”
He still shined the sword, but glanced up at her. She looked away, not wanting him to catch her staring. “And since then, you’ve found out I’m not a peasant.”
Daphne waited and he didn’t respond for so long, she almost dozed off.
“I wish you were.”
Her gaze shot to him, but he was getting up and leaving. He turned back, for just a second, meeting her eyes. His mouth opened, like he was going to say something…
And then he left her alone with moldering stone, iron bars and probably rats.
She shouldn’t be blinking back tears.
But she was.
****
“I can’t believe you killed him.” Cress’s sneer through the glass annoyed Narcissa.
“I can’t believe I didn’t think of it sooner.” Brushing her hair, she concentrated on her mother rather than look up at the dangling body.
“My dear, you’re useless to me now. How can you be queen if you’re not married to the king? I’ve told you, better to suck it up and manipulate him than do this. At least if you’d waited until you were on the throne…” Her mother trailed off, disappointment riddling her tone.
“I have a plan.”
“What? Make him a revenant?”
Narcissa smiled.
****
Grady shifted his weight from one foot to the other. Being a palace guard had to be one of the most boring jobs possible. He was supposed to just stand here. Hold a sword and stand here. For hours.
Callum, his older brother, got him this job years ago. Their mother thought it a wonderful favor—getting his little brother into the palace. Their mother didn’t know much about politics. She knew nothing of guarding. The one highlight to his life was his lover.
Just the thought of the man sent shivers racing across Grady’s skin. He focused, keeping his expression neutral, but decided to daydream. Strong shoulders, just a sprinkling of hair on his chest. Those eyes, magical eyes, that tempted and taunted. Kalli wasn’t a kind lover, preferring to tie him, to take him to the limits of his control and make him hang off that jagged peak, refusing his release.
Grady loved him for it.
Remembering the feel of the prince’s lips, his cock, Grady shifted again to ease the ache of his hardened member in his unforgiving armor.
As if summoned by his lusty thoughts, the prince strode down the hall, robes billowing behind him. Seeing no one else either way down the hallway, Grady left his position to stop the prince. “Hello, lover,” he whispered.
The prince stared back at him, his eyes blank.
This was a new game. Grady was up for the challenge. Leaning in, he kissed his love, pressing his tongue into his mouth and seeking a response. When none answered, he backed away and looked into Kalli’s eyes.
What he saw there chilled him. Kalli, always a bit dark as if he reined in a beast and kept him just barely chained under the polite mask of civility, now looked hollowed out.
As if all that was the man had been erased, leaving only the darkness.
With one great shove, Kallicrates slammed him into the wall and continued on his way as if the exchange never happened.
Blinking back tears of hurt and surprise, Grady considered.
What could make Kalli act that way? Was it Narcissa?
Kalli wasn’t acting normal and he was going to follow his lover until he figured out why.
Chapter Twenty
“Callum, you’ve got to trust me.” Daphne pounded on the iron that bound her.
“I can’t trust you.”
Still lounging in his chair, the knight stared at her. His unwavering gaze seemed intense, even if his position remained relaxed.
In her head, Narcissa whispered. It’s almost time … where are you? We’ve things to do and I’ve cast the final spell.
Daphne picked up the metal cup he’d left her at the last meal. Rocking it against the bars, she yelled, “Emily! Fucking get down here!”
“What is that going to accomplish?”
Ignoring him, she continued to make noise. “Emily!”
“Seriously, there is no way they can hear you.”
Flinging the cup at his arrogant face, she spat out, “Damn it, Callum!”
He ducked then stood, slowly. Once he loomed over her, he paced close enough for Daphne to feel the warmth of him seeping through the bars, almost calling her. “You threw a cup at me.”
She refused to back down, even if her heart raced and she’d suddenly become breathless. She recognized attraction, wasn’t afraid of men, but this one made her feel like a girl.
“Daphne—” His tone changed. From the threat of seconds before, it changed to sadness. He wasn’t going to let her go. Damned Boy Scout in shining armor.
Pushing up on tiptoes, she caught his face through the bars and melded their lips.
The kiss seared her, even with bars blocking her from melting into him. She felt an instant and complete draw to this man, this peasant, like nothing she’d ever experienced before. Like her very soul came up to dance on her tongue and tangle with his.
Her eyes closed and his arms came through the bars to brace her elbows and keep her close so he could deepen the kiss, take her under the tidal wave of feeling.
Breaking away, she backed further into the cell, blinking at him in shock.
The idea was to blow his fucking mind and make him want to let her out to dally further. Not to shatter her and become aching, wanting more.
Then again, nothing ever seemed as simple as it should where Callum was concerned. He clutched the bars, his gaze burning into her, and she wanted to tell him everything. See if he could fix it, and make more sense of it than she could. Instead, Daphne just panted and tried to resist the tug of desire that wanted her to close the distance and fall back into his embrace.
They could fuck between bars. It wouldn’t be easy, but she could do it. She could close her mouth around his cock and… She shook her head and pinched her eyes closed as if to banish the image of him, cock thrust through the space between bars, clenching them as she sucked him off.
She really was a sick little fuck.
“Daphne,” he whispered, and she shook with overpowering need. She needed to get her shit back together.
“I need out, Callum.”
“They’re having a dinner.” The words seemed to cost him. “Delayed dinner, with d
ignitaries who didn’t get invited to the wedding.”
She nodded. And Narcissa called her, because it was time for the plan. It made sense.
“I can’t let you hurt Kayden. And you poisoned the king.” He seemed to be pleading with her, trying to make her understand.
“Dammit, Callum.” Daphne moved, allowing herself to close the distance because she couldn’t resist the pull of him any longer. “I didn’t poison him. I’ve done a lot of shitty things, but I didn’t poison the king. I promise. If you go up there, you’ll see. He should be recovering. I wasn’t even in this world when he was poisoned.” She didn’t tell him of the plot against Kayden and Emily, that even now Narcissa worked to overthrow them.
Her hands met his, clung, and she tried to shake off the feelings just touching him fired off. Again, giving into temptation, she met his eyes.
He always had the softest eyes.
So kind. So weak.
Sucking in a breath, she fought for composure. “You’ve got to let me out.”
“If I’m wrong and you did poison the king? If you’re plotting against Kayden?”
She shook her head. She couldn’t lie to him, not outright. He tugged her arms through the bars so she was forced closer to his face. It hurt. “Ow!”
“You’ll be punished, Daphne. In ways that you can’t even now imagine.”
The words were meant as a threat. She was almost certain that was what he intended.
Instead, liquid heat pooled between her legs and her eyes went half-mast as she panted for him. It really shouldn’t trip her trigger when the Boy Scout went all Dom on her, but it really did.
“You’ll punish me yourself, Cal?” She licked her lips, watching as his hardness became even more visible through his knightly tights. There really was something sexy about a man in tights. Showed off the package so much better than denim.
“Damn you to a thousand hells, witch. I can’t resist you.” He caught her head, pulling her close enough to again take her mouth. To savage it with teeth and tongue and lips, until she moaned for him. Then he released her. Spun away to grab the key and unlock her prison. She moved toward him, but he held up a single hand, stopping her.
“Go. But don’t make me come after you.”
She rocked on her heels, considering. She kind of did want him to come after her, and see if all that alpha male goodness was as promised or if it was all for show.
He met her gaze, reading the hunger there and seeming tempted himself. But then she collected herself. There were things to do and making out with the prince’s guard wasn’t going to get them done. “Okay, I’m off to get stuff done. You coming?”
She headed for the steps, pausing to glance back.
“I’m going to need a minute.” He didn’t gesture at the thickness obvious between his legs, but her gaze slid there anyway, making her sigh in regret.
“Some other time I’ll fix that for you, guard boy. For now, places to go, people to be. See you around, knight with shining testicles.”
His snort of laughter caused an answering smile to lift her lips as she fled the dungeon. Too bad she didn’t have time to explore that strange attraction.
But she had a world to save, a sister to help, and chaos that only she would be able to cause. Maybe some other day.
****
Emily swirled the glass of wine, watching as the dark red of the liquid clung to the sides of the glass.
There was some fancy word for when wine did that. Something about the quality of the wine. The glass, when she tapped it with her fork, rang like a bell which she read about at some point, but couldn’t remember what it meant other than expensive.
Kayden glanced up from his own meal, studying her. “Something wrong?”
She shook her head. But something was wrong.
She just wasn’t sure what it was. Further down the table, Daphne kept her head low, as if her food required her full attention. She’d appeared late and taken her seat with little more than a nod in Emily’s direction. Closer, the woman they said was her sister but she only knew as Narcissa, met her eyes.
Her slow smile made Emily shiver.
“Do we have to do this banquet thing?”
“Our wedding meal, delayed because of our long stay in our rooms? Yes, we probably should do this ‘banquet thing.’” His smile didn’t quite reach his eyes and Emily shifted.
Something was wrong.
“Can we go see your father?”
His brows dropped as if weighted. All pretended amusement sucked out of his expression so fast that she wondered if any of it was real. “Now isn’t the best time. He’s been sick. That’s why—”
Plopping the wineglass hard enough on the table that the red alcohol sloshed out, dribbling down the side like old blood, she ignored the sudden stares of everyone dining. “That’s why you’ve kept me away from him all this time. I know. Now I want to see him.”
“Emily…” He trailed off, fiddling with the fork.
“Now.”
Kayden stood, shoving his chair back, and held out his hand. “My queen’s wish is my command.”
Standing, she shifted the heavy and strange skirt of her dress so she could take his hand and follow him from the dining hall. Heads swiveled to follow them, but their eyes were those of strangers no more familiar than any other part of a dream, their smiles more a baring of teeth than a comforting expression.
Emily didn’t like being on display and that was what this meal felt like—a show to the people. Probably, Kayden had some regal purpose behind it, but it didn’t make her any happier to take part in it. They headed down a hall. She followed behind, unwilling to release his hand like some child being led in the darkness.
He paused in front of the door, his expression so carefully blank she knew he hid his feelings behind it. “He’s very sick. The healers, they let him stay asleep so he doesn’t feel the pain and—”
“You don’t need to explain to me, Kayden. Let’s just go in.” She squeezed his hand and he nodded before turning the knob.
Reclined on a sea of royal blue, the king did look frail. His face, one she remembered from her many visits to Zenith, now appeared hollow and pale.
Standing over him, she gnawed her lips.
“Kayden—” she began, but then the king woke.
Brilliant eyes shined up at her, the king seeming to try to focus.
“Father?” Kayden asked.
“Kayden, the witches!”
And the door to the room slammed shut.
All the candles, moments before casting a soft glow, went out with a rush and the room plunged into darkness.
Chapter Twenty-One
The tug at Daphne’s hair annoyed her. “Buzz the fuck off, Narcissa.”
“It’s time.” Narcissa almost glittered in her excitement. “Come on.”
Daphne swallowed hard, but the lump wedged in her throat didn’t move. “Time?”
“Yes, come on. Kalli already headed up.”
Narcissa whirled, skirts swirling behind her like a storm cloud rolling in the sky, full of darkness and threat. Daphne stood slowly, bracing her hands on the table. It was time. Following her sister, she breathed deeply. She could do this. It wasn’t that big of a deal, really. It was what she was made to do, and she knew that.
The door wasn’t the king’s bedroom, which surprised her. She followed her sister and found Kayden and Emily choking on the fog dissipating in the room. Ah, transport spell.
Kallicrates, who looked like shit or death warmed over—accurate, since Narcissa admitted she killed the douche—stood to the side, obviously the caster of the transport spell. His fawning expression as his wife joined him and kissed his blue-ish lips disgusted Daphne.
“Daphne!” Emily cried out, pointing at Kallicrates. “He spelled us out of the king’s bedroom!”
Daphne nodded, folded her arms and waited. A body slumped in the corner and Kayden ran to it, ignoring his brother and everyone else in favor of bending to check the
pulse.
“Callum’s little brother!” Kayden glanced back at Narcissa, fury clearly written in his expression. “Who hurt him?”
“He was fucking my husband for months. Any injury to him is self-defense.” Narcissa seemed unconcerned, something neither of the goodie-two-shoes noticed.
“Apparently, you define self-defense differently than I do.” Emily swished her skirts in an impressive display of fury. “Can we help him?”
“I think so,” Kayden answered and reached for her hand.
“Uh, uh, uh,” Narcissa advised and lifted one glowing hand. “Not so fast, Kayden.”
A flick of that power-filled hand and the prince flew into a wall, gasping in obvious pain as Narcissa closed in on him. “No soul bond magic. I’m really done with all that lovey-dovey crap. Aren’t you, Daphne?”
Daphne nodded. It was rather nauseating.
Emily spun on Narcissa, her eyes beginning to glow with her power. “Put him down.”
Narcissa shrugged, flinging him to the opposite wall and dropping him to crumple on the stones like a ragdoll.
Power shot out of Emily so fast and bright, Daphne blinked at the light show.
Kalli, though, came up behind her and grabbed her by the neck, lifting until she dangled like some regal marionette.
The light shot from Emily and formed a bubble around Narcissa, who tilted her head back to laugh. After a moment, the spell—whatever Emily used because Daphne wasn’t sure which spell had been cast—fell like confetti harmlessly at Narcissa’s slippered feet.
Darkness seemed to swell from within Kallicrates, moving like serpents out of his sleeves and twining around Emily. She fought them off, screaming, and Narcissa only laughed harder.
Kayden, not to be outdone with a couple of bone-breaking throws, leapt to his feet and shot a bolt of his own power at his brother.
Surprise had Daphne sucking in a breath as the light, bluish in color, bounced off Kallicrates and boomeranged back to hit the prince and wrap him in a strangle hold.
“You see?” Narcissa clapped her hands. “It worked.”
“What worked?” Callum came through the door, sword blazing and eyes determined. He looked ready to die for his prince.
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