by Ann Denton
I woke healed and in bed late the next morning. Quinn was with me, stroking my hair. My entire body felt good. Great even.
What happened?
His grey eyes stared down at me. Ryan healed you. He’s currently working out his rage on in the practice arena.
I mean, what happened with that monster? You saw it, right? You shot it with arrows?
Quinn sighed. An audible sigh. Dove, you should really talk to us before you go wandering around at night.
In my own home?
Ryan believes you about the threat to your sister.
He does?
Yes. And with that and all these issues between Cheryn and Sedara … we need to be prepared. The fact that Macedon wants to send an entourage, too … it makes Ryan nervous. He decided he’s going to up the drills for his guards. To keep them on high alert.
What’s that got to do with that creature?
That thing was one of Wyle’s creations. I picked up a couple bottled mixes with my other potions last night. It was a spelled creature—a security protocol meant to test the guards, who failed, by the way. And are now facing your very pissed knight.
Wait. That scorpion-man was a spell? But it fought me.
Sentient spell. Wyle’s been secretly developing them for your mother for the past two years.
I covered my forehead. I feel so stupid.
You should. I’m rather mad you waited so long last night before you woke me up. We told you not to use your powers.
First off, I tried. You were dead asleep. And I thought that thing was going to kill Avia!
Yes, well, Avia’s another issue. Your sister wasn’t in her room.
I bolted upright. “WHAT?”
Yes. Seems she and Mateo were sharing a late night snack in the kitchens. Supervised, thank goodness. But—
My anger and embarrassment were suddenly redirected at Avia. I don’t want her marrying this prince. But I don’t want her messing up the relations with Cheryn or Macedon either. And she knows that there’s someone else out there plotting against her. Sarding teenager!
Quinn grinned at my angry expression, Much like you were, running off, doing what you wanted—
Not the same. She’s being sarding stupid!
Speaking of sarding … you and I are alone. In your bed. Without Declan here to be a beaver dam. Quinn leaned toward me and Avia flew out of my thoughts. All I saw were Quinn’s grinning grey eyes, his black hair tumbling over his forehead, those lips. The lips that had tempted me the very first time I’d seen him.
His lips latched onto mine. And it was as if I were caught in a cyclone. He was so intense. So persistent. His hands were everywhere. And then mine were too. The kiss grew and whirled around us, making me dizzy. I fell backward onto the sheets. Quinn caught himself on his hands and stayed suspended over me. His lips dipped down. And the kiss continued.
His hand snuck under my chemise and slowly he began to pull it up. I had nothing on underneath. When the only thing that had separated my naked skin from his was gathered above my waist, Quinn pulled away from our kiss and made his way down my body.
Is this really happening? I was breathing hard.
Yes, Dove. Oh, hell yes, he replied. And then his mouth was on my core. And I couldn’t think straight anymore. My thoughts turned into tingles. Hot wet tingles that radiated out to my thighs. I whimpered and ground myself into him. And then, he was gone.
What the—
Another mouth replaced his. Big and insistent. A tongue nearly twice the size of Quinn’s pierced me briefly and then licked my pussy lips. Hot breath coated my entire mound and my need intensified. I looked down to see Ryan’s head buried at my center. His long, strong tongue lapped at me from bottom to top. He used two fingers to part my opening, so he could wrap those lips around my clit. He devoured me, and I moaned, coaxing him to keep going.
Quinn’s mouth landed on my nipple and sucked it in deeply. He pulled twice with his lips before releasing.
I arched off the bed, grabbing onto Ryan’s thick arm at my hip with one hand. I reached my other hand out and latched onto Quinn’s hair.
“Yes! Please,” I pleaded. Quinn put my other nipple between his teeth.
Ryan unsealed his mouth from my mound and slid a thick finger inside me. “Are you a naughty little princess, Bloss? Tell me,” he murmured.
I was moving, nearly incoherent with pleasure as I responded. “Yes. Yes. I’m a naughty little princess.”
“I’m gonna make you wear your crown and nothing else when I rut you,” Ryan said before bringing his teeth to drag over my hip bone. He started curling his fingers faster inside of me.
It was silk and fire and every sensation at once rocketing through my body.
Quinn pulled his mouth off my breast and came up for a kiss, swallowing my moans. He put his hands over my breasts, squeezing my nipple between his pointer and middle fingers. An amazing hot pulse of pleasure shot up my spine. My skull went hollow.
“You’re amazing,” I ripped my mouth away from Quinn and yelled out as I started to reach that peak.
But Ryan’s hand was yanked away. Then Quinn was thrown across the bed, landing flat on his back next to me, his dick tenting his pants skyward.
Declan leaned over me.
“What the hell? I said not until we’re married.”
Quinn responded silently.
Declan just snorted in reply. He snapped at Ryan. “You said you’d stop him.”
Ryan shrugged. “Look at her. Who could say no if they walked in and saw her spread-eagled, naked, moaning?”
Declan groaned but shook his head. “Let’s go, Bloss.”
He led me toward the dressing room, where he summoned a maid. Declan insisted on staying with me as my hair was done. When I was ready for the day, he grabbed my arm and pulled me down the hall.
“Why are you so mad?”
“Because, we’re a team. We’re about to be a family. And we need to damn well act like one. Which means being considerate outranks being horny.”
I nodded. “You’re right.”
But then, the strangest sensation came over me. A very naughty thought rose in my chest like a bubble. The perfect revenge against Quinn and all of his hallucinations dawned on me. “But I’m not certain Quinn can help himself.”
“Well, he’ll have to!”
“You know, Declan, what might be fun … is if we tease Quinn a little.”
Declan cocked his head. “What do you mean?”
I pushed Declan into an alcove. “Don’t you think he deserves a bit of his own medicine? Shouldn’t we show him just how thoughtless he’s being?”
“What do you mean?”
“Quick. Picture me naked. Picture yourself running your hands all over me. Picture cupping my breasts. Squeezing them. Suck my nipple into your mouth!”
“What—”
“Just picture it!” I covered Declan’s eyes with my hand. Then I continued, “You unbuckle your belt. Drop your pants. Turn me to face the wall. Stare down at my naked ass. Do you like it, Declan? You like my ass.” I closed my eyes so I could better imagine it. “You kiss my neck and rub your hand along my mound. And then you line yourself up—”
What the sarding hell are you doing? Quinn burst into the alcove where Declan and I stood, fully clothed.
I opened my eyes and grinned. “Quinn-bear. Do you remember all those times you embarrassed me? When I promised you I’d get revenge?”
Quinn’s gaze roamed over a fully clothed Declan and me. His eyes narrowed.
Bitch.
I grinned.
Watching him stomp off was the highlight of my morning.
Chapter Nineteen
The next few days were a blur of preparation for Abbas’ visit.
First, I sat through lecture after lecture on Cheryn. The sultan, Raj, and his first-born son were both near immortal. The sultan was over a thousand years old and had wished himself an endless supply of wealth. So, despite Cheryn’s northern locat
ion, full of mountains and few resources, the palace itself was grand, and the royal family lived in luxury. Abbas was half-djinn; he had superior speed, could smell fear, and supposedly half-djinn could grant three wishes in their long lives.
“Has he already granted any?” I’d asked.
“No one knows,” Declan responded.
After we’d gone over the schedule, and Cheryn’s traditional greetings, and some basic arrangements for the suitor’s ball held a few days after Abbas settled in, I was finally free to do what I wanted to do.
I cornered Avia in her chambers when she was being fitted for dresses; I reamed her for scandalously consorting late at night with an ambassador’s son.
“Well, I like him!”
“That’s wonderful, but you can’t like him until we’ve formally rejected Abbas’ suit and the one coming from Macedon. So until then—”
“You got Connor in your contingent of knights, why can’t I—”
“You can. You most likely will,” I growled. “If you’ll just wait long enough. Sedara and Cheryn are chomping at the bit to get at one another. By the time you’re of age, this crown and whatever knights you choose—”
Avia covered my lips with her hand. “I didn’t mean it.” Her eyes were glossy.
I sighed and pulled her in for a hug. “I know. But that’s the reality. You probably can choose him. If you wish. But you have to be smart, Squawk. You can’t make enemies of two countries before you take the throne.”
“I said I took it back. I don’t want him or the throne.”
I huffed. “Let’s move on from this, shall we? I love the golden gown. It’s perfect.”
Avia grumbled and stared at herself in the looking glass. “I wish I didn’t have to wear it for a stranger.”
“I know.”
“He probably has a snaggle tooth and horrid breath.”
“That’s true.”
Avia pulled a pin out of her dress and threw it at me. “You’re not supposed to agree! You’re supposed to reassure me.”
I shrugged. “Sorry. Connor’s the one who’s good at that.”
She sighed. “You’re right. How are the two of you?”
“Same.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Me too.”
We were sharing a sisterly moment, that Ryan was studiously trying to ignore, when Declan barged in. “Did you hear?”
Everyone turned to face him. He shut the door and looked around surreptitiously. “Wyle tested the water and the land samples you brought back. Neither are contaminated with sulfur or sulfate salts. That’s not what’s killing the cattle. It’s dragon’s breath.”
The air was sucked out of the room.
Everyone became a statue.
“The beast …” I whispered. “The one I heard they’re sending after Avia …”
This isn’t happening. This can’t be happening, I told myself.
What’s happening?
I didn’t bother to respond to Quinn as I made my way to the bed and sat. Memories swirled through my head. Memories of shadows cast by huge wings. Of air so hot it hurt to walk outside. I gulped. Lewart, my birth father, ran through my thoughts. The hazel eyes I’d inherited had been his.
Sard. Sard. Sard.
Avia came to clutch at my hand. “It’s not going to happen, Bloss. It’s not going to happen to you.”
“What’s not going to happen?”
Avia’s mouth struggled with the geas. I’m not sure how she did it, but she managed to say, “Knight Lewart.”
Ryan and Declan exchanged a glance.
“Your father?” Declan looked at me.
I nodded.
“He passed during the last Fire War,” Ryan stated.
Again, I nodded.
“He and his team were cut down—”
I started to shake my head but the geas froze me.
Luckily Declan saw. “They weren’t cut down?” He turned to Ryan. “Tell me everything you know about what happened. She can’t talk again. Must be related to her magic.”
“Knight Lewart was the dragon-charmer. That’s what they called him. He could tame the wild beasts. It’s why everyone believed it when Queen Gela said Bloss had gone dragon-hunting. She’s his birth daughter. Everyone assumed she could charm the beasts as well.”
There was a long, pregnant pause.
Declan turned to stare me in the eyes. “Did you inherit your father’s power, Bloss?”
I couldn’t move. Couldn’t blink. Couldn’t breathe. Beside me, it seemed Avia’s body was locked just as tight.
Declan turned back to Ryan. “Tell me how he died.”
“He and his contingent were after one of the last dragons. In the mountains that border Cheryn. They’d traced a black flame creature there. But they were attacked. Some group, thought to be from Gitmore, cut them down. Hacked them to pieces with swords.”
Declan bit his lip. “And the dragon?”
Ryan shrugged. “No one knows.”
Declan turned and stared from me to Avia, and back again. “Avia knows,” he told Ryan. “Avia and the Queen.”
Ryan nodded. “Makes sense.”
Declan started to pace, glancing over at me every few seconds. “Bloss injures herself when she uses her power. Her skin slices open.”
Ryan started. “Yes. Like a sword. I thought she’d injured herself in the weapons roo—”
Declan spoke over him, tension mounting in his voice. “Bloss says she can’t control it when she’s threatened.”
Ryan inhaled sharply. “Are you thinking…”
“What happens when the threat is overwhelming? When the threat is something like a dragon? What if no one was cut down? What if they met the dragon … and Knight Lewart—”
Ryan scooped me into his arms. “She’d never do something like that.”
“Not on purpose. No. But this geas, this spell preventing her from speaking, is there for a reason.”
Ryan stroked my hair and held me closer. “I don’t want to believe it.”
“I don’t either. We can never let it get out.”
What? What can’t you let out? Quinn walked in at that moment.
Declan turned to him. “Shut the door.”
Once it was shut, Declan’s mouth became a thin line as he said, “Our princess’s power doesn’t only draw on her own blood. It can draw on those around her when she’s under duress. To the point of death.” He stared into my eyes. “If anyone ever found out, they’d know how to make our Bloss self-destruct.”
Ryan cursed. “And right now, there’s a sarding dragon somewhere on Lady Agatha’s land.”
All eyes turned to stare at me, as though I was a bomb, ready to burst.
I was. I wouldn’t be able to help it. I felt the truth of it in my bones. My magic swelled at the very thought of the monster.
All it would take would be one little spark.
From the mouth of a dragon.
Chapter Twenty
Ryan’s response surprised me more than anyone’s. He immediately swept me down to the library. He started pulling books out and flinging them at Avia, Quinn, and Declan, who’d trailed after us.
“We need to research. I don’t know sarding what—but dragons, magical locks to lock Bloss’s shitefire power—Quinn, why haven’t your people figured out who’s sending this beast yet? Sard!” He cursed and threw a book across the room. It knocked over a candelabra which, luckily, wasn’t lit.
He stomped back over and grabbed me roughly, then pulled me down to sit on his lap. He buried his face in my hair. I rubbed his neck, absently, still in shock.
Just then, Connor walked in.
“What’s going on?”
Declan filled him in. Well, filled him in to the extent that he could, given the geas. He was able to get out more than I would have: he spoke about the dragon, my theory it was after Avia, and the suspicion that Knight Lewart’s death wasn’t from an attack.
“Well then who the hell killed him?”
“What if no one did?”
“What?”
Declan opened and closed his mouth several times. “Accidents happen,” was all he managed.
Connor snorted in disbelief. “Men don’t get sliced to ribbons by accident.” His eyes found mine. I could read the pain in his gaze. My father’s death was nearly as painful for Connor as it was for me.
Lewart had been Connor’s mentor growing up, the one who’d taught him how to work the courtiers, to soothe them and manipulate them all at once. My father had always tried to ensure he used every possible option before he used his peace power.
My mother had thought that was the reason he’d died. He hadn’t used his power enough to gain control over it. Thus, my endless tests, the constant pushing, the padded sleeves on my dresses … she didn’t want the same fate for me. But no matter how much I’d practiced, my dresses were always stained with blood. Forcing peace onto others always had its price.
I buried my head in my hands. I’d run from the palace to escape this very fate. To find a legendary wizard, one who may have existed only in whispered longing by those with hopeless cases. A man who could make wishes reality. I’d searched for four years through every town, village, and hamlet in Evaness for a man who could change the price of my power.
I should have tried harder. I should never have gotten bogged down in jobs or work or let myself be distracted. I should have gone to Gitmore in disguise. Some of the best wizards in all the seven kingdoms were in Gitmore. Enemy territory. But no one would have recognized me. Why hadn’t I done that?
I hated myself. I should have done more. My thoughts rallied against me, smacking me down one by one: Now a sarding dragon is coming. I’m going to have to face it. And after … Avia isn’t even prepared. She isn’t ready to handle the aftermath. And my knights. My four beautiful knights.
The thought of what could happen to them …
I pulled my hair, trying to release the tension that strained underneath my skin. The guilt and fear inside me roared and writhed, like they were beasts themselves.
I should never have come back, the thought pushed its way to the front of my mind.
My eyes flickered from face to face: Ryan’s was grim, his beautiful eyelashes hiding his expression as he stared at the floor; Connor was confused, his mop head of curls so adorably mussed on his head; Declan was muttering to himself, a trait I now found endearing; Quinn was staring right at me with those endlessly gorgeous grey eyes. My gut wrenched, like a catapult had launched a flaming stone into my stomach.
