Wicked King

by Ana Calin

“Not even the Council? Not even the Divine Courts you mentioned that usually use these suites?”

  “No one knows how often members of the Council come here, but if I were them, I’d surely bring the one or other affair, if you know what I mean.” She winks.

  “You sure are sassy for a virgin.”

  We both laugh, and the heaviness lifts off of my heart for the first time in days, but the feeling is short-lived.

  The doors open with a bang, and Kareim enters our room, accompanied by his guards.

  “Guess what, sister,” he calls. “We’re room-mates!”

  “We’re what?” she shrieks, and I freeze.

  “You, me and the Queen.” He bows to me mockingly, his foxy crimson eyes glittering.

  “My guards didn’t manage to get a key to a Divinity Suite, but I managed to have a talk with the welcome committee, and I explained to them that, since I’m the Queen’s custodian, I should be allowed to share her suite.” There’s no mistaking the satisfaction on the bastard’s face as he says this.

  “There’s no chance in Tartarus you and I are sharing a room. It’s either you or me, one of us has to go. Custodian or not, you can’t force me to share something as intimate as this with you.”

  “I’m sorry to disappoint, my Queen.” He sneers. “You’re gonna have to accept my presence if you want to enjoy humane lodgings during our stay. There’s no way around my rights over you as custodian, and the only alternative to this is waiting this out in a dungeon.” He leans in theatrically. “You’re familiar with the experience. I’m sure you wouldn’t want to repeat it.”

  Nazarean hisses, his claws pushing out from his paws, his furry body arching, ready to slash the other side of his face bloody, too, but Marayke pulls me back.

  “Don’t,” she whispers. “It’s only gonna make things worse.” She steps in front of me, feigning indifference to the situation. “Suit yourself, brother. After all, this is a suite. There’s enough space. Actually, Zestari could share the chambers with us, too.”

  The finest hairs stand on the back of my neck upon hearing the courtesan’s name, but I understand why Marayke is doing this. She hopes that way she can keep Zestari away from Xerxes, therefore giving us an extra chance to make things right. Which is why Kareim’s next words must hit her as hard as they hit me.

  “Zestari will be sharing with the King and Duke Draven.” He grins at me provokingly. It’s obvious the bastard wants me to do something reckless, act against his rights as a custodian, so he can throw me in a dungeon. I won’t be able to help anyone from there.

  I stroke Nazarean, calming him down, and refusing to show Kareim that his words are cutting me on the inside.

  “If the King wants to have an affair, he’ll have it inside that suite or outside of it. Besides, if it’s not Zestari, it’s someone else in her place. So I could care less.”

  He narrows his eyes, coming closer to me. I stand in place, defying him and stroking Nazarean, keeping an iron grip on my nerves.

  “You know, there were moments when the two of you were out in the Winter Kingdom when I was certain that you would tell him the truth. Tell him that I—” He looks around, making sure the guards and the servants still preparing the suite can’t hear, stepping too close for my comfort. “That it was Marayke and me that set you two up.”

  “Too much was at stake.”

  “But how does it feel to realize you almost sacrificed yourself to an eternity in Hell for a man who swapped you for another in a blink of an eye?” He grins. “Zestari told me how her first night with him was. Care to hear about it? I got plenty of spicy details for you.”

  “Your cruelty isn’t news to me. But your lavishness is. Don’t you have better things to do than gossip with a courtesan about her sexual adventures?” I step into his personal space, staring him in the face with narrowed eyes, my chin pushed forward. “Know this, Kareim, maybe I gave it all up because of what you did, maybe I let Xerxes think that I betrayed him in the worst possible way. But if I find out that you went behind our backs this time, or that you played a double game, trying to eliminate Xerxes, I swear to the highest realms that I’ll cast you into the darkest afterlife you can imagine in the deepest caves of Tartarus.”

  “Cerys,” Marayke intervenes, breaking the red-hot eye contact between Kareim and me. He stares down at my face out of those cunning eyes, but hatred isn’t the only emotion there. It’s paired with a sick lust that I’ve seen before, down in the dungeons where he framed me, and almost broke my back. When he promised me that, one day, he was going to fuck me. I see the reiteration of that promise in his eyes now. This is a man who wants to break me most when I display my power. He wants to subdue me, turn me to nothing.

  I step back from him, and after holding his stare for a few tense seconds, I break it, and head to the next room. It’s smaller, but cozier, and more intimate. There’s a smaller bed, a reading table with two inviting reclining chairs, and a complimentary bottle of fine red wine. Craving blasts through my veins for the first time in my life, and I reach for the bottle.

  I let Nazarean jump onto the reclining chair, allowing me to open the bottle. I pour a glass of wine, letting the rich liquid travel down to my empty bowels, sending a relaxing sensation through me. I drop into the free chair, and abandon myself to the feeling. High realms, this is so welcome after all the shit that’s been going down lately.

  Nazarean meows, prowling over, and soon we lie together here in the coziest reclining chair that ever existed, looking out at the most beautiful sunset that bathes us in a faint reddish light that warms my body along with the wine. I don’t know how long it’s been since Nazarean and I have isolated ourselves in here, but the wine and the cuddling and the sunset do me good. I drift into sleep, a deep and fulfilling darkness. But soon the feeling that I’m missing something, that I shouldn’t feel so relaxed jolts me from my peace.

  I drag myself over to the main room, but find it completely deserted. I imagine Marayke must have found a way to get Kareim off my back in order to give me some privacy. Or maybe by some miracle she even found a way to get him out of our suite for good, but I doubt it.

  Exploring the suite I discover the bathroom behind the glittery walls. The servants already prepared the bath, the steaming foamy water irresistible. No doubt I have Marayke to thank for this blessed solitude.

  I walk by the tub, swiping its edge with my fingers. It seems crafted by nature itself, made of natural rock, and the water in it seems to be flowing from a natural hot spring. Nazarean hisses in dislike. He’s no different from a normal cat that way—he hates water.

  “Whether you like it or not, you’re gonna have to go in with me,” I tell him as I struggle out of the catsuit. A few nights ago I had Marayke to help me, but now I have to fight the impossibly tight thing all by myself.

  Minutes later, free and naked, I step into the hot tub, sinking into the water up to my neck. It soothes everything inch of me besides my heart.

  “Come on,” I tell Nazarean. He hisses in protest, but I eventually manage to get him in. He struggles and hisses, and as soon as I’m done cleaning him, I release him onto the bathtub edge. He hides under the fluffy pile of towels, while I can go on to scrub myself the way I haven’t done since the Fire Realm.

  The Fire Realm. A place I’ve come to love, and that I will never see again. Once the realm is saved and harmony restored between the worlds, I’ll move back to the Flipside. No longer Edinburgh, but maybe somewhere close to the Caledonian forests. Or maybe the Seelie Realm.

  “You’ve come a long way.”

  My head snaps up to the door, where the voice is coming from. Dread travels down my spine.

  Taking delight in my horrified expression, Kareim walks over, stripping off his High Mage garment.

  “What in the cursed realms are you doing?” I ask in dread, refusing to believe the obvious.

  “You know, the first time Xerxes appeared with you in the dungeons under Castle Rock you were a very different
version of yourself. Already dangerous—you did this to me after all.” He points to the scars on the side of his face. “But you were a white energy presence, your skin aglow with all the goodness inside you. No longer. Look at you now. Your eyes glow golden, like a predator’s, and your face? Still otherworldly, but no longer innocent. You’re becoming a creature of the shadow, Cerys Dark. You’re actually starting to live up to your name. Your dark warlock brother, Zillard, would be proud to see you now.”

  I look around, searching for something to hurt him, or at least prevent him from touching me. I can’t get out of the tub either, it would only make me more vulnerable. At least in here the foam covers me to my chest, and he can’t see my naked body, but once I’m out there on the slippery floor, I’m done for.

  “Please, Kareim, this is completely inappropriate. Get out until I get dressed—”

  But he steps into the tub, sinking in too close to me.

  “Let me be completely honest with you, my Queen. In the beginning, when Xerxes first came after you in Edinburgh, I was the one who’d encouraged him to do it. To use you to get to the Firestone. I knew that you were his fated mate, and that he wanted to stay away from you to make sure you could never awaken feelings in him. I mean, he even wanted to have you killed to make sure he could never develop a weakness for you. But you see, I never took that bond too seriously—I see my mistake now.” Evil meaning crosses his glassy irises. “I’m sure you knew what Xerxes’ original plans for you were, but did I ever get the chance to tell you mine? No? Well, here they are—get Cerys Dark within my grasp, get her killed when she’s no longer useful, and feed on her potential. Make myself powerful by imbuing myself with her power. But boy, am I glad that didn’t turn out in the end.”

  “You’re glad?” I manage through my teeth.

  “Yes, of course. You see, I discovered there was another way I could imbue myself with your power and potential, and you didn’t need to be dead. On the contrary.” He pauses for effect, because he can sure read the dreadful anticipation in my face. “Possessing your body.”

  “Have you lost your fucking mind?”

  “No. But I’m about to fuck up yours. See if you’re that much of a smart mouth after this.”

  Anguish sends a jolt through my spine. I push myself off the stony bottom of the tub, the water lapping over the edges, but Kareim is faster. He jumps up, grabs my wrists and pins me against the tub’s wall. Nazarean hisses like a cobra and jumps at the bastard’s face, ready to slash the other side bloody as well, but Kareim spits out a ball of something dark and slimy. Something he must have kept in his mouth all along.

  The ball of liquid blackness spreads out like living gum, catches Nazarean in the air and glues him to the ground. Whatever the stuff is, it feels evil, and it’s strong enough to restrain Nazarean. It’s strong enough to restrain me, too, because it extends to my wrists, gluing them to the bathtub edge.

  “Cursed realms,” I yelp before a patch of the slimy thing jumps on my mouth, gluing it shut.

  “That will keep your body compliant, and will render your magic useless,” he hisses. “You’re completely at my mercy, Your Highness.”

  I swear to everything that’s holy that I have never felt this powerless and desperate before. The murky substance doesn’t just tie me down, it also chains the magic that flows through my body, stripping me of all means to protect myself. I’m here, naked in a bathtub with only the water and the natural foam from the stream that flows into it covering me. If he hoists me up, this bastard is going to see me fully naked, the way only Xerxes did before.

  Now that the black substance keeps me down, shrieking like it’s alive and tortured, he stands to show me his erection, long and thin, wiry red pubes at the root.

  He grins. He enjoys almost rubbing it in my face, the bastard.

  “Come on, look on the bright side,” he slurs as he watches me struggle. “He fucked the courtesan. He thinks you betrayed him first, but even so. As your bonded mate, he shouldn’t have been able to do it. If he did, then his heart has really started to tear itself way from you.”

  And there it is, the truth of it. I saw it with my own eyes, the courtesan riding him. There’s no denying what I saw, and there’s no denying that, deep down, I know that Kareim is right. Whatever the reason, Xerxes has started to take emotional distance from me. And that after everything I’ve done for him.

  Kareim sinks back into the water and forces my legs apart. Despair rises to my head, sending pressure buzzing through my ears. This is it. This is the point where I’m getting raped. This Hell spawn has chained me with borrowed magic that’s too powerful for me to fight, and the only way I can do anything about it is to venture dangerously deep into channels of Tartarian energy.

  “You want to know what my plans are now, wanton?” He grins, sick lust distorting his face as he brings his cock to my entrance. The thin head pushes between my folds already, causing me to thrash around, determined to prevent him. The pheromones of sexual need blast from him, giving off a smell so foul that I gag on it, but he decides to make it worse. He grabs my head and holds it in place. Fuck all demons, I think he’s gonna kiss me.

  But no, he hates me too much to do something that’s so inherently intimate. No, he holds my head in place with one hand, covering my mouth with the other so I can’t scream. But that’s good news, because it means he’s only got the rest of his body to try and hold me down, and I have the rest of mine to fight.

  I bite his palm, but he won’t let go, he’s too inflamed, his cock to eager to impale me. The responses of my body grow slower, like in those dreams where you strain to move, to run, but you can’t. The magic he’s used on me to hold me is much too strong. I wonder who in the cursed realms gave it to him, and if they know what he wanted to use it for. Cursed realms, if this bastard manages to rape me, he will break me. I won’t be able to bounce back after such a humiliation. He will have taken everything away from me.

  But I have no choice as the black sludge drains me.

  My eyes roll back, and the grip of my teeth on the flesh of his palm loosens. But just as I’m about to black out, a swift force yanks Kareim off of me. All I register at first are shadows moving wildly against the sunset lit ceiling. It takes a few moments until I realize that it was Xerxes who got the bastard off of me. Now he slams Kareim against the mirror, the glass smashing, causing the bastard to cry out in pain as the shards pierce his flesh.

  Sick joy runs through me at the sound of his pain. Only a year ago, it would have been unimaginable for me to ever feel elated at another person’s pain, yet here I am, finding out that I’m capable of evil. Xerxes bares his teeth at Kareim, raising him higher against the wall, traces of blood trailing on the wall. He’s seriously injured, and Xerxes is seriously crazed. He’s a beast in leather and metal, with rivers of fire snaking through his skin.

  No, I can’t let this happen. It could put Xerxes in even more trouble with the Council.

  “No, stop,” I manage, but my voice comes out hoarse, and my throat hurts like a mother. Xerxes can’t hear me, or he won’t listen. My only chance is to get out of the tub. In tearing Kareim away from me, part of the bonds on my wrists were ripped, too, enabling me to free myself. My body feels heavy as I rise from the water, that’s how exhausted I am, but I have to free Nazarean, and then get to Xerxes as quickly as possible.

  “You filthy maggot,” Xerxes spits through his bared teeth at Kareim, his powerful hand dangerously tight around his neck. “I knew you were a horny piece of shit, but the Queen? My wife, my bonded mate?”

  I make it over, hanging naked and wet onto Xerxes’ arm.

  “Don’t do this.” I’m dying to scream at him that it will destroy our plans, that it will take away our last chance of making things right for all the realms. But I can’t, my hurting throat won’t let me, every word that leaves my mouth hurts. “Kill him now, and you’ll give the Council every reason to lock you up. Please, Xerxes, think!”

  He keeps sta
ring fire daggers at Kareim, whose eyes swell and roll back. He’s losing consciousness.

  “Let him down, now,” I croak, and Xerxes’ arm finally gives way. I fall to my knees by the side of the unconscious Kareim, checking his vital signs.

  “You wanted to get back at me for the thing with Zestari, didn’t you?” Xerxes says between his teeth. My head snaps up to him. I can’t believe he actually just said that.

  “I’m sorry, what?”

  “Don’t pretend,” he snarls, punching the wall. The impact blasts in my ears, leaving a mold of his knuckles in the rock. “You lured him. You knew this would hurt me beyond repair, and you—”

  “Will you fucking stop to think about what you’re saying? He tried to rape me!”

  “Oh, come on, Cerys. Kareim is many things, but he’s not stupid.” He’s burning with rage, his features so sharp they could cut through steel. “Any man would have to be crazy to risk such a heist with the bonded mate of the King of Flames.”

  “Oh, by now everybody knows that bond is overrated. It didn’t keep you from fucking Zestari.”

  “And you thought you’d fuck this maggot to get back at me, didn’t you?”

  “Be very careful there, Xerxes.” I point a finger at him angrily. “You’re treading on thin ice. I’m not like you, I’m not a fucking traitor. I risked my life for you, damn it, I would have traded myself to Samael, and spent eternity in the pit, letting you think I betrayed you, when it was all actually for you. How could you, huh? How could you do that to me, how could you go and fuck Zestari?”

  But he seems unable to reply. His eyes slide down my frame, and I realize with a volley of curses that I’m confronting him in all my naked splendor. Since all the towels here have fallen into the bathtub while I struggled, I wrap my arms around myself and scurry over into the main room. I open the large wardrobe, looking for anything I can throw over myself. I grab the first gown I can get my hands on, wrap it around me, and swirl around to find Xerxes right behind me.

  “That with Zestari,” he says. “It’s not what you think.”