by J. N. Baker
I risked a step forward. “What are you going to do?” I whispered, struggling to get the words out.
Baldric sighed, the anger gone from him now. “I will not kill him, if that is what you are worried about.”
He must have seen the look on my face because he added, “Or harm him in any way. Your mate is safe from me. For one, he is one of my best fighters. Secondly, if I were to kill him, I would be no better than Edward…taking away your very beating heart. I do not wish that pain on you.”
Taking another bold step forward, I sat beside him on the bed and reached out to put my hand over his, giving it a gentle squeeze. “Thank you,” I said and meant it.
A little more violet bled into his eyes only to be quickly overrun by darkness until I was once again looking into those endless pools of black. I stood from the bed and backed away from him.
“Do not thank me yet,” he said and Josh stepped up behind me, hand finding my waist. The move didn’t go unnoticed by Baldric, his teeth audible as they ground together.
“I need a strong queen. Someone who is powerful and will help lead my people into greatness. You will be that queen.”
A growl slipped past Josh’s lips, his grip on me tightening. Baldric held up his hand to stop him. “Enough. You will let me finish. I am still your king and you will do as I say.”
Josh remained silent, but his hold on me didn’t loosen. Baldric rose gracefully, hard gaze finding mine.
“As I was saying, you will be my queen—if in appearance only. A majority of marriages in ancient times were those of convenience, not love. Ours will be no different. And since our kind cannot procreate, you will not even have to lie with me. But you will share my bed as well as this room. Every night you will come to bed with me as a proper wife should. If you leave it in the night, you will make sure no one sees you. Ever. You are to be strangers in this kingdom.
“My people are never to see the two of you together outside of meals. That includes me. You may not be Seraphina, but you look like her. I refuse to watch another man touch you,” he said, eyes falling to where Josh’s hand still held me. Josh released me, taking a step back.
“As far as anyone outside of this room is concerned,” Baldric continued, “you belong to me and me alone.”
“For how long?” I asked, though I was pretty sure I already knew the answer.
“For as long as I want,” he bit out. “And in exchange, you can have your precious mate.”
It wasn’t even a choice and Baldric damn well knew it. I’d do anything to have Josh, including pretending to be Baldric’s perfect queen. Besides, the second William was dead, we were gone. And William would die. I’d make sure of it. I wouldn’t let Baldric’s need for revenge draw this out any longer than it had to be.
“Fine,” I told him. “I’ll pretend to be your queen.”
“Who said anything about pretending?” Baldric sneered and the room got a few degrees colder. “You will be my queen in every sense of the word, except sexually. We will be properly wed to show our people the strength of our bond. It is the easiest way to get them to accept you.”
“But—”
“There is no but,” Baldric growled. “This is the way it will be. If you want him, then that is your payment. Marry me and rule beside me.”
“She’ll do it,” Josh shocked me by saying and I whipped around on him. There was zero emotion on his face, but his eyes were stormy and wild. “I will take you however I can get you,” he told me. “He can have you in name and I will have you in every other way.”
“Good,” Baldric said with a smug smile. “Then it is settled. I will have Lindsay start plans on the wedding.”
“How soon?” I asked once I found my voice.
“As soon as possible,” he said, moving to leave. “The sooner we seal our union, the better.”
The king—my soon-to-be husband—paused before opening the door. “Get the others and meet me in the war room,” he told Josh. “We have much to discuss with this new information my bride has delivered to me.”
Josh nodded, looking at me once more before he left the room.
Once he was gone, Baldric’s heavy gaze was on me. “Now, I expect you to properly clean yourself up and be down in time for dinner. And do not look so sad,” he added. “You get to keep the man you love. Consider it a blessing—one not all of us get.”
And then he was gone.
It wasn’t more than five minutes before Lindsay came bursting into Baldric’s chambers, for once not knocking.
“You’re marrying the king?” she practically shrieked, her voice somewhere between shock and elation. She knew how Josh and I felt about each other. She knew what a bond like ours was like. But she was also all about Team Baldric.
“I’m so excited to start planning!” she squealed, her King Baldric Fan Club side clearly winning out. “Tell me everything.”
What did she want me to say? That my soon-to-be husband agreed to let me keep fucking my soul mate as long as I played house with him for an undetermined amount of time? Or maybe she wanted to know that the second William’s head was removed from his shoulders, Josh and I were blowing this joint.
“I need to take a bath,” I told her instead, much to Lindsay’s dismay.
“Oh, come on,” she whined. “You have to give me something.”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” I shouted and she took a step back. Smart. “I just want to take a bath and go to dinner,” I said, jaw hurting from how hard I was clenching it.
Her brown eyes studied me for a minute. “I take it you’re not happy about it?”
If looks could kill… “No,” I drawled. “It’s every girl’s dream to marry someone she doesn’t love. I’m fucking ecstatic. What the hell do you think?”
Lindsay rolled her eyes. “You could have just said no.”
“You could’ve not asked a stupid question,” I countered. “Now, about that bath…”
“You smell fine to me.”
“I smell like Josh,” I snapped. “And while it’s a scent I’m quite fond of, the king told me to remove it.”
The color quickly drained from Lindsay’s face. She took another step away from me, hands held up in front of her. “I swear, I didn’t tell him,” she breathed.
“Don’t worry, I know you didn’t,” I said, moving over to the window. I pressed my fingers to the icy pane, leaving streaks in it as I pulled my hand away. Trapped. Always trapped, in one way or another. “He figured it out on his own.”
“Is Josh…is he?”
“I haven’t burned this whole place to the ground, have I?” I said, turning to face her.
And I would have. If Baldric had taken Josh from me like Edward had taken Sera from him, I would have lost myself to the darkness. I’d lived through that hell once already. I couldn’t bear it again. I would have destroyed the whole goddamned world in my rage. There’d be nothing left to save.
“He’s fine,” I continued. “He is in the war room with Baldric and the other inner circle members.”
She plopped down on the edge of the bed, face scrunched in confusion. “I don’t understand.”
“There’s nothing to understand. The three of us have an…agreement.”
“Holy shit,” Lindsay whispered, jumping off the bed. “You have a harem?”
“No,” I said firmly, narrowing my eyes at her. “What type of romance novels have you been reading?”
She shrugged. “The good ones.” Couldn’t argue with her on that.
“Look,” I said, lowering my voice. “Baldric needs a queen in name and power only. He decided he doesn’t need my body.” Which was fine by me. My body and my heart belonged to one and one alone. “As long as I do as Baldric says and serve as his queen,” I continued, “he doesn’t care what I do behind closed doors.”
“So, he’s letting you have your cake and eat it too?” was Lindsay’s response.
“Excuse me?”
“You get the title of queen while
still getting to keep your man. Seems like a pretty sweet setup to me.”
I shot her a pointed look. “Would you be okay with marrying someone else while Cody was forced to be no more than your secret lover? Just so you could have a fancy title that means nothing? Because if that’s the case, you never deserved him.”
That seemed to be the dose of reality she needed.
“Sorry,” Lindsay mumbled, having the decency to look ashamed. “At least you get to have your mate, though.”
“Yeah,” I breathed. “And who knows, maybe one day you’ll get another chance with Cody.” Crazier things had happened, right?
As if it were possible, her face crumbled even more, tears collecting in her eyes. “I’m pretty sure I ruined all chance of that ever happening when I rejected him. It’s near impossible to come back from a broken bond. But it’s nice to dream.”
She batted away the few tears that had escaped, sniffling. “So, what are you going to do now?”
I shrugged. “What I have to. Sometimes you have to do hard things to get what you want, right?”
Lindsay gave me a small smile. “I’ll get your bath going. But this conversation is not over. I want to know everything.”
“Yes,” I told her, “it is. In fact, this conversation never happened to begin with. No one can know about any of this. I mean it, Linds. No one.”
I’d expected her to get argumentative. What I hadn’t expected was her eyes to get all misty, her face to twist up with emotion. “Your secret is safe with me,” she whispered.
Lindsay looked like she might try to hug me and then thought better of it, turning and leaving the room. For tonight at least, it looked like she and I were more friend than enemy. I couldn’t lie. It was kind of nice.
After a scalding hot bath, I made my way into the dining hall for our usual “family dinner.” I was starting to get used to the casual atmosphere and overall comradery. So much so, that I wasn’t constantly hearing the Twilight Zone theme in the back of my head.
I made my way across the hall to the empty seat beside Baldric, making sure to avoid Josh’s eyes. Baldric’s attention shifted to me, and I flashed the king a smile, hand resting on his forearm. “My king,” I said in greeting, taking my seat.
“My dear,” he replied, the chill in his voice from earlier nearly gone. “You are late.”
I opened my mouth to tell him something along the lines of women are never late, especially not queens, when Lindsay cut in. “That is my fault, Your Majesty,” she said and I tried to keep my face neutral as I turned to look at her. What game was she playing now?
“I got carried away talking her ear off about the big news. She is very excited,” Lindsay told him, plastering the most genuine smile on her face. “We lost track of time. I apologize.”
Okay, another point for Lindsay, the once-friend-turned-traitor.
Baldric smiled down at me, his face softening slightly. “I am pleased to hear that,” he told her, eyes still locked to mine. “Which brings me to this…”
He stood, letting the scrape of his heavy chair against the stone floor grab everyone’s attention. The room fell silent, all eyes on their precious king.
“I have an announcement,” he said, voice booming throughout the large hall. He reached down for me and I forced myself to put my hand in his so he could lift me to stand with him. “My beautiful bride and I will be wed tomorrow night.”
The room exploded around us.
“T-tomorrow?” I breathed, my voice swallowed by the roar of applause that filled the room. When Baldric had told me as soon as possible, I didn’t think he’d meant less than twenty-four hours. I tried to keep a smile plastered on my face, though I was pretty sure my eye was twitching with the strain it took. My blackened heart hammered in my chest and Baldric’s hold on my hand tightened, whether in comfort or warning, I wasn’t sure. I would’ve guessed the latter. In all the commotion, I risked a glance at Josh only to find his chair empty.
Baldric held up his other arm and the cheers quieted. “Tomorrow, we will be one. We will unite to defeat the monster who stole everything from us. Together, we will be unstoppable!”
The rest of the evening went by in a blur of congratulation and well-wishes, the dining hall overflowing with everyone’s joy and excitement. Everyone except me—the damn bride-to-be. I might have been getting what I wanted, but I didn’t have to like the process.
It wasn’t like this was much different than the life I’d already been living under Baldric’s overbearing roof. I knew that. Baldric had always referred to me as his “bride” or “future queen,” but now it would be real. I knew it was just a stupid title. It meant nothing because Baldric and I shared nothing. But still, I found myself hating that he would hold that title instead of Josh. It was just one more thing in my life that I didn’t have a choice in.
My food went untouched as I sat at the table in a daze, counting down the minutes until we’d be able to leave the dining hall and I could find Josh. But, apparently, this had become a celebration feast. One that seemed like it would never…fucking…end. More food kept coming out of the kitchen, and drinks. So much alcohol—where the hell did they even get that much whiskey?
“Here’s to the most badass queen this world has ever seen!” Felix had toasted at some point, others banging their hands on the wooden table in agreement.
“Hear, hear! To the woman who tried to cook me alive,” Philip shouted. More applause and laugher rang out.
“Too bad she wasn’t successful,” Lindsay chimed in.
Felix snorted. “Let’s hope she doesn’t use that little trick in the bedroom.”
That last part wasn’t the worst idea I’d ever heard. I tucked it away for a rainy day, draining my glass in one big gulp.
A hand appeared in front of my face and I blinked at it a few times before following it up to the self-proclaimed king it belonged to. “Shall we go to bed, my dear?” he asked.
“Yes,” I was quick to reply. I never thought I’d be so happy to hear those words coming from his mouth. Putting my hand in his, I let him help me stand.
Baldric nodded his good-byes to those still using the excuse of our “joyous” news to party hard. If William wanted to hit, this would be the night for it. Though I doubted the vampires could truly get drunk, and Baldric’s army was filled to the brim with the fanged variety.
I followed Baldric out of the dining hall, ignoring the many knowing smiles being flashed our way. Yeah, that wasn’t going to happen. But that was the point of this, for Baldric’s people to think it was. A powerhouse couple made by God Himself. Only once we entered our chambers and the door clicked shut behind us did I feel like I could finally breathe.
Baldric released my hand as if it had burned him. I knew it hadn’t—not physically at least. “You did well tonight,” he said, his back to me as he moved toward the bed to pull off his boots. “Need I remind you that you are not to be seen if you choose to leave this room?”
“I understand.” Wouldn’t be hard tonight, seeing as most who dwelled within the castle were still in the dining hall.
“And I would also remind you that, while these walls are not thin, there are many within them with excellent hearing.”
“Yep. Be quiet, got it.”
“Good,” he replied stiffly, stretching out his long body on the bed. “East wing. Only arched doorway.”
“What?”
He didn’t look at me, eyes fixed to the ceiling. “The room you seek. I assumed you would need to know where it was. Unless you planned to open every door in the castle until you found the one you were searching for? Or perhaps you already knew where it was,” he added, only a tinge of bitterness to his voice.
“I didn’t,” I said, inching my way toward the door, worried he might suddenly change his mind about the entire arrangement.
Wrapping my fingers around the handle, I cracked the door open before risking a look back at him. “Thank you,” I whispered.
And I meant
it. No matter how screwed up the situation was, or how pissed off I was about it, it could have been far worse. Baldric could have killed Josh or my people. Or worse yet, he could have locked Josh away and tortured him for years while making me watch, all while still forcing me to be his precious queen. But instead, Baldric gave me the one thing I wanted: the man I loved. Even if it did come with some twisted strings attached, like literally marrying someone else.
Look at me, counting my blessings like a pro.
Baldric turned his head to face me, his eyes finding mine. The pain I saw looking back at me stole the air from my lungs, those complicated irises flickering in color as he watched me.
“Baldric…”
“Go,” he ordered, resuming his staring contest with the ceiling as I slipped out of the room.
The castle felt empty as I crept through it. Wasn’t much sneaking required to get by unnoticed, seeing as nearly everyone was still partying in the dining hall. I could hear them even as I moved soundlessly across the castle toward the east wing. Those who weren’t still drinking and laughing it up with their comrades were having a different sort of good time. That was if the sounds I heard coming from some of the rooms I passed were any indication.
I continued toward Josh’s personal chambers on the east side of the castle, which just happened to be on the complete opposite side as Baldric’s. Wasn’t that handy. A true blessing if ever there was one.
My heart rate picked up as the only arched doorway came into view. Josh’s door.
All this time in Baldric’s kingdom and I’d never once stepped foot inside Josh’s bedroom. It wasn’t like I hadn’t been in his room hundreds of times while growing up, or he mine. It wasn’t even like he hadn’t come into my chambers while I was here. But for some reason, the idea of being alone with him, spending the entire night in his bed, had put butterflies in my stomach, their incessant fluttering traveling lower until I felt it burning between my thighs. A sigh escaped me.
With one last look over my shoulder to make sure no one was in the narrow corridor, I slipped into Josh’s room, softly closing the door behind me.