by Ann Denton
I wrapped my arms around his neck and let my fingers play with his curls. “I love it, too.”
He pulled me in for a kiss and then stood, sweeping his arms under my legs. “I think I’m full.”
“You only had a bite.”
“Still,” he shrugged, his eyes glittering with mischief, “I think I’d rather be done with my first dessert and move on to the next.”
He carried me out of the kitchen, nodding his chin toward a couple dishwashers who catcalled at us.
When we made it to the hall, a few of my guards discreetly began to follow us.
“Uh-oh, we’ve been spotted.”
Connor shrugged. “It was bound to happen. At least they’re keeping their distance.”
He led me toward his office, which was on the first floor of the palace, so that visiting nobles could easily find it. He whispered in my ear as he carried me, “I’m going to lay you out on my desk. Naked. In the moonlight. And then—”
We passed a darkened hallway and I saw a flash of color where there shouldn’t have been one.
Instantly, I yanked Connor to a stop and dropped my legs from his hold. Some instinct told me that whoever was there in the dark shouldn’t be. I ran into the shadows.
“Don’t!” Connor yelled. I didn’t listen as I scanned the blackness for my target.
My eyes barely had time to adjust before the window creaked open to my left. I turned and darted toward it. I yanked on person’s jacket as they tried to climb outside. A rotund man fell at my feet just as I was surrounded.
“Bloss!” Connor scolded as my guards scooped up whomever I’d captured.
“Don’t ever do that again,” Connor shoved between me and the escape artist, who struggled to break free. Whoever it was, it wasn’t someone particularly strong. Two guards held the man easily. Another brought a torch.
The flame revealed the pudgy face of the noble I reviled most.
Willard had worn a fake beard that was black and curly.
It looks like he glued pubes to his face, Quinn’s voice sounded off in my head. Declan’s been searching for him with some of the guards. He’ll be right there. One of my people thought they saw his fat ass—
I yanked the beard off and scanned the face of the noble who’d talked to Sedara about replacing me.
“Lord Willard. What might you be doing, in disguise, in my castle, this late at night?”
I saw the pits of his shirt grow stained as the fat little rat sweated before me. “I just—I was—meeting a lover!”
A smile stretched across my face. “Oh, really? And who might that be?”
“It’s—it’s—” Willard’s cheeks colored and his face paled as he couldn’t come up with a lie quickly enough.
It was almost sad. To be undermined by a man so stupid.
“Guards, bring him to the mage’s tower. I think it’s time Willard and I had another heart to heart.”
Willard’s bulging fish eyes widened.
I grinned. “Oh, yes, Willard. It’s time for another mage spell. This one, I’m afraid, won’t be for your benefit.”
Declan and another set of guards scrambled into the room just as my guards hauled the protesting pile of flesh off.
“We missed it! Damn. I was sure that fathole would come in through the larder!” Declan grimaced. He hated being wrong.
“You didn’t miss anything,” I ran my hand over my knight’s ink-stained palm and linked our fingers in an attempt to ease his disappointment. “We’re about to question him.”
“Well, you don’t need me for that, then,” Declan backed out of the room. “I was just filling in since Ryan’s out.” My scholar wasn’t interested in all that questioning might entail.
On the other hand, Quinn smirked in my head. Oh, Dove. That’s my favorite part.
Chapter Five
Cerena’s tower room was a disaster. In her search to find the loophole in the engagement contract, it looked like my castle mage had torn through every book she owned.
She was asleep, her head drooped over an open book, drool puddled on the page, when we walked in.
She snorted when she woke. “Wha—what?”
“Sorry, to wake you. But we found an intruder and wanted to see what we could do about a mage spell or some kind of truth serum.”
Cerena’s eyes widened. “Oh … um …” she swiped at her mouth when she realized a line of drool hung from it. She shuffled toward me and spoke in a stage whisper that completely defeated the purpose of whispering, “I … um … used up a lot of ingredients in here, testing out that last issue. I’m dead out.”
I sighed. “Fine. I suppose we’ll have to chain him up for a bit until you can get more. Tell Jorad what you need.”
Cerena bobbed her head. “Yes’m. I mean Your Highness. Your Majesty?” The poor woman didn’t know anything about court etiquette, and I loved that.
“Just Bloss.”
I waved to Connor and the guards. “I suppose we can visit the dungeons.”
Willard started to tremble, like the coward he was. “I’ll talk! I’ll talk!”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “How can I trust you? You were sneaking around my grounds—”
“Just meeting a lover! My mother couldn’t know! Please, it was nothing! I’ll tell you anything! Ask me anything!” Willard visibly shook and I worried he might be about to piss himself.
I glanced at Connor, unsure what my mother would do. He gave a head nod toward Willard. I assumed that meant I should ask something. “What did Meeker tell you when you met with him in the forest?”
Willard’s eyes nearly bugged out of his head. “I—he—”
“You were discussing treason, weren’t you?”
The foul stench of piss met my nostrils.
“It’s not what you think!” Willard insisted. “We were desperate! There was a dragon in our lands!”
“And you turned to Sedara. To a foreign country. Not to me.”
“And I lied!” Willard’s jowls trembled. His face turned tomato red. “We don’t have a sarding port on our land, do we?”
“You would if you tried to overthrow me.”
Willard laughed bitterly. “You think anyone would follow me? A man? The fat dolt? You think I’m so stupid I don’t know what I’m called?”
“I think you’re stupid enough to believe I’d fall for your pity party.” I looked at Connor and raised my brows.
Connor walked closer and whispered, “He feels somewhat truthful. I don’t sense a lie. But his fear is the overriding emotion.”
I turned to Willard. “I won’t kill you.”
Willard fell to his fat knees. “Thank you, Your Majesty. I promise, I can prove my loyalty. I’ll do whatever you want—”
“I wasn’t finished. I won’t kill you, and I might not even publicly strip your title, or have you flogged—”
“I can get you information!” Willard spit out. “Anything you want! Nobles, servants. I don’t care.”
I pressed my lips together. “You think you’d be more effective than my spies?”
Willard nodded his head vigorously, his chubby cheeks flapping. “Spies can only overhear things. I can go in and start conversations. They all know that mother’s furious about the dragon. And no one takes me seriously,” he spit that last statement out bitterly. “They don’t mind running their mouths around me because they think I’m daft. I’m not. I figured out the dragon, you know.”
I paused and let the silence grow uncomfortably long. I watched Willard. I looked to Connor, who leaned over and whispered in my ear, “He’s earnest.”
I waited until I was certain Willard hung on my every word. Then I said, “Perhaps a trial. If you provide unique information to me about the other nobles and their current positions, I might consider this. If you dig up our traitor, you might even get to retain your title.”
Willard’s eyes gleamed at that. He wanted to keep his title. Wanted it badly.
I continued, “Someone helped bring t
hat dragon into our country. Our country, Willard. Your land. My kingdom. Both were nearly destroyed. I want you to stumble into every private conversation you can. I want you to annoy your way into invitations and find out who has been plotting against Evaness.”
Willard nodded, getting up from his knees. He gave me a bow, before pulling a bright red handkerchief from his vest and mopping his sweaty face.
Quinn, are you listening? I thought.
Hmm?
I just recruited Willard into your group of spies.
Did you say Dullard?
Willard.
Dullard?
Alright. Haha. I get it. But honestly, I’d like you to assign someone invisible to shadow him. I’m going to let him stumble around and play spy in the hope it will draw attention away from your people. Or maybe even get the nobles to drop their guard, thinking I’m an idiot.
Do you really want people to think you’re an idiot?
I sighed. No. But I pretty much screwed that up today with Isla. Might as well take advantage of my stupid status until I have the chance to prove them wrong.
You can always be an idiot with me, Dove. I won’t judge you.
Shut up and send someone up here.
Will do. Just let me punch Abbas one more time.
You’re beating Abbas?
Yes.
And I wasn’t invited?
You were on your ‘date.’ Quinn’s voice faded with a grunt, which I assumed meant he’d landed a hit on the imposter prince.
I looked back at Willard.
He was still mopping the back of his neck. I could see massive armpit stains. The man’s body was as slippery and slimy as an eel. I only hoped his mind wasn’t as well.
Connor pulled me aside and whispered, “Are you sure?”
I shrugged. “If I’d been in his position, with a dragon on my lands, I’d have done the same. I don’t entirely trust him. But, he’s right about the perception of him. He’s the least threatening of the nobles.”
Connor chewed his lip in a rare show of nervous contemplation. “I just don’t want this to reflect badly on you.”
I shrugged and whispered, “Quinn’s sending an invisible shadow. They’ll verify anything he does or says.”
Connor visibly relaxed at that statement.
I punched his shoulder. “Honestly, I know I’m rusty at this court business. But I’m not a complete dunce.”
He grinned.
I turned back and glared at Willard, who twisted the handkerchief nervously in his hands. “Connor will go over a few details with you. I’m needed elsewhere.”
Connor pulled Willard to one of Cerena’s work benches and sat with him. He lectured the nobleman about actions that might rouse suspicion.
I briefly wondered if Willard would even last a day as a spy. I sighed.
I turned to my mage, “Cerena, I’m sorry to have barged in when you worked so hard last night. But I have one last favor.”
“Yes, Bloss?” she asked.
“You forgot your bird. He’s in my chambers. If you’d collect him, I’d appreciate it.”
“What bird?”
“Your bluebird.”
Cerena’s eyebrows drew up. “I don’t have a bird.”
My chest contracted. “What?”
“I don’t know how else to say it. I don’t own a bird.”
I walked back toward Cerena. A strange sensation filled my limbs. It felt like the weightlessness that happened when I took a bottle of Flight and jumped into the air. “You have to have a bird. He followed you into the room downstairs.”
“Why do I have to have a bird?”
“Because … because he followed you and stayed with me. He attacked Abbas when the shite bit me.”
I shared a look with Connor. I was at a loss.
Cerena sighed. “You’d better show me this bird. And by the way, I think your old castle mage must have been shite. Or on someone else’s payroll. I can’t believe the things that got through here. A sarding full-on magical creature got in here unknown? A dragon pranced across the county? I mean … that’s just not okay.
“If that asswipe were still alive, I’d make him drink a bottle of Revelation to see what the hell he was thinking. Of course, he was a man. So, they’re naturally less devious. More of an idiotic heads-on, storm-the-castle approach.
“Do you know how many vats of oil I’ve got in storage? Going rancid? What a waste. I’m hiring a fairy as an assistant. We need top-grade magical defense for this shite. And maybe an elf for weapons making. Silver weapons for sure. They tend to work against everything. Shapeshifters, djinn. We have a lot of rusty iron ones for fae. I’ll just have to get them cleaned up. But a disappointing lack of silver,” Cerena finished her rant. She gestured at a shelf behind her that wasn’t destroyed by the blast that had killed her predecessor (or her own mess-making mayhem). A few silver trinkets sat on it: a tankard, a knife, a shield.
“Anything you need,” I ran a hand over my face. Courtyard repairs from a dragon attack. Mage’s tower in shambles. My reign was full of expensive, unpleasant surprises thus far. “This damn bird better be a bird.”
Cerena’s first words inside my chambers were, “That’s not a bird.”
I punched the wall. That was a very stupid thing to do, considering I didn’t have Ryan at my side. “Sard!” I cursed at the bird, my hand, my life.
“What the hell is it then?” Connor had followed behind us after letting Willard walk off with an invisible spy tailing him.
The bird twittered aggressively.
Connor grabbed a silver tray and chucked it at the bluebird, trying to get the thing to come down so we could catch it. The bird was off and across the room before the tray reached him.
Cerena looked at me and sighed. “You’ve dragged me into one hell of a mess, Bloss. I might need a raise. That is a person. A spelled person.”
“How can you tell?” I watched the bluebird land on the canopy above my bed.
“I can sense the human. Or part human in him with this,” Cerena held up a glowing stone in her hands. “Once I thought about what had happened with that shite trickster prince, I figured I’d need a little spell to check things out, until I get some back up.”
“How does it work?” Connor asked.
“Light, human. No light, not human,” she shrugged and handed Connor the stone. “I can’t tell the partials. But it was a quick fix.”
I narrowed my eyes at the bird. “Are you a spy? Huh?”
The bird very deliberately made eye contact with me and shook his blue head.
“Why are you here?”
The bird tilted his head and blinked at me.
“I think that might be bird sarcasm,” Cerena stated.
“What?”
Connor spoke softly, “Yes and no questions, Bloss Boss. Stick to yes and no questions.”
I smacked his arm. “Don’t patronize me. My sister was stolen. I was attacked. And I’ve got a foreign queen, a fat-ass lying noble, and some douchey bird intruder to deal with. Excuse me for not asking the right kind of questions.”
Connor held up his hands and slowly backed away from me.
Ass.
I glared at the bird. “Are you working for another monarch?”
The bird shook his head no.
“Well then, are you just passing through?” Connor asked the bird, as if he was at a damn court function and this bird was a guest.
The bird shook his head no.
“Why the sard are you here?” I asked.
“Yes and no…”
“YES! I know! I know!” I closed my eyes and took a deep breath through my nose. “I cannot deal with this right now. You figure out why he’s here. I’m going to find Quinn. I need to punch someone.”
I strode away, leaving my husband and my new castle mage to deal with the bluebird.
But I did yell out over my shoulder to the bird, “Since you’re a person, if you shite on a single one of my things, I will end you!�
�
I was over this day.
Over it.
Chapter Six
I was interrupted on my way to the dungeon because I was too sarding tired and stupid to take the secret passageways. As I crossed one of the main halls, a figure came barreling toward me. Immediately, the guards following me took up position in front of me and unsheathed their swords.
Mateo skidded to a stop just shy of their weapons. “Your Majesty!” he bowed.
When he looked up, I could see his brown eyes were rimmed in red from crying. His wavy bronze hair was unkempt. His shirt was untucked. He did not look well.
I hadn’t even thought of him once since Avia had been stolen. But, of course, he would have been affected.
I cursed myself for being so thoughtless. I raised a hand so my guards could lower their weapons.
“Mateo, how can I help you?”
When he glanced up, the look in his eyes was earnest. “Please. I want to look for her. That’s all I want.”
My heart just about broke seeing his expression. Mateo looked like a lost child. Like a lost soul. If one of my knights were taken … I couldn’t even dare to imagine that. I knew Mateo and Avia were young, but love was love. I’d loved Connor at that age. Younger, even.
I held out a hand and squeezed Mateo’s fingers briefly, the only appropriate sign of affection I could give. “Of course, you may look for her. I’ll let Ryan know so his men are aware.”
Mateo coughed uncomfortably. “There’s only one problem. I don’t own a horse.”
I nodded. An ambassador’s son wasn’t wealthy. And Macedon wasn’t a wealthy nation to start.
I nodded to one of my guards. “Escort him to Jace at the stables. Tell Jace I’ve authorized a horse for him.”
Mateo squeezed my hand and said, “Thank you, Your Majesty.”
I just shook my head. “Thank you for caring so much for Avia.”
“I do. I really do,” his words became choked with emotion.
I had to turn away before I was overcome myself. Instead, I forced my mind to focus on the person who’d caused all this heartache. The monster who’d come into my home and ripped it apart.