by A. B. Keuser
“Not a worry miss. I’ll fetch a new one from the kitchen.”
Stooping, he picked up the shards of the bowl and mopped up the spilled soup with a towel that had been tucked under the cart. He placed her soup in front of her and pulled the cart away.
She looked sheepishly after him and said, “Sometimes, I’m too scatterbrained for my own good.”
Glancing around the table, the others had ignored her. “Is that a common occurrence?”
She winced. “It may have happened a time or two before.”
Heinrich couldn’t help himself, he had to laugh.
“Here, take mine. I’ve never been fond of it and that was entirely my fault.” When he started to argue, she held up a finger. “I insist. I’m a princess after all; you have to do what I say.”
She slid the bowl across the small distance between them and her fingers lingered on his a moment too long. Ivy cleared her throat and looked away. Danae’s smirk faded as quickly as it appeared. The only ones who didn’t seem to notice were their newest guests.
Mina made a whistling noise, leaned in and whispered, “Do I need to tell your mother she should fetch the seamstress for a wedding gown?”
Silvia smiled at her friend, but there was a threat behind it. When he glanced at the knights, it was clear they had seen the challenge, too.
Heinrich twisted his spoon in the soup, too enthralled with the argument to bother with eating.
“Should I demand we meet at dawn?” Silvia asked.
Mina rolled her eyes. “Only if you want to die.”
“If I go, my mother will make sure you follow right after.”
He laughed and pulled the spoon to his mouth pausing when Mina gasped.
“Don’t eat that.” Ivy grabbed it away and stared at it her scowl deepening. She glanced at Silvia, her jaw twitched. “It looks like whoever’s out to get you is willing to do more than ambush you.”
The spoon no longer looked like anything resembling the name. Even as Ivy held it, the metal fizzled and dripped, the utensil was still dissolving. Bits of it floated in his bowl, corroding.
Silvia sat next to him, rigid. Her silver eyes traced over it. “How would they have gotten sulfhydren into my soup?”
From the other side of the table, Isabelle shuddered and looked quickly to her own. It was still intact and she let out a sigh, her hand resting on her stomach.
Danae scowled and shook her head before turning to Silvia. “They must only want you dead.”
“If not, whoever it was must have made their plans before you got here.” Silvia said, leaning across the table to take her half-sister’s hand.
Heinrich said nothing. He knew what sulfhydren would do to a woman whose blood was half silver.
Ivy, Danae, and Mina looked out over the crowded room. It did not escape his notice that Ivy studied the staff more than their guests.
Silvia shrank into her chair and said, “I’ve suddenly lost my appetite.”
Isabelle nodded in agreement. “As have I. I think it’s time to say goodnight. We’ve had a long journey and it seems that my discomfort was not the worst thing that could have occurred.” She stood, and her husband kept her close by as they left the dining room.
Danae watched them go, her arms crossed. “What a terrible welcome they’ve had.”
Ivy nodded, but she was watching him, had been since she’d taken the spoon away. He met her eyes. Surely she didn’t think he’d done this.
“Why didn’t you eat it?” She finally asked.
The sulfhydren wouldn’t have done anything to him. Fully human, he would only have noticed when the spoon had deformed far enough.
“I was distracted.”
Silvia turned away from watching her sister leave and glared at the knight. “I was distracting him. And if you think he had anything to do with this—”
Ivy gave her a sideways glance. “I don’t. It was idle curiosity.”
Heinrich wasn’t sure it was so idle. After all, he was foreign—the enemy.
But how he would have slipped sulfhydren into her soup without her or anyone else noticing, he couldn’t begin to guess.
Mina tapped the table with her golden nails. “It had to have happened before it got to the table.”
Danae nodded. “I’ll go have a chat with the cook.”
“No. Mrs. Duun didn’t do this and I don’t want you barging in there and accusing her of anything. That woman is a saint and you are a bull in a nettle patch.”
Danae looked at her with an amused smirk. “By all means, I wouldn’t think of disobeying a royal decree.”
Silvia scowled and stood, Heinrich pushed to his feet right after.
Each of the remaining three women gave him mocking glances, but he didn’t care. Two attempts on Silvia’s life meant that whoever was trying to kill her wasn’t about to stop.
She led him through the halls at a fast clip and down a back stairwell concealed by a well-placed statue.
The kitchen was not what he’d expected. Full to bursting with staff hauling out the night’s food and standing by with courses that needed a finishing touch, he and Silvia slipped in unnoticed. She led him to a back corner with a small table and tucked them out of the way.
She sat and leaned her head back against the wall. “We won’t be able to talk to her until the final courses are being served.”
He nodded though he knew she couldn’t see him, and studied the staff rushing around the kitchen.
“What are you looking for?” she asked, glancing about with him.
“Anyone acting like they’ve got something to hide.”
He zeroed in on a maid with flour on her hands, casting about the space nervously. She flinched and ducked behind a counter a moment before a great crash echoed from the other side of the room and chaos erupted.
NINE
Something exploded on the far end of the kitchen and shouts rang out among the staff. Heinrich managed to have her pinned against the wall a moment before something hot and sticky splattered on the table where they’d been sitting.
With him that close… with the way he smelled and the way his body pushed against hers… she had to focus on not getting lost in him, regardless of imminent danger.
The bench they’d been on lay overturned on the stone floor.
Shouts echoed over a cascade of popping noises, and when she looked over Heinrich’s shoulder, all she saw was smoke. Before it hit them, Heinrich grabbed a nearby cloth and wadded it up, pressing it over her mouth.
Moments later, he had one of his own.
Glancing down at her, he finally stepped away from her and together they surveyed the chaos. Mrs. Duun directed her staff, opening all the windows and setting maids to fan the smoke in their direction. He was looking for someone specific, but she couldn’t guess who
When it cleared enough to see the far end of the kitchen, the destruction was clear.
A pot had exploded on the stove. It wasn’t the soup, so she doubted it had been an after effect of the sulfhydren but whatever it was had done serious damage. The wall above the stove was covered in the sticky substance and half of the stones looked broken, three of them crumbled away.
“It’s too close to be a coincidence, isn’t it?” She asked.
Heinrich nodded, and then tilted his head toward the mass of staff. “I think your cook is on her way over here.”
Mrs. Duun was covered in the stuff, but didn’t seem bothered by it. “Are you alright, Silvia? Sir?”
“We’re fine, is everyone else?”
She shrugged. “We’ve all been burned before, likely worse.” Glancing back at her staff, she grimaced as her gaze traced over the now useless stove. She let out an irritated sigh, shook her head, and turned back to them.
“What brings you down to my kitchen at the worst possible time?”
“Dinner,” Heinrich said, curtly.
She gave him a quizzical look before turning back to Silvia. “You couldn’t have had more than soup by
the time you got down here.”
“I didn’t even eat that.” Silvia glanced toward the pot once more. “I accidentally knocked Heinrich’s bowl out of Stephan’s hand, and gave Heinrich mine… since it was my fault.”
Mrs. Duun nodded with a smile. “Of course you did.”
“And in the course of stirring the soup and getting caught up in conversation, by the time I got around to taking my first spoonful… the spoon was all but gone.”
Mrs. Duun’s eyes grew wide and she shivered, taking hold of Silvia’s hands. “Sulfhydren? Are you alright, did you eat any of it?”
“I’m fine.”
Heinrich, looked around them and said, “No one else’s soup had been laced. We thought maybe you would know who could have done it.”
Mrs. Duun glared at her staff. “If it was one of my people, I will find them, and I’ll put them in the next pot of soup.”
Silvia grimaced. “That won’t be necessary. Just take them to my mother.”
Smiling, the woman slapped her hand with the rolling pin again. “You’re right, she’ll make them wish they were soup.”
Moving back into the chaotic clump of staff, Mrs. Duun barked out orders, and with a military precision, got her kitchen back into working order.
Heinrich scowled, and she followed his gaze. “You look like you’re searching for someone specific.”
“There was a maid.” He said, searching those who were still there, though he knew she’d probably fled. “She knew the pot was going to explode before it did.”
He pulled her back into the corner as Mrs. Duun directed a cleanup crew and sent out what food had not been destroyed after a cadre of kitchen maids divided the portions.
If anyone in the kitchen was the culprit, they wouldn’t find them here now.
“We should talk to the man who served you. Stephan?”
“It can’t have been him. He’s always been loyal.”
“There are a lot of things that can shift a man’s loyalty… money for one, threat of bodily harm to him or someone he loves.”
Silvia shivered in the too hot kitchen. “We should go. We’re not going to be any help and I don’t want to get in the way.”
“Is there somewhere we can go that no one knows about, someplace you’ll be safe?”
She winced. “Yes, however….”
She glanced away from him and steeled herself to the myriad of possible reactions. “Remember how I told you there was someone else?”
When he nodded, she glanced back at the kitchen chaos. “He’s there.”
Heinrich paused and then nodded. “I’m not saying I expected to meet him, but if that’s where we need to go to keep you out of harm’s way….”
The hallways were quiet. Most of the palace was at dinner or already in their rooms for the night. Those that weren’t wouldn’t be in this part of the palace anyway.
She paused at the place where her dead end met the main corridor and glanced in each direction. Emptiness met her. With a worried frown Heinrich couldn’t see, she pressed the secret catch and took his hand, hurrying to the secret stairwell.
“This palace is full of surprises and warrens.”
Silvia nodded. “You have no idea. There’s a whole nest of tunnels underneath the main floor, and half the walls have go-betweens.”
The landing was dark, the door to her private work room closed. Taking a deep breath, she inched it open.
Max stood at the window, his back to her, his bare ass half visible over the inventions on the table. She enjoyed the view for a half a moment before her mind kicked her back to reality.
She held Heinrich back and cleared her throat. When Max turned to her, she said, “I thought you’d be dressed.”
“Given where things end up normally, I thought it was a waste of time.”
Behind her, Heinrich stiffened. He definitely knew Max.
He pushed past her even though she tried to keep him out.
“Max?” Heinrich asked, his voice colored with disbelief.
At the window, Max stood straighter and turned his head back over his shoulder. He swallowed, and in three steps crossed the distance between them.
Silvia couldn’t move.
They’d realize she’d kept them separated soon enough. She didn’t know how long it would be before they turned to anger.
She watched as they stood, inches apart, their faces masks of unreadable emotions.
And then, Max grabbed Heinrich by his neck and pulled him in for a crushing kiss.
Dark coils of desire twisted in her stomach and she swallowed, her mouth suddenly too dry. Even as she came to terms with the fact they couldn’t be hers if they belonged to each other, she wanted. Wanted to join them, wanted to slide her hand down Max’s spine to make him shiver. Wanted to take hold of them both, to worship them, and be worshiped in return. She wanted to watch… every chance she got.
Max dragged Heinrich in and devoured him.
“Wow,” She said, in spite of herself.
They both froze, hands still on each other, and turned their faces to her.
A bolt of fear hit her, she should have stayed quiet. If they took two seconds to think it through, they’d forget about kissing each other and realize they should be yelling at her. They’d realize they could leave.
Swallowing the fear—and trying to wet her hoarse throat—she said, “Don’t stop on my account, that is incredibly hot.”
Max pulled away and looked at her. “You’re not mad?”
She blinked at him, unsure what he meant. “Why would I be mad? Why aren’t you mad? I kept you apart.”
Max’s hands trailed down the front of Heinrich’s shirt grimacing as he reached the point where his hand would feel the cold metal and they stepped away from each other. With purposeful steps they crossed the expanse of the room toward her and for a moment, she felt as if she was being hunted.
Heinrich crossed to her first, picking her up and kissing her. She savored the feel of his lips on hers, the taste of both men. It was possibly the last chance she would get.
“He was safe, that’s all that matters.” Heinrich turned and let his eyes trace down Max’s naked form. “I think there’s a way you can apologize that all three of us will enjoy. But two of us are wearing entirely too many clothes.”
They circled around her like wolves sizing up prey, and before she knew what was happening, her dress loosened and fell to the floor at her feet. Her entire body lit on fire as their gazes washing over her, despite the cool night breeze.
Heinrich’s clothes landed with them as Max reached around to cup her breasts.
This was going to be dangerous.
*
Max let go of her as soon as she shivered against his fingers, and Heinrich took up where his hands left off. He crossed the room, locked the door, and turned back to see the most delicious sight he’d witnessed in years.
Silvia’s eyes were closed as Heinrich’s hands traced over her curves, following the line down her hip to slip down in front of her and cup her. Watching as Heinrich kissed her neck, Max tried to think of the last time he’d been this turned on….
Her lips curved to a smile and he went to her, drinking her in with a kiss as one of Heinrich’s hand took hold of his hip and pulled him closer.
Together they trapped Silvia between their bodies and she sighed with the sort of contentment he’d searched for his entire life.
Backing them up, Heinrich led them to Silvia’s bed and slipped away before he guided Silvia onto the mattress. Max crawled up with her kissing her all the way.
Heinrich knelt in front of her open legs and Max plundered her mouth, loving every second as she melted into him and then tried to pull away as Heinrich’s tongue dragged another gasp of pleasure from her.
He finally allowed her to push him away, and she reached for him. Licking her lips, she kissed the tip of his head lightly before swirling her tongue around him. He shuddered as the sensitive skin sent jolts of electricity straight
to his brain.
She looked up at him, all traces of serenity washed away by desire. That look seared through him as she slid his cock into her mouth and closed her eyes, letting out a sigh of ecstasy. She took all of him in a single motion and sucked him all the way back out. She received a groan that could have been any number of curses or compliments for her trouble.
If he wasn’t careful, she’d finish him off this way.
While Silvia was distracted by him, Heinrich stood and with a long look at Max, he took hold of her hips and slipped inside her. Max knew without having to see as she took him deeper, the hum in the back of her throat pushing him further toward oblivion.
Heinrich looked him in the eyes and he leaned forward, grabbing his lover by the back of the neck and kissing him as deeply as he was able.
Silvia hummed and Max flinched when her mouth tightened around him. Heinrich had felt the change as well and his face contorted in pleasure.
Right now, in this moment, he didn’t feel cursed at all. If leaving Ferrian was what it took to give him this kind of happiness, he would have taken Heinrich and ran away long ago.
He shuddered when Silvia drew away from him, her lips trailing along his skin and sending too many sensations through him.
She held him in a vice grip and stroked as she looked toward the ceiling, a dazed gloss to her silver eyes and the pucker of an “o” on her lips.
Gods she was divine when she was about to come.
He flicked his thumb over her nipple and watched as Heinrich’s fingers pressed into the skin of her hips, his cock pounding into her. He let go of her with his right hand and pressed it against her clit. With every swirl and flick of his fingers, she let out a new, mewling sound.
When she shattered, Max had to remind himself to breathe.
She screamed and her fingers dug into his thighs. The breathy sound was one he wanted to hear again and again.
He’d never watched her before… not really. The pleasure and pain faded almost as quickly as they crossed her face, and when she opened her eyes the look she gave him speared him. That was more gripping than any look he’d ever received from a woman they’d shared. They were entering dangerous territory.