by A. B. Keuser
Max led Silvia away from them. “At least that’s over.”
She shook her head. “You’re assuming she worked alone and there’s no one else who was spelled. Three attempts, potentially by three people. I’m starting to wonder if I shouldn’t hide out up here for the rest of my life.”
“That’s not really in your nature, is it?”
Her smile was rueful.
Glancing at Mina and Heinrich, he pushed a loose strand of hair behind her ear and asked, “What’s so terrible about your mom knowing about us?”
“Nothing… except that she’ll push for us to get married.”
Max might not be averse to the idea in theory but… “We’ve barely known you a week.”
She laughed, and looked at Heinrich. “It feels like I’ve known you both for years already.”
“If we go to this party… I don’t think I’ll be able to stop myself from kissing you at least once throughout the night. She might catch on.”
“But I’ll introduce you to her on my terms.” She glanced at the pair at the work table. “Besides, it may have only been a week, but I plan to keep you for as long as I can.”
A flutter passed through his stomach and Max glanced at Heinrich. He would gladly stick around. Especially if it meant they continued on as they were.
Mina looked at them and scowled before dragging Heinrich to where they stood. “I’m going to have to tell Ivy. She already knows you have this place.” Mina held up her hands to stop her furious retort. “Don’t worry; she doesn’t have to know where it is.”
“Fine,” Silvia said, looking at the window with a grimace. “And we need to tell my mother about this attack and the first one.”
Max nodded. “If Hagnesophia can spell someone inside the protection of these palace walls, no one here is safe.”
Mina left with a scowl, and Max sat on the bed, exhausted, annoyed, and all together burnt out. Being a frog all day left him weak. Silvia curled up beside him promising they would only take a nap, and Heinrich joined them. He fell asleep to the even sound of Silvia’s breathing, and Heinrich’s gentle snores.
ELEVEN
Heinrich had left Silvia in Mina’s care, and he had rejoined Ivy.
The servant who had given Silvia the soup, and the nervous looking maid had both been apprehended. One in the night, wandering through the forest. The other, hiding in the stables, seemingly with the intent to steal a horse.
Ivy stood at the door to her makeshift interrogation room, scowling.
“Mina told me Danae was enchanted when she attacked Silvia, is that true?”
He nodded. “You know how dark magic works. She smelled like it.”
Ivy grimaced “Alice was the same way. I’ve already talked to her and sent her on her way. She has no memory of what she was doing the night the stove exploded. And she says she wasn’t trying to steal a horse, she was waiting for Nance.”
“Who’s that?”
“One of the stable boys. If Silvia has it right, they’ve been seeing each other for almost a year. She wanted to talk through her missing memories with him.”
“Do you believe her?” Heinrich asked
“After what you said about Danae? Yes.” Ivy glanced at the door with a grim scowl. “Let’s see what our soup boy says.”
Stephan sat in a hard wooden chair, staring at the hands clenched on his lap. When they got within five feet of him, he stood. “I did not try to kill the princess.”
“You gave her a bowl of soup that would have.”
He nodded and his expression turned to one of shame. “The tray came from the kitchen with a note beside that bowl. I don’t know who it was from if not Mrs. Duun. I didn’t think to check.
“All I know is that after I delivered your table’s soup… I don’t know what happened, but then it was dark and I was lost in the forest. My legs were scratched to hell, and I had no idea how I got there.”
“No idea at all?” Heinrich asked.
He shook his head.
“What about The Cyprean princess? Did you have instructions to deliver her a specific soup?”
“No, just for Silvia. I thought she might have ordered something different from everyone else’s.”
Ivy nodded toward the door and led Heinrich out to the hall again. “At least we know we don’t have to worry about Isabelle as well as Silvia.”
“Do you think he’s lying?”
Ivy hesitated and then shook her head. “No, I’ve known Stephan too long to think he’d do something this heinous.” She looked at the guard who had been placed, another knight. “You can let him out, Julia.”
Stephan paused at the door when Julia released him.
“I remembered something, if it helps?” He looked at Heinrich as though he was going to be a problem. “Before I was in the forest… the last thing I remember is that Ferrian envoy. He came up and asked me if the first course had been laid out fully. Claimed he was starving and hoped he hadn’t missed his opportunity.”
As Stephan hurried back toward the servant’s stairwell, Heinrich wondered if they shouldn’t have gone to Kimmler first.
“Druan might be able to explain the iron enchantment…” He glanced down the hall toward the room in which Hagne’s toady met with Silvia’s father.
“I’ll make sure he’s detained after the king is through with him.” She smiled at the sound of Silvia’s voice filtering through the halls.
She and Mina turned the corner, and her face lit up. He would never get tired of that.
“Looks like you’ll have something to occupy the rest of the evening that’s going to be much more fun than my plans.” Ivy elbowed him in the ribs and he keeled over, the shock of the sudden jab threatening to make him throw up.
“What the hell?” Ivy stared at him like he had just developed a second head. “I’ve heard of abs of steel before, but that….”
Struggling to breathe again, he said, “its iron, one of the many reasons your queen keeps her distance from me.”
Silvia rushed down the hall and dropped to her knees beside him. “Did it cinch again?”
“No, just got jarred.”
“I didn’t know,” Ivy said, quickly stepping away from him.
“It’s fine.” He waved her away and stood. The movement pulling painfully.
Silvia conferred with the two women beside him, and then she took him back to the tower.
*
They pushed through the door, and Silvia moved aside so that Heinrich could pass. She wasn’t sure if he was going to pass out as well.
In the end, she put Heinrich to bed and got back to work. She got lost in her pages and notations and only looked up when the sound of Max breaking and reforming pulled her out of it.
She gave him a smile, pointed to Heinrich and tapped her finger to her lips. They could work while he slept off the newest slice of pain.
Twenty minutes later Max startled them both.
“I may have it figured out,” Max said from the workbench, not bothering to look up. He slid a drawing across the table and continued to work at a contraption she hadn’t noticed before that looked like a backward pair of scissors.
Sitting across from him, she looked at the drawing. It might work… but it might not.
“And what if it fails? What if it exacerbates the problem? What if it tears the corset away and takes his skin and ribs with it?”
Max grimaced and turned a shade of green. “It won’t.”
“You can’t know that.”
Heinrich let out a harsh breath and pressed his hand against his stomach.
Silvia stood too quickly and grabbed the ribbon, wrapping it around him, she marked the new size of his corset.
She looked at the measurements and her stomach dropped. They might have fewer than three days to figure it out. “We need to tell my mother.”
“Not yet.” Max said, staring at the page.
“Then when? After Heinrich’s been crushed to death?”
Heinrich,
for his part, sat silently in the corner as if the discussion had nothing to do with him. She wanted to shake him, to make him contribute. Instead she clenched her fists.
“This shouldn’t be your choice.” She turned and stared pointedly at Heinrich.
Standing, he went to her. “Do you know what I think?”
She had no idea, but she didn’t want him to stop.
His lips trailed up her neck and she sighed, letting her eyes fall shut, herself fall back against him, and her worries flutter away to nothing.
Here with them, she could afford to forget for a while. She knew it was foolish to get attached—when they figured out how to deal with the curses, they’d be on their way—but she wanted so much and when they touched her, she could let herself believe she might get it.
Max made a gentle noise at her right, so when he touched her, she didn’t flinch. His fingertips traced across her collarbone, down the cleft of her breasts, and when he reached the top of her bodice, it slide down with his fingers, the fastenings on her back already undone.
Her breath escaped like a whisper and Max claimed her mouth as Heinrich slipped away.
As Max plundered her mouth, their tongues twining, Heinrich’s fingers slid down her spine, and he pulled the dress out from beneath her, guiding her ankles up and out. Being very careful about where he placed each foot, he left her standing more than shoulder width apart.
When sat beneath her, slipping between her legs and pressed his mouth to her sex, she gasped in Max’s mouth.
She gripped his shoulders, feeling he nails bite into his skin and felt him smile against her lips as he tugged her closer.
“I guess it’s a good thing nothing lasts through a change.” She glanced at where her nails had left crescent moon patterns in his skin. And then her knees almost buckled as Heinrich pressed a finger inside of her.
She pulled away from them both and dragged Heinrich to his feet. More than ready for them, she had her own plans.
“I want….” She paused, and forced herself to do what she promised herself she would.
Letting go of the both of them, she stepped back and pointed to the bed. “I want you naked, over there, before I get there.”
They gave each other a questioning look, then turned back to her with a raised brow.
She knew they’d do as asked, she just had to give them a little motivation. Turning around, she said, “The one who does it fastest gets to pick where their cock goes.”
Movement behind her, the sound of clothes being hastily discarded, made her smile. She walked around the side of the workbench and pulled open the drawer.
Mina was a font of knowledge and had a wealth of helpful potions. Picking up the clear vial she’d gotten from Mina earlier, Silvia turned back just in time to see Heinrich win.
Sharing a smile with him as she crossed back to the bed and Max climbed on top of the mattress, she handed him the vial and she kissed him. “I told you what I wanted. You pick where you go.”
While he processed that, she turned to kiss Max as well.
Behind her Heinrich let out a breath and looked at Max before turning back to her. “Have you ever done it before?”
“Not at the same time, but each individually, yes.”
He nodded, and looked to Max before tossing him the vial. “First time, you should be on top, you’re better with control than I am.”
Without waiting for Max to agree, he pulled himself backward, laying down on the bed pulled the sheet over his abdomen… just enough to keep the corset covered.
He reached for her and she went to him willingly. When he placed her where they wanted her, on all fours above him, she waited. Tonight, they were in charge.
Max moved in behind her, and between them, felt like the perfect place to be.
The cold oil slid down her ass, and Max worked it in and around, his finger slipping inside her and she gasped at the pressure. He slid inside slowly, twisting his finger and moving gently. Ease and control kept him from hurting her. By the time he’d started to withdraw, the pressure had turned to pleasure.
She could do this, she’d done it before, after all.
Then he pushed back in with two.
Gods, she wasn’t sure she could do this.
But when she opened her mouth to say as much, Heinrich pulled her face down, catching her mouth with his and entranced her with a crushing kiss. It helped.
Heinrich distracted her as Max’s fingers coaxed moans of pleasure from her. When he pulled his hand away and she felt suddenly bereft. And then he was back and more oil slicked down her ass.
He tossed the recapped vial on the bed, there was hardly any left, and she glanced back as he stroked his shaft. It glistened in the light and Heinrich pulled her back with a finger on her chin.
“Look at me,” he said, kissing her and holding her close against his chest. As one hand snaked down her belly to circle her clit.
Heinrich slid into her pussy, and she already felt so full, and then the tip of Max’s cock against her ass. Heinrich pulled away and she let out a relieved sigh.
She was getting exactly what she wanted… and she wasn’t so sure anymore.
“Relax.” Max cooed from behind her, his lips on her ear. “It’s just like my fingers. It’ll hurt for a moment and then you’ll find your way back to ecstasy.”
Heinrich kissed her neck. “Trust us.”
Max leaned into her, his thick head pressing her open and she gasped at the invasion.
His cock slipped inside her and she blew out a breath. It helped. She forced herself to breathe, though her brain told her to hold it in. And with each exhale Max slid in deeper and deeper until the pain receded and he pulled away with it.
She caught his hips with her hand. “Keep going.”
Max laughed behind her. “Sweetheart, the only way I’m stopping is if you tell me too,” He pulled out until the only thing inside her was his head and then pushed back. This time, the pleasure far outweighed the pain, and she let go of the shuddering breath he forced from her.
Heinrich looked up at her and pulled her head down for a consuming kiss. “My turn to join the party,” he said.
His cock notched against her pussy and in a single move, they were both fully sheathed inside her. Her whole body clenched and when it released, desire flooded through her.
She had never been this full and she didn’t think she’d ever be satisfied with less again.
They stayed there for what felt like several minutes and she finally opened her eyes. Heinrich watched her carefully, “Doing okay?”
She nodded, not trusting herself to open her mouth. There was a moan in her that would likely bring down the palace if she let it go all at once.
His hand reached up but didn’t touch her, and as he moved, Max moved too, and her arms failed her.
She reached that peak too quickly. It was too much, too beautiful, too… perfect.
Fighting it, she lost.
But they lost too. They stiffened around her—in her—creating a cage of man and ecstasy.
They remained that way for a long time, their breathing slowly equalizing and then both withdrew. It was a feeling she relished and loathed at the same time.
In a haze of satisfaction, she let them clean her up and coax more kisses from her thoroughly used body.
Sore, sleeping between two men she was quickly falling for, and sated, she’d never felt so content. Nuzzling into Heinrich’s chest, she closed her eyes and pretended it could last.
TWELVE
Heinrich moved stiffly, and Max clenched his teeth, watching his friend try not to wince. It was painful to see him in pain. Though, if he knew Heinrich, the brief glimpses of discomfort belied true agony.
The hallway windows flooded moonlight along the marble floors and glittering runners.
Heinrich kept his mirror in hand and Max never once fell back into the dark magic that threatened with every dark stretch of the corridor.
When they made it to the do
ors that led into the fete, he paused, glancing at Heinrich and then back to the doors. “There’s no going back from here. They’ll know I’m here, and we don’t know how most of them will react.”
Heinrich kissed him softly and when he pulled back, the smile on his face was infectious. “Screw what the rest of them think. Silvia’s is the only opinion I care about when it comes to the crowd in there.”
Max almost agreed. There was still some danger in the opinions of others.
They stepped into the glass room, a place befitting its name, and he took in the room in a single sweep, searching for Silvia.
She stood with Mina, tucked away from everyone else. The silver gown she wore wrapped around her body, clinging to every curve, showing slices of delicate skin and glittered in the rays of moonlight that spilled through the roof and walls of the glass ballroom. Heinrich caught his breath at Max's side.
He didn’t know if it was the moonlight sparkling over every inch of her, or the memory of the way she’d cried out with both of them inside her. He couldn’t tear his eyes away.
"She is stunning."
"And though we don't deserve her, she's ours." Heinrich grimaced but didn't take his eyes off her. "As long as we're still alive."
*
A hushed series of whispers bounced from group to group as the guests looked up to where Maximillian and Heinrich stood.
Mina looked over her shoulder, eyes wide. “You didn’t mention that he’d be coming to the party.”
Glancing from Mina to the two men, Silvia watched them descend the stairs before saying, “Why else would I insist on moving this party to the glass room?”
“I would say I’m jealous, but knowing what’s happening with them both….” She grimaced. “I need to make the rounds. You enjoy yourself. We’ll talk later.”
She watched as they descended the stairs and came to her; the crowds shifted away from them like oil and water.
Max stepped forward and kissed her hand as Heinrich undressed her with his eyes. With the plans she had for tonight, he’d be undressing her with his hands soon enough. Now was not the time to think about that.
“I’m glad to see you made it without transforming back.”