THE ROYAL TRIALS: HEIR

by James Tate

  The overgrown windows of the sanctuary soon grew foggy, and the room filled with the breathy, panting moans of Prince Louis and I as we reveled in each others bodies.

  Our lovemaking was unhurried, and Lee took extra care to make sure I was thoroughly spent from multiple orgasms before allowing himself to climax.

  Afterward, we just lay there on the couch in comfortable silence. We were both coated in a light sheen of sweat, our chests heaved in sync as we recovered, and I couldn't think of anywhere I'd rather be.

  Being with Lee... it felt like the missing piece of my soul had just clicked back into place. It was a process that had started with Ty in the meadow, despite the meddling gods having a hand in our coupling. But now, for the first time in my life, I was complete.

  "Do you feel different?" I asked him after a long time, my voice soft in the silence. He shifted slightly under me-—as I'd ended up sprawled all over his body.

  "Um..." He gave a small laugh. "I feel a hell of a lot less frustrated, if that's what you mean."

  This made me raise my head to grin at him. "That's not what I meant, but I am glad for that effect. I meant... I don't know. Something more soul deep?"

  His expression sobered, and he stroked a thumb over my cheek. "I do. I didn't want to say anything in case I was just a bit caught up in the moment. But it's like... I don't know how to describe it. Like I was missing something, and now I'm not." He paused, giving me a lopsided smile. "You're my missing piece, Zarina."

  Butterflies went crazy inside me, and I grinned back before kissing the breath out of him. Death and violence seemed to rain down on us from every angle these days, yet here I was... happier than I'd ever been in my life.

  Chapter 17

  "Oh! I think I found something!" I was so engrossed in the book I was reading that I hadn't even noticed Lee had fallen asleep. Until I startled him awake, that was.

  "Shit, sorry," I whispered. Not that it mattered now that he was blinking at me in a startled daze. "Sorry, go back to sleep. Or better yet, go to bed. It's practically breakfast time."

  Neither of us had been in the mood to sleep straightaway, so we'd been down in Ophelia's vault for hours looking at all the things she'd stored and poring through the books. The ones we could read, anyway. Several texts, including the huge ancient tome that had been left open on the table, were in a language neither of us had ever seen before.

  "No, I'm good. What did you find?" Lee stood up from his seat and stretched with a long groan.

  I dropped a piece of ribbon into the book to mark my place, then quickly closed it before he reached me. "It's not important. Go sleep; we can look at it later."

  Giving me a narrow-eyed look, he tried to reach past me to grab the book, and I blocked him with my body.

  "Zarina," he warned, his voice low and husky from sleep. It was way too sexy for this time of the morning.

  Feeling my breath catch at how close he was, I tried to focus on his face. "Seriously, we have all week. This can wait."

  Lee planted his hands on the table to either side of me, giving me a suspicious look before lowering his head and kissing the side of my neck. Shivers of pleasure zapped through me from his touch, and I moaned softly in encouragement. My skin was still tender and flushed from our session upstairs, but there was something so intoxicatingly right about being with him. With all of the princes. When we came together, it was like all the scattered bits of my soul found me again... and I hadn't even known they were missing. Lee, Ty, and Zan… they completed me, and I couldn't get enough of that feeling.

  "Lee," I whispered, as his teeth scraped over the flat of my shoulder, and my head tilted to the side to allow him greater access.

  Except the sneaky fuck was just trying to distract me.

  "What's this?" he asked, holding up the necklace I'd laid out beside the book I was hiding from him.

  "That was playing dirty," I accused as I fought to tamp down my raging hormones.

  Lee grinned back at me, and it had an edge of naughtiness that lit my whole body on fire all over again. "It’s only playing dirty if I didn't intend to follow through. Which I do. So, tell me what this is and what you found in that book about it."

  He didn't back away; in fact he stepped in even closer, pinning me to the table with his hips. Fair to say I wasn't the only one ready for round two.

  I tightened my lips, glaring at him because I didn’t want to give in so easily. But on the other hand, I was excited by what I'd just read and eager to see if it worked.

  "Okay fine. That necklace is described in the book as being a vessel for magic." I hopped up on the table, perching my bottom on the edge in an attempt to create some space between us—for no other reason than to fish my brain out of the cloud of lust and arousal it was currently floating in.

  Lee, it seemed, had other ideas and deftly stepped between my knees so we were even closer than before.

  "Aren't all the things in here vessels for magic?" he asked, still holding the necklace up and frowning at it with interest. Had it not been for his other hand stealthily working its way up my nightgown, I'd have thought he wasn't interested in everything on my mind. Well. His questing hand was one clue. His rock hard cock was another.

  I cleared my throat, squirming a little against him. "Yes and no. From what I've gathered, Ophelia was able to store her magic in these items but was unable to use it again once it was in them. Only certain items were vessels in the sense that they could hold and release magic. Make sense?"

  Lee shot me a curious frown. "Like the stones from her crown? I was able to use the magic stored in them."

  I nodded, then hitched a breath when Lee's hand reached my hip—under my nightgown—and squeezed gently. "Exactly. Her crown, the Crown of Veren, was supposedly crafted using droplets of blood from the gods. How much of that is true..." I shrugged. "But anyway, it was regarded as one of the original artifacts because of its use as a vessel. No doubt that's why Titus wanted it."

  Lee nodded, pensive. "And this acts the same way?" He held the necklace up again to the lamplight, and the deep blue jewel twinkled.

  "Sort of. They all seem to possess their own special abilities, so to speak. This one is designed to be able to hold magic from several different people. So for example, you could put in some healing magic, Ty could add his battle strategy, and Zan could add mind control. Then whoever wears it can access all three abilities for as long as the magical charge lasts." I gave a small frown. "Or at least that's how I understand the description. It's all in Old Teichan, and that's not really my strongest language to read."

  "That would make this a pretty powerful item to have, if it was fully charged up." He ran the chain through his fingers, then lifted it over my head so the pendant rested on my chest. He stroked a finger over the jewel, then trailed it down my skin, brushing over my breasts, which were still barely covered and aching for his touch again.

  "Exactly." I cleared my throat, trying to refocus my mind. "And I'm certain that there was a replica of this pendant in the box of oddities Savannah presented for this trial."

  Lee's brows went up. "So this will help you in the third trial, then."

  "I think so." I nodded. "If it works like it’s supposed to."

  "Well," he murmured as his questing hand dipped between my legs and stroked the tender flesh there. "One way to find out." He wrapped the pendant in his hand, and I could feel him pushing his healing magic into the jewel.

  "Oh shit," I groaned, bracing my hands on the table as his fingers slid inside me, his thumb toying with my sensitive clit and his gentle, warm magic pulsing over my chest where he held the pendant in his fist. "Lee, holy shit." My words were a breathy moan, and although I felt his stream of magic taper off, he continued to work a whole other type of magic on my aching, needy core.

  He kissed me as I came, swallowing my screams in a greedy way that only made me desperate to give him more. Fucking gods, I was becoming addicted in the worst possible way.

  "You're so be
autiful," Lee whispered when my shaking subsided and my breathing evened out once more. "I love you, Zarina. More than I ever knew I was capable of. You're my whole world."

  Reaching up, I grasped the back of his neck and pulled him back down to me for another toe-curling, soul-shattering kiss.

  "I love you too, Lee."

  It was all I could say because all the while my heart was still heavy with guilt. I did love him, more than I could really articulate. But I also loved Ty... and Zan… and while neither love felt the same, each one felt totally consuming in its own unique way. Hell, I was having a hard time explaining it to myself, let alone trying to verbalize it.

  Lee gave me a tired smile. "I know what you're not saying, my love. It's okay. It'll all work out okay. I promise."

  "You have no idea how badly I want you to be right," I whispered. My voice caught over those words, and I needed to swallow the intense panic I’d seemed to be holding just at bay every damn waking minute since entering the Royal Trials.

  Lee kissed me again, and I got the feeling he was silently promising me he'd never give up, never walk away, no matter what.

  "Come on," he said eventually. "We should both go to bed. It's a good thing none of us have any formal obligations this week, or we really would be in trouble with all these weird hours we've been keeping."

  I smiled, agreeing. "You go on ahead. I want to read the chapter on this necklace one more time to make sure I fully understand it."

  He met my gaze for a long moment, then kissed me on the forehead and headed back up the stairs, out of the vault.

  Alone in the dim room, I slid down from the table and sucked in a huge breath.

  "Holy shit, Ophelia," I whispered into the silence. "A convenient journal would be freaking awesome right now. What the hell were you trying to do down here?"

  I picked up the blue pendant from where it hung around my chest, feeling the warmth of Lee's magic. I admired the faint glow for a moment before letting it fall.

  I read over the chapter about vessels three more times before my eyelids started to droop with sleep.

  Picking up the lantern from the hook on the wall, I started to leave the vault. Something sparkled in the darkness, and I stumbled.

  "What the..." I squinted at the place where I'd seen the sparkle. There was no way the light from my lantern could have lit anything up in that direction. Not when everything around it was in pitch blackness.

  "Curiosity is going to kill me one day," I murmured, changing direction to hunt out whatever had caught my attention. "There better not be anything alive back here, waiting to jump out and rip my head off. That'd be a crappy ending to this story."

  I was talking to myself, but it was making me feel better about what was potentially a dumbass move on my part.

  Despite my brain telling me that I could be walking into a trap, my mark tingled with reassurance, so I kept going, tiptoeing between some crates of books stacked on the floor. In the tug-of-war between instinct and experience, my instincts were winning. Weird.

  "Huh," I muttered, holding my lantern up and inspecting the culprit of the mysterious sparkles. "Hello."

  The gold-plated owl just stared back at me, its ruby-red eyes twinkling under my lantern light.

  I released my breath in a long sigh. "This was anticlimactic."

  The owl didn't reply. Of course not. It was made of metal and jewels.

  "Well... it was nice to meet you, I guess?" I reached out and patted the owl on the head—and instantly felt the warmth of magic creep up over my hand, rushing through my body. "Shit."

  I squeezed my eyes shut, bracing myself for whatever craptastic spell was about to hit me. When nothing happened, I cracked them open again.

  There was the owl... just staring back at me like I was being an idiot.

  "What the fuck?" I murmured, removing my hand from the owl’s head and peering at my fingers. They still tingled with the now unmistakable sense of magic, but as far as I could tell, nothing was leaping from the darkness to murder me.

  Yet.

  The sound of someone whispering made me gasp and spin around in fright. I fucking knew it. I knew I wasn't down here alone!

  Leaving my lantern with the owl, I held my breath and tiptoed back past the crates of books and peered out to the main space where Lee had just fingerfucked me on Ophelia's desk.

  Except... I'd just taken the lantern. So why was it illuminated by an identical lantern in the same place I'd taken mine from?

  I froze, then stepped into a shadow behind a full-size suit of armor, not wanting to alert whoever was down here with me to my presence. More whispering and muttering came from farther down the room, and before I could utter a curse to freaking anyone, Ophelia stepped into view.

  "I don't think it's working," she muttered to herself—I thought—and flopped down into the chair in front of her table. Open in front of her was the same huge, ancient book that was still there now, and to her left the gold owl sat placidly. "Why isn't this working? Think, Ophelia. Think."

  She reached out and touched two long, elegant fingers to the owl's head and shut her eyes. She stayed like that a few moments, her hand glowing slightly as she used magic on the owl, then sat back with a growl of frustration.

  "This should work," she accused the owl. "Why isn't it?"

  The owl didn't speak to her any more than it had to me, and she dropped her head onto the desk with a groan.

  Feeling like an epic creeper, I cleared my throat and stepped out of my hiding place.

  "Uh, hey. Hi. Sorry to... intrude..." I peered around what must be another little vision pocket, like the one she'd left in the crown to speak with me. "Ophelia? Uh, ma'am? I mean... Mother?" I cringed with that last word, feeling how foreign it was on my tongue. Yet another thing I'd have to make Titus pay for.

  Ophelia's head shot up, her straight blonde hair in a mess from where she'd been running frustrated hands through it.

  "Zarina?" she said, and my heart flipped.

  "Yeah," I said softly. "I thought I wouldn't get to see you again..." I trailed off as I stepped closer, noticing the direction of her gaze. It wasn't quite on me. Instead, slightly to the side. "Ophelia? Are you... hello?" I waved my hand a few times across her line of sight, startling when she didn't flinch or react at all.

  "Zarina, sweet girl, I'm coming." She pushed back from her chair, and only then did I hear the sound of a baby snuffling. I stepped back as Ophelia came close to me, then watched in fascination as she went to the side of the room and lifted a sleepy little person from a simple basket. The baby couldn't have been more than a week or two old, all squishy faced and confused as she blinked her bright blue eyes up at her mama.

  Holy living shit. I was seeing myself as a baby.

  Ophelia was cooing to her—me—and humming a lullaby that sounded vaguely familiar under her breath as she carried her precious little human back to her work table.

  "Can you tell me why this isn't working, baby girl?" Ophelia asked the baby version of me, while rocking the little girl in her arms. "Mommy is trying to key a spell onto this pretty owl, see?" She lifted baby Zarina up to look at the red-eyed owl. "That way I can leave important information just for you. But this silly owl isn't cooperating." She scowled at the owl, but baby Zarina just gurgled and reached out a chubby hand to bat at it. Understandable; it was very shiny and sparkly.

  Ophelia released a long sigh, turning her baby to snuggle her as she flipped a page in the ancient book on the table.

  She read aloud from it, slowly and struggling over each word, but I didn't understand a single word she said.

  "What language is that?" I pondered aloud, fully accepting the fact that this vision hadn't worked out in the way Ophelia had intended. I could see her; she couldn't see me. I came closer, peering over her shoulder at the text and wrinkling my nose.

  "Ophelia? Are you down there?" Another voice called out, and our dead queen—my mother—groaned, slamming the book shut.

  "Yes, Mag
da! I was just about to come up, hang on."

  I sucked in a sharp breath, my heart seizing. Surely that was a coincidence.

  The staircase creaked as someone descended, and a woman appeared, holding her long skirts up as she stepped from the end of the stairs with a puff of breath.

  "You couldn't have made those stairs kinder on an old woman's knees?" Magda—my Magda—complained in a good natured way, holding out her hands to take baby Zarina from Ophelia.

  The queen laughed warmly, the sort of laugh that filled me with happiness but also broke my heart because I’d never get a chance to know her.

  "Those stairs were never intended for an old woman's knees," she replied with a smile. "So much for secret hiding places, huh?"

  Magda clucked to the baby, then cuddled her tight, giving Ophelia an affectionate smile back. "You know you can't keep secrets from me, darling girl. Now, let’s take this munchkin back inside and get her fed. Poor dear needs a strong start in life if she's to follow in her mama's footsteps!" She gave Ophelia a teasing wink but carried baby me back up the stairs, leaving Ophelia to follow with the lantern.

  The second Magda's back was turned to her, though, the queen's smile slipped and her face became etched with agony. "More than you could ever imagine," she whispered so softly I almost didn't hear her. "I just pray I'll have enough time to prepare her for what's to come."

  The vision faded then, leaving me alone in the dark vault, and I fell to my knees with a soul-deep sob.

  My mother had known. If not the specifics of her own death, she at least had known bad things were coming. And Magda.

  Tears coursed down my cheeks as I lay there on the floor, trying to reconcile the warm, caring woman who'd just joked with Queen Ophelia and clearly cared for baby Zarina... with the frail, elderly, senile woman I knew. The woman I cared for more than anything, despite not knowing our connection prior to this. The woman whose son ran the biggest criminal organization in Lakehaven and owned every orphan and vagrant in the Pond.

  But there was no denying who I'd just seen in that vision, albeit a younger, more vibrant version. It was Magda. My Magda. Bloodeye's mother.