Witch Queen

by Kim Richardson

  I felt the heat rush to my face as I remembered.

  What did the prince expect by coming here now?

  “So why are you here? Truly?”

  Prince Aurion’s eyes gleamed. “Because I thought you might need a drink. I know I do.”

  He raised his goblet to his lips and took a sip.

  I sighed and sloshed the liquid in my mouth, letting the taste of the ripe raspberry, pomegranate, and cherry settle on my tongue. It was divine. I took another sip.

  “How’s the queen taking the news?” I couldn’t help myself. I hated the bitch.

  Prince Aurion smiled, a beautiful easy gesture that emphasized the perfect lines of his jaw. His body was flawless and exquisite, and just a little too close.

  “How do you think?” he laughed. “She’s beside herself. Throwing tantrum after tantrum. She’s already killed three witch maids.”

  I watched him with a frown. “That’s unfortunate. I’m sure they did nothing to deserve to die.”

  The prince angled his body closer to mine, so close I could smell the lavender soap on his skin.

  “No, they probably didn’t. I also came to say…since we are going to be family tomorrow… only that I hope I’ve said nothing to offend you. I just feel that we’ve grown closer after…what happened the other day.”

  My cheeks flushed, and I tried to hide it with a frown. “I don’t want to talk about that.”

  A muscle in the prince’s jaw twitched, and I saw something dark pulse behind his eyes.

  “How are you then?” said the prince, changing the subject.

  “I’m a prisoner. How do you think I feel?” I drained my goblet. My face was hot, and the warmth of the wine spread through my limbs and wrapped the coldness in my heart like a blanket.

  “Of course I have to thank your father for that.”

  “You’re not a prisoner, Elena.”

  The prince grabbed the decanter and filled my goblet before he refilled his.

  “Really?” I laughed. “I can’t leave this room. I can’t go home. And I’m being forced to wed a man I hate? If that’s not being a prisoner, then I don’t know what is.”

  He drew so close that I felt the heat from his body. He appeared to be genuinely concerned. He reached out, and I blushed again as he touched my cheek with his finger.

  “If you leave, there will be nothing but death waiting for you out there. How will you destroy the black blight without my father’s help? You said it yourself. You’ll need an army of witches to defeat the necromancers.”

  I pushed his hand from my face.

  “I don’t know. But I’ll find a way.”

  “I admire the fire in you,” said the prince. “You’re willing to fight for what you want, for what you believe in, for those you love. And whenever anyone tries to deny you something you want, then you just take it, no matter who they are.”

  “That’s right,” I smiled. “I don’t care if you’re a king or a prince. It makes no difference to me.”

  I felt myself relax a little.

  His smell was intoxicating, pulling me towards him. Before I knew what I was doing I had taken a step closer to him.

  Suddenly I realized what was happening. He was using magic on me. I could feel it like a sticky mist coiling around me, trying to confuse me.

  But my natural resistance and my love for Jon were both strong. And I used them to resist his magic.

  “You bastard,” I spat. “What? You can’t get a female to bed you normally, so you have to resort to magic to get them to do it?”

  “What are you talking about?” he said a little stiffly. “I don’t need magic to get any female into bed.”

  I stared at another empty goblet. Before the wine got me into more trouble, I set my goblet on the table. But I was already feeling the effects of the wine. The floor shifted and wavered, and I knew something was wrong. Little alarm bells rang in my head. There was something definitely very wrong.

  “What’s in the wine?” I said carefully, aware that each word was hard to form. “I haven’t had that much and already…already I feel strange.”

  My vision blurred. Red and yellow and blue spots danced before my eyes. I had never had wine or ale that had had that effect on me before.

  The prince’s magecraft was ablaze with yellow magic. The glow was so powerful it burned my eyes just to look at it.

  I stepped back. I was seeing things…hallucinating. I’d never seen a magecraft glow like that.

  “What would you do if you saw Jon again?” said the prince so softly that I wasn’t even sure he’d said it.

  I let out a little laugh and said, “I’d kiss him…I’d kiss him until I couldn’t feel my lips, until I felt complete and whole again.”

  Damn, the wine was making me too bold.

  “Elena.”

  My breath caught. I knew that voice, and it wasn’t the prince’s. I blinked and looked up.

  Jon was standing in front of me.

  And then the world spun into blackness.

  CHAPTER 31

  I WOKE UP THE next morning to a pounding headache and in a state of complete confusion. I vaguely remembered that something was very wrong, but couldn’t remember exactly what it was. I was warm, but the room was piercingly cold. I felt the thick quilt that was tucked tidily against my skin. My naked skin.

  I sat bolt upright in my bed, and my pillows bounced on the floor.

  I was completely naked. Why I would sleep without my shift?

  Then I felt a presence next to me.

  Prince Aurion was sprawled in bed next to me. His head rested on his arms, and from the little of the quilt that covered him, I could see that he was as naked as I was. He grinned when our eyes met.

  “What the hell!”

  I pulled the quilt tighter around me.

  “What are you doing here? Where are your clothes?”

  The prince smiled lazily and raised an eyebrow. “My clothes are on the floor next to yours, my dear.”

  “But you’re completely naked!” I shouted.

  “So are you.”

  “What the hell?” I shouted a little louder.

  “You just said that.”

  The prince’s grin widened, and he inched closer.

  “Why are you hiding yourself? I’ve already seen all of you. And it’s quite lovely. More than lovely…”

  I leaned back horrified. “Goddess forgive me,” I breathed.

  “Forgive what?” said the prince. “There’s nothing more natural and more beautiful than the lovemaking between a couple. There’s no shame in making love, Elena. In fact, the Goddess urges us to explore our love and our bodies, to explore our lovemaking.”

  “I’m going to be sick.”

  “Come, come now,” said Aurion.

  His body was so close I could feel his heat through the quilt, and his scent of lavender and musk covered the quilt.

  “Last night was really special,” he purred. “I’ll never forget what we shared for as long as I live.”

  The wine from last night was just about to spurt out of my mouth, but I forced it down.

  I tried to calm my thrashing heart.

  “This can’t be happening,” I mumbled unintelligently. “I would have never…ever have done this. You put something in the wine. You tricked me. The last I remember is you asking me what I’d do if I saw Jon, and then…”

  And then I had actually seen him.

  I felt a chill seep through my skin. “You. Somehow you disguised yourself to look like him.”

  I had betrayed the only man I had ever loved. This wicked goddamn witch prince had tricked me.

  My head fell into my hands. “What have I done?”

  “Plenty.”

  “How did you do it?” I hissed, ignoring his comment. I wanted to kill him.

  “Simple,” said the prince, his silver eyes rested on my lips. “I let you see what you wanted to see.”

  “That makes no sense,” I growled.

  I nee
ded to be angry because I feared that if lost my anger, I would lose myself to despair. “You’re from the Dark Witches clan. How can you manipulate someone’s visions like that?”

  “My father was a dark witch through and through,” said the prince, “but my mother was from the augur clan. I have more of her blood magic than my father’s.”

  Of course. How could I have not seen it? His silver eyes, the fact that he never wore the Dark Witches clan colors or emblems—the witch prince was an augur witch.

  “How could you?” I asked as the tears welled in my eyes. “You tricked me into bed with you. That’s disgusting. Shameless. You’re just as much a bastard as your father. You have no heart.”

  His face reddened, but he didn’t answer.

  No. I wouldn’t cry in front of him like a weak little female. I had had enough of these witches. They had pushed me over the edge. In a rage, I lunged naked at the prince.

  “I’m going to kill you, you bastard!”

  I shot forward, wrapped my hands around his neck, and squeezed. But he managed to slip from under me, and the next thing I knew he had flipped me over. He grabbed my wrists and pinned me to the bed, his hard naked body pressed against mine.

  I tried to fight him off, but the witch prince was unbelievably strong. And then all my rage left me, and I started to sob uncontrollably.

  “Why? Why me?” I gasped between sobs. “You could have had any other female in the fortress, but you chose to ruin me. You spineless prick. I hate you.”

  His breath caught, and for a moment he seemed genuinely uncomfortable, even sorry. But his empathy was gone as fast as it had appeared.

  “Elena, you don’t understand. I—”

  “Get out!” I yelled.

  The door burst open, and Celeste and Luna stood in the threshold. I’d never seen Celeste’s eyes as wide before. She looked from me to Prince Aurion. Only when she realized that it was the very naked prince of Witchdom in my bed did she curtsy and lower her eyes. Luna quickly followed her example.

  “My apologies, Prince Aurion,” said Celeste. “I did not know—”

  “It’s fine.”

  The prince rolled off of me and pulled his shirt over his head. He dressed quickly, but I could feel his eyes on me the whole time. I stared at a spot on the sheets, feeling that my despair was about to consume me whole.

  “I’ll see you later at the ceremony,” said the prince.

  “Go to hell.”

  And then the prince was gone.

  I sank low into the bed. How could this have happened?

  I couldn’t remember. All I remembered was that I’d seen Jon. I’d been so certain it was him. I couldn’t stop shaking from the shame of what I had done to myself and to Jon. I fell to the ground, pulled my knees to my chest, and cried. I cried and cried until no more tears came. I knew that one day I would have to tell Jon how utterly I had betrayed him.

  It took Celeste two hours to console me.

  It was only when she reminded me about my escape plan and told me how everything was arranged that I truly snapped out of my self-loathing stupor.

  Nothing would keep me from getting the hell out of this place.

  “It’s going to work,” I said. I needed to convince myself.

  “Of course it will.” Celeste nodded as she pulled the red gown tighter around my breasts. It was truly a beautiful gown of Witchdom silk. The traditional red and gold colors of the Steel Maiden clan were radiant. Too bad I wasn’t in the mood to care.

  “I’m getting out of this god forsaken place,” I said. “I’ll find another way to stop the priests. I swear it.”

  Luna went to fetch some water and snacks, and I told Celeste what had happened with the prince. Her face paled.

  “I had always thought he was a dark witch like his father,” she said and then added. “Dark magic usually dominates. Dark witch blood magic will show itself in children at a very early age. But if his mother was from the augur clan, it would make sense. Sometimes other blood magic prevails.”

  “What happened to his mother?” I asked before I could stop myself.

  “She died of a rare degenerative bone disease. At least that’s what I heard.”

  She hesitated then added. “But I also heard that she died soon after the witch king had taken Enelyn as his second wife.”

  I frowned. “How convenient.”

  If the prince had suspected Enelyn of killing his mother, that would explain the open animosity he showed towards her. But I didn’t care what the prince or any of the other royal idiots thought. I just wanted to get this wretched ceremony over with so I could finally go home.

  “But I’m shocked to hear what the prince did,” said Celeste as she finished pinning up my hair in a soft bun. “We’ve all heard the rumors about how much time he spends with females in his private quarters, but I’ve never heard of him using magic to…”

  “To sleep with them.”

  “It’s not like him.”

  “Well, he did it.” My anger returned just as Luna appeared through the door.

  “They’re ready for you,” she said. My heart dropped to my feet. I hadn’t realized how late it was.

  After squeezing Celeste’s hands and knowing that our plans were in place, I had the strength to put one foot in front of another.

  I followed the two coven guards down the hall in silence. My heart pounded, and I feared I might fall. But I didn’t. I never faltered. I willed myself to move. This had to work. I had to agree to the wedding ceremony in order to slip out when they weren’t expecting it.

  It was a good plan, and it was going to work. When we arrived in the throne room, my breath escaped me. The hall had been transformed. The tables, benches, and stools had been pushed back against the walls, and a raised dais decorated with plush rugs stood next to a table that was covered with candles and silver censers that emanated coils of gray smoke. The dark witch colors of black with a red hand covered the throne and hung from the walls.

  There were some fifty or sixty people present. They were all dressed proudly in their clan colors. I spotted a few members of the Coven Council among the crowd of onlookers. The other members of the council were no doubt too old and weary to be out at this late hour.

  All heads turned to the lower end of the hall as I approached.

  The witch king stood on the dais dressed in black and red. He watched me with a malicious gleam in his eyes. I was his new toy, and I stiffened under his gaze.

  The witch queen stood below the platform. She was surrounded by coven guards like a prisoner. The guards partly slightly, and I caught a hateful glare from her violet eyes.

  But Prince Aurion was not there. Was he purposely forgoing his father’s wedding? I was shocked that he hadn’t had the courtesy to show up after what he’d done.

  I felt hysterical. My legs were heavy. It was too late to run.

  Heartened by the thought that I’d be out of this hateful place soon, I accepted my fate and stepped onto the platform next to the witch king.

  The high witch said something in Witchtongue, and then he and the witch king kneeled together on a plush golden carpet.

  Reluctantly I did the same. I flinched as the witch king grabbed my hand tightly, no doubt to prevent any last-minute breaks for freedom. I cringed at his warm callused hand, and I could taste bile in the back of my throat again.

  I didn’t look at anyone. I kept my eyes focused on a spot on the rug in front of me and counted the minutes until I would be free.

  The handfasting ritual happened in a daze. To make matters worse, I couldn’t understand a thing. The high witch kept repeating words in Witchtongue the entire time, but the words only echoed somewhere in the pit of my stomach. I felt numb.

  I was barely paying attention when the high witch wrapped a thin ribbon of black Witchdom silk over our hands. I was straining to keep my eyes open when I heard someone clearing their throat.

  “I’m so sorry I’m late.”

  Prince Aurion strolled
into the throne room.

  My heart leaped into my throat. I looked to the prince, but he did not meet my gaze. He was looking at his father.

  The prince crossed the throne room in long easy strides. His long silver hair braid swept the front of his fine gray silk coat. His blue scarf was pinned by a silver brooch and fell from his right shoulder in a graceful drape. He wore the colors of his mother’s clan proudly.

  He was achingly beautiful, and I wasn’t the only one who noticed. I could see the flush on the faces of most of the females in the chamber. Too bad he was such a bastard.

  The witch king stood and ripped away the ribbon that had tied our hands a moment ago. I could feel the anger rolling off of him in waves.

  “You dare interrupt the handfasting ritual,” growled the king. “You better have a good explanation for this insolence.”

  The prince smiled coldly. “I do.”

  He stood defiantly next to the platform. “I must apologize, Father. But you cannot wed the steel maiden.”

  “Really?” The witch king’s eyes narrowed. “And why is that, my son?”

  The prince’s eyes darted to me. “Because we’ve already mated. The steel maiden is my bride.”

  CHAPTER 32

  THE WITCH KING GLARED at me. “Is this true?” he hissed. “Have you and my son…mated?”

  I clenched my fists to keep them from shaking. I could feel the king’s eyes burning into me, but I couldn’t hold his gaze.

  “Do you deny his claim? Have you mated with him?” venom spilled from the king’s mouth.

  The thought of what had transpired between the prince and me brought a cascade of tears spilling down my cheeks. My shame would be the talk for centuries to come.

  My lips trembled as I mumbled the words, no more than a whisper.

  “No, I don’t deny it.”

  The chamber went into an uproar, and confusion reigned in the throne room. The only grin in the entire throne room belonged the witch queen. She looked like it was her birthday.

  A chill cut through me.

  How would this affect my plans? Had the prince ruined everything just to spite his father?