Broken Girl

by Mary E. Twomey

  “Dude, I don’t know what a guérison elixir is. And I’m not exactly a queen.”

  Bastien shrugged, standing before us in the lamplight. “Draper’s not exactly a king, but royalty is in his blood, so it’ll work. You’ve got a queen in your blood, so you can heal them.”

  “Huh?” My nose crinkled.

  Bastien’s business expression melted into a soft smile. “I like your confused face. This probably isn’t the time, but it’s really cute.”

  I crossed my eyes just to be goofy, idly wondering if he would’ve still pursued me this hard if I was still under Lane’s concealment charm. “Am I cute like this?”

  “Adorable. We’ll make the guérison elixir. It’s basically purified honey, sain beetroots, and a fennel and watercress tisane, which are all things we have in the kitchen. Then you’ll need to dip your finger into the bowl and touch it to the tongue of everyone in the land.”

  My mouth fell open. “I’m touching everyone’s tongues? Isn’t that kind of unsanitary?”

  Draper shifted next to me. “Better than them all dying. They ache for the chance to be near you, even if you didn’t have the cure.”

  My eyebrows pushed together, but I nodded. “Okay. It’s weird, but that’s fine. I can do that.”

  Bastien turned his focus to Draper. “Good. Now that we’re all on the same page, I want you to go down to the kitchen and start preparing the guérison elixir. Let’s move on this as quickly as possible.”

  “On it.” Draper kissed my temple before he stood. “I love you, you know. It’ll all be fine.”

  I gazed up at him, wondering how I’d lived for so long without his brotherly affection. “I don’t like the idea of someone taking your spirit. I love your spirit.”

  Draper grinned at me. “And you’ll have it back soon enough. Really, I have the easy job. You’re the one who has to explain what we did to Urien when he finds out. I’m guessing he won’t be too pleased.”

  I grimaced. “Right. Yikes. Want to trade?”

  “Nope. Think I’ll enjoy my nap and let you deal with the fallout. Be back in a few.”

  After Draper left, Bastien retrieved the large ceramic bowl from my stand behind the partition where I bathed. Then my Guardien knelt in front of me, his dagger glinting in the lantern’s light. The soft feather-like flickers against his skin made him look impossibly more breathtaking than I remembered. I was so glad he’d shaved off his beard, and was back to his perpetual five o’clock shadow. “Okay, let’s get your blood, then. We don’t need a ton, but enough to cover the bottom of this basin. You up for it?”

  I couldn’t help myself as I leaned forward, cupping his face with my hands. There were so many things that were wrong with us, but they took a backseat when my heart remembered all the things I adored about the man I probably should never have loved. “You found a way to save my dad. Thank you.”

  “Your family is you. I know you,” he replied simply.

  I probably shouldn’t have kissed him, but his eyes gazed into mine with such a gentle devotion that I couldn’t hold myself back any longer. I closed the gap between us and stroked my lips against his, tasting the cinnamon flavor I’d been missing.

  Kissing Bastien felt like a fresh breath my soul had been suffocating without. I sank off the bed into his arms that reeled me in, straddling his lap as he rocked back to sit on his butt. His hands were trembling as they slid up my sides, gripping and caressing with pressure he kept switching from light to punishing. I could tell he wanted to ravish me, but was holding himself back to let me control the pace and passion of our reunion.

  His lashes flew open when I pushed him backward, pressing his shoulders to the rug so I could dominate the powerful beast I loved. Bastien let me win, submitting to my lips as if they were his most beloved master. I rewarded his eagerness to let me lead with slow and luscious kisses. They felt like music, and sounded like the sweetest song. My legs straddling him permitted my hips to move slowly back and forth with the beat only we heard. Suddenly our bodies were a symphony of something beautiful that couldn’t be quantified as he undulated against me.

  “I love you,” I whispered against his lips.

  Bastien let out a strangled noise that sounded like both pleasure and anguish. “I’ve loved you for so long. I’ll never screw this up again.”

  I kissed him, my body sliding against his as we made up without the use of any more words.

  16

  My Blood Loss, His Pain

  I suppose I should’ve been grateful that Montel hurried back with the ingredients we needed, but my face was borderline resentful as I rolled off of Bastien to open the door to let Montel inside. “Hey, man. Wow. That was fast.”

  “I kept everything done in secret, just as you asked.”

  I tried to be decent at hiding our romp on the rug, but Bastien wasn’t so covert. He combed his fingers through his hair and moved toward me like a magnet, his lips caressing the back of my neck when he drew my spine to his chest. It was a clear declaration of “Look what I’ve got,” and it wasn’t lost on Montel, who gasped.

  “But I thought your engagement to Madigan the Formidable would be back on the table.” Montel glanced over his shoulder, moved into my bedroom and shut the door behind him. “For your own safety, you might want to keep this affair secret, Princess. The Éirish Untouchables aren’t known to be particularly forgiving.”

  I shirked out of Bastien’s embrace and shot him a “be cool” look that he clearly couldn’t have cared less about. Bastien was beaming, his grin stretching from ear to ear. “It’s fine, Montel, but thanks for looking out. Mad knows all about Bastien and me, and he’s more than happy about it. Mad was only going to marry me to save me from being handed over to Duke Henri.”

  Montel’s mouth fell open as he recalculated the new information into his view of the girl who’d worked by his side day after day for two months now. “Oh. Wow. I guess that changes things a bit. Well done, both of you.”

  Bastien moved in to kiss me in front of Montel, but I skirted his advance. “Hey, now. Not in front of people. That’s gross.”

  Bastien surprised me by fisting the front of my shirt and jerking me forward so that my lips were mere inches from his. “I’ve got half a mind to take you out into the Town Square and roll around with you up on that platform, so everyone knows that I’m the one in your bed every night. I’ve waited too long for this, Daisy.”

  I gaped at him, his heady words hitting me like a truck from out of nowhere. “Well, you’re going to have to tuck that away for the viewers. My personal life shouldn’t be town gossip.”

  He tugged me up so I was on my tiptoes, and then pressed his cheek to mine so he could whisper in my ear, “Let them talk. Let them all know that I’m yours.”

  His words sent a shiver up my spine. He’d gone from not being able to be too near me in public to wanting to mount me in the middle of Town Square. It was a swift shift, and I wasn’t sure what to do with the whiplash. “This is what you want? You’re sure?”

  “Give me half an hour more, and you’ll never have to question my loyalties ever again.” Bastien’s eyes blazed with a fire I was all too familiar with. I knew he was a breath from laying one on me in front of Montel.

  I ducked out of his grip and held up my hands before everything tumbled further out of control. “Okay, we’ll talk later. But you can’t go telling people we’re together. We haven’t even discussed that yet.”

  Bastien took a step back, reeling as if I’d slapped him. “What are you talking about? What more is there to discuss?”

  I shook my head. “It’s not as easy as kissing, Bastien. You know there’s too much between us to get off that easily.” I sniggered at my phrasing, unable to help myself. “‘Get off.’ I’m funny.”

  “Are you serious?” He shook his head, and then crossed his arms over his chest. “Fine. Let’s talk.”

  “Um, hello. We have company and a job to do. We can talk later.”

  “We can
talk now! I’m tired of being apart, Daisy. I mean it. What do we need to sort out? Let’s do it right here, right now.”

  Montel ducked his head and tried to leave, but Bastien held up his hand to tell Montel that no one was going anywhere until this was sussed out.

  I buried my face in my hands. “Dude, talk to Lane or my dad. I want to be with you, but I’m all turned around from when you split. I don’t know that I can trust us yet, especially not enough to be so serious so quick. If you want to be with me, talk to either one of my parents. Make your case to them why we should be together. If you can convince someone you can’t kiss into a puddle that we should be together, then I’m in.”

  Bastien guffawed. “You can’t be serious.”

  “Oh, I’m deadly serious. If Lane was here, I’d send you to her, but Urien will work, too. My dad wouldn’t let me do something stupid. So if being with you is stupid, he’ll put a stop to it. If getting back with you is the smart thing to do, then he’ll be able to see that. I can’t see clearly anymore, Bastien. If you want to be with me, then this is how to move forward.”

  Bastien nodded, though I could tell he didn’t love this prospect. “Done. I’ll go right now.”

  I pressed my palm to the door to stop him. “No. The kingdom’s more important than us getting back together. Antidote first.” I shook my head at myself, embarrassed that this was all out in the open for my work friend to read into and form opinions on. “Sorry, Montel. Totally inappropriate and uncool of us. Let’s do this cure thing. That’s the big deal we should be focused on, not who’s kissing whom.”

  Montel quirked his eyebrow at me with a dubious tilt of his head. “Virgin blood? Are you quite sure you can provide that? Because we can’t skimp on any of these ingredients. They all have to be accurate.”

  I held up my hand, like I was swearing the weirdest oath I’d ever needed to prove. “Honest. Chastity belt firmly in place.” Then, because I was a dork with a crude sense of humor, I added. “I’m a vegetarian anyway, so definitely no porking for me.”

  Montel’s smile was colored with embarrassment at my locker room joke. “Yes, well. I’ve got everything except the king’s spirit and the virgin blood.”

  Bastien sat me down on the side of the bed, again taking the same kneeling position in front of me that had gotten us into so much trouble to begin with. He glanced up at me with a secretive smile, and I knew he was picturing our heated kiss that was still burning through our bodies. His dagger glinted in the flickering lamplight, the flames reflecting off the metal like tiny interpretive dancers that twisted and writhed for Bastien. He certainly knew how to make a girl writhe. He met my gaze with a determined one that told me to buck up, and then pressed the point to my forearm, but didn’t pierce me. I could tell he was struggling, wanting to do the right thing, but feeling all wrong about it. Finally, he withdrew the knife. “I can’t do it. I don’t know why, but I can’t make myself cut you. It feels all off.”

  “It’s that pesky love stuff.” I took the knife from him while Montel held the empty basin beneath my elbow. “It’s cool. I’ve got this.” I hesitated only for the amount of time it took me to suck in a deep breath, then I let the dagger sting me. The cut wasn’t harrowingly deep, but I hissed at the sting as it rippled through my arm. The red began to pool and drip, sliding over my forearm and dribbling down my elbow into the bowl. “How much?”

  Montel answered for Bastien, who I could tell didn’t like the sight of my blood. “More than this. I don’t think that cut went deep enough.”

  I worked the slice open further, grimacing at the freefall of the blood into the bowl. I shut my eyes like a chicken, but the guys didn’t call me on it. My blood was literally spilling for Avalon. I bled for the place I’d been trying to leave from the beginning. I was far off the mark from where I’d wanted to be at this point, and yet, here I was. My eyes met Bastien’s with unconcealed sadness. “I was supposed to be a veterinarian. I was going to graduate college by now.”

  Bastien’s hand cuffed the nape of my neck, and he brought his forehead to rest against mine. “Hey, you can still have all that. When we go to your world, you’ll get right back into school, and you’ll graduate.”

  My heart lurched, though that was partly because of Bastien’s pledge, and partly because my heart had to pump overtime to keep up with the blood loss. “You said ‘we’. Did you mean it?”

  Bastien’s gaze said far more than anything else could, but still he tried to put words to the promise he kissed into my lips. “I would follow you to the ends of whatever world we land in.”

  Montel’s voice reluctantly broke through our reverie. “Surely you wouldn’t abandon your people, Princess.”

  I straightened, turning to meet Montel’s concerned brown eyes. “I already did abandon my people to come here. My people are the Commoners. I ditched my best friend, my education and my life to help out Avalon. I’ll stay as long as I need to, but then I’m going home.”

  “You’ll want to keep that to yourself, Montel,” Bastien warned. “Rosie won’t leave before Avalon’s ready for her to step aside.”

  Montel squeezed my arm, milking the blood so it flowed through its waning vigor. “Avalon would not be the same. We left our homes to come back to Province 9 because we wanted to serve you and the Duchess. You were the one we rallied around. If you left us to fend off Morgan by ourselves? I can’t imagine the home we’re fighting to save right now with this very blood would last long.”

  I swallowed, unsure what to say to this. “That’s sweet, Montel. But I think you all are stronger than one person. I’m just a regular girl, nothing more. It’s the crown that gets people confused.”

  Montel’s eyes hardened. “You’re not just a girl. You’re a symbol for all that was broken in us. When we saw you being carried out from the well by an Untouchable, it was we who were also being carried over the bumps and pitfalls we hadn’t been able to rise up and conquer. We were able to escape Morgan because you did. Suddenly we had our duchess back, and our Avalon Rose. We had Untouchables fighting for us. We had something to live for.” Montel shook his head, flabbergasted that I didn’t understand all of this. “You’re beloved by Master Kerdik, and that is no small thing. You could have easily laid around and feasted your days away in this castle, and we still would have adored you. Instead you chose to work with us, serving the people by being one of the people. You put aside your fancy dresses and got your hands dirty with us, building that wall to keep your people safe. Every time we look at our border, we’ll remember that the Avalon Rose is protecting us.”

  “Well, what else was I supposed to do? You’re saying all these things that sound impressive, but they’re really pretty normal. You’re wowed that Kerdik’s my friend? Well, there have been times where Kerdik was my only friend. Loser Rosie had one whole friend. Super impressive. And we bicker more than anything else.” My eyelids started to droop. “And I wasn’t about to let everyone else do all the work while I laid around eating bonbons all day long. Boring.”

  The corners of Montel’s mouth lifted. “That’s precisely what I mean. If you left, that unbreakable spirit you rallied in us might be lost.”

  My fingers were stiff and cold, but I was afraid to look in the basin to see if there was enough. “Are we good yet? Do we still need more blood? I’m starting to fade, here.”

  “Just a little more,” Montel urged, squeezing my arm again as he held my wrist over the bowl.

  Bastien pressed his face into my neck and let out a quiet whine of distress. I tried to comb my fingers through his hair, but my hand was so clumsy, I only managed to swat at the back of his head before my arm flopped over his shoulder. “What’s wrong, honey?”

  “It’s taking too long! I don’t like that we’re using your blood. Why couldn’t we have just found a maiden from the village?”

  I tried to comfort Bastien, but it seemed my blood loss was causing him the most pain. “Hey, it’s alright. How many times have you been banged up? And yet,
you survived. This is just a little cut. Probably won’t even leave much of a scar.”

  Bastien pressed a kiss into the crook of my neck, but instead of making me swoon in the deliciously good way, my eyes rolled back and I passed right the crap out in the middle of my bedroom.

  17

  Always my Brother

  I awoke to Bastien frantically slapping my cheek and calling my name. I gazed up at him from my spot on the floor, curious as to how I ended up on the rug to begin with. Montel had my arm in his hands, bandaging while I was still limp and useless. “What happened?”

  “We took too much blood!” Bastien shouted, angry at Montel.

  My buddy tried not to be intimidated, and instead focused on the job at hand. “It wasn’t too much. It was the right amount, unless you want her to have to go through all of this again when it doesn’t work because we babied her. She’s alright. She’s not a shrinking violet. The Avalon Rose builds walls and commands countries. She’s strong enough to weather a small cut. It’s a little blood loss, which she was completely up for. We didn’t even extract any of her magic in the process. This will be easy to heal from.”

  I clumsily batted at Bastien’s cheek, but then my hand lost its oomph and slammed down across my face.

  “Is that what you meant to do?” Bastien asked with a patience he didn’t have for Montel. He moved my hand off my face and kissed feeling back into it, his prickly scruff chafing the skin.

  “You’re so hairy,” I warbled.

  Bastien sniggered. “That’s how you like me, I’m pretty sure.”

  “I do.”

  Bastien waited until Montel tied off the bandage, and then hoisted me up in his arms. He rested me gently on the mattress just as Draper let himself in to the bedroom, giving us a thumbs-up with one hand while holding a large, lidded bowl with the other. “Everything’s all set for the Queen’s touch antidote.” He set the covered bowl down on the nightstand and moved closer to get a better look at my face. His eyebrows pushed together in concern he didn’t bother tempering. “Rosie! What happened to you? How much blood did they take? You’re white as a sheet!”