by Ella Fields
“What?” I wheezed.
Zad plucked at some grass. “They’d known each other since she was a child. For a time, Kash lived in the village your grandparents attempted to raise your mother in. Before the king laid eyes on her and had her brought to the castle once her womanhood had arrived.”
The wind gathered my hair, blowing it sideways and causing it to tickle my lips. I shoved it back, tucking the ends into the neck of my tunic, for all the good it would do. “She… so she loved him?”
His voice was rough. “Until the day she died.”
I closed my eyes, feeling goose bumps rise upon my exposed skin, and breathed. I’d known my mother had suffered at the hands of my father for hundreds of years, that she had done her best not to procreate with him, and she’d been beaten half to death for it.
But I hated that I hadn’t known this. The regret of never truly knowing her, not for all that she was. The female I knew was timid but strong with eyes that seemed to never close for fear of what might happen. She was song, and she was whispers, loud in ways that covered and smothered who she was. That enabled her to play my father’s games and survive.
Until she didn’t.
“My father hunted his kind.”
Zad didn’t curse or shift. He didn’t seem to react at all as I opened my eyes. He simply asked, “What shall you do?”
“Nothing,” I said, then added pointedly, “So long as they don’t.”
His eyes assessed. “You mean that.”
“You know that, or else you wouldn’t have dared to bring them within breathing distance of me.”
His mouth curved, and he then reached for my hand to slide a small grass chain I hadn’t noticed he’d been making around my wrist.
“You sicken me.” And he knew I meant so in all the best ways as he lifted my hand to his sinful lips.
I laughed when his tongue snuck out, and then squeaked when he tugged me over to sit on his lap. His arms banded around me, lips warm upon my neck. “How long have you known them?” He knew I was referring to his friends.
“Most of my life. My mother knew theirs, and before she died, she asked that we look out for them.”
“An exceptionally dangerous request.”
“We’d grown up together, learned how to fight and fuck together—they’re my brothers as much as I am theirs.”
I crinkled my nose but sank into him even more. “So they won’t touch me because of you.”
“For as much as Kash might think he hates you, and the others are wary, I do not think they would.”
It occurred to me then. “Perhaps it is not that my father hunted them and their kind, but because I am a reminder of something that was stolen from him.” His arms tightened around me. “I was hers, but not his.”
“I think you could be right.”
“I usually am,” I said and felt him shake with laughter. “How have they gone this long without someone figuring it out?”
“Many years of looking over their shoulders.” Ever the storyteller, his tone held notes of affection, of a love as ancient as time itself. “They’re cunning by nature, their senses more attuned to threats. It’s been relatively easy since the king’s men have stopped looking for them.” Zad contemplated that a moment. “Which seemed to be around the time your nuptials to Raiden were being planned.”
I chewed my lip, feeling the puckered smoothness of the scar cutting through the edge. “Was my father aware that many Fae parents had missing offspring?”
“Yes,” he said. “Though he and his hunters weren’t certain, they suspected and tortured a few good people trying to find them.”
My eyes shuttered. “I do not foresee peace for me and your… brothers.”
“You’ll be fine,” he whispered against my neck, his lips brushing back and forth over the curve.
I released the withheld shiver. “So confident.”
He hummed, and I felt him hard beneath me.
Perhaps I’d ride him before we left. For now, I was content to have him hold me, something I once thought would irritate me forevermore.
My eyes wandered over the sprawling city to the hills on the other side, skirting the forests and racing rivers. Something clenched in my chest, and I tried to let it loose with an admission. “I was worried for a second there.”
“Just a second?” Zad teased.
I ripped up a clump of grass, turning in his arms to shove it in his face. He ducked, of course. Cook lunged forward to eat it. “Fine. A couple of days.”
“Why the reluctance to admit you love it?” He pushed ribbons of hair away from my face, clasping my cheeks within his warm palms. “It is your home.”
“Because…” I paused. “Because although it’s a land of great beauty, it has seen so much horror.” I watched his lashes lower and rise as he stared at me. “Because of him.”
His brows furrowed. “Your father.”
“And now Raiden.”
Zad continued to stare, the breeze curling pieces of his hair around his square jaw. I wanted to touch it, to brush it back.
Slowly, I did, and his eyelids fluttered as he sighed. “Just because something has experienced scarring horrors does not mean it is not worth loving.”
My lungs cinched. “And what if it is the horror?”
His hand reached behind my head, weaving into my hair as it lowered, my lips expelling breath with his. “Then you love it anyway, and you love it twice as much.”
Staring out the window of the third floor as night began to blanket the city, I pondered how to proceed with all the change that’d transpired.
I could contact Raiden and ask him to meet to discuss the future of this continent and our marriage. To see if there was a way he’d bow out without any trouble.
Remembering his parting words to me on the bloodied battlefield, I released a frustrated breath, even as my stomach quaked.
The cocky shit was probably seated in his sauna of a castle, eating grapes and drinking the finest wines while gloating about all the ways he’d duped me.
You rob me of breath.
My eyes closed as my hand reached out to meet the damp cold of the stained glass window.
I felt my blood hum and my core clench as the chill seeped inside my pores.
Was it all a lie? Or had he been telling the truth when he’d said he’d never wanted to harm me?
He had wanted to, though. From the start, the marriage had been more than a sham.
Our marriage was never more than an assassination in progress.
Hurried footsteps reached inside my dark thoughts, forcing open my eyes.
“My queen.” Mintale came to a stop behind me, and I slowly turned to face him, ice now crusting the glass where my hand had rested.
He eyed it, then me, swallowing harshly. “I’ve some unfortunate news.”
I contained a groan. “Spit it out, already.”
“The girl,” he said, his hands wringing. “We just received word that she’s gone.”
“How did she escape?” I asked again for the hundredth time.
No one seemed to have an answer.
“My queen,” Zad said, closing in behind me to rub my upper arms. “It matters not right now, and only that she has.”
I knew he was right. I knew it, and still, I couldn’t believe it. She’d been locked in a cage. In a cage that was locked beneath the tavern. Behind a magic enhanced steel door.
Shrugging his hands off me, I moved to the table where a map was spread, pins locating all the places the guards were searching.
“It won’t be enough.” I lifted my gaze to Zad. “If she escaped the cellar, she will not be found.”
His eyes said he agreed, but the thinning of his lips said he would scour every dwelling and forest until she was.
Turning to Azela, I asked, “Where’s the bartender? Eli?”
Her head shook. “We don’t know, your majesty.”
I fought the urge to upend every chair in the room, the desire to tug at my h
air until the sting overruled the frustration coursing through me. “Have him found and delivered to the dungeon immediately.”
She left the room to inform the other guards on duty.
“If he indeed set her free…” Mintale trailed off.
“Then he knows he’s in deep shit,” I finished for him and turned for the door.
“Majesty,” Mintale called, following me out into the hall. “We really must discuss a plan. If she is on the loose, I fear where she’ll go next.”
I stopped, turning back to glare at him. “Do you think me a child?”
His jowls wobbled with his shaking head. “N-no, of course not, but I have concerns for your safety.” He looked at Zad for help, who was leaning against the doorway to the meeting room with his hands inside his pockets, watching us. “We all do.”
Zad’s stare was hard and impenetrable, but I knew he agreed.
With my eyes threatening to roll into the back of my head, I made haste for my rooms. “Notify me if you find the bartender or the girl.”
“Of course, my queen.”
Zad didn’t follow, but he did eventually show as I was combing my hair, seated in a pale blue silk robe at my dressing table.
“You already washed.”
“I couldn’t relax.” Not even a hot bath could soothe the annoyance festering inside me, so I’d cleaned myself and climbed out.
“We’ll find her.”
“And how?” I asked, dropping the comb with a clatter as I rose. “She won’t be found until she wants to be, and I highly doubt that will ever be the case.” My nails dented my palms. “I should’ve just killed her when I had the gaping chance.”
Plucking up the comb, he grabbed my hand and pulled me to the bed.
I folded in front of him as he gently ran the comb through my wet strands, the silk of my robe sticking to my damp back.
I shucked it off, smirking when I heard his breathing stall, and whispered, “It just doesn’t make sense. There are many who’d betray me, but Eli is not one of them. The people of this city are still here for a reason.” Expelling an exasperated breath, I rasped, “The kingdom will think me a blithering fool for letting not one but two prisoners escape.”
Zad said nothing for the longest time. My skin began to heat when he dragged the comb all the way down my back, stopping at the curve of my hip.
Dropping it to the bed, he shifted my hair over my shoulder and pulled, angling my head for his mouth to traverse the arch of my shoulder and throat. “I promise you, my queen, a fool is the last thing anyone would consider you.” His lips pressed, his voice lowering. “We will find her, and we will ensure she meets her end.”
“Together?” I asked, my thighs clenching. I opened them when his hands ghosted down my arms, wanting them between my legs.
Settling back into the apex of his thighs, I moaned as his fingers fluttered over my stomach, tickling with featherlight touches until he found me wet and desperate. “Together,” he told my shoulder, his teeth scraping it.
He dunked a thick digit inside, the fingers on his other hand drifting down to my center to gently circle. “For now…” he murmured, and my head fell back, lips seeking his. His eyes were fire and ice, capable of melting me to the core with one cold, narrowed look. “You let me rid your mind of all the things polluting it, and then…” He kissed me—deep, hard, quick—and then pulled back, whispering to my lips, “You come home with me while I tend to some business.”
“I’m fine here,” I panted, and he stroked me, firm enough to make me jolt in his arms.
“Yes, but you’re needed with me.”
“Oh, am I?” I teased, seeing right through his words, his actions, and still, I tried to kiss him.
He bobbed back, grinning, and inserted a second finger. “Desperately so.”
My lashes fluttered, my hips rocking over his hand. “Then shut up and convince me.”
I felt like a fool as I rode through the forest, headed for the lord’s estate, but not enough to turn back.
In this rare case, I was happy to be one, even if it made me look as though I needed the red-haired devil’s protection. I knew better, so I decided to let anyone who gave a damn think whatever they wished.
He’d stolen beneath my skin and opened festering wounds to plant himself inside as they’d healed. I was too afraid to wonder if there was a way to rid the need for him after something as unchangeable as that.
Even though I’d seen it a handful of times already, the sight of his glass-encased home still captured my breath. We thundered downhill, my braid bouncing behind me as rain began to spill from the bloated clouds above.
Stable hands and two guards rushed to the gates, opening them and leading our horses to shelter as soon as we’d dismounted.
Inside the foyer, I laughed, swatting droplets of water from Zad’s sharpened cheeks. “Hold still,” I said, my tone firm enough to make his mouth twitch as I reached up to brush beads of water from his curling lashes.
“It won’t hurt me.”
“I just like to touch them,” I admitted without much thought at all. “To touch you.” My cheeks filled with heat, and I turned my eyes to the water-streaked floor, marred with splotches of mud from our boots.
With a gentleness that threatened to bring water to my eyes, his fingers snuck beneath my chin, tilting it as he pressed close. His bright eyes locked with mine, messages I couldn’t read trapped inside. “It’s not like you to blush.” I scowled, and he smirked, his free hand lifting for his fingers to smooth over my brow. “I should like to see it again.”
I felt my expression blank as my limbs loosened. “A queen does not blush,” I whispered.
“Mine does,” he said, lowering his head. My eyes closed as I waited for his lips, but they skimmed my nose instead, the action emptying my lungs alongside his soft words. “And I fucking love it.”
A throat cleared, and I pulled my head free of his grip, turning to the door where Landen stood. “Majesty.” He gave an overly dramatic bow, then looked at Zad, trying and failing to conceal a smirk. “My lord. Welcome home.”
Thunder cracked outside, lighting the doorway behind him enough for me to see he wasn’t alone.
Zad cursed, so violently that even I startled, especially when he stumbled back over my feet, his face paling.
“Oh, yeah,” Landen said, moving to the side. “You have another guest.”
Casilla, clothed in a clean dress, stepped forward, and I watched in horror as her red hair changed to honey blond, and her nose and lips widened the tiniest amount.
No longer did she look like some peasant woman from The Edges. Her chin, narrowing to a slight point, tipped up, her eyes, now a vivid hazel, aglow.
She was a lord’s wife.
Nova stepped forward, smiling tightly. “I do hope I’m not interrupting.”
Shouting and yelling and crashing ensued from the study as Landen and I sat in the kitchen.
Me, with my heart in my throat, speechless, and he, with that maddening crooked smirk.
“How long,” I finally said, finding my voice. It was rough, but it was steady enough. “How long have you known?”
Landen leaned over the counter to snatch an apple. He inspected it, then brushed it on his cream loosely buttoned cotton shirt and took a bite, chewing loud. “Two days.”
Out of all the fables and horror stories our continent had been brought up on containing faeries, one thing was true. They couldn’t lie.
“She was dead.”
He gave me a look that suggested I was daft.
I bristled, and he smirked again. I was tempted to shove that apple down his annoying throat and leave it lodged there. “A few pieces of clothing hanging strategically from branches upon a cliff does not make a dead lord’s wife.”
To that, I stood. “So you knew she was alive?”
Zad’s other friend, Dace, entered then, his white hair standing in eye-drawing directions, and bowed. “Queen.”
“You knew to
o?”
He looked at his brother, who shrugged, then back at me. “Two days ago.”
I rolled my eyes, slumping back onto the stool.
Dace chuckled, snatching an egg from a bowl and cracking it open on the sink. I cringed as he held it above his head and let the raw yolk fall into his mouth.
Smacking his lips together, he tossed the shell into a small yellow pail on the countertop. “Oh, right.” Swiping a hand over the back of his mouth, he grinned, his canines longer than mine but only slightly. “This would be rather inconvenient for you.”
Landen scoffed, retying his long hair. “Being that you’ve finally decided to give our lord the time of day.”
My teeth gritted. “Do not fuck with me. I’ll forever not be in the mood.”
Then my mouth fell open at the sound of Zad yelling, “You wanted out? Fine, but you should have just fucking said so.”
Dace pursed his full lips, tapping long fingers upon the counter across from me.
“You wouldn’t have let me.”
“What?” Zad laughed the word, without humor.
Both males looked at me, lips pinched and brows high.
I sneered at them, and they laughed. Dace stabbed a finger at me. “You’re funny.”
I blinked, my tone dry. “So happy to be of service.”
Nova’s and Zad’s voices lowered, and I gave up trying to eavesdrop
“Where’s the other one?” I asked.
“Kash?” Dace asked.
“The other one,” Landen repeated with a chuckle.
“The one who detests me then.” I rolled my neck, unable to rid the prickling tension tightening every muscle. “Yes, Kash.”
“Not sure,” Landen mused. “You don’t think we detest you?”
“How interesting,” Dace murmured, his eyes gleaming with his smile, crawling all over my face.
I forced myself to remain still and sighed. “I don’t particularly care.”
Landen hummed, and I looked at him. “You don’t remember?” I lifted a brow, and he went on, “The night of the burning apple.”
“The night of the what?” I asked, growing more exasperated by the minute.