by Meg Xuemei X
“So you let the last assassin get away,” the king said snidely. “You’re getting sloppy, Seth.”
“Your mistress-slash-general will be delighted to enlighten you which house once used the nightshade poison.”
The king’s look darkened. He picked up the arrow and sniffed the arrowhead, as if he was indeed an expert on all things poisonous. Wincing, he tossed it onto a bedside table and yelled at his female companions. “Out! Out!”
They couldn’t flee faster.
While he was dressing himself, I briefed him on a short version of the day’s incident.
“Victoria won’t stop,” I said. “She’ll get rid of any rival unless you marry her.”
“I’m not going to marry her,” Agro scowled. “She isn’t of royal blood.”
“You’ve fucked her for millennia,” I said. “When you became a king, she already regarded herself as your uncrowned queen. Besides, no one fits you better than she.”
If my brother gave up on Rose, I could whisk her away the next day. I wouldn’t have to worry about the next assassination, which would surely come. And with Agro out of the picture, it would be easier for me to pursue Rose openly.
My brother glared at me in suspicion. “What does that mean?”
“You need Victoria more than you need anyone else. The Mysthian princess doesn’t fit into your piece.”
“At the moment, I need the princess more than anyone else! I must rule the twilight realm legitimately.”
“When did you ever worry about being legitimate?”
“That’s my business! Plus, Princess Rose has the regal look of the empress. She’ll be one officially after our holy matrimony.”
“Bullshit,” I snorted. “If she’s the one, you wouldn’t have other females in your bed every night.”
“I did what you used to do. Don’t you remember, Brother? You haven’t had a female for so long, and now you want me to be like you? You disgust me.” He then narrowed his eyes and leaned toward me. “I fool around with those females,” he confided, which appeared creepier than when he yelled at me, “so I won’t break my queen on our wedding night.”
“I thought you were set to break her.” I kept my voice flat, even as anger sizzled in me.
“I changed my mind,” he said, leaning away. “She grows on me. I want her to be around a little longer. So on our wedding night, I’m going to take my slow, sweet time with her. I’m going to enjoy her solely the whole night.” He gave me a sly look. “You’re quite curious about my bride, Seth. If I didn’t know about your impotency, I’d say you drool over my future queen.” He chuckled at his own joke.
I restrained myself from ramming my fist into his skull.
“Now I’m going to see my bride and check her side of the story,” he said. “See if it matches yours.”
“Are you going to do something about your mistress?” I asked.
“Slash-general? Anyone could use Victoria’s arrow and frame her.” Agro shrugged. “But that’s not for you to worry about. I’m the great king, I’m the justice of Earth, and I’ll get to the bottom of this.”
And in the princess’s suite, I had to tolerate this clown squeezing so close to Rose on the chair and having her elegant hand in his.
Rose glanced up at me through her lashes, and then she found an excuse to withdraw her hand from my brother’s.
“Prince Seth,” she grated, “thank you for finally showing up before the assassins choked the life out of me.”
We both knew she was doing me a favor by being ungrateful. It wouldn’t sit well with the king if I posed as the princess’s savior.
“It’s better late than never, Princess,” I said emotionlessly. “You’re alive.”
“How did you know there would be such an atrocious attempt on the princess’s life, Seth?” the king asked, training his dark blue eyes on me.
“I’ve told you that I happened to fly by the Spring Hall,” I said, “as it was my turn to cover the shift to safeguard the princess.”
“You just happened to bump into the assassins,” the king said.
“Fortunately for you, yes,” I said. “I protected your interest, and you’re welcome.”
“I cried for help,” the princess chimed in. “Prince Seth must have heard it.”
“Yet none of your guards heard it,” the king said. He was more eager to make it my fault than find out the truth about the assassins.
“You forget some of my superior abilities, including my enhanced hearing,” I said. “It’s no surprise that no one heard the noise but me.”
“Noise?” Rose sent me a distasteful stare. “Was my calling for help noise to you? Should I keep quiet when the next assassination attempt happens?”
The king pounded on the table. “There will be no next time!”
“If you don’t want it to happen again, Your Majesty,” I said, “I need your permission to have full access to the princess, including guarding her during her bath and when she sleeps.”
The princess’s eyes widened, but the king’s narrowed. “You want to be inside the bath hall when she bathes?” he asked incredulously.
“Why not?” I said.
Agro studied me a second longer, then cut a glance at the princess’s infuriated look and laughed. “She won’t help you with your sexual dysfunction though,” he said, “if that’s what you’re after.”
You have no idea, Brother.
“Your Majesty!” Rose protested vehemently. “You can’t be seriously considering that.”
After a long, impious laugh, my brother said, “Fine, you have my permission to watch Princess Rose when she’s in the bath.” I knew he enjoyed me asking his permission for the first time in our history. “But if you touch her or she misses a pinkie, I’ll have your head.”
I wanted the princess to realize that no matter how much he indulged her, the king regarded her as nothing more than a conquest. I wanted her to rely on me solely and be more cooperative, because this assassination was just the beginning; more was bound to follow.
PRINCESS ROSE
Prince Seth enhanced the security details after the attempted assassination. He’d personally checked every entrance, exit, window, wall, and ceiling in the south wing. His twelve new hand-picked guards watched me around the clock.
If he wasn’t with me, Ephraim, his most trusted friend, would safeguard me. The big angel genuinely liked me and treated me like I was his best friend’s mate. Only I wasn’t.
Lust still burned brightly and darkly in the prince whenever I saw him. We seldom found time alone these days. Even though he could cloak himself, it had become too risky for him to get naked with me, and now I seldom bathed in the Spring Hall.
I hadn’t expected he would have put my safety above his desire, but he did. Well, he had that “promised” fuck to look forward to, didn’t he? And if we flipped over the calendar any faster, the date was just around the corner.
Victoria had denied any tie to the assassination since Seth had lost the last living proof to a poisoned arrow. The king’s whore then pinned the attempted murder on the group of “suspects” that had breached the angels’ vault, but Seth insisted that there was never any infringement.
The king resorted to having his mistress privately whipped in the audience room of his palace.
As a courtesy, I was invited for the viewing.
Wearing a sweet smile, I watched the whip fall on Victoria’s scarred, bare back again and again. The king did nine lashes himself, which made me think of their fornication in his study as he’d whipped her while having sex with her. I wonder if both of them got high from this act as well.
King Agro wasn’t trying to defend me. The flogging was a show of the consequences of trying to damage or violate the crown’s property. In this case, his property was me—his future bride. The king was also determined to keep a tighter leash on his mistress.
If a lesser angel had tried to ruin his fun before his big day, the king would have hung the angel at Atlant
is’s gate, but King Agro obviously wanted to keep his mistress. She was meant to last in the long run, but I wasn’t.
I believed Victoria realized that as well. She flashed me a creepy grin as blood dripped from her back and tainted her grey feathers. I didn’t look away from the viper.
Seth remained like cold marble beside me, though his body heat told me a different story. We both knew I was in more imminent danger than ever. The knowledge of our mutual lust would drive this male to do whatever it took to keep me alive, so he could fuck me in the end.
The assassination attempt set off an alarm in me, reminding me that my time was running shorter. When I returned to my suite from the spectacular whipping event, I summoned Vanna, the undercover Dragonian servant.
After Vanna pulled out the holographic tablet, she input a code on the side bar. A second later, the Dragonian rebel leader’s face showed on the holo-glass.
Greetings, Empress. His words appeared at the bottom.
I wrote, We must meet, North.
Look forward to, he wrote.
Tomorrow, I wrote.
He answered, Perfume store at the Free Market Place in Babylon. Can you manage it?
I wrote back, You got a date.
He smiled. I’ll see you then.
I hoped he wasn’t still smitten with me.
But that shouldn’t be my concern now. Right now, I had to figure out how to throw Seth and his angel guards off my back and get to the city of Babylon.
Actually, the high prince might just be the means.
PRINCE SETH
I wanted to fuck her every moment I saw her, and every second she was out of my sight.
But the day had dragged on and on, and the lust flowed in my bloodstream like wine aged for thousands of years.
I endured this burning every day. Did she even care?
I would have to wait four more weeks to claim her, unless she cut me some slack. But it was obvious that the Princess of Mysth had no mercy. I didn’t know how long I could hang in there like this. The building pressure in my cock was more than merely torment. I needed to find some sort of relief badly, and soon.
Just as I pondered how to make her surrender sooner, Rose came to me.
“Prince Seth,” she said brightly, “you said that if I needed to go any place, I should just ask and you would escort me.”
I smiled, trying not to look wolfish. “Where would you like to go, Princess Rose?”
“Babylon,” she said. “I heard the Free Market Place is now the most popular shopping center on Earth.”
Babylon was a diverse metropolis and the only city without angel guards. Free Market Place was the commercial area for all races to trade. We let the earthlings enjoy the illusion that they had a free realm on Earth. But if they truly believed they had the freedom, even in Babylon, they were seriously kidding themselves.
The angels’ ground forces could level Babylon in a mere couple of hours.
I wondered if the princess was indeed interested in shopping. She was possibly planning something else. I regarded her. “You’ll start a riot if anyone knows the Princess of Mysth is in the Free Market Place.”
She frowned. “I’m not that notorious.”
“The people will want to catch a glimpse of your legendary beauty.”
She peered into my eyes to see whether I was being sarcastic or not.
Very little trust there, as always, even after I had rescued her from all sorts of shit.
“You think I’ll go anywhere just as I am? Without some sort of disguise?” she said.
I arched an eyebrow.
“Are you going or not?” she asked impatiently.
“As you wish.” I wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity.
“Give me an hour,” she said, her eyes sparkling with wicked delight. “Even you won’t recognize me.”
“That’ll be a first,” I said, then cleared my throat. “Since I’ll accompany you, I alone can guarantee your safety. We don’t need any extra guards.”
“Of course!” Her eyes brightened more. “I’ll be in good hands for sure.”
“Not just the angel guards,” I said. “We don’t need your royal guards, either. We don’t want to bring any attention to us in Babylon.”
She smiled wider. “Your advice is wise and sound, Prince Seth.”
I hadn’t expected her to be so agreeable, so I was sure that she was plotting something. I would play along. But there lay another possibility: she wanted some alone time with me. Or she might want to go to Babylon like any young girl of nobility, who couldn’t resist the world outside their limited social circle.
And Rose deserved a break. I’d seen how the assassination attempt had rattled her.
I also had my own plan for the trip. I had a penthouse in the center of the city. When she grew tired, I would bring her to my luxury suite and we could do whatever we wanted without disruption.
I flashed a grin. “See you in an hour, Princess.”
I went back to my quarters to shower and spray on expensive cologne, then soon returned to her suite. We were going to have a good time.
I waited in the common room for an hour until an average-looking female walked out of the princess’s suite and headed straight toward me. If I hadn’t smelled her, I would never have thought she was Rose. And the challenging look she gave me confirmed that she absolutely was the princess.
She wore a common girl’s outfit: a blouse, hooded grey robe, and loose pants.
“I prefer your old face,” I grunted.
“I thought you preferred me not to start a riot in Babylon,” she said.
“Well, we all have to make compromises,” I agreed. “Although I can handle a riot in Babylon.”
“I know you can,” she said, an undertone of anger in her voice. Then seemingly unable to help herself, she wheeled toward me, eyes burning with loathing. “You can just slaughter them all, as you slew my people.”
I met her gaze—my glacial alpha look usually made people recoil—but she didn’t flinch. At the moment, there was no lust in her, only black hatred. And I didn’t want that from her. “I wasn’t there,” I said. “I don’t need to explain myself to you, but I haven’t touched any of your people. I fought only militia, not civilians.”
She gave me a long look, and the icy hatred receded. Exhaustion lingered in the faint bluish hollows under her eyes. I knew she seldom slept in Atlantis. Though I wanted to pull her into my arms and warm her, I didn’t move.
“Shall we leave, Princess?” I asked flatly.
Her royal guards looked unhappy to be staying behind, but they obeyed her. Her lead guard stood by the door, sending me a hard, warning look. I growled back.
Rose clapped her hands, and three Mysthian females filed out of her suite: the blonde guard and two courtiers.
I could tell that the two courtiers were trained warriors and spies.
Well played, Princess.
“I thought we agreed—” I started.
“No guards, yes,” Rose said. “But they’re just my companions. It’s improper for a princess, even in deep cover, to go anywhere without her escort.”
I frowned. “But we don’t want to bring any attention to us. This huge group—”
“They aren’t huge.” The princess smiled smugly as she was getting her way. “They’ll tag along like shadows. Actually, they’re going to draw attention to them if necessary to make sure no one will be too interested in—mostly in you.” She eyed my outfit. I’d cloaked my wings and dressed as usual: a pair of loose trousers with a long trench coat that covered my hard-on. A long sword strapped down my back. I looked formidable enough for anyone who dared to glance at me twice.
At her look of approval, my cock hardened painfully.
“And who can protect us better than the mighty High Prince of Angels?” she asked with a big smile.
I kept my look cold, though my blood boiled.
The courtiers, especially the redhead, moved toward me and threw their flir
tations my way. I didn’t pay attention to them. I focused on Rose and sniffed. She’d done something to tamper with her scent.
All of her companions must have bathed with her and used the same soap and perfume before I’d come to pick her up. She knew I could track her down by her scent, so she had meshed her scent with her ladies, intending to confuse me at some point in the Free Market Place.
What was her game this time?
But she didn’t realize how unique her scent was to me. Even if she rubbed her scent all over the others, I would still distinguish her from the crowd. However, I didn’t want her to know that.
“Fine, come along.” I smiled at the redhead, pretending to be enamored with her, and caught a glint of irritation in Rose’s eyes.
If she wanted to play, I would indulge her. I wanted her to learn the lesson: every time she played with fire, it would burn.
We set out for Babylon in an open-roofed royal jet I had brought to Earth. My lord father had prohibited any angel, including myself, from bringing a warp-speed spacecraft, because he didn’t want the natives to learn the technology and develop flying machines that would turn our advantage in the air into a disadvantage.
After we landed near the Free Market Place, I ordered the pilot to come back in two hours.
Babylon was the center of pleasure, greed, and crime. Without superior angels adding to the violence, the earthlings often fought among themselves for tiny territories. Racial issues were also big in the city.
The Free Market Place was crowded, and any face was just a face amid tens of thousands here. The Mysthian princess could pretend to be one of the oblivion for a few hours.
Many normal girls fantasized about being a princess.
Yet the true princess wanted to be a normal girl.
We prowled through the flow of the crowd. The princess’s companions stayed a certain distance from the princess and me, which I approved of.
Rose and I covered half of our faces with our grey hoods. My wings were tucked in tightly and cloaked; even my shadow didn’t show them.