“All true,” Faxon told them. “The Princess has proven quite the fast learner and has opened my eyes alone to things I had never considered.”
“And yet here you are, slumming it with us normal folks. It’s truly mind boggling,” she said.
“I’m not slumming. I’m just a person, like you or anyone else. My breeding gives me the right to rule Crilan, but that does not mean that I am better than you or better than anyone else. We are all human. There’s no need to separate ourselves or choose to hate an entire group of people for a few bad apples.”
“There’s hope for the future yet,” Brigid said with a wide smile.
A few mugs later we were swapping stories like old friends.
“You have beautiful eyes,” she complimented me.
“I wish I had your hair,” I told her. “It’s stunning.”
Someone started playing on the piano and everyone turned their focus to the stage. A tall man with no shirt on, which exposed his chiseled physique, stepped out to the center of the stage and raised his arms. The rowdy tavern quieted. He had piercing silver eyes, and was the most handsome man I had ever seen.
“Tilia,” Faxon whispered.
“Shh,” Brigid and I ordered him at the same time.
The man’s eyes swept over the crowd until they landed on me and his smile widened. “Tonight, we have a special guest.”
No one turned to look because they knew he meant me.
“Tilia, we need to go,” Faxon said.
“Not yet. I want to listen,” I said and pushed his hand away.
Faxon hauled me up and started to drag me outside, but the people who had been outside had come in and now it was almost impossible to move through the room without pushing them.
The man on stage began singing a story of lost love and heartache. I felt the heartache as if it were my own, pain gripped my chest, and I squatted down. Faxon stopped next to me, his hand still on my arm, but he didn’t move.
The song told of the heartache turning to grief and the pain intensified. Faxon took slow steps towards the door, each one looked pained.
Grief turned into yearning and searching.
Faxon pushed me into a corner of the tavern, away from everyone else and stared into my eyes. “Tilia, he’s spelling us. I can’t…” Faxon’s eyes widened with fear and had I not been entrapped in the spell, I would have known to be scared too.
The searching led to finding a new person. A person who was always there. A person who was meant to protect. The person caused love to bloom anew and soon from love came lust.
I knew what this was. Faxon had taught me about this. The man was using the emotions to feed himself. He was a succubus.
The feelings filled me, no matter how hard I tried to reason with myself and as I struggled, Faxon kissed me.
He slid his hand into my hair and gripped. He gripped too hard and it hurt, making me gasp in pain. The next second we were teleported and stood in his cabin. Our breathing was erratic and he jerked away from me like I had burned him.
“I…” I tried to talk, but I didn’t know what to say.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I was trying to leave, but he had begun the spell the instant he entered the room and I couldn’t teleport.”
I could still feel his lips on mine and the shock turned into embarrassment. I fled to my cabin and locked my door to keep Finn out. What had happened?
The succubus had woven a spell to cause false feelings in people. Due to our close proximity, it had caused Faxon to kiss me. It could have happened to anyone. Finn would understand. Wouldn’t he? No, I couldn’t tell him. He would be even angrier than he had been before.
I buried my face in my pillow and wondered if someone could die of embarrassment. I didn’t view Faxon in that way, but Finn might not understand.
What if Brigid had seen Faxon kiss me? She would tell Finn!
I had to tell him. I had to tell him right now. I walked towards the door, but stopped with my hand on the doorknob. Finn was likely asleep. If I woke him up to tell him this, I had a feeling that it would not end well.
I changed clothes and climbed into bed. Tomorrow. I would tell Finn tomorrow what had happened. Or maybe Faxon would.
I exhaled and closed my eyes. Had Brigid known what that man was going to do? Was that why so many people had been there? It seemed highly likely that they would willingly go to such a thing. We should not have gone. We should have stayed on the ship.
I had to tell Finn. If he found out from Brigid or one of the others, he would be devastated.
Brigid.
She had said that she saw Finn. Was that why he was being so weird earlier? Had something happened between them?
No. I shook my head to rid it of that thought. Finn wouldn’t do something like that.
* * *
Morning came and went. Finn tried to talk to me, but I didn’t open my door. Faxon didn’t stop by. My head pounded with a hangover and I needed to eat, but I was terrified to leave the room.
What would Finn say? Would Faxon act differently towards me now? How would this alter my relationships?
Someone was rattling my door knob, but before I could get up to see who it was, Finn walked in.
“Are you going to sleep all day?” he asked.
“Hungover,” I whispered.
“Ah,” he said with a soft laugh. He shut the door behind me and sat on my bed near my feet. “Had a late night?” he asked.
“Yeah.” I swallowed nervously. How did I tell him? Did I start with meeting Brigid and tell him about the man? Or did I just say Faxon kissed me but only because of a spell?
“You look like you are going to vomit,” he commented.
“No.”
We sat in silence a bit. I ran through my options, but my mouth refused to open.
“I heard that you ran into your first succubus,” he said and looked at me.
“It was awful,” I told him. “To experience those feelings as if it were my story…”
“Have you been hiding from me?” he asked.
I blinked twice and said, “No. I don’t feel good. I had way too much to drink.”
He laughed and said, “Faxon told me what happened. He took me off of the ship and to a deserted area to tell me because he thought I might try to kill him.”
“Did you?” I asked.
“No. I’ve fallen to a succubus’ song before. I know what it does. Although the one I met used fear.”
I exhaled and sat up to hug him. “I don’t ever want to see a succubus again for as long as I’m alive.”
He hugged me and kissed the top of my head. “I agree.”
“I met Brigid last night,” I whispered.
He jerked back and looked panicked. “You did?”
I nodded. “She was at the tavern.”
He looked down at his hands, but didn’t respond.
“So, the story you told about me being your first kiss. Not true, was it?”
“I never kissed her or slept with her,” he told me softly.
“How was she your girlfriend then if…”
“I…uh…let’s just say that I was on the receiving end of things.” His cheeks were bright red, even the tips of his ears.
“Oh,” I replied smartly. I swung my legs off of the bed and sat beside him in silence. I wasn’t sure how I felt about all of this.
“Tilia, talk to me,” he begged.
“I don’t know what to say,” I admitted. “I had assumed when I met you that you had done things with women, but then you had told me that you hadn’t. Now…”
“I didn’t lie,” he replied quickly. “I withheld a little, but what I said was true.”
“Why didn’t you kiss her?” I asked.
“It’s complicated, but I never viewed her as my girlfriend. She just started referring to us as a couple and I didn’t argue.”
“She’s beautiful,” I whispered
He turned my head gently with his hand and said, “There is n
o one more beautiful than you. I would pick you a million times over and even death would not coerce me into choosing someone else.”
“Her hair is stunning,” I whispered as he moved his face closer to mine.
He wound some of my hair around his finger and said, “Your hair is like gold. You and Esmeralda are the only two who have such exquisite hair.”
“Her lips are fuller than mine,” I whispered.
He leaned closer, our lips almost touching and said, “Yours will be the only lips that touch mine until I die.”
He moved to kiss me, but I pulled back, the moment broken. “Are you angry at me for what happened?”
A frown appeared and his brow creased. “Of course not. You cannot control what happens while under that spell. Even Faxon couldn’t break free until he hurt you.”
“Hurt me?” I asked.
“He told me he pulled your hair so that you’d make some type of sound of pain and that allowed him to break free because he would never hurt you.”
Oh.
Finn moved back in and kissed me. I expected to feel remorseful still or upset, but his understanding made me forget about it all. He deepened our kiss and I wrapped my arms around his neck as I kissed him back. I sat on his lap on the bed while we kissed and relished in the fact that he was mine and mine alone. We might have kissed all day had my stomach not chosen that moment to protest the lack of food.
“You need to eat and drink water,” he ordered me.
“Yes, sir.”
We headed down to the kitchen and found Faxon there. “How are you feeling?” he asked me.
“My head feels like I dropped an anvil on it,” I admitted.
“You’re dehydrated,” he replied and went back to reading a book while eating.
“Sit. I’ll go get you some water,” Finn ordered me.
Finn walked away and Faxon said, “I am sorry again about last night.”
“Faxon, you don’t need to apologize. We were able to escape the spell and that’s what is important.”
He looked beyond relieved. “I’m going to figure out some way to counteract those types of spells,” he told me adamantly.
“Did you kill the succubus?” I asked quietly.
His eyebrow twitched, but he didn’t reply. I had a feeling that was a yes.
“Here,” Finn said and set a large mug of water and a plate of scrambled eggs on the table in front of me.
“Thank you,” I said and drained half of the water before eating my eggs. Faxon passed a bowl of bread rolls to me and I happily took one and buttered it. “I am so happy that King Jamel gave us all of this food,” I told Finn and Faxon around a bite of bread.
“We all are,” Finn agreed.
“So much better than porridge,” Faxon mumbled.
“Definitely,” Finn said.
Chapter Eight
The Order of Elders met for three days straight with no interruptions and I was not allowed to join them. Now that Finn was Chief, he was part of the Elders, which meant that I was left to my own devices. I continued practicing on my own, but it grew too boring. Since I couldn’t spar with Jared or Finn, I went to the arena to see if there were any trainees worthy of sparring with me, but the trainees that had been there were gone.
I walked around the arena and dragged my feet through the sand as I pouted. Who could I spar with while they were all busy? I needed something to occupy my mind and time. I considered sending a message to Cristoff, but that idiot had kissed me the last time I had seen him and insulted Finn. I highly doubted Finn would be okay with me inviting him to stay in the castle for a while. I could invite Bernard, but they were all working and doing things in their new home. It wasn’t fair of me to try to take them away from that just because I was bored.
“Princess,” Riley said in greeting. “How are you?”
“I’m good,” I replied automatically.
He leaned against the entrance to the arena as he spoke. “I heard you assisted Faxon on a few missions. How’d those go?”
“Fine,” I muttered.
“You look bored,” he commented.
“So bored!” I yelled.
He laughed softly and asked, “Would you like me to spar with you?”
“I don’t want to take you away from your duties,” I told him.
“The trainees left a week ago, so I’ve got nothing, but free time right now,” he informed me.
“Then, I would love to spar with you.”
He walked into the arena and asked, “What would you like to do today?”
“What’s your favorite?” I asked instead of answering.
“Personally, I prefer staffs, but we could do hand to hand.”
Staffs?
“Hand to hand sounds good,” I told him.
We set our swords to the side and I removed my daggers. Riley stood loosely in the arena as though he didn’t have a care in the world and waited.
“Ready?” I asked.
He nodded.
I lunged forward, but he was fast and avoided my punch. He tried to grab the wrist of the arm I had tried to hit him with, but I spun away and out of his reach.
“I was quite impressed with how you fought against King Jared in front of the trainees,” he told me. “It’s not often that you see women who are gifted fighters such as yourself.”
“Thanks,” I said and tried to swing my foot around to knock his legs out from under him.
He easily jumped over my leg and before I knew it, he had an arm around my throat. I elbowed him in the ribs and he relaxed his hold enough for me to break away.
“Very well done,” he complimented me.
I acted as if I were going to throw sand at him, which caused him to put his arms up in front of his face, but I used his temporary blindness to advance and kicked the back of his knees at the same time I wrapped my arms around his throat.
“Give,” he said immediately.
He wasn’t giving me much of a fight. It felt more like he was teaching than sparring.
“I know that you aren’t trying your hardest,” I told him. “This isn’t supposed to be like when you teach the trainees.”
He bowed and I swept his legs out from under him. He used his hands to break his fall, which left his back open for me to take control of by wrapping my legs around his waist and my arms back around his neck. He rolled us over so that I was on my back on the ground and somehow spun around within my hold so that he was facing me.
I released him to find a way out from under him, but he pinned me down and no matter how hard I struggled, I could not break free. “Give,” I growled.
He stood up with a victorious smile on his face and brushed off his clothes.
“How did you spin around in my hold like that?” I asked him as I brushed off mine.
“You didn’t lock your ankles so it gave me enough room to spin my body,” he told me.
“Again,” I ordered him and immediately leapt forward.
It wasn’t until I had become too tired to spar anymore that I realized it was night time. “Wow, it’s late,” I said in shock.
“Time passes quickly when you’re doing something you love,” he told me.
“Thank you for today,” I said and grabbed my sword.
“You are most welcome. If you ever need anything…”
I interrupted him and hugged him. “I remember everything about that night. Thank you for helping me and thank you for today.” I jogged to the castle and to the dining room where I was lucky enough to find everyone eating. “I didn’t miss dinner!” I said happily.
“Where were you?” Jared asked. “We looked in your room, but you weren’t there and Duke was in his stall.”
“I was sparring in the arena,” I informed him. “I’m surprised you didn’t look there first.”
“Well, there aren’t any trainees, so I didn’t think you would be there. Especially since we were all busy,” he replied.
“Who were you sparring with?” Esmeralda asked.
“Riley.”
“He’s a talented fighter,” Jared complimented. “He never seems to lose his cool.”
“That’s part of what makes him a great teacher,” Esmeralda said. “And why Jared isn’t cut out for teaching.”
“I am capable of keeping calm,” he told her.
“But you rarely do. You nearly scared off an entire group of trainees one year because you were in such a mood,” she told him.
“I work with the trainees every year. That group was particularly horrible.”
“You threatened to banish them if they couldn’t learn to hit the target with their arrow,” she told him with a laugh.
“They had been practicing two days and only two could hit the target,” he replied defensively.
“You’re losing your cool right now,” I told him.
He sighed and resumed eating.
“So, how are the Elders doing?” I probed.
Esmeralda shook her head at me. “You’ll just have to wait until we come to a decision. It shouldn’t be more than another day or two.”
“Two!” I yelled. “I’m going crazy as it is.”
“You will survive. I promise,” Esmeralda teased me.
“Can’t you just tell me what the decision is going to be about?” I asked and gave her my best puppy dog eyes.
“As adorable as you are, no.”
“Gah!” I yelled in frustration. I wanted to know what they were all discussing behind closed doors.
We finished our food and they returned to their secret meeting while I stayed in the dining room. Whatever they were discussing, it was obviously very important and if it was taking this long to make a decision than it was most likely contentious.
I opted for a walk around the castle to keep my body busy instead of twiddling my thumbs inside. The moon shone bright above my head and the night air caressed my cheeks as I walked. I heard voices ahead and proceeded silently in case it was them discussing things where I might be able to hear. I edged around the side of the castle and to my shock and disbelief, found Eric and Natalie talking and holding hands!
I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but I could tell from their expressions that it was a serious discussion. Natalie started to turn away, but Eric pulled her back and kissed her. I slid back around the side of the castle, pressed my back against the wall, and slid down until I was sitting on the ground. I should have been happy that Natalie and Eric were dating. Yet, I wasn’t. What was I feeling? It wasn’t jealousy. Sadness? Why was I sad? I had Finn. I didn’t like Eric in that way. Natalie was happy. What was there to be sad about?
Princess Triumvirate (Pirate Princess, # 2) Page 12