But still.
“You’re the witch who cursed her. You want to hurt her through me,” he ground out.
“Ah, well, you know the story then. I don’t need to waste my breath,” she said.
Jeanne pulled pins from her hair and let it spill over her shoulders. She leaned over him, giving him an eyeful of her breasts, and caressed his bare chest down to his cock, which was starting to stiffen at the sight of her. He shut his eyes.
“I would not hurt the king and queen,” he said.
“You won’t hurt them. They will hurt themselves. You will save your men from the trolls. That is, as long as you stay right here in Ellurine.”
Axel didn’t argue or fight. He fixed his eyes at the cracked plaster of the ceiling of the small house. A chunk of it had fallen away, showing the slats of wood beneath. The witch was a very clever woman, perceptive at understanding human nature in its broad sweep, but she was also very solitary. She had already made one mistake, in not realizing that Rose and Augustus were in love—a mistake she had brushed off. She took this to mean that the man was resigned to his fate and fully willing to cooperate. It never occurred to her that the best warriors choose their battles wisely.
Jeanne wrapped her mouth around his cock, working her lips along it with skill, and he gritted his teeth. She knew exactly how to please a man. As a foreigner, he didn’t recognize King Emriel’s Favorite.
“You poor, exquisite creature,” Jeanne cooed.
“You can do what you will with him, as far as I’m concerned,” the witch said. “You’ve done well tonight.”
“Yes,” Axel said, forcing out a cocky grin. “Do what you will and see if I care. I’m flattered that you think I could play any part in bringing down a king and queen. Waste of a curse, indeed.”
Jeanne climbed atop him, stretching like a cat, brushing her nose through his cloud of hair. “You even smell good…” The witch left them alone, retiring to her bedroom in the attic. Jeanne rode Axel for her own pleasure until he was sweating more than he had at the ball; his cock felt like it could explode. He would have released long ago on any other day, pleasure turning slowly into agony.
Still, he didn’t fight her; a part of him wanted her and found this familiar. He had been with quite a few women and not all of them were this beautiful; he had been raised to think that men chased after women and not the other way around. It was only later that Axel would remember that night for the assault that it was.
Chapter Six
Rose
As the coronation drew near, I learned that my usual attendants would be responsible for preparing me for the bowing ceremony. This meant that Countess Noria, an old woman with a prim sniff who didn’t like me at all, would be overseeing the event of stripping me naked and dressing me head to toe in gold and diamonds.
To me, this seemed the ultimate indignity, nearly as bad as the bowing ceremony itself.
“I want to dismiss her,” I told Augustus as we strolled the gardens as we often did. “And put Louisa in her place.”
“You can’t just dismiss her, I’m afraid. Her family has held the position back to Queen Marianna’s day.”
“I’m stuck with her forever?”
“She will die before you, I’m sure,” he said, with a grin.
“I’m serious! If I’m to be the queen, shouldn’t I at least get to choose the person who attends to my most intimate needs? She treats me like I’m stupid, worse than my mother even, because I’m sure she doesn’t even like me. I’m sure I could fulfill my duties a thousand times better if I didn’t have to start every day with her sniffing at me.” I made a little demonstration of her sniff, standing very straight. The actual sniff was somewhere between inhaling snuff, and trying to determine the location of a rotten potato.
“All right, all right, we can’t just toss her out of the palace on her arse but I’ll look at the records of hierarchies and positions and see if there’s a way to manage it. I want a happy queen.”
“You are a wise man,” I said. If Augustus said he would study it for me, I thought the thing was as good as done.
The days leading up to the coronation passed swiftly, and he had a lot to prepare for himself. I also had to study what was expected of me, which did nothing for my nerves. I began to fixate on it. Every morning when she tutted over the lacings of my stays and whether I had gotten a touch of a tan, I thought, I can bear anything if she is gone. A queen should certainly be able to choose her own attendants!
If Augustus wouldn’t get rid of her, maybe I could urge her into retirement on my own. When I first came here, I was nervous around all the faeries and their rules, but I was starting to feel more confident in my place now. When she sniffed at me, I started sniffing back.
And I blatantly goaded her. I was starting to realize how easily she grew flustered. When she came into the room in the mornings I had my dogs running wild, the bed covers in disarray, and my hair around my shoulders. In the afternoon I was playing hide and seek with the palace children. When she found me hiding in the curtains, I told her she was late.
“I was not late!” she huffed. “You are the one running about like a heathen!”
“A heathen!” I laughed. “I thought that was a compliment for a human in the faery kingdom! No, I’m sure you’re late. I looked at the clock before I started the game.”
“I was not late!”
“Oh? Your word supersedes the queen of the realm, does it?”
“No, no…but…time itself supersedes us all.”
I shrugged. “Oh, well. It hardly matters. I want to wear the purple print today.”
By this time she was thrown off her composure already.
Two nights before the coronation, Augustus settled me into the bed. As always, he stripped off my clothes and tied me loosely with silken cords, so I could not roam at night, even in my sleep, and come upon a cursed spindle. The custom was still observed even though the Cobblestone Witch had fled the realm. After all, I was still his possession and I’m sure the servants would whisper now if he ever set me free. By now I was used to this nightly ritual, and it often began with his tongue between my legs, which I was not one to complain about.
Tonight, it began with something even better than that. A big dusty book.
“What you need is a Superintendent of the Queen’s Household,” he said. “Queen Marianna had one and she had control over everyone including Countess Noria’s position. The position has been left vacant, almost forgotten…”
I sneezed at the dust from the book he was holding close to my face. “You mean, I could just make Louisa the Superintendent and suddenly she would be able to manage the ceremony? That seems too good to be true.”
“It’s perfectly within the rules,” he said. “Why Louisa and not Julia? I thought you preferred her.”
“Not exactly. Julia is more fun, but even I am sensible enough not to have a girl with goblin blood manage the entire household…”
“Does she really have goblin blood?”
“The longer I know her, the more I think so! She’s too naughty for words.” I envied Julia, to be honest. “Look at her and Lord Merdon.”
“Julia and…Lord Merdon?” he asked, densely.
“Oh, Augustus, you have to pay more attention to what’s under your nose. You should spend more time at the gaming tables. They went bathing naked in the fountain of the Sun God last week in the middle of the night. Everyone knows except her husband and, I suppose, you.”
He frowned, leaning closer to me. “I thought her and Francis were a love match…”
“They are.”
“She loves them both, then… I suppose he is too gentle for her, is that the case?”
“I—I suppose they each please her in different ways.” I flushed. It was the first time we had come even close to alluding to Axel since the ball. But he would likely arrive tomorrow for the start of the coronation the day after, and we would both see him again.
“I don’t have time for ga
ming tables,” Augustus said in a more subdued tone. “And you spend too much money there.”
“It’s just for fun… I never bet more than fifty half pieces in a night.”
“Mm…well, Louisa it is, then, eh? I will notify the Master of Chambers of the change.”
I wrapped my hands around his shoulders and drew him close to me, kissing his lips. “Thank you, kind sir… Now, I do believe such good research deserves a reward…”
Chapter Seven
Rose
The official coronation was to be held in one of the great holy buildings of the faeries, the Golden Hall in the city of Luminé, which had been built six hundred years prior with soaring ceilings and gilded adornments that made it glow in the candlelight, the walls decorated by the great swords of prior warrior kings. Of course, the entire Palace of the Sun was grander still, but the hall had an ancient grandeur and reminders of the faeries’ warrior heritage were everywhere.
Leading up to the coronation, extensive renovations were done on the Golden Hall, and new robes were made for the High Cleric and the entire inner court.
This moment was entirely for Augustus. He wore long, heavy robes himself, trimmed with the fur of ermine he had hunted himself, silver fabric embroidered with golden suns, with slashes that showed red underneath, and purple boots with red heels and soles. The robes signified his strength as a hunter and his ability to provide for his people, the suns for the golden light that graced the faery kingdom and blessed its ruler, the glimpses of red for the blood he was willing to shed in order to protect his subjects, and the vivid boots for the dancing that faeries revered.
The red heels, meanwhile, were a symbol of his dominance over me. Spilling my virgin blood, and the life my body would provide the bloodline. I watched him kneel before the High Cleric, exposing one red sole.
Soon, soon… I trembled.
As soon as this is over…
The room was very warm, the grand corps squeezing my ribs. I watched my husband kneel to become king, everyone looking toward him.
The High Cleric anointed him with enchanted oils, meant to give him greater strength and greater blessings.
His head bowed before the altar, his figure majestic but humble in the heavy furs. “I swear before this court, to all my people, that I shall protect thee from all violence and injustice with all the strength of my body and mind. I promise to rule justly and fairly, favoring no man above another. Above all, I shall protect the kingdom of Ellurine and the faery race from invasion and threat, if I must lay down my own life to do so.”
“May the king rule with the strength of a dragon,” the High Cleric said. “And may he stand against every last enemy of our nation, to the ends of the earth.”
His voice echoed in the soaring hall. I’m sure everyone would have heard it, no matter how far back they stood. I wondered if Axe was here. Julia thought she had seen him, but I didn’t dare look now.
The High Cleric placed a golden crown, encrusted with sapphires and rubies and even older than the Golden Hall itself, upon Augustus’ head, and handed him a heavy scepter entwined with supple vines.
Augustus rose, and the room broke into a roar of excitement as flocks of white birds were released into the hall, to fly into the rafters. Music began to play somewhere. Now, Augustus would lead a procession into the Hall of Mirrors.
Louisa tapped my hand and nodded. “We must get you ready, Your Highness.”
“Oh, Louisa…”
“Don’t be scared,” she whispered.
But those were just words. Louisa looked nervous for me.
A carriage was waiting to bring us back to the palace, my stomach churning every moment of the journey. The streets were lined with well wishers who threw flowers at my carriage. Julia waved to the people and prompted me to lift my hand.
“Come on. You don’t want anyone to say you lost your nerve,” she said.
“I have certainly lost my nerve!”
“But you don’t want them to notice. You’re a queen now, darling. You can do this.”
Her attempts to reassure me only encouraged me to unravel. “I don’t want to. I want to be with Augustus, but… I don’t want to bow. I don’t want to!”
“Shh, shh…it’s not so bad.”
“It is bad. You know it’s bad. You wouldn’t want to do it.”
“I would,” Julia said. “To be queen?”
“What does it matter to be queen? I have no power of my own.”
“You have more power than most human queens,” Louisa said. “What it will take for you to realize that? Human kings can simply ignore their wives. Augustus would be shamed forever if he ignored you. In fact, he is required to make you the focal point of his life. It’s a good thing he seems to love you, because if he didn’t, he would hear nothing but grief from the court.”
The truth was, I knew I did have some power. It just didn’t seem to matter. Right now, all I could think of was the humiliation I had to bear, and it consumed me as the moment drew near.
At least I didn’t have to worry about Countess Noria. Upon learning that Louisa would now command my toilette, she resigned in a quiet huff, saying she was getting older anyway so perhaps it was time. Well, not entirely quietly. I knew she had been complaining about it to anyone who would listen after the fact, saying that none of us had any experience and that I played favorites.
Well, of course I did! Who would want Madame Etiquette around on purpose?
The atmosphere was much more relaxing with Louisa in charge. She calmly orchestrated the proceedings. One girl removed my skirt, another my bodice. Each of my ladies stripped off a piece of me, but Louisa held Julia back. She had always been my Mistress of Slippers, but she was also one of my dearest friends.
“If Your Highness pleases, the Duchess of Poligari will remove the grand corps,” Louisa said.
Such a pause followed this statement that even I grew nervous.
No one had ever been permitted to unlace the grand corps except Augustus himself, and after this day, no one ever would. Although it still sounded absurd to me to put so much on a simple act, I still understood that Louisa was helping me to usher in a new era. One where a girl with goblin blood was permitted to touch the corset strings and the very skin of the queen; one where friendship and kindness mattered more than blood.
“I do please,” I said.
Julia bowed, taking her duties seriously. The other girls watched in stunned silence as she carefully worked the laces. The grand corps had been the bane of my existence in the Court of the Sun Palace; unlike most corsets that had hooks in front for easy removal, the grand corps had to be fully laced and unlaced every time, and this could not be done by the wearer. Besides that, it was so rigidly boned and tight that I could barely eat while wearing it, and it left bruises on my skin.
Julia was the one who first told me that the purpose of this cruelty was so that my husband could ease my pain. I didn’t think it was worth it, but Julia seemed particularly to enjoy the idea of pain with her pleasure.
Julia finished the laces. The room was so quiet that the songbirds outside seemed deafening in comparison. One of my ladies put the grand corps away while a different girl lifted my shift off my head. Still another dribbled healing ointment onto Julia’s hands.
Now I was standing completely naked in the center of the room, with all of them observing me like a doll to be dressed.
“Mm,” Julia purred approvingly. “We can’t have the slightest blemish on that perfect skin, today of all days.” Her hands were warm as they stroked the small purple blotches around my ribs, and I relaxed into her touch. I felt more comfortable with her than anyone in the room; she was my first friend here, and had now enjoyed more than a year of intimate acquaintance. While her touch didn’t set my skin aflame like a handsome man’s would, there was a different sort of sensuality in it, like sinking into a warm bath. A comfort I sorely needed right now.
“There you are…” She curtseyed, stepping back for the ne
xt phase.
My coffer of jewels was opened and the finest pieces were presented to me and then placed against my skin. Diamonds woven through my hair, hanging heavily around my neck, gold bands ringing my arms and legs until the result was almost like some tribal figure. My hair spilled free across my neck and shoulders. I tried to cover my breasts, but Louisa brushed it back.
“No, no.”
A page appeared at the door. “The king has arrived. The hall is ready to receive the princess.”
There was no running from my fate.
Chapter Eight
Rose
“She is almost ready.” Louisa opened a small box to reveal two small points of gold that covered my nipples, held on by a hidden clamp that pinched each nipple, sending tingles down my body.
Now a fur cloak was draped on my shoulders. The fur was worn away in a few spots. This was the cloak Queen Marianna supposedly shed upon the throne when the king claimed her before the court. It was pinned at my breast and didn’t really cover anything. My naked sex was on full display. It was shaved by a magical blade the day arrived and the hair never grew back. Everyone would see me as Augustus saw me.
I had to bear this like a queen. I pulled myself together, straightening under the furs. The doors were opened to an empty hall. No one was allowed to see me except the inner court and those who had been invited. I walked barefoot, my anklets and bracelets clinking softly. The cloak dragged on the ground. Each step fell with a small pat on the floor.
My heart was beating so fast. Every step of this was carefully plotted, but there was one thing I had to control. I had to reach a release for Augustus.
As I approached the Hall of Mirrors, guards opened the white and gold double doors. They kept their eyes down, forbidden from looking at me.
The Surrender of Sleeping Beauty Page 18