Malicious King: A Paranormal Royal Romance (Territorial Mates Book 6)

by Mary E. Twomey

  But I can’t help myself. They’re sweet together. He’s overjoyed to see her, and she’s relieved to be in his arms.

  I miss Ronin.

  But tha’s neither here nor there.

  I stay in the background, careful not to lean on the white wallpaper tha’s laced with gold threads.

  “It’s just Adeline and me,” Lilya admits. “Lexi, there’s a problem. Have you heard what’s happened to Drexdenberg?”

  Alex’s eyebrows bunch. “Nothing lately. I take it everything’s not alright?” He sits her down, holding tight to her hands, their knees touching like hushed lovers, discussing the details of their secret affair.

  “Someone’s tampered with the blood supply that’s coming over from Faveda to Drexdenberg. Over a thousand have taken so ill, they’ve become unconscious. It’s not long until they’ll start dying off. We’ve questioned everyone along the delivery chain, and traced it back to Faveda.” She spills more details of the road thus far, and I watch as the prince of Faveda grows more and more alarmed.

  “Is Des alright?”

  She nods, but there’s no hope lighting her eyes. “He’s alright for now, but we’ve had to dump the entire shipment of blood. The count of people in the hospital, unable to get out of bed or even open their eyes, keeps growing by the hour.”

  I wonder what the count is up to now, and if anyone has died from this plague.

  Alexavier pinches his nose as the news of the Faveda palace guards taking over the delivery post at the border comes to light. “It’s my father,” he agrees.

  Her hand on his is delicate, but her words are heavy. “Forgive me. I have to bring him to justice.”

  “No,” Alexavier says, his posture lifting. “We do.”

  Their foreheads touch, and I know I’m not the first to think how right they are together.

  When the door opens, and King Fairbucks breezes into the room with firm disapproval fixed on his features, I know things are about to get a whole lot worse.

  Chapter Ten

  The Spotless King Fairbucks

  Adeline

  “You’re unbelievable,” Alexavier seethes. “You’re not supposed to have a hand in anything I don’t know about.”

  The king snorts, straightening his pure white suit. “What a dream world you must live in. Go escort your wife around Faveda. The people could use the distraction. Good to see you, dear,” he says to Lilya, though there’s a firmness to his voice tha communicates a clear “get out of here.”

  “What did you use to pollute the blood supply that’s been sent to Drexdenberg?” There’s no mincing words; Lilya comes straight out with the reason we’ve come all this way.

  I expect denial, however real or faked. Then I expect a harrowing “you can’t prove a thing!” or something to tha affect.

  When a cold smile snakes its way onto the fae king’s lined face, my blood chills in my veins.

  “I used you, Alexavier. Who else?” He points to his son, like he just pranked him. “Just because you and your mother sign a peace treaty with the vampires and the shifters doesn’t mean I’m going to shake hands with Ronin and his idiot spawn.”

  Lalita wakes up, growling in my chest. A slight on Ronin will not be tolerated.

  I only invest half the energy into talking Lalita down.

  Alex and Lilya are standing before the king with a mixture of defiance and confusion radiating off of their bunched brows. “You used me? You used me to poison Drexdenberg? How’s that?”

  The king jabs his finger in my direction next, his white-blond hair wobbling atop his head. “If you stay for this conversation, your head’s as good as removed.”

  I snort, finally leaning against the wall and kicking my boot up behind me. I don’t care so much any more about messing up King Fairbucks’ perfect home. “So much for the fae being nonviolent peace keepers. I’ll risk it.”

  When he shakes his head with an airy snigger at my moxie, he turns back to his son and daughter-in-law, taking a step toward them. “I don’t have to explain a thing to you. I think it’s best to let a territory fall who’s been nothing but a drain on the only civilized people around.”

  Tha’s when I spring forward, using my foot against the wall to propel me forward faster than the king can counter.

  He’s a ruler, not a fighter.

  Lucky for me.

  It takes barely a handful of seconds before I’ve got the king of the “only civilized territory” on his knees, my dagger resting across his throat. His hair is in my fist, tugged back to expose his jugular, his sins, and his receding hairline.

  Alexavier swears while Lilya slams the door shut, giving us the privacy to work this out, family style.

  “Addy, go easy,” Alexavier warns me. “He’s still the ruler of Faveda.”

  “Why? What’s he ruling? He’s got his nose too buried in Drexdenberg’s destruction to care about his own people.”

  Lilya steps around her husband, her hand on his elbow. “I’ll handle this, Addy. A knife would leave a trail of blood. A few poisonous flowers, though, they wouldn’t leave anything pointing back to you.”

  My eyebrows raise at the insinuation tha the queen is more cold-blooded than I am when it comes to protecting the throne.

  I stick the point under the king’s jaw, holding his head still so only a few drips drizzle down my blade. “Talk, or die.”

  “It’s too late anyway,” the king chokes out as he struggles against my hold. “It’s not a poison, not a curse. Otherwise, you’d be able to drain it away, Lily-girl.”

  Lilya gasps, scandalized tha this plan was made while taking her abilities into consideration.

  How the man has the balls to chuckle at his own wickedness while a knife’s being pressed to his throat, I’ll never know.

  “What is it, then?”

  He’s still smiling, the bastard. “Ah, but the how is far more fascinating.”

  I press my knee into the small of his back, angling his hips forward so he’s splayed wide and awkward. I want his body to feel exposed. I want him to be powerless.

  Alex looks deranged. Granted, all this information has come at him pretty fast. “How, then? How did you corrupt the blood supply? That’s our one export to Drexdenberg, father!”

  “Yes, our one export that you lowered the tariffs on. When you decided to throw those monthly peace celebrations to educate the fae on the finer points of the vampires and shifters, I couldn’t stand it. Watching my people dance around and laugh while their treasury grew smaller? You’re going to break all that I’ve built.”

  I didn’t know Alex was doing tha. I liked him before, but now I adore him. Holding parties whose purpose is to educate people on how to overcome their racial biases and fears? Tha’s beautiful.

  Lilya’s fist flies out and clocks the king across the face.

  I hold back my cheer. She’s a slender thing, but she’s no waif.

  Alex is red-faced and furious. “You built something that cannot last! Don’t you see that? You built a territory that’s wide open to attacks, hoarding resources as you do. We’ve fought too many wars, lost too many lives, when we could have been helping the shifters and vampires. Just because someone else grows strong doesn’t make us weak. Allies are more important than fine white tapestries.”

  “Shortsighted,” the king says as he spits his blood on Lilya’s boots. “You don’t need allies if your enemies are wiped off the face of the earth.”

  Sickness swirls in my belly. “Say something useful, old man.”

  The king doesn’t struggle. He lets me bend his spine backward, his face toward the ceiling as his wild eyes declare what’s obvious—tha he should’ve been removed from the throne long ago.

  “Not a poison. Not a curse. Just a simple switch of the supply. Did you bother to read the contract you signed about the new regulations for filtration?”

  Alex postures. “I did. They’re even more stringent than before. I’m proud of that bill!”

  “Yes, there ar
e more filtrations, but you failed to notice I took off checking for trumpet flowers.”

  Alex’s nose scrunches. “What? Why would we even test for that? The blood goes through multiple filtrations before it’s turned over and shipped to Drexdenberg.” Alexavier shakes his head. “And it’s not possible someone slipped trumpet flowers into the supply. It’s a rare flower that doesn’t grow in Faveda anymore.”

  “It does if I grow it.” King Fairbucks’ voice sounds like a snake. “No one thinks to check the wells. No one worries about what they pour into their cups. Such trust.”

  Lilya gasps. “Are you insane?”

  My heartbeat thrums in my cheeks. “You’ve poisoned the wells of your own people?”

  Again, the sadistic laugh. “Not poisoned, no. Aren’t you keeping up? Lilya could leech out a poison. The trumpet flower is medicinal. It dulls a body’s ability to heal itself, but it’s not a poison.”

  Alexavier grips his father’s lapels. “That’s why so many have taken ill with the changing of the seasons?”

  His eyes narrow at his son. “Oh, boo-hoo. They’ll sniff and sneeze for a bit. But when the trumpet flower works its way into the bloodstream of the fae, it gets passed through the blood supply. It took so long to find something that didn’t kill us, but could kill them off.”

  Too many questions fly through my brain. “How many test subjects did ye go through before ye found this?”

  “It was the only good thing about the borders being lowered.”

  “The four vampires who went missing near the Faveda border,” Lilya says, breathless and gut-punched.

  His eyes land on Lilya. “Your father knows a lot about herbs and plants that hurt a person. He did much research when he was raising you. The trumpet flowers were a little tip from your father when I went to visit him during one of my trips to Jacoba. It truly is the best place to bury dirty secrets.”

  He’s spilling his secrets without much prodding, which can only mean what’s done is done, and he’s assuming there’s no undoing it.

  I can only hope his guess is wrong.

  Rage rises in my chest. I’m indignant for myself, sure, but more for everyone affected by the tainted blood. A grand sense of protectiveness over the vampires takes me over, and before I know it, I’ve got the king on his back. My knees straddle him as my knife poises to assist him into the afterlife.

  “Adeline, no,” Alexavier protests, coming to my side and kneeling down to still my movements. “He will be tried for this. He will lose his throne for this. Then he can be brought to justice in Drexdenberg, where they have the death penalty.”

  “Weak,” I spit, my words thick with disappointment. “He brings thousands to death’s door, and he gets a trial? I’ll not sit through tha.”

  Lilya steps on the king’s ankle, bending it to the side so tha he winces. “How do we undo it? How do we save the vampires who are already infected?”

  “The damage is done. You’ll thank me when you can recarpet the whole of Faveda in white.”

  Lilya jerks at my arm, but I only move because it’s her who wants me up, not because she could ever overpower me when I’m this bent on a man’s destruction.

  “Come with me,” she urges. “We might not have as much time as we hoped. Alexavier, I’ll bring in guards to help you with him, but in the meantime, you need to wall off the wells.” Then she winces. “But if the trumpet flowers are in the fae people already, if they conjure up water for themselves from their own palms, it’ll be infected still, because it’s in their bloodstream. We need to get it out of them quickly, and then everyone needs to do a mass donation.”

  “But how?” Alex looks lost, and sick to his stomach. “No one’s seen trumpet flowers around here in decades. I have no idea how to leach their essence out of a person.”

  King Fairbucks smiles, locking eyes with me. His face declares a victory with a cockiness tha boils me.

  I break from Lilya and stab the king through the meat of his thigh.

  Chapter Eleven

  Pure Fae

  Adeline

  “Adeline!” Lilya scolds me as if I’ve belched at the table.

  The king’s thigh is bleeding all over his white pants, which, honestly, it serves him right for wearing such a ridiculous getup. White pants, white shirt, white vest, white suit coat and white tie? It’s begging for a good staining.

  “I didn’t kill him, but I’m going to if he doesn’t tell me how to undo it all.” I rip off the king’s white belt and use it to bind his hands behind his back.

  Alexavier kneels next to his father, who’s groaning too loud for my liking, if I’m to get all the information I need without interruption from his guards in the hallways.

  I take off my boot and rip my wet sock from my foot, ball it up, and shove it between his teeth to muffle the sound. My manky sock is disgusting, sure, but it’s a double-insult, because I know he’d rather drink the sweat of the fae than touch a filthy shifter’s sock.

  “You can’t kill him!” Alexavier is distraught, which wasn’t my goal, but it helps amplify the tension so the king believes I’m actually capable of murdering a monarch.

  With Ronin’s safety on the line, I’m not sure tha’s far off from the truth.

  Lalita whines tha Ronin isn’t well, but I don’t know if she’s being paranoid, or if she can actually sense dips in his wellbeing.

  “How do we undo it?” I ask, my bloody knife twirling in my hand as I stand beside the king’s supine form.

  It’s not the angry aggression tha scares people the most. It’s the calm methodical nature of an interrogation. It’s them knowing tha I’m in complete control of what I’m about to do, and there’s little emotion involved.

  I remove the sock from his mouth.

  “The vampires can burn, for all I care! If I could rip the roofs off every single home in Drexdenberg, I wouldn’t hesitate to destroy them all.”

  Good. He’s not smirking anymore. I want him distressed.

  “How?” I ask again. When he doesn’t answer, I shove the sock back between his teeth and stab my dagger into his other thigh.

  I ride out his panting, his pain, with a calm smile as I pat him atop his head, like he’s my dog.

  “There is no way,” King Fairbucks finally chokes out, his rasp triumphant.

  “Ivorum,” Lilya whispers.

  “What?” Alexavier is just as clueless as I am with the non-sequitur.

  “Ivorum is a purifier. Ground into powder, it can cure food poisoning and stomach bugs.” Her voice rises as trepidation of being on the cusp of a cure finally reaches our ears. “If we took the ivorum and ground it into powder, it could clean out the sickness.”

  My head whips to her. “You’re just now telling us this?”

  Lilya holds up her hands. “In my defense, I mentioned the healing properties of ivorum powder in one of my speeches in front of the entire Drexdenberg territory. I came across it while I was studying the history of the people.”

  I vaguely remember this, and kick myself for not thinking of it sooner.

  Lilya pinches the bridge of her nose, and I know she’s trying to tune out the pained grunts of King Fairbucks tha are muffled by my sock. “I didn’t know what we were dealing with. I didn’t know it was possible for everyone in the land to get the same illness, or what it actually was. What we’re dealing with is a digestive illness, which ivorum powder can cure.”

  Alexavier shakes his head. “I’ve never heard of the vampires grinding up ivorum for anything, much less for medicinal purposes. Where did you even hear that?”

  Lilya pinches the bridge of her nose. “When I was studying. It matters if I know a territory’s history,” she repeats with a huff. “It’s not a common thing because ivorum’s far more profitable as an export. I’m sure it’s not something healers are even taught anymore.”

  Lalita’s on her hind legs, ready to get back to Ronin with the cure. She’s already sold. “Ye think this could work?”

  “Now tha
t we know it’s a stomach infection, it’s the only thing that stands a chance.”

  “It’s going to take a lot more ivorum than the vampire can mine, especially if they’re fasting and falling ill with this sickness.” Alexavier’s gaze hardens with resolve tha has a note of heroism about it. “We can use bricks from our palace. It’s quicker and easier than mining up more in Drexdenberg. I’ll call for the territory to donate whatever ivorum furniture or trinkets they may have, as well.”

  King Fairbucks chokes on his indignation as he spits out my sock. “You’re never going to get it out of them. You’re asking them to give up their treasures, their marks of status for the vampire parasites, which they will never do.”

  Lilya speaks through gritted teeth. “People are more important than sparkly things. What good are your towers of status if people are dying? You’re not lording your wealth; you’re hoarding a cure!”

  King Fairbucks laughs, gasping through his discomfort. “Don’t direct your anger at me, princess. I’m merely telling you the response you’ll get. These are the people you’re leading. They are mine, not yours. You cannot force peace on the masses. You can all live and die in your dream world, but this is my reality!”

  “Alexavier, go out into the hall,” I order, my knife clutched without finesse as I crouch beside the king’s form. “Ye don’t need to see this.”

  But Alexavier is a rule follower, even in situations of mass-murder.

  “He will be tried. Hand me your knife, Addy-girl.”

  It’s a nickname tha distracts me just enough to let my grip fall slack so Alex can wrestle my knife from me.

  I’m livid to give up my advantage, but I obey because I’m not the prince in charge. I’m merely the muscle. “It’s the wrong call,” I warn him.

  Lilya tugs me up with a shaky hand, taking my lecture in stride.

  Alexavier pulls me under his wing, tucking me to his side as if we’re old friends who are completely comfortable with each other. “That may be so, but it’s my wrong call to make. It’s my territory to take a stand for. This is my decision.”