by Ivy Clyde
“Thank you, Daria,” he said appreciatively as he dug into a date and walnut cake. “You need to eat as well.”
I nodded, serving myself some of the meat-filled dumplings I’d tried yesterday.
“There is something else we need to deal with today,” said Adal after a while.
“Hmm?”
“There is an informal greeting arranged for Prince Zane’s welcome this morning. All the members of the royal family are required to go see him and pay their respects in the Lotus Garden today.”
“Can I come with you?”
He looked up from his tea. “I was thinking it’s best I go on my own.”
“I would like to see what he looks like. Also…how about I kill him? His death might compensate for Mekhi and Helena’s.”
Adal’s hand closed around my wrist firmly. “You’ll do no such thing.”
I could only stare at the stern expression in his face while my heart pounded at the tone of his voice. Just like Cain, he had the commanding voice that held power over me.
“Why not?” I asked, seething. I wasn’t going to give up so soon. The whole family of monsters had to die for what they did to the innocents of the four kingdoms.
“Have you forgotten where you are, Daria?” asked Adal, his cold sapphire eyes boring into me. “This is Huadu, not the wilderness. If Zane dies here, the whole Ning family will be implicated. At the very least, we’ll be punished with death. All of us. I don’t want petty revenge to affect my nephews and nieces.”
“Petty?”
“I say petty because his death will not amount to anything other than giving Ivan the ammunition to eradicate the whole royal family of Baledonia.”
All the air whooshed out of me as I slumped back in the chair. Adal removed his hold on my wrist and went back to sipping his tea, looking thoughtful.
When I’d finished the food on my plate, he turned to look at me. “Best to get it over with. Let’s go and greet Prince Zane. Make sure to always stay behind me.” He hesitated for a moment before saying, “No matter how crassly he talks, don’t open your mouth in front of him. Maids aren’t supposed to talk when the masters are speaking.”
“I can keep pretending,” I said tightly.
Cold settled in my heart as I frowned at Adal. While he was asking me to stay in control for the sake of his family, I couldn’t let go off the unfairness of the situation. Ivan and his children were inflicting their cruelty on us and there was nothing we could do. We were being bullied in every way and Adal was asking me to take it all without retaliating.
Adal got to his feet and straightened his robe. His beautiful face quickly became a mask of cold calmness as he strode forward. “Come along, Daria,” he said without a backward glance.
I followed after him, struggling to keep the scowl from my face. The palace suddenly didn’t seem so beautiful anymore. There were dozens of rules to be followed. Adal seemed uptight too. He’d never been strict with me before. Again, I blamed the palace for the change in him.
Keeping my head bowed, I followed after him, keeping a distance of a few feet behind him. We passed through several corridors, weaving our way down sweeping staircases, heading towards the place Adal told me about. This time, my gaze chased him. None of the beautiful paintings or other precious artifacts drew my eye anymore. They were all a façade, concealing the ugliness that came with a class system obeyed to an inch of life.
We walked out into an open courtyard. A warm breeze blew by, lifting the strands of my hair as I walked behind Adal. The subtle fragrance of lotus lingered in the air as we moved towards a gazebo made of marble pillars. All around us, small pools were created to house gigantic lotus plants. The blossoms were beautiful, their pink petals a pretty contrast against the dark green foliage.
A man sat in the chair positioned right under the gazebo. Getting closer, I stopped for a moment. The person resembled Mekhi so much, I almost took it to be him. Dark hair framed a handsome face while his pale gray eyes surveyed the people gathered around him with an expression cruel cunning. His gaze was just as dark as Mekhi’s, promising nothing but pain. He wore luxurious robes of dark red silk decorated with golden lotuses.
“Come, Daria.” Adal’s face was expressionless as he motioned for me to follow him.
We began walking towards the gazebo once more. Prince Zane had his brother’s dark hair but they were arranged in long dreadlocks. Gold bands and trinkets were coiled around them. As we reached nearer, Zane’s gaze fell on me. Something shifted behind those eyes. I bowed my head, knowing attracting the prince’s attention would bring nothing but trouble for Adal. It would have been much easier to just kill him and get it over with.
There was a gasp, followed by the clanking of a metal pot against stone. Raising my head, I found a maid at his feet, with a fallen wine jug nearby. Dark crimson stained the hem of Zane’s scarlet and gold robe. The young woman whispered apologies, hurrying to gather the fallen pieces.
“How dare you?” seethed Zane, kicking at her shoulder. She fell to the side, shaking all over.
There were a few members of the royal family present. It was evident by the lavishness of their robes but no one said a word. I looked towards Adal. While his mouth was pressed together in a thin line and his fists balled tightly, he didn’t move forward to rescue the fallen maid.
I made to move forward but Adal caught my wrist. His hold was so hard, it hurt.
“Don’t, Daria,” he hissed from the corner of his mouth.
He marched to the side, pulling me alongside him. For the fraction of a second, I felt Zane’s gaze follow us.
“I deserve to be punished,” cried the maid. “I’ll go and inform the disciplinary master right away.” She made another attempt to get to her feet but Zane caught hold of her arm. “Your Highness.”
As the woman shifted, I caught her face. She was the same person who’d delivered food to Adal’s quarters yesterday. While we didn’t speak, she wasn’t clumsy. It might have been pure nerves that made her drop the wine jug. If Adal was being thorny with me over Prince Zane, then the palace maids must have been cautioned even more severely.
“P-please, Your Highness,” she pleaded, shaking all over.
“It’s better to let the servants know not to make mistakes,” said Prince Zane, glancing at the man beside him. “Don’t you agree, Prince Kurozeru?”
“Of course,” said the man with a tilt of his head. I stared at Prince Kurozeru who was renowned as the ruling prince of Baledonia. His robes were of dark navy, similar to Adal’s. His dark hair was fashioned into an elegant knot to sit at the top of his head with a gold crown atop it. There were very few similarities between him and Adal.
“Your Highness!” whimpered the maid, looking towards Prince Kurozeru. “Please help me.”
The Baledonian prince averted his gaze without a word. What a coward! He couldn’t even protect a maid who worked in his palace. How did he rule over the rest of Baledonia?
My frustration rose. The woman had only dropped a jug. Why were they acting like she committed a cardinal sin? And then, it hit me. Perhaps, it was criminal to offend the visiting prince from Drakhaven. Even something as insignificant as splashing the prince’s hems with wine was worthy of a grim punishment.
A shriek shattered the silence of the garden.
Zane’s hand holding the maid’s wrist was now glowing orange. He was burning her.
“Please, stop!” she cried, thrashing in his hold as the flesh of her hand began sizzling. Within moments, her pleading turned to incoherent screaming. Adal’s nails would be leaving red crescent marks from the way he was balling his fists. Everyone’s gaze was either on the maid or they were looking away completely.
It was the perfect time to make my move.
Hiding behind Adal, I swiped a needle from under my long sleeve. It wasn’t a lethal poison but it would effectively make Zane pass out in seconds.
Taking my aim, I shot it straight at Zane.
The needle was
too fine to be visible to the naked eye as it flew towards its target. It struck Zane in the side of his neck. His hand went up to slap the spot like he’d just been bitten by a mosquito. His dreadlocks effectively hid the fine silver needle.
Next moment, his hold over the maid loosened. Swaying on the spot like a drunkard, he fell to his knees and passed out within seconds. The maid whimpered, staring at the large patch of burnt skin and flesh on her wrist.
“Go away now,” hissed Prince Kurozeru at once.
The maid ran away from the scene as Kurozeru got down on his knees to look at the prince. “Guards!” he called in a tight voice. “Take Prince Zane to rest in his chambers. The Baledonian sun must have given him a heat stroke.”
I scoffed under my breath. A dragonborn falling down from heat stroke? It was laughable.
Adal turned back to glance at me. I wiped all emotion from my face.
His hand closed over my wrist as he dragged me away from the garden. I let him do it without protest, pretending to be the subservient maid.
He took me inside the palace, dragging me through a few corridors before pushing me inside an empty room. Shutting the door behind him, he approached me. Towering over me, he glared at me with intense eyes.
“What did you do?” he asked in a tight voice.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He pushed me against the wall. “Daria. Tell me the truth.”
“You expected me to stand and watch while he burned an innocent woman?”
“She wasn’t innocent,” he retorted. “She was being punished for her clumsiness.”
“You don’t believe that. He was bullying her for no reason.”
“Zane was bullying us, Daria!” he shouted.
“What?”
“Bullying a maid is equal to bullying her master. Didn’t you see my brother beside him? He was the one getting a lesson in humility, not the poor girl who dropped wine on Zane’s clothes. What if someone saw you hurting him?” He closed his eyes for a moment, seething. When he opened them again, he looked angry. “Your momentary justice would have led us all to be killed. You can’t do as you please here!”
“Nothing happened,” I shouted back.
“What would have I done if something happened to you?” His voice was suddenly choked with emotion. The blue of his eyes deepened as tears sprang up in them. Leaning down, he pressed his forehead against mine. “I can’t bear to lose you, Daria.”
Suddenly, my anger left me.
Adal was consumed with anxiety and frustration. Zane was having an effect on him and he was losing his calm. Raising a hand, I placed it on his cheek.
“Everything is all right,” I said in a soft voice.
He stared down at me, his gaze dropping to my lips and then down to my heaving breasts. Suddenly, I was frozen. All I could feel was the throbbing heat spreading through my body like wildfire. Could he feel it too?
As if in answer, he closed the distance between us, forcing me back against the wall with the mass of his body. I sucked in a breath. His eyes searched mine for rebuke or refusal. There was none at the moment. Winding my arms around his neck, I rose on my toes.
Our mouths met at the same time, crashing together. As my tongue swept across his, he caught my lower lip between his teeth and lightly nipped. I moaned into his mouth, letting my hands run down his chest and then up to throw his outer robe off his shoulders.
Adal copied my actions, his hands fervently untying the wide sash at my waist. Soon, we were clawing at each other, desperate to consume the other in every way.
There was no messing around this time. I was overwhelmed by a mounting urgency to feel the heat of his naked skin against mine. My emotions were all over the place. I wanted nothing more than to be consumed by him, lose my mind to the inferno his touch promised.
It was probably reckless for Adal to be doing this in an empty palace room where anyone could step in and see us. Somehow, neither of us cared. I just wanted him inside me- this man who could be both gentle and demanding, who had the ability to make me abandon my life for him, who held my heart in his hands.
He cupped a breast and squeezed it hard, pinching the nipple between his thumb and forefinger. I felt it tighten in his grip. He gave the bud a sudden twist, making me let out a yelp. I arched my back, pushing my body against his hard chest.
With a growl, Adal let my under robe drop away from my shoulders. I was as naked as him now.
He stepped closer, his erection pressing against the softness of my thighs. I took it in my grasp, my fingers barely wrapping around the girth as I began sliding them up and down his length.
Adal let out a moan, throwing his head backward.
He took my mouth in a deep kiss while I continued to pump him fast and firm. He moaned against my lips and called my name.
“I won’t last long if you keep doing that,” he said through gritted teeth as his eyes closed in an expression of pain and pleasure. “I want to be inside you.” He pushed two fingers inside me. I was already wet, so he slipped in easily. My inner muscles clamped around his digits as he drove deeper.
“Oh, goddess!” I moaned. “Adal…”
“Say you want me as badly as I want you,” he grit out, his fingers moving in and out of me at a rapid pace.
“Yes,” I whimpered, still continuing to pump his hardened length but my grip was failing as my head swam with pleasure.
He removed my hold from his cock and pulled his fingers out of my core. His hand came to part my thighs as he bent at the knees, positioning himself at my entrance.
I clung to his shoulders as he angled his hips, driving deep inside me with one hard, satisfying thrust.
“Oh fuck!” I cried at the sudden breach of my inner core.
He used the wall behind me to hold me upright as he thrust his cock deep inside me once again. Low grunts escaped his lips. My hand held onto the tight, bunched up muscles of his ass as I felt him move in and out of me.
Adal’s mouth dropped to my breasts. He took a bud in his mouth while his other hand grabbed my ass cheeks. It wasn’t the same as the first time we’d made love. We were both each other’s first. We’d explored each other’s bodies back then but now, we were consumed with lust.
He was pounding inside me now, and pounding me hard.
His thrusts were short and powerful like he was stabbing me with his cock. Placing his mouth on the side my neck, he bit the sensitive skin hard enough to hurt.
I cried out but still held onto his shoulders with all my might. The pain was only flaming the fiery lust throbbing through my entire body.
He was holding me firmly, as though there was no chance for me to get away.
He pistoned his hips faster, slamming skin against skin.
His hard length felt incredibly good inside me as every thrust hit that perfect spot. My inner walls were clamping around his cock. I was swiftly reaching the height of that pleasurable peak beyond which lay the greatest ecstasy. I wanted the moment to simultaneously last forever while also desperately wanting to find release.
Everything inside me coiled into that moment of pleasure and with a shuddering cry, I came.
My walls throbbed around his pulsing cock. Clutching my hands around his neck, I held onto him as waves of pleasure rippled through me. My knees threatened to give away. Only the support of his strong hands on my hips kept me on my feet.
“Daria,” he breathed against my neck while continuing to thrust inside me. “I am coming too.”
I felt another orgasm building inside me before the earlier one had subsided.
“Keep going,” I bit out, feeling his body tightening against mine.
He held me tight as he plunged in hard and fast, his mouth closing around mine for a deep kiss.
He shattered inside me, emptying himself as a roar escaped him. My own gasp was drowned in the kiss as he held me against him. Stream after stream of his hot seeds filled me to the brim. My mind swam with pleasure as he panted a
gainst my neck. Our bodies were joined together in that moment as pleasure shuddered through us.
He leaned back slightly to look at my face as I gasped for breath.
My body felt boneless and at the risk of slumping to the floor if he let go of me.
“That was incredible,” he whispered, his breath fanning the stray strands of hair near my neck. With a gentle tug, he pulled out of me.
I moaned, my mind still too dazed to form any coherent words.
Adal gently lowered me to the ground. He sat beside me and pulled me onto his lap.
As I leaned against him, Adal left fleeting kisses on my neck, shoulders, and arms. The hungry lust-crazed animals inside us had vanished and we were back to being gentle and loving.
He covered both our bodies with his outer robe as he continued to kiss and love me. At that moment, every other thought and worry vanished from my mind.
11
It was close to noon when Adal and I stepped out of the room.
On the way back, he strode a few paces before me, his gait easy and graceful. I brought up the rear, walking with my head bowed, like the perfect subservient maid. No one looking at us would know the filthy, hot time we spent together in the empty palace room.
As we were about to head up a flight of stairs, I paused. It alerted Adal immediately even though he’d been facing forward.
“Why did you stop?” he asked, looking down at me.
“I just thought of the woman who got injured. She must be in terrible pain after what Zane did to her.” Adal placed a finger on his lips, glancing all around the place. He looked back at me with a guarded expression. Understanding him, I made my voice softer. “I want to take some medicine to her. Can you tell me if there is a pharmacy in the palace?”
He stepped down the few stairs between us. “Someone will be there to look after her. There’s no need to worry about that.”
I shook my head. “I want to heal her a little.”