The Kingdom's Crown (Inheritance of Hunger Book 3), page 21
"Yes, Your Highness," Daniel said with a broad grin. "I'll still fuck you until you scream my name for them all to hear."
I was sure Thao had put him up to that, but it didn't matter, the thrill of the threat and Aric's determined playing pushed me off one side of the precipice and into a dizzying free fall. My arms fell from Daniel's as he spun and spun and spun us in place. Gasps joined mine, a groan and creak of metal, a chink and crack of glass, the abrupt snag of the music coming to a halt as I shuddered and bit my lip through my climax.
Above me, chandeliers twisted into tangled wreaths and vines, ruby blossoms dripping down with emerald leaves. And in the windows too, flowers grew right into the glass panes, made of precious jewels, distorting the reflection of Daniel holding me in the center of the ballroom, of my mother standing at the head of the table, her eyes wide and mouth parted in shock, of Camellia, snarling across the room from me.
Quick thrusts within the circle of my thighs, skin slapping wetly, pleasure sizzling through me to my fingertips before being reined in again. Aric's kiss was rough and hungry, tongue licking in, barely giving me room to speak or make a sound. Which was fine, since Daniel had already kept to his word of making me scream his name as he fucked me in a barely private alcove of the hall.
Aric's hips snapped once more, and I moaned into the kiss, holding tight to this latest burst of magic, my hands fisted in his shirt beneath his open coat. He pulled away at last, breathing roughly against my ear.
Then he began to chuckle. My eyes narrowed at the smug sound, and I pinched his back.
"What's that for?" we both snapped.
I tried to shift away, but Aric's hands on my ass held me in place, keeping himself buried even as he started to soften.
"Excuse me for having a moment of amusement that I just fucked my princess in a castle hall," Aric said.
I sighed and kissed his jaw. "You fucked me in the Winter Palace hall once."
"Mmm, suppose it felt a bit more like home there. At least toward the end. Here is still…very much another world to me."
I couldn't argue that, so instead I kissed him, my legs trembling as he loosened his grip and let me unwrap them from around his waist.
"Someone is coming," Daniel whispered from where he'd been standing guard in the hall. "Shit, Bryony, it's your—"
"For fuck's sake, just get on the floor." Camellia's sharp tone echoed off the floor.
"No! Enough. I've had enough of you! Your behavior has been disgusting enough as it is, but I am a prince, not your mount."
Aric's eyes widened on mine. Holden.
There was a masculine moan of 'no' and the sound of grappling, and Aric's arm trapped me to the wall as I tried to jump out into the hall.
"Aric! He said—"
"I know, princess," Aric said with a grimace painting his face. He bent and kissed my forehead. "Just wait a beat."
I could hear the struggle of them together, Camellia's harsh cries and the grunts from Holden, until my heartbeat drowned them out with its pounding in my ears.
"Now," Daniel whispered, and Aric released me.
I whipped into the hall, my eyes finding them on the other end, Holden smeared on the floor with Camellia seated astride him. His hands were wrapped tight around her arms, but her own were on his throat, the garbled sounds he made suddenly clear.
"Camellia! No!"
"Bry—" Aric began before thinking better of arguing with me, and instead only chasing after me as I ran down the hall to intervene.
Magic was already heavy in my palms, and Camellia only lifted her face and grinned, face transformed as she chased pleasure. I knew that look, I'd been that predator, but never against one of my own Chosen.
Camellia groaned as Holden twisted and jerked beneath her. I couldn't tell if she was pushing magic into him already, forcing him to crave her brutal treatment of him. His face was red, hands growing weak, and I thought he might've been trying to toss her off, but Camellia moaned as if he was thrusting to meet her urgency.
"Camellia, stop!" I snapped, finally reaching them, finally grabbing onto her shoulders to try and haul her away.
She roared out a snarling scream, releasing Holden's throat to grab at my wrists. Pain like a hot iron, like the blade Emory had thrust into my shoulder, burned its way up my arms. I gritted my teeth against the blaze, focusing on the sound of Holden's strangled breath, using Camellia's grip to tear her off of him. I twisted my hands from her shoulders to wrap around her wrists too, our magic clashing like cymbals, shattering its way up into my skull.
"Get Cress and Amos," Aric said, his voice distant as I pulled on Camellia's wrists and her vise grip squeezed brutally around my own.
Her legs kicked and she screeched and thrashed, but she didn't have the strength to do more than hold on. Stars, she was so brittle looking now, her silver gown hung from her like wilted petals.
"Let me go! Let me go!"
"You're—" Holden's voice was wretched, tangled and faint. "You're going to see—see war for this."
Camellia's entire body bucked as I pulled her to the side, tugging her onto her feet and wrapping her arms around her own chest, holding her to the wall with all my weight.
"You could've killed him, Camellia," I hissed in her ear. "What are you thinking?"
She cursed me, spitting as she jumped and twisted in place.
"Bryony?"
"I'm fine," I answered Aric, refusing to take my eyes off my sister. "Holden?"
"Your Highness, let me ease your throat a little."
"Fuck you," Camellia hissed to me with great emphasis.
"He is a prince, Camellia." I frowned at myself and shook my head. "He is your Chosen."
"Yes, mine. He's meant to serve me, not bitch and moan and demand what he likes."
I gritted my teeth. She was like a bird against me, I was half afraid I would break something if I was too firm with her. She seemed to tremble, and there was a painful scratch and buzz everywhere she touched me, the twisted magic of her Hunger clashing against mine. All at once, Camellia sagged and went limp.
"Let me go," she moaned. "Oh, let me go, it hurts."
It hurt me too, the whole thing. Seeing her this way, knowing what she was capable of, the friction of our magic meeting and biting and clawing at one another just as we did.
Commotion followed, boots echoing in the hall, and in a moment Amos, Cress, Owen, and Daniel arrived with three of my mother's ladies.
"I'll take her, Your Highness," one woman said, she was stocky and older than my mother, with a firm and familiar stare focused on my sister. "We'll get her back to her rooms with her Chosen and she'll settle. It's all the activity."
"It's entirely her own doing," I answered back, but I pushed Camellia into the woman's arms gratefully, eyeing them carefully. Camellia fought a little, but I was right about her strength. She was too weak to really fight us off, and she began to whimper and cry instead. Her hips were squirming, and I realized she was trying to relieve pressure, unsatisfied after being torn away from Holden.
Holden!
I spun and found that Aric had moved Holden safely away, all the men quick to join them and keep their distance from Camellia. Holden was propped up against the wall, deep bruises starting to form around his throat, pants barely closed again, his gaze blazing on my sister.
"Bryony," Cress said, voice tight but watching my sister as he reached out for me.
I glanced back, marginally relieved to see the three women managing Camellia away easily, and then crossed to Cress, sagging briefly against his side.
"How is he?" I asked Aric.
"Lucky we were out here," Aric said, glancing at me and then back to Holden.
It was true, and also a kind of lie. We could've intervened much sooner on Holden's behalf. He might still have been grateful to us if we had. But we wouldn't be able to say we saved his life. Aric hadn't finished healing Holden either, when I was sure he could have, fresh with magic from me. That too was a kind of lie. We needed proof of Camellia's abuse.
"You'll try to cover this up, but I won't let you," Holden rasped, glaring at me. "And if you kill me, my family will declare war anyway when they don't hear from me. Your kingdom is fucked regardless, and that—that monster will never see the throne."
"She certainly won't, Your Highness," I said with a nod to Holden. I turned to Amos, who watched the scene with his arms crossed. "Would you please see Prince Holden to one of our guest suites? Perhaps near my own, and with a good collection of guards in case my sister might seek him out again. Prince Holden, I will do my absolute best to rectify this. A doctor will see you immediately. And I'll come in the morning myself to speak with you."
"Rectify? Are you mad? Because your sister certainly is! She tried to kill me! She—she—she forces every one of those men your kingdom granted her!"
I ignored Holden for the moment, and Head Guard Amos bowed to me. "Of course, Your Highness."
"Cress?" I murmured as Holden spluttered.
Cresswell bent and kissed my cheek. "I'll go with them. Make sure he's safe."
"Let's get you back to the dancing, Your Highness," Daniel murmured, just loud enough for Holden to hear as he, Aric, and Owen bundled me between them and swept me away.
"Are you sure it's wise this way?" I whispered to Aric when I was sure we wouldn't be heard.
"He'll think you're waiting to assassinate him. By morning, he'll be grateful for the deal," Aric said, raising my hand to his lips and brushing kisses over the fingertips. "It's an ugly maneuver, but he made his own bed pursuing her. He is lucky we were out here."
I sighed and nodded as we reached the door to the ballroom, straightening my shoulders and lifting my chin. As Owen stepped forward to open the doors for us, I pasted a soft and satisfied smile over my lips, bracing myself for the knowing stares.
They knew a pretty fraction of me, this audience of nobles. I had an armored underbelly now, and they'd be better off if they never found cause to meet it too.
20
Bryony
“He raged as much as his throat would let him last night, but he's been quiet this morning, Your Highness," Amos said.
So maybe Aric was right. Still, I wasn't about to underestimate the prince in the conversation. He had every right to request serious retribution for the injuries Camellia had given him. I just needed to make sure that his goal in that regard ran seamlessly into my own.
"Can he be kept a secret for long enough?" I asked Amos.
"Perhaps not a secret, but we can make excuses for his situation, I think," Amos said with a shrug.
I glanced at Aric and Wendell on either side of me, and they both nodded.
Aric smiled and squeezed my hand. "Why do you look so nervous, princess?"
"I think I've just realized how rarely I negotiate. I usually just persuade people."
"So do that. Persuade him to your compromise. You know he wants war, to be released to return home. Presumably, there's something within that war he's hoping to gain," Wendell said. "We'll sort through it, giving him enough of what he wants and his best chance of actually succeeding, and he'll agree."
I nodded, more to convince myself that I was prepared for the conversation ahead than anything else, and then turned to Amos.
"All right, yes, I'm ready."
In truth, I'd been at the ball late into the night, and then up for the remainder of it trying to think over what I might say to Prince Holden to convince him to join my cause when all he wanted was a thorough revenge. My head started to spin again as Amos opened the doors, and Aric interrupted my thoughts with a nudge against my back.
Prince Holden was pacing the small sitting room of the suite, still wearing his white dress shirt from the ball, now undone at the collar to reveal the gruesome bruises around his throat. He stopped short at our arrival, and there was a flicker of panic in his wide eyes as he glanced at me. I didn't know if he saw something of Camellia in me, or if he only thought I was here to announce that we'd be sweeping him under the rug to hide my sister's crimes, but it left me strangely relieved. Aric was correct. Right now, Prince Holden had more cause to fear us than threaten us, and I only needed to convince him that we would make suitable allies.
"Your Highness, how are you feeling?" I asked, making a polite, albeit unnecessary, curtsey for his benefit.
"Wretched," Holden croaked, glaring at me and standing in front of the window. There were guards in the room with us, familiar ones I knew Cress and Amos both trusted, and their eyes remained watchful on the prince.
"Any apology I might offer you for my sister's behavior is surely useless," I said. "I am not her, and Camellia is not of a nature to offer an apology."
Holden squeaked as he scoffed, turning away from me briefly before spinning nervously back again as if he were afraid to offer us his back.
"May I sit?" I asked, gesturing to the settee.
"If you must."
For a man who had cause to worry over his fate, Holden really was an ass.
I helped myself to the seat, Aric and Wendell joining me, and then noticed the untouched tea tray waiting on a low table and the now cold breakfast at its side. Holden thought we would poison him.
I poured myself a cup, aware of the ice blue eyes watching me, and drank before looking up again.
"What do you want?" Holden asked, confusion and anger marring his handsome face.
"I want to ensure that Camellia never wears the Kimmerian crown, that she has no access to men whom she might harm, and that she is punished for her crimes."
Holden's folded arms dropped lamely to his side, surprise wiping his face clean, a soft squawk escaping his open mouth. I set my teacup down on the saucer and folded my hands in my lap, staring up at him, waiting.
"There is no law that prevents a princess from making demands of her Chosen. She is…quick to remind men of this," Holden said, voice slow, struggling and swallowing often, each time making a pained face.
"The tea will soothe your throat, Your Highness. I promise you, I have no intention of allowing you to die. You see, I know that there is nothing that prevents Camellia from abusing her Chosen. However, what she did last night was more than a demand. And you are more than a typical Chosen," I said, turning back to the tea set and preparing a second cup, setting it down on the other side of the table and waiting for Holden to relax and sit with us.
"It's cause for war," Holden said.
"It is. Although I wouldn't recommend you crusade for a war between Noren and Kimmery. To be frank, it wouldn't end well for your kingdom. We have a much stronger army."
Holden scowled and stormed to the seat, sitting down and leaning across the table to glare at me. "If you think I'm just going to return home with my tail between my legs—"
"You won't be returning home. Not yet, at least," I said, watching him pale and then waving my hand airily between us. "Please, don't misunderstand. Simply put, you are the best evidence we—I have against my sister. I don't need you to stay to keep her secret safe, I need you here to reveal the real danger of Camellia and her use of the Hunger."
"Evidence?" Holden rasped.
"Witness? Victim?"
"I am not—"
"We'll use a term that suits you," I said quickly, drinking from my cup and eyeing the one I'd left for him significantly.
He reached his hand out for the cup and then pulled it away again as if he thought the porcelain might leap out and bite him.
"What do you require me to say?" he asked, jaw gritting.
"Only your honest experience," I said.
He frowned and grew thoughtful, eyes turning to the fire in the grate. "People may…misunderstand. Hear my story and find me to be…weak."
I'd thought this fairly ridiculous when my Chosen first told me Holden might say as much. Why should it make any difference to his strength when my sister could use magic to force men? This wasn't to do with physique but with Camellia abusing the strength of our line. I was more sympathetic after listening, and I leaned forward to catch Holden's eye.
"You won't be alone. You are not alone, and it is my intention to ensure that you aren't the only man to speak out."
Holden gave me no response, and I relaxed into my seat, Wendell's hand sliding against mine as I left the prince to his own thoughts.
"I came here for position," Holden said. "A fourth son has…next to nothing in Noren. I am underfoot. Here at least as Chosen, there is luxury." He scowled at me, and I remained patient. This was the point where we would need to bargain. "I don't want to be your Chosen when this is done."
I made an odd sound, biting off a laugh but not quite managing to disguise it either, and Holden's glare grew fiercer.
"I would…certainly not ask that of you, after what's happened," I said, hoping that wouldn't prick his pride too much, but he looked more relieved than offended. "I'm not in a position to give you a title here yet, but—"
"I want the Winter Palace and the mountain that abuts our border," Holden said. "It's what I would take with a war."
"It's what you would fail to gain with the war," I snapped back. "Out of the question."
The Winter Palace was…undeniably precious to me, not to mention how close it was to Rumsbrooke. The mountain between us protected that part of Kimmery. Giving it to Holden would risk an advantage in Noren's favor in the future.
"Magic then," Holden said easily, and I wondered if he was compiling the list of his demands in his head or if he'd already been prepared with one. "I want access to Kimmery's magic. And a royal mage."
I huffed a breath of annoyance. "Unless you wish to take Camellia home with you, that's also out of the question."
"Well," Aric said. Both Holden and I whipped our stares in his direction. Aric smiled at me. "We could give him…the conduit."
I blinked, and Holden sat forward. "What is the conduit?"
"It's a device that the mages use to hold the magic of generations of Kimmery's queens," Aric said to Holden.
What the fuck was my thief up to? "Aric, I don't think that's—"
