"Princess, jump. I'll catch you." Nuss was directly below us and he held his good arm aloft toward me.
I had no doubt even with just one working arm, he would catch me, but I couldn't let Konig escape, even if it meant I did. He was supposed to be with us, not working against me and his brethren. I ripped my elbow from Konig's grip, but not to run away. I had to pray that the others would understand what I did next and didn't think I was betraying them.
I did what I hoped was the last thing the dark warrior before me would expect. I pushed my hands into his hair and pressed my lips to his, kissing him with everything I had.
To my relief, he responded by wrapping and arm around my waist and the other across my back and kissed me back. This wasn't like the quick kiss he'd stolen from me in the Christmas Tree Forest. This was passionate, and needy, and my magic responded to something so much more than lust from him.
I could taste, and feel, and sense the love hidden deep in his heart. It was there, it was for me, and I was going to save him by bringing it out. My magic swirled up and I called on the gifts from the others to help me.
I poured all my newfound sensuality into this kiss, and felt his emotions respond in kind. His heart was walled up so tight, yet inside that wall was a warrior's spirit fighting for what he thought was righteous. If he was bad or evil, he wouldn't care, but above all, that's the gift I felt in him, that I connected to with my magic.
He cared so deeply, it physically hurt.
The intensity of Konig's emotions being bared to me overwhelmed my senses. Suddenly, I felt like I was tumbling, caught up maelstrom of magic and lust. Oh, oh God, I was falling. The mouse bridge beneath our feet was collapsing, and we were caught up in a literal tornado of mice, swirling around us and carrying us across the ice and then up the tunnel to the cave entrance.
We emerged back out into the snow and freezing temperatures, just as the sun was setting. We'd been down in the grotto the entire day, secluded in our little world of love and bonding. The harsh reality of my situation hit me as a cold slap in the face.
"You can't control me with the promise of your body. You already belong to me, at least for the next few days. I'll take you when and how I like, and you'll be begging me for more, not the other way around." He marched me over to the waiting sleigh, minus one reindeer.
"You know that's not what I was trying to do."
I wasn't going to save Konig by convincing him to open his heart and rejoin the fold of the princes born under the Christmas Star. He was taking me away from them. I shivered, only partially from being bare to this snowy world. I'd really screwed up and had no one to blame but myself.
I wasn't going to cry or beg or play the victim. The warrior magic in me wouldn't allow that, even if old human Clara was already doing all three of those inside. I wrapped my arms around myself, straightened my spine, and held my chin up high.
What I was going to do was fix the problem I'd just made. The way I'd been trying to reach him so far was all wrong. Appealing to the good in him would have to wait until I'd chipped away some of the layers he had built around his heart. How to get him to see reason wasn't entirely clear to me. I needed some of Nuss's good old know how and understanding of my magic.
Then like I'd conjured him up, Nuss was here. The mouse tornado deposited him and the missing reindeer next to the sleigh. Except it wasn't my magic that brought him here tied up and gagged.
"Get in before you freeze to death. I don't fuck dead princesses." Konig secured the reindeer back into its harness and pointed to the seat of the sleigh. "Your dress and some warm blankets are in the bench. Get dressed and ready to go."
He grabbed Nuss and pushed him up against the side of the vehicle. Nuss did his best to put up a fight, but the bindings didn't allow him to do much but wiggle like a worm. It didn't take him more than a minute to maneuvered Nuss into the floor of the back seat. The whole time I stood there looking like a fool with my stomach falling so hard and fast it was a worse feeling than being in the avalanche.
I'd led us right into his scheme by coercing the men to take this sleigh. It had come from Konig, and it was all a set up for this. "What are you going to do to Nuss? You don't need him, leave him be. Just take me."
Konig rounded on me, and that dark look was back on his face. My heart skipped one beat, then two as I froze, my fight or flight instincts completely scared into submission. "You have no idea what I need. If you did, you would have come with me three days ago. Nuss knows that and I'm sure he's spun quite the tale of his chivalry and courage while painting me out to be the mud that dirties his boots."
It was hard to force my voice out in the face of Konig's anger, but I managed a whisper. "He hasn't, I swear it."
"Don't lie to me to save him. Of course he has. There was a time I thought a Snowflake could have good in them, but he proved me wrong. Now get the fuck in the sleigh before I tie you up. Unless that's what you like, pretty princess."
I still couldn't move.
He eyed me up and down and his eyes flickered over my bum, that was red from more than just the cold. "I already know you like to be watched, you like a little pain with your pleasure, and you enjoyed that spanking you got. I'm willing to bet you're getting wet right now thinking of me binding your wrists over your head and making you kneel on the floor for me."
Nuss made a series of noises that I was quite sure were threats to Konig's life, but he couldn't do anything for me now. Because Konig was right. I did want him to take control.
I wanted him to tell me exactly what to do to pleasure him, and how to do it, and when, and where. None of the same thoughts had even crossed my mind when I was with Leb, or Zucker, or Tau.
My magic rose up and sparkles of blue swirled around the two of us. It drew Konig to me and he shoved his hand into my hair and gripping a clump of it tight, tipping my head back so I could do nothing but look up at him. The second he touched me again, I understood what his gift was.
He had the power to command.
OF MICE AND MAGIC
KONIG
She was mine.
