She dropped the blankets wrapped around her to the floor, displaying her beautiful body for the two of us. I hated that my cock responded when it was clear that something was wrong. Her magic wasn't just wisps swirling around like when she'd consummated her bond with the others. It literally pulsed like a heartbeat up and down her breasts, stomach, and thighs.
"What have you done to her?"
"This is all her, the real Clara you've been too chaste to see." Konig slid his hand between her thighs, and she arched into him. "I may be giving the commands, but she's the Queen of Spirit and Magic. This is her domain."
Holy Christmas star. She hadn't been drained of her power when we'd come through the rift and into her desolate land, she'd been absorbing the magic and power that remained, and now she was drunk on it. "Clara, love, listen to me. You can't take all this magic in. It's too much, you're not ready."
Her eyes snapped open, and the red magic of her land sparkled in her irises. "You're wrong, nutcracker. Do you think you haven't prepared me? All that I'm missing now is the bond with the land of the Snowflakes and the Land of Animals, and then I can complete my mission."
She walked toward me, slowly, like a seductress come to steal my spirit. This wasn't the Clara I knew and loved.
I swallowed hard past the lump of dread in my throat to ask this question. "To usurp the Mouse Queen?"
"No." She smiled but not in that lovely uncomplicated way from her first few days here. This smile was the kind I'd seen on Zucker's face a hundred times, when he had sex on the brain. "That's never what I was here to do."
I didn't know what to do with that. Her magic was calling to that fire in my blood, and I was scared to death of this seductive magician she was becoming before my eyes. Since the night we were all born under the Christmas Star, those that fought against the tyrant magicians and later the Mouse Queen, believed the Stahlbaums were free from the taint of power the rest of their ilk. The Queen of Spirit and Magic alone wasn't corrupted and that someday her children would return and together we would bring the Winter Realm back to the peaceful land of the past.
Clara's magic was corrupting her before my eyes, spurred on my Konig's domination of her. He'd already proven he'd chose power, glory, and position over doing what was right.I could do nothing to stop her if she decided she wanted to take over the realm without the rest of us by her side.
Or just the Mouse Prince as her lone consort.
I couldn't let that happen.
I had never known what my role in her magic would be, unlike the others whose gifts were so obvious. It was why I pushed hard to have courage, be a leader, and take on the most dangerous of missions like passing through the veil between our worlds to bring her back to the Winter Realm. While I could access her power, I was no messiah or savior as my people believed.
But perhaps I could be her savior.
Only if I could access her magic, and I couldn't do that chained to the wall. "My lady, I am yours no matter your path. What would you have me do to serve you?"
Konig narrowed his eyes at me but continued to watch Clara's approach. My mouth became the desert and my blood the sun beating down on my spirit with desperate heat.
"I want only what you're unprepared to give me." She pressed her body to mine and for once in my life, I wished my clothes gone and to press my bare chest against hers.
Konig moved close, flanking her from behind. He leaned in and whispered in her ear. "Then take what you want from him, my Queen."
When she looked up into my eyes, they were clear, not clouded with magic. Perhaps I could still reach my Clara. I wasn't good with words like Tau and couldn't charm her like Zucker. But I had to try. I didn't even know what to say. But I would simply speak from my heart and rely on the power and magic of love.
She knew and understood that. Her bondings with the others had let me feel how deep her love ran. It was her life's blood, and that which made her magic so powerful. It was that which made us all believe she was the one who could save us all from the catastrophe we'd wrought upon our own realm.
Before I even had a chance to appeal to her, she grabbed the fabric of my shirt and tore it open, sending the buttons flying. Heat flared in her eyes, and she licked her lips. I shivered as she traced her fingers down my skin and fuck if it didn't feel good. Her touch was all I'd ever dreamed of. A trail of her magic sparkled down the path and spread across my skin. The pain in my arm lessened, although didn't go away completely.
She kept going down my stomach, and unbuckled my pants, tugging them down over my hips. My heart was ready to beat out of my chest and my cock stood tall and erect for her. The cool air of the barren castle ruins was no match for the heat of her body. If I wasn't chained to this wall, I would take her now and happily give up my vow of celibacy. It didn't matter anymore, none of my life as the Prince of Snowflakes meant a damn compared to the magic of being with her.
"He's dying for you to touch him. Can you see how much he wants you?" He grasped her hands in his and guided her fingers toward my cock.
Of course I wanted her, but why was Konig doing this? What was his endgame here?
Clara took a long steadying breath and dropped her hands. "No. Not without the Snowflake crown. Because with it, the sex will be meaningless to Nuss. We've waited what feels like a lifetime to make this connection between our spirits. I won't do it without the bond set in place between us."
Thank the fucking Christmas Star. I knew the real Clara was still in there, I knew it.
Konig nuzzled her ear and caressed her breasts. "Then you'll just have to come back to bed with me."
Her eyes fluttered shut and even behind her eyelids the red magic glowed. It returned to her skin and pulsed through her again. "I want the bond with you too, Prince of Animals. Where is your crown? Shall I use my magic to find them both?"
"Yes," I said.
"No," Konig growled. "The crown of the Land of Animals is buried somewhere so dark and deep, that it can never be recovered."
She spun in his grasp and placed her hand over his heart. The pulsing magic poured from her into him until he stumbled back breaking their connection. For a brief moment, I felt the anger in his spirit, but the love and confusion in hers.
"What are you hiding from us, mouse?" I yanked the chains, wanting so much to break free and stop this madness.
The anger faded from his face and was replaced with a smug smile. "Our luscious Clara's need for you is hotter than I expected. I'm going to have a lot of fun making sure you get to see over second of me fucking her, wearing this."
He reached inside of his shirt and pulled up a chain, at the end of which, the Snowflake Crown swung back and forth, sparking in the firelight.
* * *
