CHAPTER FOURTEEN
RYVEN
Juniper was trying to kill me, I was fully convinced now. If it hadn’t been the nightgown that kept me up all hours of the night writhing in pleasured agony, it was this dress that was going to never let me sleep again. I speared my fingers through my hair, slowly losing all of my sanity as I watched her deal with the priests. I couldn’t hear what was being said from here, but I had an idea. They probably wanted to see proof. Eryx craned his bald head to look at her back and I wanted nothing more than to plant a throwing knife in his eye socket. If he kept his eyes on her mark, it would have been one thing, but his gaze wandered and that disrespect wasn’t allowed. It didn’t matter if she was royalty, she was mine.
The thought stopped me in my tracks and all the blood and anger collecting in my face drained away.
Mine?
The thought seemed foreign but was far from it. I knew she was mine from the moment I laid eyes on her but there was nothing that could be done then and I didn’t think there was anything that could be done now. Alric tried to give me a pep talk, he’d tried to convince me that things would be different when we finally left this place and made it to The Last Fortressagain. But I wasn’t so sure and I wasn’t overly excited for the change. Even though it tormented me to no end that Juniper was on the other side of the wall, I enjoyed her presence in my home. The smell of her coated my belongings. When we left this place, I would be nothing but a door holder. I wouldn’t get to share something like this with her again and it caused a painful throb to shoot through my chest. I would miss her, even though I’d done my hardest to keep pushing her away. I wasn’t lying when I said she was made for more than me. There was no telling what was out there in the vast oceans and if a prince decided to make his way here, who was I to say she couldn’t have him? Have the best?
The last thing she needed was a soiled commander that had lost almost everything because he couldn’t keep his dick contained. I blew out a frustrated breath as I took a step closer to our queen. She was going to demonstrate her magic, I could practically feel it in the air. Everything was electric now. Even a few of the hairs that had been twisted and confined on Juniper’s head started to rise a little. Her lavender eyes sparkled in an otherworldly way and her red-painted lips curled at the edges. She was going to enjoy showing them who she was.
The Three were nowhere to be seen now and I wondered if they dispersed into the crowd to get closer to Juniper without being noticed as easily. My swords were heavy on my back, waiting for the moment they would be needed. My hands flexed at my sides. I hoped they would be needed soon. Which tended to be a problem considering I hadn’t stopped using them for the past few weeks. Above ground, I hunted anything and everything that had monstrous intent. Down here, the itch was increasing. The more I used the magic in the swords, the more they demanded blood. I knew that when I forged them. It was another reason I hadn’t wanted Juniper train or to forge her own. Leo, the giant, loved to forget that little tidbit. It wasprobably because he was so bloodthirsty already, he didn’t feel the magical pull that others would. The itch only continued to increase as those bloodthirsty vultures circled her. Now that I knew they were capable of murder, all bets were off. They were on my radar and I wouldn’t hesitate to slit their throats the moment they lunged, just as I had done to the apothecary owner and countless others.
Their blood meant nothing if it kept Juniper safe. I tried to remind myself that it was for the crown, that it was for the world, but I knew better. All of this was for her, not for the rest of the world. The rest of the world be damned.
I pulled my hands down my face and grimaced to myself. These were dangerous thoughts, a treacherous slope I knew would take me down.
Juniper’s smile was polite but I could see the fire in her eyes. She wanted nothing more than to take these imposters down too. Maybe I would let her kill them. I shook the thoughts away. As bloodthirsty as I was, I couldn’t let her turn into this. I couldn’t let her be haunted by her kills and the blood on her hands. It no longer bothered me but at one point it had. At one point, it consumed my life and every waking moment with guilt. There were too many to care now but I wouldn’t let her fall to my perils. She was better than this, she was better than me.
Alric remained a dutiful soldier behind her. He’d insisted I be her bodyguard tonight, but I knew better. I knew I would get distracted, I would get sloppy, and I would be jealous. I’d seen the lecherous looks that followed her about the room. She couldn’t help it and neither could I so I needed to keep my distance or I would paint this room red.
What was I becoming?
Who was I kidding? Becoming? I’d been this man for a very long time.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
JUNIPER
I took a deep breath through my nose and prayed no one saw the trembling in my hands. All that was required of me was to put on a small show of my magic, just a little one. But my magic wanted something else, it wanted big. It wanted to heal. But I couldn’t pass out. I couldn’t deplete myself with this many people around. I couldn’t give away my secret. It just needed to be big enough to placate the people until I could get it under control.
What if you never get it under control? A voice slithered into my mind and I knew it was true. There was a chance that I never had a sliver of control again. There was a chance that the magic would take over and I would have no say in anything ever again.
I rolled my head on my shoulders and stretched my neck out. I could do this.
Did I need to touch the soil? I knew the answer before I bent down to the dirt. I didn’t need to do anything. The magic was there, it could feel the decay in the room. It could feel the decay in the world. It knew what to fix.
My eyes focused on a small spot between my feet and I imagined a little vine sprouting from the earth. Within seconds that’s exactly what happened. But instead of being small, it wasas thick as my leg, and instead of sprouting… it exploded up before me.
There was a collective gasp around the room and the priests before me stumbled back in shock. I clenched my fists at my sides as a wave of dizziness overtook me. The vine snapped to attention before me and stopped growing. It was easily the size of Leo, possibly bigger, but it grew no more. I huffed out a breath and smoothed the concentration from my face.
“Is this what you were wanting?”
Lex raked his fingers through his brown hair. “Yes, I would imagine this would suffice.”
I couldn’t have stopped the grin even if I wanted to. I didn’t trust these men, even Alric’s own father, but I was pleased with their shock. Something about it made me giddy with excitement. “I guess this calls for the celebration then!”
The music picked up and anything else I could have said was drowned out. I didn’t mind. I was tired of the politics, I was sick of trying to impress these murderous fools. All I wanted was to enjoy myself, especially since I’d conjured magic without losing consciousness. It was a cause for celebration. I was in control and I would do what it took to keep it that way.
A warm fingerslithered down the mark on my back and I shivered, I knew exactly who it was. It hadn’t taken me long to find a dark corner and to watch the people enjoy themselves. Alric was nearby but in the soft lighting. He’d left me to my solitude, which I was grateful for. But a few minutes ago, I watched him slip away, which only meant one thing.
“I haven’t seen this yet,” Ryven’s voice washed over the back of my neck and I fought myself from pressing back into him. I wanted nothing more than to feel the rough edges of him. I wanted nothing more than to replay that night even if we had fought, even if things weren’t perfect. I was drawn to him in a way I didn’t need to be, but damn it, I wasn’t going to fight it either.
“If you’d stayed around you would have had lots of opportunities to do so,” My voice was hard even though I wanted to melt into his hands. I was also lying but he didn’t need to know that. The mark appeared a few days ago, and it was slow coming. Even now I knew it wasn’t in its full glory. You could hardly tell what it was. It seemed like a bunch of well-placed freckles and a few lines. I imagined in a few weeks it would be fully manifested. It was turning into something, I just didn’t know what. I guessed it was coming in with my magic. The more I used my magic, the more the mark showed. It was only a guess, but the best one yet. No one else knew or had the answers I was looking for.
“I’m sorry,” His voice was a whisper and goosebumps erupted on my skin. “I shouldn’t have run away. I shouldn’t have said the things I did. I should have stayed, I shouldn’t have claimed you like I wanted to. But there’s a gallant part of me that knows you deserve better than I. I wanted to make sure you knew everything that was a possibility for your future. I didn’t want you to waste it all away for the likes of me.”
