He begins to move. It’s slow but powerful. I see stars with every thrust. There is a force, a finality here. He’s unhurried but utterly demanding. My fingers tangle in his hair, and I pull his head down so that his forehead rests on mine. “Harder,”

  I whisper, and he complies. He lands like hammer blows on an anvil, driving out all thought. “Come for me,”

  Kenric orders, his voice a dark command. His hand slips between us, rubbing in tight, demanding circles. “Now, Víl?. Now!”

  The order sends me over the edge, screaming his name. Still clinging to him, my back arches off the bed. Kenric groans as his own release crashes over him. He’s buried himself to the hilt, as I mewl at the intensity of it. For a long moment, neither of us moves. Our breathing is ragged, and we’re both trembling from the aftershocks. There’s something different in his eyes now. It's more than just satisfaction. It’s something akin to awe. A slow smile curves his lips.

  He presses a kiss to my forehead, “Better now?”

  I sigh and nod. It is better now. Their whole ritual is meant to demean, to break. It isn’t okay. It might never be okay, but this is better than that. No wonder these humans struggle so. If this is how all their marriages begin, it’s no surprise there’s not that much feeling in them. Kenric was right. Best to replace all that with this, with everything that’s the opposite of whatever that was. The emotion, the connection that’s anything but a financial transaction.

  We settle in, snuggling and talking about our upcoming honeymoon. He tells me of the mountains around the place he wants to take me. It seems he spent time there as a child. I’ve heard from Eldert what Kenric was like as a child. This place seems to hold more happy memories for him. It will be nice to be away from the palace. The constant surveillance, the gossip, the intensity of it all. I don’t spend that much time in the Fey court, where I’ve known everyone for ages. I’m not overly fond of this human court.

  Finally, warm and content, we doze off. The next morning, as we’re preparing to leave, Goarreit Nidjam, the exchequer to the king, shows up, just as we’re loading the carriages. We’re nearly ready to depart, but Goarreit won’t take no for an answer. He’s demanding that Kenric go with him right away to straighten out some snafu with some of the wedding expenses. Kenric gives me a look. We all know what this means. Both my ladies and my honor guard step closer.

  “Go back to the rooms and wait for me,” Kenric says, growling with frustration. Goarreit at least has the grace to be embarrassed by it, but it is not enough to deter him from Oskar’s subterfuge.

  Emily looks at Kenric and replies, “We’ll get her back there safely.”

  Kenric nods and follows Goarreit away. We turn and begin our dash back to the rooms we’ve been assigned.

  Emily looks at me and grimaces, “That was fast. He usually waits until well after the wedding.”

  “Too fast,” Melina grumbles.

  Mila nods, “So it begins.”

  Pia agrees with both of them, “I’ve never seen him act this quickly with anyone.”

  Larissa gives me a look of sympathy and loops her arm into mine. The gesture of protection is touching, under the circumstances. We’re walking as fast as we can without causing a scene as we head back to our rooms in the palace. We reach the rooms, but just as Usami is closing the door, Oskar throws it open. I frown at Oskar and signal my honor guard to hold. Oskar barges in and looks around.

  “It is the morning after my wedding, you lecherous sot. How dare you show up the very next day? You debauched, worthless excuse of a man. You think being King entitles you to a taste of every woman who passes through these halls? You don’t care who you hurt as long as you get to wet your wick. I despise you. I don’t know why Grethe hasn’t put you out of everyone’s misery. If you try what I think you’re about to try, you won’t like how I handle it. No matter who I’ve wed, I am still a Princess of the Fey of Hloir? Aralli?.”

  He spins once, inspecting the renovated rooms. “These rooms look lovely. Perhaps I’ll hire them to do the royal apartments after all.”

  “I think you should,” I reply calmly, “I’m certain they’d do an amazing job. Probably even more amazing with a proper budget, Your Majesty.”

  Oskar smirks at me as he prowls toward me. “You know I didn’t come here to talk about your rooms. You and I need to reach an agreement.”

  “An agreement for what, Your Royal Highness?” I ask, but the coldness in my voice isn’t lost on Oskar.

  Oskar’s face shifts into a leer, before the expression is carefully wiped away. “Right to the point, then,”

  Oskar says with a shrug. When I don’t respond, he steps toward me and leans over me, using his size in an attempt to intimidate me. “You need protection. Almost all of the dukes are interested. I can put them off.”

  I’ve faced far larger and worse things than you, you obstreperous ass. You’d need to be more powerful than Ellisar. Have more magic than I do. Be far more intelligent than you are.

  Oskar has come here alone. His Royal Guards aren’t present. That can only mean one thing. He’s about to try something. He sent Kenric away with oodles of witnesses. No matter what I do to him, Kenric will be safe. I start planning how to handle Oskar in a way that Oskar won’t dare disclose, but that should put him off me, perhaps permanently, without killing him. If Oskar were slightly smarter or even more versed in dealing with Fey, he’d leave me be and do his best to stay out of my path.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  Oskar isn’t a tenth as smart as he thinks he is.

  His “devious” plots are about as hard to see through as pan of water. I’m on to you already, you imbecile of a king. I cock my head and study Oskar the way a naturalist would observe a curious bug.

  “How exactly do you propose to protect me?” I ask him.

  Oskar’s smirk grows. “Come now, Víl?. I was told you were quite intelligent.”

  I give him a toothy grin, not the friendly, quick flash, but the full toothy smile of impending violence. We’ll see if he remembers what that means among the Fey. He doesn’t and takes my grin as permission to step closer.

  Oskar grins back, “It pains me to see Kenric depart on such a tedious, urgent matter. But such is the price of keeping a royal treasury solvent. However, your own well-being now occupies my mind, my dear Víl?.”

  I smile at him calmly. “Your concern is appreciated, Your Majesty, but I can assure you that it is wasted. I have always been and will always be quite safe.”

  Oskar chuckles and speaks down to me as if I were a child. “This is not Ellisar’s court. This is the court of Centis. Kenric’s absence already emboldens some of the dukes. They are fearful men.”

  Yes, this is definitely the dusty little backwater, retrograde kingdom of Centis. Oskar would weep with envy at Ellisar's palace. He’d die of embarrassment at how impoverished and backward this place is, by comparison. Ellisar doesn’t stand on pomp and ceremony because he has real power. Oskar is nigh on powerless as kings go. He’s never known anything else, so he doesn’t see it.

  I snort in derision, “Ah… because these mighty dukes of Centis are afraid of a single Fey, you cannot guarantee their conduct? Do I have the right of it, Your Majesty?"

  Oskar nods in agreement. “Yes, that sums it up nicely."

  I smile at Oskar. “I am quite familiar with the nature of fearful men, Your Majesty. They are easily dealt with.”

  So you admit that you’re so weak that you can’t control your own dukes. Interesting.

  Fearful men are not known for their bravery. Usually, all it takes is a good show of force to make them piss themselves. Once they find that they need clean undergarments, they go away. Once they realize that I am far worse than their worst nightmares, they will leave me alone. I know exactly how to handle these dukes.

  Oskar shakes his head. “No, that won’t do. That is exactly what I must avoid. For Kenric’s sake. If one of the dukes were to move against you and you were forced to defend yourself…”

  I give Oskar a look and cut him off. “If I am forced to defend myself, I am certain that my king could be persuaded to overlook it as long as whatever punishment you impose is enough to assure him of my continued safety,”

  I reply. The unspoken message here is that I will force you to punish them, and that punishment will fit whatever transgression they have committed. If you don’t, I’ll be forced to take matters into my own hands. That’s not something you want to force me to do.

  I tend to solve problems with Lantecari or my claws. Either one tends to work well and puts an end to the foolishness. I sense Oskar is about to try something.

  I frown at him and give him the Fey proverb, “Tread the wrong path, and the toll will be your true name. Tell that to your dukes.”

  Oskar looks puzzled before he tries again, “I really must insist that you take up residence in the Royal Summer Pavilion. It’s heavily guarded and far from the political hotbed here in Dobile.”

  “You want me out of the palace,” I reply flatly.

  Oskar does his best to be persuasive, “It would be a sanctuary for you until Kenric returns.”

  A hint of iron creeps into my voice. “Kenric has gone to settle some wedding expenses with the exchequer. I will have him back here within the hour or I will have have someone’s blood,” I reply.

  I spin away from Oskar and shoo all my ladies out. They leave reluctantly, with many questioning looks. When they’ve shut the door, I turn back to face Oskar with only my honor guard present.

  I snort, “You want to shove me into a pretty, gilded cage, more like. I won’t have it. Kenric bid me stay here, and here I shall remain. Leaving now would only incite the dukes further. They would think that I am afraid of them and that I am weak. I am neither, I assure you.”

  Oskar leans in, his veneer of courtesy cracking slightly. “It signals wisdom, Víl?. It gives me the political means to quell those greedy bastards.”

  Laughing, I look at Oskar, “How does my supposed flight benefit you politically? It does not.”

  “Is he really this much of a fool? No wonder the dukes manipulate him so easily. He cares for nothing other than what he wants in the moment. What a selfish, self-important, entitled asshat. How is this man the king of anything? I wouldn’t let him run the stables, much less an entire country. No wonder they’re illiterate, impoverished, and backward. Look at who’s in charge. Like draws like, so they say. Centis is much like its king.”

  Oskar continues to try to press his point, “They must not have an excuse to claim you are plotting in my court. Do this for Kenric’s peace of mind.”

  I shake my head, “What plotting? I have avoided you, and most of the rest of your court avoids me. Last I checked, a plot requires more than a single participant. I am not here to plot. I am Ellisar’s ambassador and personal emissary to Centis. I am here as a symbol of your alliance with Ellisar, nothing more but certainly nothing less.”

  Oskar tries again, “They’re powerful men…”

  I cut him off, “Forgive me for stating the obvious, but if you, the king, are in such a tenuous position that you cannot control your dukes, you need strong allies. An ally who is so weak as to flee at the first sign of some disgruntled dukes would not serve your interests well at all. What you need now, from me, more than anything else, is a show of strength from me. Seeing me hiding in my skirts like some frightened child serves neither of us."

  “Am I plotting? Definitely, but not what anyone, other than perhaps Grethe, would suspect. The only thing I am plotting is how to get away from you and keep you away from me. Preferably permanently. I don’t even want to have to see you in the hallway. I don’t want to kill you because then I have to deal with that drunk lout Jannick. No one wants Jannick on the throne, least of all me. He’s a mean drunk and stupidly unpredictable. You, Oskar, are stupidly predictable, which makes you marginally more tolerable.”

  “Furthermore, I don’t like you. Not even a little. I despise you for the things you’ve done. For what you’ve inflicted on all these women. After what you did to Lilli and Maria, and Grethe, your own wife. I have scraped better things than you off the bottom of my boot. I won’t stand for you coming here, thinking you can use me for your own ends. You will not get your hands on whatever this thing is between me and Kenric. I’m still not sure what to call it – love, obsession, lust, craving. Maybe all of that.”

  “I know in my bones that you’d destroy it like you have so many other marriages. I won’t let it happen. I won’t have it. I’d kill you first and take your place before that happens. I don’t care what I have to do to stop it. You may be the king in this place, but you are not my king. Not even Ellisar the Asshat would stoop to this kind of behavior. If I won’t let a male I’ve known for seven centuries get away with that. I’m certainly not going to let some overweening human king try it. Think again, little man.”

  What do you to stop Oskar? Let me know in the comments...