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“My apologies,” he replied. “Much is happening. Much on my mind.”
“Of course,” Carrington murmured, reaching for his wine.
The priest did the same.
While doing it, he felt someone’s regard and turned his attention toward that sensation.
Melisse, the queen’s lieutenant, was studying him.
“You are well?” she asked quietly.
She did not care if he was well.
She might have sensed he’d been using magic. He had a habit of cloaking it, even around his own people. But he didn’t often use it around a Nadirii.
Perhaps it was he who had been unwise.
“Quite well, my friend,” he murmured.
She tipped her head to him and bent to her plate.
He took a few bites, a few sips, made a little conversation.
And only then did he look back to True…and Farah.
Farah was turned to her prince.
“I don’t trust him,” she whispered.
“The Go’Doan are harmless, sweets,” True replied. “Or at least, he is.”
“You know my father was Go’Doan,” she returned.
“Don’t put yourself in that place, Farah,” he said gently. “They are all not your father.”
“I also felt what I felt earlier, True,” she declared. “Do you think this is a coincidence, what I felt coming from him, and feeling that earlier?”
“There are some very powerful witches in this room, as well as all who fulfill the prophecy,” he noted. “That would be an explanation, wouldn’t it?”
“Perhaps,” she murmured.
“Emotions are heightened. Much is happening. It would not be outlandish to think you’re responding to that,” True assured.
“I suppose.” Farah didn’t sound convinced. “We’ll talk more of it. Later.”
“When he’s not around?” True sounded teasing.
Farah smiled at him. “Just.”
True smiled back.
She adjusted her attention and the priest sensed it was coming back to him.
So he returned his attention to his dinner companions.
He did it making a decision.
He would travel the astral plane that very night and tell his lover to continue with the rituals, simply without his attendance…for a time. The priest would return to their work in the forest as swiftly as he could when this threat was cleared.
As for the threat.
It would be them.
Farah and True.
Or, specifically…
Farah.
He took up his wine, smiled warmly at Johan Mattson, father of Silence, took a sip and set it aside contentedly in order to focus on his food.
He was starving.
22
The Retribution
Princess Serena
Guest Suite, Second Floor, East Corridor, Catrame Palace, Fire City
FIRENZE
The Mystic withdrew his mouth from between her legs before she climaxed.
Serena did not like that.
Not at all.
He was talented down there.
Exceptionally so.
And she would have more.
“I’m not finished,” she snapped, as he rose up to his knees between her legs.
“I am,” he murmured, meaning what he had been doing.
Not what they were in the throes of doing.
She knew this when he reached toward her.
She reached toward him as well, but her aim was different.
Thus, she grasped tight hold of his hard cock, pleased to hear his pained grunt.
Keeping hold, she got up on her own knees and placed her face an inch from his.
She gave his shaft a rough tug, got another grunt, and staring into his unusually tilted black eyes, she demanded, “You will finish what you start.”
“Yes,” he replied. “I will.”
Her wrist was then captured, and he pulled his hips away, freeing himself from her hold. He veered to the side as his other hand went into her back, shoving her down.
His hand at her wrist twisted it behind her back and then drew it up.
Harshly.
She gasped in pain against the silks over the mattress that were to her face as he kicked her knees apart with one of his own.
She’d assumed wrongly.
He was not a Dellish peasant, easily subdued and made submissive.
He was also not a Firenz servant, whose wish would naturally be at her command.
He was not simply a man confused at a strong woman who demanded her own needs be met and careful in his treatment of her lest he “harm” her.
He was one of Mars’s Trusted Ones. The Firenz king’s guard that was legendary throughout all the lands.
In other words, he was the best of the best of warriors in his realm.
As was she.
And as the pain snaked through her shoulder as he drew her wrist farther up her back, she was realizing her mistake.
She tried to push up on her free hand, but it caused significantly more pain.
Therefore, with only one hold on her, he had total control.
And when she felt the tip of his cock glide through her wet, she suddenly didn’t mind.
He slammed inside.
Her hair went flying as her head jerked back.
Then he used her.
By the goddess.
He used her.
“Would you care to climax?” he asked casually, driving inside.
“Y-yes,” she whispered, rearing back into his thrusts, her arm still caught behind her, her nipples hard, painful points, the walls of her tightening as his cock beat inside.
He pulled out, let her wrist go, twisted her to her back and caught her ankles tight in his grip, lifting them high so her arse left the bed.
Then he spread them wide.
He set one on his shoulder to put a hand between them, his long cock penetrated her again and she clenched her teeth at the satisfaction of having him back.
He took hold of the ankle he’d released, and she lost herself in the show of him thrusting inside.
No Dellish peasant had that chest.
Those shoulders.
Not even the pleasing Firenz servants had his magnificence.
And his face…
“Touch yourself,” he ordered.
She…
Perform for…
Him?
“You,” she returned the command, though it didn’t sound very commanding, as it was breathless.
He let loose her ankle, reached between them and pinched her clit brutally.
Her lower half spasmed and her eyes rolled into her head in ecstasy.
Hand back to her ankle, he grunted, “You.”
Serena rolled her eyes again to him.
“No,” she challenged, “You.”
He pulled out, let go of her ankles, and she cried out when he reached to her, lifted her by the throat, whipped his legs around so that he was seated on the edge of the mattress, and adjusted his hold to the back of her neck.
She was then shoved face first into the bed, her bottom half over his thighs.
His hand came down and the crack to her arse broke through the room.
“Oh my goddess,” she breathed, trembling at the same time pushing up at his hold on her neck. “Release me,” she demanded.
He struck her again.
Her voice was thick when she repeated, “Release me.”
And he spanked her again.
And again.
And again.
After more, Serena inched her legs apart in an eager invitation, feeling her wet dripping onto his thighs.
“Please,” she begged.
She had no idea what she was begging for, but whatever he wanted, she knew she would give it to him.
It was then she found herself on her knees on the floor with the Mystic standing in front of her with legs planted wide, thrusting his cock into her mouth.
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She wrapped her fingers around his arse and, in a daze, her eyes drifted up to his handsome face.
He took hold of her hair and rumbled, “You’ll swallow.”
She nodded her head, suckling desperately, clutching the tight globes of his sculpted arse.
He held her gaze as he used her mouth and only closed his eyes mere moments before he flooded her throat with his seed.
She swallowed it down greedily.
He pulled out, yanked her up with a hand under her arm and held her casually at the waist as he shoved his hand between her legs and worked her clit perfunctorily until she orgasmed.
Spectacularly.
Clutching onto him, crying out her pleasure, her knees weakening.
The best.
Rapture.
She was not quite finished before he tossed her to the bed.
He moved to his leathers scattered on the floor.
She pushed a hand between her legs and cupped there in an effort to hold what he’d given her to herself.
“I’ll have you again,” she whispered words she’d never said to a man in her life.
“Maybe.” His eyes came to her. “We shall see.”
He finished dressing and, carrying his sandals, he walked out of the room without looking back.
She felt the burn in her backside, the quivering at her nub, the wet between her legs, her blood still singing in her veins, her eyelids heavy, her mind hazed.
She would have him again.
Or allow him to have her again.
She would.
And she would do whatever she had to do to make that so.
Because…
She had to.
King Mars Laches
King’s Study, First Floor, East Corridor, Catrame Palace
FIRENZE
Mars looked from Cassius seated across his desk from him in his study to the door as Chu walked in, carrying his sandals.
Mars smiled.
Chu sat down in the seat next to Cassius, tossed his sandals to the floor between his feet, and stated, “She is mine,” before bending to lace his sandals on.
Mars looked to Cassius.
Cassius was studying Chu.
“Just once?” Cass asked skeptically.
Chu did not straighten from his laces as he turned his head and twisted his neck to look up at Cass.
“Yes.”
After that, he returned his attention to what he was doing at his feet.
Cass sat back and murmured, “The mighty Serena felled by one taste of cock.”
“She did indeed have one taste of cock, and she swallowed my seed when she did.”
Cass’s eyebrows flew up.
Mars beat back laughter.
“Though, in her cunt, she had two tastes of cock, her arse took a tanning that had her dripping, so by the time I thrust in her face,” done with his laces, Chu sat up, “she would have paid to gulp down my seed.”
“You spanked Serena of the Nadirii,” Cass said.
“Yes,” Chu confirmed.
“You spanked Serena of the Nadirii,” Cass repeated.
As his brother had answered that, he didn’t do it again.
It was then, Mars arrested for Cassius started laughing.
It was not loud or raucous.
But it was genuine laughter and Mars had not seen that from his friend in six years.
Cass sobered and requested, “Please tell me she’s not good in bed.”
“She was greedy and selfish. Until I made her neither,” Chu replied.
Mars grinned.
Cass grinned as well.
Something else, it being authentic, Mars had not seen in some time.
“In the end, she was passable,” Chu finished.
“We’ll need to ask you to go at her again,” Mars told his Trusted.
“She has a greedy cunt, she also has a greedy mouth.” Chu shrugged. “This will not be a hardship.”
Chu turned his attention to Cassius.
“This transgression against you,” he began. “How deep does it lie?”
“It isn’t against me,” Cass returned. “It was against her sister.”
“It is known wide she inflicted the wound that killed your brother,” Chu noted.
“It is also known wide that Trajan angled for that battle, hiring ten of the most powerful sorcerers in the land, at great expense, to cast in an attempt to bring down The Enchantments after the return was denied of five women who were lovers or servants of wealthy men in Airen. They had gone to the Nadirii for refuge. These women were not kidnapped and held hostage. They escaped to make themselves safe. It would have been easy to let that situation lie. He did not. He attacked. Thus he sealed his own fate. In a number of ways.”
“So you seek retribution for a bride you barely know?” Chu inquired dubiously.
Cassius stared intently at Chu before he spoke.
“It is not my destiny to take a mate. It is my destiny to take a mate while I build a pre-determined family. I’d barely said a few words to the woman who would share my bed, give me children and be mother to my daughter, before Serena made a move to drive a wedge between us. Her venom was aimed at me, perhaps so her sister would not realize the extent of the envy she holds for her sibling. I did not miss this. Her attack was on Elena. I could countenance an attack on me and move on from it without a thought. But if you attack what’s mine, if you attack my family, you will endure my retribution. It will be swift. Creative,” he indicated Chu with a nod of his head, “if need be. And finally, it will be thorough.”
“And what do you wish from this once I make her slave to my cock?” Chu asked.
“I’ve no idea,” Cassius murmured. “Mars suggested you and your skills. It seemed a good suggestion for the likes of Serena. She would never see that coming. But I haven’t thought that far ahead yet.”
Chu stood from the chair, saying, “When you know, tell me. Now I’m off to test my tethers.”
Mars chuckled.
Cassius grinned at his calf that was up, his ankle resting on his knee.
And with that, Mars’s man strode out.
Cassius gave Mars his attention.
“How did you know that would work?” he asked.
Mars sat back. “I didn’t know. But there are two sides to every coin. You can’t know what you’ll get when a coin is flipped. But there was no harm exploring. Fortunately, the coin flipped in our favor.”
Cassius nodded before his expression turned severe.
“She will not relent on Elena,” he said.
“Of course she won’t,” Mars agreed. “Her jealousy consumes her. I noted this during the parade when Elena rode on her own. Serena watched her with the ill-concealed need to control her bow so she didn’t take aim at her mother’s other daughter.”
Mars watched Cassius’s mouth grow tight.
He had not noticed that.
He had been too busy watching Elena.
“She knows her mother’s favorite, Cass,” Mars continued. “She undoubtedly knows, if the prophecy did not need to be brought about, Serena would be relegated to general, and Elena would assume the role of queen. It has happened before in Nadirii history. They are not bound to whatever whims the fates decree for the ascension of a royal line.”
“This is known to me, obviously,” Cass muttered.
It would be.
It was known to everybody.
Though there might be something not known to Cass.
“I watched her tonight as well, Cassius. She’s covetous of what her sister will earn from you. And I don’t think it’s the fact that, clearly, she wishes a man who can take charge of at least some things in her life.”
Cass shook his head. “That’s absurd.”
“She would not make a good ruler. She is not a good sister. Or perhaps a good daughter. But she is a good general. As are you.”
“So you think this draws her to me?” Cass asked with disbelief.
“I think I caught
her watching you with Elena at dinner and I did it often. Silence saw me and noted it herself. You were involved with Elena. But we were not the only ones who noted it. Ophelia does not miss much. She did not miss that.”
“Bloody hell,” Cass muttered.
“Perhaps Serena knows she’ll never have any kind of relationship with anyone meaningful in her life, man, mother or sister. She holds too much hate. For men, though Nadirii have long since started to take lovers, partners, even husbands. For her mother, for not loving her as much as her sister. And for that sister, for earning the love of the mother. And now, it may be, she’s admired you from afar and it cannot be escaped she won’t have you, but her sister will.”
“Brilliant,” Cass sighed.
“It is not lost on me, my brother,” Mars started quietly, “that you share some of the same unrests in your life as your intended.”
“Trajan,” Cassius said.
“Yes,” Mars agreed. “Your father did not demonstrate his preferences in a son, as probably Ophelia doesn’t either. But if those preferences are strong, they’ll be felt by a child.”
“Agreed.”
“And Farah and True share weak fathers,” Mars remarked.
“I’ve noted that,” Cassius said. “And what do you share with wee Silence?”
Mars shook his head. “I’ve no idea. My father was good. Her father is not. My mother is good. Her mother is torn. Though I have no siblings, and neither does she. But this is not a foundation for a strong bond, an understanding of each other, the basis from which to build something meaningful, as you have with Elena, as True has with Farah.”
“I suppose you’ll enjoy finding out.”
Mars was enjoying quite a bit about his little monkey.
Thinking of his bride, he became serious. “Tonight, she felt unrest in the veil.”
“All the intendeds are gathered, Mars. And tonight, for the first time, we were in close proximity for an extended period of time. It’s my understanding this is what’s supposed to happen.”
“This is what Nandra says.”
Cassius raised his brows. “You disagree?”
“It disturbed my Silence,” he grunted.
Cass sat for a moment, immobile.
And then again came forth his laughter.
After he expended it, Cassius stated, “I’ve never thought on it. If I had, I would have pictured you with a lush Firenz beauty. Like the Mar-el, your finding the most exquisite female in your land and taking her to wife. Though now, I see, you found beauty of another sort from another land and you are glad of it. So I am glad of it for you.”