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And Mars would have Basil with me there, if I desired it.
And he would have other women, if he desired it.
Other women, not me.
Other women he’d put his mouth between their legs giving them what he just gave me.
Women who were not me.
And put other things between their legs.
Legs that were not mine.
“Silence?” he called, and when he did, I realized we were well down the hall.
I looked up at him.
His expression grew gentle, and with us still walking, he bent and kissed the top of my head.
When he straightened, he murmured, “My bride has had a full night. I must get her to bed so she will be ready for her next.”
It was true.
I’d had a full night.
But right then, I had a full head.
I was in Firenze.
I would be their queen.
Which was their king’s wife.
This was what they did.
I’d heard this whispered about and I remembered my mother saying they were not faithful to their spouses.
But I had forgotten.
And at the piercing ceremony, it was spoken of the intimacy of listening to, thinking of, being honest with your husband.
Nothing, however, was mentioned about the body. These intimacies were solely of the heart and mind.
That was all.
I hadn’t thought about it then.
I was thinking about it now.
At my door, Mars took me in his arms and kissed me deeply, and for a glorious moment, I forgot what I’d just remembered.
I remembered again when he broke away and said, “I’ll see you at breakfast, amore.”
“Yes,” I replied.
“Goodnight, my Silence.”
“Goodnight, Mars.” Oh dear. What was etiquette? There had to be some etiquette after someone gave you a climax. “And thank you too,” I tried.
That got another big smile and dancing eyes before he replied, “Anytime,” his lips again came to mine, and he growled, “As often as you like, mio ardente.”
He brushed our lips, lifted away, opened my door, and scooted me through himself with a hand at my behind.
Like the night before, he was gazing down at me indulgently as I closed the door on him.
When I had it closed, I rested my forehead against it.
I felt Tril coming toward me.
“Silence, are you all right? Did things go well with your groom?”
“I would…like to prepare for bed on my own tonight, Tril,” I said quietly to the door.
I felt her hand light on my back.
“Oh no, my girl,” she whispered, sounding distraught. “Did he hurt you?”
“No, it was beautiful.”
“Your hair is disheveled. Did he—?”
“Please, Tril,” I begged.
“I don’t—”
I turned my head to her. “Can you unbutton me? And then I need to be at my thoughts.”
Her face screwed up. “Did he scare you?”
“No.”
“Silence, love, talk to me.”
I shook my head. “I just really need to think. Tonight was quite a bit. This country is not a’tall like our own, Tril. And tonight, that was made very clear to me.”
She examined my face, fortunately found what she needed to find, then nodded.
“I shall help you with your buttons. Come to the dressing room. Let’s get you sorted. And then, if you should need me, as ever, I am right next door.”
I loved my Tril.
She took my hand and we walked together to the dressing room.
And just like Tril, she gave me what I needed, unbuttoning my gown and leaving me.
I saw to my toilette, donned a nightgown, and entered my room, seeing that Tril had left only the lamps by my bed to blow out.
I did this one by one, then stretched out under the silks, staring at the dark ceiling.
I had nothing to give.
I came with a dowry Mars did not need for he had gold and silver and jewels and hides laid at his feet.
I had no palace.
I had no title he would want.
I certainly had no kingdom.
I was but a girl with a little bit of magic that prophecy foretold might do something extraordinary.
At the side of her king.
It wasn’t even just me who would do it.
But me being a part of Mars, and a part of six others.
I was not nothing.
I was also not anything.
I had never been anything.
Not really.
No friends.
Few suitors.
Even my father only found use for me after twenty-three years when a curse seemed to be brewing under the earth.
And Mars had told me that he would like only me for a time.
And then he wanted others.
And he would have them because he was Firenz. He was king. This was his country, his world, his way.
I would have to watch him with other women, touching them as he touched me, kissing them as he kissed me, putting his mouth where he’d given me so much that night.
The world was indeed upside down.
The Beast rising.
Cassius’s regency.
Carrington’s conniving.
A Nadirii to be wed to an Airenzian.
Two Dellish to be wed to Firenz.
But through that, I had Mars.
And going forth, I would still have him.
But he wouldn’t be mine.
I had come to Firenze with nothing that was mine.
And, even wed to a powerful king, I would go forward with nothing that was mine.
On that thought, the tears started falling.
And with them still rolling down my temples, I turned to my side, curled into myself, let them flow, and fell asleep with only their company.
All my life, I did not sleep well even in my bed in the Arbor.
Though, after the first days there, I had slept well in my bed in Catrame Palace.
Therefore, I did not know what woke me that night. Feeling distressed. Unsettled. Restless after weeping.
I was just glad I did.
Even if it changed everything.
Everything about me.
Everything about everything.
But my only other choice of outcome that night was not to be abided.
It was the whisper of the screen at the window being set down that I heard.
But it was the feel of the air that made me freeze.
This before I shouted shrilly, “Tril! Get help!”
I then rolled off the bed in the opposite direction to where I heard the noise (which was sadly farther away from the door).
I landed on my knees, my hand at the same time reaching to the dresser beside the bed where I kept a small dagger True had given me.
It had a beautifully veined malachite in the hilt.
And True had told me never to be without it.
I didn’t carry it on my person.
But I always kept it close, mostly, until that moment, simply because it had been a gift from True.
“Get help, Tril!” I yelled, hoping to all the gods she heard me, starting to open the drawer.
I didn’t get my hand on the dagger.
A man was on me.
I screamed as he threw me to my back, straddled me, his hands closing around my neck.
It was then I choked, clawed at his arms, kicked out my feet, bucked my hips, my mouth wide open, trying to pull in breath.
I tried to twist, to turn, vaguely hearing feet hit floor.
Coming in the window.
Not just him.
Others.
I opened and closed my mouth, fighting for breath and fighting to scream.
And I heard the loud, welcome clang of steel hitting steel.
Tril got help.
Oh, I loved my Tril.
The room filled with coral light, like a starburst, before it started fading, and the sounds of a swordfight renewed my strength.
And as another starburst filled the air, more sounds of steel clashing rang through it, I focused all my concentration on getting those hands from my neck, when suddenly, I felt a thrill up my spine.
One I didn’t call.
And the man straddling me grunted in surprise before he released me.
I drew in a much-needed, burning breath.
The man above me was lifting his hands in the front of him.
This right before they burst into flame.
I would have stared in shock.
But this was a scant second before his head left his shoulders.
Blood sprayed over me before the heavy weight of his headless body fell on me.
It was almost instantly shoved off, I had a hand wrenching my upper arm, pulling me up, and I heard Elena shouting, “Run, Silence, run!”
In another coral starburst, she let me go, but I stood frozen at all that was happening. Thus, I saw her engage with a man taller and larger than her, he was dressed in all black, a mask covered his head and face, all but his eyes, their swords slicing through the air, and connecting.
And another starburst showed Serena at the end of the bed, engaged with two men wearing black.
As well as Ophelia inside the door, seemingly holding four back.
Aramus rushed past Ophelia, a long saber in one hand, a curved blade that looked like a handheld sickle in the other. He arrived slashing with one and stabbing with the other at anything moving that wore black.
And the room was filled with men wearing black.
With more coming in the window.
The one Elena was fighting fell to the ground at my feet and she screamed, “Silence, run!” as she leaped on the bed, dashed across it, jumped off and engaged a villain on the other side.
It was then, True stormed in with broadsword swinging.
Which was when I turned to my dresser, yanked open the drawer, pulled out the dagger, and as Elena had done, I leaped on the bed (likely not as gracefully), nearly fell over running across it…
I then stabbed the man she was fighting in the shoulder, yanked it out, stabbed again and again, quickly.
He bellowed, turned, a beefy arm struck me, and I slammed into the headstead, cracking my skull against the wall.
Elena took that opportunity to gut him.
Another coral flash filled the room, and vaguely I realized how clever that was as I was temporarily blinded with it, just as anyone but the Nadirii surely were. It gave them a view of the room at the same time crippling their opponents, if momentarily, still effectively.
I saw in the waning flash the man Elena gutted slumping forward.
Another kill for the Nadirii.
Oh gods.
However, he did this as a man who’d just come through the window at Elena’s back began to raise his broadsword two-handed toward the ceiling.
I opened my mouth to scream a warning…
But an animal roar exploded through the room as the very air lit with the stars of a clear sky in midnight.
Cassius had entered the fray, fighting toward Elena.
But thank the gods, True was already there.
He caught the downward swing aimed at the Nadirii.
She whirled, and as True held the villain’s sword high with his own, she jerked her arm back and speared the rogue through the stomach, drawing up.
In that moment, I let out a screech as I was torn from the bed, an arm around my throat from the back, that arm dragging me rearward.
I lifted my dagger over my shoulder and brought it down, again experiencing the sickening feeling as it stabbed through the flesh of his shoulder.
He dropped me, and I was unprepared, so when my weight hit my ankles, they gave way and I fell to my knees.
Steel clashed.
Men and Nadirii grunted.
Coral flashed in the air.
The stars sparkled midnight as the edges of the room started to creep with trails of a peculiar green, like vines unfurling, and I was sure to be going mad as we were nowhere near water, but I could swear I heard waves crashing.
The man had me bent to me, and I dropped to a hand to evade him, stabbing him in his calf.
He howled, caught my hair, pulled me up, and I cried out again, this time in pain as he started dragging me toward a screened window just as the screen burst forth and another man wearing black surged through.
“Silence!” True shouted.
I did the only thing I could do.
I struck out at everything with my dagger, catching flesh, but not nearly enough.
He was almost to the window, lifting me by my hair as if to throw me out.
This was when the green disappeared.
The stars blinked out.
The coral starburst ceased.
The sound of crashing waves ended.
And the room lit brightly.
It lit blood red with what appeared to be eruptions of licks of flame.
Licks of flame that erupted in midair.
This happened right before a loud, thunderous snarl rent the air.
The man who had me froze.
It seemed the whole world froze.
And then Mars was there. His big body two-fisting a gigantic sword, he twisted at the waist and let fly, cutting the man who had me in half.
In.
Half.
Torso plummeting one way, hips and legs falling the other, obviously his grip on my hair released, and thus, Mars caught me under my arm and swung me so I was on his back.
I curled around, arms at his neck, legs at his hips, holding so tight, I dropped my dagger, thinking his intent was to take me away from this madness.
But with mighty swings of his sword in the crimson light, he cut through everything wearing black.
Everything.
I heard an enraged female cry and turned my head in its direction, fearing Elena, Serena or Ophelia had been harmed, only to see Cassius had hold of Elena at his front. He was fighting his way to the door as well as fighting her, for she was struggling like a hellcat to get out of his hold.
He made it to the door and she emitted an outraged scream as, with a mighty heave, he threw her out.
Bodily.
I saw no more as Mars swung around, carving through flesh—arms, thighs, middles, necks, men dropping in pieces, littering the floor.
He just climbed over them to get to the next one.
And the next.
I shoved my face in his neck.
He kept killing.
The nauseating thuds stopped, the grunts of effort, the ones of pain, the clangs of steel, and I realized Mars’s chest was heaving under my arms, but he’d stopped moving.
I lifted my head.
We were in the hall.
All of us.
Elena and Cassius.
A covered-in-blood Ophelia with an equally blood-soaked Serena standing not close but not far from her mother.
True, also covered in blood (as were Elena and Cassius, by the way), stood with Farah, who did not mind the blood. Her front was pressed to True’s side, both her arms around him.
Aramus was in the same state, Ha-Lah to his front, pressing herself there tightly, her arms about his waist, his about her shoulders.
Chu, Kyril, several of Cassius’s and Aramus’s men, as well as True’s lieutenants Wallace, Luther and Florian. All held bloody swords or daggers.
And down the hall I saw some of the barons and chieftains, also holding swords, some of their blades blood-stained.
Tril was pressed to the wall opposite, wearing her nightgown, both her hands covering her mouth as if she was trying not to be sick.
Or holding back a scream.
Queen Elpis was approaching on a rush from the end of the hall, Guard, who I suspected had been holding her back, followed her.
King Wilmer’s head was peeking out his
door, but Aunt Mercy was standing in the hallway.
My father was out, my mother was still within, and I couldn’t see her.
Carrington as well was only sticking his head out his chamber door.
Men wearing black lay where they died on the ground, though they were but a small trail that went along the hall. Maybe a couple dozen.
A few more.
Two dozen dead men.
Or a few more.
I looked back to my room.
The floor was covered in bodies (and parts of them).
The red hue was gone.
I was going to be sick.
Or scream.
My arms loosened.
Until Mars growled, “Do not fucking let go.”
I thought it prudent to hold tight.
“Get Lorenz,” he ordered curtly.
Chu turned and sprinted down the hall.
“They came through the windows?” he asked Kyril.
“I’ll get a report,” Kyril answered, turned and ran down the hall.
“If there are more, I want one of them alive!” Mars shouted after him.
Kyril just lifted a hand to indicate he’d heard and disappeared around the corner to the stairs.
“If this is you, I’ll watch you walk to the pit, and so will your queen and mine,” Mars went on, his voice terrible in its quiet fury.
I looked to his profile to see his eyes aimed at my uncle.
“I would never.” My uncle, realizing the threat was over, stepped into the hall.
“Yes, you would, and if you wouldn’t, your counsellor would,” Mars ground out.
Uncle Wilmer’s face got red.
“Slander!” Carrington shouted, also stepping into the hall.
“We shall see,” Mars bit out.
“Can I let go?” I asked softly.
“Fucking no,” Mars answered, not even turning his head to look at me.
I held on.
“Where’s Sofia?” Elpis asked.
I went still.
Mars went solid.
Farah let True go and raced down the hall.
“Farah!” True shouted, racing after her.
She got there before True, threw open the door…
And let out a blood-chilling scream that set my veins in ice.
She then started to dash in only for True to catch her about the waist and pull her back.
It was then Mars moved, pulling me from his back, tossing me toward Luther, who caught me, and he did this lifting a finger in True’s man’s face and warning, “Harm comes to her, you die.”
He then stalked True and Farah’s way.