“I do not require your permission afore making my decisions,” she heard Elian hiss back. “I am the king.”
“And I am your heir! Remember me? The son you have purposely set on bad footing with his future Sacred Mate’s parents!”
“Spare me the theater!”
“I wouldn’t spare you the gulch pits at this moment!”
Dari was pleased that Gio was angered with his sire, but it didn’t erase the pain of a vow broken. Nevertheless, she was determined to allow the king no satisfaction on this her eighteenth birth year. Painting the serenest of expressions onto her visage, she entered the dining hall as though naught was amiss.
“King Elian,” she said formally, walking to the dais. She bowed her head first to Arak’s ruler and then to Gio. “My lord.”
Both warriors stood and inclined their heads to the princess. She took her seat. They followed suit.
Gio did a doubletake as he lowered himself down onto his seat. “Princess Dari,” he said. The timbre of his voice was at once beguiled and husky. ‘Twas nigh unto imperceptible, yet she saw his eyelids shutter as he looked her over from head to toe. His gaze wandered back up to her breasts, which he could now readily see through her translucent top, afore settling back upon her face. He visibly gulped. “You look… wondrous.”
“Thank you, milord.”
“Come now,” King Elian decreed. “You will call your betrothed by his name from this moment forward.”
His barked out command grated on Dari’s nerves, but she refused to lose this battle of wills. “Of course,” the princess demurred. “Thank you, Gio.”
Gio threw a sour glance at his sire afore returning his gaze to Dari. “Would you care for somematpow?”
She was glad for Gio’s intervention. Goddess knew she’d be needing a few of the fermented, honied drinks to get through her wretched birthday feast without lashing out at the king. “That would be wondrous, thank you.”
“Are you enjoying your birthday?” King Elian caustically inquired.
The need to grit her teeth was nigh unto overwhelming. “Immensely.” Her glowing blue gaze clashed with his glowing lavender one. “What’s not to enjoy, my king?”
He grumbled something under his breath afore instructing the bound servants to bring out the foodstuffs. Dari mentally smiled, pleased with herself for clearly winning that round. Gio seemed to notice what she was about for he winked at her afore concealing his smile.
The meal passed relatively calmly, if somewhat tensely. Every time the king spoke something bordering on insult, the princess responded with calculated sweetness. The feast, while unwelcomed, gave Dari time to reflect on the changes that had occurred in Elian o’er the nigh unto fourYessat-Yearsshe’d been removed to Arak. When she really thought the matter o’er—and in truth ‘twas the first time she had—the severity and suddenness of the changes within him became bone chillingly obvious. The only question that remained waswhythose transformations had happened in the first.
Each time King Elian attempted to verbally spar with the princess, she began to notice a pattern. ‘Twas as if she was gazing upon a two-headed warrior: one head was normal when silent, but the second head emerged whilst speaking. ‘Twas the latter which reminded Dari of some hideous, deceptive beast intent upon destruction. But, again, she could see no reason as to why the wicked part kept raising its ugly head.
Was the king ill? Had he been removed o’er long from his Sacred Mate and was starting to devolve? The princess didn’t know much about devolution—only that ‘twas something that could happen to a warrior. She made a mental note to ask her sire about the subject when next they spoke.
King Elian unsuccessfully attempted to goad an unfriendly response out of Princess Dari a final time afore announcing rather tersely that he was retiring to his rooms for the moon-rising. “Now that you have seen eighteenYessat-Years,” the king said directly to her, “you will submit to my son in all things save the giving of your virginity.” His eyebrows rose. “Assuming, of course, you still have your virginity to give.”
“Sire!” Gio bellowed. “What would cause you to say such a thing!”
“We both know she made her charms available to High Lord Death at a tender age. How are we to know he didn’t sample of them?”
“She did nothing of the sort! Nor would High Lord Death have done wicked things to a child!”
“I seem to recall that you once felt aggrieved.”
“Youwere the aggrieved one as I recall! Leastways, ‘twas many years ago and amounted to naught but innocent flirtation.”
Dari wanted to call out the king as the insidious, evil beast he was, yet she realized that to do so would play right into his deranged hands. The princess had made it thus far without breaking weak; she would see this bedamned battle through to its culmination. Gio’s belief in her—a confidence she hadn’t known he possessed—made doing thusly easier.
“I am a virgin,” Dari said calmly. She smiled as though she had not a care in the world. “But then you already knew that.”
“How would I know that?” the king demanded through ground teeth.
“Because your son and heir would be able to smell the scent of another upon me did another exist.” She smiled at Gio. “I mayhap know naught of most things between Sacred Mates, yet that much I do know is true.”
Her serenity, however tenuous, seemed to have an effect on Gio for he, too, calmed down. Apparently sensing that he’d find no further battles here, the king stormed out of the dining hall and toward his rooms.
