A satisfied snarl twisting his face, Elric ushered Jessamine to a more private space. A guard stood in front of a hallway, farther away from the party and certainly easier for them to hide in.
“No admittance,” the man said, bored with his job and having said those same words far too many times. “Go back to the party.”
Elric blew in his face. But his breath was a thick black sickly smoke. The man inhaled it before he knew what he was doing, and by then Elric was already in his head.
The bored expression changed to one of stupor as the man shifted to the side and let them pass.
“You saw nothing,” Elric hissed.
“No one has come this way,” the man repeated.
And then Elric moved the two of them toward a room he had seen the first time they’d snuck in here. A room that was private, cozy, and somewhere that Jessamine could catch her breath.
The furniture here was plush, with such depth that Jessamine sank into the cushions as he set her down on the bright yellow couch. It was far too light in here, still. There were so many sconces that the entire room made his eyes burn. With a harsh crackle of a spell, he sent out his shadows to take care of those flames. One by one, they blinked out of existence until there were only three still flickering. It enveloped the room in a sense of privacy that they had yet to find in this place.
His magic created a dark bubble that only contained the two of them. He sank to his knees before her and lifted her shaking hands to his lips. “Nightmare,” he murmured against her skin. “You are safe with me.”
“I know,” she whispered.
“Are you sure you know?”
Jessamine only managed a stilted nod in response, a surefire sign that she was not, in fact, certain.
“Do you know what I wanted to do to him?” he asked, his voice lowand murmuring in the stillness. “If you had given me even the smallest permission, I would have sunk my claws underneath his skin. I would force his soul to remain in his body so that he had to feel every bit of me skinning him alive. I would peel his flesh from his body, bit by bit. I would make him watch as I removed every single one of his organs, leaving his heart for last, which I would place in between his jaws so that he could taste his own death as I finally allowed him to move into the next realm. And then I would keep him there, in that realm of darkness you have seen, and I would do it all over again. Over and over until you said he had been punished enough.”
Those shaking hands stilled in his. “You would do that for me?”
“All you have to do is ask,” he breathed, before pressing a kiss to her knuckles again. “I’m on my knees begging you to ask, Jessamine.”
Her fingers curved in his grip, coming up to set against his jaw, where she held on to him like he was the last stone in a stormy sea. “I want to take my throne the right way. I don’t want to release you upon this realm like another plague, because no one will ever trust me again. If I am the queen who wields a god, then this kingdom isn’t mine by choice, but by force. I will not becomehim.”
Clapping from the doorway startled them both. Elric whipped around, his hands already poised to spill shadows on the floor and attack whoever dared look upon them.
But it was a woman in the doorway. A shapely figure outlined by a wave of light.
Dark hair flowed in a waterfall to her waist. Her clothing clung to her skin like it was soaking wet, and still it moved in a soft hush as she strode into the room and closed the door behind her. Her hair swayed, the bells on her wrists jingling just barely enough to entice those who might be listening.
She was a creature made for pleasure. A dangerous, wild thing who had only one thought on her mind. Power.
Fortuna Beaumont turned to them with a sinister smile on her lipsand venom on her tongue. “What an interesting way to gain back a kingdom, Jessamine. But you always did want to feel valued, even when you weren’t.”
This little bitch. She was alone with them now, and Elric could kill her so fast that no one in the room would know what had happened. He could catch her spirit in the other realm. Perhaps she would be more inclined to answer their questions there.
But Jessamine put her hand on his shoulder, and he stilled all those murderous thoughts. He was here to serve his queen, after all, and if she wanted him to stop talking, then he very well would.
“Fortuna,” Jessamine said, her voice pitched low in case anyone else was listening to them. “You have to know this is a terrible idea.”
“What’s a terrible idea?”
“Everything that you’re doing. Working with Leon? He killed my mother. He killedme.”
Fortuna shrugged. “He’s killed a lot of people, Jessamine. And you and your mother were both very much standing in my way. I had no reason to save either of you when he brought up that plan.”
Jessamine’s fingers clenched on Elric’s shoulder. “You knew he was going to kill us?”
“He tells me everything.” Fortuna headed to one of the other plush seats and perched herself on the arm. “I knew he was going to kill you, yes. I knew he was going to overthrow the entire kingdom, and I knew I had tied myself to the man who would be king.”
Elric couldn’t prevent the growl that echoed in his throat. “Not for very long.”
