Page 59 of The Poison Princess and the Lord of Misrule

And when he finally settles between my thighs, when he looks down at me with those intense eyes, wet and pale and dark and full of me, I brace. Letting my eyes fall shut.

Ren stops.

My eyes flash open.

My breath stutters in my chest at the sight of Ren above me, a rusted blade held against his throat. And Aldric, his hand gripped to the dagger’s handle.

His arctic blue eyes meet mine, wild and full of menace. “Hello, love.”

Chapter 18

Renick

For one sickening heartbeat, my gaze holds Sera’s, watching her dark eyes well first with love—then go wide with fear.

I still at the kiss of cold steel against my throat. My lungs fail to pull a breath.

“Aldric…” Sera’s gasp barely reaches my ears through the roaring. “Please?—”

The blade presses in, and I swallow against it. “Let her leave this chamber,” I manage, my voice unsteady. “Let her go, and you can have me.”

His chuckle is low and mocking at the back of my skull. “Why, when I plan to have you both? I see no sense in letting the night go to waste.”

He hauls me back onto my knees, my spine to his bare chest, where Ifeel the heat of him. Sera scrabbles up against the bedpost, her eyes darting between us, as if gauging a wild predator.

Aldric rubs his temple, his fingers coming away with red, and he studies them with mild interest. “Should’ve aimed better,” he taunts me. “Ah—but what does a fool know.” A pause I can feel him savoring. “Or are you really a fool, I wonder?Hm.”

He turns the dagger where I can see it—mydagger. The one I brought to the palace, tried to sneak into the throne room. The one I wanted to plunge into the king’s cruel, vain heart. It’s left a nick of blood on my throat, trailing down my chest.

“Rather dull.” Aldric thumbs the blade. “I considered tossing it, but you arrived with nothing else to your name, jester. I thought it might hold some value for you. So I kept it.”

I think of Kammy’s angel—its porcelain wings in a merchant’s fist, the last of her traded for this worthless iron—and my jaw locks hard.

“Dull, but still.” He tilts it, letting the candlelight crawl the blade. “It would do the deed. Gruesomely, I’d wager. A terrible mess, tearing through flesh.”

“What do you want,” Sera says. A demand, not a question.

Aldrictsks. “You’re getting ahead of yourself, love.” His arctic eyes meet hers, calculating. “Now, I can shout. Summon my guards. Or—” He slips his hand to the front of my trousers,pulling the drawstring undone. My stomach trembles at the crass action, the feel of his rough, ringed fingers tugging at the waistband. “Or, you can crawl over here, my lovely, adulteress wife, and take our fool into your sweet, lying mouth.”

And this is what he wants—turning this chamber into his very own wedding night of misrule.

“Do nothing he says,” I tell her, finding my voice. “He wants only to humiliate you before he kills me, Sera. He’s an evil, cruel bastard and?—”

His hand collars my throat from behind, gripping tight. “Yes, I’m such a devil,” he seethes against my ear. “It could be said that I was made one by the worst offense, a terrible betrayal orchestrated by a fool and my own darling wife.”

“You were a devil well before.”

Aldric sighs. “You wound me, jester. Tell me who is more evil in this scenario? The king who was deceived on his wedding night? Or the king’s two most trusted people, who plotted to murder him and thenfuckin his marital bed?”

“There was never any plot, My Lord—Aldric,” Sera speaks up, gathering some composure.

“Is that so.” His voice is deathly low. He strokes his thumb down my throat. “And yet, the damage is done. By week’s end, every realm will hear how the king of Kravenholt was made a cuckold and a target in his own marriage bed.”

“That doesn’t have to be the story,” she says, trying tosway him. “The jester was simply concerned for me. And it just happened. Unplanned.”

His mouth curls. “Well of course, then. All is forgiven.” He spreads his free arm wide.

Sera doesn’t lower her gaze, her features a mask. I remain still, waiting for an opportune time to strike.