Everyone stopped. And my orgasm, my beautiful orgasm, popped like a bubble. It disappeared into thin air as Declan and Quinn stopped what they were doing and turned their heads to stare at Ryan.
Ryan lifted my bleeding wrist. His eyes turned on me accusingly. “What is this, Bloss?”
Declan sat up. He grabbed my wrist and blinked a few times. “Her arm is full of scars.”
Quinn uncovered my other hand, and the matching wound.
I held my breath. I was caught, like a deer.
The men exchanged glances.
Finally, Declan’s eyes settled on mine. “Humans and half-humans have to pay a price for their magic, since humans aren’t naturally magical creatures. Bloss, is the price of peace magic … your blood?”
I couldn’t answer, only widen my eyes.
“It is, isn’t it?” Declan continued, not at all discouraged by my lack of response.
“What the sarding hell does that mean?” Ryan asked.
Declan stroked my wrist gently and said, “It means … if she uses too much power, she dies.”
Chapter Seventeen
“Sard that!” Ryan grabbed me and pulled me away from the others, into his lap. “Don’t you dare use that sarding magic ever again, Bloss.” He cradled me and used his magic to pulse gently over each of the wounds in my skin, closing them. He gritted his teeth and swallowed his rage after.
Quinn stared at me, tears forming in his eyes, until I felt compelled to reach out and take his hand in mine.
I tried to send a little hopping bunny through my thoughts, but he shook his head and kissed my knuckles.
Declan bent his leg and leaned on it, contemplative. “That’s why you’ve always worn long sleeves. Huh. I just thought you were cold.”
I bit my lip and shook my head. I still wasn’t sure how much of the geas was active. I decided to test it. “Padded sleeves.” So, it was loosened. I could say a little.
Ryan turned my head toward him. “But when I was still a guard … we’d have combat practice … your mother would always make you come down and stop us.”
I nodded.
“Bitch,” he tucked me further into him, my face nestled against his rippling pecs.
“That’s why you left,” Declan mused. “Before we married.”
I nodded.
Both Quinn and Ryan looked to him for an explanation.
“If the Queen dies, her knights go with her.”
Ryan squeezed me even harder.
Quinn sent me a mental image of a red ribbon flying through the air, surrounding the two of us until we were pressed together. The ribbon wrapped around us tighter and tighter, sealing us together until we were unable to move.
“I didn’t want that for any of you,” I muttered. “You all deserve a queen that actually has a chance.”
Quinn snorted.
I turned and looked at him. “All it will take is one war. If it gets bad enough, I can’t help it.”
Ryan looked down at me, “In the weapons room?”
I shook my head. The geas let me say, “No control. It was instinct.”
“Then we’ll just make sure there are no wars,” Declan declared.
I laughed, somewhat bitterly. “The seven kingdoms of Kenmare haven’t been able to go without war for more than a decade. There are centuries of history betting against you.”
“Well, maybe all those other rulers didn’t have the same motivation we have,” Ryan growled.
“And what’s that?”
His hand slipped down and stroked my inner thigh. “We’ve been waiting years to get between these legs. No way I’m letting some war mongering assholes mess that up.”
Ryan’s declaration broke the tension. And we all laughed.
We returned to the palace in the dead of night. For once, I didn’t check on Avia. Instead, I went to my old room, and all three men followed. They slumped onto my bed surrounding me, each one slinging an arm across my body. Declan ended up at my feet, grumbling, but I promised him we’d rotate the following day.
I woke up with a crick in my neck, to find Connor staring down at all of us, his lips curled in disgust.
“Orgies, Bloss? I suppose enough time in a whorehouse—”
I sat up in bed, rubbing my eyes before glaring at Connor.
He deserved to be told off, but I didn’t bother to defend myself. It would only make things worse. And a queen who can’t hold her tongue isn’t much of a queen.
Declan popped up at my feet. “Did you know Bloss bleeds—” the geas cut him off. He ran a hand through his blond hair. He opened his mouth several more times, but anything he wanted to say must have been prohibited. My mother had set up the spell so the geas applied to anyone who knew about my power. Now Declan, Quinn, and Ryan were bound.
“Frustrating, isn’t it?” I told him.
“What’s going on, Declan?” Connor ignored me.
Quinn sat up. He focused on Connor, but frowned. Eventually, he turned to me.
I can’t tell him anything.
Thank my mother’s geas. Can’t reveal my weakness to the world. Of course, it’s only a matter of time before someone finds out …
Declan clapped his hands and said, “Alright, let’s get a move on.” He pointed at Connor, “You need to spend the day with Bloss checking Lady Agatha’s livestock issue. We have planning to do. Prince Abbas coming to court Avia is only increasing the tension with Sedara. Macedon has also submitted a request to have their princes visit. And I need to unravel that with Quinn and Ryan,” Declan turned brisk and business-like, even bossy.
“What?” I gaped.
“What?” Connor gaped. “Foreign diplomacy is my arena. You go check on Lady Agatha’s cows!”
“We don’t think this is diplomacy. We believe these are the first moves of war. Macedon and Cheryn have been itching to take on Sedara since the end of the last Fire War. Ryan needs strategic help getting Evaness set up to defend itself. I don’t trust either of these visits are purely about finding a wife. I’ll need to move our supplies around to support Ryan. Quinn will need to piece together what his associates can find out. Once we’ve determined a plan, then you and your official policies will be decided. But, get the hell out so we can do our jobs!” Declan stood from the bed and stretched, as if he had not just commanded every eye in the room.
I stared at him, open-mouthed. I hardly noticed when he offered me a hand to help me down from the bed. My stomach was in knots, but my core was on fire. Declan being all scholar-in-charge was … I had trouble controlling my breathing.
Declan noticed and smiled, pulling me closer.
I leaned up to whisper in his ear, “Are you still drunk? Or what the hell was that?”
He leaned back down, his hands falling on my hips. “I’m a switch, sweetheart. But that? That was me hurrying you the hell up in your seduction of Connor. So we can wed and I can …” his fingers circled my hips suggestively.
“What about all that talk of war?” I nibbled his ear, on the side away from Connor.
“That’s me being overly cautious. I did get up a few hours ago, to hurl my guts out again. The ambassador had been hinting at an interest in courting Avia. But an official request from Macedon arrived yesterday.”
I pulled back so I could look in his eyes. “Do you really think—”
“We’re not gonna let it come to that, Bloss. Now, go do your job and seduce your fourth husband.”
“If I do, can we play tutor and student sometime? Because I like bossy you.”
I get to watch, Quinn chimed in. And maybe be the angry monarch who walks in and decides he wants in on the—
Declan grinned. “Get out of here, before I decide fairness is overrated.”
“Fairness is overrated,” Ryan grumbled as he poured water in a basin and then splashed his face.
“What the sard are you talking about?” Connor grumbled.
No one answered him. I went to the bell pull and asked the responding maid to summon my handmaiden so I could get dressed.
I turned to Connor. “Want to go to the kitchens and have them pack us a lunch? And ask Jace to get us a pegasus?”
“Gargoyle,” Ryan interjected. “They’re safer.”
Connor glared at all of us, cursed, and turned on his heel and stomped out the door.
We landed in one of Willard Ward’s fields and spent the day speaking to the farmhands. For once, I didn’t stumble all over myself. Connor looked an ass a few times, using uppity words. But eventually, he learned to tone it down.
It was a brilliant afternoon as we walked through the harvested fields of hay, brisk and warm all at once.
I smiled at the sky. “It’s been quite a while since I’ve had the sun on my face in the afternoon.”
Connor grunted and squinted beside me. “Do you smell that?”
“What?” I tried to subtly check my breath. We’d eaten with the local burgmaster, and the luncheon meal had been fish.
“Not you,” he sniffed the air again. Then he bent down and put his nose to the earth.
“This field is full of cow patties—” I grimaced.
Connor rolled his eyes. “I’m not such a palace bumpkin as to think that! Get down here.”
I rolled my eyes and got down on my knees next to him. I inhaled the dirt. “Nothing.”