“Does that look like elven chain?” I asked Declan.
He squatted next to me. “I’m not sure. Why?”
“Elven chain controls the wearer, doesn’t it?” I asked, using the stick to pick up the dripping, broken necklace.
“Yes.”
Connor piped up. “Cheryn supposedly stole elven chain from Sedara several months ago. One of those pirate attacks.”
“So this could mean Abbas …”
Connor shrugged. “It could. Though Sedara always has access to this type of chain. So, it could mean them too.”
I held up the chain and stared as it dripped blood onto the floor. “If this is elven chain, then Wyle’s death wasn’t an accident. If it is, someone controlled him and I think it means my mother’s security spell activated.”
What’s that?
“She had spells created that ensured anyone who betrayed royal secrets … would explode.”
Everyone turned to stare at the puddle that used to be the castle mage.
“What secret did he give up?” Connor asked.
I looked grimly at each of my husbands. “I don’t know.”
Chapter Thirty
We left Wyle’s tower a somber group.
Ryan joined us at the base of the stairs. He saw the trail of blood my skirt left on the stairs behind me.
“Not mine,” I reassured him. “Quinn, fill him in while we walk through the spelled passages back to my chamber.”
I fell back as we walked, thinking. Planning. I’d hoped to use Wyle to help solve my problems. But clearly someone had anticipated that move. Or used Wyle for their own devices. There would be no easy path ahead for me. No one would just bow down, roll over, and confess everything I wanted to hear.
Unless …
I grabbed Connor when we were halfway through the secret passages snaking along the castle walls. I handed him the elven chain. “Can you get that cleaned up? And then maybe test it? See if it makes the wearer do whatever you want.”
Connor gave a little grin. “We can test it right now. Hey Quinn, come back!”
Quinn stopped walking. He’d been ahead with Ryan. But he returned to us.
Connor said, “Your Queen commands you to kneel.”
Quinn raised an eyebrow at me.
I sighed. “Just briefly, if you don’t mind.”
Quinn knelt.
Connor grabbed the bloody chain, ready to slip it over Quinn’s neck.
Declan grabbed the chain and yanked it back. “No! Don’t!”
We all turned to look at him.
He rubbed his bloody palm off on his breeches, saying “I think we need a little more research into those chains. I’ve never heard of them traveling outside Sedara. I know they use them in interrogation. I don’t know much about them, to be honest. I don’t know how much is written. But logically … I mean, the chains wouldn’t be incredibly useful if anyone could control them, would they? Your enemy could just grab them and turn around and use them on you. I’m pretty sure they’ve got some kind of magical code to activate them.”
“Sard!” I clenched my fist.
“Whoever controls these chains controls the wearer completely?” Connor asked Declan.
“I … I’m not sure.”
“Mind and body?”
Declan shrugged.
“Why don’t you and I go back to Wyle’s chamber and raid his library?” Connor suggested.
“What are you thinking?” I asked.
Connor pressed his lips into a thin line. “Abbas has been very good at blocking both Quinn and I from infiltrating his mind. But if he thinks he has control, complete control over someone, then he might let his guard drop—”
“That’s too dangerous!” I protested. “What if we can’t get control back?”
Quinn slid his hand around my waist. Would you deny one of my men the opportunity to protect their country? Save it from an invader?
“Not fair.”
We have to protect Evaness, Dove.
Quinn, Connor, and Declan tromped back toward Wyle’s tower, leaving the chain (and me) with Ryan. They wouldn’t let me go with them.
“You need to bathe. You haven’t eaten today. And it’s going to take them three hours to get you into that golden coronation monstrosity with the giant collar,” Connor twisted his hand out of my grip.
Ryan guided my unwilling feet the rest of the way to my chamber. He rang for maidservants and helped me out of my mourning dress himself so that no one else would see the bloodstains.
As I slipped into the steaming water I asked the question that was making my stomach churn. “What secret do you think Wyle gave up?”
Ryan stared into my eyes. “Honestly? I think he told them about you.”
“How’d he get around the geas?”
“Djinn magic is different than ours. I don’t know. You just asked what I thought.”
Sard. I felt the truth of what he said in my bones. Someone out there knew my weakness. Knew I wasn’t really a threat. Knew how easy it would be to defeat me. I sank below the surface and stayed under as long as I could. The hot water surrounded me like a cocoon. It made me feel separate and safe. It was an illusion. But I clung to it.
Eventually, Ryan’s hand dipped below the surface and pulled me up. “You were starting to scare me.”
“Sorry. I just … they just passed this morning. And already, Lady Agatha and her son and—”
“Deep breath, Bloss. Soldiers perform better under pressure. You’ve been training with that insane mother of yours all your life. You’ve had drill after drill for this. Look at me,” Ryan grabbed my chin and gently turned my face to his. “Tell me what you’d tell her. What do you want us to do?”
My mind raced. Images flew through my head, but they were so quick and fleeting I couldn’t pull any of them down. I couldn’t see them. This wasn’t just a drill. And my mind knew it. My body knew it. I pulled back from Ryan and looked down, disappointed in myself. Ashamed. “I don’t know.”
Ryan grabbed my waist and hauled me out of the tub, ignoring the fact that I dripped water all over him. He turned me around and put my hands on the tub, bending me forward over the water. The dark strands of my hair danced along the top of the water, floating, as I stared at my reflection.
“You have one minute to come up with a plan before I spank you, Little Dearling,” Ryan said.
I gasped. My core clenched. The physical response of my body to Ryan’s dominance was immediate. His hand caressed my backside and the fear and swirling images in my mind disappeared. My brain cleared. My body and mind were focused on only one thing. His touch. The soft trails left by his fingertips that slowly disappeared as he backed away.
Smack!
The impact of Ryan’s hit sent my chest into the side of the tub. It hurt. But at the same time, my core fluttered. My breathing quickened. My breasts, hanging down, bobbed with need, with the desire to be touched, grabbed, man-handled until sensation rocketed up from my core to my spine.
But Ryan didn’t caress me again. Didn’t move to rub the spot he’d hit. Didn’t sneak his hand around my thigh to feel how achingly wet I was. He simply growled. “One minute, Bloss.”
I scrambled to think. To focus. To pretend this was all just a training session. But, just as I had gathered my thoughts—
Smack!
He hit me again. The second time, the reality of the situation sunk in. I had to think. Quickly. I opened my mouth and spouted out the first things that came to mind. “Willard needs to be scared. We need to limit his capacity for damage, quickly. He and his mother know about the dragons. I’d give Lady Agatha a hallucinogen, so she starts spouting off nonsense for a few days. With her age, people would think it was an episode. That she’s deluded. Willard—maybe he needs a fall from his horse. A good kick to the head. To scare him. And incapacitate him long enough to give me some time to think. Abbas … I’m not sure yet.” I cringed, waiting for a smack for my indecision.
But Ryan whirled me around, pulled me flush against him and kissed me. Hard. So hard he stole my breath. “That was sarding amazing, Princess. God, I love your mind almost as much as this body,” he teased.
His kisses grew more frantic. Desperate. His hands roamed up my sides, pushing me back slightly so he could tweak my nipples.
I moaned into his mouth. This was what I wanted. This was the kind of release I needed after everything that had happened.
One of Ryan’s hands abandoned my breasts, swirled down over my stomach, and started sliding over my opening. Up and down. Up and down. He spread my lips slightly and slid his finger just below them, still caressing my center. Up and down. He added a back and forth motion as he went, tracing a literal lightning bolt over my pussy. I shuddered against him.
“Yes,” I breathed, when our kiss broke and he lifted me off the ground so he could suckle a breast, one hand holding my back, the other maintaining friction on my core. Having a half giant hold me suspended, vulnerable in midair, while he fully controlled my body—the very thought of it made me wild. That I could buck and kick and scream and no matter what, he was completely in control. And I was completely safe with him.
Ryan twisted his fingers. Sensation shot out to my thighs in warm ribbons. And then in shocking bolts. I started to buck against him, to ride his hand.