CHAPTER 26

VIENNE

I woke, flushed and pulsing, my body nearly ready to explode from sexual release. The coiling, tingling pressure in my womb was so extreme I had a feeling all I’d need to do was press my fingers down between my legs, and a massive orgasm would just start rolling out of me. Even my breasts throbbed for release, when all they’d done recently was throb from pain, especially as full as they were now, ready to feed my baby.

The babe in question seemed equally ready for her milk, it seemed. She yowled insistently from her crib, demanding attention. Yet, I lay there one moment longer trying to settle the racing of my heart as an unquenchable ache vibrated through my extremities.

“I’m coming,” I finally croaked to Anniston before I rolled onto my stomach and groaned. “Just not in the way I’d like to be.” Feeling stiff and disjointed, I whimpered and crawled wearily to the edge of the mattress. When I found my feet, I swayed a moment, still mentally stuck in the dreamworld.

“God.” Pressing the palms of my hands into my eye sockets, I stumbled toward the sound of my baby and ran smack dab into the side of her crib. “Oomph.”

It was most definitely not the best way to wake. I reached in to pick up Anniston, only to get a handful of mucky brown substance when I slid them under her backside.

“Oh, yuck!” Lurching back, I gagged over the aroma of infant feces and made a mad dash to my water basin, where I rinsed off my hands and then bemoaned the fact that now I couldn’t splash any reviving clean water into my face to wake me up a bit more.

When I returned to the crib, I made sure to pick the baby up under her armpits. All her bedding had been smeared with the mess. I held my breath as I worked as quickly as possible to clean her. She screamed the entire time, her little face screwed up with red rage because she just wanted to be fed.

Once I had her rewrapped in something clean, I turned toward the bed where I planned to take her, but I jerked to a halt when I saw how wadded and wrinkled the covers were. I’d really thrashed and moved a lot in my sleep, which brought up in vivid detail exactly ~what~ I’d dreamed about.

And who.

Guilt immediately assaulted me. I spun away from the bed and all the delicious memories it wrought so I could carry Anniston to the rocking chair, but the memories just followed me. Fumbling, I sat in the chair and opened the top of my nightdress to get the baby to her milk, but as soon as she was appeased and busy suckling, my mind spun with nothing but the things Urban had done to me in that dream.

And the things I’d said to him.

I couldn’t stop thinking about it, couldn’t help but feel as if I’d been disloyal, which was crazy, because, one, it’d only been a dream, and, two, it wasn’t even the first sex dream I’d had about him. But still…today remained different.

I used to worry about how I’d face Urban after those dreams. Today, I worried how I would face ~Soren~.

Anniston fell asleep at the nipple, which was fine with me. I appreciated a moment to myself. So when a maid entered while I was putting her back into her bed, I asked the girl if she could stay with the sleeping babe in order to let me escape for a bit of fresh air.

Only a hot cup of tea and the view from the East Salon could help me deal with this. So, once I was dressed for the day, I hurried out the door, thinking I’d probably only have an hour or so before Anniston woke again.

I was moving so fast I almost didn’t notice the sound I heard as I passed Soren’s suite. But that unmistakable grunting chant he made when he was getting close to release would probably haunt my nightmares forever, so when it filtered out from under his door, I jarred to a halt, gaping.

Bed springs squeaked above the grunting, then a feminine giggle floated out.

“Oh my God!” I gasped before slapping my hand over my mouth to hopefully muffle my shock.

My husband was having sex…with another woman.

At first, I felt relief; this would keep him from visiting me for a while longer, I hoped.

Then I felt more relief. Okay, pretty much ~all~ I felt was relief, but at least I didn’t feel so bad about having the sex dream I’d just had about another man.

Except, ugh, I still felt bad about that. I wanted to be better than Soren, the ~loyal~ type of spouse. But I’d felt no loyalty to him at all when Urban had slipped his tongue between my legs and shown me pleasures I didn’t even know existed.

Damn. Not even learning my husband was an unfaithful louse could dampen my guilt. I hurried around a corner, needing that tea and view from the wall of clear rock now more than ever.

But, alas, it wasn’t to be.

“Vienne…psst. ~Vienne~,” a voice hissed, making me jump out of my skin. I whirled around to find Nicolette cracking the door to her room open and waving me forward. “I need your help.”

I nearly threw up my hands and sighed. I was trying to have my own crisis here, and I needed to be in my safety zone, drinking from my calming brew before I could deal with anyone else’s problems. But from the distress I sensed oozing from Nicolette’s room, she couldn’t wait that long.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, moving toward her.

She shifted back, opening the door wider to let me in. “I think I messed up.”

I was about to step inside when I noticed something written on the side of her face, next to her left eye. Jarring to a halt, I blinked and then gaped when I realized it was the tattoo of a heart within a circle.

“Oh…my God,” I uttered, my jaw falling slack. “What have you done?”

“I know, ~I know~.” She winced and shook her hands. “At the time, it seemed like a good idea. I still love it, and I can’t wait to find my one true love with it, but then I woke up this morning and realized, holy shit, Caulder’s going to see it, isn’t he? And he’s going to be pissed.”

I nodded, unable to speak as I stared. She had a love mark on her face. Just like Urban.

She bit her lip and pressed her hand to the tattoo. “Do you think he’s going to kill me?”

Literally, no. But metaphorically… I nodded again, still no words.

“Oh God, Vienne. I thought at least ~you’d~ have something reassuring to say.”

But, “Have you lost your damn mind?” was about all I could think to blurt.

She cringed. “I just wanted one so badly.”

I sighed and pressed my hand to my own brow, not sure how to help her through this.

“When?” I asked. “When did you do this?” But the answer had already come to me. “Last night? When you didn’t join us for dinner? They said you were sick and couldn’t come down. But you...what? How did you even get this ~done~?”

“I snuck out, of course.”

When I opened my mouth to blow a fuse, she lifted a hand, pausing me. “Not ~literally~. I took a guard and went out through the front gate, all very legitimate and appropriate-like. I just…” She cringed. “Didn’t mention to my escort that the king might not approve of my little outing.”

“But—”

“Oh, there was a High Cliff priestess staying in Mandalay,” Nicolette assured me, answering the question I hadn’t even asked yet. “I met her at Brentley and Allera’s wedding.”

When I opened my mouth to ask more, Nicolette kept talking at super speed.

“She even had a permit to be there. She showed it to me at the wedding. She was showing it to everyone because she was freaked out about how negatively Donnelleans viewed magical people. But she was so nice, and she talked to me at the wedding banquet like I was a real person. An adult. When I told her how much I wanted a love mark, she offered to give me one. I was hesitant, of course, but she told me where she’d be staying and when she’d be leaving. I kept telling myself it was a bad idea, Caulder would never approve, but… Oh my God, she’s set to leave Donnelly ~tomorrow~ and this was my very last chance ever to get one. I ~had~ to go to her, Vienne. You understand, right? I just ~had~ to.”

I closed my eyes and nodded, actually proud of the girl for following her heart and doing what made her happy. But, God, now I had to help her out of this situation.

“Do you think we can conceal it somehow?” she asked hopefully. “With powder or…or…”

“Nicolette,” I said softly. “You need to tell your brother about it. Today.”

Her eyes went wide and her head shifted back and forth. “I don’t think I can.”

I took her hands. “It’s best to get it over with now,” I said. “Besides, if you were brave enough to get the mark in the first place, then you’re brave enough to tell the king about it.”

“I…I…” Even though her hands trembled within mine, she said, “Okay. But you’ll come with me, right?”

“Of course,” I nodded. “I’ll be right beside you the entire time, holding your hand.”

“Okay,” she whimpered. “Okay.”

And so, instead of getting to retire to the East Salon for a bit to drink my worries away, I escorted the king’s sister down to the Throne Room, where we asked the dignitary at the door if Caulder was available to receive an audience with us.

“He’s not yet arrived to the Throne Room to accept kingdom business, Lady Vienne,” I was told. “But I believe he’s in the Blue Chambers at the moment, if you two need a personal word with him.”

“Thank you.” I nodded and smiled my thanks before turning a trembling Nicolette away and leading her down another hall toward the sitting room called the Blue Chambers. But even as we neared it, we could hear Caulder shouting from within.

“Well, then message the goddamn ruler of Far Shore back and kindly ~inform~ them we’re ~already~ giving them a better price than anyone else for clear rock. Dammit! Did I not tell you I wanted no talk of business until I’m in the Throne Room? And ~where~ is my wife?”

At his sharp tone, Nicolette and I skidded to a stop, rearing backward away from the door. “You know,” Nicolette said uneasily, sending me a rueful cringe. “Maybe now isn’t the best time to bother him. I can just tell him tonight at dinner, when he’s less—”

“Nicolette! Vienne.” Caulder’s voice snapped, making us both jump in surprise since we weren’t expecting him to enter the corridor with us. But there he was, storming from the Blue Chambers, only to point when he saw us. “Have either of you seen Yasmin this morning? I’m…”

His words fell to a stop when he focused on his sister’s face. At first, he just stared, unresponsive, and Nicolette’s hand relaxed in mine. But then he shook his head, and his face went a bright angry red before he roared, “What the fuck have you done?”

“Oh, dear,” I murmured, while Nicolette shifted closer to me and whimpered.

“Caulder, please try to be reasonable,” I started. “This is Nicolette’s body, and her—”

“Into the Blue Chambers,” he growled. “Now.”

Nicolette and I hurried to comply as if we were both in trouble.

“Someone get that damned High Cliff prince in here this instant,” he told one of his pages.

“Wait. Why do you want Urban?” Nicolette asked, whirling to blink in alarm, just as the man assigned with the task of fetching Urban said, “I believe he’s already out training with the soldiers this morning, Your Majesty.”

Caulder shot his sister a dark look before turning it on the page. “I didn’t ask where he was; I said to go get him.”

“Y-yes, Your Majesty.”

As the runner raced off to do the king’s bidding, Caulder ran his hands through his hair, cursed under his breath, and began to pace the room.

I thought this would be a grand moment to remain silent and let him cool his temper, but Nicolette popped forward, wringing her hands. “Why did you send for Urban? You must know he had nothing to do with this. It was ~my~ decision completely. He isn’t even aware I had it done yet. Please don’t blame him, Caulder. He—”

“For a man you claim to be completely innocent, you’re certainly defending him an awful lot.”

“Because you called for him as if you ~already~ blamed him.”

“Of course, I blame him!” Caulder boomed. “Whether he helped you get it or not, you never would’ve thought that stupid bloody tattoo was so appealing if he didn’t have one.”

“That’s not true,” Nicolette muttered petulantly. “I thought they were neat before he even arrived at the castle. And he certainly can’t help having one himself, since it was given to him when he was an ~infant~.”

“That doesn’t excuse the fact that he influenced you!”

“So what if he did?” Nicolette cried, throwing up her hands in an exasperated gesture. “Why are you so against the mark?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Caulder growled, “maybe because the one on Prince Urban caused him to ~lie~ to me and started up a completely unnecessary contention between him and Soren, not to mention it ~almost~ lost us our alliance with the entire kingdom of High Cliff. The damn tattoos are nothing but trouble, I swear.”

“My, my,” Yasmin murmured cheerfully, sailing into the room with a bright, perky smile. “Someone’s starting off the day in a temper. I could hear you two arguing all the way from the Throne Room, you know.”

Caulder whirled toward her, growling, “Where the hell have you been?”

Pausing in place with a surprised arch of her brows, the queen stared at the king a moment before slowly saying, “I was up in the East Salon, taking in the sunrise. Why, darling? What’s wrong?”

He scowled moodily. “You weren’t in bed when I woke.” Then he turned even gruffer, glancing conspicuously toward his sister before mumbling to his wife through gritted teeth, “I had need of you this morning.”

Immediately realizing what he meant, I grimaced. Eww. Had everyone in the freaking castle woken today with sex on the brain?

“Oh, you poor thing,” Yasmin cooed, striding to Caulder so she could cup his cheeks in her hands and press her lips to his. “I’m so sorry I wasn’t there for you, my love. But I’m here now. At your complete disposal.”

He sniffed. “Except ~now~ I have Nicolette to deal with.”

“Why?” Yasmin asked, her voice dripping with sudden irritation as she glanced toward the princess. “What has she done this ti—~Oh my God~!”

Frozen, Yasmin could only gape at Nicolette’s mark.

The princess frowned back and turned slightly away from the queen so Yasmin couldn’t see the tattoo any longer.

“What…? When…?” Yasmin started, shaking her head. Then her eyes narrowed with rage. “~How~?”

Before Nicolette could answer, Urban strode into the room. “You called for me?” he asked Caulder, though his gaze strayed to me.

Suddenly remembering our dream from last night, I shifted, feeling all too warm and uncomfortable.

Urban skimmed his gaze over Yasmin and Nicolette before he settled his attention on the king. “What’s going on?”

I could tell he’d come straight from training. Not only was his face matted with sweat from his workout, but he was wearing the same tight pants, quilted vest, and sword belt as he’d been wearing the other day, with that same leather codpiece that seemed to catch Yasmin’s attention as fixedly as it had caught mine the first time I’d seen it.

When she went as far as to check out his backside and lifted her eyebrows in interest when he passed by, I narrowed my eyes, wanting to mutter something scathing about how I thought she found him to be too tall and ~brawny~ for her taste.

Realizing I was jealous of my own sister for merely looking at him, I glanced away, my face heating with shame and embarrassment.

Meanwhile, Caulder was glaring at Urban as he pointed toward Nicolette. “Did you know?”

“Know what?” Furrowing his brow, Urban glanced toward the princess in question, only to finally notice her mark. “Holy shit!” he exploded. “When did you get that?”

Nicolette bit her lip, risked a quick peek toward her brother, and returned her attention to Urban. “Last night.”

“My God,” he murmured, wandering closer so he could see the mark better. “I wasn’t expecting this.”

“It’s an outrage!” the king shouted. “No unauthorized magical people are allowed inside Donnelly. ~How~ could this happen?”

He looked right at Urban as he asked. But the prince merely frowned at him as if he’d lost his mind. “What? You’re asking ~me~?”

“She ~has~ a permit,” Nicolette cut in, growing increasingly upset. “She got it to attend the wedding. She even showed it to me.”

“Wedding? What wedding?” the king boomed.

His sister blinked at him. “Umm, the only wedding that’s taken place in the last ~year~. Brentley’s wedding…you know…to Allera.”

“Oh.” Then Caulder frowned even harder. “Well, what the hell was she doing ~there~?”

Nicolette shrugged. “She said she wanted to bless their union or something like that.”

Caulder whirled threateningly toward Urban. “Your sister had a magical ~priestess~ attend her wedding to bless it? Inside ~my~ castle?”

Urban sighed and squeezed the bridge of his nose as if he had a headache. “No,” he said, dropping his hand. “She didn’t ~summon~ one, anyway, if that’s what you think. Our priestesses in High Cliff are usually eager to bless royalty—for the health of the entire kingdom—without being called in. And they don’t typically approach us to do it, either. They don’t have to. She wouldn’t need to touch or even talk to Allera to bless her marriage. I’m sure my sister knew nothing of it. The priestess could’ve blended in with the crowd of guests and done her thing anonymously without anyone being the wiser.”

“Or she could’ve damned and ~cursed~ the marriage anonymously without anyone being the wiser,” Yasmin muttered.

Urban sent her an annoyed glance. “Ninety-nine percent of the time, that’s not the case with magic folk. At least, that’s not how it is in High Cliff.”

Yasmin narrowed her eyes, but Nicolette quickly popped in, saying, “She showed me her visitor permit signed by ~you~, Caulder. She was here legitimately. She wasn’t trying to plot anything underhanded, I swear.”

“Oh, well, she seems ~perfectly~ legal then,” Yasmin sneered, rolling her eyes. “Someone with ~magical~ power showed you a certificate, insisting it was real, and then led you to believe they were friendly and honest, so you just ~let~ them tattoo permanent ink into your body. My God, Nicolette! How stupid can you be?” Whirling toward Caulder, she cried, “This… ~This~ is why I have insisted over and over again that she go to one of those academies. Because she can’t be trusted to act responsibly. I mean, just look at her! Look at what she’s done this time. It’s probably not even an authentic love mark.”

“Well, that part’s easy enough to determine,” Urban said. “Tap it five times with your pointer finger,” he instructed Nicolette.

She immediately began tapping her temple. “Oh!” she exclaimed when green, electrical sparks crackled from the ink. “That tickles.”

Urban grinned and nodded, then turned back to the king. “It’s authentic.”

“Incredible,” I said, moving closer to see everything better. “Does ~your~ mark do that?” I asked Urban without thinking.

When he glanced at me, memories flashed through me of our dream, making my body shudder with longing. Suddenly, I wished I hadn’t spoken to him at all. Now I just wanted to touch him, smell him, and kiss him.

Smiling lightly, he gazed at me and tapped his temple five times. Red sparks instantly crackled from his tattoo. “If you were marked as well,” he murmured to me, “you would also be able to draw sparks from my mark.”

Nicolette clapped enthusiastically. “See, I wasn’t swindled,” she reported gleefully. “She ~was~ a real priestess.”

Urban nodded. “And I can reassure you she couldn’t have any kind of dark magic in her, either. To qualify for mark giving, all magic women swear a binding oath, agreeing that they’ll cease to exist the moment they receive any darkness inside them. They get tested fully before becoming a mark giver, too, and since they die the moment they go bad—the oath they made kills them—there’s no way the priestess who tattooed Nicolette was here in Donnelly with any kind of evil intent.”

“Dark magic,” Nicolette gasped, her eyes going wide.

“What about it?” Caulder asked, frowning at her.

The young princess pointed at him. “I just remembered, the priestess said something quite disturbing about dark magic. She took my hands and looked at them as if she could see some invisible dirt on them, and then she said I had touched someone full of dark magic that very day.”

“~What~?” Caulder boomed. He whirled accusatively to Urban. “What the hell does ~that~ mean?”

Urban shook his head and dismissively held up a hand toward the king as he studied Nicolette intently. “And this was when, ~yesterday~ you saw her? Who did you speak to yesterday? Where did you go? Did you go to the market or visit anyone else outside the castle aside from the priestess?”

“No.” The princess shook her head with certainty. “My guard escorted me straight to the priestess’s room at the Cotton Maker’s Inn and then straight back home afterward.”

“And did you talk to or touch anyone on the road there or back? Or ~at~ the Inn? Did anyone approach you, trying to sell you anything or give you anything, ~hand~ you anything?”

“No.” She shook her head more insistently, frowning as she thought it through before shaking her head again. “Not at all. I only spoke to and touched the priestess.”

“What about ~inside~ the castle?” Urban asked.

“Well…” Nicolette heaved out a shuddering breath. “No. I mean, yes, of course, but only the usual people. Family, servants, guards. People I see ~every~ day. It’s hard to remember ~everyone~ but it wasn’t anyone I didn’t know. I had no contact with any strangers at all.”

Urban shot the king a hard, knowing glance and sighed wearily.

“What?” Caulder demanded. “What does this mean?”

Urban shook his head. “I thought you said you didn’t allow any magical kind inside your castle, Your Majesty?”

The king grew alarmed. “I don’t.”

“Well, it sounds as if one is here, anyway.”

“What?” Caulder stormed closer to Urban. “Who?”

“I don’t know, not who or how they got in. But if it’s someone with ~dark~ magic in them, then it’s no one with any kind of good intentions.”

“That’s impossible,” Caulder blustered. “I ~banished~ all magic.”

“Yes,” Urban muttered sarcastically, “and I’m so sure someone with ~evil~ intent would follow every letter of your law and not conceal their powers from us, either.”

“Well, I don’t want them in my castle. I don’t care if their magic is good or bad.” He pointed threateningly at Urban. “Find him. Find him, and get rid of him.”

Urban’s eyes flared with shock. “Me?”

“Yes, ~you~! You’re the head of my army, aren’t you? My leader in protecting the kingdom and providing its security? Well, ~secure~ my castle.”

“But I’m merely a mortal human. Only magic can even begin to detect other magic.”

“I trust you to ferret this scum out the mortal—human—way, because I forbid any more magic inside my walls. Is that clear?”

“Not at all,” Urban started incredulously, but Caulder was done talking to him as he stormed from the room, his crew of guards following him.

Urban jerked up his hands in frustration. “Un-fucking-believable.”