Page 176 of Settle Down, Princess

I wanted the Duke to drop down from his horse and examine the king, declare him dead for the lordlings that arrived now, but he didn’t have a choice. The stag huffed at the sudden appearance of all these people, then roared his dismay, forcing many backwards, but one brave soul rushed forward, leaping out of the saddle to examine the king. Stay down, you bastard, I thought over and over, stay down! Instead, a hand slapped down on the courtier’s shirt front, the king using it to lever himself up.

The courtier swept in, trying to support the king, but he was just shoved aside for his trouble. Magnus drew his sword, approaching the stag with deadly intent, his teeth grinding together, a wet patch at the front of his breeches growing steadily as he approached with deadly intent.

“Jessalyn…” Silas hissed. “We need to get you out of here.”

“Now you agree with me?” I asked him incredulously.

“We need to—”

“Kill the stag, become the king in truth,” Magnus muttered, seeming to not understand he was undermining his own power base, right as he raised his sword and leapt forward.

Only for the stag to turn, haunches bunching, right as he sailed past us. The golden stag took off without even a backwards look, stampeding off into the forest.

“No…” I knew the sound of a broken man, and if it was anyone other than the king, I might have felt a pang of regret. “No…” His face seemed to screw up like a small child’s in a fit of rage. “NO!” But if he’d received any lasting damage from the fall from horseback, I saw no instance of it now as he approached Arik, sword raised. “You stole this from me! You stole everything from me! The crown, my wife, my mother…” Tears ran down his face openly now, much to the discomfort of the courtiers clustered around here. “You killed her!”

“No, she killed herself.” Arik dismounted with a flourish, then drew his sword. “You called me bastard every day I spent in the palace, so it made me smile when I discovered that it was you that was born from between the legs of a woman who opened them for other men. You think you should be able to kill the stag, but you never will. It doesn’t appear for you, will not engage with you, because you are not Kheanian.”

Right then, I was willing to bet everyone saw what I did, the differences between the two. Arik wielded the sword like a warrior born while Magnus’ grip on his weapon wavered.

“If anyone has a complaint to be made about the murder of a parent, it’s me.” Arik’s sword point rose. “When your mother died, you worked with some of these fucking toadies to assassinate the man the gods determined was king. You killed my father, then raped and murdered the woman I was to make my wife, thinking them fit payment for your mother’s death. Well, I disagree. My father did nothing wrong other than accept another man’s get, not knowing what viper he clasped to his chest. Ariel…”

Arik swallowed hard and looked up at the Duke.

“Ariel did nothing wrong other than be the daughter of the wrong man, the fiancé of another, and you stole her away and killed her rather than face me on the battlefield.” The commander’s body was curiously loose, his stance strong, but he was ready to move at a second’s notice. “It’s only now that I see the wisdom of it. A war would’ve had hundreds, if not thousands, of our men killed when we can just sort out this situation out here, once and for all. It’s not the stag you want, but me. Kill me, wear my skull as a crown, if you can.” I watched the king’s eyes gleam with an unholy light. “Because that will do me more honour than I intend for you. I’ll piss in the eye socket I skewer with my sword,” he snarled, “then I’ll leave your body for the crows to eat.”

“You are unworthy of the honour of a duel!” the king shouted, because he didn’t see the picture he made right now.

Clothes piss and sweat stained, face covered in mud, his hair ruffled at all angles, and his grip on the sword wavering. This was the man who’s tyrannical rule we’d lived under for all this time? I don’t think I was alone in thinking that. Courtiers shifted uncomfortably on horseback, not sure if they should laugh, cry, or just turn tail and run. The Duke’s men were nowhere near as reticent.

“And if you refuse, you’ll have that war,” the Duke promised. “On the battlefield or here right now, this issue will be resolved.”

The king looked around, then at the ring of powerful men still on horseback, but if he hoped to find staunch support, he didn’t. Everyone was still digesting knowledge we’d had some time to process, and so they just stared back in stony silence. When the king lavished food, drink, and drugs on his court, he had their favour, but now? This wasn’t the jolly diversion they signed up for. I watched the way the king ground his teeth together before facing Arik.

“A fight to the death, ‘brother?’” Magnus shook his head bravely. “It feels like we’ve been moving towards this point our entire lives.”

“I don’t care about the past,” Arik snapped, though that seemed to take real effort. “Just your death.” And that was when the commander lunged forward.

Chapter 100

Arik

“You must kill your brother if Khean is to survive,” my father said.

“Now?”

I was talking to ghosts when I should be making them, lopping my ‘brother’s’ head off and letting his shade haunt me for being a kinslayer. Except Magnus was no blood of mine. I gripped the sword tighter and advanced on the little bastard.

It had killed Magnus when I grew taller, stronger, than him. He tried to cow me as best he could when I was on the cusp of manhood, thinking if he conditioned me to fear him, he’d control me no matter how big I grew. I’d corrected that mistake one day, catching his fist when he threw a punch, then holding it even as he tried to pull free. That same kind of energy I brought now to this fight. I blinked and blinked, trying to clear the ghost of my father away and see the real threat.

“I should never have held you back,” Father said, his expression sorrowful. “I thought I was protecting both sons.”

I snorted at that.

“I didn’t want to see what kind of monster the boy was. I thought his fits of temper were just high spirits, that will to power expressing itself.”

My head shook back and forth.

“But during the first stag hunt, when I saw him play with the beast…” I glanced at my father then, my gaze far from friendly. “When you killed the stag, I saw it then. You are my true-born son, my only son and the true king of Khean.”

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