Page 187 of Settle Down, Princess

“So we should get some practise in now?”

I let out a yelp as Roan swept me into his arms. “I’ll have you riding like a seasoned horsewoman by the end of this.” His kiss burned my lips like a brand. “Though you might be a little saddle sore tomorrow.”

“To sleep,” Arik ordered. “All of the libidinous urges you can stir will be satisfied when we kill the king.”

“Regicide, then a celebratory orgy.” Roan grinned as I gasped. “I like it. Well, you heard the commander…”

Later we settled down in Creed’s tent, several other bedrolls placed together to form a bed. I found myself wedged between the lot of them, a curious kind of calm settling over me. Perhaps it was the weight of Creed’s arm because he couldn’t seem to allow me to get further than arm’s length away. Perhaps it was the long, slow breaths each took, filling the tent with their sleepy sighs, but as my eyes fell closed and sleep took me, I remembered. We were riding to war tomorrow, taking the first step towards freeing all five of us from Magnus’ tyrannical rule. The last thing I remembered was smiling at the thought of that.

Chapter 106

Roan

Gods, it was so good to finally be doing something.

I admit, I woke up the others the next morning with a cheery tune. Right as Silas went to throw a pillow in my direction, I handed him a steaming mug of coffee, which went some way towards mollifying him.

“Black like your soul,” I informed him.

“Your eye will be the same colour…” Arik groaned, rolling over and stretching, but as he did so his hand slid against the greatest incentive for him to wake up. Sure enough, his eyes flicked open as soon as he touched Jessalyn. He stole a secret look at her, moving closer until her eyelids started to flicker, then he was up and taking the other coffee from me with a warning look.

“Sleep well, my mate?”

Creed was awake the moment Jessalyn was, smiling down at her, an expression she quickly reciprocated, though not for long.

“We are ready to ride?” She shot up from the bedroll. “It’s time to get going? Is everyone waiting on us?”

“Settle down, Princess.” Arik shot her a look over his shoulder then focused on his coffee. “They can’t exactly march forth without us. If we’re lucky enough to win the day, they’ll need someone to sit his arse down on the throne and start giving the kinds of orders needed to save the country.” He nodded slowly. “They’ll wait for us.”

In the end, we had to wait for them. A camp this size? It’d been a long time since we’d ridden with a force so large, but that came with its downfalls. Trying to organise thousands of people at the same time was like herding cats, but when the sun was well above us, we rode off. I’d persuaded Jessalyn to ride up the front of my saddle.

“For security,” I told my brothers.

“You’ll be hard pressed to reach for your sword with our mate in your arms,” Silas grumbled.

“You’ll just have to work hard to keep us safe then, won’t you?” Jessalyn replied. I kicked my horse forward with a smirk, then I placed a kiss on the back of her neck as we started off.

The ride was long, tiring, flies buzzing around our head, people poking their heads up from the fields they were working as we passed. All of my body ached, especially one specific part that rubbed against Jessalyn’s pretty little arse with every rock of the saddle. I was about to discuss how we might introduce those two parts to each other when we stopped. That was when I looked up and saw the changes made to the capital.

The gates were never closed. I was willing to bet engineers had to be found to oil the mechanisms that wheeled them shut and kept them that way when the order went out, but it wasn’t technological feats that caught my attention.

“What do you think, Prince Arik?” James asked as he and some of the lords loyal to him brought their horses to stand beside ours. “Do we send up a raven to deliver our terms?”

“I’d prefer to plaster it on the face of a boulder and lob it over the gates,” one of the lords said with a toothy grin. “Make clear we mean business.”

“You’d just hit Cheapside,” I said with a frown, “milord.” The honorific felt like it had to be extracted from me forcibly, but I managed to get it out.

“Well, that would be an improvement, wouldn’t it?” the lord continued blithely. “Clean out the riff raff.”

I sucked in a breath, and when I spoke, there’d be no more recognition of rank, but Arik spoke over me.

“Considering how many good, loyal soldiers come from areas like Cheapside, I would suggest any action that results in the death of innocents is to be avoided.” His tone was as cool as I’d ever heard it. “We are supposed to be entering the city as liberators, not slayers.”

“Just so, Highness.” James bowed his head slowly. “Let's proceed carefully…”

They had more to say, I was sure of it, but while I heard the low murmur of their voices arguing, my focus narrowed down on the gate. I didn’t know what it was supposed to look like before because it was always open, admitting a steady stream of visitors, merchants, anyone drawn to the shining lights of the capital, but I was willing to bet this splash of bright red was not part of the design.

“Hold on, lass,” I urged Jessalyn, the sound of her hands slapping down on the saddle horn allowing me to kick our horse into a gallop.

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