Page 220 of Settle Down, Princess

“We’ll eat the very fine dinner you organised,” I said in a much gentler tone, because I needed to learn how to smooth her feathers down after I ruffled them. “And then…” I smiled slowly because I knew something the Duke of Fallspire never would. “We will do whatever it is that little overheated brain of yours was thinking about while we were busy.”

“I may have some ideas in that regard…” Roan said as my princess flushed bright red.

Chapter 121

They were true to their word, something I was still getting used to. We ate the food but I’m not sure if any of us tasted it. Instead it became more like fuel for this. I was snuggled up in our bed, several arms wrapped around me, the heavy lassitude from being satisfied tempting me with sleep, but instead, my eyes cracked open at a harsh bark of a sound.

Silas looked almost innocent when he slept. All the world weary air of him was gone and replaced by a perfect quietness. Creed remained the wolf, always grabbing for me in his sleep and tugging me closer. The prick of his claws against my skin was comforting, helping me drop deeper into sleep. Roan snored, that was somehow expected, but I jerked my head up off his chest at the sound. Arik wasn’t here, my eyes took that in swiftly as I pulled myself free.

Hands reached for me, arms went to pull me closer, but I couldn’t let it. The madness of just being woken up had me floundering forward, as if I could prevent anything happening to Arik. I had the presence of mind to snatch up a knife from the table as I stalked forward. Out of the room, down the corridor, the rooms now scrubbed clean of all evidence of the king’s guard by palace staff, and out here. My nightgown, one of Roan’s shirts, swirled around my legs, as I watched Arik lean over the balustrade, smoke curling upwards and away from him.

“Arik…”

I was rushing forward, sliding my hands over his back, raking my nails across it, the red trails on my skin reassuring myself he was still here. He turned then, looking tired, so tired, and yet he managed a smile as he drew me closer.

“Couldn’t sleep either?” He smoothed his free hand over my hair, shifting it back off my shoulders. “You need to. Things are going to be hard, very hard for some time. Rest when you can.” He took one last drag from his cigarillo, then flicked it out into the gardens. “That’s what the army taught me. Sleep because tomorrow you might die.”

“No.” I took his head in my hands. “No, don’t say that. You’re not going to the front. I forbid it. My father never rode into battle and neither will you. You’ll live forever and ever, ruling over a country at peace and prosperity, always annoying me by leaving your clothes all over the floor and smirking in that infuriating way you—”

He lifted me onto the edge of the balustrade, shooting me that exact smile as my hands slapped down on his shoulders, clinging to him lest I fall over. He tugged me closer, making clear that would never happen.

“Is that right?”

“Yes…” I touched his face almost tentatively, which was ridiculous considering the way we’d just spent the night, but I felt a strange kind of reverence as I traced the planes of his face. All of them inspired this same feeling, that I needed to map every plane, every angle, lest it be snatched away.

“Well, since you are my queen, I cannot do anything else other than obey, but if we’re to live forever, can I suggest we get some sleep? We must leave at first light and if we go to sleep right now we might just get…” He squinted at the moon, trying to gauge the angle to determine the hour, but it was his face going slack that had me turning around. Slipping from his arms, my own hands slapped down on the balustrade, the cool of the stone barely registering as I saw her standing on the grass.

It shouldn’t have been possible for the golden doe to gleam this way in the moonlight, and yet she seemed to suck in all the available light then reflect it back twice as bright.

“Oh…” I sighed, having half convinced myself that she wasn’t real. “Oh, Arik—”

Whatever I had to say was cut off by the same sound that woke me, a harsh cry that cut through the still of night, echoing throughout the entire expanse of grass below, and the trees beyond. Birds took flight, wind stirred and so did I.

“Jessalyn!”

How did I get here? Somehow I’d pulled away from Arik and was halfway over the balustrade, my hands clinging to a trellis covered with climbing roses. “Don’t move.” He held up his hands like one might when dealing with an irate animal, not his mate. “Stay right there.”

But I couldn’t.

All of the pain and anger, confusion and anxiety of the past few days fell away. I’d never felt more sure of anything than I did right now. One foot found purchase on the trellis, then the other leg was swung over, right as his eyes widened. He leapt forward, ready to stop me and that triggered something inside me. Not memories of Magnus and his sadism, but something far deeper.

Women had done this before, somehow I knew.

They climbed down the trellis with a speed they’d never possessed, their eyes on their lover who was forced to watch them from the balcony. Arik evaluated the trellis for its structural strength, then his hand shot out.

“Stay there, Jessalyn.” But I couldn’t. Another barking cry from the golden doe as the dew on the grass kissed my feet had me taking a step away from him, then another. “Jessalyn! Gods above…” His voice trailed off, whisked away by a breeze that lifted my hair from my neck. Goosebumps pricked my skin as I watched him pace back and forth. “Don’t take another bloody step, I’m warning you…”

That sharp crack of his voice, the growl of warning, it evoked so many other things. Creed’s savage snarl as he decimated my enemies. Silas much more feline one as he threw his knives. Roan’s brutal sword strike as he lopped off the catamount’s head. That all should’ve had me moving towards him not away, shouldn’t it? But that same mad impulse that had ridden me back at the inn was back and twice as fierce. My lips curved into a smile, something that had Arik stopping still, right as I turned and ran.

Why the hell was I running off into the palace grounds?

That thought was the last conscious one I had as my hands sliced through the air, my feet skimmed over wet grass, because the golden doe turned tail and bounded off, leading me further into the trees.

The quiet of the forest had me skidding to a stop for just a second. The doe wasn’t as apparent in the green gloom as she was in the trees. A small flick of an ear, a rapid thud of hooves, had my head jerking around, my eyes finding her path right as my feet moved to race after her. Jumping over rocks, sailing over logs and twigs, she’d lent me her speed, her strength. I’d need them it appeared, because a long drawn out wolf howl alerted me to the fact that I was being pursued. The doe and I were of the same mind, freezing on the spot, her large brown eyes mine as we both looked back over our shoulders to try and determine where the threat came from, right as we sprinted forward. Between trees and through ferns, past bushes, onwards I ran.

“Jessalyn!”

My name was like a leash, trying to wrap itself around my neck and jerk me backwards, but I resisted its pull. They’d need to prove themselves to me if they wanted to make me theirs. Where the hell had that thought come from, I wondered, but not for long. My stride lengthened, air filling my lungs with hardly any effort, my body a machine, right up until I ran into him.

---