Page 47 of Drama Queen

In our courts, women rule. As much as my father, the king, might love me, his wife is another story.

The queen, my wonderful stepmother, hates me. She has since the day I came to live here, almost three hundred years ago. It’s not an exaggeration, either; she’s told me so herself many times.

“She won’t find out. We’ve been hiding things from her for years,” I say, waving my hand through the air even though I know he can't see it.

“Em.” I turn in his arms, pressing my hand to his mouth to shut him up.

It’s ridiculous how big he is. Even with him seated on the edge of my bed, I have to stand damn near on my tiptoes to reach his face. It once again puts my chest to his, and I feel his rumble deep at the contact.

“Stop it. You know I have to go.” I say, ignoring the way my body sings at the feel of him. “Ivy has three mates. You know as well as I do she will kill us if we enter the academy like this.”

He opens his mouth to say something, but I don’t pull my hand away, and his words come out muffled. I ignore him instead, taking the opportunity to push on while I can. Zephyr is never quiet for long, at least not while we're alone.

“Look, if I didn’t need them, you know I wouldn’t go. It’s not like I want more mates and shit from the fates to deal with, but I need them.” I pause, sucking in a sharp breath. I know I’ll regret my next words, but also know it’s the only way to get him on board.

Fuck my life.

“Weneed them.” The second I say it, I wish I could take it back. His fingers tighten, curling into his shirt until they dig into my skin. His lips pull up, and I can feel his grin against my hand. I know him well enough that I don’t need to see his smirk to picture it. It’s the same one that's gotten us into trouble since we were children.

But that was before.

Back when we were friends, his dad was my guard, and he was around because he didn’t have a choice. Before he followed in his father’s footsteps and took over for him. Before fate intervened and made him my mate. Back when I thought it was our choice that kept us close and not some all-powerful, unseeable force.

I might not be able to lie, but I damn sure can be mad at what the fates designed. I’d wanted Zephyr when I thought it was our doing, and while those feelings grew and changed as we didthrough the years, I hate that it no longer feels like a choice we made for ourselves.

I’m yanked from my thoughts as he drags his tongue across my palm.

Gross.

I snatch my hand back, wiping it down his arm as he hums a laugh, seemingly pleased with himself.

For a royal guard, he’s a fucking child, I swear. Not that anyone but me knows that. To every other person in the court, Zephyr is professional, disciplined, and loyal to a fault. Only I know the real Zephyr, and let me tell you, he’s not at all what they think he is.

He’s a giant child behind closed doors, though I can’t say he isn’t loyal. It’s just not in the way most assume.

Zephyr has always been loyal to me, long before the fates stepped in. That’s why we’ve been best friends for so damn long and why I know, despite his protests and worries, he will have my back.

Even if he hates it.

It’s always been us against them. The queen, Ivy, the courts, you name it, and we’re against it, together. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve sat up wishing we had been born to lower-status families, unworried about things like thrones and backstabbing sisters who want to kill me, us.

“I just don’t want to see you hurt, my queen,” he says as his arms wind impossibly tighter around me, pressing his still-hard length to my stomach. If I were weaker, he would have folded me in half by now. Thankfully, all the years of him secretly training me keep me from snapping like a twig.

“Then help me,” I say, reaching up to push back a long strand of his hair that escaped his ponytail while we fucked. Ugh, I love his stupidly long hair. “Ivy has three mates. As much as I don’twant to fall to my knees at the hands of fate, we both know I’m no match for her with just the two of us.”

It pains me to admit it, but I know he needs to hear it and understand why I’m willing to face the queen’s wrath for this. I know he’ll understand.

Ivy and I are alike in many ways while also being complete opposites, but now she’s tipped the scales in her favor.

This year, we will join the rest of the realm, attend four years of Ironcrest with our mates, and learn how to rule in hopes of keeping the two realms in peace.

Three hundred years ago, the king and queen of both courts met in secret to end an age-old war that had both courts on the verge of ruin. From that one night, they were gifted two children, two half-breed heirs. After almost a thousand years of no new life being gifted to the realm, two princesses were born to both courts,of both courts. We are the first, and only, of our kind. Never before have the future queens been half-breeds, and no matter how they might try to hide it, it’s still the truth.

Mixing between the courts isn’t unheard of by any means. Fae, as a whole, are sexual beings. Once upon a time, it was said that the fae traveled to the mortal realm for sex, even going so far as to fall in love with them and stay there. Now, that realm is forbidden, but that doesn’t stop many from finding others, new partners, and conquests. I’ve met very few in the court who I believe even know what love is, but sex is something everyone understands.

Even those who are mated often share a bed with others.

The fates decide our mates long before we live to find them, but once we do, we’re stronger for it—as if they complete some missing pieces. Most only search for their mates to better themselves, not for love, much the same way I intend to.

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