Page 35 of The Princess's Chosen

"How is your head?" Wendell asked as his fingers worked a kind of magic that left my head heavy on my shoulders.

The pound of pain had already subsided, and Wendell's fingers turning circles at the base of my skull ensured it stayed away.

"Aren't you at all angry with me?" I asked, trying not to whine.

"Of course not," Wendell said, kissing my forehead.

"Never," Owen echoed.

"Yes," Thao and Cosmo both said.

Wendell snapped a warning in Mennarian, and Thao shrugged, smiling at me. "I have a jealous nature. If it was Aric, I would understand. I've been warned. But you shared yourself with someone when I wasn't expecting it, and I am… I'm understanding, but yes, a little angry."

'Thank you,' I mouthed to him, and his eyes crinkled at the corner with his hidden smile as he raised the hand he was holding up to lay a kiss on my palm. I turned to Cosmo next and swallowed, trying not to appear as though I was bracing for the worst.

"I think you need to reconcile yourself to the idea that the Hunger is not an affliction you're forced to bear, but part of yournature, Bryony," Cosmo said, kneeling down at the end of the tub, his hands wrapped loosely around my ankle. "Aric might know a great deal about magic in the north but that doesn't make him an authority on you or the Hunger."

"Also he is clearly a spiteful, jealous man," Thao added with a toss of his dark hair.

I released a watery sigh, sliding forward in the tub and reaching out for Cosmo. He was ready, soft smile spread over his lips, arms extended as I kneeled and rose, our lips meeting firmly.

"I love you," I whispered.

"I love you, my muse," Cosmo answered, peppering more kisses over my cheeks and forehead before smacking his lips together when he caught some soap on his tongue.

"I wish this tub was big enough for all of us," I said with a frown, turning back to let Wendell rinse the cream out of my hair. "I don't feel right being pampered alone."

"Perhaps the Hunger's magic could fashion a larger tub," Owen suggested.

"Let's worry about that for another time. Both the tub and the shared pampering," Wendell said. "We all need a decent night's sleep together."

I held my breath and ducked beneath the surface of the water, trying to let go of the day's troubles, until my Chosen drew me out again, pulling me into their arms and wrapping me up in a towel.

"No more holding back, from yourself or us," Cosmo said, gentle and firm all at once.

"I promise," I said, rising up to my toes and kissing his chin and then up to his lips, sinking into the kiss.

The Hunger rose as Cosmo's arms wrapped around me, my bare body grazing against his clothed one for a teasing form of friction. I tried not to resent the return of her presence, tried not to think of the fever and fight of those minutes with Daniel, or the sound of his voice, shredded and pleading in my ear.

* * *

"Hello,Sam. I hope we're not bothering you," I said.

Sam was difficult to track down in the palace. He had a guard assigned to keep watch of him, but there weren't enough people in the staff to follow the apparently winding trails Sam took through the palace halls. We found him in the western gallery, sitting in a chair, studying an old painting. It was a depiction of one of the warrior matriarchs of the queen's line, probably over half a millennia old. She had golden hair streaming back behind her in a collection of braids, with bared breasts spilling over the frame of a metal corset. Her head was thrown back, eyes wide with ecstatic pleasure as her yellow stallion reared up, cock inflamed. She was holding a spear, and it was thrust through an enemy soldier's heart.

I wrinkled my nose at the image and searched until I found the floral motif.

"Ah, Queen Aster," I said, spotting the weedy purple daisies filling the corners of the painting. "I always imagined her more…"Not going into battle with her tits out.

"I think the artist took some liberties," Wendell murmured, blushing a little and glancing at me. "Some resemblance, though."

I might've been imagining the innuendo, thinking of the way I'd ridden his lap this morning, but I bit off my giggle and turned back to Sam.

"Do you like art?" Cosmo asked Sam, moving slowly up to stand in line with the man's chair, but far enough to the side not to startle him.

"No," Sam said.

Cosmo's hands stuffed in his pockets and nodded, shoulders shaking with a laugh as he spun on his heel. "Ah. Studio work might not be for you then."

---