Page 2 of The Dawn

The dark heaviness would be terrifying, if not for Magnus's warm, comfortable, familiar presence.

Then, as I was thinking about how comfortable he was, he grunted and rolled like a big bear, grasping my waist, pulling me close, his head nudging against my breast, getting comfortable as if I were his pillow

I wrapped my arms around his head and kissed the top of his head. He was fast asleep again.

I wasn’t, I was peering out around our room, dimly lit by the fire in the hearth. The room was unfamiliar as I was newly arrived. I wasn’t used to servants who lurked around at all hours, a wee bit oppressive in their helpfulness. I had asked that the canopy not be closed around our bed, but I had changed my mind now. Beyond the bed were shadows that made me uneasy.

A darkness lay behind the wardrobes containing the bottom layer of our costumes: my dresses and cloaks and Magnus’s outer layers were kept in another room and would be brought in when we needed to dress.

I vaguely remembered where this magical room holding the Queen’s Wardrobe was, and somehow it contained dresses, jewelry, and a crown for my use. I had been here at one point, long ago, even though the shifting of time had changed my memories.

Cailean had welcomed me warmly but without much recognition, but Iknewhim. I had met him once long ago... I had stayed with Magnus at the abbey and palace in Scone just after he had been crowned king, and then I remembered following Cailean as we had ridden our horses on a journey to Stirling. Magnus’s standard had been flying above us against the blue sky, the rumble of an army of men on horseback around us, the scent of horse and Scottish forest. But after that my memory grew hazy.

I couldn’t remember what happened next.

I looked up at the canopy, my fingers circling around one of Magnus’s locks, wondering about the men and women who had lived in this room before us, and who would live here after us. Kings and queens who were named in the history books, who were remembered by school children, and here we were — Mags and Katie.

If I thought about it, in the darkness of this medieval room, we were usurpers.

We had taken a throne.

Whose throne?

I didn’t know. My Scottish history knowledge was patchy at best.

Who were we replacing, and would everything be okay?

We didn’t know, had no way to know, we were holding the throne, that was all... holding... Magnus tightened his hold on me and smacked his lips, sleepily.

Then he mumbled, “Ye havin’ trouble sleepin’, mo reul-iuil?”

“A little, new bed, new room?—”

“Auld familiar worries.”

I said, “Aye, I knowwhywe are here, and I understand you’re going to solve this, but it’s got that feel...”

I smoothed my hand down the skin of his shoulder. “We’ve had this feeling before — have we been removed? Are we out of the way, distracted? And in the meantime, is something big happening? It seems like a storm is brewing, and we are unable to see it coming.”

“Och nae, ye canna sleep with those kinds of thoughts in yer head.”

His hand went up under the hem of my chemise, drew it up, and clasped my breast, playing and fondling there.

I breathed, slowly in and out, then he drew his fingers ever so slightly away and I arched ever so slightly to meet his touch. My exhale sounded like —please more.

He chuckled, very low, and said, “Ye distract easily, mo reul-iuil,” as his mouth settled on my other breast. His hand pulled tenderly down along my skin, and found its way between my legs and played there, driving his fingers between the folds — oh god oh god oh god. His mouth drew along my skin, his lips and his tongue, tasting and suckling. His fingers probed — I was drawn to the heights of climax, but a moment before going over the edge alone, he climbed onto me and entered me in a rush. He pressed his mouth to my lips, kissing me deeply, his hips pounding against me... oh, oh, ohhhh, I climaxed within a second, so fast, so big, a gigantic rush roaring through me. My muscles contracted and released, pulling him in and in and...

He growled a long drawn out, low rumbling occhhh, then raised above me and drove into me, over and over, his breaths bullish, heat rising. I pressed against the headboard and raised my hips to meet him, more and again, until he climaxed, and with a long exhale collapsed on me, his fingers clutching my buttocks, holding my hips tightly against him. We stilled in place, as our insides relaxed and softened, until, as the feeling ebbed, we grew weighted, my hips lowered to the bed. He followed me down, above me at first, then on me, then heavy on me. He kissed my lips, long and lingering, an elbow on each side of my head, his fingers entwined in my hair, his thumbs against my temples. Then he rolled off onto his side. “Twas verra fine, I for one want for nothin’ now.”

“Me neither.” I peered around in the darkness, “Except... can we close the curtains? I mean, that’s the royal ‘we’.”

“Ye wantme, the king, tae close m’own curtains? Dost ye ken who I am?” He cleared his throat.

A voice said, “Aye, Yer Majesty?”

My eyes wide I whispered, “Oh my god, he’s in the room, watching?”

Magnus chuckled. “The next room, but he hears everythin’.”

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