Page 46 of MidKnight
I gave a little smile. “Don’t be silly. I do trust you.”
He shook his head. “This life. The palace. It’s not like the farm I grew up on. There, everyone pitches in. Every day—work to eat. Work to eat. Again, and again.”
“And?”
“And the palace is full of liars and cheats. If my life weren’t tied to yours, I’d worry … that you’d start to see things that weren’t there.”
“Like what?”
“Like ambition. Or jealousy. Or betrayal. Or a million other things,” he leaned in and planted a soft kiss on my lips.
“I don’t see those things,” I whispered.
“I know,” he let his nose skim my jaw, sending soft tendrils of sensation over me.
When he leaned back, his eyes had an expression I’d never seen before. There were little creases by the edges of his eyes. “I’m not Declan,” he stated, “but he’s taught me a lot about Evaness. History and things. And one of the reasons Evaness didn’t break apart like Lored and Rasle did two-hundred years ago, one of the reasons we haven’t ended up with a lot of in-fighting like Gitmore, is that the bond between a queen and her knights is so strong. I’m your knight, but Evaness will never accept me as a monarch. If I betray you, I can’t get more powerful than I already am. In the past, some queens and knights have even had their mages cast bonding spells. So that if one dies, they all die.”
I blinked. “I don’t remember that.”
“Dec said it was hushed up, he found it in a scroll he snuck off his mentor. Don’t want assassins getting ideas. But … again, quoting the master here—”
“I’m telling Dec you called him that,” I giggled.
Ryan’s grin spread ear to ear. “He knows. I’m the master in the bedroom. That’s it.”
“Yes, you are,” I agreed, and he lifted me into his arms, looping my legs around his waist. I could feel him start to grow beneath me.
“Do you want this history lesson or not?” he bopped me on the nose.
“Yes, sir.”
He groaned, “Bad girl.” His fingers dug into my hip and ass, just short of painful. “Stay still and quiet while I finish.”
I nodded.
“Kingdoms are too big, too much, for just one ruler. Dec likes to use Cheryn as an example a lot. The sultan there has made a lotta bad choices that have hurt his people. He doesn’t do advisers. Been ruling for nearly a thousand years. That djinni has gotten arrogant. Evaness doesn’t work like that. Knights were designed to be advisers. We’retrainedto be experts that help you run the kingdom. Our daughter becomes the next monarch, so we’re emotionally invested in making the country as strong as possible. I guess, in the first Fire War, maybe eight hundred years ago, there was a Queen … Onica. Dec tells the story with all these details.”
“Don’t worry about how he tells it. Give me your version.” I placed a chaste kiss over Ryan’s heart.
“I told you to stay still.”
“Oops,” I’d forgotten. But if he wanted to punish me, there was no way I was going to make excuses for myself. The very idea had me wet again.
Ryan’s eyes narrowed as he said, “This is your only warning.”
I nodded, tempted to say ‘yes, sir’ again. But, clearly, he wanted to tell me this story. And if I said those trigger words, neither of us would hold back.
“Onica’s knights were all from different provinces. And they had trouble getting along. One of them plotted to kill the others, wanting to be her only knight. Onica found out. She had the mage put a bonding spell on them all so that if any one of them died, they’d all die. Her reign ended up being one of the most peaceful and productive in all of Evaness history.”
“That could be a coincidence.”
Ryan smiled and shook his head. “That’s what Connor told Declan, when he first brought it up.”
“You all have talked about this?”
Ryan’s lips pressed together, and he was silent for a second before he said, “We did more than talk about it.”
My stomach fluttered like a hummingbird’s wings. I was shocked—no—awed—no—confused. “Are you saying …?”
