A Kingdom of Ruin (Deliciously Dark Fairytales Book 3)(126)

He pulled out, yanked away the pillow, flipped me over, and then re-entered me in lightning-fast movements before kissing me deeply, wrapping me in his arms.

“It’s happening,” he whispered, and swiped his tongue through my mouth before tangling it with mine.

It almost felt like the goddess herself was blessing our union.

“Just this once, I wish we were like the wolves and could knot,” he murmured against my lips, his hold on me insistent, both with his arms and the bond.

I’d read about that in passing but had been skimming. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know the logistics. At least not right now.

And then magic curled around us, pulling tight one moment and snapping the next. A strange sort of filth seemed to gather in the air, drawn from everything within the room, and then it seeped out, leaving everything lighter, somehow. Fluffier. Almost like the air had been scrubbed clean with a fresh rain.

Nyfain pulled back to look at me, his eyes filled with wonder and pride. He smiled.

“We did it,” he whispered. “We lifted the curse.” He laughed, a relieved sound. “If you had any doubts about being my true mate, now you know for sure. You’re mine.”

He kissed me again, pure joy in the touch. I lost myself to the feel of him, relieved and thankful, knowing nothing but how I felt in this moment.

After what could’ve been a moment or an hour, something occurred to me.

“Your scales?” I reached around him, but before I could touch them to see if they’d been restored, a knock at the door stole my focus.

“Sire—master—” Quieter, as though in an aside, Hadriel said, “I don’t even know what the fuck to call him…”

“Is he for real?” Nyfain muttered. The way he said it, like he was so routinely annoyed by Hadriel that he’d become resigned to it, made me laugh. “Does he want to die?”

“Call him sire now, right?” Leala whispered on the other side of the door, not nearly quiet enough for the conversation to stay between the two of them. “The curse has been lifted—we did it! Or we helped do it. Anyway, it’s lifted, so he’s back to being a prince.”

“He was always a prince.”

“I mean…now we don’t have to hide it because the demons are gone. We’re a real kingdom again!”

“Love, now is not the time to squeal and freak out. We are interrupting the master— Fuck! I’m going to fuck this up. We’re interrupting a sex session, which is probably very intense, and he probably wants to kill me. Lifting the curse isn’t going to suddenly make him more bearable.”

“Fine. Okay, go.”

Hadriel raised his voice again. “Sire.” He knocked. “Sire, I know you’re in there. I’m coming in. It’s urgent.”

“Oh my—” I scrabbled across the bed and quickly climbed under the covers so he didn’t see me in the throes of sex. I was getting used to being naked in front of people, but that would be a step too far.

Hadriel stuck his head in and caught sight of me in the bed and then Nyfain rising up onto his knees, his erection prominent.

“Get out, Hadriel,” Nyfain commanded with such malice that I felt a shiver go through me, followed by another wave of lust. I’d stopped thinking it odd that he could both scare and arouse me at the same time.

Hadriel didn’t share the sentiment. He jerked, clunking his head against the doorframe before visibly shaking in his boots.

“Yes, mas—sire,” he replied, his voice quavering. I could just see Leala backing away a little more. “In literally every other instance I would, sire. I think I just pissed myself a little because of your yelling, so that needs looking after, but this one time, you need to come. You’ll want to come. It’s urgent.”

“I intend to come, Hadriel. Get out so I can.”

“Funny, master—sire. Ha-ha.” He grimaced. “But it’s imperative that you come with me first. You’ve been requested, and this is really one of those things that you wouldn’t forgive us for not telling you about. And you’ll want to…” He stuck in a shaking hand and made circles with his pointer finger. “You’ll want clothes, sire. You won’t want to show that—rather impressive, excuse my saying so—erection for this. Not to her.”

“Not to whom?” Nyfain growled.

“Well…” Hadriel coughed into his fist. “Your mother, sire. The queen. She lives, it seems, and she’s here. Now that the curse has been broken, her fellow villagers know her for who she is. They just remembered, as though they’d always known. So then they told the former members of the court, who sought her out… It’s actually kind of a mess, at this point. Because now there’s some question of who rules, and…”

He trailed away, his gaze growing intense as he watched Nyfain’s face. Confusion and continued annoyance bled through the bond, probably from both of us.

“Hadriel, I have never appreciated your humor,” Nyfain said in a low, rough voice.

“No, sire. I am well aware. But…” Hadriel put up his hands in defeat.

“My father is the one who told me she died,” Nyfain went on. “He blamed me. His grief was clear. Grief like that couldn’t have been faked. I was at the funeral.”