Ceremony of Seduction (20 page)

“What is it? Sweetheart, tell me…” He reached out to her and his hands passed through as if she were no more than a ghost.

Shawn sat up in bed, peeling his soiled sheets away from his body and scrubbing his hands over his face as tendrils of the dream grudgingly let go of him. “I have to find her soon. Something is very wrong.” He slammed his fist against the mattress as his frustration threatened to overwhelm him. “Damn it! I won’t lose her. She’s mine.”

Sasha gasped and bolted upright in bed as the dream shattered and freed her into waking. Her breasts and pussy still tingled with his touch, her lips still swollen with his kisses. If she closed her eyes, she could still feel the sweet friction as he rubbed her clit until she came against his hand.

She buried her face in her hands. He’d come to her in her dreams for months, filling her nights with ecstasy, companionship, and longing, his presence lingering inside her mind even when she was awake. She hadn’t realized it until now, but in all that time, he’d never addressed her by name. It was always “beautiful,” “sweetheart,” or “love.”

They’d forged a bond between them these last months, and she’d held hope that he would be the man to help her complete her coming-of-age. She twisted the sheets in her hands. His last word dissolved all her dreams and hopes in an instant.

“Princess…” A slow fat tear carved a path down her cheek as the pain and betrayal sliced deep. “He doesn’t want me. He wants Alyssandra.” She hugged her knees to her chest and slowly rocked against the pain of her heart splitting in two. “I wonder how he mistook me for her?”

Her body betrayed her, her breasts and pussy aching for his touch even now. She shook her head in denial, even though she knew the truth.

She loved the princess and couldn’t even bring herself to be jealous. She understood how a man could fall in love with someone like her, but that didn’t stop the pain or the tears. Sobs wracked her and she curled into a ball and let the piercing emotions riot over her in waves.

Alyssandra slipped out of bed and pulled on her clothes, careful not to wake Stone. A suffocating wave of despair had woken her and she’d recognized it immediately as belonging to her lady’s maid. Since Stone had taught her to control her power, she’d learned to recognize and differentiate the energy signatures of those close to her.

She slipped into the hall, startled to find four royal guards posted in front of her door. She didn’t remember having guards while she slept, but then again, she’d never gone out in the middle of the night. Stone had always either kept her busy or sated enough that she’d never been awake deep into the night.

“Good evening, Princess.” The leader stepped forward and bowed her head in respect. “Would you like an escort somewhere?”

She smiled sheepishly, feeling like a child caught sneaking out after curfew. “No, thanks. I’m just going next door to see my lady’s maid, but I appreciate the offer. Can you tell the prince where I am if he wakes up? I don’t want him to worry.”

“Yes, of course, Princess.”

She knocked lightly on Sasha’s door before pushing it open just in time to see her maid disappear through a door in the far wall that had been hidden by a large tapestry. If Sasha’s rioting emotions weren’t still chafing against her senses, Alyssa would be excited to find out the castle had secret passages. As it stood, she was worried why Sasha would slip away in the middle of the night in such a state.

She rushed forward to catch the passageway door before it closed. If there was some sort of secret latch to open it, Alyssa didn’t want to waste time searching for it. Sasha was obviously distraught.

“Sasha,” she called, her voice echoing down the dimly lit stairwell that descended into the gloomy dark below. When she received no answer, she reached out with her tendril of energy to brush against the maid’s mind. Deep despair, heartbreak, and a sense of urgency were the only things she could sense clearly, but she received no sense that Sasha was fleeing from her, or was even aware she followed.

Alyssa rushed down the steps, the smooth
balda
stone cool against her bare feet, her fingers brushing over the walls on either side to ensure she didn’t fall. She’d expected the dark stairwell to reek of mold and disuse, but no dirt or rubble scuffed beneath her feet and the air smelled faintly of the flowering trees so prevalent on the castle grounds. Obviously, Sasha used this passage often.

When she reached the bottom, her nose met painfully with an unforgiving wall and she staggered back until she could get her bearings. Her fingers traced the wall in front of her looking for a doorknob or latch, but she found none. She couldn’t even detect the seam where the door sat. Surely she hadn’t hit a dead end? She traced her fingers over the wall on either side, again finding no seams for a door or opening. There was nowhere else Sasha could have gone.

She turned her attention back toward the wall in front of her. She braced her shoulder against the stone and leveraging her feet against the bottom stair, pushed hard. With a soft grating noise, the wall swung outward, opening into a small clearing behind a copse of flowering trees next to the castle. No wonder Alyssa had never noticed the door, it was ingeniously hidden from view from outside the castle.

She almost laughed as disappointment arrowed through her that her own chambers didn’t have a secret passage. Maybe Stone would have one put in for her. Her lips curved at the amusement she knew would shine in his eyes if she asked for such a thing.

Pushing aside the flowered branches of two trees, she slipped between them out into the courtyard. Weak moonlight filtered down through the thick clouds allowing her to see her maid leave the courtyard headed toward the road where she’d first entered the castle compound one short week ago with Stone.

She immediately hurried after Sasha, her only thoughts to ensure her maid was all right.

When Alyssa stepped out onto the road, she spotted the maid ahead standing in an open field dotted with a riot of blooming flowers, the colors clearly visible even in the silvery moonlight. She started forward again and stopped short as tingling energy flowed over her, raising every hair on her body.

A shimmery portal opened between her and Sasha, and one Klatch man and four Cunts stepped through, startling her.

Sasha turned and her eyes widened in shock. “No!” Her voice made faint by the breeze, carried toward Alyssa as she started toward them at a run.

The Klatch newcomer turned toward Sasha, and Alyssa saw his broad smile even from the side as he opened his arms while she ran toward him.
Was this the man Sasha had blushed over when asked about her coming-of-age?

The four Cunts spared no glance for Sasha, but purposely stepped toward Alyssa, their hands raised with invisible threads of spells already cast. She raised her arms, flinging a shield of energy outward at the same time, deflecting their spells. Her haphazard bolts of pink power hit two of her attackers squarely in the chest and they dropped to the ground in boneless heaps. The other two continued forward, and all the air whooshed from her lungs as one of their draining spells hit her from the side.

“
Stone!”
She knew he’d never make it to her in time, but pain washed over her at the thought of never seeing him again.

Footsteps and shouts sounded from behind her and she knew reinforcements were on their way from the castle, but she also knew they were too late. Another draining spell hit her squarely in the chest and small black spots danced in front of her eyes. Her fuzzy gaze locked with Sasha’s a split second before blackness closed in around her.

Stone paced his chamber, his anger warring with fear as his boots rang against the white
balda
floor with every step.

“Stone?” Annalecia’s weak voice banked his anger and he turned, surprised when she hugged him tight. His reserve crumbled and he sunk into the comforting embrace, curling his arms around her and resting his chin on her head.

He met Darius’s steady gaze over the queen’s head, surprised to see only pain there and not judgment and accusation. “I’m so sorry I didn’t protect her as I promised. I didn’t even know she’d gone.”

Annalecia pulled back and then, taking his hand, led him over to sit down on the bed before she settled into the overstuffed chair. Dark circles marred the pale skin under her eyes and her hair hung over her shoulders, lifeless and dull. Alyssa’s sudden disappearance had put even more strain on the queen’s weakened system.

Once his wife was settled, Darius took the chair beside her. “You thought she was safely asleep and the guards thought she was safely in Sasha’s room. There was no way to know about that secret passage. Although apparently quite a few of the lady’s maids and manservants’ rooms have them, according to Sasha. If none of the royal families have known of them for centuries, you can’t berate yourself for not factoring in that option.”

Stone ran his hands through his hair in frustration. “You should’ve let me go after her.” He gingerly touched his swollen cheekbone where he’d taken an elbow from one of the guards while they restrained him from jumping through the portal behind Alyssandra. If he were a few seconds quicker, he could’ve saved her.

It had taken almost the entire royal guard to subdue him and both they and he were worse for the wear. Once he’d calmed down and been locked into his chamber under heavy guard, the sergeant of the guard had reminded him that there could’ve well be an entire army of Cunts on the other side of the portal.

He knew he wasn’t thinking rationally and yet he still didn’t care, he would gladly give his life to save Alyssandra. However, the guards and the king and queen wouldn’t allow him that opportunity.

The queen reached out toward Stone and he pulled back before she could touch him. “You need all the energy you have, my lady. Don’t waste any on healing me.”

Her wan smile widened. “I was just going to remind you that your duty is to Tador, and not just to Alyssandra, no matter how much we all wish it could be different. We can not afford to lose you too.” Her chin lifted in a gesture so much like Alyssandra’s it squeezed his heart painfully inside his chest. “If she…doesn’t return, you must be mated with another royal princess. There are a few that have been widowed that are of age, even though they are quite a bit older than you. They are our last hope if Alyssandra doesn’t return. Tador is waning, as am I.” Her eyes glistened with unshed tears and she blinked them away.

Stone wondered if could ever put the planet’s welfare over that of his own child. Maybe he was the one who shouldn’t be on the throne. Maybe he wasn’t even worthy of Alyssandra. He had no doubt that she would do whatever was necessary in any circumstances. He closed his eyes and scrubbed his hands over his face, his beard stubble scratching against his palms. “I don’t know if I can,” he said honestly.

He looked up at both of them in turn. They were his godparents and if he had any power over the situation, his future in-laws. They’d known him his entire life and he loved them like second parents. He’d grown up instilled with a sense of duty to Tador and its people, but for the first time in his life, he balked at his duty—because to him, one woman’s life was worth more than the entire planet.

“I can’t imagine spending my life with anyone but Alyssandra. She is all I desire. You may have to find another prince to fill my role. If Alyssandra is not queen…then I cannot be king.” Stone knew without a doubt that he was the strongest Klatch Prince of the sixteen houses, and yet, he knew he would not take the throne without her. She’d ruined him for any other—the consequences be damned.

Darius leaned forward to pierce Stone with a paternal gaze. Stone steeled himself for the king’s words, but what he said surprised him. “All is not lost yet, boy.”

Stone startled at the king referring to him as “boy.” Darius hadn’t used the term for him in many years and then only when he was disappointed in Stone’s behavior. His curiosity piqued, he looked up to meet the king’s gaze.

“Her powers are strong, as is her will and her love for you, us, and the planet that is her birthright. She grew up among those who have taken her, and that gives her a sizable advantage. Don’t forget that.”

Stone shot to his feet, fear for Alyssandra and helplessness that threatened to overwhelm him turning into white-hot anger. “An advantage? They know all her fears and insecurities, and they have her outnumbered. Who knows what they’ll do to her?” Fear slowly rose above his anger, settling inside him like a heavy weight that caused his stomach to roil and pitch. “They will—”

Darius’s voice continued calmly on. “They will underestimate her, as they have always done. They don’t view her as a formidable princess coming into her rightful powers, but as the downtrodden woman they’ve conditioned for the past twenty-three years. Even in her short time here, she’s blossomed into the woman she should’ve been. A woman who will be the next queen.” He leaned back in his chair, his features proud, his voice clear. “Have faith in my daughter, Stone. I’m confident she won’t disappoint you.”

Stone thought back to all the times her resilience and strength had surprised even him. The king had a good point, but sitting here doing nothing while the woman he loved was alone and in danger grated against him. Helplessness flowed over him in a suffocating wave and he pushed it away before it overwhelmed him.

“Thank you, Darius. Forgive me for doubting her.” He sat again, forcing his features to relax and his fists to open. “It’s difficult for me to sit and wait, not being able to help her.”

“That is a dilemma we both share. Inaction doesn’t suit me either, but in this case, it’s the best course.”

Stone bit back a retort and reined in his fear and anger. He had to concentrate on the here and now and trust Alyssandra to find her way back. “What did Sasha say?” He’d demanded to speak to the maid several times over the last few hours and the guards had treated him with deference and respect, but on that count totally ignored him. He’d threatened to have them all beheaded and any other horrible retribution he could think of, and they’d all just nodded and said, “Yes, my lord.”