A Kingdom of Flame and Fury (The Four Kingdoms Book 1) Page 4

  From what I could gather from those who served him, he was a just and fair king, but mysterious and kept to himself — much like me. When he traveled, he’d only take a select few with him and no one was ever allowed to talk about what they witnessed or encountered along the way. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say the king had some secrets of his own, which only added to my frustration of never knowing why he’d chosen me as his successor.

  Sighing, I closed my eyes and let my head fall back against the tub, drawing in a slow breath. Upon releasing, a pair of gray eyes flashed across my mind. I was taken back to the night before, stumbling upon Zeke. It didn’t feel like it was just last night that I was pressed against his strong body, his tongue moving with mine. My hand traveled across my breasts, my nipples hardening at the graze of my fingertips.

  I remembered how his hands gripped my waist, pushing his hips against mine, and that thought pushed my hand down my stomach and to my throbbing core that had been begging for attention. I rubbed my clit teasingly with my middle finger, arching my back off the tub slightly at the intensity of pleasure from the smallest touch.

  As I was about to pick up the pace, a loud knock on my bedroom door had me freezing and growling in frustration. An orgasm would have been the cherry on top of a relaxing morning, but now I would have to face the day with no release. Again.

  Standing and wrapping myself in a plush robe, I padded to the door as water sloshed behind me. I swung it open to find Cade staring at me. I cocked an eyebrow. “Didn’t I just see you?”

  “Busy?” he asked, the corner of his mouth tilted up at the flushed coloring of my face and the way I was still soaked from not drying off.

  “Your timing is impeccable, Cade. What do you want?” I held the door open for him, but left him in the doorway as I walked to my wardrobe to pull out a dress for the day.

  “Breakfast.”

  My mind immediately flashed to Zeke's tongue. I wished he could devour me for breakfast instead. Again, my body flushed at the thought of him and I kept myself turned away from Cade.

  “You seem chipper this morning.”

  “I had a wonderful night with a friend.” I didn’t glance at him, but a smile pulled up at my cheeks. “Now go.” I flicked my hand, motioning for him to leave so I could dress.

  “Always happy to lend a hand, you know.”

  I shot him a glare.

  He snickered. “I have to run downstairs, but then I’ll be back to get you in ten minutes.” He closed the door and I heard the thumping of his boots as he walked away. This was payback for interrupting his quickie. I would take my time getting dressed. He could fucking starve.

  I’d chosen a formfitting dress for the day, resolving to stop wearing ones that made me want to fall over. This dress was a deep purple and made of velvet that clung to my body and accentuated my curves. The sleeves were long and formed a deep V at my wrists, exposing the delicate skin at the back of them. It was floor-length, so I decided to wear the same pair of boots that hit my thighs. They would give me a boost of confidence and I needed that. It wasn’t something I typically struggled with, but last night had me bewildered.

  My lips still showed faded red lipstick from the night before and my hair was messy from the bath, but both were quick fixes. I cleaned off the red and replaced it with a light pink shade and left my hair down, now combed, and placed a jeweled diadem on top of my head. It was one of my favorites out of all the jewels I was given when become queen. It was made of gold with purple and green round diamonds that made up the center row. The purple matched my dress and the green favored my irises.

  Since King Leonidas never married, the jewels and crowns in my possession were from the last queen who ruled the kingdom. I loved the idea of wearing things from an earlier time period. It felt as if I was part of the history of Seolia.

  Throwing open my door, I walked out and rolled my eyes at Cade’s perfect timing. “You’re less poofy today,” he remarked, taking his place at my side as we began our walk to the dining hall.

  I giggled and weaved my arm through his, batting my eyelashes at him. “You’re so good with your words, Cade. It’s a wonder how you’re still single.”

  He shoved his elbow into my ribs at my retort. “I’m single because you’re such a helpless doe without me, and because you kick women out of my room.”

  I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of agreeing with him, even though we both knew it was true. I had no doubt that if I needed to, I could figure out how to rule on my own, but having him by my side was so much more fun.

  A twinge of jealously pulled at my gut at the idea of him moving his attention to someone else. I’d never given it much thought before, but it was on my mind that he could fall in love one day and not be there whenever I needed him.

  The smile left my face and he noticed, nudging my side again gently. I frowned and kept my eyes down on the floor in front of us. “I apologize for ruining your evening.”

  He kept his eyes on me. I could see him studying me from the corner of my eye. “I wouldn’t have had it any other way.”

  My body relaxed.

  “But there’s something else I didn’t tell you last night.”

  I dropped my arm from his and stopped, putting my hands around my waist as I turned to face him. Sighing, he mirrored me and rocked on his heels. “Lately, there’s been reports of someone spreading rumors about you. Only those rumors are true.”

  It felt like my blood was draining.

  “Whoever it is has been informing villagers of your… abilities,” he finished in a whisper.

  Suddenly the note made sense. Dark magic returning to the kingdoms had always been feared, and though we both knew I’d never harm anyone who didn’t deserve it, I was not prepared for anyone to know what I possessed.

  I stared at him, my mouth agape at the information he spilled on me. I’d been queen for nearly fifteen years without so much as a whisper of my magic anywhere and now I was getting threatening notes hammered to my very own gates.

  My chest rose and fell quickly the more I thought about it, the heat of my fire pooling in my belly, wanting to spill over at the new threat looming outside the walls of my castle.

  I sidestepped around Cade and rested my palms against the cool stone wall, trying to calm myself but the heat from my hands began to bleed through, leaving singed marks on the rock.

  “Raven,” he warned, placing his hand on my back. “Take a breath. Look at me.”

  But I couldn’t. Another thought formed in my mind as I sifted through emotions. How long had he known about this? Why hadn’t he told me? He said he found the note a week ago and he’d been sitting on all of this without giving me any information.

  I turned to face him quickly, my green eyes turning bright red as Blaze ached to be let free. “Why haven’t you told me about any of this? It’s been a week and I’m just now learning that people may want me gone now that they’ve learned of my magic? And you just let me play at the festival last night like everything was fine? Normal?”

  Tears brimmed behind my eyelids at the anger I felt toward my best friend. It wasn’t like him to withhold information from me, and even more disturbing that he could hide possible life-threatening news.

  He took a step toward me, risking himself against my fire and put the palms of his hands against my cheeks. “I didn’t tell you because I wanted to have a solution before I shared it. It drives me insane not knowing who’s doing this. I want to protect you against this. That’s always been my sole goal as your adviser. As your best friend. I’ve always been fearful that this may happen, but it’s been quiet for so long that I was unprepared.”

  He dropped his hands from my face. I could see that he was also struggling with irritation. Not only did I want to protect myself, but I wanted to protect him.

  I palmed my eyes with my hands and took a few deep breaths. My body shook with fiery fury. Magic was at the edges of my very being, desperate to be freed. I had to control it or it wou
ld overtake me. I willed Frost to fight through Blaze’s heat, torn inside at the anger and the need to soothe it over all at once. It wore me out, trying to push the cold air through my body over the insatiable warmth.

  I dropped my hands from my eyes once some of the darkness inside of me subsided and my eyes returned to their natural green. He reached a hand out to me, but I took a step back and shook my head. I didn’t want to risk hurting him if my emotions bubbled up again.

  The hurt on his face at my rejection made me want to take it back, but I couldn’t. “I’m still heated. I don’t want to hurt you.” I needed to get out of this dark hallway. “I want more lights in these hallways. Winter makes the castle too fucking dark.”

  I spun and began my stroll again to the dining hall. I heard him walking behind me, but we made no further efforts to sync up again.

  ☽༓☾

  As we passed through the open foyer of the dining room, my table of advisers stood and bowed. I dipped my chin and smiled, urging them to take their seats and continue eating.

  I had a large table, but only three advisers, including Cade. John and Luisa made up the other seats at my table. Besides Cade, I was closest to Luisa. She was an older woman, tall and thin with kind brown eyes and white hair.

  The dining room was large and it was one of the most frequented areas in the castle. The walls were ivory in color, but covered in portraits of past royals and a commissioned landscape painting of Seolia that hung on the largest wall. There were two tall windows that looked out to one of our snow capped mountains and brought in the perfect amount of natural light. It was where we held all of our meetings, most frequently over breakfast.

  Taking our seats, me at the head of the table and Cade beside me, I reached for an apple from a bowl in front of me. I took a bite, savoring the sweet juice on my tongue and ran the tip of it along my lips to catch any juice that tried to escape my bite. My cheeks heated as I noticed Cade watching me, but I ignored him and looked to John and Luisa.

  The eyes that stared back at me were assembled by King Leonidas. We had expected some turnover after I took the throne, but each adviser stayed, their trust in the king deep-rooted. Though, they still seemed to remain curious about me and why the king had chosen me to rule over his kingdom… a kingdom he had fiercely protected.

  Aside from Cade, the advisers were older and may decide to retire soon. I wasn’t sure I would replace them. I wasn’t close to many other people. Or any people, really. Cade had spent his years being extremely picky over who I interacted with, wanting to protect me.

  “Cade has caught me up on what we’ve long feared would happen. As you all know, I am just as confused by the king’s wish to have me as his successor, but I feel as if we’ve had a very quiet fifteen years and our kingdom is flourishing.”

  A small smile formed on my face at the murmurs of agreement from my advisers. I continued, “Does anyone have any thoughts on why this is happening? Or thoughts on who could be spreading these rumors about me?”

  The first one to speak was Luisa. “My queen, we’ve had our guards in the village for a week to listen for any piece of information we can use. All they’ve come back with is that this person isn’t just telling those in our kingdom, but also the ones surrounding.”

  I was incredulous. “Other kingdoms? What purpose would that possibly serve?”

  Someone cleared their throat and my eyes moved to John, the man who had sworn me in as queen and one of the men who had traveled with King Leonidas when he’d take those mystery excursions. “I fear for you, Your Majesty.”

  My brows crinkled and I waited for him to continue with bated breath. Cade’s jaw was clenched.

  “War is coming, my queen.”

  It was clear by the sudden eruption of voices at my table that the threat of war had not been discussed prior to this.

  I held up a hand and the room fell silent. “John, is there something in particular that makes you believe that?”

  He stood from the table and rested his knuckles on top of it, leaning over slightly to look directly at me. “King Leonidas worried about this, you know. Or do you? I supposed I’ve never mentioned it before.”

  My eyes narrowed at his sarcasm.

  “But when he presented his will to me many years ago as he lay on his deathbed, he made me swear to protect you against all doubters.”

  I suddenly felt a chill run down my spine as I anticipated the words he’d say next. I could sense something was coming.

  “And then,” John continued, his eyes never leaving mine — “He muttered his final word to me and I kept it to myself all these years, not wanting to break my promise to him. And do you know what that word was?”

  I didn’t want him to continue. The room was dead silent except for the heavy breathing of Cade next to me and my own heart pounding in my ears. I implored John with my eyes to stay silent, to keep my secret. He only leaned farther over the table and I drew back, pressing my back into the chair, even though he remained feet away.

  “Magic.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  Zeke

  ☽✧

  Seolia. I’d been in this place for a week and I was about to lose my mind. The entire kingdom was secluded on an island and I’d been banished here for weeks to seduce their queen, whom I hadn’t met yet. I barely knew anything about her, not even caring enough to learn her name.

  I looked out over the vast blue waters from my deck. I’d stayed on this ship most of the time, except for when I nearly died from boredom and roamed around the forest that was cluttered with trees that looked like death.

  When Mira pulled me aside to tell me of her master plan, I scoffed. I had to trick a queen into falling in love with me, and bring her back to Reales as my fiancée. My fiancée. I had to make this woman my wife. I was thirty years old and nowhere near ready to settle down.

  When I argued, trying to convince Mira that my services were needed in Reales, she promised that they weren’t and then promptly reminded me that she’d keep my mother and brother locked away until I returned with her prize.

  Not that she was ever going to let them free.

  When I had asked why this was so important, I was given the bare minimum of details, only leaving with the information that I must succeed.

  I exhaled a long breath as I recalled how I became part of her court in the first place. All thanks to dear old dad, informing Mira of my abilities long before our king became ill.

  Rudolf was a decent man, a fair ruler, who didn’t use people for his own personal gain like his daughter. He was still breathing when she took over, anointing herself as queen two years ago. Almost ever since then, I’d been at her side every day, torturing prisoners and pulling memories from the recesses of their minds to threaten them, using what they love against them to do Mira’s bidding.

  Our once bountiful town was now quiet and gray, our people afraid of being snatched up at random. When I didn’t want to play her twisted games, she sent soldiers in the dead of night to rip my mother and brother from their beds and imprisoned them in the castle where I slept.

  Rudolf didn’t take his last breath until three months ago, which was when she set this plan into motion.

  The worst part of this, although not surprising, was my father was part of this plan and I had to wait in the forest until he came to tell me that it was time. He was Rudolf’s brother, but had lived in Seolia since I was a boy, playing nice with the royals and pledging allegiance to their king instead of Rudolf.

  Of course, being the king’s nephew, I took advantage of my status, even though it wasn’t rightfully mine. It was as easy as breathing, hating my father, since he wasn’t truly my father at all. He was my brother’s, but he adopted me as a young boy after falling in love with my mother.

  He was good to us, for a little while, until he became bored and left for Seolia, revealing to Mira before she took the throne that she could use me and my abilities in his absence. I was only five years old when he left for Seolia
to join court here, though I remained unsure why the sudden change.

  He’d visit, but I refused to see him as I became older. I was relieved to see him gone. I took care of my mom and brother on my own, working once old enough until Mira became queen. I was summoned to my newly appointed position as commander, training her soldiers during the day and doing her dirty work at night. More often than not, whoever we brought in to negotiate with wouldn’t give in and I'd have to kill them. It had become a sport and I enjoyed it more than I did when they surrendered.

  Mira had bred something in me — something twisted.

  I looked forward to night now, when I knew she would call me in to torture someone. I only enjoyed killing the ones who truly deserved it, like rapists and other pieces of shit, who started trickling in since Mira’s reign started.

  They knew they would have a second chance with Mira if they agreed to whatever she asked for, so there was no fear in coming to our kingdom. What they didn’t know, though, was that before Mira could find them, I did. In the middle of the night, when I could truly be alone, I hunted them and savored hearing their pleas for their lives to be spared. I never did, piercing their hearts instead.

  Arms circled my waist and my body tensed as I looked down at them. Mira really decided to torture me on this excursion by sending Jeanine with me to inform kingdoms about the magic Seolia’s queen possesses. I hadn’t been home in weeks, first stopping in Perosan and Thoya before we came here. Seolia was so secluded from the other three kingdoms in our so-called Circle of Peace that no one had yet heard that dark magic was making its way back, slowly trickling into every land.

  “We have time if you want to…” Jeanine trailed off.

  I peeled her arms off from around my waist, dropping them as I turned to face her. We’d been here for a week and she was an easy fuck and decent to look at, and had been good for curing boredom, but the only positive thing about this trip was getting away from her. I only started fucking her because she belonged to Mira and I wanted more information about why I needed to come here. How could I seduce another woman if she followed me around?