Laurel marched from the minister of finance’s office up to Adolph’s office and opened the door. He glanced at her and sighed. She was supposed to be resting, not stomping up to his office. He stood and went to her.“I want to dissolve the ministries as soon as possible,” she said before he could reach her side. He frowned and closed the door before ushering her to the couch near his desk. “But I want to audit them first to charge them appropriately.”A wicked smirk curved his lips turning his handsome features almost devious. Laurel’s heart raced and her face warmed with embarrassment. How could he look more handsome looking so sneaky?“You are meant to be in bed.” Adolph said, “Take a rest for a moment, then we’ll talk so long as you promise to go back to bed.”She pouted, wanting to argue, but she gave him a stiff nod, huffed, and sat on the couch as he directed. Admittedly, she was a bit dizzy and exhausted from her march up the stairs, but this still wasn’t the time for rest. How
Delia walked to the treasury’s office with the page in hand. She didn’t know what was taking so long to approve her increased budget, but she knew it was just a matter of time. The minister of finance was invested in keeping Basil happy. Basil was invested in keeping her happy, and all she wanted was more money to spend as she pleased. She reached the office’s attendant who looked up at her with trepidation as she placed the sheet on the desk.“I’d like it in coinage, like always,” she said as the woman took the page. “Could you make it quick? I have things to do.”“I’m sorry, Lady Delia, but I can’t fulfill this.”Delia grew tense and glared at the woman, “What did you call me?”“Lady Delia,” she said again.“I am the luna and you will address me properly or else! And what do you mean that you can’t fulfill this?” Delia tapped on the seal of the minister of finance. “It’s already been approved!” “R-Royal Beta Chasel has placed a hold on all accounts going forward by order of His Maj
Laurel watched Basil turn paler as she made a note on her parchment about looking further into what Basil’s budget was going towards. She had a feeling that Gavin might be benefiting from his relationship with Basil.“What is the purpose of the gate on the main entrance to the orchard?” Basil blinked, staring at her and not speaking. “Prince Basil, are you listening?”He shook his head, “Y-Yes. I… What?”She pursed her lips, “The gates, Prince Basil. For what reason was the orchard gated?”Basil frowned, “It’s useless.”“What do you mean by it’s useless?”“We don’t need an orchard because we have all the farmland around the city,” Basil lifted his head and met her gaze. “It was a waste of money when you had it planted. The ministry has proposed to uproot it and turn it into a leisure area for the castle.”Delia took in a sharp breath, staring at him in horror. Laurel froze in the middle of editing her plans for the orchard. What? What kind of nonsense was that? She frowned, eyeing hi
Basil left Adolph’s office, empty-handed and shocked. He knows Delia won’t be happy, but what was he supposed to do? He supposed he could just give a portion of his budget to her, but that wouldn’t solve the problem.He knocked on her door. A few moments passed before she called out.“Come in.”He opened the door and walked in to see her sitting on her couch. Delia sat up and bade him sit with her. She held herself rigidly as she drank her tea. She clinked the cup against the plate in a way that made him almost flinch. Didn’t she know basic etiquette? He frowned, thinking about it. Had Laura taken etiquette? He didn’t think Laurel had or would, but Laura had always given him a sense that she knew enough. It had irritated him a bit that she seemed to blend in with nobility so easily.“Well, what did your father say?“… He changed her plan.”Delia sat up straight, “well?”“… He cut our budgets in half.”Delia dropped her teacup with a little gasp of shock.“What do you mean?”“He sa
Delia woke up early, dressed quickly, and skipped breakfast. Basil hadn’t returned to her room the night before and the servants said he hadn’t returned to his room by morning. She left her room hoping to run into him and found him standing in the doorway of her office, simply staring inside the room with a complicated look on his face. He didn’t react as she walked towards him, but when she touched him, he turned his head and looked down at her. The shimmering attention had faded from his eyes. They seemed almost hollow and glossy in the early morning light. “Were you looking for me?”“… no,” he said and frowned, turning from her. “I’m… late for breakfast.”“We should go together.”“No,” Basil said, shaking his head. “I’m having breakfast with my father.”Delia watched him walk away from her before looking back into the room. She hadn’t changed anything in the room since she’d been given the key because she didn’t spend much time in it. She hadn’t even changed the way the desk was
Laurel returned to her room after lunch to get the last dose of the antidote. The priestess smiled at her and bowed politely, whispering a blessing over her before she left. Eden was packing things up in a large trunk and the bottle she was supposed to drink was sitting on the table. She wrinkled her nose at the thought of taking it. “Isn’t there a way to make it taste better?”Eden laughed, “No, there isn’t. We’ve been over this.”It didn’t hurt to keep asking. She took the little cup and tossed it into the back of her mouth before swallowing swiftly. She coughed and sputtered, reaching out for a glass of water. Eden handed it to her, and she was pleasantly surprised to find it full of juice.Eden smiled, “I thought you deserved a treat to celebrate the end of your treatment.”“Thank you, Eden.”He took the glass and set it aside before looking at her, “Have you… decided to stay?”Her heart lurched at the question. A spike of fear went through her at the thought. Having Adolph com
He knew it was pointless, but he had to say it. Didn’t she realize that she was meant to be resting for a reason? He watched her enter his office the way she had for the past few days and stood. She froze in the doorway. “What’s wrong?”He lifted an eyebrow at him and came around the desk, plucking the pages from her hands and placing them on his desk. He ushered her out of his office and locked the door to his office behind him before lifting her off the ground. She squeaked and floundered in his arms, “Your Majesty!”“We had a deal, didn’t we?” Adolph said, descending the stairs as she tried to get out of his arms. “Stop struggling, precious. You won’t get free.”Laurel turned bright red and turned her face into his shoulder, “Your Majesty, it’s embarrassing.”“Perhaps it will be punishment enough for you to hold up your side of the deal,” Adolph admonished gently, pressing a kiss to her temple as he reached the correct floor and walked towards her room.“B-But Your Majesty… I ca
The roses were beautiful and vibrant in the dreary graveyard. The headstone had been polished and the grave had been refilled with fresh dirt and made to look neat. The sight eased something in Basil, but he still didn’t know why he was there looking at Laura’s grave. Grief? Guilt? Some misplaced sense of regret? Wasn’t he happy? Hadn’t he told her that she meant nothing to him? His chest felt tight at the memory. Her shocked expression, the tears in her eyes. *“You are nothing,” he’d told her.* *She lowered her head. Her jaw trembled. Resignation and confusion rippled across her expression. Her shoulders began to relax into a defeated slump. He’d been a little thrilled to see it.* He winced thinking back to that night and rubbing the back of his neck. He’d felt powerful and on top of the world with Delia on his arm and looking down at Laura in her plain dress. *“I care not what happens to you after our divorce.”*He knew now it was a lie, but he turned away from the grave and k
His stomach churned but he nodded, walking into the room. Fear filled him, but as he entered the room he started to relax. “You’re so beautiful… you take after your father.”Laurel lay among the sheets, dressed in a loose gown and cradling the baby to her chest.At the distance, he could only see a tuft of honey blonde hair in the swaddling blanket. The wetnurses bowed and stepped aside as he approached. Laurel smiled up at him, “Want to meet him?”“Him?”Laurel beamed at him, “Him… Nimue told me before, but I wanted it to still be a surprise for you.”Another boy. Adolph sunk onto the bed beside her, kissing her cheek before looking down into her arms. He had Laurel’s nose and hair pattern though the coloring was all his. Maybe when he grew up he’d take after his grandfathers, but he wouldn’t be able to tell that for a while.“Can I hold him?”Laurel nodded, offering the child to him. He smelled like fresh water and clean skin as Adolph took him, and held him close. He was so smal
Nimue took a deep calming breath as Basil let out a mournful sob. The air began to warm slowly around them as the path between their world and the afterlife closed. She should have known when her first evocation yielded nothing that Olivia was going to be another troublesome spirit.She hoped Basil would be able to recover and accept the truth in time.“No… mother…” Nimue’s heart twisted with grief as she calmed her powers and Basil’s hand tightened on her ankle. “Why? She… She lifted it.”“She was prepared to sacrifice you,” she said solemnly.“She lifted the curse, Nimue! You didn’t have to!”Nimue looked down at him, “She only did so to save her existence, Basil. That was the test. It wasn’t about remorse towards what she’d done to your father… it was about what she did to you.”His eyes welled with tears as she set her staff aside, allowing it to hover in the air. “She was never your mother.”She kneeled beside Basil, placing a glowing hand near the dagger in his chest as he fell
Adolph’s voice was sure and even, but Basil couldn’t believe what he was saying. Didn’t he understand that they had no way of knowing how long that would be? A few months? A few days? His father was the strongest man he knew, but he wasn’t indestructible!“But father—”“You’d let Basil be king?” Olivia scoffed and laughed, “You know he’s not ready. He won’t ever be ready!”The twinge of pain that went through him took his breath away. He pushed it aside. This wasn’t the mother he’d imagined his whole life. He expected his father to say those things, not the woman who died giving birth to him. He winced at the thought. She hadn’t died giving birth to him. She’d died giving birth to a curse. There was no other choice to make.“Nimue, end the séance.”Nimue said nothing. Whether that meant she couldn’t or wasn’t going to, he didn’t know.Adolph shook his head, “Your father tried to make that true, but it’s not. Basil isn’t an idiot. He’s young and inexperienced, but that’s fixable. He h
Adolph narrowed his eyes down at Olivia. She was just as pretty as she had been before, but he saw the wicked light in her eyes. “Shouldn’t you be greeting our son whom you’ve never met?” Adolph asked. She smiled at him, poisonous and vicious, “I would never put anyone before you dear husband.”“You are dead,” Adolph said, “Speak to Basil.”“… very well.”Olivia turned her head and looked at Basil. Adolph was about to retract his statement at the hopeful look on Basil’s face, but it was too late. “You asked them to kill the man who raised you,” Olivia said, “You asked for the death penalty.”“Mother, they—”“Don’t call me that!” Olivia hissed at him. “All of them. Murdered and for what? What of your loyalty to me?”Basil’s eyes widened, “To you…?”“After what your father did to me?” Olivia said, “What is a bit of money?”“You… You knew?” Basil asked. “But—”“I love your father,” she said, her eyes glimmering with tears. “But… that wasn’t good enough. My love was never good enough f
Laurel didn’t expect Basil to come quickly, so when the door closed, she was grateful that Nimue made herself a cup of tea and smiled at her. “You were once someone else,” Nimue said. “I am glad that the moon saw fit to bring the white wolf back to us.”Laurel blinked and sat across from her, “You’re… not much like Eden.”Nimue chuckled, “Eden and I have different gifts… He is what we would call an elemental Wiccan. Lightning strikes, fire, flashy shows of power that most associate with real magic. I’m a spiritual mage.”Laurel blinked and made herself a cup of tea, “What… does that mean?”“It means I have a connection to the living and the dead. Hence, I know the body you’re in right now is one you were reborn into. I can only guess how you died, but I assume that Basil knew you in your past life.”Laurel winced, “This… isn’t how I expected this conversation to go.”Nimue shrugged, “You make plans and the spirits laugh, but I’m not concerned about your aura. It’s more than healthy a
Adolph watched Basil leave. Nimue winced.“I… would like a moment to speak with my wife,” Adolph said slowly. Nimue nodded, “I’ll… go after him.”She left wincing. That had been a fucking disaster if she’d ever seen one. As she exited the room, she followed the trembling confusion, fear, and anger down the hall and around the corner. The thing about magical compatibility between fated matches was that it worked like a homing beacon. She found him in a parlor sitting on the couch with his head in his hand. He lifted his head and shot to his feet as she entered. “You—You can’t just say things like that!” Basil said, “You can’t just accuse her if you—You’re a healer! How would you know something like that anyway?”Nimue watched him, his shoulders heaving as he held himself still. “I am a healer,” she said. “But I am not just a healer. Sit down and calm yourself.”“Look me in the eye and tell me the truth,” Basil said, glaring at her. “Tell me you know for sure my mother did it. Tell
Basil had tried to keep his mind focused on the path ahead the next morning, no matter how Nimue’s scent had seemed to take over his senses and make him dizzy with need and desire. She smelled like fresh blooming flowers, fresh earth, and a hint of fresh sweet bread. It was a distracting, comforting, and maddening scent. His wolf growled in contentment and want whenever she grew near, so he took to riding further ahead to try and keep his mind clear. *I hate you*, his wolf huffed and growled. *You and your stupid pride and fear and…**Not now*, Basil thought, stubbornly. *Focus on getting back to the capital, okay?*He huffed, *And your need for distraction instead of facing the truth…*Basil sighed, tuning out his wolf’s whining. This wasn’t the time for thinking about such things. Adolph and Laurel were supposed to be staying at the temple until the baby was born. There was no reason they should have called him back unless the baby was early or something had happened to his father
Taliesin sent the message off with a heavy heart. While his judgment was sound and he knew he wasn’t wrong, the likelihood that it would all go to plan was slim. Curses laid by the dying or the dead were harder to get rid of than living curses and he was not an expert in such dark magics. He had no affinity for creating or breaking them. His late brother and twin, Merlin, had no such limitations, but he had gone into Eternal Repose after his wife, Viviane, had been killed in the war against Morrigan. Merlin could not help them.Taliesin couldn’t blame him. The war had taken so much from all of them and raising the barrier had taxed them both greatly. There was little hope that he would ever wake up, and Taliesin had accepted that centuries ago, focusing on raising Merlin’s daughter as if she were his.“Nimue?” Taliesin called as he returned to the meeting hall. She was seated on the old stone bench, looking up through the canopy of the ancient oak trees that were always in bloom. Hi
Laurel woke up, frozen in terror in bed. The last time she’d had a vision of the moon goddess, she’d been pushed off a cliff. She wasn’t sure if hearing that her husband’s late wife put a curse on him was better or worse. How bad was the curse now? How much longer did they have? Could she break it? If she couldn’t, what would happen to him?Her stomach turned as she turned over to see Adolph sleeping peacefully beside her. The days of his insomnia seemed to have caught up with him all at once. The strain of the days seemed to be gone now as he slept.His scent was just as bloody and lovely as ever, but that blood that she had once found just a bit sexy seemed tainted with danger now. It wasn’t just the scent of someone who had seen a great deal of war, but it was affecting his mind. An alpha werewolf like Adolph could be dangerous if they lost control of their strength. She knew that Adolph was much stronger than the average wolf. Was it anything like going rogue? Would it kill him?