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“Thank you for your honesty.”
“You’re welcome. What were you doing when you weren’t sleeping?”
Watching over the halls and the rooms. Making sure Yu didn’t leave. Longing for a witch, who had probably slept so well and didn’t spare a thought in his direction. It was laughable how he only thought of her, and even the idea of stroking himself to images of their interaction in that alcove felt hollow compared to what could have been. Jealousy had been a nasty bastard keeping him aching as he remembered—and envisioned—over and over again how she looked on that ship deck while her pirate fucked her thoroughly. The ache had become unbearable when he recalled his trysts, too, and all he could see was her, with her head thrown back and her voice calling his name.
You promised her. Keep your promise.
“Just reexploring the court. It doesn’t matter. There’s no event today and I can catch up on my sleep.” But the way Bronco reacted had him frowning. “Unless there’s an event today that I forgot about.”
“Her Majesty, the crown princess, wants to talk to you.”
“I’m sure she does. Please tell her I’m asleep.”
“She made a royal decree for it, demanding you to meet with her as soon as you can. You can’t refuse and I will be punished if you do.”
“Oh, for the love of—” Rick hissed, then inhaled deeply. The wheels in his mind turned. “Bronco?”
“Yes?”
“The decree said as soon as I can, right?”
“Right?”
Rick beamed. “Okay. Then please make yourself scarce today. Very scarce.”
The man looked at him again as if he was mental, but understood, too, that Erin couldn’t punish immediately with such an open-ended decree. With a sigh, Bronco agreed.
“I will. But you will have to meet up with her soon, I’m afraid.”
“And I will,” Rick promised. “As soon as I can. For now, I can’t yet.”
Bronco shook his head but didn’t argue, already leaving. When the man was gone, Rick’s good nature dropped as he scrambled out of the hall, aware that most of his peers were asleep and wishing he could sleep too. But things needed to be pushed to action because his sister was already starting the wheel—and he couldn’t very well let her navigate things by herself.
It was his fault for worrying over his visitors when they were perfectly capable of handling themselves. It was his fault for getting distracted, particularly over the larger, prettier visitor, who looked so vulnerable and turned on last night that if he was his old self, he would have had his way with her right then and there. But she hadn’t said yes. He would cut off his hand first before touching her without her consent, even if it killed him…and yes, it was killing him.
The bad mood followed Rick as he snuck out of the castle, marching to the back where the snow was mostly untouched. He jumped above a mound and used the other nearby mounds to further the distance between him and his home, then trudged on frosted flakes and covered his tracks along the way. Halfway through his trek, he sensed the buzzing and paused.
“Yu?”
There was silence. A grin spread at the sight of the small creature that hovered in between trees and slowly approached him.
“I knew that was you. I’m starting to get the hang of your presence whenever you’re flying nearby and…”
The words halted when the scent of blood filled his nostrils before he spotted the red dripping from Yu’s shoulder. Alarm kicked in and the tables turned as he hovered over the pixie now.
“What the hell happened?”
“Play,” Yu announced, his voice weak. Tinier than ever. “All morning, we play.”
“Who?”
It came off as a growl. The pixie startled, then stood on the palm he held open.
“Friends. Party. Your special friends.”
His blood throbbed, a raging fire that threatened to explode. It turned his vision red, his body already prepped to head back to that castle and let them see just how much of a not-fun guy he was. But the whimper from Yu told him that he would be abandoning the pixie, and, well…Yu needed him now.
It was another battle of willpower, one that made him think of Emerald. Thinking of her soothed his soul, but also allowed him to grasp at his composure the way he knew she would. When he was relatively calmer, he looked at Yu.
