A Ruin of Roses (Deliciously Dark Fairytales Book 1), page 18
“Come back out,” Hadriel called. “Seriously, come out. This is a terrible idea.”
“It’s just a garden, Hadriel.”
“It’s the queen’s garden!” he replied. “The queen’s own garden.”
“She’d probably want me to return it to its former glory, then.” I meandered through the space, taking stock of any plants I could identify, weeds or otherwise. I’d need to check the library for anything I didn’t recognize.
“The king forbade it. He forbade anyone to touch any part of the grounds except for the everlass. He said that was the queen’s role—the management of the grounds—and without a queen, there could be no grounds.”
“And look at the fix he’s gotten us all in with his terrible decision-making. Besides, he’s dead, Hadriel. His royal decrees or whatever don’t mean squat anymore.”
I bent and dug my hands through the dirt. Something scraped my finger, and I grimaced, pulling it out to look. A drop of blood welled up, and I smiled. I fed the blood back into the ground.
“You see?” I held up my finger even though he was still on the other side of the wall. “It drew first blood. It has chosen me. Now all I need to give it is sweat and tears, and we’ll be all set.”
“Since when do you talk like a warrior? They are plants, Finley. Come out of there this minute!”
“Nah.” I continued sizing up the space, working out in my head what I’d need to do first, and what tools I’d need to accomplish it. I wondered if anyone could be spared to help.
“Okay, but listen here, Finley.” Hadriel sounded like he was pressed against the wall. “The king passed that law because he wanted the prince to settle in with a noblewoman of dragon blood and make her queen. Or at least a queen in waiting.”
“And when he couldn’t get his way, he made a deal with the demons, and here we are. I know.”
He kept talking, but I wasn’t really listening. Although there was no door to the rest of the grounds, there was a lovely patio I hadn’t noticed from my tower room. It led to a pair of large glass doors in the side of the castle. Darkness waited beyond.
Royalty had lived through there.
In awe, I stepped up onto the patio.
“No, but… The king blamed the queen’s death on the prince. When the prince tried to marry for love, it broke the queen’s heart, and she died. That’s what was said. The funeral brought back the prince and the demons, and the king trapped him here.”
The queen herself had come out through those doors and onto this patio. She’d used these—now rotting—wooden chairs to look out at her or her gardener’s handiwork. She’d maybe breakfasted or taken lunch out here on fine days, soaking in the beauty. Maybe before the king had gone mad, they loved each other and celebrated that out here.
No, probably not. Royalty didn’t find love.
Well, maybe she had enjoyed some self-love, thinking about a hot gardener or something.
I approached the glass, shielding my eyes from the glare.
“She and the prince had a really tight bond,” Hadriel called, his voice distant as I tried to peer in the room.
Despite all the times I’d played make-believe as a kid, pretending to be in the royal court, I’d never believed it would actually happen. And now, after the world had gone to shit, here I was standing on the queen’s private patio. This was blowing my mind.
I couldn’t see anything through the glass, but curiosity was burning a hole through me. I tried the doors, figuring they’d be locked. Could I find my way through the castle to check the other side? Nyfain had a skeleton key—if there were ever a reason to seduce someone…
I pulled on the handle. Nothing happened. A push had the same result. I dragged my hand as I stepped away, and the glass pulled away from the other side.
I froze. Sliding glass. I’d never seen such a thing! But then, I’d also never seen a single pane of glass as big as these doors. Money made miracles.
I slid it open farther.
“Finley?” Hadriel called. “Finley, did you fall in? What’s happening?”
“I’m fine,” I called, a bit hushed, pulling the door open.
“Don’t nose around in there. The master blames himself for what happened, and that garden is the remnants of something she loved. He won’t want it disturbed.”
His words flowed around me as I ventured into the dark space beyond, and although I could hear him, I wasn’t listening.
Two fabric chairs teamed with a couch sat around a little table by the door. A place for tea, probably. Not a speck of dust marred the shiny surface, as though this room was still routinely cleaned. The floor was plastered with an enormous rug, nearly large enough to cover my entire house. A little desk waited off to my right, cleared of any parchment, and a large mirror was stationed on the other side. Other furniture took up residence, but I crept toward the oddest thing in the room. A rosebush somehow—obviously magically—grew out of the actual floor! As though the floor were dirt. It looked almost fake but for the differences in the browns and yellows of the leaves and the way it curled as it died. The branches were brittle and roses deep brown and wilted except for a few. It was in terrible shape.
For some reason, it moved me. I wanted to roll up my sleeves and nurture it back to life. But there was something uncanny about it, beside it growing in the wood floor, so I left it alone lest I break some sort of magic remembrance spell or something.
Instead, I continued onward, absolutely delighting in the saturated tones and bold decorating choices. She even had a decorative sword and shield tacked up on the wall. A woman after my own heart.
An open doorway led to a room with a bed and another small chamber that appeared to be the bathing room. The bed stood against the far wall, a huge, canopied affair decorated in gold and ivory. The wardrobe in here had been dusted, too, everything clean and in its proper place.
Imagine living in this kind of finery, in rooms such as these. It was beyond belief for someone of my upbringing and social status, but I would definitely be dreaming my life away after seeing it. My make-believe audience was about to turn into a bunch of make-believe servants and adoring ladies-in-waiting, hanging on my every word. No more jester thoughts for this girl.
Making my way back out, I heard the metal tinkle. Like a key in the lock!
My heart sped up, and I hurried toward the glass door. Before I could get far, the door swung open. Nyfain filled the doorway, seeing me immediately. Suspicion and rage filled that golden gaze.
Everything Hadriel had said finally took root.
The funeral brought back the prince, and the demons and the king trapped him here.
She and the prince had a really tight bond.
The master blames himself…
“Oh, holy goddess, no fucking way. You’re the prince,” I said in a hasty release of breath, so many emotions warring through me that I didn’t know what to do with any of them. Excitement, sorrow, disbelief—I didn’t know where to land.
On the other side of that emotional storm sat the knowledge that this made complete sense. Of course he was the prince. The mad king had doomed us all to keep his son here. The demon king couldn’t kill him with the curse locking him in. Still. Nyfain didn’t heal the same, so it’d be easier for someone or something else to kill him. Only that hadn’t happened yet. So the demons were trying to break him.
How could I have missed this?
The prince.
The fucking prince!
Why hadn’t I known his name? But I hadn’t. And I didn’t even know the queen’s name. All of that had fallen through the cracks in my memory. It just wasn’t relevant. Still, he must’ve thought I was a simpleton. An ignorant, lowborn commoner.
I ran the back of my hand across my face.
Memories shoved into my brain. That majestic dragon cutting through the sapphire sky. The glittering gold scales catching and throwing the buttery-yellow sun.
“But your dragon is dull black, not golden—”
He rushed at me. I should’ve turned and sprinted for an exit, or maybe curled into the fetal position, or at least taken out my knife and tried to stab him, but I was too busy freezing in place. The past warred with the here and now. My memories of him in the sky warred with this scarred man in front of me. I’d daydreamed about him as a kid. Wanted to be best friends. Then I grew up, and even though we all believed he was gone, I’d fantasized about slipping into his bed. I hadn’t known what he looked like as a man, but I hadn’t cared. That roar. That dragon. That effortless glide through the sky. He’d been the pride of the kingdom. Fierce and powerful. He would take the throne and elevate us all—that was what the elders in my village had said.
“What are you doing in here?” he snarled, stopping beside the rosebush. “Getting a look at my father’s fallen kingdom?”
I frowned at the plant. “I think you’re getting a little extreme in your metaphors…”
He laughed sardonically, pinning me to my place with a hard stare. “That’s right, you are about as ignorant as they come. No idea about your animal, shifters, the dragon court…”
Pain pricked my spine. Even as a beast prowling his failing lands, he hadn’t paid attention to our village. We’d been nothing to him. I was nothing now.
But he wasn’t finished. He hovered his hand over the rosebush. “My mother’s favorite plant was the rosebush. She felt like it embodied her. When allowed to flourish in the wild, she was fierce and beautiful, sweet to smell but with a sharp bite. Then she was brought here, and the king treated her like he would a rosebush. She was pruned back. Shaped. Cultivated. Wild at heart, violent even, but unable to express it.”
He drummed his fingers against the glass. His gaze sparked violence. I took a step back, suddenly unsure.
“My father wanted to remind me of my part in killing her,” he said, and I could hear the pain twisting his words. “This rosebush was enchanted by the demons and sunk into the floor. It’s connected to the kingdom. Each year I see a little more of it wilt and die. Eventually we will all die with it. There’s nothing we can do but make the passing as easy as possible. I thought maybe bringing you here would help. I knew your village was using the everlass for something, and your rate of death was slower than everywhere else. Your branch has roses still in bloom. The only one that looks even reasonably healthy. I’ve been watching from afar. I just had no idea how you were managing it.”
“What?” I blurted. “But you said—”
“I lied. How many times must I remind you that I am not a nice man?” He stalked toward me slowly, a hunter sizing up his prey. “Your scent is burned into my brain. That first night you ran into the Royal Wood, the young, plucky thing with more courage than a grown dragon, I committed it to memory. You didn’t escape me, Finley. I allowed you to leave. You were too young to kill. I smelled the everlass on you and wanted to know what you were doing with it. After you left, I visited the field and scented your path through it. I realized you’d pruned as you went. You harvested just one leaf from each plant, taking your time to keep the plants healthy. Even though you came to steal, you were looking after that field.”
He wound closer, one slow step at a time, his big shoulders swaying, his size dwarfing mine. His presence was imposing.
I swallowed. “Everyone knows to harvest like that.”
He shook his head. “You know they don’t. Especially not plucky little—what, fourteen? Fifteen?”
“Fourteen,” I whispered.
“Yes. Before the first shift was possible. I didn’t scent your animal, or feel it when I chased you out. The magic surrounding the wood was too strong for me to cross at the time, but I didn’t need to. You returned to the wood before I could investigate you further. You’ve never entered without my knowing, but I could never catch you. Not until I had that birch enchanted. You’re a sly little thing.”
“I was just trying to keep my family alive.”
He stopped in front of me. “The last time, when you left your knife, I felt you. I felt your animal. It called to us. I’d suspected, but only then did I know what was in you. Your power.” He pushed in close, taking all the space. Trapping me in. “Tell me, when your animal first awakened, what did you feel?”
“Exhilarated. Scared.”
“And?”
He put a hand to each side of my face. His heat soaked through my skin, turning me liquid. My body was fifty percent heartbeat.
“Turned on,” I whispered.
His power coursed through me, caught by my animal and held for a moment before she fed it back, like we had done to save Hadriel. He was the brawn; I was the finesse. Together we’d literally pulled someone away from the brink of death. This time, though, pounding arousal came with our connection.
I panted, my breasts rising and falling with each breath. His gaze traveled down my front as though caressing my naked flesh. My animal pumped fire into me. The power between us turned molten.
A desperate, tortured moan parted my lips. He leaned in a little, almost imperceptibly, as though he couldn’t help it. Like he was struggling against the desire. The air between us snapped taut and the room fell away. All I knew was him and me and this never-ending thirst for his body to fill mine. For his muscles to push me down onto the mattress and his cock to fill my world.
He inhaled, taking me in. “Goddess strike me down, Finley, I want to fuck you so hard you forget your name. I want to own that sweet pussy and destroy you with pleasure.”
I couldn’t seem to get enough air. Wetness gushed between my thighs.
“But if I do that,” he went on, “that will be the end of you. I’ve explained why. I do not share. Not in my past life, and not now. Once I take you, I will not allow anyone else to touch you. Your life will be forfeit. To me.”
His words crawled across my skin, making me shiver. His eyes hypnotized me, and a large part of me wanted him to do as he said. I wanted him to make good on his word and brand me with his desire.
But seriously, had I lost my mind? Had I gone completely insane?
He was a damned prince. What would I become, his side piece? Because no way was I the heroine of this story. I was a nobody from nowhere. I was a lure to his ruin. An end to his celibacy. And if I gave in? I’d land myself with the world’s biggest cockblock.
Not to mention that he had imprisoned me here. He’d lied to me on multiple occasions. He’d brought me here and forced me into danger. Me and no one else. He could’ve met me in the wood like the others. There was no reason for him to drag me into this. Now he was messing with my head and my future. With my life.
I was a fool for letting him get under my skin. For allowing myself to forget how I’d ended up here.
He wanted me to stay away from him. So I would. I had a home, and the demons there didn’t give two shits about me. He could meet me in the Forbidden Wood like he did his other informants, get the recipe for the elixir, and go about his life. The demons didn’t want me. They wanted him.
The man could save himself. I had other shit to do.
With the last shred of sense I had, I ducked under his arms and darted toward the door. I hoped this area of the castle wasn’t a maze, and I could find my way in case he chased me.
13
“Butterfucking bellends!” Hadriel exclaimed when he finally met me in the tower. Leala had been here when I got back, folding some panties and stowing them in the wardrobe. That had been awkward, watching her fold lacy undergarments. I’d quickly run her off and forced her to leave the key behind.
“Did you run and tell him that I was in that room?” I demanded, looking through the wardrobe for the clothes I’d worn here. There was no way I was staying in his clothes. I’d leave how I’d arrived, except this time it would be of my own free will.
“No! I only tried to find him when you wouldn’t answer me anymore. I feared you’d fallen into…whatever the fuck was in there to kill you. By then, he’d already found you. Are you fucking insane, going into the queen’s chambers?”
“Yes. I’m fucking insane for a lot of things. Like staying in this horrible castle for as long as I have. Like developing a soft spot for him. Like not staying stronger and keeping my head around him.”
“What are you…”
I found the outfit I’d arrived in and changed quickly, then grabbed my knife and the little knapsack I’d found and stuffed with candles and a stick that would hopefully burn. At least I’d had the foresight early to create a panic bag for when I needed to run and check on my family. That was before the trip to the everlass field. Before getting to know him better.
Goddess help me, I was so incredibly stupid.
I lunged for the door.
“Where are you… Oh goddess, you evil vixen, what is happening now?”
I pulled the door shut and locked it. I felt a little bad, but I couldn’t risk him running and telling Nyfain where I’d gone. In an hour or so, Nyfain would come to get me to tend to the everlass. At that time, he could free Hadriel and I’d be long gone.
“What are you doing?” Hadriel called through the door. “Fine, take the garden! Clearly the master didn’t kill you when he found you earlier, so maybe he doesn’t care. I’ll even…”
His voice faded away as I hurried down the steps. At the next landing, I saw a woman with an apron and rosy cheeks. She gave me a pleasant smile. I waved like an idiot and kept going. At the first floor, all was quiet. People were probably fiddling with their hobbies or getting ready for whatever party would be happening that night. The staff in this place was sparse at best. That was clearly what happened after years of the demons offing anyone who gave a shit.
Anger curled through me, but I ignored it and let myself out the front door. This wasn’t my problem, what was happening here. Nyfain was the prince; he could sort it out. My task lay in healing, not wrestling demons.
Without delay, I ran down the steps and across the front lawn, long since turned to dirt and weeds. As soon as I reached the Forbidden Wood, I let my animal rush to the surface.
