Prim entered the garden with Blukke a step behind, winding through the white gravel paths toward the center where she’d be meeting her friends. Bristol was already there, though she wasn’t sitting on the bench in front of the mermaid fountain. She was standing, speaking animatedly to her escort.
Prim plucked a piece of straw from Bristol’s braid. “Still spending your free hours with Baird, I see.”
Bristol gave Prim a warning look, flicking her eyes to her guard who had planted herself off to the side at Prim’s arrival, Blukke next to her. “Keep it down. I told her I was brushing a very skittish horse who would freak out if she tried to follow me in.”
Prim laughed. “So you had to do it in the actual horse stall? With the horse watching?”
Bristol pinched her teasingly. “This is all your fault! If you hadn’t’ve run off, we never would have been assigned escorts.”
Prim put an arm around Bristol’s waist, dropping her head onto her shoulder. “I’m sorry I’ve made you into a horse exhibitionist,” she teased.
“It’s okay,” Bristol said, throwing bedroom eyes over her shoulder toward Blukke who smiled seductively in return. “I think Baird and I are about done anyway.”
Prim released her friend, straightening as she realized she hadn’t asked Kallia about her love life since she returned. “Did Kallia have a dress fitting while I was gone?”
Bristol made a face. “Yes. And it was not pretty.”
Guilt twisted Prim’s stomach. She’d had the chance to stuff that letter into the door, but she hesitated, thinking about how unfair it was that Kallia didn’t get to make her own choices. Didn’t get to be happy. “What happened?”
“Kallia told her she was getting married and Maria yelled at her. Accused her of never caring about her, not having a backbone, other baseless insults. Fucking bitch. She cried all night.”
Prim put a hand to her chest. “Oh, no.” She’d never spent much time with Maria, but Kallia had always gushed about her, though the princess had never admitted what their fight a few months ago was about. Hearing that, she wondered if Maria had always been rotten. “Any news about the Lanhami?”
“None that I’ve heard. But Queen Mallis finally told Kallia a few days ago, not realizing you’d already told her.”
Prim nodded. At least they hadn’t expected to blindside the princess. The Lanhami would be here in less than a week. Kallia would be meeting the man she’d spend the rest of her life with in less than a week.
When Kallia arrived a few minutes later, Prim greeted her with a lingering hug. The princess giggled a bit at the intensity of it, not realizing the meaning behind it. That Prim felt guilty and sorry for failing her and abandoning her when she was most needed. The women spent the evening meandering and talking, then again had dinner in the great hall with the king and queen and various lords and ladies Prim had dined with thousands of times. She paid a bit more attention tonight, though none seemed any more interested in the princess than they usually were.
Blukke, to his credit, remained quiet, straight faced and straight backed the rest of the evening. Prim saw him side eye other guards a few times, making sure he was copying them perfectly, and smiled to herself. She hadn’t been completely honest when she told him he wasn’t her type. The man was everyone’s type. She might have set her sights on him had she met him under different circumstances--and before meeting Dante. But she hadn’t, and she now had no interest in pursuing anyone but the man she had a date with tonight.
Which is why she didn’t linger after Kallia retired to her chambers. Prim left the princess with the two guards posted outside her doors and the two escorts who would remain in her entertaining suite--all four guards she’d known for years--kissing her cheeks in farewell. Bristol elected to go to her own room, too, and the handmaidens walked together to their hallway a floor below, passing a few other posted guards on their way.
Bristol’s escort inspected her room before taking her place outside the door, and the handmaiden slipped inside with smiles to Prim and Blukke. The latter cleared his throat when she was gone.
“Yes?” Prim asked, raising a brow.
Blukke flicked his eyes to the other guard, who was looking straight ahead but was certainly listening intently. “Why don’t you join me inside as I inspect it for danger?”
Prim snorted, but opened the door for Blukke then followed him in, closing it behind them.
Blukke glanced around the room, taking in the large bed and wardrobe, the chaise, the low table before it and the fireplace behind it, and a washing basin set on a high table in the corner--but no danger--before turning his attention to Prim. “When do I get to eat? How long do these shifts last?”
The escort guards had left the women in the hands of others to take a midday meal, but remained along the wall during dinner.
Prim laughed. “I’m sure someone will be along to relieve you shortly. I suggest you find Roan and get him to explain how things work a bit better. Now, get out. I’m going to see Dante.”
Prim pushed Blukke into the hall, Bristol’s guard eyeing them for a moment before returning her gaze ahead. Prim gave the bowerbird shifter an apologetic shrug as he pressed a hand to his stomach with a dramatic frown, then shut and locked the door.
After changing into a shirt and pants, Prim loped to the barracks--her lesson with Helena having left her with enough power for it today--and knocked on Dante’s door in the empty hall.
The door opened to reveal Dante in his doll form with his hair tied back, wearing his usual black leathers.
“Is tonight still good?” Prim asked, waiting for his invitation to enter.
Dante opened the door further. “Of course.”
Prim slid past him. The room looked identical to Roan’s, but without any weapons. Just a small bed and a wardrobe that was cracked to reveal the one navy uniform he’d been wearing earlier. She toed off her boots and dropped onto the bed, propping herself up on outstretched arms behind her and crossing her legs. “I’m sorry I let you believe I was Princess Kallia.”
Dante shook his head. “You don’t need to apologize for that. I was trying to kill you--her.”
“You weren’t.” Prim held up her hand when Dante opened his mouth to object. “You were just delivering me. And you know things changed. When they did, you opened up to me, and I should have done the same.“
Dante remained standing by the door, looking down at her. “I was delivering you to gods-know what horror. How are you able to look past that?”
Prim shrugged. “Because I was never in danger.”
Dante shook his head again. “I didn’t know that. That doesn’t change my intentions.”
Prim pushed herself off the bed. “Can you shift into your normal form?”
Dante blinked. “Why?”
“Because I want to look at you when I’m talking to you.”
Dante clenched his jaw, then pulled his shirt over his head, revealing that thick, beautiful muscled body of his. His features shifted into that alluring face and his wings erupted from behind him, stretching out a couple times before he brought them into him, grimacing.
“What’s wrong?” Prim asked, taking a step toward him.
Dante stretched his wings again. “My muscles were still sore from flying us to Pregg when I had to hide them from Roan. Now they’re even more sore from being frozen in that state.”
He was in pain, and it was her fault. Prim turned around to take her seat back on the bed, then pointed at the floor between her legs. “Sit.”
“That’s not nece--”
“Sit, Dante.”
Dante took a deep breath, then obeyed.
“Can I let your hair down?” It had nothing to do with trying to loosen his muscles; she just liked his long, wild hair.
Dante nodded and Prim carefully unpinned the knot and unraveled his braids, plunging her fingers into his unbound hair to untangle it.
Then Prim dug her fingers into his shoulders. “I know what your intention was. But we all do bad things sometimes. I think what matters more is your reason for doing it and how you felt about it. I know you originally took the job to make money to provide for your family. And I know you only continued the job so that they wouldn’t be in danger. And you didn’t like doing it, even when you hated me. You took care of me, even then. You let that shopkeeper bully you into bringing me chocolates, for fuck’s sake.” Prim laughed, moving her hands down his back, avoiding his wings. She’d save them for last.
“I never hated you. Just the idea of the princess--which was stupid.” Dante groaned as she worked out an impressively large knot. “And that shopkeeper didn’t bully me. I asked her for the chocolates.”
Prim’s hands stilled, then dragged up to wrap over his shoulders, using his body as leverage to lean around so she could see his face. “You asked for the chocolates?”
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He clenched his jaw. Prim laughed then continued the massage.
Dante remained quiet aside from small noises of pain and pleasure as Prim’s hands pressed into his impressive muscles. She completed his back and ran her fingertips along his wings. “I don’t really know how to massage wings. Where does it hurt?”
Dante cleared his throat. “You don’t have to…”
Prim squeezed his shoulder. “Where does it hurt, Dante?”
Dante raised a long arm, bending it backward to run his fingers along the thick top of a wing. “Here.”
Prim cautiously began massaging there, asking if it was okay. Dante’s answering Mmhmm was gravely enough she believed him.
“Royal handmaidens are selected from orphans,” he suddenly said.
Prim didn’t pause her movements as she answered, though it wasn’t a question. “They are.”
“So, you are. Or were when you were a kid. That’s something we have in common. What happened to your family?” Dante twisted around, the wing Prim was working on slipping out of her grasp.
Prim attempted to pull it back, but Dante stood up, then sat down next to her, turning his body toward her and folding a knee onto the bed. He had his eyes on hers, tilting his head slightly, giving her his full attention. He was adorable, choosing to learn more about her rather than have her hands on him.
“They died. I don’t really remember them. I was nine when I went to the orphanage. I should remember. But I just…don’t. I overheard one of the ladies who volunteered there say something terrible must have happened to them and I saw it and blocked it out, somehow losing the good memories, too.” Prim kept her words light, joking. She had never believed it. She was just a kid, and kids forget things all the time. And thinking about her parents didn’t make her sad; it was hard to miss someone you don’t remember.
But Dante didn’t seem to take it lightly. “I’m sorry you went through that. At least I have my memories of my parents and Carson.” Right--and he was younger than she was when his parents died.
Prim just shrugged. “Kallia and Bristol are all the family I need.” She focused on the melding of the green and brown in his eyes. “Though I wouldn’t be opposed to adding to it, if the opportunity presented itself.”
The corner of Dante’s mouth twitched up, and Prim leaned toward him slowly, wanting to claim that mouth.
He didn’t reciprocate. “The kern mentioned you were chosen to be a handmaiden because you favored the princess, but that it was only one of the qualifications.”
Prim straightened. “Yes. There are three. One, we have to be the same gender and roughly the same age and look fairly similar. Two, we have to be gifted and our gifts have to be useful to the wellbeing of the princess. And three, we have to be good people. We have to be loyal to the crown and get along with Kallia. They wouldn’t make her spend all her time with people she didn’t like, no matter how useful or loyal they were. Luckily, Kallia has good taste.” She wagged her eyebrows.
Dante’s smile became a bit less reserved as he breathed a laugh. Then his lips twisted in contemplation. “How did they determine you were good and loyal?”
Prim stretched her legs out in front of her, hooking her ankles and again leaned back on her hands, staring at the ceiling. She had a feeling she had a long night of explaining ahead of her.
“The royal family tries to employ someone with such a gift at all times. When I was chosen, they had a mindmolder on call who asked me to think about my aspirations, my wants, my fears, what I thought about Wassalia, the king and queen, the princess, a bunch of stuff. Then he pricked my finger and licked the blood. He didn’t tell me what he saw--tasted? But whatever he told the king and queen must have been good enough because I got selected.”
Dante’s hands circled her waist, pulling her up to look at him. His eyes were dark as he gazed at her intensely. “Someone drank your blood?”
Prim laughed, bringing a hand to cup Dante’s too-serious face. “Not drank, licked. Which was gross. I had to wash my hand about a dozen times to try to get the feeling of that old man’s tongue off it. But it was just a drop, so I would hardly call it drinking.” When that didn’t alleviate Dante’s expression, she added, “It’s good mindmolders have to have access to your blood to read you. Otherwise they’d just be walking around knowing everybody’s secrets just by looking at them.”
Dante’s concerned expression turned confused. “What’s a mindmolder?”
Prim laughed again, but stopped when Dante’s mouth didn’t twitch. He wasn’t joking. “You know, someone with the gift of reading people’s minds. Or controlling them.”
Dante’s brow furrowed. “There’s no such thing. That would be…Someone who could control people’s minds could do anything.”
Prim couldn’t fathom how Dante didn’t know about mindmolders. Though, she supposed maybe they were a secret of the royal family. But Helena knew about them, too. Her mentor had discussed them during lessons she’d given Prim when she was younger about magic in general, explaining all the different types of gifts she’d come across.
“Well it’s even harder for them to control people’s minds. The person has to drink the mindmolder’s blood.”
Dante’s lips parted as his grip on her waist tightened. “Where is this mindmolder now?”
Prim’s hand was still on his face and she stroked a calming thumb across it. “He’s dead.” She breathed a laugh through her nose. “Roan didn’t sleep for a month trying to figure out how he’d test the loyalty of new guards when it happened.”
Dante was looking at her intensely, this conversation taking a turn Prim hadn’t expected. “Did he figure it out? Did they find a new one?”
Prim shook her head. “Why are you so worked up about this?”
Dante looked away, her hand falling off at the movement. But his hand remained wrapped around her waist. Prim covered it with her own, intertwining their fingers as she hadn’t done in too many days.
“There was an empty vial that had contained blood locked in Sol’s drawer back at his office. I’m wondering if it could have something to do with that. If all these years he’d secretly been gifted. Been a mindmolder.”
Prim didn’t say anything for a moment, letting Dante process this new information. “Would it matter if he was? He’s gone now.”
Dante slowly brought his gaze back to her, and Prim could see the despair in it. “Do you think people know when they’re being controlled? Or could he have slipped some of his blood to people--to me--and we could have been doing his bidding against our will without even realizing it?”
Prim swallowed. She knew the answer, but she wasn’t sure which was worse: Dante thinking he’d been manipulated all these years or knowing all the bad things he’s done were unequivocally his own doing. She went with the truth.
“People know. A mindmolder can’t just slip you their blood, nor can they steal yours. It only works when there’s consent.” Helena had assured her a mindmolder couldn’t just cut you up and take your blood. Somehow, the gift knew. She said it was an innate system of checks and balances for such power.
Dante sagged a bit and her hand squeezed his. “The vial could still have to do with it. Maybe someone paid him with information.” His eyes widened. “There was a drop left in the vial. If we can find another mindmolder, maybe they could see what it was.”
Prim frowned apologetically. “If there was another mindmolder around, I’m sure they would have been recruited to work for the royals by now. Plus, I’m not sure it would work. I don’t know if the consent would be transferable.”
Dante tightened his features. “I’m still going to try. It’s not like we have many other leads to look into.”
Prim nodded, though she knew this would lead nowhere. It was also based on the assumption Somanti was secretly a mindmolder, which seemed pretty unlikely to her. There were a hundred reasons he could’ve had an empty vial in his office.
Dante was lost in thought, his eyes unfocused on a spot on the ground. Then he flicked his attention to her. “I’m sorry. This isn’t what I planned on talking to you about tonight.”
Prim smiled. “It’s okay. I’m glad you’re invested in Kallia’s safety.” She twisted her body to face him fully. “What else would you like to know about me?”
Dante’s expression turned devious. “I now know how you became a royal handmaiden.”
“You do.” Prim said it in her seductive voice, answering that wicked look on his face that had her stomach flipping, though she wasn’t sure why knowing how she became a handmaiden was getting him going.
Dante’s eyes dipped to her chest. She’d left her shirt unbuttoned enough for her cleavage to peek out in the center and she smiled at what it was doing to him.
“And I know how your tits feel in my mouth.”
Prim didn’t restrain the low moan his words elicited, her eyes fluttering shut for a moment. “That’s not exactly true.”
His gaze raised to her face. “It isn’t?”
“Nope. Really, it was my nightgown in your mouth.” Prim brought her hand up to lazily finger the fabric along the placket of her shirt, bringing his eyes back down to her breasts.
Dante swallowed. “That is something I would like to know about you, then.” He raised his hand to gently follow the fabric just as Prim had done, the backs of his fingers brushing her skin ever so slightly.
“Tell me more about your freeform shapeshifting abilities,” Prim breathed.
Dante paused his gentle fingering of her shirt, raising a brow. “What did you have in mind?”
Prim felt her cheeks heat. “I didn’t mean because I wanted you to do anything…special with your body.”
Dante was still looking at her quizzically. “Did you want me to do something with my face?”
“No, no. Of course not. I love your face.” Dante smiled at that, and it reminded Prim of something. “You didn’t shave those times you removed your beard, did you? You did it with your shifting?”
Dante dropped his hand and Prim watched as his clean-shaved jaw grew stubbly then a full beard formed, growing longer and longer until it obscured Dante’s entire bare chest down to his navel. “How do you like it?”
Prim laughed, tugging on the thick beard. “It’s beautiful. But I want to see your face.”
The beard instantly retracted.
“I meant, I have yet to see you in any form other than this and your doll form. Can you shift into any animal?”
Dante still didn’t seem to follow why she was asking about this now, right when they were about to get into the good stuff. But she had her reasons. “I can, but I try to avoid it as much as possible.”
Prim stared at his chest, running her fingertips over it. “Why’s that?”
Dante grabbed her hand, bringing it to his mouth for a kiss. “It’s…uncomfortable. It’s almost like holding your breath, or when you raise yourself straight on your hands and feet and try to hold it for as long as you can to strengthen your muscles. I can do it, but it gets harder the longer I try to hold it, and eventually I can’t do it anymore, even if I wanted to.”
“But your doll form isn’t?”
Dante shook his head, releasing her hand. “For normal shifters like Blukke, going between their humanoid and animal form is as easy as breathing. For me, going between my fae-ish and humanoid form is easy, as is slightly changing my features. But it’s hard to go into--and stay in--an animal form. It’d be hard to change my body or my features entirely. That’s why I just kind of smooth them over for anonymity.”
Prim placed her hands on his chest, feeling the rough hair against her palms. “Interesting. I was just wondering if you could shift into something small enough to fit through the tiny windows of my room.” All the windows in the castle were long and thin to prevent any kind of fae or avian shifters from infiltrating them. “My room is much bigger than this one. With more surfaces to choose from.” Prim raised her eyes to Dante, biting her lip.
Dante’s face looked ravenous. “I can be whatever you want me to be, Bear.”
Gods, she couldn’t control herself when he used that voice. She definitely couldn’t wait until they got to her room to taste him.
Prim slid her palms up Dante’s chest to circle his neck and pull him into her, falling back on the bed as their mouths collided. One of Dante’s arms was under her, but the other slid up and down her side, squeezing her shoulder when it reached the top and her ass when it reached the bottom. She arched into him with a whimper as his tongue entered her mouth and she returned each stroke for stroke until he pulled back, growling.
“You have got to be fucking kidding me,” Dante said, running a hand through his hair.
“What?” Prim asked, breathless.
“Roan and Blukke are coming. Sounds like Blukke told Roan he had no idea what he was supposed to be doing all day, and Roan decided now would be a good time to give us both a crash course on castle protocol.”
“Shit. That’s my fault,” Prim said apologetically, cursing herself for suggesting such a thing to Blukke.
Dante was instantly in his doll form. “Where’s your room? I’ll come when I’m done with these assholes.”
Prim explained which windows lead to her chamber just before the pounding knock and Roan’s authoritative kern voice demanded Dante’s attention. She stole one more kiss before loping to her room, thankful that Blukke still had Roan’s powers locked so he wouldn’t be able to smell her lingering scent.
Back in her room, she undressed and put on the scantiest nightgown she owned. It didn’t have quite the same effect as the sheer one she’d left in Pregg, but it hugged her curves and was low cut enough that it would do nicely just the same.
Then she stood at her window, waiting to see what Dante had become for her.