It took little persuading for Queen Lyra and King Thallan to agree for Father to be put under the Oakstorm's protection. I knew it from the moment I saw their mortified expressions as we interrupted their dinner, covered in his blood. There was no room for disagreement, nor did Tarron allow for any.
Tarron had split the air in two with no more than a swift slice of a hand, much like he had the first time I had seen him, creating a portal we could step between without walking a great distance. It was easier to pull Father's body through it and allow the horde of the queen's personal guards to enter and obtain the bodies of the attackers whom Tarron had discarded in a pile beyond the room's door.
Everything happened so quickly. Father was still unconscious as Tarron took him away, promising that he would give me time with Father before they left for the Oakstorm Court. In a blink he had stepped through another spindle of light, Father's unconscious body draped over his shoulder as though he weighed no more than an empty satchel.
Queen Lyra tried to engage in conversation, but I was unable to say much. She likely told me what we waited for, yet I could not focus on anything but the storm in my mind.
Father was a Hunter. At least he had been. I was not sure what it meant to me. The marking across his skin was evidence enough to know that he was the enemy to everything and everyone in this court and beyond. Had he been the one that tipped off the Hunters outside of Berrow? Perhaps it was never Lady Kelsey at all.
These questions and more haunted me with each, laboured breath.
"I should never have left you." Erix stormed into the room, which had turned out to be the queen and king's own personal quarters. It made sense as it was decorated in wealth, with a lavish covering of food across the table in the living section of their rooms.
Erix's hands found my arms, gripping a hold of them as though a sudden, threatening gust would blow me away in a moment. "Are you hurt? Tell me what happened. I should have refused to leave you. It is my duty and I gave into a command I did not feel comfortable with."
"Please..." My voice was a whisper, it was all I could manage. "Not here."
Erix snapped his attention upwards, surveying the room and those who filled it as though it was the first time he realised where he was. "Forgive me for my intrusion."
"Forgiven." Queen Lyra's voice was blunt, but coated in a false softness to dull the sharpness hidden within it.
"Permission to take Robin to his room?"
"I cannot grant you that," Queen Lyra said, pacing the room whilst her husband sat on the edge of a chair with his fist holding up his chin. "I fear this palace is no longer safe to stay at all. For any of us. If my sister's poisonous influence has spread further than my investigation can reach then I cannot ensure Robin's safety... no matter the company I believed I could trust."
My body felt numb, my mind the only part of me alive like a bolt of lightning had crashed across my skull.
"He needs to rest." Erix's tone matched that of the authority of the queen; he was both demanding and pleading.
"And he shall. Once we reach Farrador we will all be welcome to rest knowing we are far from the threats faced here."
Farrador, the capital of the Cedarfall Court, where Orion's body was travelling to, where Althea had grown up.
Erix flinched, stopping himself from wrapping an arm around me. I almost urged him to do it, to not hold back and take me in his arms.
"What is to say yet another assailant waits for me in Farrador?" I question. Every head in the room turned to me. Perhaps it was the surprise that I had finally uttered a word, or the frozen touch my statement left upon the room.
"I can only give you my word," Queen Lyra declared.
I wanted to remind her that the word of her family had yet to mean anything, but then I remembered the unconscious man with the mark of a Hunter across his ribs, and I felt I was in no position to say anything with the secret I harboured.
"When do we leave?" I asked, hands clenched into fists so tight that my nails marked crescent moons across my palm.
"As soon as our means of travel allows."
* * *
I drankfrom the bone-carved cup slowly, not because I was thirsty. No, I simply needed to keep my hands busy. I did not long for the water that passed my lips. It was a stronger substance I desired, something that would warm my chest and make my mind hazy.
And as I took the short, uninterested sips, I could not take my eyes off the elegant, green-glass bottle full of a honey-coloured wine waiting patiently on the table before me.
"I will drink from it first if it makes you feel more comfortable?"
Erix and I had been left in the royal quarters whilst the plans of our quick departure were underway. He had done everything to ensure my comfort, offered to fetch warm water for a bath, to rummage, uncaringly, through King Thallan's clothing to find me something less torn and dirtied to wear, but most of all, ensured he took the first sip or nibble of food before he gave them to me.
Although his attentiveness picked at the corners of my annoyance, I also did not complain. It was calming knowing I could trust him, without him giving me a reason to. Unlike Tarron who, hours before, I could never have shared a secret nor longed to converse with a person of his personality type. That was eradicated now as he had my father and I could only pray that he kept his word, even though he had the biggest reasonings why he wouldn't. As I sat here waiting, I wanted to know the truth about Father and what he was to be revealed.
"You don't have to do that," I replied, truly wincing at the thought of Erix trying anything; I did not want him to be bedridden like Briar had been.
"I want to. It is not a case of if I have to or not. It is the least I can do."
I looked up to him, focusing on keeping my hands steady as I gripped the cup. His wide, silver-clouded eyes were wide with concern. He hardly blinked as he studied me with his unwavering intensity. His skin was freshly washed, but the underlying of his scent had not wavered. He had dressed in his usual dark, leather trousers and form-fitting top. This time his sleeves did not hide the outlined muscles of his arms. The material had little room for movement as though the shirt was made for someone with less... build.
I distracted myself with the vision of him, tracing his features as a silent game to keep my own dark thoughts at bay. But it was failing, lasting only for a moment of reprieve. I needed something more as a distraction.
"Back home," I began. "When days were equally as draining all I would want was the burn of a homebrewed ale to wash away the stresses. Since I cannot imagine this pretty, little city has anything so hearty, why don't I crack open that bottle of wine and not let it go to waste?"
Erix's brows peaked as he turned in his seat to follow my gaze. "I am not sure that would be a good idea... the wine belongs to King Thallan."
"Erix, I am sitting on the edge of a bed made for royalty, dressed in clothes meant for a king. I don't imagine drinking the wine is going to be what causes them great offence."
"Well, you do look rather handsome in that oversized tunic." Erix turned back to me, narrowing eyes looking across my body. My legs were bare, the shirt falling below my undershorts. There was not a single pair of King Thallan's trousers that would have fit, not without the requirements of a belt to hoist them around my waist, and he owned no belt that would aid me. For now I would have to wait for clothes to be brought to me for the journey.
"So is that a yes to the wine?" I held up my cup, sloshing the water over the sides until it splashed upon the bedding beneath me. "Or are you going to make me say please?"
For a moment his stare became serious. To anyone else they may have felt threatened, but to me it only made my longing for a distraction to burn hotter.
In moments the downed cup of water was refilled to the top with the golden-hued liquid. Erix did not pour himself a glass, instead took the bottle in his large, closed fist and sat back down before me.
"You have done a master job at dancing round the topic of what occurred," Erix said, lifting the rim of the bottle to his full, parted lips.
"I visited Father, someone attacked and he was hurt. Tarron healed him and promised to protect him under his own care. There is nothing more to the story." I took a long swig of wine, letting my tongue melt beneath the beautiful, unworldly taste that followed. I kept the wine in my mouth, behind closed lips, allowing the flavour to rock around every possible inch of my taste before swallowing.
"I do not want to be the one to darken the mood even more so, but Tarron is not to be trusted. We should petition your father to stay with us. Queen Lyra would not decline if you asked for him to travel to Farrador. Gods, I would feel even better if he was left in Aurelia." Urgency made Erix speak quickly, hardly breaking for breath until he got every last word out.
"Dare I ask what Tarron has done to you to hold such distrust for him?"
The question hung between us. I could see Erix contemplating my question as he lost himself to his thoughts, gaze drifting to some forgotten spot on the headboard behind me.
I reached a hand for him, placing it softly upon his knee. "You can tell me. At some point you are going to have to open up."
Erix loosed a sigh, took a rather large swig of wine, and relaxed back in the chair. "My family dwell in the Oakstorm Court. Tarron and I are similar ages and had been forced together, in social events, from a very early age. You see my mother was a lady-in-waiting, helping and aiding Tarron's own mother for years. Far more years before Tarron and I came into the world. I have known him for a long time and can see through his cracks. Believe me, there are many. He...." Erix took yet another swing of wine, tipping the bottle back and inhaling the liquid. I watched, enthralled, by the rhythmic bob of the lump in his throat. He came back for air, clearing the remnants of glistening wine from his lips and chin with the back of his hand. "Tarron once took someone I cared dearly about. To prove a point. Or just for a game, I still am not certain. It was one of the reasons I left, to get away from the unfair games between us that I had found myself entered in without a choice. There is far more to the story, but nothing that cannot wait for another day."
A twisting of emotion thrummed within me; it was not a nice feeling, but a familiar, bitter feeling that soured the wine as I drank it. "Who was it?"
I did not need to elaborate my question for Erix to know what I asked.
"A girl. Someone I once knew from my past that I try extremely hard to forget. It was many years ago, and her memory is no more than a closed chapter. But to Tarron she was a trophy. A prize to be won. And it broke her beyond the point of..." Erix trailed off, words dying on the tip of his tongue.
"Of what?" I sat forward, longing to know more.
"It is not for me to say." There was something thunderous behind his stare; it came on as fast as a storm, darkening the mood in seconds. "Not now, please. That part of my life means nothing now. Forgotten. And I would very much like to keep it that way. Although it may deem therapeutic to peer between the crack in the door, I would like very much to keep it closed."
The version of Tarron that Erix saw was far different to the man that promised my father's safety, someone I had shared the greatest secret of all with. "Perhaps he has changed."
Erix looked at me, lip curling slightly. "For the better or worse, it is too soon to tell."
I regretted speaking of Tarron, for it only conjured an image of Father's bleeding body and the mark that had engraved itself into my very brain; it waited for me in the dark behind my eyes with every blink.
I needed a distraction.
My eyes glanced back to Erix who stole gulps of wine from the bottle again. What he spoke of had troubled him to the point his hands shook with... anger. A bottled emotion that he struggled to keep caged. I almost felt the tension he wrestled with.
"How long do you think we have?" I asked, voice no more than a whisper.
Erix slowly lowered the bottle, eyes wide as he regarded me. "Why do you ask?"
I put down the cup, keeping my hands free. "What happened between us the other night, it doesn't mean anything to you. Does it?"
Now, more than ever, I was not in a position to commit to someone's feelings when my own were uncontrollable, but his ability to take my mind away was a blessing and I did not want it to go to waste.
And I could see that he too required a distraction, and I was willing to become it.
Erix pinched his brows into a slight scowl. It was only quick, a lapse in his own ability to control his thoughts from exposing themselves across his handsome face. "You are making me nervous with your questioning, little bird."
"Was it just a one-time thing?" I asked, ignoring his use of my nickname.
"Is that what you want it to be?" He threw his question at me, dodging my own as though it was a sharpened blade. "One time?"
I stood from the bed, nudging his knees apart enough for me to stand between them. He looked up at me, fist gripped around the elegant neck of the bottle. I was surprised it did not crack beneath the strengthening of his grip. "Maybe. Maybe not."
"Tell me what you want from me, and you can have it."
The tension between us thickened, growing serious in a matter of seconds. Erix did not smile as he looked up at me; I felt like a delicious meal that he was being kept from although he was starved.
I reached for his face, pressing a hand to his cheek. His skin was warm and welcoming. His hard, straight and tall posture relaxed into my touch as I told him what I thought. "I want to stop thinking. I want peace in my own head."
"And you need my help for that?"
I nodded, fighting the urge to grin at the thought of using him for my own peace of mind. "It may make the process of what is happening and what has happened easier to organise from chaos to clarity."
"And how," he murmured, deep voice sending a lightning bolt through my spine, "Can I help with that?"
"Distract me."
Those two words were all that were holding Erix back. He sprang from the chair, wrapping an arm around my back and twisting my body towards the bed once again. Air whizzed past my ears, my stomach jolting under the impact.
I giggled as my back hit the soft cushioning of the bed. Erix prowled above me, wide arm sweeping the many decorations from around us until pillows and blankets softly plopped onto the floor, forgotten.
His lips were on mine, tasting like fruit and spice. My tongue moved, lapping up the remnants of wine which exploded within my own mouth, tastebuds as alive as the skin his rough touch brushed over.
I wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling him down upon me. All I could think of was keeping him close, preventing him from stopping.
My lips tingled when we finally broke away from one another. I took the moments he trailed his mouth down my cheek, along the curve of my jaw and onto my neck, to catch my breath. He slipped from my hold, his hands lifting the bottom of King Thallan's oversized shirt and exposing my stomach. No matter how many deep inhales I took, I could not seem to catch my breath. Not as his kiss moved from my neck, to my chest, to the tensed muscles of my low stomach, all the way to the band of material that signalled the start of my undershorts. Then he stopped. It was so sudden I craned my neck up and looked down at him.
He was already staring up at me, his grin turning the corners of his glistening, full lips up at each corner. Mischief made his silver eyes glow from within. "May I?"
It seemed words were not an option. Instead I flopped my head back down onto the bed, closing my eyes until all I saw was star-speckled darkness. It was not what I could see that thrilled me, but what I felt, and his hands had not stopped moving, fingers inching closer to the cock that throbbed within my undershorts.
It was enough of an indication that I wanted what Erix had to offer. The feeling was strange but welcomed. It sent burning nerves through my core, but his touch seemed to smother those embers.
I was usually the one on my knees until my jaw ached, never had it been me on the receiving end; by choice, maybe, or the fact that the others I had been intimate with were too worried about their own ending than mine.
Erix did not seem to think of himself, not once. Even when he rode inside of me, it had felt as though each movement was for me, a gift or treat.
This was no different.
Erix gently tugged at my undershorts with one hand, the other scooped beneath my back until he lifted me from the bed. enough to pull them from me and discard them on the pile of pillows. A breeze dusted across my manhood, making a shiver cross my skin, but then it was gone, warmed by the touch of Erix who wrapped his hand around it.
"You asked for a distraction, and it is my duty as your personal guard to provide you with one."
"Erix," I exhaled his name, arching my back until the flat of his hand pressed down on my stomach until I was lying once again. I looked down at him, expecting to see him staring back, but his focus was on the hard cock that waited in his hand.
"You want this, don't you?"
I gasped as his hand began to move. Up and down, slowly twisting at the wrist with each stroke. "Yes."
"Let me hear you say my name." His hand quickened in pace.
"Erix."
"Again," he demanded, hand quickening in pace yet again.
"Eri-Erix!"
I tumbled into the thrill of pleasure, unable to think of anything but his touch.
"Good," he breathed slowly. "I do love when you say my name."
The feeling that followed was unlike anything I had felt before. Erix placed me within his mouth, swapping his hand movements for the upwards and downwards dance of his head. I had done it many times before, but never realised what it felt like on the receiving end. Now I did; I scolded myself for never having it done to me before.
I gripped at the sheets, not able to care to whom they belonged to. Pleasure had me making sound with each exhale. It urged Erix on, his pace changing and altering without warning. I felt as though I rode atop a wild stallion, not knowing if it was trotting, or cantering or galloping. The unknown was thrilling as I gave into it. If this was like riding a horse, I was ready to be thrown from the saddle.
A pressure was building with me. The more it grew, the more sensitive I became. Erix's lips tightened, his tongue moving in quicker and more frantic circles around my cock. I wanted it to end, but in the same way I didn't. This feeling was one that I wished would last forever, but I knew the sensation that was waiting to happen was pure divinity, and the promise of that release, with Erix at the helm, almost sent me over the edge.
I looked down at Erix's bobbing head. His mouth was busy, and so was the hand that aided him. But his other hand, the one spare, could not be seen as he gripped onto his own cock. His arm moved, pleasuring himself as he did me.
And it was that sight that threw me over the chasm, knowing he shared in the feeling made it impossible to control it. My breathing laboured, my moaning increasing in volume and pace. The feeling crept from the pits of my stomach, warming my groin as his wet, mouth worked on me. I tried to pull back at it, but it was impossible to control. Erix made noises, deep huffing as his own arm jerked wildly at his cock.
Then we finished. Together. I could not see it happen as I closed my eyes, but felt it as though that sensation was all that mattered. Our breathing entwined into one thread, our bodies tensing in the same overwhelming waves.
For long celestial moments we were united as one, and that was a feeling I would never forget.
My head spun as I laid back on the bed. I felt every touch as Erix peeled his hand from my length. I was too enthralled in the reoccurring spasms of joy that took over my body to care what occurred in the room around me.
"Thank you," I murmured, revelling in the peace and quiet of my mind.
"I do not expect you to thank me for anything, little bird." Erix was at my feet, pulling the undershorts over them and up both my legs. "For another, careless night the thanks may have been nice to hear. But you do not thank me for something that is quite literally my pleasure."
I sat up, reaching shaking hands to help him as I pulled the undershorts back into position. "Do you need me to...?"
Erix shook his head. He knew what I asked before I even had finished what I had to say. "I am more than satisfied."
I looked to the bulge within his trousers. He was still large, but I knew that he too had shared in that climax. Just seeing the imprint had me ready to go again, a feeling that usually returned after a good sleep and a meal with previous lovers.
It was Erix's turn to walk between my legs, nudging them open with his knees. He placed both his fists on the bed beside me, leaning down until his face was inches from my own. "I hope that helped clear your mind."
I blinked slowly, not wanting to take my eyes off him. "It did."
Erix puckered his lips and placed a small, kind kiss to the tip of my nose. "If I cannot do anything but take your mind off the world, then I sacrifice myself to the cause. Willingly of course."
"I-"
"Are you both finished or...?" a voice yawned at the edge of the room.
I snapped my head to the door, just as Erix did, our noses a splinter from cracking into each other. Althea leaned against the doorframe, inspecting her nails in the dim light as though she hid gold within them.
Erix bolted from me. I could do nothing as I was frozen to the spot on her parents' bed. Damn. Her parents' bloody bed. Queen and king of the court and I had just defiled their royal, fucking sheets.
"Oh, Erix, no need to act so distant now." She hardly spared us a glance, her entire demeanour screamed with her lack of care.
"It is not what it looks like," I uttered, snatching Althea's attention from Erix before she truly had a chance to look at him.
"Is it not?" Althea pouted, hand landing upon her hip as though it was a walking stick. "Well that is very disappointing. Do not get me wrong, you would not be the first story of a royalty falling for their personal guard. Even my own father has had those rumours linked to his name. But to do it in my parents' bed, how very..." I readied myself for the mortifying dread that was coming to bury me alive. "...repetitive."
I glanced at Erix who shared the same look of embarrassment, but confusion to what Althea said.
Althea sighed heavily. "Oh, boys, come on. You think you are the first to spoil those sheets? Please, welcome to the club. As the leading member I should likely hand out badges or create a banner to unite us, but perhaps that would be in bad taste."
"I don't get it..." I said, noticing Erix as he stared at his boots with a knowing smirk.
"Apologies, Althea, we did not expect company," he said, looking up at her through his lashes.
"I am only sorry to be the one to interrupt. Erix, how about you clean up the mess and I will get Robin something more suitable to wear."
I sprang from the bed, skipping on light feet for Althea who waved me to join her. Her father's shirt fell back down to my knees, hiding what little modesty I had left.
Althea hooked an arm around my own and patted her hand on mine. "Forgive me if I am wrong, but I am starting to understand how you both kept warm during your night in Berrow." My cheeks flushed red. "And do not worry I hardly saw a thing. Your secret is rather safe with me. And believe me, I am excellent at keeping secrets in which I am privy to."