Gambit (24 page)

Igasho gold sat in loose strings on a small wooden table to the side of the bed. Chae picked her way toward it. She traced her fingers over the fine strands and it tingled and writhed under her touch. Scooping it up, she let the gleaming stuff fall over her palm. Its siren call pushed into her blood. Inactivated, it was clean, alive with the promise of delicious sex. Chae doubted it would have the same freshness when Odgar wore it.

Her heart twisted and the familiar sick feeling rose up from her belly. Stupid permanence. But it wasn’t just that. Nerves deepened the feeling of nausea. She loved Daned and hell, this was betrayal.

In a natural alcove was a small washing area. Chae gratefully splashed clean water on her face, neck and hair, rinsing and cleaning away the stink of the dead men on her skin. She straightened. She had to go through with it. Sucking in a steadying breath, she picked up the Igasho gold strings and churned over words like “duty” and “sacrifice”—words Daned lived by—and turned to find Odgar and Daned standing in the open doorway. “Daned…”

“You formed a permanent bond with me.”

“And with the chair.” She waved a hand at Odgar, the prince trying not to make it obvious that he was using the frame of the doors to support him. “He’s here. I want to get it over with.” Her gaze darted over the prince. The plain knee-length black tunic he wore caught the glistening patches across his shoulders and chest. The color hid the blood. The tunic clung to the lean muscles of his chest, stomach and thighs. He was handsome in a brutal way…but everything about him was just wrong in too many ways for her to explain to herself. The main one being he was not Daned. “He probably feels the same.”

Odgar opened his mouth but she didn’t let him speak.

“Sit down before you fall down, Odgar.”

He closed the distance to the bed and let out a soft groan as he sank into the deep mattress. A muscle in Daned’s jaw jumped and dark anger pushed out from him. He took a step forward into the room and the wall scraped shut behind him.

The scent of cloves thickened and ramped her nerves, the gold in her fingers thrumming. With a curse, Chae dropped the stings and wiped her hands. “Daned, you should go.”

“I almost killed you.” He took her right hand, his thumb slipping over her knuckles, his touch light and exploring. For a brief moment, guilt thickened his thoughts. “I
wanted
to kill you. Taste your blood.”

He closed his eyes and tried to release her hand. Chae didn’t let him. “You fought it, broke his hold on you.” She brought his hand to her mouth and brushed her lips over his knuckles. The taste of his skin rippled pleasure through her flesh. “Now I have to do…well…him.”

“Chae…”

Odgar groaned, something edged with pain and annoyance. “Majesty, I am incapable of that at this precise moment.” The mattress creaked and there was a soft stir of sheets. He’d flopped back onto the bed. “My faith in you was proven, Daned. You saved us all. Thank you.” The prince caught his bloodied hand in his hair and unease clouded his thoughts. “And in all honesty, Majesty, I no more want to be naked than you do with me.”

“Thanks.” Blood stained the sheets as he rolled onto his side and Chae winced.
“Can you heal him?”

Odgar’s soft, relieved sigh showed that the sunder-seld could.

“So now what?” Tiredness sat on her, her body aching for rest after the rush of adrenaline in the throne room. She dropped to the edge of the wide bed, looked up at Daned and found his mouth thinned. Her gaze flicked to Odgar before she let out a soft laugh. “I’m just sitting, Daned.”

“You’ve gone through enough today, Majesty.”

“We discussed this…”

“Make a deal.” Odgar shifted on the mattress. Already his voice sounded stronger, less lined with pain. “I’m indebted to you both for my life. And I’m a practical prince. I’ve overcome my disappointment in not occupying the throne. Find a way to satisfy tradition.”

Chae stared at him. Yes, he was very practical. “Let me just check.” She paused and her mind sought the strange space in her thoughts where the sunder-seld existed.
“Would it be him? If the ceremony had gone ahead?”

“As you have identified, he is the most likely candidate. In healing you, I ensured that your body will create new life from your union.”

Chae paused and kept the frown from her face.
“I identified? I can
choose?” She pushed at her memories and a slew of new ones hit her, the sunder-seld releasing them. Hell, did the bloody chair play as many games as the princes it served? Had it wanted to push her to see what she would do?
“Is my whole life with you going to be a test?”

She felt a glimmer of humor, fleeting but there.
“Possibly.”

“These are memories of empresses sleeping with every prince. Why the fuck would they do that if they knew who to choose already?”
She blinked. There. Buried under centuries of images was a thought never acted upon. One of the middle-era empresses had ached to strike a bargain…but her connection to the sunder-seld hadn’t matched the strength of her princes. Or so she believed. The empress had followed tradition to keep the insane princes from erupting into House wars. Chae’s heart missed a beat. But what she had—and what that ancient empress had lacked—was an abundance of gall. She believed in her connection to the chair. The chair was hers to command…and the sunder-seld could make her idea work.

“I’m a figurehead.” Chae scratched her fingers through her still-damp hair, fighting the fierce, excited rush of her nerves as they caught on the loose tangles.

“Yes. You are.”

Humor lurked in Odgar’s voice and her mouth quirked upward. She might even be beginning to like him…now that she didn’t have to see him naked. “I know that the control of the Ladaians is your domain—each individual prince—and that my sitting on that thing—” she waved her hand in the direction of the throne, “—just broke the factory settings. That’s all the imperial blood is. A bit of spice for the castes.”

“Not all…”
The sunder-seld broke into her thoughts.

“Yes, thank you, I’m obviously not telling him the
whole
truth.”
Chae pushed the chair to the back of her mind. She had to concentrate on getting out of fucking nine men. “It’s very simple, Odgar. The child I will have will be yours.”

Anger surged from Daned and she grabbed his hand before he shot his prince. “I have a deal, Daned. Honest.” Her next words were for Odgar, but she spoke to the man whose hand she held. “I’ve already formed a permanent bond. He’d be the biological father.” Her heart hammered at the thought of making a child with Daned, fear and excitement rushing her. Her life was insane. Really. It was. “But you would be recognized as the father.”

Odgar sat up. He paused, pressing his hand to his damp chest. He lifted his palm, his skin wet with more blood. He frowned. “A simple test would prove the heir wasn’t mine.”

“The sunder-seld can mask it. It says who we are, what we are. It can certainly change one baby’s genetic code.” Doubt crawled through his thoughts. He was tempted. He was very tempted. She plowed on. “It would solve our getting naked. It would also stop the Houses from falling on each other. And you’d have the prestige of being father to the successor.”

Daned squeezed her hand, his mind alive with hope. “And the sunder-seld can do this?”

Chae laughed. They were proper Ladaians, had grown up in its culture…but then the sunder-seld had been unoccupied for a hundred years.
“Can you…convince them?”
She gave a mental shrug.
“The word of a fifth-caste empress isn’t worth much.”

“Order them to place their palms on a clear smooth area of crystal.”

Chae passed on the command. Both men moved to press their hands to gleaming patches of crystal on the wall near the door. She frowned.
“You don’t seem overly concerned that I’m throwing out your conventions?”

“You know what I am.”

She resisted the need to roll her eyes. The damn thing thrived on mystery, but she
had
worked it out. Almost too late and the thought of what she would’ve endured ran a cold shiver through her. She pushed at her new memories, too aware that there were other holes, gaps in past memories that the sunder-seld kept from her. Hell, the other empress had been the closest to taking up the offer of a deal, but all of them had the little niggle of a thought buried in their minds. The choice had been—and always would be—theirs.
“You’re a tool. What you say is a suggestion, not a command.”
She paused.
“You
could
tell us that.”

“Even a figurehead needs strength, wisdom
—” a hint of humor touched her mind,
“—and an abundance of gall. My replies—whether verbal or unconscious urging—have always been crafted to encourage that.”

“You’re evil.”

“I’m a chair.”

Chae clamped her hand to her mouth to stop the splutter of laughter…and straightened as Odgar turned to face her. He blinked and there was something like wonder in his eyes. The sunder-seld had said only a rare few would hear it speak. “Do we have a deal?”

A brief smile touched his mouth. “We have a deal.”

A fast, hot and relieved breath escaped her. She rubbed her mouth and listened to the wild thud of her heart. She stood, the rush in her blood not letting her stay still. “Good. Thank you.” She pressed her lips together before babble broke from her. For a brief moment, she closed her eyes. She took a grip of her wild emotions and shoved them down. “So…we stay here for…what?” She looked up. “What length of time wouldn’t insult your ego?”

Odgar gave her a wry smile. “The sunder-seld dispersed your traits throughout the whole of the Ladaian people?”

Chae grinned. “I know. A whole race of irritants. Live with it.”

Daned was staring at her. Just staring. Her own hopes and fears made it impossible to clear a way to his emotions. “Can you leave now, Odgar.” It wasn’t a request.

Odgar tilted his head. “I can.” He nodded to Chae. “Majesty.”

Flustered, Chae nodded back. She shot a thought to the sunder-seld.
“And Odgar can’t take the throne?”

“No, Majesty.”

“Just making
absolutely
sure.”
Chae pointed to the blank stretch of wall that was the door to the room. “All right. Good. You deal with formalities our announcement needs. And swear in the new princes, or whatever it is they do.”

“Understood, Majesty.” He found the internal plate that opened the wall to the throne room. The scrape of crystal and rock against the stone floor ran raw over her stretched nerves.

Daned still said nothing.

The silence pricked at her. Hell, she wanted him to say something. She’d just decided to have a
baby
with him. “It was the only way. There’s a fine balance between their fighting and finding peace without their forming alliances—”

“Run.”

Chae blinked. “What?”

“I’m giving you five minutes.”

A dark smile lifted his mouth and fired sudden heat through her flesh. Shit, he had no right to smile at her like that when she was panicked. “You’re doing this
now?
”

Daned dropped the gun on the bed and shrugged off his stained jacket. It joined the gun on the bed. He stretched and rolled his neck. He turned to the small sink and drew water to his face, neck and hair. “I made a promise.”

“Couldn’t we just…?” She raised her hands and pointed vaguely to the bed, denying how hard her heart was beating and the liquid heat between her thighs. “There’s a bed right there.”

“I plan to fuck you where I find you.” His grin did insane things to her insides and her thoughts raced. Daned wet his lips. “Don’t let it be just the other side of that door.”

Chae gave him a wicked grin of her own. All thought of being tired left her. They both needed this. “Are you sure?”

“Run.” He took a step forward and her heart squeezed. Heat and fierce need rioted from him. “Now.”

Chapter Thirteen

Chae pounded down the slowly lit corridors. Everywhere was silent, even the babble of the people within the palace was subdued, pressed back to just a slight itch on the edge of her awareness. Damn it, where should she go?

Chae let herself rest. She fell against the smooth stone of the wall and willed her breathing to slow. She closed her eyes and listened to the fierce pounding of her heart. She cleared her mind of everything, the fear, the raw taste in her mouth, the wild need she had to pull the palace apart to find him. Hell, he was hunting her, not her him.

Was an empress supposed to do this? A shit-eating grin broke out across her lips. She didn’t care. Her palace, her rules. And if she wanted to have her imperial advisor hunt her for sport…and sex, she could.
“Still there, Daned?”

“You’re cheating. No contact. It could incur penalties.”

The hint of sensual promise in his voice peaked her nipples. Chae opened her eyes and stared out of the long, thin windows, the setting sun throwing deep reds and oranges across the sky. Reality calmed the sudden heat in her blood. Was this right? They needed…something to break through the events of the throne room, but was this it?

“I hurt you.”
Pain lanced under his thoughts and it tightened her heart.
“But you broke the hold of the Host on me. You. With the promise of gold and with this.”

“You’ll wear gold for me again?”

“I would. I’m yours.”

Chae pressed her hands to her mouth, the wild rush of her emotions making her mind spin. She pushed herself away from the wall.
“You’re cheating, Daned. No contact.”

“When I find you…”

He bombarded her with images of how he would take her with his mouth, his hands, his cock, the heat of his skin, the promise of wild release. He was relentless and his thoughts made her breathe hard and fast.

“So…run.”