Steal the Sun (7 page)

“I have brought you afternoon tea, mistress,” Albert announced with a smile. “It is a lovely Darjeeling with freshly baked madeleines.”

My stomach reminded me I hadn’t eaten earlier, and I took a seat on the couch in the sitting area while Albert served. This morning, food had just completely lost its appeal, but I was getting my appetite back. Neil looked at the cookies, trying not to salivate.

“Is there a reason you’re not sharing a room with the masters?” Albert asked, his tone one of grave disappointment. Albert was a romantic. He believed married couples should cohabitate, even when the couple was a trio.

“Don’t blame me,” I shot back, taking a sip of the tea. It was, as always, perfect. Everything Albert did was sheer perfection. “I just went to the room I was assigned to. I’m working on remedying it right away. If I stay here, Dev and Danny will crawl into that little bed with me and I’ll get smooshed in the middle.”

Bibi moved from the shoes and was looking at the delicate cookies. I could hear her stomach rumble and wondered if anyone had thought to give the troll lunch. I held one out for her and she took it shyly.

“Bibi, this is Albert.” I made the introductions. “Albert runs our household. Albert, Bibi is my new secretary.”

Albert bowed deeply. “It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, miss. Please, if there is anything I can do to help you, let me know. I am here to serve.”

That was when Bibi burst into tears. Neil and I exchanged looks. I told him wordlessly that he could take this one. She responded well to him.

Neil looked at the little troll. “Don’t let Al scare you. He’s big but he’s a pussy cat.”

She shook her head vigorously. “No, he is nice. You are all so nice. I just wish they weren’t so mean.”

Neil’s light eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Bibi, you’re a small creature. Sometimes people don’t even notice you’re around, do they? They talk around you and pretend you don’t exist.”

Bibi nodded, sniffling slightly. “Yes, they don’t care that I am there. It is like they think I do not have ears, but I do.”

“Do you know what Mara is planning?”

The troll stopped, and for a moment I thought she would let her fear keep her silent. I couldn’t blame her. She’d been trained to fear her “betters.” After a long moment, she came to a decision, and I watched as she steeled herself for what was likely her first foray into rebellion.

“It is not Mara who is plotting,” she exclaimed. “It is her cousin. She is vile. She doesn’t like my new mistress and has sworn to ruin her in the eyes of the nobles.”

I sighed because I could guess what was coming. “Is Mara’s cousin’s name Gilliana?”

Bibi’s eyes widened. “Yes, and she was the one who put you in separate rooms so she could enchant the prince. She wants to force him to give her a babe. She was angry he took another wife. She thinks he will take her back if she carries his child.”

I calmly set the tea down and was proud of myself because my head didn’t explode, though it threatened to. Blood was pulsing through my body, and I wondered briefly if that maddening rage was what Danny felt when his beast came out. I took control of my intense, crazy-bitch rage and managed to speak to Bibi in something close to a calm tone. “Bibi, sweetie, this is important. Where is Gilliana now?”

“She is in Prince Dev’s room. She is lying in wait with a spell to entrance him.”

I stood, fury oozing from my every pore. Neil smiled because he knew the scene I was about to cause would stand the test of time. It was going to be legendary, and he wasn’t about to miss it. I was sure he thought about getting Sarah, but I wasn’t waiting on an audience.

“I’ll need…” I began.

“Cold iron,” Albert supplied helpfully. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small but lethal-looking knife. It was made from cold forged iron, the true weapon to use against a Fae. “I try to be prepared for your every need. On entering the palace, I realized you would need to maim or kill someone in order to take your rightful place. These are truly dreadful people, mistress. They will not respect you until they fear you. I pulled the knife out of the luggage early this morning.”

“Thank you, Albert,” I managed around my volcanic rage. “Bibi, take me to my husband’s room.”

As we walked out, Albert was already cleaning up. “I’ll have your luggage delivered to Prince Dev’s room and Master Daniel’s as well. Call me if you need someone to clean up the blood, mistress. I’m always ready to help.”

I walked calmly through the halls of the palace, holding my cold iron knife carefully against my thigh. I didn’t want anyone to raise the alarm.

When dealing with backstabbing, man-stealing, spell-using bitches, it helps to have the element of surprise. I had this with Gilliana on several fronts. First, she thought I was somewhere on the other side of the palace, far away from my probably horny husband. I was supposed to be dealing with my completely inappropriate social secretary. There should have been much time lost as I dealt with Mara, who was undoubtedly ready to take one for the team. While I handled both the room situation and the problems with staff, Gilliana would have time to pull whatever she needed to pull.

The second of her misconceptions was about me. She more than likely thought she was dealing with a lovely airhead since I’d been told over and over that was Dev’s preferred type. Lovely airhead—even if she managed to figure out the plot—would just sit around and cry. She would not march into her husband’s room and confront the big, scary, spell-wielding woman.

Albert was right. It was time to let these people know I wasn’t an easy mark. It was my responsibility to stake a claim. This court ran on intrigue and the constant fear of someone using you as a stepping stone. After I brought my own personal stone down on a couple of their heads, they would learn not to step on me.

“This is the prince’s wing,” Bibi explained.

Of course he had his own wing, but Danny and I had been shoved to another part of the palace entirely. This wing of Dev’s was huge with many rooms. It was obviously for his family, but Mara had chosen to leave him here alone and vulnerable to her cousin’s plots. Mara didn’t know it yet, but she’d been fired.

“The last room is Prince Dev’s bedroom.” Bibi pointed to the closed door at the end of the hall.

I looked down at the troll and thought I should probably warn her. “Look here, Bibi,” I said, amazed at how calm my voice was. On the inside, I was already beating the shit out of my husband’s ex. “I’m going in there and there’s probably going to be some bloodshed. I intend to make quite the impression on Gilliana. If this frightens you, then you should go back and wait with Albert. I’ll return as soon as Gilliana knows who the boss is.”

Bibi’s brown eyes lit with a happy bloodlust. “I do not mind blood, mistress. Well, so long as it is not my own.”

“See, you fit right in,” Neil noted. He would enjoy the fight as well.

“Then feel free to watch,” I said, hearing the coldness in my own voice. “Tell everyone what you see.”

I strode down the hallway and kicked the door open for maximum surprise. I walked into my husband’s bed chamber and sure enough it was pretty damn awesome. It was also empty.

“This is way better than our room.” Neil shook his head as he took in the enormous suite.

“Neil, focus.” We were in what could only be described as a sitting room. This was where the prince would entertain friends. I needed to know where the prince would entertain special guests.

Neil took a deep whiff of the air and immediately pointed to a door on the far wall. I started toward it when Neil warned, “They’re in there, both of them. Z, you better hurry. He’s aroused.”

“Tell me something I don’t know, Neil.” I slowed down. I had an idea of what was likely happening behind that door, but I didn’t know what kind of magic she was using. I was running on adrenaline, and it suddenly occurred to me that I should have waited for Sarah.

“Baby, you look so good. You’re going to feel even better. Do you want what I have for you?” I heard Dev say in that voice that told me he was just about to start his happy dance.

Yeah, I wasn’t going to wait. That happy dance belonged to me. I opened the heavy door and made my way inside. Afternoon sunlight streamed in through the big windows. A massive bed dominated the room. Declan had told me Miria herself had ordered the bed as a peace offering to her son. The bed was a testament to decadence and came complete with sexy curtains to shield Daniel from the sun. They’d been drawn for privacy and there was no way Dev had done that himself. He didn’t give a crap about privacy. He’d screw me in the middle of a crowd if I let him.

“Give me a kiss,” Dev said, his voice low and sexy.

I pulled the curtains open with one strong tug of my hand. If she hit me with a magical fireball or some shit, at least I’d stop that freaking kiss.

The two people on the bed froze like an erotic tableau. Dev was naked, his lean muscular body on display. I got the best look at his backside. He had an amazing ass. He’d stopped in the act of climbing on top of someone who looked just freaking like me. I flashed back to earlier in the day when Mara had commented on how we would have to tame my hair. She’d complained about the waviness. I’d thought it was weird when she ran her hand across my hair, but now I knew why. They needed a strand of hair to make the spell work.

I had to admit, looking down on myself in bed with Dev, I looked pretty damn hot. I always worry about that extra five pounds I carry around, but it was all curves. No wonder Danny liked to watch.

“Zoey?” Dev looked between the two of us, his gorgeous green eyes confused.

The Zoey who wasn’t me cowered and held on to Dev. “Husband, it is a trick. She is a witch trying to confuse you. She will kill us both. Please save me.” She clung to him and gave her role everything she had.

I rolled my eyes and promised myself I would never cower. It didn’t look good on me. Gilliana could look like me all she wanted. The spell hadn’t given her my personality. I looked at Dev with a flat frown. He was trying to pull away from the woman in his arms, but he still seemed a bit uncertain.

“Here’s the deal, baby. I’m going to talk for a minute and you can decide which one of us is real.” I looked down at Gilliana and pulled my knife. She shrank away. “All right, bitch, this is how it’s going down. You get one warning and one warning only. I’m his wife. He married me and not because he was forced to screw me by some spell. He chose me. You had your chance and you blew it. Keep your hands off my husband or I’ll be forced to remove them.”

Dev practically leapt off the bed to get to my side. “The scary one is definitely my wife. What the hell is going on? I was about to come and look for you, but I got so tired. I laid down for a nap and you woke me up with your lovely naked body. I was quite happy to see you.”

“How did you find out?” Gilliana asked, looking petulant and annoyed. “I set everything up perfectly. You should be with Mara now. You should be trying to fix the chaos.”

I reached onto the bed and pulled myself out by my hair. Now the spell broke because her hair felt different from mine. Gilliana screamed as I hauled her off the bed and her glamour fell apart. I was left with a lovely, if bland, blonde. She had brown eyes and a skinny body. She probably had five inches on me, and I bet I outweighed her. The woman also had no idea how to fight. She didn’t punch or try to take out my legs. She just yelled. She apparently thought screaming was going to make me let her go.

“Gilliana.” Dev greeted his ex through clenched teeth. He crossed his arms, and I knew it was to keep himself from hitting her. “How dare you try this on me? I will have you imprisoned for this.”

“Call the guard later, baby.” I started to haul Gilliana out of his room by her long blonde hair. I had a good grip on it now, and she was surprisingly easy to drag. I had way more trouble with the friction of her bare ass on the marble than I did with her weight. Skinny bitches are good for something, I had to admit. “I have a reputation to stake.”

I hauled the witch out of Dev’s room, and she obliged me by kicking and screaming the whole way. Her screeching brought everyone out. Neil, Bibi, and Dev followed in my wake. Dev had slipped on his robe but followed me down the palace halls in his bare feet. He didn’t try to explain anything or apologize. He knew there was no need. He also knew the value of a ferocious reputation. On our home plane, Dev had a reputation as a smooth talker who would smile one minute and stick his knife in the next. He was not a man you crossed.

I reached the greeting room after a long walk, all the while gathering gawkers. There was a huge crowd waiting to see why Her Grace, wife of the High Priest, was hauling a naked noblewoman through the halls of the royal palace. There was no way this story didn’t make the rounds. By the time dinner rolled around, my reputation as a badass would be secure.

I was gratified to see Mara looking on with a horrified expression on her face. I gave her my most savage smile because she needed to remember this.

“Lady Gilliana decided it would be a good idea to trick my husband into her bed,” I announced loudly. “I’m going to persuade her ladyship that this was a misstep.” I let her head drop to the marble and before she could move, I shoved that cold iron into her chest making sure I stayed away from her heart. It would hurt like hell, but it wouldn’t kill her. I stared down into her face, which was contorted with agony. “Next time, I’ll kill you.”

I pulled my knife out because I wasn’t going to waste a perfectly good knife on her.

Dev grabbed my hand and pulled it to his mouth. He kissed my hand gallantly, letting everyone know he approved. When I looked over the crowd I noticed Danny, Lee, and Padric had joined. Danny was laughing but Lee and Padric looked almost paternally proud.

As Dev began to lead me away from the screaming Gilliana, I realized something. It made me frown and turned my stomach a little. If Gilliana had hired the assassin, why would she go to the elaborate trouble of this plan? It was intricate and depended on flawless execution. This had been her plan, not the archer.