Chapter 1
Note: This is a darker fantasy, not following the "typical" dragon plots.
Be aware of k*dnapping, bullying, and death.
-Rathilion-
“Is that really all you got, your highness?”
Sarya was holding her sword against my throat, smiling so smugly, as she winked at me. Then she drew back, and we circled each other, before I went for her first, our blades meeting, making them cling and the sound echoed out on the big training area. The gravel beneath our feet was slowly giving in a little, as we both put our strength into getting the other to step back. Eventually, we both gave in, pushing away before our blades met again and again.
Sarya always had that smile on her lips whenever she was training with me. She knew the teasing look in her eyes got to me, and I couldn’t help to play along. Always so serious Rath, she would tell me. We had known each other since we were young, and there was no one I was this relaxed with but her. She knew how to make my day better, and I often needed the distraction when I had pretty much taken the throne from my father.
He refused to help Ashes and Laelia, and I knew we had to do something, or they would have been killed, and it wouldn’t be long after their uncle came for us too. So, I had gone away on my own and went behind my father’s back. I had the elves turn against him, and eventually he had to give up the crown. It had created a cliff between us, that … that I had no idea how to remove. My mother was at least still speaking to me, still having dinner with me, but I knew she was torn. I was her son, my father her husband. It was not easy for her, and it would be best if my father and I could make peace. But he was a stubborn man, and it didn’t really help that he was pretty much locked up in the castle, only allowed to go out into the gardens and such.
It was how it had to be. I had taken the crown from him, and it was not like he could go anywhere else. Of course, not everyone agreed with the change in rules, but I didn’t believe I had much to worry about. It seemed, for now, I was doing a pretty good job at being king, yet I had not at all been prepared for how the crown could weigh me down.
“Ah!”
Suddenly, as I was distracted, Sarya came at me, thinking I wouldn’t be prepared. But I ducked at the last second before her sword cut the air where I had been, and then I got a hold of her arm before tripping her and sending her down on her back.
“You thought you had me there,” I teased her.
She sat up brushing the small tones from her clothes and smiled, while nodding. I reached a hand down to her and she gratefully took it.
“Well, it looked like a good opportunity,” she said. “You seemed distracted.”
“Too many thoughts,” I said.
“You need to get out of your head before someone takes it,” she said and pushed her red hair over her shoulder.
It was this deep red color, close to what the leaves looked like in the fall, just a bit darker. I reached out and twirled a lock of it around my finger, pulling a little, while her eyes ran from my hand up to my own, and I saw the heat flare in hers.
“I know,” I said. “Being king has changed things.”
“Maybe you need a different kind of distraction,” she said and came closer, pressing her strong body up against mine.
She was a soldier, through and through. She had trained her whole life to become one, following her fierce mother, who had to raise her on her own, and I admired her strength.
I placed my hand on her cheek, running my thumb over her soft and pale skin, seeing her deep blue eyes watching me intensely. She was tall, but I still towered over her and had to lean down to press my lips against hers. She moaned sweetly, and the kiss quickly turned a lot more demanding and a lot hungrier.
“I think I do,” I said against her lips.
***
Sarya laid with her head on my chest, both of us resting after finding pleasure in each other. Our fingers were intertwined lying together on my stomach, while my free hand ran down her bare back. We were lying completely naked on my bed, too heated by what we had done, and I looked up into the ceiling, watching the way the night sky had been painted on it.
“You are never relaxed for long,” Sarya said.
“Not anymore.”
“Things are peaceful. Thanks to you,” she said and looked up at me.
I turned my head and smiled softly at her, not really knowing what to say. Yes, things were peaceful. They had been for years now, but what had it not cost? Lives. Definitely, but I had been torn from people I had cared about as well, because of my choices. I never believed my father and I would ever find common ground, and if he and I couldn’t, I would never find it with my mother either. Yes, I had gotten another family though. Laelia and Ashes, I saw as often as I could, together with her brothers and their wives. Of course, Henry had moved in with Amoya, but he often travelled to the North or the South, taking her with him and their children. The North was still his home, and he longed for it often, and Amoya didn’t seem to mind the travelling, nor did their kids. They had two of them. A boy and a girl.
In a way, I felt strange, that I had not even gotten to that part of my life yet. I wasn’t even married, at least not yet. I knew my father had plans for me, but things had changed a little after I took the crown from him and pretty much imprisoned him here. Sadly, I couldn’t stay unmarried any longer, and I knew my future wife would not at all be like the incredible Queen Laelia.
My father had been right. I did let her distract me. I had let her enchant me. How could I not? She was like no other I had ever met, with a heart so fierce and good, it was hard not to want it for yourself. But it had belonged to someone else, and I could never be the conqueror of it. So I had not even tried, knowing she would not even let me.
“Rath?”
“I know. Things are peaceful,” I said. “I fear they won’t be for long then.”
“So, the rumors of you looking for a queen are they true?” Sarya asked, sitting up and looking down at me.
I nodded, my eyes holding hers, and she sighed, looking away.
“I always knew the time would come,” she said.
“You don’t love me,” I said, running my fingers over her shoulder softly. “You know you don’t.”
“How do you know how I feel?” she asked me, looking at me with harder eyes. “Have you ever asked me? Or am I only good enough for you when it comes to warming your bed?”
She stood up angrily and I sighed, as I sat up watching her get dressed, pulling on her dark green leather pants and a black shirt before grabbing her sword. I stood up, standing in her path, before she could make it to the door.
“Then tell me, are you?” I asked, looking down at her and placing my hands on her hips.
We had chemistry like no other. We were comfortable in each other’s presence, there was no doubt. It came from a long life of friendship. How could we not be comfortable with each other? We have explored each other’s bodies, finding all those secret spots that had the other panting and begging for release. We knew more about each other than any other, but we lacked something. She knew it too. We lacked the racing heart, the need for each other because we couldn’t get enough. Of course, we wanted to be around each other, but we didn’t have this need to always be there. We lacked the feelings. Our hearts didn’t beat for the other. We cared, but we did not love.
“If I say yes, you will tell me I am not, so you don’t have to feel so sh!tty. If I say no, I will be the one leaving feeling like sh*t,” she said, her eyes still hard, but her body was leaning into mine, because it knew what I could do to it.
It knew what kind of pleasure I could bring it, and there were many kinds. Sarya and I had not only been with each other. We had both had multiple partners. But we had come back to each other more often lately, because we knew each other well, and there never was an awkward parting. Not up till now.
“Then say it,” I said.
“What?”
“Say you love me. Let me hear the words,” I told her.
She blinked a few times, as if she thought I was pulling some prank on her, but I wasn’t. If she truly believed she loved me, she should not let anything stop her. She should say it out loud, but I knew she didn’t truly love me. There was just something safe about being with each other, and she was confusing those two things.
“You want me to say them?” she asked.
“That or we can go back to bed, unless you still want to storm out of here?” I said, angling myself a little, so she could better see the doors.
She glanced over at the doors, even though she was still leaning into me more. And I leaned down, placing my hand on her cheek, my lips brushing over hers.
“Choose. I won’t be mad whatever you decide. Speak, be quiet, or run. Your choice.”
She was breathing heavier now, and when I placed my other hand over hers, slowly taking her sword from her. She let go, and I threw the sword away, hearing it cling as it landed on the ground. Then I slowly let my hands travel under her shirt, my fingers running over the skin on her lower stomach, and only rising a little, just enough for her to know where I was going, and she could stop me at any time.
“What do you want to do, Sarya?” I whispered against her lips.
I moved my hands higher, pulling her shirt with as I went, and I brushed my lips over hers again, hearing her whimper slightly.
“I know what I want,” I told her. “And I think you want it too.”
She pressed her lips hard together before shaking her head a little, and then placed a hand on my neck.
“You’re an assh*le,” she said and pressed our lips hard together, as she took control of the kiss.
She then pulled back and threw her shirt away before pushing me back on the bed, removing her pants as well before climbing on top of me. And I let her have all the control, all through the night.
