Fated Hope (The Fated Saga Book 3) Read online

  I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came out but a small squeak. Someone in the audience laughed: Shazandre. I glared daggers at her and summoned my spirit magic inside to give me strength. I felt a warming sensation inside and willed at her, “Shut up!” and she silenced. I probably shouldn't have done that but this was hard enough without the titters and jeers of every idiot remaining in the kingdom. I lifted my head and cleared my throat and spoke, feigning confidence I hope would be believable, “I do.”

  I caught sight of my father of all people, sitting in the crowd, rubbing his eyes with a handkerchief. I was surprised by his emotional display—the black dragon was hardly known for being emotional. I bit my lip to stop myself from blubbering as my grandfather continued.

  “Do you promise to keep the best interests of Anarach at heart at all times and try to the best of your ability to make decisions that benefit us all?”

  “I do.” I managed to reply, without skipping a beat.

  “Then I, as Elder, do declare you the official Queen of Anarach. Please bow.”

  I followed suit of Maxxus and kneeled on both knees—for some reason females just did that—just as Valessia next to me kneeled. I tried not to tremble violently as my grandfather removed the crown from her head and gently placed it on mine. My breath nearly stopped as I felt the cold metal on my forehead. Holy shit this was really happening.

  My grandfather stood between us and held his arms to the side, facing the crowd. “All hail the new king and queen, King Maxxus and Queen Leorah!”

  Slowly, Maxxus and I stood and the crowd, as was standard, repeated, “All hail King Maxxus and Queen Leorah!” I could sense the tension among the crowd; you could cut it with the proverbial knife. It made me want to recoil but I fought the urge.

  I exchanged a look with Maxxus who smirked and I instantly felt a little better.

  We were prompted to sit in the thrones as Valessia stepped down off the dais.

  What the fuck have I done…seriously?

  I clutched the wooden arm of the throne for stability, as my grandfather urged for everyone who wished to pay their respects to the new monarchs to come down and do so. Generally in coronations’ past, only the highest ranking Court members and whoever wished would stand in line to offer their well wishes and bow before the new royalty, but since most of the kingdom was currently out of commission, everyone in attendance was required. Valessia also thought this would be a good way to sort of make everyone apologize for their treatment of me.

  I was dreading it like bending a fingernail backwards and sticking a toothpick underneath. I knew it was not going to go well. Maxxus swore he’d throw a mudball at anyone who defied the orders but, still, I didn’t want it to come to that. This should be a fun, exciting time and yet surely everyone was dreading it.

  Surprisingly, though, it went decently. With glares from Duchess Valessia and Elder Aleron, most people simply bowed and offered wry smiles. I could handle that.

  Jalenn and Oreste though offered our first tribulation. Maxxus stared jagged knives at his parents and stood up, growling menacingly. So, they opted to speak to me instead.

  “Your Highness, congratulations on your appointment and your new bonding to our son.” Jalenn was the first to speak. He was attractive in an old-world glamour sense like his son but without the tall stature or the broad shoulders. He had dark blonde hair and light blue eyes but the same smile; it was hard to resist smiling back at him as he spoke. I had to bite my lip to avoid doing so.

  “Thank you, Earl Jalenn. I appreciate your words,” I was solemn in my speech and relatively toneless to counteract Maxxus’ anger.

  Oreste spoke next; she was an anomaly. The black dragon was olive complexed with deep brown eyes and full, frowning lips. She was also short in stature—only about an inch or so taller than I. I had no idea how she’d spawned Maxxus because she was his complete opposite. She dared to speak directly to Maxxus.

  “Son. We are so very proud of you,” she spoke with hesitation in her dulcet voice.

  Maxxus fumed, getting to his feet, and cracking his knuckles against his palm. “Really, Mother? Are you really?”

  My grandfather placed his hands on either side of her shoulders and whispered into her ears. She nodded quickly at him and they both offered their bows before allowing the dragons behind them to pay their respects.

  I offered my grandfather a nod of thanks. He acknowledged with a bow of his own. “Happy to be of service, Queen.”

  I winced at the title. Man, that was going to be really hard to get used to.

  Valessia ushered Maxxus’ parents aside and the next ones stood before us: Kreegan and Shazandre.

  It was my turn rise to my feet as they narrowed their eyes at us.

  I crossed my arms over my chest. Maxxus stepped nearer to me and pulled one of my hands to into his and squeezed.

  Slowly, Shazandre and Kreegan lowered their heads, Kreegan scowling the entire time.

  “We bow not out of respect for you, but for the seat which you reside until you are replaced with someone better,” he spat venomously.

  “Anyone better,” Shazandre retorted.

  Maxxus’ face turned all shades of red. “Why, you—”

  I held my hand out and prompted him to stop. He reluctantly clamped his mouth shut as I spoke with mock sweetness.

  “Ahh, Kreegan. Shazandre. How lovely to see you again! Tell me, do you know what a cactus is?”

  They exchanged a look with each other and shrugged. “Can’t say that we do,” Kreegan responded.

  “Well, it’s a succulent plant in the desert area on Earth—the human Earth. They may exist here too in Babua amongst the desert dragons but I am not privy to that information. But it’s this spiny plant with spikes that are razor sharp to ward off predators. Quite fascinating, you know,” I said, offering them my brightest smile.

  They looked between each other once more. “Okay?” Shazandre said, clearly flummoxed.

  “Yes. As far as I’m concerned you can go find a cactus and go fornicate with it. Both of you.” I blinked and grinned innocently, fluttering my lashes at them.

  They rose to their feet, mouths falling open in disgusted horror. Shazandre pressed a hand to her heart and squeaked, “Well, how inappropriate!”

  My grandfather stifled his laughter and shooed them away. Maxxus roared as he whispered in my ear between laughs, “Did you just go tell them to fuck a cactus?”

  “Yes. Remind me as first order of business to send them one the next time we’re back in Minnesota,” I said with a grin.

  “You got it,” he said with a laugh, kissing me on the cheek briefly.

  Chapter 4

  We finished the coronation with relatively little adversity and I was more than relieved when we were finally allowed to go back to the queens—errr, our chambers in the castle.

  Generally, both the king and queen had separate chambers but since the palace was being scrubbed magically of Shadow residue, only Valessia’s chambers remained without Shadow intrusion. The throne room was next as it’d been scrubbed the most but a menacing aura still lingered. Many of us—myself included—didn’t care to spend more time there than was necessary.

  The normal ‘ball’ post coronation was forgone for a dinner at my family’s house, but given the events of the past days and the fact that I was eager to get back to Castle Danger (hopefully tomorrow), King Maxxus and I were allowed to skip it.

  The former queen, Valessia, had tried to remove as many of her personal effects as she could but left behind her furniture. Normally, as official Duchess and Advisor now she would have taken a room in the castle somewhere, too, but with the threat of Shadows we didn't think it a wise choice. She was actually now residing at my family home, in my grandfather's chambers. Not with him, of course, but he had moved to my chambers for the time being. I giggled slightly, thinking of him in my tacky, 90s-teeny-bopper decorated room but, as he was the one who'd gotten most of it for me he probably relished every sec
ond of it.

  Valessia had left behind her canopied, four-poster bed with its plush, black silk bedding, a black-covered chaise that sat at the foot of the bed, the normal tapestries of the Court and general monarchy that hung on the walls, several bookshelves and the vanity with chair. Trunks full of Maxxus' and my belongings had been moved in and placed next to each other on the wall nearest to the washroom.

  Even though the castle itself was stone gray and drafty, there was a wood fireplace on one wall with an elaborate, white mantel and the warm colored tapestries took away some of the stark coldness. In normal situations where the crowning hadn't been rushed, a tapestry would have been made in both the king and queen's telltale dragon marks that would hang above the bed, but we hadn't had time for that and probably wouldn't have time before the next official real monarchs would take over, so Valessia just left hers behind (which appeared to be the outline of a storm cloud and some extensive, blue Celtic knotwork on a dark blue backdrop). She insisted she'd send the tailor or seamstress by to make ours soon—as soon as they were well enough—but I told her not to bother. We wouldn't be in this position for that long. At least, I hoped not because that would mean we were still battling or fearing the Shadows and Cyril—and I did not want that.

  I sat silently in the black plush chaise at the foot of the bed while Maxxus was in the washroom next door, scratching at the back of my neck, finally taking a deep breath to compose myself. Now we ruled Anarach—Maxxus and I.

  The official monarchs in years past, to my understanding, weren’t extremely hands on. Many of them preferred to do a lot of their ruling from behind the scenes, opting to be present at only the most opportune times; like to pass a final law, or judge a singular crime. The House and Coterie did most of the work; the monarchy was mostly representative. As such, no one was really expecting us to emerge for quite some time; at least fifteen hours or so. The Court would probably rise early, but we weren’t expected to—yet. For tomorrow, I was extremely grateful, as it gave us finally some time to adjust to all the new experiences that had happened to us.

  It’d been days since we had nothing to do. It was quiet. It was calm. No one was knocking on a door, summoning me…nothing.

  I swallowed nervously at the prospect. Even more so when Maxxus emerged from the washroom, his white cloak slung over an arm as he exited. His white shirt opened as far as it could go, nearly down to his waist. My heart leapt in my chest as he leaned over to unlace the boots on his feet and toss them randomly on the floor, giving me a rather nice view of his backside in the form fitting pants. I began to breathe laboriously, but in my heavy gown it came out as somewhat of a strangled wheeze.

  He stood, tossing town the cloak on a vanity and rushed to my side. “Are you okay?” he asked, worry in his eye. “Your highness,” he said with a grin and a playful wink.

  Suddenly, my head felt heavy and my neck weak at the weight of the crown on my head. Breathing heavily, I fanned myself with one hand as the panicked flush alighted my cheeks and with the other hand I grabbed for the crown and tried to pull it off my head but it was pinned down pretty good. Damn you, Kiarra.

  “Get it off!!!” I panted as the sweat began to bead at my forehead underneath the velvet that lined the crown against my skin.

  Eyes wide, Maxxus grabbed at either side of the crown and attempted to pull it off but yanked handfuls of hair instead. I yelped at the pain but felt slightly relieved when he had taken some of the weight off. “Keep going!”

  “I can't!” he protested. “It's pinned!”

  I let out a little cry of helplessness, as my hands fumbled with the broach under my neck, and Maxxus continued to mess around with the pins on my head. I breathed a small sigh of relief each time he pulled out one of the handful of pins and set them on the vanity table in front of us before he finally freed my scalp from the heavy crown.

  Wheezing now, I struggled with the clasp as he spun me around and masterfully unfastened the cloak and let it fall down my shoulders to the floor. “Good, good!” I said, waving air at myself. Hot perspiration trailed down my neck and down my chest, into the bodice of the gown and suddenly, I couldn't breathe correctly. I gasped for air, feeling woozy as I spun around and pointed intently at the laces in back of the dress.

  “Lords and ladies, how'd you get in this thing?” Maxxus mused under his breath, but managed to make quick work of the tie, yanked on each lace loosening it and when it was loose enough I pulled my arms through the long sleeves and shoved the dress down at my sides, to the floor, kicking it off with my feet.

  “Oh gods….” I said, feeling free of the heavy garments and adornments, I took several deep breaths as I wrapped my arms around myself to attempt blocking out the sudden chill I felt now. I glanced down at myself wearing only a white lace a-line bra and lace trimmed high waisted underwear that my mother had managed to round up for me before the coronation. She'd taken one look at my ratty gray bra and granny panties and said: “Nope!” and somehow rounded up armfuls of new underwear for me (which was a good thing; all of mine was either left in Pineville or too disgusting to be viewed by anyone else but my cat). I felt rather exposed and awkward, standing there nearly naked in front of Maxxus who was still fully dressed in all his regal Coronation garb.

  He lifted a brow playfully as he carefully took off his own crown—setting it gingerly on the vanity—easily unclasping his own cloak and draping it carefully over the high-backed chair meant to sit before the vanity nearby, and pulled off the leather vest, tossing it on the ground.

  It was my turn to eye him oddly now. “What are you—”

  “Shhh,” he just said and before I knew it he'd gathered me in his arms and lifted me off the floor, carrying me gently to the bed across the room.

  He placed me carefully on top of the black, silk tufted quilt and gingerly lay my head against a large, fluffy black sham. He tugged at one corner of the quilt, pulling it down and back over myself, tucking it under my arms. “Better?” he asked. I nodded.

  Maxxus crawled over me carefully and lay on his side on the opposite side of the bed, on top of the covers, cradling his head with his hand. He took a quick glance around. “Yeah, it is overwhelming.”

  “Did we do the right thing?” I wondered.

  He shrugged. “We'll find out, I suppose. Geez, you're trembling,” Maxxus said from next to me. I didn't look at him, I just looked up, jaded at the top of the canopy over my—our—bed and just stared at the inky blackness, trying to clear my mind.

  “Huh?” Was all I said, when I felt a couple of fingers gently stroking the hair along my forehead, pushing it out of my eyes and behind my ears.

  “It will be okay, darling. I promise,” Maxxus spoke softly, earnestly.

  Without realizing it, I let out a little giggle. I snapped myself out of my daze and turned my head to look at him. He still stroked my hair gently and I gave him a lazy smile. “Darling? That's such a... married thing to say.”

  Maxxus blushed. “Oh—I didn't even notice I said that!”

  I grinned. “Say it again.”

  Now, it was his turn to grin. “My darling.”

  My heart fluttered in my chest and I sighed, involuntarily. “I could get used to that.”

  “That would be the best news all year,” he said, dropping his hand alongside me, on the pillow and scooting closer to me.

  I raised my eyebrow at him. “Just what do you think you're doing?”

  He smiled playfully and reached slowly just under my neck. My pulse quickened as I thought he was going to pull me closer, and kiss me but instead he yanked out another rogue pin from my hair.

  I stuck my tongue out at him. “Tease.”

  He smirked. “Just what did you think I was going to do?”

  In response, I shoved out my lower lip in a pout. “If I have to tell you, then that defeats the purpose.” Haughtily, I shifted myself around and plopped my head on the pillow.

  I stared silently at Maxxus as he sat upright; back facing me. He
untied the shirt at his chest and pulled it out of his pants and over his head, flinging it unceremoniously on the ground. He let out a small sigh, and leaned over, resting his elbows on his lap and leaned over to rub his palms along his face. I raised a brow as the waistband of his pants dropped some, exposing the structured lines of his back. He leaned over further and I could see the top of his dragon mark peeking out the waistband. It rested on the back of his hip, just over his right buttock—It was an odd spot for a dragon to have a mark; usually they were someplace sort of conspicuous. It was in green, of course, the outline of what sort of looked like a mountain with swirly knotwork, as well as a cross type outline that seemed to pierce the mountain and came to a slight point at the bottom that resembled a sword, or dagger.

  I didn't realize that I had reached out and was actually fingering the mark, gently outlining it with the soft spot of my pointer finger, until I noticed Maxxus shudder.

  He peered back over his shoulder at me. “Keep that up, Your Highness, and you'll drive me to the point of no return.”

  I winked at him slowly, playfully. “Perhaps that is the intention.” Where the hell was this wanton behavior coming from? I wasn’t normally like this.

  Then again, it'd been a stressful few days and what better way to release some tension than with a romp in bed with a seriously hot and sexy guy like Maxxus...who just happened to now be my husband.

  My eyes widened again at the thought. Oh lord, I felt my breathing hasten again as I pulled away.

  Maxxus somehow sensed my panic and climbed back fully into the bed. “Oh, Leo...” he said, sympathetically. “Is it really that bad?”

  I forced a smile at him while placing my palms over my racing heart. “No it's just—”

  “—you don't need to explain.” Maxxus dropped his sultry stare and instead reached out and pulled my hands away, into his own chest. He placed them over his steady, calm heartbeat. “It's okay, Leo. No need to panic. I can be strong for you until you can handle it.”