The Royals: Part 3

Dragons arrive in the north for the first time in sixty years, and in their wake comes a displaced princess with a secret she needs a disgraced knight to keep. A LVNDR Romantic Short Story.

The rich material of the Princess’s velvet cloak clashed with the dinginess of the dungeon’s bed from where she sat, poised as ever.

“You look well.” The Knight’s comment was equally balanced between relief and confusion. “What’s this about the moon attacking me tonight?”

“A white lie.” Rosalie’s laugh was genuine, but tired. “The only thing they’re more scared of than a woman is a witch. I figured it’d scare everyone enough to get you down here.”

Edwin grabbed onto the bars separating them, his body relaxing into them. He closed his eyes from where he rested his forehead against the cold iron.

“Have they fed you?”

Rosalie pointed to a half-eaten loaf of bread. “I saved some for you.”

Edwin looked behind him to ensure they were alone before lowering his voice. “You’ll need to eat. I don’t know how soon I can get you out of here.”

“Get me out of here?” Rosalie rolled her eyes. “I wouldn’t be in here if you hadn’t torn my lie apart.”

“Were we in the same carriage?” Edwin was almost impressed with her audacity. “Your lie fell apart.”

“I knew the seamstress was out of town,” Rosalie admitted. “I gave her name knowing that if they went to her, she’d be far from their reach.”

“At great risk to you.” Edwin gestured at the cell as if she may have forgotten where she was.

“A risk worth taking.” The Princess swung her head around to The Knight as if remembering something. “The Pharmacist?”

“He’s safe,” Edwin reassured. “Silas is getting him out of Connacht as we speak.”

“We can trust Silas?”

Rosalie stood from the bed, looking behind Edwin to ensure they were still alone as she stretched her limbs.

“With our lives,” he responded, assuredly, watching as Rosalie stood up to cross the room towards him. “Even though I wish we’d stop testing that.”

Rosalie rolled her eyes as she leaned into the bars just beside Edwin. Her hair snaked through them, settling on the Knight’s armored shoulder.

“I won’t be able to get you out of here until everyone’s turned down for bed.” He was practically whispering in her ear now. If anyone turned the corner, they’d certainly cause a scene.

“I don’t expect you to get me out of here at all.” Rosalie stepped away as if to ensure Edwin could see her look of offense. “I’ve got it covered.”

The bars that the Princess was entrapped in seemed to prove otherwise, but Edwin didn’t question her ability. “Why are you telling me this?”

“Because we’re allies.” Rosalie turned back towards him. “And I’ll need your help if we’re going to protect The Pharmacist from your brother.”

“My brother won’t hurt The Pharmacist.” Edwin argued, despite having had the same thought earlier that day. “He’s known him since we were children.”

“You know he would if it meant getting him closer to controlling all the kingdoms.” To her credit, Rosalie didn’t seem to relish being the one to state the sentiment out loud. “And the Pharmacist would rather die than share his secrets.”

“If we were allies,” Edwin changed the subject, “we’d be strolling the gardens rather than talking between bars.”

“Would you like to be in a garden with me right now?” Rosalie leaned back into the bars, seemingly more intentional than before.

“Yes,” Edwin grinned. “If only because I’d like to teach you how to properly use a dagger.”

“I know how to use a dagger.” Rosalie’s jaw dropped open, truly offended.

“Tell that to your thigh.” Edwin looked down, pointedly, only then realizing how close they were to each other where they both leaned against the cold iron.

“I may not be the best at wielding a weapon.” Rosalie leaned in to whisper in Edwin’s ear. “But I do know how to pick a lock.”

She’d not only done the honor of opening her cell but also used a pair of shackles — presumably stolen — to lock him to it. The alibi he’d need to protect Edwin from his brother. “Are you going to help me or not?”

The Knight thought of The Pharmacist. “Yes.”

“When you’re out of this,” The Princess said as she tapped on the metal holding the Knight to the bars as she strolled through the now agape door. “I’ll take you up on that midnight stroll.”

The hedge maze terrified Edwin when he was a child. When he was young, he imagined the winding ivy walls crept across the marble statues as if they had entrapped humans lost within them. The thought still sometimes found him in his nightmares.

Not for the first time that day, he questioned his decision to meet Rosalie here. It was the most private place on the castle grounds this time of night. The safest for him to be spotted liaising with a rebel now officially wanted for treason.

The adrenaline from the last twenty-four hours was the only thing that kept Edwin upright. If it weren’t for Rosalie’s lie, he’d be in jail right now. If it weren’t for Rosalie’s lock-picking skills, she’d be in jail right now. The only thing left to do was to overthrow the King.

Entering the center of the maze, Edwin was relieved to find Rosalie already there. No amount of faith in her abilities overruled the concern for her safety when Rowan had insisted that every single guardsman join the search for her. Following a trail based on Edwin’s account of her escape. All of which were lies, of course.

You wouldn’t know by looking at Rosalie where she sat on the bench at the center of the square that she was one bad game of hide and seek away from being imprisoned. She had changed into a lean black dress, armor strategically padding her major organs without inhibiting movement.

“Nice of you to join.” The Princess goaded from where she stood, breaking the silence between them. Her eyebrows rose as The Knight removed a dagger from the sheath on his hip, pointing it toward her rather than handing it to her. “Is that how you treat an ally?”

“I’m going to need you to answer a few questions before entrusting you as an ally,” Edwin explained, placing the tip of the dagger to Rosalie’s chest, a barrier between them. She steeled herself with a deep breath but didn’t attempt to retreat.

Unlike when his brother had threatened her earlier, a grin laced her lips. No longer prey in a trap, but a fellow predator hunting.

“How did you pick the lock?”

“The same way I do anything.” Rosalie reached up to let her palm rest against where armor met heartbeat. The Knight didn’t realize it was a trick until the Princess had literally swept him off his feet. “Staying one step ahead.”

“I thought we were allies.” Edwin mimicked from where he now lay on his back. Rosalie’s hand still rested on his torso from where she hovered above him, lightly enough for him to attempt to rise but sturdy enough to stop him from doing so.

“I thought you were an expert fighter.”

Emboldened, The Knight reached up to wrap a hand around her wrist, simply holding onto it to see what’d she do. She put more weight into her hold, naturally leaning closer into him.

“I know my brother is lying.” Edwin grinned from where he was pinned beneath her. “Tell me why you two were meeting.”

“Your brother,” Rosalie hissed, her face twisting from play into disgust, “wants control of the dragons.”

“No one controls the dragons.” Edwin gripped her wrist tighter.

“You tell him that.” Rosalie’s remark seemed genuine. As if Edwin could get through to his brother and end all of this. “Rowan tried to take the lands over when my parents died. I said no. I didn’t realize he’d come back asking for even more. He thinks that if we’re out of the picture, they’ll listen to him.”

“Will they?”

The question hung in the air between them, small and weightless against the very heavy circumstances that had led them here.

“You need to overthrow your brother.”

The words settled like stones dropped into still water. Rosalie watched as understanding rippled across Edwin’s face in the silence that followed. He had spent so long refusing to choose a side, holding himself at a careful distance from every conviction that asked something of him. Yet that somehow didn’t feel like the most important thing in the moment.

His lips met hers in a heartbeat. Not with the practiced ease he usually carried, but with something more raw.

“I need you to stop talking for five minutes.” Edwin spoke against her lips as his hands. When she nodded in agreement, he flipped her beneath him. The world briefly tilted as his weight leaned into her.

“Raise your arms.” In true fashion, his command was quiet. He never had to raise his voice.

“Please,” she teased, the word flat and unimpressed from where she stayed unmoving beneath him. Obviously waiting to hear the magic word.

Something shifted at the corner of his mouth.

“Please,” he echoed, voice rough as he took the hem of her skirt in both hands, unhurried, and drew it upward slowly enough that she was aware of every inch until the fabric had gathered at her hips. Edwin smoothed his palms across the exposed skin like he was trying to memorize the shape of it before lowering himself so that their chests met. She raised her arms above her head, as instructed.

Edwin’s fingers curled at the base of Rosalie’s skull with practiced certainty as he tilted her head back until the line of her throat was exposed to the cooling air. His mouth followed the curve of her jaw downward, taking his time.

“Do you want me to stop?” Edwin asked against the side of her neck, his lips barely lifting to form the words.

A slight shake of her head.

His lips found her collarbone, letting a hand trace along where fabric met flesh.

The skin of his palm was warm. Rosalie’s heartbeat strengthened as if to meet it. Her fingernails dug into the earth as she felt his grin press into her hair.

Edwin pressed his mouth to her ear, his voice dropping to something that was almost private.

“What do you think the court would say,” Edwin murmured, “if they knew what you were doing when you weren’t actively plotting against my family?”

Rosalie had already readied a sharp response when Edwin wrapped a hand around her mouth. Not in a playful gesture, but a protective one.

“Someone’s here.”