Legend has it, if you stand in front of a mirror, shuffling an enchanted deck of cards, you can open a doorway between dimensions.
***
Prince Teodric of Springport remembers the promise he made his father: to *not* try to reenact the legend of dimen...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"Consensual?" I stuck a pinky in my ear to unclog it. "You didn't work your wiles on someone or force them?"
Sir Otho claimed one of the moronic princesses wanted to marry him? That one of them voluntarily agreed to whatever sordid terms he offered her, and would grant him access to her father's throne?
At my interruption of their potential battle, Mother had backed off to pace at the other end of the room, fumes flaring up from her scalp. Her green energy was returning, but slowly, smoothing around her silhouette with more subtlety than it had before.
"Oh, you heard me right, Teodric," said Sir Otho, his ethereal smile causing me to grit my teeth and peer away from him. "Consensual, and to be officiated by Jack—"
A loud grunt came from Ysac, who writhed about on the bed, his hands still bound, his plummy eyes wide with wariness.
Sir Otho growled at him. "Ah, you want to give your side?" He narrowed his icy gaze on Ysac, whose whimpers ceased at once, frozen under the mage's scrutiny. "You think he'll forgive you, don't you? Fine. I suppose I have a few minutes to waste. It's not like you'll see him again, anyway." He flicked his wrist, allowing Ysac's lips to part with a giant gasp.
"Please, Teo," were his first words, as he jutted his chin at the space beside him. "Please, sit, listen, let me explain...please."
So frail, so foreign, his voice wrapped around my heart and dug into its membrane, coercing me into listening to him. I should have snarled at him and refused, but he still had that grip around my heart. And around my cock, apparently, because it pulsated as I inadvertently pictured his pouty lips on mine.
I waddled over to the bed, but ensured there were two to three feet between us. And not only because I still seethed at his betrayal; I worried if we were too close, I'd touch him, I'd crave him. And I wasn't sure what would happen if my impulses overtook me.
I can't succumb to him here, in front of Mother, in front of Sir Otho.
So, keeping my distance, I crossed my arms and scowled at the wall behind Sir Otho. "Go on, then." I wouldn't look at Ysac; not to give him a chance to sway me with his mesmerizing eyes and his perfect pout.
He tipped forward, trying to attract my attention. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. For lying, for not warning you, not giving you the full story. All of it. You have to believe me, Teodric. I had no choice."
"The full story?" I scoffed. "You barely gave me a chapter! You mentioned a bloody rebellion, a monarch's death, arguing sisters...and then you left me in an eternal cliffhanger! And her?" I thrust my thumb behind me to motion at Nedra. "You made me suspicious of the mages, and it turns out one of them was my mother!"
His breaths slowed, but I still wouldn't crane my neck to peep at him. I perceived him turning to where Mother stood, her power still working around her. "She...the fake Arden...is your mother?"
