Beautiful Torture *Book Two of the Beautiful series*

4) Festival

"Well," Lucy hesitated again, not eager to offend him after their heated fight. "It seems that we might have different definitions of 'glory' and all that." She cringed slightly, feeling a rosey blush rush to her cheeks. With a 'look' from him, she fumbled over herself to explain "I just mean that my short time at the palace was quite, well, telling..." her fingers twisted nervously in her lap. When he gave her a puzzled look, she sighed and pulled out from his hold. "You can not seriously act like there was nothing wrong there! Your father literally tried to use me as bait, the queen is a venomous serpent, that creepy mage, the domineering executioner. Also, children are used to check royal meals for poison!"

Alexander tried, and failed, to maintain a serious expression. A rumbled laugh rolled out like thunder from deep within his stomach and he shook his head. "I am sorry, I am not laughing at you," he croaked when he caught sight of her angry look. "It is just, how long have you been sitting on this one?"

Lucy's nose crinkled as she thought. These concerns had plagued her mind since her first arrival at the palace, and she told him so. "Of course, there was good, too," she rushed to say. "Jester, Marie, Gilforn, and Scarlett are all lovely. Your brother Jamieson is kind, but I still can not say that the good outweighs the bad...or even balances it."

Still chuckling, Alexander shifted her close again. "My father's actions were inexcusable and my stepmother will be dealt with, replaced by a new, far superior queen. As for the child, all our poison testers are phoenix children." Lucy's blank look prompted him to go on. "They cannot die. The poison would incapacitate them, thus warning us of treachery, but they had revive shortly after."

He kissed her then, deeply, and his hand trailed up her skirts again, tickling her most sensitive places. Lucy giggled around his lips, but just as his fingers found her warm treasure, the room door burst open and Hunter stepped in, balancing three plates in his arms.

"Sorry it took so long. The crowd down there was out of control–" he pulled up short, realizing what he had walked in on, and scowled. A hulking figure lingered outside the doorway. Lucy knew by the massive size that it could only be Austran as she had never seen a man so big before. Shyly, she flattened her skirt back down and wiggled out of Alexander's lap to go stand on the other side of the bed.

Hunter came fully into the room to place their food on the bedside tables, and Austran followed, dipping low to avoid hitting his head on the door frame. "The twins have agreed to an audience," he said bluntly. "They request that you join the festivities below and they will send someone to seek you out when they are ready." Without another word, he clapped Hunter on the shoulder, which almost sent the lethe boy stumbling, and disappeared back out the door.

A heavy silence descended on the three of them as they exchanged looks until, finally, Alexander rumbled, "Well, it seems we have a party to get to."

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In places, the festivities moved like the flow of a cutting stream, rushing and teeming with life. In others, the people were stagnant as though trapped among the slick boulders cresting the surface. Lucy observed them again, staying close to Alexander's side. The strange music strummed on, lilting and brisk, it's tempo made her heart swell. She watched as people twirled and danced around the bonfire, most in moves that would be considered rather provocative, even in the whorehouse she grew up in.

A gaggle of young, bare breasted maidens with hair like moonlight and black designs painted along their arms and cheeks giggled and stared Mooney eyed at both Alexander and Hunter when they passed. Subconsciously, Lucy tightened her hold on Alexander's arm, fighting the urge to bare her teeth at them. Hunter laughed under his breath, enjoying her sharp rush of anger like it was a fine wine. Speaking of, Lucy looked about, hoping to find something strong to drink.