Kingdom of Lust and Lies

Chapter One

Alayna slept in her own room that night.

It wasn't for lack of offers. At dinner, as they all sat around various tables scattered haphazardly around the dining hall, Beckett kept skimming his hand along her thigh, inching her dress higher. She'd squirmed under his touch, thankful he wasn't one of those lords who insisted upon dining on a raised dais, where anyone could see him stroking her desire to a fever pitch. When he finally ran a finger along her folds, she was so worked up she gasped and choked on her drink.

After coughing mightily for a few moments, Alayna stood and bade everyone goodnight. She thought Beckett might have followed her, at least until he realized she was headed in the direction of her own room. He didn't pursue her. Choosing, as he always did, to respect the times when she needed space.

Halfway across the courtyard separating her room from the main keep, she discovered Coen and a handsome young man from the village below, fervently kissing each other in a shadowed alcove. Coen spied her and held up a finger, pointing first at her, then at the two of them. She smiled and held up a hand to decline.

Just as she was about to enter the building on the far side of the courtyard, she heard a gentle whine. It took a moment of searching before she was able to spot the glint of eyes against the darkness, outside the reach of the torches lining the courtyard. The giant wolf looked at her for a long moment, swung his head toward the forest, then back at her. An invitation to run through the forest with him. She shook her head and the big wolf was gone as quickly as he'd appeared.

Alayna slept alone for a short time. Just a few hours, long enough for the keep to settle in for the night, for everyone but the sentries to be fast asleep. When the moon was almost at its zenith, Alayna rose from her blankets and dressed. She gathered a few items and quietly stepped outside, heading through the manned gates with a nod to the guards, towards the direction of the thick forest surrounding the keep. When the night sky shone above her, unhindered by the torches burning atop the high walls, she got down on her knees and placed a small bowl on the ground, filling it from her water skin. She tipped out dried mugwort, calendula and marshmallow root into the water from a satchel. While the dried ingredients absorbed water and began to disintegrate, Alayna pulled a small bundle of sage from her pocket and murmured softly. The end of the sage caught fire, heavy smoke wafting from it, stinging her eyes. She continued those softly murmured words as she circled the bowl with the flaming sage three times in order to contain what she intended to summon. She placed the burning sage above the bowl on the ground, allowing it to be consumed naturally. When it was nothing more than ash, she pulled a white crystal from her pocket and ran it in circular motions above the surface of the still water, a different chant falling from her lips.

For nigh on a week now, someone – or something – had been trying to contact her. And something else had been blocking it.

Every time she passed a body of water, whether it was a river, a puddle or even just a small mug, the water rippled in unnatural ways. And every time she turned to see what appeared in the glassy surface, something happened to disturb the water. Whether it was an acorn falling when there was no wind or someone jarring her cup so badly it spilled, something always happened to cause it to stop.

Something was trying to contact her and something else didn't want it to.

When she could see the moon reflecting perfectly in her bowl of water, Alayna put the crystal away and waited. It didn't take long before the water rippled once, twice, then stilled. The moon's reflection wavered, replaced with the stern face of a much older woman, slightly shadowed under a hood of dark emerald. Something silver glinted under the darkness of her hood and Alayna realized it was a circlet bearing Viena's mark.