Chapter Ten

Minerva

 

“Get out of my way, Salem,” I commanded.

The horse snorted and shuffled across the space at the front of the church, blocking the doors with his massive body.

“Get out of my way, Salem!” I shouted and the horse snorted again, his front legs buckled like he was going to go down on his knees then he reared up and snorted again.

“I’m leaving!” I announced.

Salem whinnied what sounded like frantically.

I planted my hands on my hips and looked the horse in his eyes.

“You saw him!”

He blew through his lips and his mighty head swung side to side.

“He shook me! He nearly snapped my goddamned head off!”

The horse moved closer to me and butted the side of my head with his nose.

I grabbed it and pulled it down to catch his eyes again.

“I don’t care about Minerva,” I told him, my voice suddenly low and trembling. “Right now, the devil I don’t know is way, way better than the devil I do.”

A soft, apologetic whinny.

I shook my head. “I have to get away from him. He’s mean, he’s bossy and he won’t believe I am who I am.”

He shoved his nostrils in my neck and blew.

I felt tears sting my eyes and wrapped my arms around the beast’s necke.

“He hurt me,” I whispered.

That got me another blow making his horse lips quiver.

“You have to let me go.”

Salem was still.

Then he pulled his neck from my hold and twisted it to look down his body at the open church doors.

Then he looked back at me.

Then he shifted his big bulk so he was facing the doors and butted me with the side of the saddle.

Oh my God. Was I reading him right?

“You… are you…” I paused then whispered, “going with me?”

He threw his head back and whinnied then twisted it to look over his shoulder at me and jerked it up and down in an obvious affirmative.

“Are you serious?”

He whinnied a “someone’s gotta keep you safe” whinny.

So… totally… awesome!

I surged up his body, threw my arms around his neck, gave him a huge hug and whispered, “Thank you.”

Then I ran to the doors, snatched up the knife I dropped, shoved the hilt between my knees as I retied my belt tighter around my waist. Then I shoved the knife into my belt and approached the horse.

It took me three tries to heft myself into the saddle, I was not a seasoned rider and, mind you, I had ample fabric hindering me straddling a horse (so much for my kickass outfit, I had to get myself something that said “warrior princess”). Unfortunately, the minute I got up I realized the stirrups were way too low so I had to dismount, cinch them higher and do it again (this time, it took four dratted tries).

But I got on that beautiful beast, touched my heels to his flanks and off we went, out the door and into the unknown.

* * * * *

I felt the bed depress, I opened my eyes in exhausted confusion, saw Noctorno sitting on the bed, his hips in the crook of my lap and he was leaning over my body with a hand what I guessed was in the bed behind my back.

Uh.

What?

What was he doing here?

My head shifted back on the pillow, my eyes darting to the nightstand.

“Looking for this?” I heard him ask, I looked to him and saw his other hand raised, my knife dangling from his fingers by the tip of the blade.

Blast!

He flipped the knife up, losing hold on it but he caught it expertly by the hilt and he did this, no joke, without taking his eyes from me.

“You didn’t think, did you, that my own, damned horse was going to take you somewhere I couldn’t find you?”

Salem, a traitor.

What a disappointment.

We’d ridden the rest of the night and all the next day, stopping only to bum water and, for my part, answer the call of nature. An hour or two after night fell we came upon this hunting lodge which Salem, in his Salem way, assured me was safe. He even reached out his powerful neck and pointed with his communicative muzzle to the window ledge that held the hidden key.

I thought he was my horse in shining coat.

Totally a disappointment.

Now, clearly, as the sun was shining, it was sometime the next day.

And I was back in the clutches of the evil, black Prince Noctorno.

Foiled.

“I own this hunting cottage. It’s sacred ground. It’s safe. My horse is no fool,” Noctorno went on.

Great. Marvelous.

Or, more aptly put, phooey!

I carefully rolled to my back and just as carefully scooted up the bed until my back was pressed to the headboard. I pulled my knees up and circled my calves with my arms. I got in this protective position and held it all the while I kept wary eyes on him.

His eyes swept my truncated body and came back to mine. Then they warmed and he started to lean in, murmuring, “Cora.”

My hand shot up, palm out, and I whispered on a hiss, “Don’t touch me.”

His body stopped moving.

“Cora,” he repeated on a whisper.

“Tell me about the bones,” I demanded and watched his eyes flash. I dropped my hand and narrowed my own eyes at him. “I know you don’t believe me and yadda, yadda, yadda. Humor me. Tell me about the fucking bones.”

He studied me. Then he stated, “They have my saliva on them.”

“And?”

He studied me some more. Then he sighed and continued, “And, they can track me through my saliva. They can do it from miles away.”

“So that’s why you kept the bones in the cave,” I surmised.

He nodded. “They had no clue it existed and I use it for hunting or for war. I’m always careful, out of habit, it’s been ingrained in me since I was born. In ancient times, they could only track the females. They’ve adapted. Now they’ve learned also to track the mates. So, along with searching for you, they were searching for me. You threw out the bones, they found me or, since the remains of our rabbit meal were amongst them… us.”

Hmm.

“And say, when we, uh… relieve ourselves. Can they track that?” I asked.

“That’s acid so… no.”

Interesting.

“Just saliva?”

“That and other bodily fluids.”

“Like?”

“Blood. Semen. But not urine.”

Yuck!

Time to move on before he went on.

“Okay, that’s enough with the bodily fluids and other, um… bodily functions. Can they track scent? Hair?”

“Fluids only.”

How weird.

So weird, my brows shot up. “Seriously?”

One side of his mouth twitched. “Seriously.”

He looked hot with one side of his mouth twitching so I decided I was done.

Therefore, I stated, “Thank you for the lesson. You can go now.”

His eyes stayed glued to mine and I let them mostly because I had no choice. The guy had proven time and again he was freaking strong so I could never best him physically and wasn’t going to try.

The bummer of this was, he didn’t move.

Then he said quietly, “We must talk.”

“Welp, Prince Noctorno, sorry to disappoint you but I am way, so done talking to you.”

He shook his head. “We must talk,” he repeated.

“I have nothing to say and you have nothing to say I want to hear.”

“We need to talk about what happened in the church.”

My body went solid. “No, we absolutely, definitely, without a doubt, totally do not need to talk about what happened in the church.”

“Cora –”

“Go away.”

“Cora –”

“I said go away. I’m tired. My body’s sore from riding all day. I need sleep before I’m on my way again…” I paused then finished, “on foot.”

“Cora –”

“Don’t worry, I won’t bleed on anything. I, obviously, don’t have any semen so we’re good on that score and I promise to be careful with my saliva.”

“Gods damn it, Cora.”

“Seriously! Go!”

He didn’t go.

Nope. He didn’t.

What he did do was dart a hand out, wrap his fingers around my ankle and yank it out and straight down the bed. Unfortunately, as my body was attached to it, it too went down the bed. Then he shifted to lying and rolled right, smack on top of me.

I shoved at his shoulders, shouting, “Get off me!”

“Calm yourself,” he commanded.

“Get… off… me!”

“Calm yourself!” he barked.

“And what if I don’t!” I yelled back. “You gonna shake me so hard I see stars? Or toss me around?”

“I had another idea to get you to obey.”

“Spanking? Whipping? Wait, that might draw blood –”

“Cora –”

“Water torture?”

“No, Cora, fucking you so hard you can’t bloody breathe and you’re so damned exhausted after, you can’t move and you’re forced to shut your mouth and bloody listen.”

I snapped my mouth shut.

Shit, I should have never taught him that word.

“That did it,” he muttered.

“You want to talk, talk,” I invited, my tone surly.

He scowled down at me.

Then he sucked in a breath and started, “I hurt you –”

“Yep,” I confirmed. “I checked and I’ve got the bruises to prove it.”

This time the flinch was not nearly imperceptible. This time he flinched flat out.

“Gods,” he whispered.

“You can say that again.”

His eyes warmed again and his hand came up to cup my jaw. “Love, I’m –”

I jerked my head away, doing my best to angle my body to keep it away. My eyes tilted to him and I reminded him, “I told you, don’t touch me.”

“I scared you,” he muttered, studying me, his hand dropping to the pillow by my head and I relaxed.

“Yep, you did that too. Shitless.”

His brows knit. “Shitless?”

“Yes, shitless, as in, you scared me so badly, I was incapacitated. I couldn’t think. You made me cower in front of you like a weak thing. You scared me so much you forced me to humiliate myself in front of you. So, you’ve shaken me before, you’ve spanked me, twice, and done other stuff that’s not very cool but that, that, Noctorno, I cannot forgive you for. I could fight the vickrants with you and, I’ll admit, I was terrified out of my brain while I did but you… it was you who scared me so much, I couldn’t… fucking… breathe.”

He closed his eyes slowly and with them closed he whispered, “Cora, sweets –”

“Get off me.”

His eyes opened. “My love –”

“Don’t call me that!” I snapped and his hand suddenly was back at my face, cupping my cheek, his thumb pressing against my lips and his face dipped lower so it was all I could see.

“Please, let me speak.”

I lifted a hand to pull his thumb from my mouth and hurled, “Fuck that and fuck you!”

“I’m uncertain I understand all the meanings of this word,” he replied quietly.

“I think you get the gist,” I guessed.

Then he suddenly stated, “We were losing.”

I blinked in my surprise, letting my guard down which was foolish. It was foolish because my fingers were still wrapped around his thumb. He twisted his wrist, laced his fingers through mine and then rested our entwined hands on the bed by my shoulder.

“I was in a foul mood because I was concerned because we were losing,” he semi-repeated.

“Losing what?”

“Against the vickrants.”

This was confusing.

“We were?”

“Yes, love.”

“But I thought we were kicking ass,” I told him and his mouth twitched again.

Then he informed me, “We were but if that village was a mile further away, they would have overwhelmed us. What we fought was only the first wave. The second wave was coming, I heard it, Salem heard it; they were close. If they made it to us, they were triple in number, they would have overwhelmed us and you would be gone.”

I felt my eyes grow wide as my mouth formed the whispered words, “Holy crap.”

“I’m not certain what that means but the way you say it makes me think it says it all.”

“It does,” I whispered.

He held my eyes.

“The second wave was triple what we were fighting?” I asked.

“Minerva’s hungry,” he answered.

Oh dear.

“She needs both the sisters to complete the curse over the land,” he continued.

Oh. Fucking. Dear!

“She’s waited millennia to do it,” he explained.

Now it was oh shit.

“It’s been centuries upon centuries that the vow has gone unbroken,” he carried on.

Ohshitohshit.

“That would be, I’m guessing, the vow that the soulmates wouldn’t see each other prior to the wedding festivities,” I guessed.

“That would be the vow,” he confirmed.

“Oh shit!”

That time, I said it out loud.

His fingers squeezed mine. “She creates the soulmates, love.”

I blinked again. “What?”

“Playing. Torture. She does it only so she can tear them apart. She’s evil. Pure through to her core. She creates them then plays with them, trying to trick them, showing them the promise of joy beyond measure in the hopes to rip it away.”

“My God, that’s… that’s…” I shook my head, “I don’t even know what that is.”

“That’s Minerva.”

“What is she?”

“She was a witch. Through the years, her power grew. Now it so closely rivals the gods’, she is a god.”

“Uh-oh, that doesn’t sound good.”

“It bloody isn’t.”

“But you said the gods pick the soulmates.”

“No, I said the she-god picks the soulmates. Unfortunately, the benevolent ones have been forced to let her into their ranks. We pray to our gods, we fear Minerva.”

Crap.

Then it dawned on me.

“And so Dash had planned it all. Rosa was to stay at her, I mean, our parents’ house and he was –”

Noctorno nodded his head. “You live miles away in the opposite direction to your parents, the church and my father’s castle. We stayed the night miles beyond that. Rosa wasn’t supposed to be anywhere near there. We were dropping in mostly as a joke. Dash wanted to tease you, guessing you’d sleep in. I knew, however, that you would sleep in so, since you were on our way, we stopped by to drag you out of bed.”

My eyes drifted over his shoulder and I asked mostly myself, “I wonder how she got there.”

Since I asked mostly myself, I was guessing this was why he didn’t answer.

Then my eyes went back to his. “If this was happening for millennia, why didn’t Rosa know about it?”

His head tilted to the side and he examined me. He did this closely, intensely. He was a pretty intense guy but this was even more intense. It was like he was doing it for the first time, or, perhaps, seeing something he hadn’t seen before that fascinated him.

Then he said softly, “There are delicate souls, some so delicate, you know, even a child just born, how delicate they are. Rosa is one of those souls. Her parents, and even you, throughout her life protected her from unpleasantness that she couldn’t handle. She doesn’t only not know the curse exists, she doesn’t even know Minerva exists.”

I thought of tra la laling Rosa and I could see this girl had a delicate soul.

“I met her briefly,” I informed him. “I can see this.”

“It’s hard to miss,” he muttered.

Then something struck me. Something bad. Really bad. And my heart lurched as my body went solid when it filtered through me.

“Oh my God, Tor,” I whispered, my free hand lifting to curl around his neck. “Oh my God.”

“What?”

“Oh my God,” I breathed.

“Sweets, what?”

“Rosa’s delicate and Minerva has her.”

His jaw got hard. “Yes.”

“Oh my God!” I yelled and bucked, trying to push him off.

“Cora –”

I stilled and looked up at him. “We have to go get her!”

His brows drew together. “Pardon?”

“What are we doing?” I cried desperately then blathered on. “Why were we holed up in a cave? Here? We have to find her! We have to rescue her!”

“Cora –”

“We have to go!”

“Cora –”

“Now!” I shrieked and his mouth came down on mine hard.

This time, his tongue didn’t sweep into my mouth. This time, my bones didn’t turn to water. This kiss was meant to silence me. It worked because it was hard but at the same time also freakishly tender in a way I liked.

Therefore, my body melted under his and when he felt it, he lifted his head an inch.

“Are you calm?” he asked softly after his blue eyes caught mine.

“Calm…ish,” I answered breathlessly.

“Orlando is leading the rescue mission to find your sister,” he explained. “He has at his command my father’s entire army and my warriors, all of them but my personal guard who are at my castle, on alert should you and I need them.”

I stared up at him. “You have warriors?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“I’ll explain that later.”

Okay, I decided to let that go.

“Is, um… Orlando good at that kind of thing? You know, leading a rescue mission?”

“Yes, if he wasn’t, I’d be with him but he also has my men with him and if he wasn’t good, they are.”

“So, they’ll find her.”

He nodded and stated firmly, “They’ll find her.”

This made me feel better.

Then I asked, “Dash isn’t with them?” He shook his head and I continued, “Why not?”

“Because Dash is in danger, like you and like me. The full curse starts when both the females are collected but Minerva switches tactics frequently, generation upon generation, she conjures something new, growing frustrated at her torment being thwarted. She could attempt to take Dash or me. He needs to stay safe and we all need to be cautious. There’s no telling what she’ll do.”

“Oh,” I whispered, thinking an unpredictable enemy who had the power of a god was not a good thing.

“And furthermore, he’s Dash,” Noctorno carried on

I felt my brows knit. “He’s Dash?”

“My brother is a lot of things, nearly all of them good, what he is not is a soldier and something else he definitely is not is a warrior.”

“Like you,” I guessed quietly. “Being a warrior, I mean.”

“Indeed, love, like me.”

And I knew this to be true the way he sat astride a horse and beat back an army of vickrants wielding a sword.

Not to mention, all his scars.

“And,” he started and I focused on him to see his eyes lit with something I’d never seen before, “apparently like my wife.”

“What?” I whispered.

His eyes moved over my face then his head dipped. I tensed when his lips brushed mine sweetly, slid along the skin of my cheek just as sweetly and ended up at my ear.

“You are valiant,” he whispered there and I shivered.

“Valiant?”

“Never in a million years would I think you had that in you.”

“Had what?”

His head lifted and his eyes locked on mine. “You fought alongside me and Salem. No hesitation. Quick reflexes, brilliant instincts. You did not recoil. You did not become hysterical. You were no burden. You were a boon. Had it only been me and Salem, they may have taken me or they may have harmed him.”

I felt something squishy in my belly at his words but also felt the need to point out, “You’re pretty good with a sword yourself, big guy.”

He grinned at me. “I’ve had plenty of practice. You, my love, as far as I know, have never wielded a dagger.” His fingers tensed in mine. “Your strokes were awkward, uneconomical, you expended more energy than you needed. You lashed out, were reactionary rather than tactical.”

Well!

“Nevertheless,” he went on, “you instinctively protected my weak flank and our mount.” He gave me another finger squeeze. “You did well, sweets.”

My belly was even squishier when I whispered, “Uh… thanks.”

He grinned at me and dipped his head yet again to brush his lips against mine.

Damn, but I liked it when he did that.

He lifted his head and I saw his eyes were smiling. “Now, as brilliant as it is to have your soft body under mine in an actual bed, my love, I need to drag you out of it, feed you and we need to be on our way.”

What?

“We do?”

“I’ve given Salem his oats, he’s rested, we have to press on.”

“Press on to where?”

“My castle.”

Oh. Wow.

“Seriously?” I asked, wanting, despite myself, to see his castle.

“Yes, Cora.”

My eyeballs moved around the room then back to him. “But, if this is safe –?”

“It is safe but it’s rustic, one room and there’s no tree cover. The cottage is sacred ground, the land around it isn’t. You or I leave the house, we could be spotted. My castle, and the land around it, is bigger, more comfortable and all of it is off-limits thus it’s safer.”

“Oh.”

This made sense.

“Now kiss me quickly, make it good, earn your breakfast and we’ll be away.”

Uh. What?

“Are you joking?” I asked.

He grinned and answered, “Not even a little bit.”

The squishiness in my belly and the excitement at seeing his castle disappeared and I glared at him.

“So we’re back to that?”

“We never left it.”

“You let me have a bath, clothes and dinner without earning it,” I reminded him.

“You cleaned my cave,” he informed me.

Ugh!

“Why is it when I think I can start liking you, you remind me why I don’t?” I asked and that earned me another insolent grin but no response.

Drat the man!

“I think I should get a pass considering I helped you hold back the vickrants and put up with your foul temper in the church,” I informed him.

The grin faded and the amusement in his eyes died but still he said, “And I think you should stop talking and earn your breakfast so we can be on our way.”

I tried to unlace my fingers from his (and failed, by the way) so I scowled up at him. “You forget, I’ve decided to go it alone.”

“And you forget that you foolishly left me, taking my horse while doing it. It’s my duty to protect you, you put yourself in danger and doing this, you negated anything you might have earned in our fight and enduring my foul temper in the church.”

“That doesn’t add up!” I snapped.

“It certainly does,” he returned.

“It doesn’t!” I shot back and his fingers tensed and stayed tensed in mine.

“The curse has just begun. The Shrew cannot complete it unless she has a half of both the souls. She gets you, and it’s highly likely, you go on alone, wherever the bloody hell you think you’re going, she’ll get you. That means my land, my people, will live under that curse in all its fullness until the next divided souls blissfully wed. My people, as yet, are unaware of what has befallen them. They are experiencing unpredictable weather patterns but, as far as I can tell, nothing more. As the curse has not descended for millennia, there is no known record of what to expect except whatever it will be will likely mean floods, droughts, crops failing, plague, famine and the only hope would be to endure, for a shred of humanity to hold on as the decades pass until the new souls are united in matrimony. You endangered that, again, my love, and for that we return to our terms and you earn your keep.”

Oh dear. I didn’t know any of that. I’d fucked up again. Royally (in my case, seeing as I was a princess, that was weirdly literal).

Shit.

“Then I’m not hungry,” I decided. “We can just go.”

“You’ll eat and you’ll earn it.”

“Nope, I’m fine. Thanks for your concern but I’m good.”

“Did you eat yesterday?”

No, I did not and, incidentally, I was starved.

I didn’t tell him that.

“Cora, you can earn it or I can take it from you.”

I blinked up at him. “What?”

“You kiss me or I kiss you. Those are your choices. You have two seconds to decide.”

“Don’t you dare kiss –”

“One.”

“Noctorno, you kiss me, I’ll –”

“Two,” he muttered, his eyes dropping to my mouth then his lips dropped there.

Hells bells.

I fought it, I did. Seriously. And I worked hard at it. And it seemed I was winning.

I kept my mouth resolutely closed no matter how he coaxed (and he coaxed) with lips and tongue to get it open.

I was feeling pretty pleased with myself when his free hand suddenly cupped my breast and his thumb, with pinpoint accuracy, swept over my nipple.

Holy crap.

My mouth opened at the shock of pleasure that shot through my system and his tongue swept inside.

Oh shit. I forgot just how stinking much I loved how he tasted and how much more I loved how he kissed.

My body gave in before my mind, my arm curving around his broad shoulders then my back arched to fit my breast more firmly in his hand.

He groaned in my mouth and I loved that too. So much, that was when my mind gave in and he had all of me.

He deepened the kiss and my fingers glided into his hair to hold him to me as his thumb stopped sweeping my nipple, his hand went up, tugged the fabric down then he went back to my nipple, thumb and finger this time, rolling and squeezing.

Oh my. Nice.

My hips surged up, my fingers still laced in his hand held on tighter and I moaned my pleasure in his mouth.

His lips left mine and I moaned again because I didn’t want them to go.

But they didn’t go. They just moved to relocate. His hand cupped my breast, lifting it, his body angled down then my nipple was in his mouth and he instantly started sucking even as his tongue swirled.

Oh my God. That felt freaking great.

My fingers still in his hair fisted and I breathed, “Tor.”

His lips left my breast, his hand cupping it warmly again, just cupping it this time as his mouth came back to mine.

My eyes opened and they stared into the heated depths of his.

“Don’t stop,” I begged, arching into him again.

“Why do you burn so hot now, sweets, when we must go?” he muttered, his mutter husky with want at the same time I sensed frustration.

“We can delay,” I whispered, my hand leaving his hair to cover his at my breast and my other hand squeezing his insistently.

“We can’t,” he denied.

“Ten minutes,” I pushed and watched the desire in his eyes war with amusement.

“My love, what I intend to get from you will take far, far longer than ten minutes to get.”

Oh boy.

I liked the sound of that.

His hand moved from my breast and he pulled up the material.

Drat!

I couldn’t help it; I felt my mouth twist into a pout.

His eyes dropped to it, he stared at my mouth for a scant second and then he burst out laughing, throwing his head back and everything to do it.

It totally sucked that he looked gorgeous all the time and laughing was no exception.

“Get off me,” I snapped. “I’m hungry.”

His laughter turned to chuckles and he dropped his chin to catch my eyes. “I’ll give you what you’re hungry for, in my soft bed, in my big castle, I promise you that, Cora.” His voice dropped sexy, husky deep when he finished, “And I’ll take my time doing it.”

“I was talking about breakfast,” I informed him briskly.

“Right,” he murmured, smiling down at me.

“Hello? Noctorno? Aren’t we in a big hurry?” I called.

This earned me another blasted chuckle but he knifed away from me never letting go of my hand therefore he used it to pull me out of bed with him. And he rested me on my feet half an inch from his body, let go of my hand but crushed me to his body with both arms.

I tipped my head back to look up at him. “What are you doing now?” I snapped.

His eyes searched my face and they did this for a long time, so long, the scrutiny so intense, I started to feel funny but I didn’t know if it was a good funny or a bad one.

“Noctorno?” I finally said.

“I prefer you calling me Tor.”

I didn’t answer.

One of his hands slid up my spine and started to play with the ends of my hair.

Oh dear. I liked that too.

“My wife is exquisite,” he said softly and I felt my body still as I felt my lips part. “That, I always knew. But she’s also brave, defiant, clever and amusing. That, my sweet, I did not know.”

Holy crap!

“Tor,” I whispered but didn’t say anymore because I didn’t know what to say and because his head dropped down so he could again brush his lips tenderly against mine.

“Now I need to feed you,” he murmured against my lips, I sighed against his, his eyes, which were all I could see, lit with a light that I liked way too much then he let me go, took my hand and led me to the table.