A Prince's Pride

*Aaron*

After much persuading and checking the room several times for spiders, chickens, hyenas, and, of all things, snow leopards, I finally persuaded my mother and husband to accompany me into the infirmary. 

There are two attendants walking around the three injured guards that remain, but I want Zelda. 

"I have no idea where she is, Your Majesty," says Thomas Rein, Zelda's right hand man. "I'm sorry, but I don't have time to talk. We're very busy at the moment."

"We'll find her," says Milo. "I haven't seen any chickens, so she's probably fine."

"We're going to the throne room," I tell him. "Bring Mother along."

This time, I don't need to convince him to follow me and my mother just follows behind Milo. The three of us are flanked by Oswald, Exavier, and a Crown Guard whose name I don't know. 

When we enter the new throne room, I find Delgara with Zelda and Mirra. 

"Why won't you tell me what I'm supposed to have done?" Mirra asks him. 

"I was ordered by the King to bring you here."

"Which king?"

"Here he is now," says Delgara, pulling her arm to spin her around toward me. 

"Is she a hyena, Aaron?" asks Milo in a whisper, huddling behind my back.

"No, she's a human. Mirra," I say, addressing her. "I overheard you in one of the servant's passages, talking."

She blushes scarlet. 

"Oh. Your Majesty, I—" 

"Are you a member of the Red Hand?" I demand. 

"What? No, of course not, Your Majesty, I—”

"Who were you speaking to?! He mentioned something about a hand."

She starts crying, but I refuse to feel bad for her. 

"Your Majesty," she sobs, "I was talking to another servant named Anton Thimes. I was telling him about…something…and he said I had to play the hand I was dealt."

"And what were you telling him? What was the part about 'handling Milo' about?"

"I…" she trails off again, looking between me and Milo. When she speaks again, it's difficult to understand her through her sobbing. "I have a c-crush on M-Milo and I was t-telling him I could h-handle it because I've been d-doing it for years." She buries her hands in her face and starts crying without restraint. 

"Fine, but if you're not a member of the Red Hand, why are you tampering with my mother's food?"

"I'm not…I haven't…"

"King Milo ate the Queen's food tonight and now he's acting like she does."

"That wasn't supposed to happen," says Zelda, walking forward. "I gave you clear instructions, Mirra. Only the Queen was supposed to eat that."

I look at Zelda and I'm struck dumb. What's going on?

"Your Majesty," Zelda says to me, "the Queen refuses to take multiple doses of medicine at once. I mix the Queen’s medicine into her food to ensure she gets both doses. The reaction to this medicine can cause hallucinations, and King Milo is just reflecting what she's seeing and experiencing. The medicine I give her in the goblet counteracts the negative effects of the medicine in the food. Or, it's supposed to, but I haven't found the correct dosage yet."

"Is this true?" I ask Mirra, calming my voice. 

Mirra nods her head as her sobbing calms, but her face is still scarlet. 

"I'm so sorry," I tell her. 

"It's alright," she says in a quiet, embarrassed voice. 

"Mirra," says Zelda, walking up to her, "help me get the King up to the infirmary. We’ll get Queen Elaine to bed on the way. King Milo just needs to sleep off the medicine and he'll be back to normal. I'm still adjusting the Queen's medicine. I'm sure I'm close to curing her, King Aaron."

I just nod my head. As they leave, I sit on my throne, feeling miserable. I thought I was so close to uncovering a piece of the puzzle. 

Now we're back at square one. 

*Milo*

I'm vaguely aware that I'm in a bed in the infirmary, but it's hard to focus with the sound of the hyenas crawling up the side of the palace. 

"Stop!" I shout at them. I know they're controlled by the Whisperer. He speaks to me from between the folds in my sheets. 

I had thought Elaine was crazy this whole time, but she's the most sane of us all. We see everything while everyone else is blind. I glance up at the ceiling, at the spiders crawling over one another there. I should order the chickens to attack them.

“Are we alone?” I hear Mirra’s voice say. “I got the Queen back into her bed.”

“Oh, yes,” answers Zelda, “the remaining guards who were being treated from the attack have been transferred. It’s just us, and the King now.” Her voice takes a sarcastic tone when she says “king.”

"I can't believe we got out of that one," I hear Mirra's voice say, though I can't see her because of the privacy screen around my bed. 

"Yes, it was a close call," says Zelda. “You spun that lie well, but you must be more careful. The Red Hand must succeed in its duty. We were unlucky that Rosalind decided to act alone at the Mission Inn. Imagine drugging the King?"

"She could have ruined everything. It’s good you thought of faking the drug test. Though, I am curious. How was his drunken state cured?

“We may never know. Piper is right, there is magic that can do that, but Rosalind was no witch. Perhaps the shock of what happened to him did it. Sometimes, when someone is drunk and they experience trauma, they can become more alert, though not sober. Perhaps the King simply thought he was sober, but it was the adrenaline from his assault that did it. Perhaps lingering effects of the drugs caused him to become more alert.”

In the silence that follows, I hear the clicking of the spiders legs against the ceiling and watch as they scuttle over one another, their limbs tangling as they writhe in a heaping mass.

“She's been taken care of, I presume?" asks Mirra, breaking the silence.

"Oh, yes. What her motives were, we may never know. Thankfully, I was able to talk Milo into repairing his relationship with Aaron."

"I still don't get it. Why let them get married? Why don't we just kill them now?"

"For Midoor to be set on the righteous path, we must have a high magnitude of sin cultivated in the kings before we sacrifice them to Shevor. Letting them marry, letting them fornicate, these things will fill them with sin."

"I suppose you’re right. Shevor speaks more clearly to you than anyone else. What about King Zannir?"

"I'm not sure yet what to do. Sending in Lower Reach soldiers disguised as Red Hands was a clever move. No doubt this is his retribution against us for Criston's betrayal. What he did to Zannir's daughter—"

"Zelda, bring me the chickens!" I call out to her, cutting off her words. They’re mostly nonsense to me, anyway. The scratching on the walls feels as though it’s in my brain. Above, the spiders start to scurry away, no doubt afraid the chickens will come. 

"Can he not hear us?" asks Mirra.

"Oh, he can, but the drugs we're using against the Queen are strong. Milo will not remember today."

"It's amazing how well you hide yourself, Madam Offrand, how well you cover your tracks."

"Oh, yes," says Zelda. "I can cover my tracks well. After all, if I couldn't, I'd make a terrible leader for the Red Hand."

***

When I wake up in the infirmary the next morning, my head is pounding. I open my eyes and look up to see Piper Dylan sitting next to me, her hand half a foot away from my head. 

"What're you doing?!" I ask. 

"I'm trying to detect the use of magics on you, Your Majesty," she says. 

"Get away from me!" I say. 

"Very well," she says, pulling her hand back. She gives me a strange look, like she's appraising me. "It doesn't seem as though magic was the cause of this."

"Thank you for checking," says Aaron, who I realize is on my other side. 

"Of course, my king," says Piper. "If you don't mind, I'm going to return to my room."

"Have you reconsidered my offer?"

"I'm thinking about it, but I'm not sure yet." She gives me the strange look again before saying to Aaron, "I'll give you a definitive answer tonight."

She glances at me once more before standing and walking from the room. 

"How are you feeling, Your Majesty?" asks Zelda as she approaches my bed. 

I sit up, sending a sharp, searing pain through my skull and say, "My head hurts, but I'm okay otherwise."

"What do you remember from yesterday?" asks Zelda. 

"I…" I stop and wrack my brains, trying to remember. It’s all a blur. "The last thing I remember is eating Elaine's food."

"I've been mixing some medicine into it because she's been so difficult with her medication lately."

"That makes sense," I say, putting my head into both of my hands. 

"Let me get you something for your head, dear," says Zelda before she walks away. 

"You were acting like her, like Mother," says Aaron. I don't answer him so he just stands next to me and rubs the back of my neck until Zelda comes back, holding a glass of yellow liquid. 

I take it and down it without hesitation. It works in moments, though it makes my head feel fuzzy. 

"Better?" she asks. 

"Much," I tell her. "What would we do without you in our lives, Zelda?"

"Luckily, dear, you'll never have to find out." 

*Two Days Ago*

*Aaron*

Milo has been gone for a few hours following our fight. I’ve just been lying in bed, staring up at the ceiling. We never fought before my father engaged me to Corianne. Maybe that’s why we have so much trouble dealing with fights now. Storming away from each other instead of actually talking.

That’s the only thing that’s going to fix this, I realize. I need to talk to him.

I stand and start toward the door but it opens before I reach it and Milo walks in, shutting the door behind him.

“Hey,” he says, sounding awkward.

“Hey,” I echo.

He comes in and shuts the door, then looks up at me sadly.

“I’m sorry,” he says. I’m taken aback momentarily and he starts speaking again. “What happened to you wasn’t your fault. Whether you were drugged, or it was magic, you didn’t do it. Not really.”

“I couldn’t even move,” I say. “It was like I was paralyzed. I couldn’t speak or do anything. She just climbed on top of me, and…” I trail away, but I don’t need to say anything else. 

“I shouldn’t have accused you of cheating on me,” he says. “I know you’d never have done that.”

“I should have been more understanding about your belief in magic. You do still think it was magic, don’t you?” I work hard to keep my voice from sounding accusatory, and I think I manage it.

“I do,” he says. “But we don’t have to agree on that. Like I said, I know it wasn’t your fault.” He pauses for a moment, then continues, “I told Xion the wedding was off.”

“You did?” I ask, incredulous. 

“You should have seen their face,” he says with a small laugh. “Don’t worry,” he adds quickly, “I found them and we finished the planning.”

“Wait, you planned the rest of the wedding?”

“It’s going to be spectacular,” he says. Then he crosses to me and wraps his arms around me. For the first time since Olivia entered that room, I feel truly at peace.

“That was our first bad fight,” I tell him.

“Well, you know what that means, don’t you?” he asks, a coy smile on his lips. When I don’t answer, he says, “We get to have make up sex for the first time.”

He grabs the back of my head and pulls my mouth down onto his. Our kisses bypasses any gentle lovingness and dives headlong into passionate. Our tongues wrestle each other, almost as if they’re trying to force each out of the other’s mouth. His hands grip my back and he pulls on me as if trying to merge us into one person.

He takes control, the way I like it, as he pushes me backwards until I’m up against the wall. He breaks away from me long enough to stare into my eyes as if he’s looking into infinity before his hand finds my throat and he pushes my head back. He moves his mouth to my ear and his tongue slides over the skin, sending shivers down my spine.

My cock begins to swell as he presses his body into mine and starts dry humping me, his already hard cock pressing into me. He moves his hand from my throat as his tongue slides down the side of my neck. I don’t realize he’s trying to pull off my shirt until it’s bunched up under my armpits and I raise my arms to help him take it off.

He glances down at my stomach, at my flexed abs, as he rubs himself on me. It’s amazing how he can make even this feel so good.

His eyes find mine as his fingers curl over the waistband of my pants. I reach up and help him pull them free, sending my hard cock bouncing before me. He grips it as he pushes his mouth back onto mine. I gasp into his mouth as he starts rubbing my cock, pulling the skin back and forth. He breaks away to look down and runs his finger over the tip, collecting the precum. I open my mouth as he raises his finger to it and accept it, licking the precum from the digit. 

Before he can pull it out, I grip his wrist and suck the finger into my mouth, running my tongue along it, causing him to let out a gasp. 

“You like that, Your Majesty?” I ask him. He just nods as I kiss his palm, then his wrist. I tug on his arm, pulling his face to mine and kiss him, loving the taste of him.

“Drop your pants,” I say and he obeys. I’m on my knees in a second and look up at him. He grabs his cock and slaps my cheek with it a few times, sending several small shocks of electricity through me.

I open my mouth and stick out my tongue. He taps the head against my tongue before angling his cock down and pushing it into my throat. I open it to accept him, pulling him into me until my nose rests against the smooth skin above his cock. I didn’t even know he’d shaved recently. He starts to thrust, sliding his cock in and out of my throat, his fingers entwined in my hair.

I look up at him as he looks down at me. Our eyes meet as he uses my throat. I can see in his eyes how much he enjoys it. I feel the same way as I coat his cock with saliva.

He pulls out of me and bends down to kiss me before putting a finger under my chin. With a simple tug, I know he wants me to stand. He moves me over to the bed and sits me down on it, then pushes me back so I’m lying on it, my legs over the side. I somehow know, without him saying, that he wants me to lift my legs, so I do, placing my hands behind my knees and lifting so I’m exposed to him.

I drops his mouth onto my cock and immediately pulls me inside, sucking me down into his throat. He gets to work, using his throat muscles to squeeze my cock as he bobs up and down.

Smack! 

Without warning, he spanks me as he pulls back and I let out a moan.

Smack!

I feel my eyes droop, unable to stay open as a shockwave of pleasure rockets from the spot where he spanked me again.

“You like that, Your Majesty?” he asks, echoing my earlier words. This time, I’m the one who can only nod.

He drops to his knees and wraps one hand around my cock, using his saliva as lube as he slides it up and down the shaft. The other rubs my ass over the spot where he spanked.

Smack!

Not able to see him, I can’t tell when the blows are going to land, but that makes it much more exciting. I can feel my cock pumping out precum, the sticky liquid sliding down under his hand and aiding in the lubrication and he works my meat.

His lips touch the spot he’s been spanking, gentle and loving, until his teeth sink into the flesh.

“Oh, fuck!” I call out, caught off guard. He chuckles a moment before his tongue glides across the sensitive skin where his hand has no doubt caused a red mark, sending a shudder through my body.

His tongue doesn’t leave my skin as it slides across my ass and onto my hole. He swirls it around the entrance, causing me to gasp, my hands gripping the side of the bed, digging my fingers into the mattress.

“Fuck yes, baby,” I moan, “eat my hole.” This seems to egg him on as his tongue works more furiously. My body starts trembling, practically quaking under his ministrations. 

“I want you to ride me,” he says, standing. We trade places, him lying on the bed with his legs dangling over the side. I climb on top and sit on him, facing away from him. Wasting no time, I plunge his cock inside me and start to rock back and forth. He places his hands on my ass and pushes and pulls on me, helping me ride him faster and faster.

Smack!

I let out a groan as his hand collides with my ass, on the same spot he’s been abusing for the past few minutes. He lightly strokes his fingers over the spot and I shudder, thrown off my rhythm. He takes advantage of my momentary halt to grab me by the back of my neck and, without ever leaving my hole, flips me over, pushes my face into the bed, and starts to fuck me.

He’s never been this rough before, and I’d never loved it so much. He pounds my ass as I moan aloud, though it’s muffled as my face is pushed into the bedding. He goes harder and faster and I can do nothing but lay here and enjoy it as I melt into the bed, melt into him. 

It could have been seconds, or minutes, or an eternity as he pounded into me, I don’t know. But he leaves my hole, grabs my leg, and flips me over easily. It’s sex in a new way, different than anything we’ve done before.

Now on my back, he grips the outside of my thighs and pulls me across the bed, sliding me onto him. I let out a gasp as he enters me again and starts to fuck me, somehow even harder than before.

He grips my cock in his hand and starts to work it furiously as I lay there, unable to do anything, my entire body wracked with a burning ecstasy. We look into each other’s eyes and I feel him inside me, inside my very soul.

“Cum for me,” he says. And I do. I let out a guttural noise as my cock swells in his hand and I explode, showering my body with my seed. He doesn’t stop rubbing my cock, even through the oversensitivity caused by orgasm. My body quivers in the almost blindingly painful sensation.

Milo swipes his hand across my stomach, gathering my cum on it then pulls out of me. He starts to work my cum onto his cock, rubbing furiously as I gasp, staring up at him, watching him jerk.

His body gives a twitch and he gasps as he cums, shooting his own load onto me. It lands on my cock and splatters across my abs. He moves down and pushes back inside me and slowly thrusts in and out, making love to me as he gazes down into my eyes.

*Present Day*

*Aaron*

When we get back to our room, Milo's head starts hurting again, so I leave him in bed while I walk the corridors, looking for Piper. 

I can't explain why I trust her, but I do. She had no reason to drug me in the Mission Inn. It would've gone against all her plans to make magic legal. I do now believe it was magic used on me, not drugs, so there's a place to start. 

Piper is the only magical practitioner I know. Even if Milo received some vague prediction about her not having my best interests at heart, I can't just cast her aside. She hasn't done anything wrong. In fact, she saved my life. 

Predictably, I find her in her room. She's standing at the window, which looks upon the entrance square. 

"Anything interesting out there?" I ask. I expected her to jump, but she doesn’t.

"Only if you find protestors interesting," she says. 

"I'm lucky in that I don't.”

"That is lucky. They're protesting you, after all. I'm surprised you don't send them away."

"They have a right to protest if they want. Or, I suppose you could throw a fireball at them."

"That would be quite the feat," she says, still not facing me. 

"You can heal my throat, but you can't throw a fireball?"

"Magic is hard to explain. I could throw a fireball, but it would take time."

"You healed me in about ten seconds."

"Yes, but I had been amassing magic for a while. Magic listened to me."

"What do you mean?"

She turns to me finally and looks at me with an appraising stare. 

“Magic is all around us all the time. It’s weaved into the very fabric of our universe. Those of us who practice magic can command it, but it’s not easy. I was working up powerful magic over time, which I used to heal you. If I hadn’t had your promise that you’d consider legalizing magic, I would not have amassed enough to heal you.”

“I’m worried about what others could do with magic. The Red Hand, for instance.”

“The Red Hand would never use magic. Most religious groups see magic as an affront to their gods. Especially the Shevorian religion. Magic is an insult to both their gods, Shevor, the god of man, and Shevra, the goddess of nature.”

I knew the Red Hand was only a small fanatic sect of the Shevorian faith, but I didn’t know about their aversion to magic.

“And besides,” continues Piper, “I’m one of the most powerful witches in all of Midoor. Very few could have done what I did.”

“Do you mind answering a few questions about magic for me?” I ask.

Piper moves to the table in her room and sits down before gesturing at the other chair, which I take.

“Ask away,” she says.