After hours of bickering, going back-and-forth on the minutiae, we finally took a break.

  “You are going to make so many enemies with this move,” Reshma said, her voice flat, as if she had already resigned herself to the consequences. “I am not sure if you grasp the level of threat this poses to the nobility.”

  “I do,” I leaned back, exhausted. “A successful council will prove that authority need not be concentrated in the hands of a few, and that blood may not be the only source of legitimacy.”

  Her voice rose in pitch. “And you still want to do this?”

  I raised a hand. “It’s an emergency wartime instrument.” For now. “Until the region is stabilized.”

  “These councils,” Jack’s mother asked carefully, “will they answer to you?”

  “They will answer to the law,” I said. “Which I will enforce.”

  Elric exhaled slowly, shoulders sagged in fatigue. “Sire, if this system of governance spreads, it will cause major upheaval throughout the kingdom.”

  “Soil often has to be turned to rejuvenate it.”

  “You sound very sure it will work,” Jack’s mother said, the meaning hidden behind those words apparent only to her and Reshma.

  “Trust me, mother, it will, despite all the risks involved. But better it than the current system. Brothers fighting brothers and families tearing themselves apart; that is what the current one produces. Not to mention the poor peasants who are forced into battles that have nothing to do with them. What I’m proposing is not perfect by any means, but it is a far, far better system than the current one.”

  Reshma inhaled sharply.

  To my confusion, her face had turned the color of ash, her lip trembling with emotion. She swiftly got up and fled the room.

  I stayed in my seat, transfixed by confusion for a few moments, before rising and running after her.

  I followed her echoing footsteps. She fled into her chambers, but I was quick enough to reach it before she could lock the door.

  I entered the chambers and closed the door behind me, then turned to face her.

  She was standing there, head hung. Tears flowed freely down her cheeks.

  “What happened?” I asked gently.

  Before I had even finished saying those words, she rushed forward and collided with me.

  As I took her into my arms, she broke into wails of anguish.

  Confused, I just stroked her back and patted her head, while she clutched at my shoulders like a drowning woman and cried her heart out.

  Once her tears had dried up, I carried her up in my arms and lay her down on the bed.

  She clutched my hand, and looked at me with swollen eyes.

  “Please,” she whispered. “Stay.”

  I lay down on the bed beside her.

  She shifted to lay on top of me, nuzzling into my neck.

  I wrapped an arm around her and let her calm down.

  After a while, her sniffling stopped and breathing evened out. Then she pushed herself up and looked at me, vulnerable and hesitant.

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  I tightened my grip on her slender waist.

  “I’m sorry about the outburst. Your words... they brought back memories.”

  I waited, letting her decide the pace.

  “You trusted me with your secrets,” she whispered. “It is only right I told you mine.”

  I wet my dry lips as she gathered her courage.

  “I’m- I was the Princess of Sindhu. Not a Princess. The Princess.”

  I looked into her eyes. “You’re the Maharajah’s daughter?”

  “Yes. Not of the one who sits on the throne. My father was the previous king. He- he died of an illness when I was thirteen. My mother had just found out that she was pregnant. Fearing that it might be a son, they wanted her to .”

  I looked at her, horrified. “Who are they.”

  “The current Maharajah; my uncle, and his lackeys. They wouldn’t acknowledge that she was pregnant. Everyone turned their backs on us.”

  Her voice wavered, but she pressed on. “Luckily, there were some good people in the court. They helped us escape. We ran towards the Nanoan border, while my uncle’s men gave chase.”

  She moved to hug me even tighter.

  “The stress caused my mother to miscarry. Then, my uncle’s men caught up to us. My mother- she had us split, probably to save me.”

  She burst into tears again, unable to hold back.

  “You don’t have to continue if it is too much.”

  “No. You deserve to know,” she whispered between sobs.

  “I don’t know what happened to my mother. I never saw her again. I somehow reached the border, but nobody believed who I was. I managed to get some money for the few jewels I had on me. It didn’t last long. I was a sheltered fool who had no idea about the outside world,” she said, hatred dripping from every syllable.

  Her grip faltered.

  “When the money ran out, I, I- I survived the only way I could.”

  I clutched her tight to my chest and stroked her back, as she broke into sobs again and kept repeating, “I’m sorry.”

  She looked at me reluctantly, her eyes begging. “Will you- will you still keep me close? Despite my past?”

  I almost chuckled, but stopped myself in time.

  “You were a victim of power-hungry bastards. You’ve done nothing wrong,” I said, kissing her brow. “I will never-ever part from you.”

  She sighed in relief, then looking back up at me, lunged to kiss me.

  I accepted her eagerly. Time lost all meaning as we reassured each other with our lips and tongues.

  When we parted to breathe, she began probing my back with deft fingers.

  “How is the pain in your back?” she asked.

  “Pretty much gone.”

  “Good,” she whispered, as she began pulling my shirt over my head.

  “I still wouldn’t risk moving around much,” I said, still letting her remove it.

  “You don’t have to,” she said, kissing my neck. “Leave everything to me.”

  Within a few moments, I was lying naked on the bed.

  She got up and quickly undressed herself, then began planting kisses across my torso, until she got to my loins.

  Then she took me in her mouth without ceremony. Swirling her tongue around, she had me rock hard and coated in her saliva within moments.

  I thought she would continue, but she released me, got up on the bed and straddled me.

  Looking me in the eyes, she held me by a slender hand and guided me inside her, her valley already wet with anticipation.

  We both sighed with contentment as we reaffirmed our bond.

  She bent down to kiss me, lips parted, and I eagerly accepted her. Our tongues dueled with each other as her hips ground against mine, her insides undulating deliciously around my length.

  I placed my hands on her hips, pushing them down with each thrust. The room echoed with her needy whimpers and my groans.

  She thrust against me with desperation, while my hands roamed her body, exploring every curve and the smooth expanse of her dusky skin.

  As my pleasure built, I tapped her back. “I’m about to arrive.”

  She cupped my face in her hands, her face inches from mine. “Will you do it inside?”

  I hesitated a moment.

  “Please, I need it,” she begged.

  “What if-”

  “Then it happens. I don’t mind having your child,” she whispered.

  I nodded my assent.

  Our lips met again.

  I dug my fingers into her supple cheeks and pushed her on myself. As I arrived, I forced her down until my hardness pulsed inside her. Her walls massaged my length, milking me for every drop.

  Her thighs quivered around my waist, her head thrashing against me as she came undone at the same time.

  We stayed in that position, breathing against each other, the rest of the world forgotten.

  Some time later, she looked up at me, eyes vulnerable. “I haven’t told you everything. A few years ago, Laira- she was building a network of informants when she found me.”

  Her eyes turned away in shame. “In a brothel.”

  I tightened my grip around her.

  “I told her my tale,” she continued. “She had it confirmed, then rescued me.”

  I smiled. “She is a good girl.”

  She looked me in the eyes. “Aren’t you repulsed by me? I’m- I’m a whor–”

  “Stop,” I interrupted her. “You didn’t choose that life. It was forced upon you. Don’t use that word for yourself ever again.”

  Her expression softened. She closed her eyes, exhaled in relief and lay her head on my chest.

  By the time we left her chambers, most of the day was gone. I kept her hand in mine, despite her attempts to let go.

  Neither Lady Erenna, nor Elric and Moore openly asked what had happened.

  “Draft a proposal, Elric,” I told the balding man. “I’ll hear your complaints when we are revising it.”

  He bowed hesitantly.

  Moore cleared his throat. “Sire, the families of those who died at the Battle of the Bog have begun arriving.”

  My heart clenched.

  The moment I had feared ever since the conclusion of that battle had arrived.

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