Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 109099 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 545(@200wpm)___ 436(@250wpm)___ 364(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109099 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 545(@200wpm)___ 436(@250wpm)___ 364(@300wpm)
His feelings alarmed me and I reached up to put a hand over his.
“It’s all right, Sel,” I murmured. “I don’t like it, but I can do it. I mean, all I have to do is drink from someone where everyone can see me—right?”
“You don’t understand, my Lady,” Krynn said softly. “It’s not just drinking blood that you must perform at a Public Quenching.”
“It’s not?” I looked up at him and he shook his head.
“Remember that the Thirst always comes with sexual hunger attached to it,” he reminded me.
“In other words it’s not just biting someone and drinking from them—you’re going to have to perform a suck and fuck in front of the entire Court,” Sel rumbled.
“What? But why?” I demanded. “Why can’t we just go back to the Quenching Parlor and do it there?” I didn’t like the idea of Mordren watching me be intimate with my guys, but it was a hell of a lot better than doing it in front of the entire Dark Fae Court!
“I’m sorry, my dear,” Mordren answered my question before either Sel or Krynn could speak. “But you forfeited your right to a Private Quenching when you ran from the Quenching Parlor last night. Now as a responsible Lord Regent I have had to deem you unsafe to be Queen. So you can either perform for the Court tonight or agree to extend my Regency. By Fae Law, those are your only two choices.”
I looked up at Krynn.
“Is he telling the truth?”
“I’m afraid so, my Lady.” Krynn looked extremely unhappy. But since he was no longer touching me, I couldn’t feel the emotion—only see it on his face.
“Well?” Mordren drummed his fingers on the table. “Which is it to be?”
“Give me a minute,” I said tightly. “I need to think.”
I rose from the table and walked down the steps of the dais it was set on with Krynn and Seldarin following close behind. There were murmurs all around us as the Court watched us go, but I kept my chin high and said nothing until we were outside the vast Banquet Hall and we could talk privately.
“All right—what am I supposed to do?” I asked when we were out in the empty hallway and I was sure no one was listening. “Because I’m damn sure not going to let Mordren rule for another hundred years!” I added, answering my own question.
“Then you either have to let someone fuck you while you drink from them…or fuck someone yourself while you take their blood,” Sel said. “I recommend the latter. If you allow the Court to see you getting fucked, it’s a sign of weakness.”
“Sel is right—you need to prove you’re strong and not subservient to anyone,” Krynn said.
“But whoever you fuck will be publicly shamed,” Sel remarked. “Submission is seen as a sign of weakness in the Midnight Court. It’s one reason those with the Needing are so despised. Sorry, Krynn,” he added.
“No, don’t apologize. You’re speaking the truth.” Krynn sighed. “It’s unfortunate but true—there is a definite prejudice against those who wish to submit themselves sexually.”
“You’d better fuck me,” Sel said abruptly. “I can take the hit.”
“No, you can’t!” Krynn objected immediately. “What if Mordren tries to stage a coup? If the Palace guards see you getting taken like a woman in front of the whole Court, they won’t respect you and follow you anymore—they’ll side with Mordren and there will be no way to beat him!”
“Well, you can’t do it!” Sel growled. “It will expose your Needing to the whole Court. Not to mention your wings, since you know Mordren is going to demand that whoever gets fucked does it in the nude.”
“He will? Why?” I asked.
“There’s no other way to show proper submission to a Royal,” Krynn explained. “Look—this is what Mordren is counting on,” he said, before Seldarin could object again. “He thinks that none of us is going to be willing to get up on stage and expose ourselves in front of the Court.”
“We shouldn’t have to!” I said angrily.
If I did manage to get the Throne of the Midnight Court, I promised myself I was going to hand out some severe retribution to the Lord Regent. At the very least he was going to be demoted. I wondered how he would like living in the basements with the Lesser Fae for a while? Say, a thousand years or so.
“You’re right, my Lady, we shouldn’t have to but we cannot change the law,” Krynn said. He shook his head. “I should have foreseen this. I knew about that law—it’s just been so long since it was invoked I’d forgotten all about it.”
“You can’t blame yourself,” Sel told him. “Even if we’d known about it in advance, there’s not much we could have done. But I still don’t think you should be the one the Princess fucks.”