My eyes snap open when I’m suddenly jolted in the back. The breath is knocked out of me and cold fear seizes me, making my gut churn. I spin, looking all around me, but see only a blur. People close in around me, loudly talking and clapping. Heads are moving this way and that.
I stop, but the whole world keeps moving. It feels like everyone around me is closing in, and I can’t breathe.
A hand grabs my shoulder and I’m knotted with dread. I tear away from that hold with all of my strength. “Watch your space!”
I see that it’s Ronald, another clan member, and he’s now staring at me, eyes and mouth wide open. People near us are stopping and staring.
“Whoa, friend,” Ronald says, laughing. “The duel isn’t until tomorrow.”
My palms are sweaty and the fear in my throat is cold.
I can’t lose this for her. I can’t. I can’t lose her just as I’ve finally won her.
I squeeze my eyes shut, trying to take a breath, when he pounds on my back. I turn and shove him away so hard that he falls to the ground. The music screeches to a halt, but I’m already running, already moving, pushing through the cluster of bodies.
I need to get out of here. This is a nightmare made reality.
But it just might be that the nightmare won’t start until that duel tomorrow, when I could lose everything.
Chapter 29
Jenna
I grasped William’s upper arm to stop him, but he pushed violently away from me before tearing the May King crown from his head and flinging it to the ground in the process. I turned and muttered my apologies to the stunned group of people in our vicinity.
“Go back to dancing. He’ll be all right.”
But he was already gone, disappearing into the darkness beyond the glowing ring of the bonfire. And like a little girl, I chased after him, my own crown bouncing off my head and tumbling to the ground behind me.
The music started up again and I assumed people resumed their dancing, but I was already wading into the darkness, willing my eyes to adjust quickly.
“Wil?”
Silence. I couldn’t even hear footsteps. Crickets chirped in the distance and coyotes howled, too. The only light out here was that of the nearly full moon above.
A group of people off to the left spoke in hushed voices, laughing occasionally. As I made my way toward William’s tent, I heard another sound. A groan, followed by a gasp. Remembering that it was Beltane, I realized that people had paired up and peeled off to go and celebrate in a private—and much more enjoyable—way.
I swallowed, immediately turned on. It had been months, and I’d been lusting after William for far too long. The unrealized sexual tension that lived in my belly was now infiltrating my vital organs.
But I was too worried about him be concerned with that at this moment. I’d attack him later, when I knew he was safe and calm.
I was just outside his tent when a hand reached out of the darkness and latched onto me just above the elbow. Startled, I jerked away.
“Wil! You scared the—”
But my words were swallowed in a gasp when the hand tightened painfully on my arm and the eyes I met were not William’s.
I drew back. “Doug, what the hell? Get away from me.”
“What’s got you so upset, your majesty? Did your freak wander off into the woods without you? Maybe the coyotes will eat him.”
I tilted my head toward him and spoke with faux sweetness. “Shouldn’t you be off trying to convince yourself that you have a hope in hell of winning your duel tomorrow?”
His jaw clenched, eyes narrowing. “You’re mighty confident in your new boyfriend, aren’t you?”
I grinned at him, with a faux gloat. “I sure as hell am. Now get out of my way.”
Instead, he stepped forward, blocking me fully. “Someone needs to warn that poor bastard about you—how you play with men and use them for your own purposes, then dump them when you don’t need them anymore. I’m sure you’re just fucking him to get him to fight for your little princess crown.”
I held out my hand, middle finger pointed straight up. “Bite me, asshole.”
Doug laughed. “Wow, such a lady.”
“If a man can say those words, then so can I. Especially when it’s deserved. Got a problem with that?”
He smirked, and I honestly wanted to smack that smirk off his face. I didn’t get violent feelings often, but I had to prevent the sudden urge to charge him knee him right in his inadequately sized junk. I contented myself with the thought that William would be doing plenty of smacking him around on my behalf in the morning. It would be sword against sword—and preferably William’s sword on Doug’s helmet a few hundred times.
“And here I was going to be all magnanimous and offer you your little tiara back, no duel required.”
Sudden tightness formed in my throat, but suspicion laced any hope that rose in my chest. “And the catch?”
He shrugged and looked away. “I’ll hand over the tiara right now if Sir William forfeits the tournament tomorrow.”
I hesitated, picturing the tiara. Then I was assailed with a vision of my sister’s face when I showed up at her doorstep without the tiara and had to tell her she wouldn’t be walking down the aisle with Papa and Baba’s blessings on her wedding day. The disappointment in her eyes as she fought back tears. My gut tightened.
I was tempted…so tempted. That tiara could easily be mine if I talked William into forfeiting. And I knew I probably could.
I cleared my throat and spoke in a tiny voice. “If he forfeits, that counts as a loss for him. And—and your conditions would still apply?”
He shrugged again. “Yup. He forfeits, he goes. Full exile.”
I shook my head, folding my arms across my chest. “I can’t ask him to do that.”
“He’s scared of people anyway. You saw that freak show just now. You’d be doing him a favor to give him an excuse to go. Just give him a really good blow job tonight as a reward.”
My arms stiffened and I was awash with true disgust. “You really are gross, Doug. Truly disgusting. And William has more courage, manliness and honor in his thumbnail than you do in your entire body and one hundred clones of yourself, if, goddess forbid, they existed. You’re a shameful, spiteful man. William is a true knight.”
Doug’s face flushed during my speech, but he offered a slight shrug. Nevertheless, I could tell that I’d gotten to him. “We’ll see how it all shakes out in the morning, then.”