MidKnight: A Reverse Harem Fantasy (Tangled Crowns Book 2) Read online

  MidKnight

  Tangled Crowns Book 2

  Ann Denton

  Le Rue Publishing

  Contents

  Map

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Epilogue

  Afterword

  Acknowledgments

  More Books

  Connect and Get Sneak Peeks

  About Me

  Copyright © 2019 Ann Denton

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at the address below.

  Le Rue Publishing

  320 South Boston Avenue, Suite 1030

  Tulsa, OK 74103

  www.LeRuePublishing.com

  ISBN: 978-0-9985437-3-4

  Map

  Chapter One

  I had never truly hated anyone before. I realized that as black loathing bubbled in my stomach like tar. Rage ran hot in my veins as I clenched my fists to keep from throttling the man I faced.

  Jorad, mother's butler—now mine—stared back at me. His wrinkled face didn’t show a drop of pity. He didn’t look the slightest bit cowed. He stared at me with steady brown eyes and it was all I could do not to kill him, right then and there.

  "You can't go," Jorad repeated.

  My cheeks grew hot. That arrogant shite. He was a butler. Not one of my knights. Not an adviser. I stood up straighter and narrowed my eyes. "I can. And I will. I am the queen—"

  "Exactly."

  "You can't force me to stay—"

  "You can’t just go off chasing dragons. People depend on you.” Jorad made the mistake of moving to touch my arm.

  It felt like being bitten. I backed away.

  I’m not going to hit him, I told myself, though that was exactly what I felt like doing. How dare he! My sister, the only blood relative I had left in the world, had just been seized by a monster.

  "Avia was just stolen by a dragon!" I was awed by the fact that I needed to remind him.

  I faced off against Jorad in the rose parlor, a small office and sitting room my mother had used for meetings.

  Somehow, my knights had marched me here. I’d been too blinded by shock to even remember exactly how we got into the castle and into the room. I might have blacked out, I wasn’t certain. The last thing I was certain of was that I’d been standing on the dais, ready to give the order for the execution of a prince of Cheryn, when Avia had been snatched by a dragon. The beast had dive bombed, silent as a hawk, spreading his wings at the last moment. His taloned feet had curled around my sister’s arms and with a single beat of his wings, he’d been back in the clouds.

  I shook off the memory and took in my surroundings. I still held Abbas’ chain in my hands, dragging the shite prince by the neck behind me like some dog. He was a dog. He was the one who’d arranged my sister’s kidnapping. And he’d pay. Right after I ensured Avia’s safety, Abbas would pay with his sanity. Then with his blood.

  I yanked on the chain, bringing Abbas to his knees. It made me feel slightly better.

  Jorad was not impressed by me. He crossed his arms. "You have no heir, have not set up an alternative arrangement for succession, and have dangers brewing both domestic and abroad,” he drawled.

  Abbas tsked, shaking his head. “Not very prepared, were you, Queen Bloss?” His words hit their mark, as deadly accurate as poisoned arrows.

  I yanked his chain again. Then I kicked his ribs for good measure.

  I rounded on Jorad. “Perhaps you shouldn’t discuss shite like that in front of prisoners!”

  “Perhaps prisoners shouldn’t be brought into palace meeting rooms,” Jorad’s reply was steady. “I can have him sent to the dungeon.”

  “I’m taking him with me.” I didn’t believe for a second that the dragon, Abbas’ shape-shifting brother, would give up Avia if I didn’t provide proof of life for Abbas. I needed that greasy, sorry excuse-for-a-human being. I wasn’t letting him out of my sight until I got Avia back.

  “You cannot leave,” Jorad repeated.

  “Watch me,” I tossed back.

  Ryan, the knight in charge of my armed forces, had gone to the stables, to ready our mounts and a regiment for the pursuit. He’d already sent out scouts to scour the skies.

  Declan and Connor, two of my other husbands, stood to the side, watching Jorad argue with me. Or Connor watched, his ‘diplomat’ face on in full force as he stroked his tan jaw.

  I turned to Connor and raised my brows expectantly.

  “There is an alternative arrangement for succession on file in the records,” Connor told my butler.

  Jorad’s eyes widened, “You can’t be serious!”

  Connor shrugged, “Just because you don’t like the current candidate doesn’t invalidate the document.”

  I glanced between the two men, whose backs were as stiff as their starched formal tunics as they squared off. I wasn’t certain what document they were talking about. I’d only recently returned to royal life in Evaness. I looked over to see if Declan knew. But he was busy scratching out calculations in a notebook.

  “Declan?” I whispered, moving to touch his arm. “What are you doing?”

  Dec glanced up at me, a crease at his brow. “Trying to see how much blood we’d need to stop it, Peace.”

  “Oh. Yes. Do that.”

  His mouth quirked up in a grin. “Is that an order?”

  I nodded and a tiny spark came into his eyes before he bent back over his notebook and I turned back to Connor and Jorad. My sweet, blond economics adviser was right. We needed to know how much blood he’d need to multiply. He could reduce water to multiply blood. And with blood … I could make the dragon peaceful. My magic could lull it. But only temporarily. And the price of forcing peace on another creature? Blood.

  The last time we’d fought the dragon, my peace magic had worn off in less than an hour. And that had taken a moat full of blood. I had no idea how long we’d have to keep the beast peaceful for our rescue. What if the dragon had dragged my sister into a cave? I left Declan to his calculations. Our lives, Avia’s life, might depend on them.

  I looked for the last of my four knights. Quinn, my spy master, was in the far corner of the room, facing the wall, checking in with each of his spies, to see if anyone had seen a dragon. I could see his black hair and his pointed elf ears twitch as he had silent conversations.

  Quinn faced the wall so he could ignore us and concentrate. The problem with his choice was that it distracted me for a second, because it gave me a very, very nice v
iew of his ass.

  Not helping my focus, Dove.

  Sorry, I thought at him. His magic allowed him to communicate via thoughts, which was incredibly useful as a spy master, and incredibly hot in the bedroom. But it was somewhat embarrassing in moments like this.

  I turned back to Connor and Jorad, who were now debating.

  Connor ran a hand through his messy brown curls.

  “—we could re-draft a document in a few hours,” Jorad said.

  “Hours?” I interjected. “You think Avia has hours?”

  “I think you need to do this right!” Jorad slammed his hand onto the meeting table.

  “What’s right is stopping that beast!” I yelled. My sixteen-year-old sister—no, seventeen, it was her birthday—could be dropped at any moment. Flamed. Eaten. The nightmares played in an endless stream in my head. Connor grabbed my left hand and drained a bit of my panic.

  I met his eyes. I knew what he wanted without him having to say a word. Connor wanted me to rein it in. I took a deep, shuddering breath.

  Abbas smirked from his spot on the edge of the rug. I put up my free hand and blasted the evil wrinkler with enough glowing green peace magic to knock him out. His eyes closed and he fell back onto the marble floor, smacking his skull with a dreamy smile on his face. The black-haired, black-hearted prince of Cheryn could stay passed out until we had Avia back. It was worth the fresh wound on my forearm. I dabbed at the blood with my sleeve as I looked back up at Jorad.

  “I’m going to rescue my sister.”

  “What do your people need more, the other princess or their queen?" he snapped.

  I decked him. I couldn't help myself. I dropped Connor’s hand and just swung. The rage took over in a blur of heat and red-tinged vision. I punched that sarding dunderhead in the jaw.

  Avia was everything. She was an innocent. She was one of my people. I had a duty to protect her. And she was hurt because of me. Because I’d chosen to tango with a madman. And I hadn’t anticipated he’d go this far.

  Of course, he would.

  He wanted Evaness.

  I was a fool. This was my fault. And I had to be the one to fix it.

  Connor’s hand stopped my arm from launching a second hit, a hit Jorad didn’t deserve. I was so furious at myself that I could hardly see straight.

  Connor, sensing my agitation with his magic, tried to soothe me. He rubbed my back gently, gliding his fingers over my shoulder blades, letting the soft velvet of my hem brush my spine. When my fists unclenched, Connor moved closer, lending me strength. He stood next to me, shoulder to shoulder. Together, we stared down Jorad.

  My butler cupped his face as he spoke, spittle dripping onto his split lip. “If you go now and leave the current document your mother had in place, then Duke Aiden will be the regent.”

  My eyes widened. I dropped Abbas’ chain in shock. “What?” I recalled seeing Duke Aiden at Kylee’s gambling hall on more than one occasion. I recalled the duke losing round after round of poker, and then comforting himself with one of the prostitutes who worked there. “That’s who my mother appointed to rule in her absence? Not his wife?” Evaness was matriarchal. It was highly unusual for my mother to have picked a man as her regent.

  “Not his wife,” Jorad confirmed.

  “A gambling whoremonger?” I bit out, grabbing onto one of the chairs surrounding the meeting table. I squeezed the chair back, willing it to absorb my distress. If I’d have been Ryan, the chair would have splintered under my fingers. It had zero reaction to my abuse, which only made me squeeze harder in frustration.

  Jorad’s face twisted into a bitter grin. “It was her way of deterring the other nobles from assassination. Their choices became her or him.”

  “Sard. Well, it did its job then.” I felt like yanking at my hair. But my mother’s voice sounded in my head. ‘That wouldn’t be seemly for a queen.’ Her voice was a bit late. I’d already struck her butler. I clenched my skirts in my fists and paced.

  What the hell am I gonna do? First day as queen, and sarding up all over the place. Well done, Bloss, I grumbled internally as I walked.

  Jorad asked, “The question is, do you want to leave your people subjected to the whims of that man while you leave?”

  It was a good question. My heart tightened at the thought. No wonder Jorad didn’t want me to leave.

  I turned to Connor. “Who else? We could assign someone from your family, right?”

  Jorad shook his head. “The laws of Evaness say no extended family member of the royal family can be the regent.”

  “What the hell?” I gritted my teeth. I should have known that. If I’d been at the palace the last four years, I would have. Hellfire, there was so much I didn’t remember.

  Jorad cleared his throat in a clear sign of disapproval. “Your Majesty, you’re more likely to all be assassinated at a family gathering.”

  I hated when idiotic rules actually made sense.

  I turned to look at Connor even as I kept pacing. “Who can we put—”

  His brow furrowed as he thought. He opened his mouth once, but then shook his head and closed it. My eyes traced the handsome lines of his face, silently willing him to know something about the nobles I didn’t. To know someone trustworthy enough to—

  A knock at the door interrupted us. My hands clenched into fists. “Not now!” I yelled.

  Shite, Bloss. Not queenly. Not queenly, I scolded myself.

  Part of me didn’t care. But another part of me argued with that part, stating I had to care. My life was all scrutiny all the time now.

  Jorad ignored my glare and primly walked over to the door.

  “Don’t—” I started.

  He opened the door. “Yes?”

  A nervous messenger shuffled from foot to foot as he handed Jorad a sealed scroll. Jorad thanked the lad, took the scroll, and turned to me. With a defiant glare, he broke the seal, stating, “It’s from the royal house of Rasle.”

  His eyes scanned the scroll and his lips thinned. He glanced up at me. “Her Majesty, Queen Isla and her entourage are already airborne on a sleuth of winged bears, on their way to congratulate you on your coronation. Ready to reinforce ties and discuss treaty terms.” Jorad handed the unfurled parchment toward me.

  It felt as if I were reaching for my own death certificate. Or Avia’s. My hazel eyes scanned the document.

  Sard.

  Mother’s greatest ally. The country that stood to the west, between us and Sedara, the bully of the seas.

  Isla was a salty, crusty old queen if there ever was one. And a clever bitch. Right now, she was a walking typhoon, heading this way to blow me down with terms and conditions that would exploit my ignorance.

  My eyes flashed to Connor’s. My best friend since childhood, he’d cowered with me under tables and behind curtains whenever Rasle’s queen had come calling.

  But my sweetheart just stared placidly back at me, his blue-green eyes an undisturbed pool of calm.

  “What the hell am I gonna do?” I whispered.

  Avia, my heart clawed at my chest. The need to find her, to protect her was a living thing inside me, writhing, demanding I chase after the dragon.

  Connor could feel that. He strode to me and grabbed my hand. He linked our fingers. His thumb stroked the side of my wrist.

  “We’ll find a way.”

  I swallowed and nodded. I hoped like hell he was right. But fear swirled in my chest. I had a feeling this nightmare had only begun.

  Jorad left to prepare rooms for Rasle’s royal visitors. And feasts. And parades. And whatever the hell else he muttered about that I didn’t listen to because I felt like I was drowning.

  Mother’s voice rang in my ears. ‘Needs before wants.’ It was essentially what Jorad had said. He’d dismissed my rescue of Avia as a want. As something I shouldn’t do because I was a queen.

  Are they right? I wondered.

  My gut twisted. Connor squeezed my hand, draining some of my agony.

  A mome
nt later, Quinn came over and touched my shoulder. His grey eyes stared solemnly at mine. He doesn’t mean she’s just a want, Dove. He doesn’t think you personally have to go.

  Who’s gonna take out the dragon?

  There are ways. In the Fire Wars, countries all had different means of taking them out.

  How?

  He shrugged. I’m not the scholar. Declan might know. We might have to research. We’ll find a way. I promise.

  I gave a stiff nod, trying to hold it together. Did your people—

  They haven’t found anything yet, Dove. But they’re looking. All of them.

  I nodded as my vision got glassy. I let Quinn pull me into a soft hug even as Connor held my hand. Connor released my hand and came up behind me and pressed against my spine. Together, the two of them enveloped me in warmth and comfort. I soaked in their care, reveled in their strength.

  I knew they would do everything they could to help me. I wasn’t in this alone. I took a deep breath, trying to release the tension. Another. Another. They waited patiently, just content to be there for me. Eventually, I placed a hand on Quinn’s chest, and pushed lightly.

  He stepped back. Then Connor did the same.

  “Thank you,” I swiped at the tears that had gathered at the base of my eyes, tears I hadn’t allowed to fall. “I needed that.”

  Anytime, Dove.

  “Of course, Bloss Boss,” Connor gave a little smile and my heart skipped. His smiles were like sun rays.