Hours later, movement beside Lucien caught his attention. He swiveled his head to see Danika’s head weaving around dizzily. She caught herself yet again and tried to concentrate. He watched her. It didn’t take long again before her eyes slid close and her head almost fell again. She caught herself. The next time, her head hung to one side, and she fell asleep. He still watched her.
Was she a devil like her father? Could she be fooling him?
Why was the universe playing such a cruel joke on him? Why would the daughter of the monster who ruined him be the person he found peace with—the person with whom he found sleep? The king frowned as he tried to think of every logical explanation to understand such a strange occurrence. He could come up with none.
His eyes found the open scroll, and the beautifully written words on them. Her handwriting was pleasing to the eye.
He folded another completed scroll and put it aside. “Chad.”
The door opened, and another guard entered. “He has retired to his quarters, your majesty.”
“Take her to the bed,” he ordered as he opened another blank scroll. After sleeping all afternoon, he was ready to work most of the night.
“Yes, my king.” The guard walked closer and lifted Danika from the ground. She sighed sleepily and settled against the guard. He started walking out of the room.
“I didn’t order you to take her out of this room, Zariel.”
The guard stopped suddenly and turned. “I’m so sorry, my king. I thought you wanted me to take the slave to her room.”
“Lay her down on the bed, Zariel.” He spared the guard a glance. “My bed.”
“Oh. Of-of course, my king.” He hurriedly walked to the bed and gently deposited Danika on it.
She laid there sleeping while the guard stepped back, bowed to the king, and took his leave.
Baski woke up and stared at the hourglass. It showed that it was well past midnight. She looked beside her and watched Remeta sleeping soundly beside her. She had waited for the girl to fall asleep in Danika’s bedroom before she carried her from the bedroom to her room here in the palace.
It was only in these moments of Remeta sleeping well that Baski could put some herbs on her and rub her body with the healing medicine that would clear the scars from the scratches she gave herself.
Baski got up from the bed and walked to the table. She opened her herb bag and brought out all the leaves, stems and concoctions she packed in it. But as she searched, she couldn’t find the most important leaf. How could she not pack the Dorco plant? It was the most important plant with she used in making the Forb-bane. The Forb-bane was a medicinal herb used for healing the skin.
There might still be a small leaf of it in the backyard.
Baski left it all scattered on the table and strode out of the bedroom. She checked to make sure that Remeta was still sleeping before she closed the door.
She walked through the servant’s quarters into the royal quarters. When she entered the hallway of the king’s chambers, she strained her neck to see his door.
The lights were on. The king was still awake.
She shook her head and continued on her way. She had passed the bedroom of the late Princess Melia when she heard whimpers. Soft, terrified whimpers.
Baski paused and walked back to the door. She opened it and froze.
Chad laid on top of Sally, with her nightgown on her midriff and his face buried in her womanhood.
“Good heavens!” Baski cried in horror as she walked into the bedroom.
He didn’t move, but Sally swiveled her head and stared at Baski with terrified, tear-filled eyes.
“Madam Baski,” she whimpered. “Please, help me. Make him stop.”
Baski hurried towards Sally and started patting her head in reassurance. “Calm down, my dear, okay? Stay calm. He’s not in his right mind or he’d never do something like this to you!”
Tears rolled down Sally’s eyes. She was terrified as Chad’s tongue flicked on her body down there and his gigantic body took up the space between her legs. The memories of when she took her princess’s place in court flooded her mind. She could only see the kings and the things they did to her.
Sally closed her eyes tight and whimpered in terror. Her body remained stiff. She was too scared to struggle or twist away.
Baski walked to Chad and pulled him away from Sally. “Alright, that’s it, big guy. Follow me.”
She was half-scared that he wouldn’t follow her but breathed a deep sigh of relief when he extracted himself from Sally’s shivering body.
His eyes were glazed over in sleep as he followed Baski to the bathroom. As she poured a bucketful of water over his head, she was in thought.
Why Sally? Why did his sexmonia sleepwalking carry him to Sally’s bedroom?
She’d always known that Chad sleepwalked to the king’s bed some nights; it had been going on since they escaped slavery five years ago. His unconscious mind was so trapped in the past that his legs carried him to the bedroom of the person occupying his mind.
It had always been the king.
No one thought more about the king’s safety than his personal bodyguard—more than the man who was always ready to throw himself in front of every torture session just to prevent the king from being there. It had always been the king for Chad.
Why, suddenly, did he come to Sally’s bed?
Baski paused the thought when she saw Chad’s eyes widen in recognition. He looked around and frowned because he wasn’t in the king’s bedroom. And Baski was the one standing in front of him, so he definitely wasn’t in the king’s Chambers. Where was he?
The question flashed in his mind for a second before he looked around with clearer eyes and he saw where he was. “Oh, no.” Dread filled him.
Baski watched him with pity as horror filled his eyes.
A sweet taste was in his mouth, and it wasn’t the familiar taste of the king. It only horrified him more. Then his face became pained. “Please, tell me it’s not Remeta,” he groaned in self-disgust and grief, his heart filled with agony.
“No, it’s not Remeta, Chad. It’s Sally.”
He closed his eyes against the wave of shame and anguish. This was why he tried not to think about the girl, since he found himself attracted to her. He did his best to ignore that attraction, to make sure it didn’t grow, and after he saw her when those kings brutalized her, he was more determined to kill that attraction. All because of this.
His heart squeezed in his chest. “How is she?”
“She is scared out of her mind,” Baski said pitifully.
Chad closed his eyes against the wave of pain.
Baski walked closer and placed her hand on his arm. “You don’t have to feel so bad about this. All you have to do is to explain this to her in the light of the day----”
“There is no explaining something like this, Baski. There is no explaining that I treated her the same way those kings did.”
“No. Don’t even try to compare this with their brutality! You weren’t aware! And you didn’t force your body inside her! Don’t be too hard on yourself!” she chided him.
He only inclined his head out of respect for her and walked out of the bathroom with his body dripping wet.
Sally huddled under the covers, looking small and terrified. She whimpered and recoiled from him as he walked out.
The sound of fear from her killed something in him. His chest burning, he bowed his head to her in apology. “I’m so sorry, Miss Sally.” He turned and walked out of the door. He couldn’t risk scaring her more.
Sally’s mind was stuck in the memories of her horror in the courtroom, and somehow, the sound of Chad’s faraway voice soothed her.
But it didn’t stop the deep-rooted fear and terror.
It was a long while later before Baski could bring Sally back to sleep with sleeping potions.
It was the early hours of morning when Danika suddenly screamed. King Lucien was in the library when he heard the piercing scream. It came again. Followed by the rustle of bed sheets.
He walked in steady strides out of the inner room to see Danika screaming and thrashing on the bed. She squeezed her eyes tightly shut, and sweat poured from her body, her breathing erratic.
“No! Noooo, Baski please! I must save Sally! No, please! I can’t leave her to t-them!” she cried out.
King Lucien watched with a furrow of his brows. She was having a nightmare. Her mind was trapped in the events of her last introduction day in the courtroom.
“No… you d-don’t understand, they will kill her! They hate me so much; t-they will kill Sally because they… think… she is… me…!” she sobbed in her sleep.
As she lived that horrible moment again in her sleep, a crack from the ice-wall King Lucien built around his bitter heart fell away. He watched the way she sobbed, thrashing around. Pained screams emitted from her throat. And he asked himself, how could he have possibly ever thought that she might be a devil pretending to be an angel?
.