The King was livid and she glared at him, waiting for him to retaliate, but his eyes fell to her belly and he looked away. He knew she had a right to her fury at him and he wasn't going to argue this time. Limping away, he glanced back at her over his shoulder, grim determination on his face.
She was concerned about that look but there was nothing she could do about it until he made his move.
The lich and vampire led her away but instead of following them to the basement, she stubbornly refused to go, instead wanting to head up to her room and collect supplies.
She was getting bored down there and Epharis offered to accompany her.
Reluctantly agreeing, the vampires allowed them to leave and they headed up to her old rooms.
Sweeping inside, she scanned the room and began to collect items, stuffing them into a bag or the lich's arms when it wouldn't fit in the bag, he simply watched her in silence until she had loaded him up.
"Etani, we should talk," he said gently. She ignored him. "Etani come on, it's not just you who is suffering. We can help each other if you just let me in."
She went still, her back to him as she gritted her teeth, Kai's calling her selfish echoing in her head.
Keeping her eyes on the floor, she let out a soft breath.
"Fine..." she whispered and she heard him putting the things down she had loaded onto him.
Approaching her, he wrapped his arms tightly around her shoulders from behind, hugging her against him.
Her hands found his forearms and she clenched her eyes shut, recalling his words when she had tried to kill him.
"Lich can't love Epharis" She said finally, her fingers gentle on his forearms.
"A lich has never been known to love, nor been known to lust, nor been known to hesitate or care," he said against her ear.
She was still for a while, listening to his breathing and going over his words in her head.
His grip tightened around her and then released and she turned, looking up at him.
He seemed momentarily stunned but he quickly shook it off as he studied her face, his hand rising to brush her cheek.
"Can a lich love?" she asked finally, her eyes on him.
"This one can," he said simply.
Her sob was quiet but his arms engulfed her and hers moved around him, clinging to each other in their combined pain and suffering.
Drawing him to the couch, they sat together in silence, their joined misery bringing them closer together than either of them expected and when his lips touched her forehead, she melted into him.
Her chin lifted and his dropped to meet hers, their lips tender and lingering while his fingers became lost in her hair and hers found the front of his robes, holding each other as close as was possible.
For a long time they remained like that until he finally drew her from the couch and into the bedroom.
Every touch was gentle, brushing the straps of her dress away to allow the fabric to pool at her feet, her hands sliding down his front to release the buttons, pressing away the fabric until it pooled at the belt around his waist.
He reached behind her, releasing the clasp of her brassiere and dropping it, her hands doing the same with the belt, leaving him naked.
Her underwear were brushed away, tender and slow while their lips moved in passionate, longing brushes.
Drawing her to the bed, he laid her down and settled atop her, her legs willingly parting to give him access and he didn't hesitate.
They made love, slow and gentle for the first time, their breaths mingling as they made soft sounds of pleasure. His lips found her ear and he bit gently just to feel her shiver under him and see her smile, her returning nip against his lip earning her a smile in return.
Her fingers explored his back, scraping her nails over old scars to make him shudder atop her and finally when he found his release, he breathed
"I love you..." into her ear.
They lingered there in her room for hours, exploring each other for the first time and trying to figure out how it all worked. Neither of them had been in love before, neither knew what to do and neither was overly comfortable with the concept.
They made love again close to morning and as the sun rose, they stood together in the warmth of the sunlight, naked and watching each other warily.
In another hour, guards burst into the room and they were both arrested for treason.
***
Iron clad her arms in three places, wrists, elbows and just below her armpits to keep her arms stretched out down her back. She had been permitted to get dressed, but that was all and Epharis only had enough time to pull on his robes.
Once she had been bound, he was less interested in fighting and more interested in making sure they didn't hurt her, their stunned hunger at the sight of her making him worry about her.
The timing had been perfect, day so that the twins would have a harder time getting to them, leaving only Versalis who hadn't been informed, as far as she could tell.
A fourth set of shackles ran between her feet, allowing her to walk but not run.
Rough hands held their arms and they were led through the castle and into the throne room where Alaric was sitting, a smug smile on his face and his eyes sweeping between the two of them.
There was no crowd this time, no one to see what happened and no one to defend them.
The entire trial was a sham, made up, and Alaric revelled in their indignation, but he had his plan and he was going to see it through to the end.
"Attempted murder, attacking the King and trying to overthrow him" were their charges, and in all honesty, she couldn't really fault him on his ability to make it up, though the last one had been fabricated, the first two were entirely true.
She couldn't help but note he ignored what he had done to them, which was to try and have the prince killed and the foreign princess mutilated, her child ripped from her womb and then beaten for hours, but who was counting?
The drow entered the room at some point, Versalis had crept in and the three watched, two with horror and one with delight.
Their punishment was simple, being put to death. Not the most original plan but a good one.
"You can't do this Alaric," Epharis had snapped, cutting the man off on some great long spiel that she had stopped listening to a good three minutes beforehand, her eyes finding Versalis and offering him a little wave.
His eyes slid from her and she frowned in confusion, finding why a moment later when hands gripped the shackles between her wrists and jerked her arms up, forcing her to her knees.
Bent forward, the scent of Drizdan made her stomach clench and she was certain she was going to vomit at the thought of him being so close.
Epharis had turned, but Izziah had grabbed his chain and held him back.
The lich was beside himself at Drizdan being anywhere near her.
"Touch her and I'll rip you to shreds," Epharis snapped and the drow laughed, something hard and metal tracing along her inner arm and drawing blood.
He had attached a guard to his fingers with long, sharp points that cut her skin easily.
Fear turned her blood to ice and Versalis had started to move forward, but Alaric stopped him, raising a brow at the four of them.
"Perhaps death is too good for you two…" Alaric said and the hand gripped her arm, pulling her up from her bent position to better see the King though she was unable to stand with his grip on her.
She was seriously considering biting a chunk out of his arm when Alaric made her look around.
"Perhaps we can have Drizdan take the princess back to Faerie and hand her over to the Winter Court?" he said casually.
The silence was deafening as she imagined that trip. Alone with him, unable to escape or defend herself as she was right then.
Epharis looked like he was going to set the entire castle on fire.
"You brother, surely you will return to yourself once this witch is gone?"
"That witch is my wife Alaric," Epharis warned, but he was just as trapped as she was.
"And will you cling to that when she is married off for some alliance and you are alone in fifty years?" Alaric asked, Drizdan's hand tightening on her arm and making her flinch.
"For an eternity," Epharis said, glancing down at her just as she looked up at him.
Drizdan slapped her when her eyes left Alaric and she gasped, her cheek burning but she had lost her temper. Shoving herself back, she flicked herself around and sank her teeth deep into the front of his thigh, just above his knee.
His blood tasted divine but she blocked it out, instead focusing on biting down and jerking her head back, the chunk she ripped away enough to fill her mouth and she spat it out.
Screaming profanity, he gripped her hair and drove his good knee into her face, her body hitting the floor as he released her with blood pouring from her nose.
"We shall see Epharis, eternity is a very long time," Alaric said calmly, watching as Drizdan's boot landed in her stomach and she slid back on the marble. "We shall see just how long you last once she is gone."
***
She wasn't even given a full day, the twins arriving just in time for her to be thrown into a carriage with a grinning Drizdan binding her tightly, making sure to hurt her as badly as was possible.
The King had ordered that he not bruise her too badly, but he knew how quickly she healed and it wasn't going to be long before he was hurting her.
The hole in his pants showed pink flesh, fresh and new.
The twins knew they couldn't follow, panicked at her loss but before she had been dragged from the hall, she had demanded that enough blood be taken to supply the twins and that she be permitted to return to keep them supplied. She had been woozy as she was loaded into the carriage, a year worth of blood depleting her almost entirely. But she figured she probably didn't want to be awake for the ride to The Underneath.
It turned out that the drow brothers had returned to ensure the princess was delivered to Winter, requesting access to her and Alaric had gleefully agreed, punishing her and patient enough to wait.
She couldn't guess at his end game, but she suspected she wasn't going to like it very much.
Within the first half hour of the carriage, Drizdan had turned on her, slapping and punching her repeatedly for the sheer fun of seeing her pain, her weakness and lack of retaliation making him angry. Instead he only brutalised her further, leaving her bleeding and almost comatose.
Wiping blood on his pants, he watched her with a smile on his face.
"You know princess, they're going to want a husband to keep you busy, since the lich isn't a viable option for you, I might put my hand up for the role. The Winter Princess and the drow prince, what do you think?" he asked, leaning in to whisper in her ear and he laughed when he heard her breathing stop.
"An eternity with you, what a dream that would be."
He pulled her up off the floor by her hair, his eyes going down over her exposed backside and thighs that glistened with blood from his finger guards.
"Just imagine what our children would look like," he purred, his eyes lighting up in the face of her fear.
She snapped at his nose, but she wasn't close enough and it only earnt her another slap, his hands rough as he turned her around and shoved her chest down on the seat of the carriage. He didn't violate her, but instead he used the claw-like attachment to tear her skin and leave her unable to sit for hours, and forced her to watch as he pleasured himself.