These Wicked Revels Read online

  “Will, what happened?”

  “I was knocked to the ground during one of the battles and trampled by a horse—and a few boots as well, I think. It’s all a blur. I would certainly have lost my leg, or maybe died, if my regiment hadn’t had a very skilled healer. All told, it’s healed up very well. I’m pretty steady on my feet. But it’s stiff. I’ll never be a graceful dancer anymore. Not unless I wore the enchanted cloak, but…besides the fact that I would look like someone else, I have a feeling it won’t work anymore.”

  “Does it hurt?”

  “Sometimes, just a bit.”

  He had lost friends in my father’s wars, and sacrificed something of himself too, and now he worried I would be disappointed that he couldn’t dance?

  “My dearest Will,” I said. “I think it might be a blessing that we will rule the revels, and not Torina. We wouldn’t have been able to take over until my father died, and that might be thirty years away. Thirty years of pushing back against the strictures of court? We might lose our minds. But here, we will be able to make a life of happiness from the very first day. And we will restore the revels to their original purpose, giving people a place they can safely be free. I would like to be queen of such a place. I know just what girls like me need.”

  He lifted one eyebrow and smiled. My words had satisfied him, I could tell. He didn’t reply; I think maybe he was a little embarrassed to show such vulnerability to me. He stepped in to wrap his arms around me. “What you need, eh?” he said. “I hope you’re ready for me. Because with all that out of the way, I’m going to claim you. First slow, and then hard, and then we’ll see.”

  I could only nod.

  His hand moved down between my legs again, and he spread my slit wide open with his fingers, and then stroked my clit again for a moment, until I was arching my neck back and low sounds of desire drew out of my throat.

  I felt the tip of him fit inside my entrance, and I tensed with fear. I didn’t know how much it would hurt. But his hands slowly slid down my back, like he was smoothing the tension out of me, and as he did so, he started to enter me. I could tell he was moving as carefully as he could not to cause me undue pain, but the girth of him was still a shock. And unlike the small knob that had already penetrated me, he was a living thing, his cock pulsing a little as it pushed inside me. Its small motions were not entirely predictable.

  I let out a ragged little scream as he broke my maidenhood.

  “Shh, darling.” He smoothed my hair. “It feels so good and tight inside you.”

  The length of him kept coming, pushing through me, finding deeper and deeper places to go, and he kept caressing me and kissing me, until finally he gave a small thrust and I shuddered against him. My arms were starting to fall asleep, but somehow the vines seemed to sense this, or maybe the tree simply approved of the fact that he was inside of me. Their grip on me slackened enough that I could lower them almost to my sides.

  “I feel so full,” I moaned. “I can’t—it’s too much.”

  “Is it really?” His voice was like a purr against my ear, and he gently nibbled at my earlobe. “I feel your pleasure,” he said. “I can see how the king got addicted to this connection. But I’m sure I will have no interest in continuing this magic with anyone else, as long as I can take you this way.”

  I let out a shuddering sigh at the idea that he might be able to claim me like this again and again.

  He kissed me deeply as he stroked against me on the inside, and my body began to adjust to him. I realized how much I was burning. No part of my body felt like my own. I was pinned between Will and the tree, and now that he was the King of the Revels, the tree was like a piece of him as well. Every bit of me was being bound and penetrated. His tongue fucked my mouth as his cock fucked me on the inside, and I didn’t want to do anything but fall into the sensations of it and sob with pleasure.

  “Yes, my princess. Just relax. I’ve got you.” His arms held me so close. I relished the feel of his tender embrace, his chest against mine, the sweet, vulnerable feeling of our naked skin pressed together. The smell of him was like the forest itself. He increased his speed now; he didn’t want to wait. His cock was pounding into me and the steady pressure of it was stirring something inside me. Every stroke scratched at the surface of some well of exquisite sensation.

  “My king,” I said.

  “King,” he grunted. “Don’t know if I’ll ever get used to it.”

  “Will you sing for me every night?” I asked.

  “Anything your little heart desires.”

  “Oh, Will—Will!” My pussy was starting to tighten and clench around him, and the sensation was mounting. I was so wet inside that even his thick cock was gliding up and down inside me easily. And then I was coming again, with a rush of heat that trickled down my thigh. The aftershocks were still hitting me as the vines abruptly released their hold of me. My weight collapsed into him, and my arms were completely weak from straining and struggling against the vines for so long. He held me, and dropped a line of kisses on my face from my jaw to my earlobe.

  “Oh, but you’re not free yet,” Will said.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Will

  The princess, it seemed, could climax if you just touched her right. Meanwhile, I seemed to be caught in a state of slow, torturously mounting arousal.

  But I had noticed the trees weren’t the only object of interest. The rocks around here came in some convenient shapes.

  “Put your arms around my neck and your legs around my back,” I said.

  She obeyed. She was so small that I could carry her easily. I put one arm around her, keeping her pinned to my cock. Then I picked up the cloak and draped it over a boulder that was about as tall as my waist, to provide a layer of softness. I sat her bottom on the edge of the rock and reluctantly withdrew from her.

  “Lay on your stomach,” I told her. “With your legs over the side.”

  Her eyes widened a little, but she did as I said, settling onto her stomach, wrapping her arms around the boulder to hold her position, and letting her legs drape down over the side for me. Her feet were still a ways off from touching the ground. Her pussy was still glistening and pink, swollen with desire. I picked up her legs and stepped close to her, fitting my cock between her lips, slowly sliding along her wet slit, but not penetrating her.

  She was a little stiff now.

  I leaned over her, letting my stomach gently rest against her round, firm ass. “I told you I was going to fuck you slow and then fuck you hard, didn’t I?”

  “Mmhm…”

  “And now that I’m in the faery realm, I’d better tell the truth.” I could no longer stand the anticipation of my own release, in any case. I thrust my cock into her hard, and was rewarded with a full-throated cry, “Will, oh god, Will!” I was never going to get tired of her crying out my name.

  Now she was positioned so that it was easy to bear my full strength onto her small body. Her back arched. My cock thrust into her mercilessly, and I could hardly keep my mouth shut either. “Evaline…” It felt so damn good; she was so slick but so tight, and I could feel her inner walls trying to draw me in deeper again. My princess was never really satisfied.

  Her small body was rocked, her cries growing almost anguished, but she didn’t ask me to stop. I drove into her with all the tension I had held back; I had shoved so much down inside me when I came back from the war. I could put it into her now, and she could take it, and make it disappear, at least for this moment.

  I had a vision of her, the way she had been back home, with her hair pulled back severely, all her skin covered, her stiff dress, her pale sweaty face so miserable. Contrasting that with the girl before me now, naked and spread, taking my cock again and again, and that was enough to drive me over the edge. I clutched her soft curves as I pumped my seed into her. I had never had such a lengthy orgasm; the pulses just kept coming.

  I had never felt anything so good and right in my life. I was groaning her name now
as my climax was still slowly winding to an end.

  “That was fucking worth the wait,” I gasped.

  I leaned my body over her now, and wrapped my arms around her, gathering her beneath me. I kissed the nape of her neck. She made a little contented cooing sound now, like a dove.

  “I don’t know what happens now,” I said. “But I know it will be better than what has come before, because I have you.”

  “I know it will,” she said, with feeling. “I get to dance and sing. Maybe I’ll even learn to play an instrument. But…I wonder where we live. Where we sleep. Do we sleep?”

  “We must,” I said. “Because I’m pretty tired.”

  “I think I could sleep for a whole day straight,” she agreed.

  I finally slid out of her, and helped her to her feet. She was shaky like a baby animal, and laughed nervously. “I guess I’m not used to so much exercise.”

  I didn’t see her dress anywhere.

  “The handmaidens took it away,” she said.

  I handed her my shirt. “It’s long enough to cover you up. I don’t see any blood on it.”

  “I don’t care if it does, anyway.”

  I put on my trousers and boots, and I tied her slippers onto her feet. We returned to the revels, which were still in full swing and merrier than ever. As we walked into the clearing, the faeries cheered and started singing bawdy songs. A few high elves sniffed and removed themselves to the drink tables. Evaline looked slightly horrified, blushing deeply.

  “I think we’d better indulge them and listen to a song or two,” I muttered.

  Someone pressed goblets of wine into our hands. The dance increased its pace, but we didn’t dance, but rather were shown to chairs at the banquet table. The faeries started to bring out fresh dishes of food to us; heaping piles of fruit and cakes and sliced venison and some things I could not even identify, but my nose was definitely approving of the smells wafting my way. Despite myself, I realized I was ravenous. I had never sat down for such a feast in all my life.

  “Who is in charge here?” I asked one of the faeries bearing a tray of honeycomb.

  She laughed. “You are, your majesty.”

  I clutched my head. “I mean—don’t I have to be crowned?”

  “No. You’re not that kind of king.”

  “I need to go home to my sister.”

  “And I need to tell my parents what has happened!” Evaline said.

  “Your parents? Who wants to see them again?” the faery asked, as if she knew Evaline’s parents.

  “But I do! I must!” Evaline grew immediately distressed. She had been through so much; I didn’t want to see her cry. I clutched her hand under the table. “We must make one final trip home,” I insisted. “We have families. I’m damn sure not going to be your king if you won’t let me tie up loose ends at home.”

  “The king is not supposed to leave the revels. But…I’ll see what I can do.” She put down the honeycomb and left us there. Eva shot me an anguished look, and I rubbed her shoulder. “It’ll be all right,” I said.

  “I hope so…”

  It must be admitted that it was a strange world I had found myself in, and one I didn’t entirely like. I didn’t feel like I was in charge of anything. If I was the king, I deserved to know the rules. After a moment, I threw down my napkin and told Eva, “Wait here.”

  I walked over the musicians and waved my hands at them. “Stop the music!”

  The song wound to a halt. I put my good leg on the platform and held out my hand toward the drummer. He took it and I heaved myself up and lifted my hand until I had everyone’s attention.

  “Listen,” I said. “Apparently I am your king now, like it or not. And I’m not opposed to the idea, but I’m not going to put up with being a prisoner. I want to finish dinner, and then I want to see where my bed is—I hope I've got one—and have a good night’s sleep. Then the princess and I need to go home—however that can happen, it must happen. And after that, I want a briefing as to how this place works, how it can be improved, and how I can bring the revels to places where we are needed.”

  The faeries all looked rather stunned.

  “A briefing?” one of the men said. “What is a ‘briefing’?”

  “Do I have any advisors?” I asked.

  “We are all happy to advise,” said a faery girl with little antennae on her head like an insect. “What do you need?”

  “We flow with the music,” the drummer said. “We don’t have a lot of rules.”

  “I can’t be a king in a realm of anarchy,” I said. “We must have a little bit of order. It sounds like that’s how the last king got into trouble.” I huffed at the nervous faces surrounding me.

  “We’ve never had a human king of the revels before,” a goblin girl murmured.

  Evaline giggled. “Will, I think this is going to be a learning experience for all of us,” she said. “But the good thing is that there are no soldiers and no wars here.”

  Indeed, I started to feel as if the revels were almost like the afterlife. But we weren’t dead. No, we weren’t dead at all. Maybe they were more like a strange pocket of joy in a harsh world, in some ways not unlike the traveling circus I had once attended as a boy. When we finished our meal, the handmaidens showed to a little house made of wood tucked in the forest. It was built around one of the trees. Although it was small, it was as beautifully decorated as a music box, and as comfortable as could be imagined. A fire was already crackling in the hearth, and a bed piled with down-stuffed quilts was waiting nearby.

  “Milady, do you need help undressing?” the fair handmaiden asked.

  Evaline glanced down at my shirt and stifled a smile. “I think I can manage unbuttoning a shirt.”

  The handmaiden nodded and left us alone. The door shut behind her, leaving us alone again.

  I started to unfasten her buttons, sliding her shirt away from her breasts. I had seen them glowing pale in the moonlight. Now I saw them golden by the fire. She was still wearing all the golden ornaments, but the contrast of my white shirt, worn soft by many washings, falling from her shoulders… She was so beautiful, I could not help but cup the fullness of her breasts in my hands and play with her temptingly hard nipples.

  She sighed, and put her hands to my hips, sliding her fingers just past my waistband. She unbuttoned my trousers and took out my cock, like it belonged to her now, stroking it to full attention again.

  “Should we, again, so soon?” she asked.

  “I said I would fuck you slow, and fuck you hard, and then we will see… I believe we’ve come to the ‘we’ll see’ part of the evening. Are you sore?”

  “I am,” she admitted. “You weren’t kidding about the ‘hard’ part.” But she glanced at me with a willing gleam in her eyes. “Could we just have a night like the first one, Will? When I took you in my mouth, and you…”

  “Come here.” I picked her up, and she laughed. I was very grateful that she didn’t question that I could carry her, despite my slight limp. I dropped her on the bed and climbed over her the other way, touching my cock to her lips. She took me in her mouth, and I spread her legs open a little more so I could get to her pussy.

  “I like you shaved here,” I said. “Like a water nymph.”

  She paused, freeing her mouth to speak. “And what do you know about water nymphs?”

  “Naughty etchings.”

  “I’ll accept it.”

  I dragged my tongue down her sweet, smooth skin, to her clit, and then to her entrance, and she groaned happily.

  “Get back to work,” I said.

  “Yes, my king,” she said, and I thought how I would never get tired of hearing that. Her lips and tongue slid along my length, and by the time the night was over, we had not slept as much as we intended.

  Chapter Twenty

  Evaline

  I didn’t know that the sun ever rose in the land of the revels, but I suppose it did for me now because I was a part of this place. We slept right through it,
but as the sky outside our window turned crimson with sunset, I thought we had better get up. I had to face Mother and Father.

  We followed the path I knew well by now, through the Three Precious Groves. And at the end of it all, my handmaidens dressed me in my old shift, corset, and nightgown. My clothes had never felt so tight and heavy, and this was only my nighttime wear. If I was going to face my parents, I would have to dress properly. Will, lucky man, at least had comfortable clothing.

  The faeries said we could return to our home until midnight.

  What then?

  The revels would find us, wherever we were, as long as there was no barrier forbidding faery magic.

  There were ways to bar faery magic.

  I was more than a little afraid that Mother and Father would no longer treat me as their precious, sheltered daughter. That maybe we would be trapped in the human world forever, after all.

  But we both agreed that we must go. We couldn’t leave our families to wonder what had become of us.

  We stepped out into my bedroom, and now the time between the faery world and ours seemed to match. It was dusk outside. A guard was standing in the room, apparently watching for my return, and as soon as he saw me, he blew a horn. “The princess!” he shouted. “The princess is here!”

  Oh, dear. This was not a good sign. “Please,” I said. “Don’t make a fuss.” But it was too late. More guards entered and they seized Will the second he came up the stairs.

  “Let him go!” I snapped. “Where is my father?”

  Father huffed into the room a moment later, followed by Mother. They looked at me with such terrible expressions that I felt a little light-headed. I was a different girl in their world. Perfect, obedient, silent.

  “Where have you been?” Mother cried. “Oh, Eva!” She looked at my nightgown and then around at the guards. “Get out, get out. The princess is not fit to be seen. Take the cobbler out too.”

  Will struggled, and looked at my father. “You can ask him—“ He jabbed his head toward the guard. “I emerged from the other realm accompanying the princess. You can’t deny that I discovered the secret and fulfilled your bargain.”