Who the heck are Petrys and Gerard? They’re characters in the Snake and Crown series.
Can I read this if you haven’t read the Snake and Crown books? Sure, knock yourself out. Let me know how it goes!
Note: This is an unedited first draft. There might be typos. Proceed with caution.
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Chapter One – Petrys
Hell of a Party
You can tell a lot about a man from the way he takes a punch.
So I watch the asshole who was just yelling at my brother as the world collapsed around us. I watch him carefully as I shake my hand, my fingers stinging from the impact.
He staggered back when my fist hit his face, but he didn’t fall. The man turns to me, glaring, blood swelling across his bottom lip.
Nice lips. Nice mouth.
He’s been trained. You don’t shake off a punch like that if it’s your first time.
His right hand drops to his waist, like he’s feeling for a weapon. He spits blood on the ground. His fingers curl into a fist.
Zarek steps between us. He looks pale and weak, and fear closes its old, familiar fist around my heart.
“We need to go,” Zarek says. “Now.”
My baby brother. The one I’ve spent my entire life trying to protect.
And now he looks like he’s dead on his feet. The man I just punched glares at me from over Zarek’s shoulder, and godsdamnit, if this son of a bitch has done anything to hurt him—
“Oh, come on!” Lilias cries.
The princess of Marion lunges forward and grabs the stranger’s arm, dragging him away from Zarek. Or maybe away from me. Zarek shakes his head, then turns to run.
I follow him. I’m mildly surprised he can run at all, given the state he was in when Lilias and I rescued him earlier this fine evening. I thought he’d been drugged, at first, and that we’d have to drag him out of here, praying he’d wake up eventually.
I don’t think it’s drugs anymore. I almost wish it was.
We follow Zarek through the palace gardens. Lilias lets go of the man’s arm eventually, then keeps pace with Zarek. At some point I’ll probably stop being impressed with the woman my brother was forced to marry and then fell in love with, like a fucking idiot. But hells, if he was going to do something as stupid as falling in love, at least it was with her.
We reach the stables, and Zarek stops running. The man I punched stops, then glances back over his shoulder. Our eyes meet.
Gods, he’s gorgeous. I yank my gaze away, forcing my eyes to my feet.
I hate that he’s attractive. I hate that I respond to it.
Fuck, I should punch him again.
Zarek clears his throat, and I glance up again. Alia is waiting for us, gods bless her. She has a dark cloak pulled over her head, and she’s staring past us, toward the destruction of king Malrik’s ballroom.
“Hell of a party, huh?” Alia asks.
I can’t see her expression, but I hear the smile in her words. I shake my head. I’m trying hard not to think about any of that. The tall elf in the ballroom, standing behind Malrik as the psychotic king declared war on yet another kingdom and then screamed about a new weapon.
The weapon he unveiled. The woman it killed.
The way the elf stared at my brother. The way my brother stepped toward him, putting his body between king Malrik’s nightmare weapon and me. And the way he raised his hands, like a surrender.
Just before the entire wall crumbled like sand.
“Horses,” Zarek says. “Now.”
Alia nods. “They’re ready,” she says. “They’re not the fastest, but they’ll blend in anywhere.”
Gods bless her. Alia might be the only person in the entire fucking castle that I trust. I move closer, and she turns to me with a frown.
“I was expecting three of you,” she says, raising an eyebrow at the gorgeous bastard with the split lip.
“This asshole isn’t one of us,” I say, but the asshole cuts me off.
“I’ve got a horse,” he says, in a voice that sounds like sunshine and godsdamned rainbows.
I turn to Zarek, ignoring the man I just punched as he spouts some nonsense about having a mare in a local inn.
“Are you going with them?” Alia asks him.
“No,” I say.
“Yes,” he says.
My fingers twist into a fist.
That’s it. I’m punching this son of a bitch a second time.
“If you’re going with them,” Alia says, before I can punch the bastard, “you don’t have time to go to the Two Dogs.”
The man grins like this is great fucking news and hands Alia what looks like the key to a room at the kind of inn where you’d get bedbugs in your clothing.
“Then it looks like you have a mare named Sunshine waiting for you at the Two Dogs,” he announces. “I’ll take whatever you can give me in exchange.”
For a heartbeat, I think Alia is going to punch him instead. And he’s still smiling, even with blood dripping down his chin.
He must get punched a lot, some part of my mind whispers. And another part of me whispers that no one would smile like that under these circumstances. No one sane, at least.
He’s acting. Like Zarek. Smiling in the face of someone who’d sink a dagger into his gut.
I turn to my brother as Alia grumbles a few choice curses, then disappears into the stable. Zarek has one hand against the wall, like he’s holding himself up.
“Lilias!” Alia calls from just inside. “Get in here.”
Lilias doesn’t even hesitate. Just like when I was teaching her to fight, the one favor my brother asked of me in years. She disappears into the darkness, following Alia, leaving the three of us outside.
The man I punched turns toward us. He wipes his hand across his mouth, leaving a smear of blood on his cheek. His smile is gone, so utterly vanished I almost wonder if I imagined it in the first place.
“Who in the hells are you?” he demands.
I ignore the asshole and turn to Zarek. He’s pale and trembling, and gods, I feel like I’m going to be sick.
It’s not drugs, I try to tell myself. But the thought is hardly comforting.
Because this is probably worse.
Chapter Two – Gerard
The first one’s free
Who in the gods’ many names is this dipshit?
He’s ignoring me now, which is an improvement on punching me in the face, I’ll admit. But why is this bastard in a uniform still here? Hells, why is he here at all?
And why is he looking at Lilias’s idiot husband like that?
I twist my hands into fists as the dickhead in the uniform talks to Zarek, saying something low and soft that I can’t quite make out. Zarek looks like he just got dragged through the river. I mean, Zarek usually looks like he’s been ridden hard and put up wet, but he looks especially rough right now. It’s probably too much to hope that he’s going to kick it, though. That would make my life a little too easy.
And, hells, Lilias would probably cry. That woman’s got terrible taste in men.
I spit onto the ground. My mouth still tastes like blood. I wasn’t expecting the man in the uniform to punch me, for the gods’ sakes.
Okay, honestly, I’d been a little distracted. He is a damn distracting individual. Even under the circumstances. I think I’d have to be dead not to notice a man like that, especially wearing that uniform. It was clearly designed by someone with a high level of appreciation for the male form.
The man turns back to me, scowling like he’s about to throw another punch. I scowl right back at him.
The first one’s free, sweetheart. The second one will cost you.
The woman comes back out of the stable with Lilias by her side, both of them leading horses. Zarek attempts to stand up straight as they approach, but he’s still bracing himself against the wall.
Gods. I just fought Zarek. We were right here, when I found that slimy son of a bitch trying to sneak out of the kingdom. And the bastard was fast. Faster than me, even.
But now, shit. It looks like Zarek might collapse if I breathed on him too hard.
What in the nine hells just happened?
It’s a question I’ve been trying my best to ignore. And that’s exactly what I do, once again. I take that question and shove it straight to the back of my mind.
I’ll get Lilias out of here, just like I promised her brother I would, and then we’ll worry about castle walls collapsing and her idiot husband looking like he’s about to go tits-up.
The woman leads a horse over to me, and I grab the reins. I mount the little mare, then turn back and watch Lilias help Zarek. The mare shifts and stomps under me, letting me know she’s not a pussy. I pat her neck to let her know I appreciate it.
The man who punched me has a horse too, which is just fucking lovely. If there’s one thing I wanted as I help Lilias’s idiot husband run for his life from king Malrik, it’s a uniformed member of king Malrik’s fucking army tagging along with us.
Our eyes meet; he’s still glaring at me, the soldier. I wonder how he’d respond if I told him he’s pretty when he’s angry.
“Go out through the mountains,” the woman says, once Zarek manages to get into his saddle. “Stay the hells away from the main roads.”
Obviously, I think but do not say. She continues, telling us not to run the horses, and the soldier nods.
“I know,” he says.
He’s got a low, deep voice. It suits him. Zarek turns to the woman and thanks her. His voice is stilted and formal, and oddly, I remember that he’s actually a fucking prince, for all that he acts like a two-bit smuggler. I glance at Lilias, wondering for the thousandth time what she sees in him.
“Yeah, yeah,” the woman who gave us the horses says, grinning at Zarek in a way that makes me think Lilias isn’t the only woman affected by his charms. Whatever those charms might be. “I’ll add it to your tab. Now get the fuck out of here, you idiot.”
We turn to get the fuck out of here. Slowly. I watch the soldier as we pick our way down the narrow streets. People are still screaming behind us. The air smells like dust and broken earth. The soldier keeps his eyes on the road. Mostly.
When he does look back, it’s not to check if anyone is coming behind us.
No. He’s looking at Zarek.
A nasty suspicion starts to form in my gut. Too early to tell, of course. Maybe he’s just hopping along for a few paces. Maybe he’ll peel off and go back to his unit, wherever that is, as soon as we hit the edge of town.
But it doesn’t look like it.
It looks like this man, this soldier, is going to abandon his post. Tonight.
For the fucking snake of Vsenrog. The snake who married Lilias, my best friend’s sister.
I glance at Zarek. He looks like he’s about to pass out. Lilias rides next to him, her brow furrowed as she watches him sway in the saddle.
Fuck. I don’t think much of that asshole, it’s true. But he hasn’t given the soldier a second glance all night. He’s a walking disaster and an idiot, but I do think the snake actually cares for Lilias, in his own fucked up way. Whatever feelings the soldier has for good old prince Zarek, I don’t think his highness reciprocates them.
Ah, shit. I glance at the soldier again.
Poor bastard.
The soldier clears his throat softly.
“It might look better if we talk,” he whispers. “Normally, I mean. Like we’re travelers.”
I snort. “Travelers riding in the middle of the night,” I say. “Away from the wreck of the palace. That’s not suspicious at all.”
The soldier scowls like he wants to punch me again. It’s a cute look on him, all dark and angry.
“Fuck you,” he growls.
“Not a chance,” I reply, catching his gaze. “You’re not my type, sweetheart.”
Something flashes between us, hot and almost violent. A part of me that’s uncomfortably close to the saddle stirs with interest.
Yup. Poor bastard.
“Stop it,” Zarek wheezes from behind us.
It sounds like he’s talking to the soldier.
Lilias nudges her horse and pulls up next to me. She stares at me, her eyes wide and dark in the low light.
“Gerard,” she whispers. “What are you doing here?”
I smile at the princess.
“Rescuing you,” I declare. “You’re welcome, by the way.”
The good-looking soldier at my side huffs.
I resist the urge to blow him a kiss.
