💕✨🌙Part 4 of a mini-serial in 4 parts🌙✨💕
Welcome to the final episode, where we discover whether Aurelia truly has a taste for Robert, or is happy to get her teeth into Engstrand instead.
John William Waterhouse, Mermaid (detail)
As the castle bells chimed midnight, Aurelia found herself climbing the tower steps to the room above, and knocking faintly on the door.
“Are you sleeping?”
The door opened a crack, then gaped wide. “How can I sleep when I know what you are?” Robert growled irritably. “What in seven hells are you doing here anyway?” He brandished the snakestone pendant. “If you’re looking for a midnight snack you’ll have to find another victim.”
“Oh calm yourself, you’re quite safe. Which is more than I can say for your betrothed.” Aurelia pushed past him into the room, motioning for him to shut the door before telling him everything she’d just learned about Engstrand.
Robert grimaced. “The cowardly cur! To harm a woman!”
“And you call me a monster.”
“You are.”
“I don’t hurt for pleasure.”
“Liar.”
“Well, perhaps. But not like that. My victims enjoy their fates,” she smiled at him wickedly. “You can’t deny it.”
Despite his best efforts, Robert flushed. “Well. What do you want of me? Sophia and I will be married soon, and she’ll be safe from her bully of a brother. I’ll make sure he never comes near her again.” He thought for a moment. “And I don’t suppose he’ll be much of a threat to you, will he?”
Aurelia shook her head. “One little nip on our wedding night and he’ll be as good as gold.”
“So why are you here?”
“To warn you.”
He quirked an eyebrow and she leaned in, so close he felt the warmth of her, and remembered things he’d rather forget.
“If you ever hurt her, like he has, or in any other way—well… You’ll have me to reckon with.”
Robert gaped incredulously. “You care for her? A stupid human?”
Aurelia scowled. “It’s strange, and I don’t understand it at all. But she’s much less stupid than most of you. And yes. I do.”
Robert’s lip curled into a smirk. “Well, well. Perhaps you are not such a monster after all.”
“Oh, I most certainly am,” Aurelia fixed him with a stare that suggested she’d like to remind him just how monstrous. “But perhaps that’s not all I am.”
Then their eyes locked, and Robert feared his snakestone had gone astray, for it felt as though he was under her spell once more, as they moved together and her lips met his. But when his hand went to his heart, he found the cold charm exactly where it should be, and no explanation for the fever in his blood.
Aurelia pulled away, frowning. “What potion have you used? How did you give it me?” she demanded, an angry flush pinking the skin above her nightgown.
“What are you talking about?”
“You know what you’ve done! Bewitched me somehow! I feel—I feel… I feel like prey!”
“I swear, I have used nothing! How could I? You came here to me, I didn’t invite you. The only spell I want is one to make you leave!”
But somehow his mouth found hers again, and his fingers found the laces on her nightgown, and both of them were powerless against whatever enchantment left them naked and writhing on his bed, her legs wrapped around him tighter than a serpent’s coils.
Afterward, they looked at each other in horror.
“This did not happen. We are to be married—to them!”
“Nobody can ever know!”
“Never!”
“We will lock it tighter than that other secret—”
“And it will never happen again!”
“Not as long as we live!”
But not until dawn did Aurelia creep down the tower steps to her own chamber, furtively smoothing down her hair and nightgown, and perplexed beyond all measure at what was happening to her.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Mnemosyne (detail) and rocking the perfect p***ed off expression! 🤣
Her skin tingled with Robert’s kisses. Her mind echoed in horror the sounds she had made in his bed—begging for his touch, as if she were mere prey! Her body flushed in humiliation, made worse by her burning certainty that the heat she felt glowing in intimate places had nothing to do with shame, and everything to do with a hunger that seemed to grow the more it fed.
Worse still was the image of his eyes upon her face, his voice murmuring her name as if it was a secret they shared. Not with the fawning devotion of a human under her spell. Like a co-conspirator. As if they were equals. And she realised a horrible, treacherous part of her liked it.
Some sickness in the air was weakening her, making her care for these humans.
She needed to nip it in the bud. She needed a kill.
As luck would have it, the royal party rode to out to hunt that day, with the whole court in attendance.
It was a glorious June morning, the dew still wet on the grass, the forest loud with birdsong. Even Sophia and Lucien, trailing the party and lost in a discussion about the chemical properties of mandrake roots, seemed happy to be out in the sunshine. Aurelia rode with Engstrand, tamping down the urge to tell him exactly what she thought of him with almost as much effort as it took to keep her eyes from treacherously sliding to Robert’s face. For the thane’s part, he seemed to have decided to use his prince as a human barrier between himself and Aurelia, and his gaze seemed to want to settle anywhere but upon her.
“What are we hunting?” Aurelia asked, her blue green eyes fixed resolutely upon her fiancé, as if he were the most pleasant and interesting creature she had ever seen.
“Mayhap that beast that attacked you in your chamber!” Engstrand guffawed. “But seriously my dear, no, today we are on the trail of a creature that actually exists. There have been sightings of an exquisite white stag in the forest. Its antlers are said to span a full six feet!”
“How majestic!”
“Yes! They will look marvellous above the fireplace in the great hall!”
Aurelia swallowed her bile—that this pathetic human should seek to slaughter so magnificent a beast simply for a showy trophy! Their wedding night—and her giving him a little nip in the direction of being less of a complete maggot—could not come soon enough.
Hunt in the Forest, by Paolo Uccello
But as they passed beneath the shade of the trees, she relaxed. A Sylvan, the forest was in her blood, and she was soothed by its familiar sounds and scents, even if this poor, shrunken expanse of trees was a far cry from her father’s vast kingdom. The leaves whispered to her, telling her the stag was safe, was already gone far from here. All they would hunt today were rabbits. There was another whisper too, one she could not quite catch, something at once familiar and threatening, but she shrugged it away. She had yet to meet a forest creature that posed a danger to her.
The party wove its way deeper into the trees, and Aurelia found she had arrived at the end of her patience with Engstrand. Handing him off to Robert with an inward smirk, she made her excuses and left him, holding back to wait for Sophia and Lucien.
But the last of the courtiers trailed by, with no sign of her brother or soon-to-be-sister-in-law. Concern beginning to prickle at her neck, she tracked back through the forest, then drew her horse aside as she heard a rider crashing through the trees toward her.
“Aurelia! Thank the gods! Come quickly!”
“What is it?”
“It’s Sophia—just—hurry!”
Together they galloped through trees that seemed to part for them, until Lucien reined in gently and motioned her to dismount. A finger to his lips, he advanced toward a clearing in the undergrowth.
Sophia was still as a statue, her eyes locked on something in the grass.
Aurelia followed her gaze, and froze.
“Echis!” she gasped.
Lucien nodded. “The deadliest snake in this realm, and the fastest.”
“And it attacks upon movement,” Sophia murmured. “Which includes trying to back away.”
“We could wait until it leaves?” offered Aurelia feebly.
Lucien shook his head. “Not happening.” He raised a cautious finger. Just visible behind the Echis was a writhing mass—a nest of baby snakes.
Sophia whispered wanly, “It’s fascinating, really. The Echis is unique amongst serpents in that it actually possesses maternal instincts. It will die to protect its young.”
Aurelia said something extremely unbecoming to a princess.
“So what do we do? Come on, sis, nobody knows snakes better than you!”
“For pity’s sake Lucien! Do you know how every male in creation will act just because you happen to have a—”
“Alright, alright, point taken. But there must be something we can do!” There was a note in her brother’s voice that Aurelia had never heard before, and she realised with a shock that he was pleading. Her stomach tied itself in knots with an unpleasant new sensation—utter fear for the fate of a human being.
But the human being in question wore a look of pale resignation. “It’s useless, Lucien. I’m done for. That snake is going nowhere, and the second I move it will strike.” She took a deep breath. “You should both go. There’s no need for you to see this. Just—just come back for my body. It’ll be quite safe in a few moments; the Echis only has enough venom for a single bite. Aurie, I’m sorry we didn’t’ get the chance to become better friends. And Lucien…” Sophia blinked away tears “…I love you.”
“Sophia no! I won’t leave you!” Lucien sprang forward but Aurelia was already moving.
Perhaps she did it to save her brother. Perhaps she couldn’t bear Sophia’s pathetic bravery. Perhaps it was her own desperate pride that told her even in her human form, her reflexes would be fast enough to outmanoeuvre the serpent’s strike. Perhaps she didn’t think at all. But before the other two had time to react, Aurelia had thrown herself in front of Sophia, brandishing a stick at the Echis.
Uselessly.
She was fast.
But the snake was faster.
🐍
John Collier, The Sleeping Beauty (detail)
There was a knock at the sickroom door. Robert, his face haggard, ducked furtively inside.
“You sent for me? Is she—?”
“She’s still alive, but weak. We don’t have much time.” Sophia held a damp cloth to Aurelia’s forehead.
Robert’s eyes travelled over Aurelia’s pale body, stretched out on the bed as if already on her funeral pyre, and found his throat constricting painfully. “Is there nothing you can do?” Try as he might, the pleading note in his voice wouldn’t be silenced.
“There might be.” Sophie looked measuringly at him. “It depends on you.”
“On me?”
“An Echis’ bite is usually fatal within moments,” the old physician mused, stepping from behind a pile of enormous books, spread open across the table. “The princess is still alive because she is… different to most people.”
Robert looked between the medic and Sophia in confusion. “I don’t—”.
“It’s alright, Robert, we know. And we know something else.” Robert’s mind went to a midnight visit, pale hands clutched in his hair, but Sophia was taking his arm gently, and leading him to a chair. “We know she bit you.”
“But that doesn’t mean—”
“It means you can save her.”
“This potion is an antivenom,” the physician interjected, brandishing a flask. “It’s highly effective but seldom used, because it generally lacks the crucial ingredient.” He gave Robert a knowing look. “One drop of blood from a mortal who has been bitten by a Lamia, and survived.”
Robert was rolling up his sleeve before the old man had finished speaking. “Take it! Take all you need!”
“One drop will suffice.”
“Actually,” Sophia said, “if we take two, we can do better than cure her.”
The physician raised his eyebrows. “You mean to—?”
“Yes. According to an obscure marginal entry by Cairgill, adding two drops of human blood to the mixture does something very special. It transforms the Lamia to human form permanently. And it does something more. It gives them a soul.”
From the look on Robert’s face, she could see he had been doing his own research on Lamias since he had been bitten. He dropped his head to his chest, his face flickering with the shadow of some internal struggle. Finally, he spoke.
“No. One drop of blood only. Save her, but as she is.”
“But if I make her human, she will have a soul. And she won’t have to marry my brother after all!”
“Cure her. But just as she is.” He sighed, and ran a hand defeatedly through his hair. “She will have a soul, without marrying Engstrand.”
“How?” asked the physician, but there was a long silence that stretched until it was broken by Sophia.
“You will marry her then? You revoke our engagement.”
“I am sorry, Sophia.” Robert’s eyes went to the prone figure on the sickbed. “I love her.”
To his great surprise, Sophia threw her arms around his neck, laughing.
“Oh I shall love you so much better as a brother than a husband!”
“What?”
“Lucien loves me! And I him! But we knew I should not be allowed to break my betrothal. If you renounce it, though, and wed Aurelia—I am free to marry who I will!”
Robert grinned in surprise, then grimaced, “but if Aurelia weds me, what of Engstrand? He is my prince, after all. And you, better than most, know how vicious his anger can be.” Sophia flinched and Robert hastily went on, “I could face him in combat, but what if he declares war on Aurelia’s father? Or imprisons mine?”
Now, much to his surprise, his ex-fiancée was smiling again. “I have an idea about that. Do you think you could bear Aurelia to kiss another man? Just the once? In a very particular way?”
Robert’s grin broke out like sunshine. “I think perhaps I could.”
John Collier, Lilith (detail)
Prince Engstrand’s malady was a strange one indeed, and it baffled even the learned court physician. The day after the hunt, he simply came down to dinner with no memory of who he was, or why everyone was calling him “your Highness.” The royal family waited as long as could be decently expected, but when it became clear no recovery would take place, they released Aurelia from her betrothal.
But the court was not to be disappointed after all. A sumptuous royal wedding occurred before the first snow fell, followed in short order by the coronation of Lucian as regent-by-marriage of Sophia’s kingdom. Their honeymoon took the pair to the heart of the Sylvan lands just in time to be witnesses at Aurelia’s wedding to Robert.
Arthur Hughes, Ophelia (detail)
Aurelia watched her new-crowned prince undress, licking her lips at the sight of his naked chest. Robert’s fingers fumbled with the knot of a grey-green pendant.
“No, leave it on!”
“But I am already entirely within your thrall.”
“Oh, I’m sure you are. But I want you to remember every second of this…”
“As you wish,” Robert smirked, pulling his bride into a kiss that left them both breathless. “Darling.”
Aurelia’s eyes sparked fire in their blue-green depths and she kissed him back as she pulled him down with her onto the bed. “Until death. And after.” Her face softened as she ran a finger over the faint cross-shaped scar above his heart. “My soul.”
Robert took the hand and kissed its sharp fingernails one by one. “And mine,” he breathed. Then he moved her fingers gently lower, and his own hand travelled down her body to where her thighs parted.
“One day,” he murmured into her neck as she moaned his name, “you’ll have to teach me how this works in your snake form.”
“Darling,” she breathed, “you have so much to learn.”
“Well then, we’d better get started.”
Once again, neither slept until dawn.
And that night, as was becoming a new habit, both Prince Lucien and his bride Sophia also found themselves unaccountably distracted from their bedtime reading.
💕✨🌙✨💕
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© Moll Moonlight. All rights reserved.
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Don’t miss more romantic romps with Moll:
a vampire story with bite(oh the worse pun ever)
Ah, I want more! Lovely work as always, Moll!